This excellent relish may be prepared with advantage in January and
February, when the codfish come to our markets full of roes. Having
procured some roes and livers as soon after they are taken out of the
fish as possible, tie them up separately in cloths, and put them into
a pan of boiling water, in which common salt one pound, and saltpetre
one ounce to the gallon, have been dissolved, and let them simmer by
the fireside, the roes for four hours and the livers for two hours,
and let them get cold in the water they were boiled in. When taken up,
carefully remove all the skins and dark specks――coagulated blood――and
pound them separately in a mortar, until of a perfectly smooth paste.
Then mix them in the proportion of two and a half ounces of the liver
to one and a half ounce of the roes, and work them well together on a
dish――a clean board is better――with a broad knife, until not a bit of
film or one dark speck can be seen. Make a mixture of
Cinnamon, in finest powder ¼ oz.
Cloves, in finest powder 1 oz.
Mace, in finest powder ½ oz.
Cayenne pepper, in finest powder ½ oz.
Bay leaves 1 oz.
Sift these, and add table salt to your taste. Lay paper shavings in
the bottom of a stone jar, and upon them a piece of new calico, and
then proceed to make alternate layers of leaves of bay and your fish,
with one laurel leaf on each layer of the roes. Tie paper over the
jar, and subject it to the heat of a water-bath in a large saucepan
for three hours; then let it cool a night, and take out the contents
of the jar, observing, when near the bottom to let none of the oil
below the calico, mix with your fish. Now take out the leaves, mix all
the fish well together, and salt, if you think it requisite, and fill
clean little jars and potting pots with it; dry them a little in a slow
oven, and when cold pour clarified butter over, and finish with wetted
bladder, &c. &c.