The reddish-coloured are better than the white, but the

yellowish-looking ones are the best. Choose those of a moderate size,

free from blemishes, and fresh, and buy them in the mould. They must not

be wetted till they are cleaned to be cooked. Protect them from the air

and frost, by laying them in heaps in a cellar, covering them with mats,

or burying them in sand or in earth. The action of frost is most

destructive: if it be considerable, the life of the vegetable is

destroyed, and the potato speedily rots.

Wash them, but do not pare or cut them, unless they are very large. Fill

a sauce-pan half full of potatoes of equal size[155-+] (or make them so

by dividing the larger ones), put to them as much cold water as will

cover them about an inch: they are sooner boiled, and more savoury, than

when drowned in water. Most boiled things are spoiled by having too

little water, but potatoes are often spoiled by too much: they must

merely be covered, and a little allowed for waste in boiling, so that

they may be just covered at the finish.

Set them on a moderate fire till they boil; then take them off, and put

them by the side of the fire to simmer slowly till they are soft enough

to admit a fork (place no dependence on the usual test of their skins'

cracking, which, if they are boiled fast, will happen to some potatoes

when they are not half done, and the insides quite hard). Then pour the

water off (if you let the potatoes remain in the water a moment after

they are done enough, they will become waxy and watery), uncover the

sauce-pan, and set it at such a distance from the fire as will secure it

from burning; their superfluous moisture will evaporate, and the

potatoes will be perfectly dry and mealy.

You may afterward place a napkin, folded up to the size of the

sauce-pan's diameter, over the potatoes, to keep them hot and mealy till

wanted.

_Obs._--This method of managing potatoes is in every respect equal to

steaming them; and they are dressed in half the time.

There is such an infinite variety of sorts and sizes of potatoes, that

it is impossible to say how long they will take doing: the best way is

to try them with a fork. Moderate-sized potatoes will generally be done

enough in fifteen or twenty minutes. See _Obs._ to No. 106.

_Cold Potatoes fried._--(No. 102*.)

Put a bit of clean dripping into a frying-pan: when it is melted, slice

in your potatoes with a little pepper and salt; put them on the fire;

keep stirring them: when they are quite hot, they are ready.

_Obs._--This is a very good way of re-dressing potatoes, or see No. 106.

_Potatoes boiled and broiled._--(No. 103.)

Dress your potatoes as before directed, and put them on a gridiron over

a very clear and brisk fire: turn them till they are brown all over, and

send them up dry, with melted butter in a cup.

_Potatoes fried in Slices or Shavings._--(No. 104.)

Peel large potatoes; slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut

them in shavings round and round, as you would peel a lemon; dry them

well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that

your fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, watch

it, and as soon as the lard boils, and is still, put in the slices of

potato, and keep moving them till they are crisp. Take them up, and lay

them to drain on a sieve: send them up with a very little salt sprinkled

over them.

_Potatoes fried whole._--(No. 105.)

When nearly boiled enough, as directed in No. 102, put them into a

stew-pan with a bit of butter, or some nice clean beef-drippings; shake

them about often (for fear of burning them), till they are brown and

crisp; drain them from the fat.

_Obs._--It will be an elegant improvement to the last three receipts,

previous to frying or broiling the potatoes, to flour them and dip them

in the yelk of an egg, and then roll them in fine-sifted bread-crumbs;

they will then deserve to be called POTATOES FULL DRESSED.

_Potatoes mashed._--(No. 106. See also No. 112.)

When your potatoes are thoroughly boiled, drain them quite dry, pick out

every speck, &c., and while hot, rub them through a colander into a

clean stew-pan. To a pound of potatoes put about half an ounce of

butter, and a table-spoonful of milk: do not make them too moist; mix

them well together.

_Obs._--After Lady-day, when the potatoes are getting old and specky,

and in frosty weather, this is the best way of dressing them. You may

put them into shapes or small tea-cups; egg them with yelk of egg, and

brown them very slightly before a slow fire. See No. 108.

_Potatoes mashed with Onions._--(No. 107.)

Prepare some boiled onions by putting them through a sieve, and mix them

with potatoes. In proportioning the onions to the potatoes, you will be

guided by your wish to have more or less of their flavour.

_Obs._--See note under No. 555.

_Potatoes escalloped._--(No. 108.)

Mash potatoes as directed in No. 106; then butter some nice clean

scollop-shells, patty-pans, or tea-cups or saucers; put in your

potatoes; make them smooth at the top; cross a knife over them; strew a

few fine bread-crumbs on them; sprinkle them with a paste-brush with a

few drops of melted butter, and then set them in a Dutch oven; when they

are browned on the top, take them carefully out of the shells and brown

the other side.

_Colcannon._--(No. 108*.)

Boil potatoes and greens, or spinage, separately; mash the potatoes;

squeeze the greens dry; chop them quite fine, and mix them with the

potatoes, with a little butter, pepper, and salt; put it into a mould,

buttering it well first; let it stand in a hot oven for ten minutes.

_Potatoes roasted._--(No. 109.)

Wash and dry your potatoes (all of a size), and put them in a tin Dutch

oven, or cheese-toaster: take care not to put them too near the fire, or

they will get burned on the outside before they are warmed through.

Large potatoes will require two hours to roast them.

N.B. To save time and trouble, some cooks half boil them first.

This is one of the best opportunities the BAKER has to rival the cook.

_Potatoes roasted under Meat._--(No. 110.)

Half boil large potatoes, drain the water from them, and put them into

an earthen dish, or small tin pan, under meat that is roasting, and

baste them with some of the dripping: when they are browned on one side,

turn them and brown the other; send them up round the meat, or in a

small dish.

_Potato Balls._--(No. 111.)

Mix mashed potatoes with the yelk of an egg; roll them into balls; flour

them, or egg and bread-crumb them; and fry them in clean drippings, or

brown them in a Dutch oven.

_Potato Balls Ragoût_,--(No. 112.)

Are made by adding to a pound of potatoes a quarter of a pound of grated

ham, or some sweet herbs, or chopped parsley, an onion or eschalot,

salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg, or other spice, with the yelk

of a couple of eggs: they are then to be dressed as No. 111.

_Obs._--An agreeable vegetable relish, and a good supper-dish.

_Potato Snow._--(No. 114.)

The potatoes must be free from spots, and the whitest you can pick out;

put them on in cold water; when they begin to crack strain the water

from them, and put them into a clean stew-pan by the side of the fire

till they are quite dry, and fall to pieces; rub them through a wire

sieve on the dish they are to be sent up in, and do not disturb them

afterward.

_Potato Pie._--(No. 115.)

Peel and slice your potatoes very thin into a pie-dish; between each

layer of potatoes put a little chopped onion (three-quarters of an ounce

of onion is sufficient for a pound of potatoes); between each layer

sprinkle a little pepper and salt; put in a little water, and cut about

two ounces of fresh butter into little bits, and lay them on the top:

cover it close with puff paste. It will take about an hour and a half to

bake it.

N.B. The yelks of four eggs (boiled hard) may be added; and when baked,

a table-spoonful of good mushroom catchup poured in through a funnel.

_Obs._--Cauliflowers divided into mouthfuls, and button onions, seasoned

with curry powder, &c. make a favourite vegetable pie.

_New Potatoes._--(No. 116.)

The best way to clean new potatoes is to rub them with a coarse cloth or

flannel, a or scrubbing-brush, and proceed as in No. 102.

N.B. New potatoes are poor, watery, and insipid, till they are full two

inches in diameter: they are not worth the trouble of boiling before

midsummer day.

_Obs._--Some cooks prepare sauces to pour over potatoes, made with

butter, salt, and pepper, or gravy, or melted butter and catchup; or

stew the potatoes in ale, or water seasoned with pepper and salt; or

bake them with herrings or sprats, mixed with layers of potatoes,

seasoned with pepper, salt, sweet herbs, vinegar, and water; or cut

mutton or beef into slices, and lay them in a stew-pan, and on them

potatoes and spices, then another layer of the meat alternately, pouring

in a little water, covering it up very close, and slewing slowly.

Potato mucilage (a good substitute for arrow-root), No. 448.[159-*]

_Jerusalem Artichokes_,--(No. 117.)

Are boiled and dressed in the various ways we have just before directed

for potatoes.

N.B. They should be covered with thick melted butter, or a nice white or

brown sauce.

_Cabbage._--(No. 118.)

Pick cabbages very clean, and wash them thoroughly; then look them over

carefully again; quarter them if they are very large. Put them into a

sauce-pan with plenty of boiling water; if any scum rises, take it off;

put a large spoonful of salt into the sauce-pan, and boil them till the

stalks feel tender. A young cabbage will take about twenty minutes or

half an hour; when full grown, near an hour: see that they are well

covered with water all the time, and that no smoke or dirt arises from

stirring the fire. With careful management, they will look as beautiful

when dressed as they did when growing.

_Obs._--Some cooks say, that it will much ameliorate the flavour of

strong old cabbages to boil them in two waters; _i. e._ when they are

half done, to take them out, and put them directly into another

sauce-pan of boiling water, instead of continuing them in the water into

which they were first put.

_Boiled Cabbage fried._--(No. 119.)

See receipt for Bubble and Squeak.

_Savoys_,--(No. 120.)

Are boiled in the same manner; quarter them when you send them to table.

_Sprouts and young Greens._--(No. 121.)

The receipt we have written for cabbages will answer as well for

sprouts, only they will be boiled enough in fifteen or twenty minutes.

_Spinage._--(No. 122.)

Spinage should be picked a leaf at a time, and washed in three or four

waters; when perfectly clean, lay it on a sieve or colander, to drain

the water from it.

Put a sauce-pan on the fire three parts filled with water, and large

enough for the spinage to float in it; put a small handful of salt in

it; let it boil; skim it, and then put in the spinage; make it boil as

quick as possible till quite tender, pressing the spinage down

frequently that it may be done equally; it will be done enough in about

ten minutes, if boiled in plenty of water: if the spinage is a little

old, give it a few minutes longer. When done, strain it on the back of a

sieve; squeeze it dry with a plate, or between two trenchers; chop it

fine, and put it into a stew-pan with a bit of butter and a little salt:

a little cream is a great improvement, or instead of either some rich

gravy. Spread it in a dish, and score it into squares of proper size to

help at table.

_Obs._--Grated nutmeg, or mace, and a little lemon-juice, is a favourite

addition with some cooks, and is added when you stir it up in the

stew-pan with the butter garnished. Spinage is frequently served with

poached eggs and fried bread.

_Asparagus._--(No. 123.)

Set a stew-pan with plenty of water in it on the fire; sprinkle a

handful of salt in it; let it boil, and skim it; then put in your

asparagus, prepared thus: scrape all the stalks till they are perfectly

clean; throw them into a pan of cold water as you scrape them; when they

are all done, tie them up in little bundles, of about a quarter of a

hundred each, with bass, if you can get it, or tape (string cuts them to

pieces); cut off the stalks at the bottom that they may be all of a

length, leaving only just enough to serve as a handle for the green

part; when they are tender at the stalk, which will be in from twenty to

thirty minutes, they are done enough. Great care must be taken to watch

the exact time of their becoming tender; take them up just at that

instant, and they will have their true flavour and colour: a minute or

two more boiling destroys both.

While the asparagus is boiling, toast a round of a quartern loaf, about

half an inch thick; brown it delicately on both sides; dip it lightly in

the liquor the asparagus was boiled in, and lay it in the middle of a

dish: melt some butter (No. 256); then lay in the asparagus upon the

toast, which must project beyond the asparagus, that the company may see

there is a toast.

Pour no butter over them, but send some up in a boat, or white sauce

(No. 2 of No. 364).

_Sea Kale_,--(No. 124.)

Is tied up in bundles, and dressed in the same way as asparagus.

_Cauliflower._--(No. 125.)

Choose those that are close and white, and of the middle size; trim off

the outside leaves; cut the stalk off flat at the bottom; let them lie

in salt and water an hour before you boil them.

Put them into boiling water with a handful of salt in it; skim it well,

and let it boil slowly till done, which a small one will be in fifteen,

a large one in about twenty minutes; take it up the moment it is enough,

a minute or two longer boiling will spoil it.

N.B. Cold cauliflowers and French beans, carrots and turnips, boiled so

as to eat rather crisp, are sometimes dressed as a salad (No. 372 or

453).

_Broccoli._--(No. 126.)

Set a pan of clean cold water on the table, and a saucepan on the fire

with plenty of water, and a handful of salt in it.

Broccoli is prepared by stripping off all the side shoots, leaving the

top; peel off the skin of the stalk with a knife; cut it close off at

the bottom, and put it into the pan of cold water.

When the water in the stew-pan boils, and the broccoli is ready, put it

in; let it boil briskly till the stalks feel tender, from ten to twenty

minutes; take it up with a slice, that you may not break it; let it

drain, and serve up.

If some of the heads of broccoli are much bigger than the others, put

them on to boil first, so that they may get all done together.

_Obs._--It makes a nice supper-dish served upon a toast, like asparagus.

It is a very delicate vegetable, and you must take it up the moment it

is done, and send it to table hot.

_Red Beet-roots_,--(No. 127.)

Are not so much used as they deserve; they are dressed in the same way

as parsnips, only neither scraped nor cut till after they are boiled;

they will take from an hour and a half to three hours in boiling,

according to their size: to be sent to table with salt fish, boiled

beef, &c. When young, large, and juicy, it is a very good variety, an

excellent garnish, and easily converted into a very cheap and pleasant

pickle.

_Parsnips_,--(No. 128.)

Are to be cooked just in the same manner as carrots. They require more

or less time according to their size; therefore match them in size: and

you must try them by thrusting a fork into them as they are in the

water; when that goes easily through, they are done enough. Boil them

from an hour to two hours, according to their size and freshness.

_Obs._ Parsnips are sometimes sent up mashed in the same way as turnips,

and some cooks quarter them before they boil them.[163-*]

_Carrots._--(No. 129.)

Let them be well washed and brushed, not scraped. An hour is enough for

young spring carrots; grown carrots must be cut in half, and will take

from an hour and a half to two hours and a half. When done, rub off the

peels with a clean coarse cloth, and slice them in two or four,

according to their size. The best way to try if they are done enough, is

to pierce them with a fork.

_Obs._ Many people are fond of cold carrot with cold beef; ask if you

shall cook enough for some to be left to send up with the cold meat.

_Turnips._--(No. 130.)

Peel off half an inch of the stringy outside. Full-grown turnips will

take about an hour and a half gentle boiling; if you slice them, which

most people do, they will be done sooner; try them with a fork; when

tender, take them up, and lay them on a sieve till the water is

thoroughly drained from them. Send them up whole; do not slice them.

N.B. To very young turnips leave about two inches of the green top. See

No. 132.

_To mash Turnips._--(No. 131.)

When they are boiled quite tender, squeeze them as dry as possible

between two trenchers; put them into a saucepan; mash them with a wooden

spoon, and rub them through a colander; add a little bit of butter;

keep stirring them till the butter is melted and well mixed with them,

and they are ready for table.

_Turnip-tops_,--(No. 132.)

Are the shoots which grow out (in the spring) of the old turnip-roots.

Put them into cold water an hour before they are to be dressed; the more

water they are boiled in, the better they will look; if boiled in a

small quantity of water they will taste bitter: when the water boils,

put in a small handful of salt, and then your vegetables; if fresh and

young, they will be done in about twenty minutes; drain them on the back

of a sieve.

_French Beans._--(No. 133.)

Cut off the stalk end first, and then turn to the point and strip off

the strings. If not quite fresh, have a bowl of spring-water, with a

little salt dissolved in it, standing before you, and as the beans are

cleaned and stringed, throw them in. When all are done, put them on the

fire in boiling water, with some salt in it; after they have boiled

fifteen or twenty minutes, take one out and taste it; as soon as they

are tender take them up; throw them into a colander or sieve to drain.

To send up the beans whole is much the best method when they are thus

young, and their delicate flavour and colour are much better preserved.

When a little more grown, they must be cut across in two after

stringing; and for common tables they are split, and divided across; cut

them all the same length; but those who are nice never have them at such

a growth as to require splitting.

When they are very large they look pretty cut into lozenges.

_Obs._ See N.B. to No. 125.

_Green Pease._[164-*]--(No. 134.)

Young green pease, well dressed, are among the most delicious delicacies

of the vegetable kingdom. They must be young; it is equally

indispensable that they be fresh gathered, and cooked as soon as they

are shelled for they soon lose both their colour and sweetness.

If you wish to feast upon pease in perfection, you must have them

gathered the same day they are dressed, and put on to boil within half

an hour after they are shelled.

Pass them through a riddle, _i. e._ a coarse sieve, which is made for

the purpose of separating them. This precaution is necessary, for large

and small pease cannot be boiled together, as the former will take more

time than the latter.

For a peck of pease, set on a sauce-pan with a gallon of water in it;

when it boils, put in your pease, with a table-spoonful of salt; skim it

well, keep them boiling quick from twenty to thirty minutes, according

to their age and size. The best way to judge of their being done enough,

and indeed the only way to make sure of cooking them to, and not beyond,

the point of perfection, or, as pea-eaters say, of "boiling them to a

bubble," is to take them out with a spoon and taste them.

When they are done enough, drain them on a hair-sieve. If you like them

buttered, put them into a pie-dish, divide some butter into small bits,

and lay them on the pease; put another dish over them, and turn them

over and over; this will melt the butter through them; but as all people

do not like buttered pease, you had better send them to table plain, as

they come out of the sauce-pan, with melted butter (No. 256) in a

sauce-tureen. It is usual to boil some mint with the pease; but if you

wish to garnish the pease with mint, boil a few sprigs in a sauce-pan by

themselves. See Sage and Onion Sauce (No. 300), and Pea Powder (No.

458); to boil Bacon (No. 13), Slices of Ham and Bacon (No. 526), and

Relishing Rashers of Bacon (No. 527).

N.B. A peck of young pease will not yield more than enough for a couple

of hearty pea-eaters; when the pods are full, it may serve for three.

MEM. Never think of purchasing pease ready-shelled, for the cogent

reasons assigned in the first part of this receipt.

_Cucumbers stewed._--(No. 135.)

Peel and cut cucumbers in quarters, take out the seeds, and lay them on

a cloth to drain off the water: when they are dry, flour and fry them in

fresh butter; let the butter be quite hot before you put in the

cucumbers; fry them till they are brown, then take them out with an

egg-slice, and lay them on a sieve to drain the fat from them (some

cooks fry sliced onions, or some small button onions, with them, till

they are a delicate light-brown colour, drain them from the fat, and

then put them into a stew-pan with as much gravy as will cover them):

stew slowly till they are tender; take out the cucumbers with a slice,

thicken the gravy with flour and butter, give it a boil up, season it

with pepper and salt, and put in the cucumbers; as soon as they are

warm, they are ready.

The above, rubbed through a tamis, or fine sieve, will be entitled to be

called "cucumber sauce." See No. 399, Cucumber Vinegar. This is a very

favourite sauce with lamb or mutton-cutlets, stewed rump-steaks, &c.

&c.: when made for the latter, a third part of sliced onion is sometimes

fried with the cucumber.[166-*]

_Artichokes._--(No. 136.)

Soak them in cold water, wash them well, then put them into plenty of

boiling water, with a handful of salt, and let them boil gently till

they are tender, which will take an hour and a half, or two hours: the

surest way to know when they are done enough, is to draw out a leaf;

trim them and drain them on a sieve; and send up melted butter with

them, which some put into small cups, so that each guest may have one.

_Stewed Onions._--(No. 137.)

The large Portugal onions are the best: take off the top-coats of half a

dozen of these (taking care not to cut off the tops or tails too near,

or the onions will go to pieces), and put them into a stew-pan broad

enough to hold them without laying them atop of one another, and just

cover them with good broth.

Put them over a slow fire, and let them simmer about two hours; when you

dish them, turn them upside down, and pour the sauce over.

Young onions stewed, see No. 296.

_Salads._--(No. 138*, _also_ No. 372).

Those who desire to see this subject elaborately illustrated, we refer

to "EVELYN'S _Acetaria_," a discourse of Sallets, a 12mo. of 240 pages.

London, 1699.

Mr. E. gives us "an account of seventy-two herbs proper and fit to make

sallet with;" and a table of thirty-five, telling their seasons and

proportions. "In the composure of a sallet, every plant should come in

to bear its part, like the notes in music: thus the comical Master Cook

introduced by Damoxenus, when asked, 'what harmony there was in meats?'

'the very same,' says he, 'as the 3d, 5th, and 8th have to one another

in music: the main skill lies in this, not to mingle' ('_sapores minimè

consentientes_'). 'Tastes not well joined, inelegant,' as our Paradisian

bard directs Eve, when dressing a sallet for her angelical guest, in

MILTON'S _Paradise Lost_."

He gives the following receipt for the oxoleon:--

"Take of clear and perfectly good oyl-olive three parts; of sharpest

vinegar (sweetest of all condiments, for it incites appetite, and causes

hunger, which is the best sauce), limon, or juice of orange, one part;

and therein let steep some slices of horseradish, with a little salt.

Some, in a separate vinegar, gently bruise a pod of Ginny pepper, and

strain it to the other; then add as much mustard as will lie upon a

half-crown piece. Beat and mingle these well together with the yelk of

two new-laid eggs boiled hard, and pour it over your sallet, stirring it

well together. The super-curious insist that the knife with which sallet

herb is cut must be of silver. Some who are husbands of their oyl, pour

at first the oyl alone, as more apt to communicate and diffuse its

slipperiness, than when it is mingled and beaten with the acids, which

they pour on last of all; and it is incredible how small a quantity of

oyl thus applied is sufficient to imbue a very plentiful assembly of

sallet herbs."

_Obs._ Our own directions to prepare and dress salads will be found

under No. 372.

FOOTNOTES:

[155-*] "Next to bread, there is no vegetable article, the preparation

of which, as food, deserves to be more attended to, than the

potato."--Sir JOHN SINCLAIR'S _Code of Health_, vol. i. p. 354.

"By the _analysis of potato_, it appears that 16 ounces contained 11-1/2

ounces of water, and the 4-1/2 ounces of solid parts remaining, afforded

scarce a drachm of earth."--PARMENTIER'S _Obs. on Nutritive Vegetables_,

8vo. 1783, p. 112.

[155-+] Or the small ones will be done to pieces before the large ones

are boiled enough.

[159-*] Sweet potatoes, otherwise called Carolina potatoes, are the

roots of the _Convolvulus batatas_, a plant peculiar to and principally

cultivated in America. It delights in a warm climate, but is raised in

Connecticut, New-York, and all the states of the Union south of

New-York. It is an excellent vegetable for the dinner-table, and is

brought on boiled. It has an advantage over common potatoes, as it may

be eaten cold; and it is sometimes cut into thin slices and brought to

the tea-table, as a delicate relish, owing to its agreeable nutritious

sweetness. A.

[163-*] After parsnips are boiled, they should be put into the

frying-pan and browned a little. Some people do not admire this

vegetable, on account of its sickish sweetness. It is, however, a

wholesome, cheap, and nourishing vegetable, best calculated for the

table in winter and spring. Its sweetness may be modified by mashing

with a few potatoes. A.

[164-*] These, and all other fruits and vegetables, &c., by Mr. APPERT'S

plan, it is said, may be preserved for twelve months. See APPERT'S

_Book_, 12mo. 1812. We have eaten of several specimens of preserved

pease, which looked pretty enough,--but _flavour_ they had none at all.

[166-*] Cucumbers may be cut into quarters and boiled like asparagus,

and served up with toasted bread and melted butter. This is a most

delicate way of preparing cucumbers for the dinner-table, and they are a

most luscious article, and so rich and savoury that a small quantity

will suffice.

The ordinary method of cutting cucumbers into slices with raw onions,

served up in vinegar, and seasoned with salt and pepper, is most vulgar

and most unwholesome. In their season they are cheap and plenty; and as

they are crude and unripe they require the stomach of an ostrich to

digest them. They cause much sickness in their season, creating

choleras, cramps, and dysenteries. If stewed or boiled as above

directed, they would be more nutritious and wholesome. A.

_FISH._

See _Obs._ on Codfish after No. 149.

_Turbot to boil._--(No. 140).

This excellent fish is in season the greatest part of the summer; when

good, it is at once firm and tender, and abounds with rich gelatinous

nutriment.

Being drawn, and washed clean, if it be quite fresh, by rubbing it

lightly with salt, and keeping it in a cold place, you may in moderate

weather preserve it for a couple of days.[168-*]

An hour or two before you dress it, soak it in spring-water with some

salt in it, then score the skin across the thickest part of the back, to

prevent its breaking on the breast, which will happen from the fish

swelling, and cracking the skin, if this precaution be not used. Put a

large handful of salt into a fish-kettle with cold water, lay your fish

on a fish-strainer, put it in, and when it is coming to a boil, skim it

well; then set the kettle on the side of the fire, to boil as gently as

possible for about fifteen or twenty minutes (if it boils fast, the fish

will break to pieces); supposing it a middling-sized turbot, and to

weigh eight or nine pounds.

Rub a little of the inside red coral spawn of the lobster through a hair

sieve, without butter; and when the turbot is dished, sprinkle the spawn

over it. Garnish the dish with sprigs of curled parsley, sliced lemon,

and finely-scraped horseradish.

If you like to send it to table in full dress, surround it with

nicely-fried smelts (No. 173), gudgeons are often used for this purpose,

and may be bought very cheap when smelts are very dear; lay the largest

opposite the broadest part of the turbot, so that they may form a

well-proportioned fringe for it; or oysters (No. 183*); or cut a sole in

strips, crossways, about the size of a smelt; fry them as directed in

No. 145, and lay them round. Send up lobster sauce (No. 284); two boats

of it, if it is for a large party.

N.B. Cold turbot, with No. 372 for sauce; or take off the fillets that

are left as soon as the turbot returns from table, and they will make a

side dish for your next dinner, warmed in No. 364--2.

_Obs._ The thickest part is the favourite; and the carver of this fish

must remember to ask his friends if they are fin-fanciers. It will save

a troublesome job to the carver, if the cook, when the fish is boiled,

cuts the spine-bone across the middle.

_A Brill_,--(No. 143.)

Is dressed the same way as a turbot.

_Soles to boil._--(No. 144.)

A fine, fresh, thick sole is almost as good eating as a turbot.

Wash and clean it nicely; put it into a fish-kettle with a handful of

salt, and as much cold water as will cover it; set it on the side of the

fire, take off the scum as it rises, and let it boil gently; about five

minutes (according to its size) will be long enough, unless it be very

large. Send it up on a fish-drainer, garnished with slices of lemon and

sprigs of curled parsley, or nicely-fried smelts (No. 173), or oysters

(No. 183).

_Obs._ Slices of lemon are a universally acceptable garnish with either

fried or broiled fish: a few sprigs of crisp parsley may be added, if

you wish to make it look very smart; and parsley, or fennel and butter,

are excellent sauces (see Nos. 261 and 265), or chervil sauce (No. 264),

anchovy (No. 270).

N.B. Boiled soles are very good warmed up like eels, Wiggy's way (No.

164), or covered with white sauce (No. 364--2; and see No. 158).

_Soles, or other Fish, to fry._--(No. 145.)

Soles are generally to be procured good from some part of the coast, as

some are going out of season, and some coming in, both at the same time;

a great many are brought in well-boats alive, that are caught off Dover

and Folkstone, and some are brought from the same places by

land-carriage. The finest soles are caught off Plymouth, near the

Eddystone, and all the way up the channel, and to Torbay; and frequently

weigh eight or ten pounds per pair: they are generally brought by water

to Portsmouth, and thence by land; but the greatest quantity are caught

off Yarmouth and the Knole, and off the Forelands.

Be sure they are quite fresh, or the cleverest cook cannot make them

either look or eat well.

An hour before you intend to dress them, wash them thoroughly, and wrap

them in a clean cloth, to make them perfectly dry, or the bread-crumbs

will not stick to them.

Prepare some bread-crumbs,[170-*] by rubbing some stale bread through a

colander; or, if you wish the fish to appear very delicate and

highly-finished, through a hair-sieve; or use biscuit powder.

Beat the yelk and white of an egg well together, on a plate, with a

fork; flour your fish, to absorb any moisture that may remain, and wipe

it off with a clean cloth; dip them in the egg on both sides all over,

or, what is better, egg them with a paste-brush; put the egg on in an

even degree over the whole fish, or the bread-crumbs will not stick to

it even, and the uneven part will burn to the pan. Strew the

bread-crumbs all over the fish, so that they cover every part, take up

the fish by the head, and shake off the loose crumbs. The fish is now

ready for the frying-pan.

Put a quart or more of fresh sweet olive-oil, or clarified butter (No.

259), dripping (No. 83), lard,[170-+] or clarified drippings (No. 83);

be sure they are quite sweet and perfectly clean (the fat ought to cover

the fish): what we here order is for soles about ten inches long; if

larger, cut them into pieces the proper size to help at table; this will

save much time and trouble to the carver: when you send them to table,

lay them in the same form they were before they were cut, and you may

strew a little curled parsley over them: they are much easier managed in

the frying-pan, and require less fat: fry the thick part a few minutes

before you put in the thin, you can by this means only fry the thick

part enough, without frying the thin too much. Very large soles should

be boiled (No. 144), or fried in fillets (No. 147). Soles cut in pieces,

crossways, about the size of a smelt, make a very pretty garnish for

stewed fish and boiled fish.

Set the frying-pan over a sharp and clear fire; watch it, skim it with

an egg-slice, and when it boils,[170-++] _i. e._ when it has done

bubbling, and the smoke just begins to rise from the surface, put in the

fish: if the fat is not extremely hot, it is impossible to fry fish of a

good colour, or to keep them firm and crisp. (Read the 3d chapter of

the Rudiments of Cookery.)

The best way to ascertain the heat of the fat, is to try it with a bit

of bread as big as a nut; if it is quite hot enough, the bread will

brown immediately. Put in the fish, and it will be crisp and brown on

the side next the fire, in about four or five minutes; to turn it, stick

a two-pronged fork near the head, and support the tail with a

fish-slice, and fry the other side nearly the same length of time.

Fry one sole at a time, except the pan is very large, and you have

plenty of fat.

When the fish are fried, lay them on a soft cloth (old tablecloths are

best), near enough the fire to keep them warm; turn them every two or

three minutes, till they are quite dry on both sides; this common cooks

commonly neglect. It will take ten or fifteen minutes,[171-*] if the fat

you fried them in was not hot enough; when it is, they want very little

drying. When soles are fried, they will keep very good in a dry place

for three or four days; warm them by hanging them on the hooks in a

Dutch oven, letting them heat very gradually, by putting it some

distance from the fire for about twenty minutes, or in good gravy, as

eels, Wiggy's way (Nos. 164, 299, 337, or 356).

_Obs._ There are several general rules in this receipt which apply to

all fried fish: we have been very particular and minute in our

directions; for, although a fried sole is so frequent and favourite a

dish, it is very seldom brought to table in perfection.[171-+]

_Soles to stew._--(No. 146.)

These are half fried, and then done the same as eels, Wiggy's way. See

No. 164.

_Fillets of Soles, brown or white._--(No. 147.)

Take off the fillets very nicely, trim them neatly, and press them dry

between a soft cloth; egg, crumb, and fry them, &c. as directed in No.

145, or boil them, and serve them with No. 364--2.

N.B. This is one of the best ways of dressing very large soles. See also

No. 164.

_Skate_,[172-*]--(No. 148.)

Is very good when in good season, but no fish so bad when it is

otherwise: those persons that like it firm and dry, should have it

crimped; but those that like it tender, should have it plain, and eat it

not earlier than the second day, and if cold weather, three or four days

old it is better: it cannot be kept too long, if perfectly sweet. Young

skate eats very fine crimped and fried. See No. 154.

_Cod boiled._--(No. 149.)

Wash and clean the fish, and rub a little salt in the inside of it (if

the weather is very cold, a large cod is the better for being kept a

day): put plenty of water in your fish-kettle, so that the fish may be

well covered; put in a large handful of salt; and when it is dissolved,

put in your fish; a very small fish will require from fifteen to twenty

minutes after the water boils, a large one about half an hour; drain it

on the fish-plate; dish it with a garnish of the roe, liver,

chitterlings, &c. or large native oysters, fried a light brown (see No.

183*), or smelts (No. 173), whitings (No. 153), the tail[172-+] of the

cod cut in slices, or bits the size and shape of oysters, or split it,

and fry it. Scolloped oysters (No. 182), oyster sauce (No. 278), slices

of cod cut about half an inch thick, and fried as soles (No. 145), are

very nice.

MEM.--The SOUNDS (the jelly parts about the jowl), the palate, and the

tongue are esteemed exquisites by piscivorous epicures, whose longing

eyes will keep a sharp look-out for a share of their favourite "_bonne

bouche_:" the carver's reputation depends much on his equitable

distribution of them.[173-*]

_Salt Fish boiled._--(No. 150.)

Salt fish requires soaking, according to the time it has been in salt;

trust not to those you buy it of, but taste a bit of one of the flakes;

that which is hard and dry requires two nights' soaking, changing the

water two or three times; the intermediate day, lay it on a stone floor:

for barrelled cod less time will do; and for the best Dogger-bank split

fish, which has not been more than a fortnight or three weeks in salt,

still less will be needful.

Put it into plenty of cold water, and let it simmer very gently till it

is enough; if the water boils, the fish will be tough and

thready.[173-+] For egg sauce, see No. 267; and to boil red beet-root,

No. 127; parsnips, No. 128; Carrots, No. 129. Garnish salt fish with the

yelks of eggs cut into quarters.

_Obs._--Our favourite vegetable accompaniment is a dish of equal parts

of red beet-root and parsnips.

N.B. Salted fish differs in quality quite as much as it does in price.

_Slices of Cod boiled._--(No. 151.)

Half an hour before you dress them, put them into cold spring-water with

some salt in it.

Lay them at the bottom of a fish-kettle, with as much cold spring-water

as will cover them, and some salt; set it on a quick fire, and when it

boils, skim it, and set it on one side of the fire to boil very gently,

for about ten minutes, according to its size and thickness. Garnish with

scraped horseradish, slices of lemon, and a slice of the liver on one

side, and chitterling on the other. Oyster sauce (No. 278), and plain

butter.

_Obs._--Slices of cod (especially the tail, split) are very good, fried

like soles (No. 145), or stewed in gravy like eels (No. 164, or No.

364--2).[174-*]

_Fresh Sturgeon._--(No. 152.)

The best mode of dressing this, is to have it cut in thin slices like

veal cutlets, and broiled, and rubbed over with a bit of butter and a

little pepper, and served very hot, and eaten with a squeeze of

lemon-juice. Great care, however, must be taken to cut off the skin

before it is broiled, as the oil in the skin, if burned, imparts a

disgusting flavour to the fish. The flesh is very fine, and comes nearer

to veal, perhaps, than even turtle.

Sturgeon is frequently plentiful and reasonable in the London shops. We

prefer this mode of dressing it to the more savoury one of stewing it in

rich gravy, like carp, &c. which overpowers the peculiar flavour of the

fish.[174-+]

_Whitings fried._--(No. 153.)

Skin[174-++] them, preserve the liver (see No. 228), and fasten their

tails to their mouths; dip them in egg, then in bread-crumbs, and fry

them in hot lard (read No. 145), or split them, and fry them like

fillets of soles (No. 147).

A three-quart stew-pan, half full of fat, is the best utensil to fry

whitings. They will be done enough in about five minutes; but it will

sometimes require a quarter of an hour to drain the fat from them and

dry them (if the fat you put them into was not hot enough), turning them

now and then with a fish-slice.

_Obs._--When whitings are scarce, the fishmongers can skin and truss

young codlings, so that you can hardly tell the difference, except that

a codling wears a beard, and a whiting does not: this distinguishing

mark is sometimes cut off; however, if you turn up his jowl, you may see

the mark where the beard was, and thus discover whether he be a real

whiting, or a shaved codling.

_Skate fried._--(No. 154.)

After you have cleaned the fish, divide it into fillets; dry them on a

clean cloth; beat the yelk and white of an egg thoroughly together, dip

the fish in this, and then in fine bread-crumbs; fry it in hot lard or

drippings till it is of a delicate brown colour; lay it on a hair-sieve

to drain; garnish with crisp parsley (No. 318), and some like caper

sauce, with an anchovy in it.

_Plaice or Flounders, fried or boiled._--(No. 155.)

Flounders are perhaps the most difficult fish to fry very nicely. Clean

them well, flour them, and wipe them with a dry cloth to absorb all the

water from them; flour or egg and bread-crumb them, &c. as directed in

No. 145.

_To boil Flounders._

Wash and clean them well, cut the black side of them the same as you do

turbot, then put them into a fish-kettle, with plenty of cold water and

a handful of salt; when they come to a boil, skim them clean, and let

them stand by the side of the fire for five minutes, and they are ready.

_Obs._--Eaten with plain melted butter and a little salt, you have the

sweet delicate flavour of the flounder, which is overpowered by any

sauce.

_Water Souchy_,[175-*]--(No. 156.)

Is made with flounders, whitings, gudgeons, or eels. These must be

quite fresh, and very nicely cleaned; for what they are boiled in, is

the sauce for them.

Wash, gut, and trim your fish, cut them into handsome pieces, and put

them into a stew-pan with just as much water as will cover them, with

some parsley, or parsley-roots sliced, an onion minced fine, and a

little pepper and salt (to this some cooks add some scraped horseradish

and a bay leaf); skim it carefully when it boils; when your fish is done

enough (which it will be in a few minutes), send it up in a deep dish,

lined with bread sippets, and some slices of bread and butter on a

plate.

_Obs._--Some cooks thicken the liquor the fish has been stewing in with

flour and butter, and flavour it with white wine, lemon-juice, essence

of anchovy, and catchup; and boil down two or three flounders, &c. to

make a fish broth to boil the other fish in, observing, that the broth

cannot be good unless the fish are boiled too much.

_Haddock boiled._--(No. 157.)

Wash it well, and put it on to boil, as directed in No. 149; a haddock

of three pounds will take about ten minutes after the kettle boils.

Haddocks, salted a day or two, are eaten with egg sauce, or cut in

fillets, and fried. Or, if small, very well broiled, or baked, with a

pudding in their belly, and some good gravy.

_Obs._ A piscivorous epicure protests that "Haddock is the poorest fish

that swims, and has neither the delicacy of the whiting, nor the

juicyness of the cod."[176-*]

_Findhorn Haddocks._--(No. 157*.)

Let the fish be well cleaned, and laid in salt for two hours; let the

water drain from them, and then wet them with the pyroligneous acid;

they may be split or not: they are then to be hung in a dry situation

for a day or two, or a week or two, if you please; when broiled, they

have all the flavour of the Findhorn haddock, and will keep sweet for a

long time.

The pyroligneous acid, applied in the same way to beef or mutton, gives

the fine smoke flavour, and may be kept for a considerable length of

time.

_Scotch way of dressing haddocks._--A haddock is quite like a different

fish in London and in Edinburgh, which arises chiefly from the manner

in which they are treated: a haddock should never appear at table with

its head and skin on. For boiling, they are all the better for lying a

night in salt; of course they do not take so long to boil without the

skin, and require to be well skimmed to preserve the colour. After lying

in salt for a night, if you hang them up for a day or two, they are very

good broiled and served with cold butter. For frying, they should be

split and boned very carefully, and divided into convenient pieces, if

too large to halve merely; egg and crumb them, and fry in a good deal of

lard; they resemble soles when dressed in this manner. There is another

very delicate mode of dressing them; you split the fish, rub it well

with butter, and do it before the fire in a Dutch oven.

_To stew Cod's Skull, Sole, Carp, Trout, Perch, Eel, or Flounder._--No.

158. (See also No. 164.)

When the fish has been properly washed, lay it in a stew-pan, with half

a pint of claret or port wine, and a quart of good gravy (No. 329); a

large onion, a dozen berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, and

a few cloves, or a bit of mace: cover the fish-kettle close, and let it

stew gently for ten or twenty minutes, according to the thickness of the

fish: take the fish up, lay it on a hot dish, cover it up, and thicken

the liquor it was stewed in with a little flour, and season it with

pepper, salt, essence of anchovy, mushroom catchup, and a little Chili

vinegar; when it has boiled ten minutes, strain it through a tamis, and

pour it over the fish: if there is more sauce than the dish will hold,

send the rest up in a boat.

The river trout comes into season in April, and continues till July; it

is a delicious fish; those caught near Uxbridge come to town quite

alive.

The eels and perch from the same water are very fine.

_Obs._--These fish are very nice plain boiled, with No. 261, or No. 264,

for sauce; some cooks dredge them with flour, and fry them a light brown

before they put them on to stew, and stuff them with No. 374, or some of

the stuffings following.

_To dress them maigre._

Put the fish into a stew-pan, with a large onion, four cloves, fifteen

berries of allspice, and the same of black pepper; just cover them with

boiling water, set it where they will simmer gently for ten or twenty

minutes, according to the size of the fish; strain off the liquor in

another stew-pan, leaving the fish to keep warm till the sauce is ready.

Rub together on a plate as much flour and butter as will make the sauce

as thick as a double cream. Each pint of sauce season with a glass of

wine, half as much mushroom catchup, a tea-spoonful of essence of

anchovy, and a few grains of Cayenne; let it boil a few minutes, put the

fish on a deep dish, strain the gravy over it; garnish it with sippets

of bread toasted or fried (No. 319).

N.B. The editor has paid particular attention to the above receipt, and

also to No. 224, which Catholics, and those whose religious tenets do

not allow them to eat meat on maigre days, will find a very satisfactory

substitute for the meat gravy soup (No. 200).

For sauce for maigre dishes, see Nos. 225, 305, and 364--2.

_Obs._ Mushroom catchup (No. 439) and onions (No. 402) supply the place

of meat better than any thing; if you have not these, wine, spice (No.

457), curry powder (No. 455), aromatic roots and herbs, anchovy and soy,

or oyster catchup (No. 441), variously combined, and thickened with

flour and butter, are convenient substitutes.

_Maigre Fish Pies._

Salt-fish pie. The thickest part must be chosen, and put in cold water

to soak the night before wanted; then boil it well, take it up, take

away the bones and skin, and if it is good fish it will be in fine

layers; set it on a fish-drainer to get cold: in the mean time, boil

four eggs hard, peel and slice them very thin, the same quantity of

onion sliced thin; line the bottom of a pie-dish with fish forcemeat

(No. 383), or a layer of potatoes sliced thin, then a layer of onions,

then of fish, and of eggs, and so on till the dish is full; season each

layer with a little pepper, then mix a tea-spoonful of made mustard, the

same of essence of anchovy, a little mushroom catchup, in a gill of

water, put it in the dish, then put on the top an ounce of fresh butter

broke in bits; cover it with puff paste, and bake it one hour.

Fresh cod may be done in the same way, by adding a little salt.

All fish for making pies, whether soles, flounders, herrings, salmon,

lobster, eels, trout, tench, &c. should be dressed first; this is the

most economical way for Catholic families, as what is boiled one day

will make excellent pies or patties the next.

If you intend it for pies, take the skin off, and the bones out; lay

your salmon, soles, turbot, or codfish, in layers, and season each layer

with equal quantities of pepper, allspice, mace, and salt, till the dish

is full. Save a little of the liquor that the fish was boiled in; set it

on the fire with the bones and skin of the fish, boil it a quarter of an

hour, then strain it through a sieve, let it settle, and pour it in the

dish; cover it with puff-paste; bake it about an hour and a quarter.

Shrimps, prawns, or oysters added, will improve the above; if for

patties, they must be cut in small pieces, and dressed in a bechamel

sauce (No. 364).

Cod-sounds for a pie should be soaked at least twenty-four hours, then

well washed, and put on a cloth to dry. Put in a stew-pan two ounces of

fresh butter, with four ounces of sliced onions; fry them of a nice

brown, then put in a small table-spoonful of flour, and add half a pint

of boiling water; when smooth, put in about ten cod-sounds, and season

them with a little pepper, a glass of white wine, a tea-spoonful of

essence of anchovy, the juice of half a lemon; stir it well together,

put it in a pie-dish, cover it with paste, and bake it one hour.

_Perch, Roach, Dace, Gudgeons, &c. fried._--(No. 159.)

Wash the fish well, wipe them on a dry cloth, flour them lightly all

over, and fry them ten minutes (No. 145) in hot lard or drippings; lay

them on a hair-sieve to drain; send them up on a hot dish, garnished

with sprigs of green parsley. Anchovy sauce, Nos. 270 and 433.

_Perch boiled._[179-*]--(No. 160.)

Clean them carefully, and put them in a fish-kettle, with as much cold

spring-water as will cover them, with a handful of salt; set them on a

quick fire till they boil; when they boil, set them on one side to boil

gently for about ten minutes, according to their size.

_Salmon, Herrings, Sprats, Mackerel, &c. pickled._--(No. 161.)

Cut the fish into proper pieces; do not take off the scales; make a

brine strong enough to bear an egg, in which boil the fish; it must be

boiled in only just liquor enough to cover it; do not overboil it. When

the fish is boiled, lay it slantingly to drain off all the liquor; when

cold, pack it close in the kits, and fill them up with equal parts of

the liquor the salmon was boiled in (having first well skimmed it), and

best vinegar (No. 24); let them rest for a day; fill up again, striking

the sides of the kit with a cooper's adze, until the kit will receive no

more; then head them down as close as possible.

_Obs._ This is in the finest condition when fresh. Salmon is most

plentiful about midsummer; the season for it is from February to

September. Some sprigs of fresh-gathered young fennel are the

accompaniments.

N.B. The three indispensable marks of the goodness of pickled salmon

are, 1st, The brightness of the scales, and their sticking fast to the

skin; 2dly, The firmness of the flesh; and, 3dly, Its fine, pale-red

rose colour. Without these it is not fit to eat, and was either stale

before it was pickled, or has been kept too long after.

The above was given us as the actual practice of those who pickle it for

the London market.

N.B. Pickled salmon warmed by steam, or in its pickle liquor, is a

favourite dish at Newcastle.

_Salmon[180-*] boiled._--(No. 162.)

Put on a fish-kettle, with spring-water enough to well cover the salmon

you are going to dress, or the salmon will neither look nor taste well:

(boil the liver in a separate saucepan.) When the water boils, put in a

handful of salt: take off the scum as soon as it rises; have the fish

well washed; put it in, and if it is thick, let it boil very gently.

Salmon requires almost as much boiling as meat; about a quarter of an

hour to a pound of fish: but practice only can perfect the cook in

dressing salmon. A quarter of a salmon will take almost as long boiling

as half a one: you must consider the thickness, not the weight: ten

pounds of fine full-grown salmon will be done in an hour and a quarter.

Lobster Sauce, No. 284.

_Obs._ The thinnest part of the fish is the fattest; and if you have a

"grand gourmand" at table, ask him if he is for thick or thin.

The Thames salmon is preferred in the London market; and some epicures

pretend to be able to distinguish by the taste, in which reach of the

river it was caught!!!

N.B. If you have any left, put it into a pie-dish, and cover it with an

equal portion of vinegar and pump-water, and a little salt: it will be

ready in three days.

_Fresh Salmon broiled._--(No. 163.)

Clean the salmon well, and cut it into slices about an inch and a half

thick; dry it thoroughly in a clean cloth; rub it over with sweet oil,

or thick melted butter, and sprinkle a little salt over it: put your

gridiron over a clear fire, at some distance; when it is hot wipe it

clean; rub it with sweet oil or lard; lay the salmon on, and when it is

done on one side, turn it gently and broil the other. Anchovy sauce, &c.

_Obs._ An oven does them best.

_Soles or Eels,[181-*] &c. &c. stewed_ Wiggy's _way._--(No. 164.)

Take two pounds of fine silver[181-+] eels: the best are those that are

rather more than a half-crown piece in circumference, quite fresh, full

of life, and "as brisk as an eel:" such as have been kept out of water

till they can scarce stir, are good for nothing: gut them, rub them with

salt till the slime is cleaned from them, wash them in several different

waters, and divide them into pieces about four inches long.

Some cooks, after skinning them, dredge them with a little flour, wipe

them dry, and then egg and crumb them, and fry them in drippings till

they are brown, and lay them to dry on a hair sieve.

Have ready a quart of good beef gravy (No. 329); it must be cold when

you put the eels into it: set them on a slow fire to simmer very gently

for about a quarter of an hour, according to the size of the eels; watch

them, that they are not done too much; take them carefully out of the

stew-pan with a fish-slice, so as not to tear their coats, and lay them

on a dish about two inches deep.

Or, if for maigre days, when you have skinned your eels, throw the skins

into salt and water; wash them well; then put them into a stew-pan with

a quart of water, two onions, with two cloves stuck in each, and one

blade of mace; let it boil twenty minutes, and strain it through a sieve

into a basin.

Make the sauce about as thick as cream, by mixing a little flour with

it; put in also two table-spoonfuls of port wine, and one of mushroom

catchup, or cavice: stir it into the sauce by degrees, give it a boil,

and strain it to the fish through a sieve.

N.B. If mushroom sauce (Nos. 225, 305, or 333), or white sauce (No.

364--2), be used instead of beef gravy, this will be one of the most

relishing maigre dishes we know.

_Obs._ To kill eels instantly, without the horrid torture of cutting and

skinning them alive, pierce the spinal marrow, close to the back part of

the skull, with a sharp-pointed skewer: if this be done in the right

place, all motion will instantly cease. The humane executioner does

certain criminals the favour to hang them before he breaks them on the

wheel.

_To fry Eels._--(No. 165.)

Skin and gut them, and wash them well in cold water, cut them in pieces

four inches long, season them with pepper and salt; beat an egg well on

a plate, dip them in the egg, and then in fine bread-crumbs; fry them in

fresh, clean lard; drain them well from the fat; garnish with crisp

parsley. For sauce, plain and melted butter, sharpened with lemon-juice,

or parsley and butter.

_Spitchocked Eels._--(No. 166.)

This the French cooks call the English way of dressing eels.

Take two middling-sized silver eels, leave the skin on, scour them with

salt, and wash them, cut off the heads, slit them on the belly side,

and take out the bones and guts, and wash and wipe them nicely; then cut

them into pieces about three inches long, and wipe them quite dry; put

two ounces of butter into a stew-pan with a little minced parsley,

thyme, sage, pepper, and salt, and a very little chopped eschalot; set

the stew-pan over the fire; when the butter is melted, stir the

ingredients together, and take it off the fire, mix the yelks of two

eggs with them, and dip the eel in, a piece at a time, and then roll

them in bread-crumbs, making as much stick to them as you can; then rub

the gridiron with a bit of suet, set it high over a very clear fire, and

broil your eels of a fine crisp brown. Dish them with crisp parsley, and

send up with plain butter in a boat, and anchovy and butter.

_Obs._ We like them better with the skin off; it is very apt to offend

delicate stomachs.

_Mackerel boiled._[183-*]--(No. 167.)

This fish loses its life as soon as it leaves the sea, and the fresher

it is the better.

Wash and clean them thoroughly (the fishmongers seldom do this

sufficiently), put them into cold water with a handful of salt in it;

let them rather simmer than boil; a small mackerel will be done enough

in about a quarter of an hour; when the eye starts and the tail splits,

they are done; do not let them stand in the water a moment after; they

are so delicate that the heat of the water will break them.

This fish, in London, is rarely fresh enough to appear at table in

perfection; and either the mackerel is boiled too much, or the

roe[183-+] too little. The best way is to open a slit opposite the

middle of the roe, you can then clean it properly; this will allow the

water access, and the roe will then be done as soon as the fish, which

it seldom is otherwise; some sagacious gourmands insist upon it they

must be taken out and boiled separately. For sauce, see Nos. 263, 265,

and 266; and you may garnish them with pats of minced fennel.

N.B. The common notion is, that mackerel are in best condition when

fullest of roe; however, the fish at that time is only valuable for its

roe, the meat of it has scarcely any flavour.

Mackerel generally make their appearance off the Land's End about the

beginning of April; and as the weather gets warm they gradually come

round the coast, and generally arrive off Brighton about May, and

continue for some months, until they begin to shoot their spawn.

After they have let go their roes, they are called shotten mackerel, and

are not worth catching; the roe, which was all that was good of them,

being gone.

It is in the early season, when they have least roe, that the flesh of

this fish is in highest perfection. There is also an after-season, when

a few fine large mackerel are taken, (_i. e._ during the herring season,

about October,) which some piscivorous epicures are very partial to;

these fish having had time to fatten and recover their health, are full

of high flavour, and their flesh is firm and juicy: they are commonly

called silver mackerel, from their beautiful appearance, their colour

being almost as bright when boiled as it was the moment they were

caught.

_Mackerel broiled._--(No. 169.)

Clean a fine large mackerel, wipe it on a dry cloth, and cut a long slit

down the back; lay it on a clean gridiron, over a very clear, slow fire;

when it is done on one side, turn it; be careful that it does not burn;

send it up with fennel sauce (No. 265); mix well together a little

finely minced fennel and parsley, seasoned with a little pepper and

salt, a bit of fresh butter, and when the mackerel are ready for the

table, put some of this into each fish.

_Mackerel baked._[184-*]--(No. 170.)

Cut off their heads, open them, and take out the roes and clean them

thoroughly; rub them on the inside with a little pepper and salt, put

the roes in again, season them (with a mixture of powdered allspice,

black pepper, and salt, well rubbed together), and lay them close in a

baking-pan, cover them with equal quantities of cold vinegar and water,

tie them down with strong white paper doubled, and bake them for an

hour in a slow oven. They will keep for a fortnight.

_Pickled Mackerel, Herrings, or Sprats._--(No. 171.)

Procure them as fresh as possible, split them, take off the heads, and

trim off the thin part of the belly, put them into salt and water for

one hour, drain and wipe your fish, and put them into jars or casks,

with the following preparation, which is enough for three dozen

mackerel. Take salt and bay-salt, one pound each, saltpetre and

lump-sugar, two ounces each; grind and pound the salt, &c. well

together, put the fish into jars or casks, with a layer of the

preparation at the bottom, then a layer of mackerel with the skin-side

downwards, so continue alternately till the cask or jar is full; press

it down and cover it close. In about three months they will be fit for

use.

_Sprats broiled._--(No. 170*--_Fried_, see No. 173.)

If you have not a sprat gridiron, get a piece of pointed iron wire as

thick as packthread, and as long as your gridiron is broad; run this

through the heads of your sprats, sprinkle a little flour and salt over

them, put your gridiron over a clear, quick fire, turn them in about a

couple of minutes; when the other side is brown, draw out the wire, and

send up the fish with melted butter in a cup.

_Obs._ That sprats are young herrings, is evident by their anatomy, in

which there is no perceptible difference. They appear very soon after

the herrings are gone, and seem to be the spawn just vivified.

_Sprats stewed._--(No. 170**.)

Wash and dry your sprats, and lay them as level as you can in a

stew-pan, and between every layer of sprats put three peppercorns, and

as many allspice, with a few grains of salt; barely cover them with

vinegar, and stew them one hour over a slow fire; they must not boil: a

bay-leaf is sometimes added. Herrings or mackerel may be stewed the same

way.

To fry sprats, see No. 173.

_Herrings broiled._--(No. 171*.)

Wash them well, then dry them with a cloth, dust them with flour, and

broil them over a slow fire till they are well done. Send up melted

butter in a boat.

_Obs._ For a particular account of herrings, see SOLAS DODD'S _Natural

Hist. of Herrings_, in 178 pages, 8vo. 1752.

_Red Herrings, and other dried Fish_,--(No. 172.)

"Should be cooked in the same manner as now practised by the poor in

Scotland. They soak them in water until they become pretty fresh; they

are then hung up in the sun and wind, on a stick through their eyes, to

dry; and then boiled or broiled. In this way they eat almost as well as

if they were new caught." See the Hon. JOHN COCHRANE'S _Seaman's Guide_,

8vo. 1797, p. 34.

"Scotch haddocks should be soaked all night. You may boil or broil them;

if you broil, split them in two.

"All the different sorts of dried fish, except stock fish, are salted,

dried in the sun in prepared kilns, or by the smoke of wood fires, and

require to be softened and freshened, in proportion to their bulk,

nature, or dryness; the very dry sort, as cod, whiting, &c. should be

steeped in lukewarm water, kept as near as possible to an equal degree

of heat. The larger fish should be steeped twelve hours, the smaller

about two; after which they should be taken out and hung up by the tails

until they are dressed. The reason for hanging them up is, that they

soften equally as in the steeping, without extracting too much of the

relish, which would render them insipid. When thus prepared, the small

fish, as whiting, tusks, &c. should be floured and laid on the gridiron;

and when a little hardened on one side, must be turned and basted with

sweet oil upon a feather; and when basted on both sides, and well heated

through, taken up. A clear charcoal fire is the best for cooking them,

and the fish should be kept at a good distance, to broil gradually. When

they are done enough they will swell a little in the basting, and you

must not let them fall again. If boiled, as the larger fish generally

are, they should be kept just simmering over an equal fire, in which way

half an hour will do the largest fish, and five minutes the smallest.

"Dried salmon, though a large fish, does not require more steeping than

a whiting; and when laid on the gridiron should be moderately peppered.

To herring and to all kinds of broiled salt fish, sweet oil is the best

basting."

The above is from MACDONALD'S _London Family Cook_, 8vo. 1808, p. 139.

_Obs._ Dr. Harte, in his Essay on Diet, 1633, fol. p. 91, protests, "a

red herring doth nourish little, and is hard of concoction, but very

good to make a cup of good drink relish well, and may be well called

'the drunkard's delight.'"

_Smelts, Gudgeons, Sprats, or other small Fish, fried._--(No. 173.)

Clean and dry them thoroughly in a cloth, fry them plain, or beat an egg

on a plate, dip them in it, and then in very fine bread-crumbs that have

been rubbed through a sieve; the smaller the fish, the finer should be

the bread-crumbs--biscuit powder is still better; fry them in plenty of

clean lard or drippings; as soon as the lard boils and is still, put in

the fish; when they are delicately browned, they are done; this will

hardly take two minutes. Drain them on a hair-sieve, placed before the

fire, turning them till quite dry. _Obs._ Read No. 145.

"Smelts are allowed to be caught in the Thames, on the first of

November, and continue till May. The Thames smelts are the best and

sweetest, for two reasons; they are fresher and richer than any other

you can get: they catch them much more plentiful and larger in

Lancashire and Norfolk, but not so good: a great many are brought to

town from Norfolk, but barely come good, as they are a fish which should

always be eaten fresh; indeed, all river fish should be eaten fresh,

except salmon, which, unless crimped, eats better the second or third

day: but all Thames fish, particularly, should be eaten very fresh; no

fish eats so bad kept."

_Potted Prawns, Shrimps, or Cray-fish._--(No. 175.)

Boil them in water with plenty of salt in it. When you have picked them,

powder them with a little beaten mace, or grated nutmeg, or allspice,

and pepper and salt; add a little cold butter, and pound all well

together in a marble mortar till of the consistence of paste. Put it

into pots covered with clarified butter, and cover them over with wetted

bladder.

_Lobster._[187-*]--(No. 176.)

Buy these alive; the lobster merchants sometimes keep them till they are

starved, before they boil them; they are then watery, have not half

their flavour, and like other persons that die of a consumption, have

lost the calf of their legs.

Choose those that (as an old cook says, are "heavy and lively," and) are

full of motion, which is the index of their freshness.

Those of the middle size are the best. Never take them when the shell is

incrusted, which is a sign they are old. The male lobster is preferred

to eat, and the female (on account of the eggs) to make sauce of. The

hen lobster is distinguished by having a broader tail than the male, and

less claws.

Set on a pot, with water salted in the proportion of a table-spoonful of

salt to a quart of water; when the water boils, put it in, and keep it

boiling briskly from half an hour to an hour, according to its size;

wipe all the scum off it, and rub the shell with a very little butter or

sweet oil; break off the great claws, crack them carefully in each

joint, so that they may not be shattered, and yet come to pieces easily;

cut the tail down the middle, and send up the body whole. For sauce, No.

285. To pot lobster, No. 178.

*.* These fish come in about April, and continue plentiful till the

oyster season returns; after that time they begin to spawn, and seldom

open solid.

_Crab._--(No. 177.)

The above observations apply to crabs, which should neither be too small

nor too large. The best size are those which measure about eight inches

across the shoulders.

*.* Crabs appear and disappear about the same time as lobsters. The

cromer crabs are most esteemed; but numbers are brought from the Isle of

Wight.

_Potted Lobster or Crab._[188-*]--(No. 178).

This must be made with fine hen lobsters, when full of spawn: boil them

thoroughly (No. 176); when cold, pick out all the solid meat, and pound

it in a mortar: it is usual to add, by degrees, (a very little)

finely-pounded mace, black or Cayenne pepper, salt, and, while pounding,

a little butter. When the whole is well mixed, and beat to the

consistence of paste, press it down hard in a preserving-pot, pour

clarified butter over it, and cover it with wetted bladder.

_Obs._--Some put lobster without pounding it, and only cut it or pull it

into such pieces as if it was prepared for sauce, and mince it with the

spawn and soft parts and seasoning, and press it together as close as

possible; in packing it, place the coral and spawn, &c. in layers, so

that it may look regular and handsome when cut out. If you intend it as

store (see N.B. to No. 284, to make sauce with), this is the best way to

do it; but if for sandwiches, &c. the first is the best, and will keep

much longer.

Dressed or buttered lobsters and crabs, are favourite ornamental dishes

with those who deck their table merely to please the eye. Our apology

for not giving such receipts will be found in _Obs._ to No. 322.

_OYSTERS._[189-*]--(No. 181.)

The common[189-+] Colchester and Feversham oysters are brought to market

on the 5th of August; the Milton, or, as they are commonly called, the

melting natives,[189-++] do not come in till the beginning of October,

continue in season till the 12th of May, and approach the meridian of

their perfection about Christmas.

Some piscivorous gourmands think that oysters are not best when quite

fresh from their beds, and that their flavour is too brackish and harsh,

and is much ameliorated by giving them a feed.

To FEED[189-§] oysters.--Cover them with clean water, with a pint of

salt to about two gallons (nothing else, no oatmeal, flour, nor any

other trumpery); this will cleanse them from the mud and sand, &c. of

the bed; after they have lain in it twelve hours, change it for fresh

salt and water, and in twelve hours more they will be in prime order for

the mouth, and remain so two or three days: at the time of high water

you may see them open their shells, in expectation of receiving their

usual food. This process of feeding oysters is only employed when a

great many come up together.

The real Colchester, or Pyfleet barrelled oysters, that are packed at

the beds, are better without being put in water: they are carefully and

tightly packed, and must not be disturbed till wanted for table. These,

in moderate weather, will keep good for a week or ten days.

If an oyster opens his mouth in the barrel, he dies immediately.

To preserve the lives of barrelled oysters, put a heavy weight on the

wooden top of the barrel, which is to be placed on the surface of the

oysters. This is to be effected by removing the first hoop; the staves

will then spread and stand erect, making a wide opening for the head of

the barrel to fall down closely on the remaining fish, keeping them

close together.

MEM.--The oysters which are commonly sold as barrelled oysters, are

merely the smallest natives, selected from the stock, and put into the

tub when ordered; and, instead of being of superior quality, are often

very inferior. To immature animals there is the same objection as to

unripe vegetables.

_Obs._--Common people are indifferent about the manner of opening

oysters, and the time of eating them after they are opened; nothing,

however, is more important in the enlightened eyes of the experienced

oyster-eater.

Those who wish to enjoy this delicious restorative in its utmost

perfection, must eat it the moment it is opened, with its own gravy in

the under shell; if not eaten while absolutely alive, its flavour and

spirit are lost.

The true lover of an oyster will have some regard for the feelings of

his little favourite, and will never abandon it to the mercy of a

bungling operator, but will open it himself, and contrive to detach the

fish from the shell so dexterously, that the oyster is hardly conscious

he has been ejected from his lodging, till he feels the teeth of the

piscivorous gourmand tickling him to death.

N.B. Fish is less nutritious than flesh: as a proof, when the trainer of

Newmarket wishes to waste a jockey, he is not allowed meat, nor even

pudding, if fish can be had. The white kinds of fish, turbots, soles,

whiting, cod, haddock, flounders, smelts, &c. are less nutritious than

the oily, fat fish, such as eels, salmon, herrings, sprats, &c.: the

latter, however, are more difficult to digest, and often disturb weak

stomachs, so that they are obliged to call in the assistance of Cayenne,

Cognac, &c.

Shell-fish have long held a high rank in the catalogue of easily

digestible and speedily restorative foods; of these the oyster certainly

deserves the best character, but we think it has acquired not a little

more reputation for these qualities than it deserves; a well-dressed

chop[191-*] or steak, see No. 94, will invigorate the heart in a much

higher ratio; to recruit the animal spirits, and support strength, there

is nothing equal to animal food; when kept till properly tender, none

will give so little trouble to the digestive organs, and so much

substantial excitement to the constitution. See note under No. 185.

See Dr. WALLIS and Mr. TYSON'S Papers on men's feeding on flesh, in

_Phil. Trans._ vol. xxii. p. 769 to 774; and PORPHYRY on Abstinence from

Animal Food, translated by Thomas Taylor, 8vo. 1823.

We could easily say as much in praise of mutton as Mr. Ritson has

against it, in his "_Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral

Duty_," 8vo. London, 1802, p. 102. He says, "The Pagan priests were the

first eaters of animal food; it corrupted their taste, and so excited

them to gluttony, that when they had eaten the same thing repeatedly,

their luxurious appetites called for variety. He who had devoured the

sheep, longed to masticate the shepherd!!!

"Nature seems to have provided other animals for the food of man, from

the astonishing increase of those which instinct points out to him as

peculiarly desirable for that purpose. For instance; so quick is the

produce of pigeons, that, in the space of four years, 14,760 may come

from a single pair; and in the like period, 1,274,840 from a couple of

rabbits, this is nothing to the millions of eggs in the milt of a

codfish."

_Scolloped Oysters._--(No. 182.) A good way to warm up any cold fish.

Stew the oysters slowly in their own liquor for two or three minutes,

take them out with a spoon, beard them, and skim the liquor, put a bit

of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted, add as much fine

bread-crumbs as will dry it up, then put to it the oyster liquor, and

give it a boil up, put the oysters into scollop-shells that you have

buttered, and strewed with bread-crumbs, then a layer of oysters, then

of bread-crumbs, and then some more oysters; moisten it with the oyster

liquor, cover them with bread-crumbs, put about half a dozen little

bits of butter on the top of each, and brown them in a Dutch oven.

_Obs._ Essence of anchovy, catchup, Cayenne, grated lemon-peel, mace,

and other spices, &c. are added by those who prefer piquance to the

genuine flavour of the oyster.

Cold fish may be re-dressed the same way.

N.B. Small scollop-shells, or saucers that hold about half a dozen

oysters, are the most convenient.

_Stewed Oysters._--(No. 182*.)

Large oysters will do for stewing, and by some are preferred; but we

love the plump, juicy natives. Stew a couple of dozen of these in their

own liquor; when they are coming to a boil, skim well, take them up and

beard them; strain the liquor through a tamis-sieve, and lay the oysters

on a dish. Put an ounce of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted,

put to it as much flour as will dry it up, the liquor of the oysters,

and three table-spoonfuls of milk or cream, and a little white pepper

and salt; to this some cooks add a little catchup, or finely-chopped

parsley, grated lemon-peel, and juice; let it boil up for a couple of

minutes, till it is smooth, then take it off the fire, put in the

oysters, and let them get warm (they must not themselves be boiled, or

they will become hard); line the bottom and sides of a hash-dish with

bread-sippets, and pour your oysters and sauce into it. See _Obs._ to

receipt No. 278.

_Oysters fried._[192-*]--(No. 183.)

The largest and finest oysters are to be chosen for this purpose; simmer

them in their own liquor for a couple of minutes, take them out and lay

them on a cloth to drain, beard them and then flour them, egg and

bread-crumb them, put them into boiling fat, and fry them a delicate

brown.

_Obs._ An elegant garnish for made dishes, stewed rump-steaks, boiled or

fried fish, &c.; but they are too hard and dry to be eaten.

FOOTNOTES:

[168-*] "I have ascertained, by many years' observation, that a turbot

kept two or three days is much better eating than a very fresh

one."--UDE'S _Cookery_, p. 238.

"TURBOTS. The finest brought to the London market are caught off the

Dutch coast, or German Ocean, and are brought in well-boats alive. The

commencement of the season is generally about March and April, and

continues all the summer. Turbots, like other fish, do not spawn all at

the same time; therefore, there is always good and bad nearly all the

year round. For this year or two past, there has been an immense

quantity brought to London, from all parts, and of all qualities: a

great many from a new fishery off Hartlepool, which are very

handsome-looking turbot, but by no means equal to what are caught off

the Dutch coast. Many excellent turbots are caught off Dover and

Dungeness; and a large quantity brought from Scotland, packed in ice,

which are of a very inferior quality, and are generally to be bought for

about one-fourth the price of good turbots.

"_Brills_ are generally caught at the same place as turbots, and are

generally of the same quality as the turbot, from the different parts."

[170-*] A large pair of soles will take the fourth part of a quartern

loaf, which now costs twopence halfpenny. OATMEAL is a good substitute

for bread-crumbs, and costs comparatively nothing!!

[170-+] The FAT _will do two or three times_, if strained through a

hair-sieve, and put by; if you do not find it enough, put a little fresh

to it. Read No. 83, and the 3d chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery.

[170-++] This requires a heat of upwards of 600 degrees of Fahrenheit's

thermometer:--FRYING is, in fact, _boiling in fat_.

[171-*] If you are in haste, lay the sole on a clean, soft cloth, cover

it with it, and gently press it upon the fish, to suck up the fat from

its surface.

[171-+] The very indifferent manner in which the operation of frying

fish is usually performed, we suppose, produced the following _jeu

d'esprit_, which appeared in _The Morning Chronicle_:--

"The King's bench reports have cook'd up an odd dish,

An action for damages, _fry_ versus _fish_.

But, sure, if for damages action could lie,

It certainly must have been _fish_ against _fry_."

The author of _The Cook's Cookery_, 8vo. page 116, does not seem to

think this fish can be too fresh; for he commences his directions with,

"_If you can_, get a cod _hot_ out of the sea," &c.

[172-*] The skate comes to the New-York market in the spring, but is not

esteemed, as we have many better fish. The part about the flap or

side-fin is best. A.

[172-+] The TAIL is so much thinner than the thick part of the body,

that, if boiled together, the former will be boiled too much, before the

latter is done enough; therefore it should be dressed separate; and the

best way of cooking it is to fry it in slices or fillets. See No. 151.

"_Cod_ generally comes into good season in October, when, if the weather

is cold, it eats as fine as at any time in the year; towards the latter

end of January and February, and part of March, they are mostly poor;

but the latter end of March, April, and May, they are generally

particularly fine; having shot their spawn, they come in fine order.

_The Dogger-bank cod_ are the most esteemed, as they generally cut in

large, fine flakes; the north-country cod, which are caught off the

Orkney Isles, are generally very stringy, or what is commonly called

_woolly_, and sell at a very inferior price, but are caught in much

greater abundance than the Dogger cod. The cod are all caught with hook,

and brought alive in well-boats to the London markets. The cod cured on

the Dogger-bank is remarkably fine, and seldom cured above two or three

weeks before brought to market; the _barrel cod_ is commonly cured on

the coast of Scotland and Yorkshire. There is a great deal of inferior

cured salt-fish brought from Newfoundland and Iceland.

"The SKULL of a Dogger-bank cod is one of those concatenations of

_tit-bits_ which some epicures are fond of, either baked or boiled: it

is composed of lots of pretty playthings or such finery, but will not do

for those who want a good meal: it may be bought for about 2_s._: either

boil it whole, or cut it into pieces, flour and dry them, and then egg

and crumb, and fry them, or stew it (No. 158).

"The TAIL of a cod cut in fillets or slices, and fried, makes a good

dish, and is generally to be bought at a very reasonable rate; if

boiled, it is soft and watery. _The skull and tail_ of a cod is a

favourite and excellent Scotch dish, stewed, and served up with anchovy

or oyster sauce, with the liquor it is boiled in, in a tureen.

"_Ling_ is brought to the London market in the same manner as cod, but

is very inferior to it, either fresh or salt."

[173-*] There are several species of codfish sold alive in the New-York

markets: of these, the common cod is the best, and is in season from

November till spring. The price varies from three to six cents the

pound, as the market is well or scantily supplied. The head and

shoulders of a large cod, boiled, is the best part to grace the

dinner-table. It is full of rich gelatinous matter, which is savoury and

easy of digestion. Cod's sounds and tongues are found on the stalls of

the fishmongers in the winter season. They are rich and nourishing, and

may be prepared to garnish the dish, or served up separately boiled. A.

[173-+] "In the sea-port towns of the New-England states in North

America, it has been a custom, time immemorial, among people of fashion,

to dine one day in the week (Saturday) on salt fish; and a long habit of

preparing the same dish has, as might have been expected, led to very

considerable improvements in the art of cooking it. I have often heard

foreigners declare, that they never tasted salt fish dressed in such

perfection: the secret of cooking it, is to keep it for several hours in

water that is _just scalding hot_, but which is never made actually to

boil."--COUNT RUMFORD'S _10th Essay_, p. 18.

[174-*] That part of a cod which is near the tail, is considered, in

America, as the poorest part of the fish. A.

[174-+] Sturgeons, though sea-fish, ascend the fresh water rivers, and

in the Hudson are taken 80 miles above the salt water. They were

formerly called Albany beef, having been in plenty and cheap in the

market of that city. They are not, however, esteemed even there; and

since the running of the steamboats, and the quickness of their

passages, all the valuable fish of the sea-coast are found in that

inland city. A.

[174-++] The French do not flay them, but split them, dip them in flour,

and fry them in hot dripping.

[175-*] One of my culinary counsellors says, the heading of this receipt

should be, "_How to dress a good dish of fish while the cloth is

laying_." If the articles are ready, twelve minutes will do it, with

very little trouble or expense. For richer stewed fish, see No. 164.

[176-*] Our experience goes to substantiate the same point. A.

[179-*] The perch of New-York are a small fresh-water fish, and seldom

boiled, being better calculated for frying or broiling, as a relish at

breakfast. A.

[180-*] SALMON. The earliest that comes in season to the London market

is brought from the Severn, and begins to come into season the beginning

of November, but very few so early, perhaps not above one in fifty, as

many of them will not shoot their spawn till January, or after, and then

continue in season till October, when they begin to get very thin and

poor. The principal supply of salmon is from different parts of

Scotland, packed in ice, and brought by water: if the vessels have a

fair wind, they will be in London in three days; but it frequently

happens that they are at sea perhaps a fortnight, when the greater part

of the fish is perished, and has, for a year or two past, sold as low as

twopence per pound, and up to as much as eighteen pence per pound at the

same time, owing to its different degrees of goodness. This accounts for

the very low prices at which the itinerant fishmongers cry their

"_delicate_ salmon," "_dainty fresh_ salmon," and "_live_ cod," "_new_

mackerel," &c. &c.

"Salmon gwilts, or salmon peel, are the small salmon which run from

about five or six pounds to ten pounds, are very good fish, and make

handsome dishes of fish, sent to table crooked in the form of an S.

"Berwick trout are a distinct fish from the gwilts, and are caught in

the river Tweed, and dressed in the same manner as the gwilt.

"Calvered salmon is the salmon caught in the Thames, and cut into slices

alive; and some few salmon are brought from Oxford to London alive, and

cut. A few slices make a handsome, genteel dish, but it is generally

very expensive; sometimes 15_s._ per pound."

[Fresh salmon comes to the New-York market from the eastern states, and

mostly from Maine. It is also occasionally brought from the lakes and

rivers of the northern part of New-York in winter. A.]

[181-*] Small fish and fillets of whiting, turbots, brills, &c. and

slices of cod, or the head or tail of it, are excellent dressed the same

way.

[181-+] The yellow eels taste muddy; the whiteness of the belly of the

fish is not the only mark to know the best; the right colour of the back

is a very bright coppery hue: the olive-coloured are inferior; and those

tending to a green are worse.

[183-*] There are several species of mackerel in their season in the

New-York market. That which arrives in the spring is most esteemed, and

in greatest plenty. Spring mackerel is a migrating fish, and succeeds

the shad, or commences its run along the coast of New-Jersey and Long

Island, just before the shad disappears. It does not ascend the rivers,

but continues its course north-eastward in immense shoals, and is taken

by the fishermen with the hook and line, while sailing in smacks along

the coast, from the mouth of the Delaware to Nova Scotia. These fish are

kept in cars, and sold alive in the markets. They are mostly broiled,

and brought to the breakfast-table. The larger ones sometimes grace the

dining-table. They may be boiled, but are best when stuffed and baked in

an oven. A.

[183-+] The roe of the male fish is soft, like the brains of a calf;

that of the female is full of small eggs, and called hard roe.

[184-*] Mackerel of large size may be stuffed like a fowl, leaving the

head on, and baked in an oven. A.

[187-*] Lobsters are in great plenty and perfection in the New-York

markets. They are taken in Long Island Sound, and along the rocky shores

of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. A.

[188-*] Crabs are not esteemed as a delicacy by epicures unless they are

soft, when they are fried whole. In July and August they shed their

coats, and in this state may be cooked and eaten without being

incommoded with their shells. A.

[189-*] Oyster sauce, No. 278; preserved oysters, No. 280.

[189-+] Those are called common oysters, which are picked up on the

French coast, and laid in the Colchester beds.

These are never so fine and fat as the natives, and seldom recover the

shock their feelings receive from being transported from their native

place: delicate little creatures, they are as exquisite in their own

taste as they are to the taste of others!

[189-++] Oysters are thus called, that are born, as well as bred and

fed, in this country, and are mostly spit in the Burnham and Mersey

rivers: they do not come to their finest condition till they are near

four years old.

[189-§] WILL RABISHA, in his receipt to "broil oysters," (see his

Cookery, page 144,) directs, that while they are undergoing this

operation, they should be _fed_ with white wine and grated bread.

In BOYLE'S Works, 4to. 1772, vol. ii. p. 450, there is a very curious

chapter on the eating of oysters.

[191-*] "Animal food being composed of the most nutritious parts of the

food on which the animal lived, and having already been digested by the

proper organs of an animal, requires only solution and mixture; whereas

vegetable food must be converted into a substance of an animal nature,

by the proper action of our own viscera, and consequently requires more

labour of the stomach, and other digestive organs."--BURTON _on the

Non-naturals_, page 213.

[192-*] New-York and other places on the sea-coast of the United States,

afford oysters in great plenty and perfection, and the various methods

of preparing them are well known. A.

BROTHS, GRAVIES, AND SOUPS.

_Beef Broth._[193-*]--(No. 185.)

Wash a leg or shin of beef very clean, crack the bone in two or three

places (this you should desire the butcher to do for you), add thereto

any trimmings you have of meat, game, or poultry (_i. e._ heads, necks,

gizzards, feet, &c.), and cover them with cold water; watch and stir it

up well from the bottom, and the moment it begins to simmer, skim it

carefully; your broth must be perfectly clear and limpid, on this

depends the goodness of the soups, sauces, and gravies, of which it is

the basis: then add some cold water to make the remaining scum rise, and

skim it again; when the scum is done rising, and the surface of the

broth is quite clear, put in one moderate-sized carrot, a head of

celery, two turnips, and two onions, it should not have any taste of

sweet herbs, spice, or garlic, &c.; either of these flavours can easily

be added immediately after, if desired, by Nos. 420, 421, 422, &c. cover

it close, set it by the side of the fire, and let it simmer very gently

(so as not to waste the broth) for four or five hours, or more,

according to the weight of the meat; strain it through a sieve into a

clean and dry stone pan, and set it in the coldest place you have.

_Obs._ This is the foundation for all sorts of soups and sauce, brown or

white.

Stew no longer than the meat is thoroughly done to eat, and you will

obtain excellent broth, without depriving the meat of its nutritious

succulence: to boil it to rags, as is the common practice, will not

enrich your broths, but make them thick and grouty.

The meat,[193-+] when gently stewed for only four or five hours till it

is just tender, remains abundantly sapid and nourishing, and will afford

a relishing and wholesome meal for half a dozen people; or make potted

beef (No. 503): or when you have strained off the broth, cover the meat

again with water, and let it go on boiling for four hours longer, and

make what some cooks call "second stock;" it will produce some very good

glaze, or portable soup; see No. 252, and the _Obs._ thereon.

_Beef Gravy._[194-*]--(No. 186.)

Cover the bottom of a stew-pan that is well tinned and quite clean, with

a slice of good ham, or lean bacon, four or five pounds of gravy beef

cut into half-pound pieces, a carrot, an onion with two cloves stuck in

it, and a head of celery; put a pint of broth or water to it, cover it

close, and set it over a moderate fire till the water is reduced to as

little as will just save the ingredients from burning; then turn it all

about, and let it brown slightly and equally all over; then put in three

quarts of boiling water;[194-+] when it boils up, skim it carefully, and

wipe off with a clean cloth what sticks round the edge and inside of the

stew-pan, that your gravy may be delicately clean and clear. Set it by

the side of a fire, where it will stew gently (to keep it clear, and

that it may not be reduced too much) for about four hours: if it has not

boiled too fast, there should be two quarts of good gravy; strain

through a silk, or tamis-sieve; take very particular care to skim it

well, and set it in a cold place.

_Strong savoury Gravy_ (No. 188), _alias "Brown Sauce," alias_ "GRAND

ESPAGNOL."

Take a stew-pan that will hold four quarts, lay a slice or two of ham or

bacon (about a quarter of an inch thick) at the bottom (undressed is the

best), and two pounds of beef or veal, a carrot, a large onion with four

cloves stuck in it, one head of celery, a bundle of parsley,

lemon-thyme, and savoury, about as big round as your little finger, when

tied close, a few leaves of sweet basil (one bay-leaf, and an eschalot,

if you like it), a piece of lemon-peel, and a dozen corns of

allspice;[195-*] pour on this half a pint of water, cover it close, and

let it simmer gently on a slow fire for half an hour, in which time it

will be almost dry; watch it very carefully, and let it catch a nice

brown colour; turn the meat, &c. let it brown on all sides; add three

pints of boiling water,[195-+] and boil for a couple of hours. It is now

rich gravy. To convert it into

_Cullis, or thickened Gravy._--(No. 189.)

To a quart of gravy, put a table-spoonful of thickening (No. 257), or

from one to two table-spoonfuls of flour, according to the thickness you

wish the gravy to be, into a basin, with a ladleful of the gravy; stir

it quick; add the rest by degrees, till it is all well mixed; then pour

it back into a stew-pan, and leave it by the side of the fire to simmer

for half an hour longer, that the thickening may thoroughly incorporate

with the gravy, the stew-pan being only half covered, stirring it every

now and then; a sort of scum will gather on the top, which it is best

not to take off till you are ready to strain it through a tamis.[195-++]

Take care it is neither of too pale nor too dark a colour; if it is not

thick enough, let it stew longer, till it is reduced to the desired

thickness; or add a bit of glaze, or portable soup to it, see No. 252:

if it is too thick, you can easily thin it with a spoonful or two of

warm broth, or water. When your sauce is done, stir it in the basin you

put it into once or twice, while it is cooling.

_Veal Broth._--(No. 191.)

A knuckle of veal is best; manage it as directed in the receipt for beef

broth (No. 185), only take care not to let it catch any colour, as this

and the following and richer preparation of veal, are chiefly used for

white soups, sauces, &c.

To make white sauce, see No. 364*.

_Veal Gravy._--(No. 192.)

About three pounds of the nut of the leg of veal, cut into half-pound

slices, with a quarter of a pound of ham in small dice; proceed as

directed for the beef gravy (No. 186), but watch the time of putting in

the water; if this is poured in too soon, the gravy will not have its

true flavour, if it be let alone till the meat sticks too much to the

pan, it will catch too brown a colour.

_Knuckle of Veal, or Shin or Leg of Beef, Soup._--(No. 193.)

A knuckle of veal of six pounds weight will make a large tureen of

excellent soup, and is thus easily prepared: cut half a pound of bacon

into slices about half an inch thick, lay it at the bottom of a

soup-kettle, or deep stew-pan, and on this place the knuckle of veal,

having first chopped the bone in two or three places; furnish it with

two carrots, two turnips, a head of celery, two large onions, with two

or three cloves stuck in one of them, a dozen corns of black, and the

same of Jamaica pepper, and a good bundle of lemon-thyme, winter

savoury, and parsley. Just cover the meat with cold water, and set it

over a quick fire till it boils; having skimmed it well, remove your

soup-kettle to the side of the fire; let it stew very gently till it is

quite tender, _i. e._ about four hours; then take out the bacon and

veal, strain the soup, and set it by in a cool place till you want it,

when you must take off the fat from the surface of your liquor, and

decant it (keeping back the settlings at the bottom) into a clean pan.

If you like a thickened soup, put three table-spoonfuls of the fat you

have taken off the soup into a small stew-pan, and mix it with four

table-spoonfuls of flour, pour a ladleful of soup to it, and mix it with

the rest by degrees, and boil it up till it is smooth.

Cut the meat and gristle of the knuckle and the bacon into mouthfuls,

and put them into the soup, and let them get warm.

_Obs._ You may make this more savoury by adding catchup (No. 439), &c.

Shin of beef may be dressed in the same way; see Knuckle of Veal stewed

with Rice (No. 523).

_Mutton Broth._--(No. 194.)

Take two pounds of scrag of mutton; to take the blood out, put it into a

stew-pan, and cover it with cold water; when the water becomes

milk-warm, pour it off; then put it in four or five pints of water, with

a tea-spoonful of salt, a table-spoonful of best grits, and an onion;

set it on a slow fire, and when you have taken all the scum off, put in

two or three turnips; let it simmer very slowly for two hours, and

strain it through a clean sieve.

This usual method of making mutton broth with the scrag, is by no means

the most economical method of obtaining it; for which see Nos. 490 and

564.

_Obs._ You may thicken broth by boiling with it a little oatmeal, rice,

Scotch or pearl barley; when you make it for a sick person, read the

_Obs._ on Broths, &c. in the last page of the 7th chapter of the

Rudiments of Cookery, and No. 564.

_Mock Mutton Broth, without Meat, in five minutes._--(No. 195.)

Boil a few leaves of parsley with two tea-spoonfuls of mushroom catchup,

in three-quarters of a pint of very thin gruel[197-*] (No. 572). Season

with a little salt.

_Obs._ This is improved by a few drops of eschalot wine (No. 402), and

the same of essence of sweet herbs (No. 419). See also Portable Soup

(No. 252).

_The Queen's Morning "Bouillon de Santé_,"--(No. 196.)

Sir Kenelm Digby, in his "_Closet of Cookery_," p. 149, London, 1669,

informs us, was made with "a brawny hen, or young cock, a handful of

parsley, one sprig of thyme, three of spearmint, a little balm, half a

great onion, a little pepper and salt, and a clove, with as much water

as will cover them; and this boiled to less than a pint for one good

porringerful."

_Ox-heel Jelly._--(No. 198.)

Slit them in two, and take away the fat between the claws. The

proportion of water to each heel is about a quart: let it simmer gently

for eight hours (keeping it clean skimmed); it will make a pint and a

half of strong jelly, which is frequently used to make calves' feet

jelly (No. 481), or to add to mock turtle and other soups. See No. 240*.

This jelly evaporated, as directed in No. 252, will give about three

ounces and a half of strong glaze. An unboiled heel costs one shilling

and threepence: so this glaze, which is very inferior in flavour to No.

252, is quite as expensive as that is.

N.B. To dress the heels, see No. 18.

_Obs._ Get a heel that has only been scalded, not one of those usually

sold at the tripe-shops, which have been boiled till almost all the

gelatine is extracted.

_Clear Gravy Soups._--(No. 200.)

Cut half a pound of ham into slices, and lay them at the bottom of a

large stew-pan or stock-pot, with two or three pounds of lean beef, and

as much veal; break the bones, and lay them on the meat; take off the

outer skin of two large onions and two turnips; wash, clean, and cut

into pieces a couple of large carrots, and two heads of celery; and put

in three cloves and a large blade of mace. Cover the stew-pan close, and

set it over a smart fire. When the meat begins to stick to the bottom of

the stew-pan, turn it; and when there is a nice brown glaze at the

bottom of the stew-pan, cover the meat with hot water: watch it, and

when it is coming to boil put in half a pint of cold water; take off the

scum; then put in half a pint more cold water, and skim it again, and

continue to do so till no more scum rises. Now set it on one side of the

fire to boil gently for about four hours; strain it through a clean

tamis or napkin (do not squeeze it, or the soup will be thick) into a

clean stone pan; let it remain till it is cold, and then remove all the

fat. When you decant it, be careful not to disturb the settlings at the

bottom of the pan.

The broth should be of a fine amber colour, and as clear as rock water.

If it is not quite so bright as you wish it, put it into a stew-pan;

break two whites and shells of eggs into a basin; beat them well

together; put them into the soup: set it on a quick fire, and stir it

with a whisk till it boils; then set it on one side of the fire to

settle for ten minutes; run it through a fine napkin into a basin, and

it is ready.

However, if your broth is carefully skimmed, &c. according to the

directions above given, it will be clear enough without clarifying;

which process impairs the flavour of it in a higher proportion than it

improves its appearance.

_Obs._--This is the basis of almost all gravy soups, which are called by

the name of the vegetables that are put into them.

Carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and a few leaves of chervil, make what

is called spring soup, or soup santé; to this a pint of green pease, or

asparagus pease, or French beans cut into pieces, or a cabbage lettuce,

are an improvement.

With rice or Scotch barley, with macaroni or vermicelli, or celery, cut

into lengths, it will be the soup usually called by those names.

Or turnips scooped round, or young onions, will give you a clear turnip

or onion soup; and all these vegetables mixed together, soup GRESSI.

The gravy for all these soups may be produced _extempore_ with No. 252.

The roots and vegetables you use must be boiled first, or they will

impregnate the soup with too strong a flavour.

The seasoning for all these soups is the same, viz. salt and a very

little Cayenne pepper.

N.B. To make excellent vegetable gravy soup for 4-1/2_d._ a quart, see

No. 224.

_Scotch Barley Broth_;--a good and substantial dinner for fivepence per

head.--(No. 204.)

Wash three-quarters of a pound of Scotch barley in a little cold water;

put it in a soup-pot with a shin or leg of beef, of about ten pounds

weight, sawed into four pieces (tell the butcher to do this for you);

cover it well with cold water; set it on the fire: when it boils skim it

very clean, and put in two onions of about three ounces weight each; set

it by the side of the fire to simmer very gently about two hours; then

skim all the fat clean off, and put in two heads of celery, and a large

turnip cut into small squares; season it with salt, and let it boil an

hour and a half longer, and it is ready: take out the meat (carefully

with a slice, and cover it up, and set it by the fire to keep warm), and

skim the broth well before you put it in the tureen.

_s._ _d._

Shin of beef of 10lbs 2 0

3/4 pound of barley 0 4-1/2

2 onions, of about 3 oz. weight each 0 0-1/2

Celery 0 1

Large turnip 0 1

----------

2 7

Thus you get four quarts of good soup at 8_d._ per quart, besides

another quart to make sauce for the meat, in the following manner:

Put a quart of the soup into a basin; put about an ounce of flour into a

stew-pan, and pour the broth to it by degrees, stirring it well

together; set it on the fire, and stir it till it boils; then (some put

in a glass of port wine, or mushroom catchup, No. 439) let it boil up,

and it is ready.

Put the meat in a ragoût dish, and strain the sauce through a sieve

over the meat; you may put to it some capers, or minced gherkins or

walnuts, &c.

If the beef has been stewed with proper care in a very gentle manner,

and be taken up at "the critical moment when it is just tender," you

will obtain an excellent and savoury meal for eight people for

fivepence; _i. e._ for only the cost of the glass of port wine.

If you use veal, cover the meat with No. 364--2.

_Obs._--This is a most frugal, agreeable, and nutritive meal; it will

neither lighten the purse, nor lie heavy on the stomach, and will

furnish a plentiful and pleasant soup and meat for eight persons. So you

may give a good dinner for 5_d._ per head!!! See also Nos. 229 and 239.

N.B. If you will draw your purse-strings a little wider, and allow 1_d._

per mouth more, prepare a pint of young onions as directed in No. 296,

and garnish the dish with them, or some carrots or turnips cut into

squares; and for 6_d._ per head you will have as good a RAGOUT as "_le

Cuisinier Impérial de France_" can give you for as many shillings. Read

_Obs._ to No. 493.

You may vary the flavour by adding a little curry powder (No. 455),

ragoût (No. 457, &c.), or any of the store sauces and flavouring

essences between Nos. 396 and 463; you may garnish the dish with split

pickled mangoes, walnuts, gherkins, onions, &c. See Wow wow Sauce, No.

328.

If it is made the evening before the soup is wanted, and suffered to

stand till it is cold, much fat[200-*] may be removed from the surface

of the soup, which is, when clarified (No. 83), useful for all the

purposes that drippings are applied to.

_Scotch Soups._--(No. 205.)

The three following receipts are the contribution of a friend at

Edinburgh.

_Winter Hotch-potch._

Take the best end of a neck or loin of mutton; cut it into neat chops;

cut four carrots, and as many turnips into slices; put on four quarts of

water, with half the carrots and turnips, and a whole one of each, with

a pound of dried green pease, which must be put to soak the night

before; let it boil two hours, then take out the whole carrot and

turnip; bruise and return them; put in the meat, and the rest of the

carrot and turnip, some pepper and salt, and boil slowly three-quarters

of an hour; a short time before serving, add an onion cut small and a

head of celery.

_Cocky-leeky Soup._

Take a scrag of mutton, or shank of veal, three quarts of water (or

liquor in which meat has been boiled), and a good-sized fowl, with two

or three leeks cut in pieces about an inch long, pepper and salt; boil

slowly about an hour: then put in as many more leeks, and give it

three-quarters of an hour longer: this is very good, made of good

beef-stock, and leeks put in it twice.

_Lamb Stove, or Lamb Stew._

Take a lamb's head and lights; open the jaws of the head, and wash them

thoroughly; put them in a pot with some beef-stock, made with three

quarts of water, and two pounds of shin of beef, strained; boil very

slowly for an hour; wash and string two or three good handfuls of

spinach (or spinage); put it in twenty minutes before serving; add a

little parsley, and one or two onions, a short time before it comes off

the fire; season with pepper and salt, and serve all together in a

tureen.

_Scotch Brose._--(No. 205*.)

"This favourite Scotch dish is generally made with the liquor meat has

been boiled in.

"Put half a pint of oatmeal into a porringer with a little salt, if

there be not enough in the broth, of which add as much as will mix it to

the consistence of hasty-pudding, or a little thicker; lastly, take a

little of the fat that swims on the broth, and put it on the crowdie,

and eat it in the same way as hasty-pudding."

_Obs._--This Scotsman's dish is easily prepared at very little expense,

and is pleasant-tasted and nutritious. To dress a haggies, see No. 488*,

and Minced Collops, following it.

N.B. For various methods of making and flavouring oatmeal gruel, see No.

572.

_Carrot Soup._--(No. 212.)

Scrape and wash half a dozen large carrots; peel off the red outside

(which is the only part used for this soup); put it into a gallon

stew-pan, with one head of celery, and an onion, cut into thin pieces;

take two quarts of beef, veal, or mutton broth, or if you have any cold

roast-beef bones (or liquor, in which mutton or beef has been boiled),

you may make very good broth for this soup: when you have put the broth

to the roots, cover the stew-pan close, and set it on a slow stove for

two hours and a half, when the carrots will be soft enough (some cooks

put in a tea-cupful of bread-crumbs); boil for two or three minutes; rub

it through a tamis, or hair-sieve, with a wooden spoon, and add as much

broth as will make it a proper thickness, _i. e._ almost as thick as

pease soup: put it into a clean stew-pan; make it hot; season it with a

little salt, and send it up with some toasted bread, cut into pieces

half an inch square. Some put it into the soup; but the best way is to

send it up on a plate, as a side-dish.

_Obs._ This is neither expensive nor troublesome to prepare. In the

kitchens of some opulent epicures, to make this soup make a little

stronger impression on the gustatory organs of "grands gourmands," the

celery and onions are sliced, and fried in butter of a light brown, the

soup is poured into the stew-pan to them, and all is boiled up together.

But this must be done very carefully with butter, or very nicely

clarified fat; and the "grand cuisinier" adds spices, &c. "_ad

libitum_."

_Turnip and Parsnip Soups_,--(No. 213.)

Are made in the same manner as the carrot soup (No. 212.)

_Celery Soup._--(No. 214.)

Split half a dozen heads of celery into slips about two inches long;

wash them well; lay them on a hair-sieve to drain, and put them into

three quarts of No. 200 in a gallon soup-pot; set it by the side of the

fire to stew very gently till the celery is tender (this will take about

an hour). If any scum rises, take it off; season with a little salt.

_Obs._ When celery cannot be procured, half a drachm of the seed,

pounded fine, which may be considered as the essence of celery (costs

only one-third of a farthing, and can be had at any season), put in a

quarter of an hour before the soup is done, and a little sugar, will

give as much flavour to half a gallon of soup as two heads of celery

weighing seven ounces, and costing 2_d._; or add a little essence of

celery, No. 409.

_Green Pease Soup._--(No. 216.)

A peck of pease will make you a good tureen of soup. In shelling them,

put the old ones in one basin, and the young ones in another, and keep

out a pint of them, and boil them separately to put into your soup when

it is finished: put a large saucepan on the fire half full of water;

when it boils, put the pease in, with a handful of salt; let them boil

till they are done enough, _i. e._ from twenty to thirty minutes,

according to their age and size; then drain them in a colander, and put

them into a clean gallon stew-pan, and three quarts of plain veal or

mutton broth (drawn from meat without any spices or herbs, &c. which

would overpower the flavour of the soup); cover the stew-pan close, and

set it over a slow fire to stew gently for an hour; add a tea-cupful of

bread-crumbs, and then rub it through a tamis into another stew-pan;

stir it with a wooden spoon, and if it is too thick, add a little more

broth: have ready boiled as for eating, a pint of young pease, and put

them into the soup; season with a little salt and sugar.

N.B. Some cooks, while this soup is going on, slice a couple of

cucumbers (as you would for eating); take out the seeds; lay them on a

cloth to drain, and then flour them, and fry them a light brown in a

little butter; put them into the soup the last thing before it goes to

table.

_Obs._ If the soup is not green enough, pound a handful of pea-hulls or

spinage, and squeeze the juice through a cloth into the soup: some

leaves of mint may be added, if approved.

_Plain green Pease Soup without Meat._--(No. 217.)

Take a quart of green pease (keep out half a pint of the youngest; boil

them separately, and put them in the soup when it is finished); put them

on in boiling water; boil them tender, and then pour off the water, and

set it by to make the soup with: put the pease into a mortar, and pound

them to a mash; then put them into two quarts of the water you boiled

the pease in; stir all well together; let it boil up for about five

minutes, and then rub it through a hair-sieve or tamis. If the pease are

good, it will be as thick and fine a vegetable soup as need be sent to

table.

_Pease Soup._--(No. 218.)

The common way of making pease soup[203-*] is--to a quart of split

pease put three quarts of cold soft water, not more, (or it will be what

"Jack Ros-bif" calls "soup maigre,") notwithstanding Mother Glasse

orders a gallon (and her ladyship's directions have been copied by

almost every cookery-book maker who has strung receipts together since),

with half a pound of bacon (not very fat), or roast-beef bones, or four

anchovies: or, instead of the water, three quarts of the liquor in which

beef, mutton, pork, or poultry has been boiled, tasting it first, to

make sure it is not too salt.[204-*]

Wash two heads of celery;[204-+] cut it, and put it in, with two onions

peeled, and a sprig of savoury, or sweet marjoram, or lemon-thyme; set

it on the trivet, and let it simmer very gently over a slow fire,

stirring it every quarter of an hour (to keep the pease from sticking

to, and burning at, the bottom of the soup-pot) till the pease are

tender, which will be in about three hours. Some cooks now slice a head

of celery, and half an ounce of onions, and fry them in a little butter,

and put them into the soup till they are lightly browned; then work the

whole through a coarse hair-sieve, and then through a fine sieve, or

(what is better) through a tamis, with the back of a wooden spoon: put

it into a clean stew-pan, with half a tea-spoonful of ground black

pepper;[204-++] let it boil again for ten minutes, and if any fat

arises, skim it off.

Send up on a plate, toasted bread cut into little pieces a quarter of an

inch square, or cut a slice of bread (that has been baked two days) into

dice, not more than half an inch square; put half a pound of perfectly

clean drippings or lard into an iron frying-pan; when it is hot, fry the

bread; take care and turn it about with a slice, or by shaking of the

pan as it is frying, that it may be on each side of a delicate light

brown, (No. 319;) take it up with a fish-slice, and lay it on a sheet of

paper to drain the fat: be careful that this is done nicely: send these

up in one side-dish, and dried and powdered mint or savoury, or sweet

marjoram, &c. in another.

Those who are for a double relish, and are true lovers of "_haut goût_,"

may have some bacon cut into small squares like the bread, and fried

till it is crisp, or some little lumps of boiled pickled pork; or put

cucumber fried into this soup, as you have directions in No. 216.

_Obs._ The most economical method of making pease soup, is to save the

bones of a joint of roast beef, and put them into the liquor in which

mutton, or beef, or pork, or poultry, has been boiled, and proceed as in

the above receipt. A hock, or shank-bone of ham, a ham-bone, the root of

a tongue, or a red or pickled herring, are favourite additions with some

cooks; others send up rice or vermicelli with pease soup.[205-*]

N.B. To make pease soup extempore, see No. 555.

If you wish to make soup the same day you boil meat or poultry, prepare

the pease the same as for pease pudding (No. 555), to which you may add

an onion and a head of celery, when you rub the pease through the sieve;

instead of putting eggs and butter, add some of the liquor from the pot

to make it a proper thickness; put it on to boil for five minutes, and

it is ready.

_Obs._ This latter is by far the easiest and the best way of making

pease soup.

Pease soup may be made savoury and agreeable to the palate, without any

meat, by incorporating two ounces of fresh and nicely-clarified beef,

mutton, or pork drippings (see No. 83), with two ounces of oatmeal, and

mixing this well into the gallon of soup, made as above directed: see

also No. 229.

_Pease Soup and pickled Pork._--(No. 220.)

A couple of pounds of the belly part of pickled pork will make very good

broth for pease soup, if the pork be not too salt; if it has been in

salt more than two days, it must be laid in water the night before it is

used.

Put on the ingredients mentioned in No. 218, in three quarts of water;

boil gently for two hours, then put in the pork, and boil very gently

till it is done enough to eat; this will take about an hour and a half,

or two hours longer, according to its thickness; when done, wash the

pork clean in hot water, send it up in a dish, or cut it into mouthfuls,

and put it into the soup in the tureen, with the accompaniments ordered

in No. 218.

_Obs._ The meat being boiled no longer than to be done enough to be

eaten, you get excellent soup, without any expense of meat destroyed.

"In Canada, the inhabitants live three-fourths of the year on pease

soup, prepared with salt pork, which is boiled till the fat is entirely

dissolved among the soup, giving it a rich flavour."--The Hon. J.

COCHRANE'S _Seaman's Guide_, 8vo. 1797, p. 31.

_Plain Pease Soup._--(No. 221.)

To a quart of split pease, and two heads of celery, (and most cooks

would put a large onion,) put three quarts of broth or soft water; let

them simmer gently on a trivet over a slow fire for three hours,

stirring up every quarter of an hour to prevent the pease burning at the

bottom of the soup-kettle (if the water boils away, and the soup gets

too thick, add some boiling water to it); when they are well softened,

work them through a coarse sieve, and then through a fine sieve or a

tamis; wash out your stew-pan, and then return the soup into it, and

give it a boil up; take off any scum that comes up, and it is ready.

Prepare fried bread, and dried mint, as directed in No. 218, and send

them up with it on two side dishes.

_Obs._ This is an excellent family soup, produced with very little

trouble or expense.

Most of the receipts for pease soup are crowded with ingredients which

entirely overpower the flavour of the pease. See No. 555.

_Asparagus Soup._--(No. 222.)