long slices. Roll each piece up and pin with a wooden skewer. A new
toothpick will do. Lay in salad oil and lemon juice for an hour,
setting in the ice to make the fish firm while soaking in the marinade.
Roll in fine dry crumbs, peppered and salted; in beaten egg, and again
in crumbs. Cover the grating of your bakepan with thin shavings of salt
pork, lay the fillets upon them, sprinkle thickly with finely-minced
onion and olives, and bake, covered, twelve minutes for each pound.
Lift carefully to a hot dish; withdraw the skewers. Garnish with sliced
lemon and send to table.
Fried fillets of flounder
Cut, trim and marinade as for baking. When you take them from the ice,
roll as for baking, salt and pepper, roll in crumbs, then in egg, and
again in crumbs. Leave on ice for half an hour longer, and fry in deep
hot cottolene, salad oil, or other fat. Drain, withdraw the skewers and
serve with sauce tartare.
Baked fresh mackerel
Marinade for half an hour in olive oil and lemon juice. Lay thin slices
of pork upon the grating of a baking-pan, lay the mackerel on the
pork, skim down, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and bake in a
hot oven for twenty-five minutes.
Serve with tomato sauce.
Boiled salmon-trout
Select a small fish for this purpose, as a large one will not fit into
the ordinary-sized fish-kettle. Have in your kettle enough salted
boiling water to cover the fish, and add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar
to the water. Sew the fish up in a piece of firm cheese-cloth, and
lay it carefully in the kettle. After it begins to boil, allow twelve
minutes to the pound. When done take out of the water carefully, remove
the cloth and transfer the fish to a hot platter. Sprinkle with pepper
and salt, and pour over it a well-seasoned white sauce. Garnish the
dish with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley.
Baked salmon
Wipe your fish with a damp cloth, but do not lay it in water. Rub
with a little salad oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay in a
baking-pan and dash over it a cupful of boiling water in which two
tablespoonfuls of butter have been melted. Bake, covered, basting every
fifteen minutes. When done transfer to a hot platter and set in the
open oven while you thicken the gravy left in the pan with corn-starch
wet with cold water, and season it with lemon juice and a dash of onion
juice. A little tomato catsup is an improvement. Boil up once and pour
into a gravy-boat. Send to the table with the salmon, which may be
garnished with sprigs of parsley.
Baked pickerel
Clean and wash the fish. Choose a large fine one for this purpose. Lay
it on the grating of your bakepan, dredge with salt and pepper, butter
well and dredge with flour. Put into a hot oven, and when the flour
begins to brown, baste with butter, water and lemon juice. Cook twelve
minutes to the pound, remove, and serve with oyster sauce.
[Illustration: FRIED TROUT
BOILED SALMON
OYSTER PATTIES
BOILED COD
FISH]
Boned baked pickerel
Have your fishmonger take out the backbone when he has split the fish
lengthwise, also have him extract every other bone he can get out
without tearing the flesh too much. Marinade for an hour in a bath of
olive oil and lemon juice. Cover the grating of your bakepan with thin
shavings of salt pork, lay the fish upon this, skin-side downward, wash
with melted butter, bake, covered, half an hour, baste and cook ten
minutes more. Serve with Hollandaise sauce.
Baked salmon-trout with cream gravy
Clean and wash, wipe dry, and go all over it, inside and out, with
melted butter and lemon juice. Lay upon the grating of your bakepan,
pour in a little boiling water, not quite touching the fish, and bake
twelve minutes to the pound, basting twice with butter and twice with
the water in the pan below.
Keep hot in heated dish, covered, set over boiling water while you
strain the gravy left in the pan, add to it a cupful of hot milk (half
cream, if you can get it) scalded with a pinch of soda, thickened with
a white roux of butter cooked with flour, and seasoned with paprika,
salt and a little minced parsley. Pour over the fish, let it stand
three minutes over hot water and serve.
Fried brook trout
Clean with care, roll in peppered and salted flour; set on ice for an
hour, and fry immediately in deep fat to a golden-brown. Have a mat of
folded and heated tissue paper fringed at the ends, and lay the drained
fish upon it. Eat at once.
Broiled soft-shell crabs
Lift the projecting “wings” of the upper shell, and cut or pull off the
“feathers” you will find under them. Next trim off the tail, or flap,
or “apron,” a round piece of softer shell on the under side of the
upper.
Wash quickly and cook without delay lest they die on your hands.
Wash with butter, sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper, lay within a
reversible wire broiler, and cook over clear coals ten minutes, turning
twice to broil both sides.
Serve upon thin slices of buttered toast.
Fried soft-shell crabs
Prepare as directed in preceding recipe, sprinkle with cayenne and
salt, roll in beaten egg, then in fine crumbs, again in egg, and once
more in crumbs and fry in deep, hot fat.
Garnish with water-cress, and pass sliced lemon with them.
Lobster broiled in the shell
Kill the lobster by cutting the tail off with one stroke of the knife,
just where it joins the body. With another clean cut divide him
lengthwise into two equal parts, shell and all. Take out the coral, the
one long intestine and the stomach. Crack the claws with a hammer. Put
within a buttered broiler, split side downward, and broil over a fierce
fire. As soon as the juice begins to run freely withdraw long enough
to wash liberally with melted butter, and return to the fire, turning
often to keep in the juices. Cook about ten minutes on the split or
flesh side, and eight upon the other.
Have ready a sauce made by rubbing two tablespoonfuls of butter to
a cream with lemon juice and finely-minced parsley, adding a little
cayenne, and wash the lobster with this while hissing hot. Serve half a
lobster to each guest, with oyster forks for extracting the meat.
Pass more sauce for those who wish it.
Lobster baked in shell
Prepare as for broiling, but lay, shell downward, in a bakepan, cover
and set in a quick oven, opening in ten minutes to wash with butter.
They should be done in twenty minutes, when wash freely with the lemon
and butter sauce.
Lobster scalloped in shells
Two cupfuls of lobster meat, cut into small dice. One cupful of white
stock, and the same of unskimmed milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter
made into a white roux with one tablespoonful of flour. Salt and
paprika to taste. Minced parsley and juice of half a lemon. Beaten
yolks of two eggs. Halves of two lobster shells, cleaned. Pinch of soda
in milk.
Stir the hot stock and the scalded milk into the roux, season, boil
once; remove from the fire, add the eggs and lobster dice and fill the
shells. Cover with fine crumbs, rounded, dot with butter, sprinkle with
cayenne and bake to a delicate brown.
Lobster á la Newburg
Pick all the meat from the shells of two good-sized freshly-boiled
lobsters and cut into one-inch pieces, which place in a saucepan over a
hot range, together with two tablespoonfuls of butter, and season with
a pinch of salt and one of cayenne. Cook five minutes, pour in a glass
of sherry; simmer five minutes, add the beaten yolks of three eggs and
a cupful of cream, stirring all the time. When it thickens, pour out
and serve.
Do not omit to put a pinch of soda in the cream.
Stewed terrapin
(A Maryland recipe.)
Drop the “diamond-backs” into boiling water and cook until the heads
and feet “skin off.” This should be in less than an hour. Let them
get perfectly cold. Strip off the shells and extract the heart and
entrails carefully, lest an incautious touch rupture the gall-bag and
ruin everything. Cut off the head, tail and feet. Cut the meat up small
with a sharp knife, put into a saucepan, cover with hot water and
simmer fifteen minutes. Rub the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs
to a powder and work in three tablespoonfuls of butter. Heat a cupful
of cream in another vessel (with a pinch of soda) and work by degrees
into the egg and butter, season with salt and cayenne and mix gradually
with the hot terrapin. Cook one minute, add a glass of sherry and pour
out.
Fricasseed snapping turtle
Have your fish merchant clean your turtle after he has killed him
by throwing him into boiling water. Cut the turtle into neat dice,
sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion juice, a dash of kitchen bouquet and
a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup. Turn into a saucepan, add just
enough cold water to cover the meat, fit a top on the vessel and simmer
for half an hour. Now add a tablespoonful of browned flour rubbed to a
paste with a great spoonful of butter; when this is blended with the
liquid in the pan, add a glass of sherry and stir in very gradually the
beaten yolk of an egg. Bring to the boil and remove from the fire. Turn
into a deep heated dish.
A fricassee of crabs
Cut the meat into inch-length pieces, and as evenly as possible. Put
into a saucepan a mixture of butter, lemon juice and minced parsley,
cayenne and salt. Heat slowly, and when it bubbles stir in the crab
meat. Simmer gently for fifteen minutes. Have ready in another vessel
a tablespoonful of cream for each crab, heated with a pinch of soda.
Thicken with a teaspoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour, and turn
upon the yolks of three eggs, or one for every pair of crabs; stir for
one minute over the fire, pour into a hot covered dish, stir in the hot
crab meat; set in boiling water for three minutes, and serve.
Oyster pâtés
Into a pound of flour chop three-quarters of a pound of cold, firm
butter, until you have a coarse yellow powder. Have all your utensils
cold. Wet the flour and butter with three gills of iced water and, with
a spoon, work into a mass. Turn upon a floured pastry board, roll and
fold, then roll again three times, lightly and quickly. Fold and put in
the ice-box for several hours. Roll into a sheet half an inch thick,
and with a cutter cut into rounds like biscuits. Pile these three
deep, and with a small cutter pass half-way through each pile. Put
into the oven, which should be very hot, and bake to a light, delicate
brown. The pastry should be very light. When done remove from the
oven, and lift off the little round in the top of each pâté. This will
serve as a cover. With a small spoon scoop out the soft paste from the
center, thus leaving a cavity to be filled with the oyster mixture.
Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and flour, and pour upon them
a cupful and a half of rich milk—half cream, if you have it. Stir to a
smooth sauce, add the drained oysters, and cook just long enough for
the edges to begin to ruffle. Now beat in gradually the beaten yolk of
an egg; cook two minutes, season with celery salt and white pepper and
fill the shells with the mixture. Fit on the little covers, and set in
the oven until all are very hot.
Oyster fritters
Chop thirty oysters. Make a batter of two beaten eggs, a half pint of
milk and a pint of prepared flour. If the batter is too stiff, add more
milk. Stir the oysters into the batter, and drop this by the spoonful
into deep, boiling cottolene or other fat. As the fritters brown on one
side, turn them over. Drain in a hot colander as soon as well colored.
Oyster pie
Line a deep pie-plate with puff paste, fill the interior with bread
crusts (to be removed later) and fit on a top crust, buttered about the
edge on the under side that it may be easily taken off. Stew a quart of
oysters for five minutes; stir in very slowly a cupful of thick white
sauce and the beaten yolks of two eggs. When the paste is done take
off the top, remove the bread crusts, fill the center with the creamed
oysters, replace the top crust and set the pie in the oven for five
minutes before sending to the table.
Pickled oysters
Bring a quart of oysters, with their liquor, to the boil; immediately
remove the oysters and drop into a large glass jar. To the liquor add
six whole cloves, six whole pepper-corns, six blades of mace broken
into bits, a small red pepper, a cupful of vinegar and a little celery
salt. Boil up once and pour immediately over the oysters. Keep in a
dark place until wanted.
Jumbolaya
(An East Indian recipe.)
Wash half a cupful of raw rice well and drop into a pint of strained
tomato juice, made boiling hot. Cook fast for twenty minutes, or until
the rice is soft, but not broken; add two tablespoonfuls of butter
worked to a paste with two teaspoonfuls of curry; simmer ten minutes,
salt to taste and put in twenty-five fine oysters. Cook until they
ruffle, and pour out.
This is a good entrée for a family dinner. Pass thin slices of buttered
graham bread and ice-cold bananas with it.
Clam pie
Fry a quarter pound of fat salt pork crisp; strain out the scraps and
fry a sliced onion in the same fat. Strain again, add a pint of clam
juice with a lump of butter the size of an egg, and make hot while you
prepare the “pie.”
In the bottom of a buttered bakedish put a layer of clams, on them one
of milk crackers, previously soaked in hot milk, buttered, peppered and
salted, more clams and so on until the dish is nearly full. Cover the
last stratum of clams with parboiled potatoes cut very thin, pepper and
salt, and sprinkle these with a tablespoonful of grated onion and the
same of parsley. Now pour the hot liquor over all, cover with a good
pie crust and bake half an hour in a good oven, covered, then brown.
Clam cocktails
Put a dozen small clams in an ice-cold bowl and pour over them a half
tablespoonful, each, of Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice and
tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of horseradish and a saltspoonful, each,
of salt and Tabasco sauce. Mix and bury in ice for an hour before
serving in two small glasses.
Oysters with Parmesan cheese
(Contributed)
Drain the oysters free from all liquor. Lay in a well-buttered
baking-dish, sprinkle over with finely-minced parsley, season with salt
and pepper; over all pour one-half glass of champagne and cover thickly
with grated Parmesan cheese. Put in the oven until nicely browned on
top. Take out; drain all the fat from it, and serve while very hot in
the dish in which it was baked.
Oyster cutlets
(Contributed)
Drain off the liquor and wash the oysters well. Put them into a
saucepan over the fire and heat until the edges curl, being careful
to stir all the time. Strain the liquor. Chop the oysters fine. Rub
together one tablespoonful of butter and one rounded tablespoonful of
flour for each pint of chopped oysters. Add the oyster liquor and cook
until quite thick. Then add the chopped oysters and the yolk of one
egg, beaten well. After taking from the fire add one teaspoonful of
salt, one tablespoonful of minced parsley and the juice of one-half a
lemon. Let all stand until perfectly cold. Form into cutlets, dip into
egg, then into breadcrumbs and fry in hot fat.
Oyster canapés
(Contributed)
Toast ten slices of buttered bread and place in the oven to keep
warm. Wash and drain one quart of oysters. Throw them into a hot pan
and stir until the edges are curled. Add one teaspoonful of butter,
one-half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of cayenne. Dish on the slices
of toast, garnish with a thin slice of lemon for each one, and serve at
once.
Scalloped fish
The remains of any cold cooked fish may be utilized and made palatable
in this way. Get rid of skin, bones and fat. Pick fine, season well,
and mix with good drawn butter. Fill buttered scallop shells or
“nappies” with the mixture, strew with fine crumbs, stick bits of
butter on the top, add a “suspicion” of cayenne, and bake to a delicate
brown.
Oyster scallop
Cut each oyster in half, “draw” the butter in the oyster liquor and
proceed as in the preceding recipe.
SAUCES FOR FISH AND MEAT
Drawn butter (“white sauce”)
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan. When it bubbles put
in (all at once) two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir from the sides
towards the center of the pan until the ingredients are well mixed.
Have ready-heated a cupful of milk, add to this the “roux” gradually,
and beat to a smooth cream. Season with white pepper and salt, and, if
you like, a little onion juice.
Egg sauce
Make as above, beating the yolks of two raw eggs into the thickened
milk, and if for fish, adding the yolk and white of a hard-boiled egg
chopped fine, also a little minced parsley.
Brown sauce
Make as you would white, but substitute boiling water for the milk,
and browned flour for white. Add a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, the
juice of a lemon, pepper and salt.
Sauce tartare (No. 1)
Make a pint of mayonnaise dressing. Into this beat a teaspoonful of
mustard, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, a teaspoonful, each, of
chopped pickle and minced capers, a dozen drops of onion juice. Beat
for a minute, and serve in a sauceboat.
Sauce tartare (No. 2)
Make a cupful of drawn butter (using boiling water, not milk). Beat in
a teaspoonful of French mustard, half as much onion juice, a little
cayenne and salt, a heaping teaspoonful of finely-chopped pickle and
the beaten yolk of a raw egg at the last.
Hollandaise sauce
Into one cupful of drawn butter beat the yolk of an egg, then a good
teaspoonful of best salad oil, dropping as you would for mayonnaise.
Add, then, the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of pepper, one of salt,
and the same of sugar, and serve at once.
Béchamel sauce for meat
A roux of butter and flour should be thinned with a cupful of veal
or chicken stock, seasoned with onion juice, a small carrot, sliced,
pepper and salt. Strain the stock before mixing with the roux. Have
ready a cupful of rich milk or cream, heated with a pinch of soda; draw
the hot stock and roux from the fire, stir in the cream, and it is
ready for use.
Béchamel sauce for fish
Put the bones, head and a few ounces of fish meat in cold water over
the fire, with an onion and a small carrot, sliced, also a bay leaf;
boil down to one cupful of liquid, and use instead of veal or chicken
stock in last recipe. In all other respects make in the same way.
Oyster sauce
To a white roux of butter and flour add a cupful of boiling liquid made
by cooking a dozen oysters in hot water for two minutes. Drain the
oysters (which should be very small) and keep warm while you stir the
thinned roux to a smooth cream, and season it with a dash of cayenne, a
teaspoonful of lemon juice and a little salt. Boil one minute, put in
the oysters and take at once from the fire.
Lobster sauce
Make a rich-drawn butter and beat into it the coral of a lobster worked
smooth with a tablespoonful of butter. Add the juice of half a lemon,
cayenne and salt. Finally, add half a cupful of lobster meat, minced as
fine as powder. Heat and serve.
Horseradish sauce
Into a cupful of drawn butter beat a great spoonful of grated
horseradish wet with lemon juice, and work to creamy whiteness.
Anchovy sauce
Beat a tablespoonful of anchovy paste into a cupful of drawn butter,
adding the juice of half a lemon and a dash of cayenne or paprika.
Shrimp sauce
Into a cupful of drawn butter beat a good teaspoonful of anchovy sauce,
the juice of half a lemon, and half a can of shrimps minced fine and
made very hot in a tablespoonful of boiling butter. Simmer for two
minutes and serve.
An excellent fish sauce.
Celery sauce
Boil half a cupful of minced celery in a cupful of hot water for
fifteen minutes. Strain through a cloth, pressing hard. Return the
liquor to the fire and boil up. Then cook with it a roux made of two
tablespoonfuls of butter and the same of flour. Have ready the yolk of
an egg, beaten light. Pour the hot sauce upon it, stir less than one
minute over the fire, season with salt and paprika and pour out.
A nice accompaniment to boiled fowl and to boiled mutton.
Tomato sauce
Peel and slice a quart of tomatoes; cook twenty minutes and strain
through a coarse bag into a saucepan. Season with a teaspoonful of
onion juice, one of sugar, a little salt and pepper, and when it boils
stir in a tablespoonful of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour.
Simmer two minutes and serve.
Caper sauce
Into a cupful of good drawn butter stir a great spoonful of minced
capers and a teaspoonful of onion juice.
Maître d’hôtel sauce
Beat two tablespoonfuls of soft butter to a cream with the juice of
half a lemon and a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley. It should be
a fine, pale green when done. Serve cold with hot fish.
Mint sauce
Chop six sprays of mint very fine, and add to half a cupful of vinegar
in which have been dissolved two tablespoonfuls of white sugar and a
dash of pepper.
Serve cold with roast lamb.
Onion or soubise sauce
Boil two onions of fair size in two waters and until soft all through;
mince and mix with a cupful of drawn butter. Season with pepper and
salt, beat to a cream over the fire, and when very hot, serve.
Bread sauce
Heat a cupful of milk and season with a tablespoonful of butter, salt
and pepper to taste and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Boil up and stir
in lightly half a cupful of fine bread-crumbs, previously dried, but
not colored in the oven. They should be tossed up several times while
drying to prevent clotting, and be very crisp.
Serve with boiled chicken.
Béarnaise sauce
Beat the yolks of two eggs very light, put into a round-bottomed
saucepan and set in one of boiling water; stir into it, a few drops
at a time, three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, heating as you stir;
then, as gradually, the same quantity of boiling water; next, one
tablespoonful of lemon juice, a dash of cayenne and salt.
It is served with all sorts of fish, also with chops, cutlets and
steaks.
Claret or Bordelaise sauce
Make a brown sauce by substituting browned flour for white in the roux,
adding a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet. Season with onion juice, salt
and pepper, boil one minute, pour in a wineglassful of claret, heat for
half a minute more, and serve.
Serve with roast meats and poultry.
Cream cucumber sauce
Pare and mince with a keen knife two cucumbers of fair size. Drain off
the liquid without pressing, letting it drip for two minutes. Have
ready a chilled bowl rubbed with a clove of garlic. Put the mince into
it, season with white pepper, salt, a teaspoonful of onion juice and a
tablespoonful of lemon juice.
Mix lightly into it with a silver fork a cupful of whipped cream into
which has been beaten a pinch of soda.
Serve very cold with fish.
Plain cucumber sauce
When the cucumbers have been minced, drained and turned into the
chilled bowl scented with cut garlic, mix with them a good French
dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, one-third as much lemon juice, a
little salt and pepper.
N. B.—You may substitute for the garlic a tablespoonful of minced
chives blended with the dressing.
Serve cold with fish, and quickly, before the cucumbers wilt.
Cranberry sauce
Wash and pick over carefully a quart of cranberries. Put into the
inner vessel of a double boiler, fill the outer with boiling water and
cook, keeping the cranberries closely covered until they are broken
to pieces. Rub through your vegetable press into a saucepan, sweeten
abundantly, bring to a boil (barely), and turn into a wet mold to form.
Apple sauce
Pare, core and quarter tart apples, dropping into cold water as you do
this. Put over the fire dripping wet and cover closely to keep in the
steam. When they are heated through, open and stir up from the bottom.
When soft and broken, rub through colander or vegetable press, sweeten
to taste while hot and set away to cool.
Serve with roast pork and roast ducks.
Jelly sauce
Make a cupful of a brown sauce of butter, browned flour and a little
caramel. Heat boiling hot and beat in four or five teaspoonfuls of
currant or other tart jelly.
Serve with game, lamb or mutton.
Espagnole sauce
(Contributed)
Put four tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan. When hot stir
into it five tablespoonfuls of flour. Stir until very brown. Add two
cupfuls of brown stock and one tablespoonful of Worcester sauce. Salt
and pepper to taste. Let the sauce boil well and remove from the fire.
Serve with chops or steak.
Parsley sauce
(Contributed)
To a good white sauce add three tablespoonfuls of finely-chopped
parsley and a little green fruit coloring and let it come to a boil.
Cider sauce
(Contributed)