A huge, colorful composed salad: pieces of roasted or salted meats and fish, hard-boiled eggs, onions, pickled fruits, herbs, all dressed with a bold vinaigrette of oil, vinegar, and spices. You used whatever you had—hence the name, which became synonymous with a joyful mishmash.

Why this dish? Salmagundi is THE dish associated with Caribbean pirates: a great hodgepodge of everything a good prize could yield—meats, fish, eggs, pickled vegetables, anchovies, all drowned in oil and vinegar. For Teach's men, the day they captured a ship loaded with fresh provisions, they threw everything into one dish: it was a feast after weeks of weevily biscuit.

Listen up, mate: when we hooked a fat merchantman and found her holds full, we didn't fuss with manners. We chopped up everything edible—chicken, herring, hard egg, onion, caper—and into the great dish it went, drowned in oil and good vinegar. After six weeks gnawing on weevily biscuit, a man's got the right to fill his belly to the brim. Eat, and drink your rum: tomorrow we set sail again, and God knows what'll be in our mess bowl.

How it was made : Salmagundi appears in several English cookbooks and accounts from the early 18th century (sometimes spelled "Salmagundy"). Onboard, it was never codified: it was the way to turn fresh plunder from a prize into a single hearty dish, at a time when sea food was grim. Legend later tied it to pirates.

The contemporary twist : Served on a large wooden board as a "sharing platter," each ingredient in distinct mounds like a marine tapas board—a nod to the black flag: call it "Jolly Roger's Jumble."

Blackbeard · Charactorium