CHAPTER XIII.
FISH.
To Boil.
The fish-kettle ought to be roomy: the water should, according to some, be cold, and spring water, and be slow in coming to a boil. I incline to this: according to others, it ought to be hot at the time of putting in the fish, upon the supposition that the shorter time it is in water the better. Experience must, however, be the best instructor; and much depends on the size, and sort of the fish. A handful of salt in the water, helps to draw the slime from the fish, and gives it firmness. Vinegar is used for the latter purpose, particularly for cod and turbot.—When the water boils, take off the scum, and place the fish-kettle by the side of the fire, to simmer gently; the usual allowance of time is twelve minutes to the pound, but there is no certain rule. Run a sharp knife into the thick part, and if it divide easily from the bone, it is done. When you think the fish done, lift up the strainer, and place it across the kettle to drain, and if it have to wait, put a heated cover on it, and over that, several folds of flannel; this is the best substitute for a Bain Marie. It must not stay an instant in water, after it is done. Serve on a fish drainer, which, as well as the dish, ought to be quite hot, for half cold fish is very bad. Crisp parsley, slices of lemon and barberries, also picked red cabbage, are used to garnish.
Some cooks say that salt fish should scarcely boil at all, but remain till tender, in hot water, just coming to a boil; put it on in cold water, and let it be a long time heating through.
Stock for gravy, for stewing, or sauce, is made of meat or fish, according to whether it be to be maigre or not. Any white fish, and the trimmings of all quite fresh fish, may be used. These may be browned first, in the frying-pan, then put into 1 or 2 quarts of water, according to the quantity you require, with a bunch of sweet herbs, onion, eschalot, mace, and lemon peel; boil it and scum well; then strain it, and put in the fish to stew. Fish stock is best made on the morning it is wanted. Court Bouillon, for boiling or stewing fish, is as follows: to a gallon of water, a handful of salt, 2 onions, 2 carrots, and eschalots, a bunch of parsley, thyme, and basil, 2 bay leaves, 12 peppercorns, and 6 cloves, also a large piece of butter. Stew, then strain it. This may be enriched as required. It keeps well, and is a good basis for stock.
To Fry.
This is rather difficult, and requires exceeding care and attention. Some people consider that lard is essential, but clarified dripping is as good. Oil is used in countries where the olive tree grows. Wash, and lay the fish in the folds of a clean cloth, for it must be quite dry. Flour it lightly, if to be covered with bread-crumbs, for if not quite dry, the bread will not adhere to it. The crumbs of stale bread; or to be very delicate in appearance, use biscuit powder. Having floured the fish, brush over with yolk and white of egg, then strew over the crumbs or powder, so as to cover every part of the fish. The frying-pan of an oval shape. The fire hot, but not fierce. If not hot enough, the fish will be soddened, if too hot, it will catch and burn. There should be fat enough to cover the fish; let it boil, (for frying is, in fact, boiling in fat,) skim it with an egg slice, as it becomes hot, then dip the tail of the fish in to ascertain the heat; if it become crisp at once the pan is ready, then lay in the fish. When done, lay it before the fire to dry, either on whity brown paper or a soft cloth; turn it two or three times, and if the frying fat has not been sufficiently hot, this will, in some measure, remedy the defect.—Fat in which veal or lamb has been fried may be used for fish, when it has settled long enough to be poured from the sediment.
Turbot to Boil.
First wash well, and soak it in salt and water; when quite clean, score the skin of the back, or the belly will crack when the fish begins to swell. Do not take off the fins, as they are a delicacy. Place it on a fish-strainer, in a roomy turbot-kettle, the back downwards. You may rub it over with lemon juice, to keep it white. Cover the fish with cold water, and throw in salt. Allow 1 lb. salt to a gallon and a half of water. It should be quite half an hour in coming to a boil, scum well, then draw the kettle to the side, and if a fish of 10 lbs. weight (larger are not so good), let it simmer 30 minutes, but if it do not simmer gently the fish will be spoiled and the skin cracked. When done, garnish with slices of lemon, scraped horse-radish, parsley, barberries, whole capers, or the pea of a lobster, forced through a sieve. A very few smelts or sprats fried, laid round the turbot. Lobster sauce is most esteemed, but shrimp or anchovy sauce answer very well. (See to dress Cold Turbot.)
Brill.
The same as turbot, except that you put it into boiling water, the flesh being softer. Or: parboiled, covered with egg and crumbs, and browned before the fire, or in the frying-pan. If 6 lbs. simmer it ½ an hour, but when it begins to crack it is done.
John Dory.
The same as brill.
Sole to Boil.
Wash clean, cover it with cold water, put in a handful of salt, and let it come gently to a boil, take off the scum, and set the fish-kettle aside; let it simmer very gently five minutes, and it is done, unless very large, then eight or ten minutes. Oyster sauce.
Cod to Boil.
Wash clean, and rub the inside with salt; cover it with water, in the kettle. A small fish will be done in fifteen minutes after the water boils; a large one will take half an hour; but the tail being much thinner than the thick part, it will be done too much if boiled all at once; therefore, the best way is to cut the tail in slices, to fry, and garnish the head and shoulders, or serve separately. Lay the roe on one side, the liver on the other side of the fish. Serve oyster, shrimp sauce, or plain melted butter; also scalloped oysters.—Garnish with lemon, and horse-radish. If the fish be in slices, the water should be made to boil as soon as possible after they are in it, and 10 minutes will cook them: pour shrimp or anchovy sauce over the slices. If you wish it to be rich, having some clear broth, put in a boned anchovy, some pickled oysters, chopped fine, pepper, salt, a glass of Port wine, and a thickening of butter and flour; boil this up, skim it, and pour over the slices of cod.
Cod to Boil Crimp.
Put it into boiling hot salt and water, draw it to the side, and let it simmer 15 or 20 minutes, according to its size. Slices less. Oyster sauce.
Salt Cod and Ling.
Soak it, according to the time it has been salted. If hard and dry, two nights, changing the water two or three times. The best Dogger Bank split fish require less. Let there be plenty of water, and the fish a long time in becoming heated through. Then simmer very gently, or it will be tough. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs, in quarters. Serve egg sauce, parsnips, or beet-root.
Cod to Fry.
Cut in thick slices; flour or egg, and cover with bread-crumbs or biscuit powder. Fry in hot dripping or lard.
Cod's Head and Shoulders.
Wash clean, then quickly dash boiling water over it, which will cause the slime to ooze out; this should be carefully removed with a knife, but take care not to break the skin; wipe the head clean, and lay it on a strainer, in a turbot-kettle of boiling water; put in salt and a tea-cupful of vinegar. Take care that it is quite covered. Simmer from thirty to forty minutes. Drain, and put it into a rather deep dish; glaze it with beaten yolk of egg, strew bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, and lemon-peel over, stick in bits of butter, and brown it before the fire; baste with butter, constantly strewing more bread-crumbs and chopped parsley over.—A rich sauce for this is made as follows; have a quart of beef or veal stock; or, if to be maigre, a rich well-seasoned fish stock; thicken with flour rubbed in butter, and strain it; add 50 oysters, picked and bearded, or the hard meat of a boiled lobster cut up, and the soft part pounded, 2 glasses of sherry, and the juice of a lemon. Boil it altogether, five minutes, skim and pour part into the dish where the fish is: the rest serve in a sauce tureen. It may be garnished with fried smelts, flounders, or oysters. The French stuff it with meat or fish forcemeat, with some balls of the same fried, as a garnish.—Cold cod may be dressed as cold turbot. The head may be baked; bits of butter stuck all over it.
Cod Sounds.
Scald, clean, and rub them with salt; take off the outer coat, and parboil, then flour and broil them. Pour over a thickened gravy, which has a tea-spoonful of made mustard, cayenne, and what other seasoning you like.—Or, fried, and served with the same kind of sauce.—Or, dressed in ragout, parboiled, cut in pieces, and stewed in good gravy, or in white sauce. Serve mustard and lemon.
Cabeached Cod.
Boil vinegar enough to cover the pieces of fish, a little mace, a few peppercorns, a few cloves, and a little salt; when this is cold put a tea-cupful of olive oil. Cut the tail part of a cod fish in slices, rub pepper and salt on each, fry them in oil, then lay them on a plate to cool; when cold, put them into a pan or jar, and pour the pickle over. If you like, lay thin slices of onion between the fish. Salmon is good in this way. Serve salad with this.
Cod to Stew.
Lay three slices of cod in a stewpan, with ½ pint of weak white wine, not sweet, 6 oz. butter, two dozen oysters and their liquor, three blades of mace, salt, pepper, and a few crumbs of bread; stew this gently, and thicken with flour before you serve it.
Salmon to Boil,
Should be well cleaned and scaled (the less washing the better), and cut open as little as possible. Let there be water enough to well cover the fish, and salt in the proportion of 1 lb. to a gallon and a half. When it begins to boil, scum well, and put the fish in; for most cooks, I believe, are of opinion that salmon eats firmer when put on in hot or boiling water. A fish of 10 lbs. will take a full hour, or a little more, but it must only simmer all the time. Let the drainer be hot, put a folded napkin on it, and serve the fish directly. Garnish with curled parsley, horseradish, or slices of lemon. Serve shrimp, anchovy, or lobster sauce, also plain melted butter. Cucumber, and also salad, are eaten with salmon.
To boil Crimp.
Cut off the head, with about two inches of the neck, and clean the fish, opening it as little as possible, and do not cut it up the breast; also cut off the tail. Then cut the fish in circular slices, wash them, and lay them in salt and water. Put the head and tail on the strainer of the kettle, and pour in boiling water, with a little salt, and a very little vinegar; boil it five minutes, then put in the slices, and boil fifteen minutes, scumming all the time. Put the head and tail in the middle of the dish, the slices round. Sauces the same as the last.—Mustard is good with salmon.
Salmon to Grill.
Split the salmon, and endeavour not to mangle it in taking out the bone. Cut it into fillets four inches in breadth. Dry, but do not beat or press them, in the folds of a linen cloth, or dust them with flour to dry them. Have a clear fire, as for steaks, rub the gridiron with chalk, lay on the slices, and turn them occasionally. Serve very hot, with anchovy or shrimp sauce. French cooks steep the slices in oil, cover them with seasonings and fine herbs, and broil them, basting the while with oil. Caper sauce with this. Salmon may be thus prepared, then fried.—Some put the slices in paper to broil.
Salmon, Trout, Haddock, or Gurnet to bake.
Mix a seasoning of salt, pepper, and allspice, and rub a little in the fish. If a small salmon, turn the tail round to the mouth, and run a skewer through the fish to keep it in form. Place it on a stand, in a deep dish, cover with bits of butter, and strew the remainder of the seasoning over. Put it in the oven (an American or Dutch oven, before the fire, is very good for this), and baste occasionally with the liquor which runs from it. Garnish and serve the same sauce as boiled salmon. Slices of salmon may be baked this way.—Or: make it richer as follows: boil in a quart of vinegar, a piece of butter, 2 onions, the same of eschalot and carrots, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, some basil, cloves, and allspice. Having cleaned and scaled the fish, fill it with fish forcemeat, sew it up, turn the tail into the mouth and skewer it. Place it on a stand in a baking dish, and pour the liquor over. Baste it from time to time. When the fish is done, pour off the liquor, and boil it up with an anchovy, cayenne, lemon juice, and a little thickening of butter rolled in flour. Place the fish in a rather deep dish, and strain the liquor round it. A salmon peel is best suited to this, being less rich than large salmon. (See Haddock to stew.)
Salmon to Pickle.
Cut the fish in pieces, not very small, and boil them in a little water and salt, scumming carefully all the time. When done, lift the fish out into a pan, and boil the liquor up with vinegar and spices to your taste, with black pepper, mace and ginger. Pour it cold over the fish.—Or: into the best vinegar, put 1 pint of white wine (supposing there to be 2 quarts of liquor or water to 1 of vinegar), add mace, ginger, horse-radish, cloves, allspice, a bay leaf, a sprig of lemon thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour it cold over the fish. Put away carefully, in a vegetable dish, any salmon left at table, strew over it ½ a salt-spoonful of cayenne; boil 12 allspice in a pint of white wine vinegar, and pour it scalding hot over the salmon. Keep it in a cool place.
Salmon to Dry.
Cut the fish down, take out the roe, and rub the whole with common salt; let it hang twenty-four hours to drain. Pound 3 oz. saltpetre, 2 oz. bay salt, and 2 oz. coarse sugar; rub these into the salmon, and lay it on a large dish for two days; then rub with common salt, and in twenty-four hours it will be fit to dry. Drain it, wipe it dry, stretch it open and fasten it with pieces of stick, in order that it may dry equally; hang it in a chimney corner where wood or peat is burnt, and it will be smoked in five days. Broil slices for breakfast. If too much smoked, or too dry, soak the slices in lukewarm water, before you broil them. To make this more relishing, dip the slices in oil, then in a seasoning of herbs and spices, and broil them.
Salmon to Collar.
Clean, scale, and bone the fish, then season it highly with mace, cloves, pepper and salt, roll it up into a handsome collar, and bandage it; then bake it with vinegar and butter, or simmer in vinegar and water. Serve melted butter, and anchovy sauce.
Salmon to Pot.
Do not wash, but clean with a cloth, and scale the fish, rub with salt, and let it lie three hours; then drain, and cut it into pieces. Sprinkle over them a seasoning of mace, black and Jamaica pepper, pounded, and lay them in a dish; cover them with melted butter, and set the dish in the oven. When done, drain the fat from the fish, and lay the pieces into little pots; when cold, cover with clarified butter.
Sturgeon
Is generally roasted or baked, if the former, tie a piece of 3 or 4 lbs. on a lark spit, and fasten that to a large one, baste with butter, and serve with a rich meat or maigre gravy highly flavoured. Serve besides, or instead of gravy, oyster, lobster, or anchovy sauce. Slices of sturgeon may be egged, rolled in bread-crumbs, seasonings, and herbs, then broiled in buttered papers. Also it is stewed in good beef gravy.
Skate.
This should be broad, thick, and of a bluish cream colour. It must be quite fresh, if to be crimp, and put on in hot water. It will keep, in cold weather, two or three days, but will eat tender. Shrimp, lobster, or caper sauce, parsley and butter, or onion sauce.—Or: put into a stew-pan ½ pint of water, ½ pint of vinegar, all the trimmings of the skate, two onions, a clove of garlic, some parsley, and a little basil. Boil till the trimmings are cooked to a mash, then strain and put the skate into the liquor; it should just come to a boil, and stand by the side of the fire ten minutes. Garnish with the liver. Serve caper sauce.
Skate to Fry.
Parboil it first, then cut in thin slices, and dip them in egg and bread-crumbs. Then either fried or broiled. Both ways skate is good cold, with mustard, pepper, oil and vinegar.
Thornback and Maids.
Dress the same as Skate.
Trout to Boil.
Put a good-sized fish into boiling water, in which there is a handful of salt, and simmer gently 20 minutes. Melted butter plain, or with chopped gherkins.
Haddock to Boil.
The night before, fill the eyes with salt, and hang the fish up. Or, for a few hours before cooking, sprinkle them with salt. Serve egg sauce. It may be stuffed, as in the next receipt.
Haddocks to Stew, Bake, or Roast.
If you have six small ones, take the heads, tails and trimmings of all, and one whole fish, boil these in a quart of water or broth, with an onion, sweet herbs, and cayenne; boil well, and thicken with brown flour; add spices, and mushroom catsup, or essence of anchovy; strain this, boil again, and skim well; then lay in the rest of your haddocks, cut in pieces. If there require more sauce, add as much as is necessary, of any broth or gravy you have; some oysters, or oyster-pickle. When done, take the fish out with a slice, lay it in a dish, and pour the sauce, which ought to be thick, round. This fish may be stuffed with meat, or rich forcemeat, and dressed whole in the above gravy.—Another: the fish being well cleaned, dry it, and put in the stuffing directed for fillet of veal; tie the tail to the mouth, put the haddock in a pie-dish, rub it over with flour, half fill the dish with veal stock, and bake it in a slow oven 40 minutes. A glass of white wine, or half a one of brandy, oyster-pickle, or lemon juice, either of these may be used, according to taste. Gurnet the same. To Roast: Stuff a good-sized one with veal stuffing, and dangle it before the fire; baste with butter, and when nearly done, take the gravy out of the pan, skim off the fat, then boil up the gravy with pepper, salt, and a wine-glassful of Port wine.
Haddocks to Bake, quite plain.
Boil and mash some potatoes. Season the fish, and put a piece of butter inside, lay it in the middle of the dish, and put a thick border of the potatoes round. Brush over the whole with egg, stick bits of butter over the fish, and bake for half an hour; when in the oven a short time, pour a little melted butter and catsup in the dish.
Haddock or Mackerel to Broil.
Split the fish, bone the haddock, salt it, and hang it for two days in the chimney corner.
Haddocks, Soles, Flounders, Plaice, Perch, Tench, Trout, Whitings, and Herrings to Fry.
Haddocks, soles, and generally whitings, are skinned. Plaice wiped, not washed, and must lie three or four hours after being rubbed with salt. When the fish is cleaned and wiped dry, dust with flour, and lay it gently into the boiling fat; having first egged and dipped it into bread-crumbs. The fat may be either lard, butter, dripping, or oil. Turn it carefully, lift it out when done, and lay it on a sheet of paper in a sieve, whilst you fry the rest; or put it before the fire, if it require drying. Garnish with curled parsley, and slices of lemon. Serve very hot. Shrimp or anchovy sauce, and plain butter. Whitings and haddocks should have the tail skewered into the mouth.
Mackerel and Herrings to Boil.
The fresher these are eaten the better. They require a great deal of cleaning. Choose soft roes to boil. A small mackerel will be done in a quarter of an hour. When the eye starts it is done, and should not stand in the water. Serve fennel boiled and chopped, in melted butter, and garnish with lumps of chopped fennel. Both these may be broiled, whole or split, and sprinkled during the cooking with chopped herbs and seasonings.
Mackerel and Herrings to Bake.
Choose fine ones, in season, cut off the heads and take out the roes. Pound together some mace, nutmeg, Jamaica pepper, cloves, and salt; put a little of this into each fish, then put a layer of them into a pan, and a layer of the mixture upon them, then another layer of fish, and so on. Fill the vessel with vinegar, and tie over close with brown paper. Bake them 6 or 8 hours. To be eaten cold.
Mackerel and Herrings to Pickle.
The same as salmon.—Or: as follows: get them as fresh as possible. Take off the heads, split the fish open, and lay them in salt and water an hour; prepare the following pickle: for 1½ dozen mackerel, take 1 lb. common and 1 lb. bay salt, 1 oz. saltpetre, 1 oz. lump sugar broken, and mix well together. Take the fish out of the water, drain and wipe them. Sprinkle a little salt over them, put a layer into a jar or cask (the skin side downwards), then a layer of the mixture, till the vessel is full. Press it down, and cover close. Ready in three months.
Red Herrings and Sardinias to Broil.
Open and trim them, skin them or not, as you like. If hard, soak in lukewarm water. Broil them, either over or before the fire, and rub butter over as they broil.
Carp, Perch, and Tench to Stew.
If very large, divide the fish. Rub the inside with salt and mixed spices, stick in a few cloves, and a blade or two of mace, in pieces, lay them in a stew-pan, and cover with good fish, or meat stock. Put in 2 onions, an anchovy chopped, cayenne, 3 glasses of claret, or 2 of Port. When done, take the fish up, and keep it hot, while you thicken the gravy with butter and browned flour; add mushroom catsup, oyster-pickle, chili vinegar, or the juice of a lemon; simmer the sauce, skim and pour it over the fish. The roe may be kept back and fried, to garnish the fish, with sippets of bread fried. Use horse-radish and slices of lemon also, to garnish. Where meat gravy is not used, more wine is required.—Cod's skull, Soles, Eels, Flounders, Trout, Whitings and fillets of Turbot, Cod and Halibut, may be dressed the same way. Or: having parboiled the fish, brown it in the frying-pan, and stew it in good gravy seasoned with sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, basil, onions, pepper, salt, and spices: when nearly done, thicken the sauce, and flavour it, with a small portion each, of Worcester, Harvey's and Reading sauces, soy, anchovy sauce, oyster-pickle, catsup, and an equal portion of Port and white wine. The carp's blood should not be omitted.
Carp and Pike (or Jack) to Boil or Bake.
If to be maigre, make a forcemeat of the yolks of 3 eggs, some oysters bearded, 3 anchovies, an onion and some parsley, all chopped; mace, black pepper, allspice, and salt, pounded; mix this with biscuit flour, or crumbs of bread, and the fish being well cleaned and scaled, fill it with the stuffing, and sew it up. If to bake, lay it in a deep dish, stick butter over, and baste plentifully, as it bakes, in a moderate oven. Serve anchovy sauce. Or: you may take the fish out, and keep it hot, whilst you make a rich sauce thus: thicken the gravy in the dish, and boil it up with parsley and sweet herbs; then strain it, add made mustard, a glass of Port wine, and one of chili or any other flavouring vinegar, also pounded mace, salt, and cayenne. Pour this over the fish.
Eels to Stew.
Skin and cut them in pieces. They may be egged and rolled in bread-crumbs, or merely floured. If to be maigre, stew them in fish stock; if otherwise, in good clear beef gravy, in which seasoning herbs, and roots have been boiled. Stew the fish gently, until done, then take them out, keep them hot, and thicken the gravy with browned flour, or what you like; add a glass of white wine, and one of mushroom catsup, also a spoonful of made mustard; boil it up, strain and pour it over the fish. Garnish with scraped horse-radish, and barberries. Whiting, also slices of Turbot, in the same way.
Lampreys to Stew.
After cleaning the fish carefully, remove the cartilage which runs down the back, and season well with cloves, mace, nutmeg, allspice, a tea-spoonful of mushroom powder, a little black pepper and cayenne; put it into a stew-pan with good gravy to cover it, and sherry or Madeira; keep the pan covered till the fish is tender, then take it out, and keep it hot while you boil up the liquor with essence of anchovy, lemon pickle, Gloucester sauce, and thickening; add the juice of a lemon, a spoonful of made mustard, 1 of soy, and 1 of chili vinegar. Fry the spawn to put round the fish.
Eels to Fry.
They should always be gently parboiled, before they are either fried or broiled, then allowed to be cold, before they are cut up; but if very small, turn the tail round to the mouth, and fry it whole. Rub with a mixture of spices, brush with egg, and cover them with bread-crumbs. Fry of a light brown, and lay them on a sieve to drain.—Small eels are sometimes boiled, and served with dried sage and parsley strewed over.
Eels to Collar.
Choose a large eel. Slit open the belly and take out the bone. Rub it well with a mixture of pepper, salt, parsley, sage, thyme, and lemon peel. Roll up, quite tight, and bind it with tape; then boil it gently, in salt, a little vinegar, and water to cover it, till tender. It will keep in the pickle it was boiled in.
Eels to Spitchcock.
They are not skinned, but well cleaned, and rubbed with salt. Take out the bone, wash and dry them in a cloth. Either cut in pieces, or roll them round and cook them whole. First (parboiled) dip the fish into a thick batter of eggs, chopped parsley, sage, eschalot, lemon peel, pepper and salt; then roll them in bread-crumbs or biscuit powder, dip again in batter, and again in the crumbs. Broil over a clear fire. Garnish with curled parsley or slices of lemon, and serve anchovy sauce, or butter flavoured with cucumber vinegar.
Trout to Stew.
The fish being cleaned, put it into a stew-pan, with half champagne and half rhenish, or half moselle and half sherry, in all a tumbler full; season with pepper, salt, an onion with 3 cloves in it, and a very little parsley and thyme, also a crust of bread. When the fish is done, lift it out whilst you thicken the sauce; bruise the bread, but if that be not enough, add a little flour rubbed smooth, and a bit of butter, boil it up and pour over the trout in the dish. Garnish with sliced lemon and fried bread.
Sprats, Smelts, and Gudgeon to Bake, Boil, or Fry.
Rub the gridiron with chalk or mutton suet, and set it over a clear fire. Run a long thin skewer through the heads of the sprats, and lay them on the gridiron. They should be eaten quite hot.—To bake, lay them in a deep dish, strew bits of butter, pepper, salt and spices over, cover with vinegar, and set them in the oven.—To fry, dip them in batter, then in a mixture of seasoning, chopped herbs, and biscuit powder, and fry them.
Allice or Shad.
These are broiled and eaten with caper sauce.
Red Mullet.
The inside is not taken out. Wash the outside of the fish, fold it in oiled paper, lay in a rather shallow dish, and bake it gently. Make a sauce of the liquor, a piece of butter rolled in flour, a little anchovy essence, and a glass of sherry. Boil it up, and serve in a tureen. Send the fish to table in the paper.
Water Souchy.
Eels, whitings, soles, flounders, and mackerel are generally used. Stew it in clear fish stock, until done, eight minutes will be enough; add cayenne, catsup, an anchovy, and any other flavouring ingredient; let it boil up, skim, and serve hot altogether in a tureen.
Pipers to dress.
Stuff the fish with a forcemeat of suet, bread-crumbs, 2 eggs, chopped parsley, pepper, salt and cayenne. Skewer the tail in the mouth, flour and egg the fish, and bake in a hot oven. Drain it, and serve with Dutch sauce.
Cray Fish to Boil.
Boil in the shell; five minutes is enough. Some cooks put a bunch of herbs in the water. Serve on a napkin.
Lobsters and Crabs to Boil.
Have plenty of water, make it quite salt, brush the lobster or crab, and put it in. From forty to fifty minutes for the middling size, more if very large, less if very small. They will throw up a great deal of scum, which must be taken off. Wipe the lobster with a damp cloth, rub a piece of butter over, then wipe it with a dry cloth. Take off the large claws, and crack them; split down the tail, and place the whole neatly in a dish. A very nice sauce, as follows: boil hard 2 eggs, pound the yolk in a mortar, with a little vinegar, and the spawn of the lobster, make it quite smooth, add a large spoonful of salad oil, 3 spoonsful of good vinegar, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and a little cayenne and salt.
Lobster or Crab, to eat hot.
Cut the meat in pieces, or mince it fine; season with spices, nutmeg, cayenne and salt, and warm it in a little good gravy, thickened: or if maigre, fish stock, or just enough water to moisten the meat, and a good-sized piece of butter rolled in flour, a little cream, and some catsup. Serve on toasted sippets; or have the shell of a lobster or crab cleaned, and serve the meat in it.—Another way is, not to warm the mince over the fire, but to put it into the shell, and set that before the fire in a Dutch oven, strew some fine bread-crumbs or biscuit powder over all, and stick some bits of butter over that; brown with a salamander, and serve quite hot. Prawns the same way.—Lobster is sometimes fricasseed, in rich veal gravy; or with cream, and yolk of egg. Garnish with pickled cucumber, or other pickle.—Lobster may be cooked as follows: chop the meat of a large one, and mix with it a very little lemon peel, pepper, salt, nutmeg, butter, cream, and crumbs of stale bread; roll this well, and divide it into small quantities; put each one into light puff paste, the size of sausages, rub them over with yolk of egg, then with bread-crumbs; fry of a yellow brown, and serve with crisped parsley.—Or: wash and clean some spinach and put it into a saucepan, with the meat of a lobster, or a pint of picked shrimps cut small, an onion, a clove of garlic minced, salt and cayenne; when nearly done, add 2 onions sliced and fried; cover close a few minutes; garnish with slices of lemon.
Lobsters and Crabs to Pot.
Parboil the fish, cut it into small pieces, put a layer into a potting can, or deep tin dish, sprinkle salt, pepper, cayenne and pounded mace over, then a layer of the spawn and coral, then a layer of the meat, and so on, till all is in, press it down, pour melted butter over, and put it half an hour in a slow oven. Let it then get cold, take off the butter, take out the meat and pack it into small pots; clarify the butter, and pour over. The butter left may turn to account in sauces, as it will be highly flavoured. If for sandwiches, the meat must be pounded in a mortar before it is baked, that it may spread more easily.
Prawns, Shrimps, and Cray Fish to Pot.
Boil them in salt and water, pick them carefully, then pound in a mortar, with, to 1 lb. fish, a salt-spoonful of mace, the same of allspice, half the quantity of salt and cayenne, the ¼ of a nutmeg grated, and butter to make it a thick paste. Put into pots, pour clarified butter over, and tie it down close.
Prawns and Shrimps to Butter.
Take them out of their shells, and warm them in gravy, with a bit of butter rolled in flour, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Simmer it a little, stir all the time, and serve with toasted sippets.
Prawns or Cray Fish in Jelly.
Make a good calf's-feet or cow-heel jelly, and boil in it some trimmings of cod, turbot, and skate, a little horse-radish, lemon peel, an onion, a piece of pounded mace, grated nutmeg and grated tongue, hung beef, or ham. Boil it well, strain, and let it get cold. Take off the fat, pour the jelly from the sediment, and boil it up with 2 glasses of white wine, and the whites of 4 eggs whisked to a froth. Do not stir this as it boils. When done, let it stand a quarter of an hour to settle; then pass it through a jelly bag: pour some of it into a mould, or deep dish, to become firm; then stick in the fish, neatly picked, in any form you like, and fill up the dish with jelly. When quite cold, turn it out.
Fish Cake.
Pick the fish from the bones, add 1 lb. of mashed potatoes to 2 lbs. fish, a little white pepper, mace, cayenne, and lemon peel; flavour either with essence of anchovy, of lobster, of shrimp, or of oyster, according to taste and the sort of fish; add Harvey's or Camp or Gloucester sauce, also lemon pickle and eschalot vinegar, to your taste: mix the whole with a little melted butter and an egg, dip in bread-crumbs, and fry of a light brown. Use no salt with the above sauces.—Another: Having some cold boiled fish, add to it the third of its weight in bread-crumbs, a little butter beaten with a spoon, a small onion, parboiled and minced fine, pepper, salt, and the whites of 2 eggs to bind; mixed well together, make it in the form of a thick cake, and fry on both sides of a light brown: stew it in good gravy, made from either meat or fish stock, and flavoured with onion, pepper, and salt. Thicken the sauce, and add mushroom catsup.
Fish to Pull.
When cold, pick the fish clean from the bones, and to 1 lb. add two table-spoonsful of anchovy, two of lemon pickle, one of Harvey's, one of Camp sauce, one of chili vinegar, a little cayenne, white pepper, and mace; when nearly hot, add a piece of butter rolled in flour to thicken it, then make it quite hot, put it in a dish, grate bread-crumbs over, and baste with melted butter, to moisten them, then brown with a salamander, or in a Dutch oven, or on a tin before the fire, with a Scotch bonnet behind it.—Or: Pick from the bones, in flakes, any cold or boiled fish, salmon, cod, turbot, sole, skate or pike; and to 1 lb. fish, add ½ pint of cream, or ¼ lb. of butter, a table-spoonful of mustard, the same of essence of anchovy, mushroom catsup, any flavouring sauce you like, salt and pepper; heat it in a saucepan, put it into a hot dish, strew crumbs of bread over, moisten the top with thin melted butter, and brown in a Dutch oven.
A Salmagundi.
Wash and cut open, then take out the meat from the bones of two large herrings, mince the fish with cold chicken, two hard-boiled eggs, one onion, a boned anchovy, and a little grated ham, season with cayenne, vinegar, and oil, salt, if necessary; and serve the mince, garnished with heaps of chopped boiled egg, parsley and pickles, also spun butter.
Oysters to Stew.
Choose plump natives, beard and stew two dozen in their own liquor, till just coming to a boil; take them out and lay them in a dish, whilst you strain the liquor into a saucepan; add a little piece of butter rubbed in flour, a blade of mace, a few peppercorns, lemon peel, three table-spoonsful of cream, and a little cayenne. Lay the oysters in, cover the saucepan, and let them simmer five minutes, very gently. Have toasted sippets in a deep dish, take out the oysters when done with a silver spoon, lay them in and pour the gravy over.—The French strew grated parmesan over the oysters, before the sauce. Oysters to Grill.—Toss them in a stew-pan in a little of their own liquor, a piece of butter, and a little chopped parsley, but do not let them boil. Clean their own shells, lay an oyster in each, and some little bits of butter. Put the shells on the gridiron, in two minutes they will be done. Oysters to Brown.—Open carefully, lift them out of their liquor, and dip each one in yolk of egg, beaten up with flour, pepper and salt, then brown them in a frying-pan, with a piece of butter; take them out, pour the liquor into the pan, thicken with a piece of butter rolled in flour, add a little catsup, minced lemon peel, and parsley, let it boil up, put in the oysters, and stir them in it a few minutes. Serve on toasted sippets. Oysters to Fry.—Make a batter of three or four eggs, a table-spoonful of flour, a tea-spoonful of salt, and the ¼ of one of cayenne, also a very little mace. Cover the oysters well with this, and fry in boiling lard of a light brown; then grate toasted or brown bread over them, and put before the fire for three minutes in a Dutch oven. Oysters or Cockles to Scallop.—Stew the oysters in their own gravy. Have ready some bread-crumbs, put a layer into the scallop shells, or dish, moisten with the oyster liquor, and put some little bits of butter, then a layer of oysters, then of crumbs, till the shell is full; a light sprinkling of salt, pepper, and cayenne; let bread-crumbs be at the top, and lay on some little bits of butter. Brown before the fire in a Dutch oven. Cold fish may be re-cooked in this way for supper or luncheon. Oysters in Dean Swift's way.—Wash the shells clean, and put the oysters, unopened, into an earthen pot, with their hollow sides downwards; set the pot, covered, in a kettle of water, and make that boil. Do not let the water get into the shells; three or four minutes will cook the oysters.
Oysters to Keep.
Wash them clean, lay them, bottom downwards, into a tub, and cover them with strong salt and water, in the proportion of a large handful of salt to a pail of water. Some persons sprinkle them with flour or oatmeal; this fattens them, but does not always improve the flavour.
See in the Index for Curry of Fish.
CHAPTER XIV.
MADE DISHES.
What is generally understood in England to represent a "made dish" is something too rich, or too highly seasoned, to be available for a family dinner; but this is an error. Made dishes are not of necessity rich or costly, but judgment is required in compounding them, and, by a little practice, a cook will acquire this judgment, and then will be able to convert the remains of joints, and much that would not appear to advantage if plainly cooked, into nice palatable dishes. It is the proper application of seasonings and flavouring ingredients, and not the superabundance of them, which constitutes the excellence of "made dishes."—(See in the Index for Sauces.)
It has been directed, in making soup, that it must not boil fast. Made dishes should never boil at all; very gentle simmering, and the lid of the stewpan must not be removed,