FISH.

_To boil Turbot._

The turbot kettle must be of a proper size, and in the nicest order. Set

the fish in cold water to cover it completely: throw a handful of salt

and one glass of vinegar into it; let it gradually boil; be very careful

that there fall no blacks, but skim it well, and preserve the beauty of

the colour.

Serve it garnished with a complete fringe of curled parsley, lemon, and

horseradish.

The sauce must be the finest lobster, and anchovy butter, and plain

butter, served plentifully in separate tureens.

_To stew Lamprey, as at Worcester._

After cleaning the fish carefully, remove the cartilage which runs down

the back, and season with a small quantity of cloves, mace, nutmeg,

pepper, and pimento. Put it in a small stewpot, with very strong beef

gravy, with port and equal quantity of Madeira or sherry wine.

It must be covered; stew till tender; then take out the lamprey and keep

it hot, while you boil up the liquor with two or three anchovies

chopped, and some flour and butter: strain the gravy through a sieve,

and add lemon juice and some made mustard. Serve with sippets of bread

and horseradish.

Eels, soals, and carp, done the same way, are excellent. When there is

spawn, it must be fried and put round.

Note. Cyder instead of white wine will do in common.

_Eel Pye._

Cut the eels in lengths of two or three inches: season with pepper and

salt, and place in the dish, with some bits of butter and a little

water, and cover it with paste.

_Spitchcock Eels._

Take a large one, leave the skin on, cut it in pieces of four inches

long, open it on the belly side, and clean it nicely: wipe it dry, and

then wet it with a beaten egg, and strew it over on both sides with

chopped parsley, pepper, salt, a very little sage, and a bit of mace

pounded fine, and mixed with the seasoning. Rub the gridiron with a bit

of suet, and broil the fish of a fine colour.

Serve with anchovy and butter for sauce.

_Fried Eels._

If small, they should be curled round and fried, being first dipped in

egg and crumbs of bread.

_Boiled Eels._

The small ones are preferable. Do them in a small quantity of water,

with a good deal of parsley, which should be served up with them and the

liquor.

Serve chopped parsley and butter for sauce.

_Eel Broth_,

Very nourishing for the sick.

As above; but to be stewed two hours, and an onion and peppercorns

added: salt to taste.

_Collared Eels._

Bone a large eel, but do not skin it: mix pepper, salt, mace, pimento,

and a clove or two, in the finest powder, and rub over the whole inside:

roll it tight, and bind it with a coarse tape. Boil it in salt and water

till enough; then add vinegar, and when cold, keep the collar in pickle.

Serve it whole, or in slices, garnished with parsley. Chopped sage,

parsley, and a little thyme, knotted marjorum, and savory, mixed with

the spices, greatly improve the taste.

_Perch and Tench._

Put them in cold water, boil them carefully, and serve with melted

butter and soy.

_Mackerel._

Boiled, and served with butter and fennel.

Broiled, being split and sprinkled with herbs, pepper and salt; or

stuffed with the same, crumbs and chopped fennel.

Collared, as eel above.

Potted. Clean, season, and bake them in a pan, with spice, bayleaves,

and some butter: when cold, lay them in a potting pot, and cover with

butter.

Pickled. Boil them; then boil some of the liquor, a few peppers,

bayleaves, and some vinegar: when cold, pour it over them.

_To pickle Mackerel, called Caveach._

Clean and divide, then cut each side in three; or, leaving them

undivided, cut each fish in five or six pieces. To six large mackerel,

take near an ounce of pepper, two nutmegs, a little mace, four cloves,

and a handful of salt, all in finest powder; mix, and, making holes in

each bit of fish, thrust the seasoning into them; rub each piece with

some of it; then fry them brown in oil; let them stand till cold, then

put them into a stone jar, and cover with vinegar: if to keep long, pour

oil on the top. This done, they may be preserved for months.

_To bake Pike._

Scale it, and open as near the throat as you can; then stuff it with the

following: grated bread, herbs, anchovies, oysters, suet, salt, pepper,

mace, half a pint of cream, four yelks of eggs; mix all, over the fire,

till it thickens, then put it into the fish, sew it up. Butter should be

put over in little bits: bake it. Serve sauce of gravy, butter, and

anchovy. _Note._ If, in helping a pike, the back and belly be slit up,

and each slice be gently drawn downwards, there will be fewer bones

given.

_Salmon to boil._

Clean it carefully, boil it gently, and take it out of the water as soon

as done; and let the water be warm if the fish be split.

Shrimp or anchovy sauce.

_Salmon to pickle._

Boil as above, take the fish out and boil the liquor with bayleaves,

peppercorns and salt; add vinegar when cold, and pour over the fish.

_Salmon to broil._

Cut slices about an inch thick; season, and put them into papers; twist

them, and broil gently. Serve in the papers. Anchovy sauce.

_Salmon to pot._

Take a large piece, scale and wipe, but do not wash it; salt it very

well: let it lie till the salt be melted and drained from it, then

season with beaten mace, cloves, and whole peppers. Lay in a few

bayleaves, put it close in a pan, and cover it over with butter, and

bake it. When well done, drain it from the gravy, put it in the pots to

keep; and when cold, cover with clarified butter.

Thus you may do any firm fish.

_Salmon to dry._

Cut the fish down, take out the inside and roe. Rub the whole with

common salt, after scaling it; let it hang to drain twenty four hours.

Pound three or four ounces of saltpetre, according to the size of the

fish, two ounces of bay salt, and two ounces of coarse sugar: rub these,

when mixed well, into the Salmon, and lay it on a large dish or tray two

days, then rub it well with common salt, and in twenty four hours more

it will be fit to dry: but you must dry it well after draining. Either

hang in a wood chimney, or in a dry place, keeping it open with two

small sticks.

_Lobsters to pot._

Boil them half, pick out the meat, cut into small bits: season with

mace, white pepper, nutmeg, and salt: press close into a pot and cover

with butter: bake half an hour: put the spawn in. When cold, take the

lobster out, and with a little of the butter put it into the pots. Beat

the other butter in a mortar with some of the spawn; then mix that

coloured butter with as much as will be sufficient to cover the pots,

and strain it. Cayenne may be added, if approved.

_Another way, as at Wood’s Hotel._

Take out the meat as whole as you can; split the tail and remove the

gut; if the inside be not watery, add that. Season with mace, nutmeg,

white pepper, salt, and a clove or two, in finest powder. Lay a little

fine butter at the bottom of a pan, and the lobster smooth over it, with

bayleaves between: cover it with butter and bake it gently. When done,

pour the whole on the bottom of a sieve, and with a fork lay the pieces

into potting pots, some of each sort with the seasoning about it. When

cold, pour clarified butter over, but not hot. It will be good next day;

or highly seasoned, and thick covered with butter, will keep some time.

The potted lobster may be used cold, or as a fricassee, with a cream

sauce, when it looks very nicely, and eats excellently, especially if

there be spawn.

Mackerel, herrings, and trout, are good potted as above.

_Stewed Lobster, as a very high Relish._

Pick the lobster, put the berries into a dish that has a lamp, and rub

them down with a bit of butter, two spoonfuls of any sort of gravy, one

of soy or walnut catsup, a little salt and Cayenne, and a spoonful of

port. Stew the lobster cut in bits with the gravy as above. It must be

dressed at table, and eaten immediately.

_Lobster Pie._

Boil two lobsters, or three small; take out the tails, cut them in two,

take out the gut, cut each in four pieces and lay them in a small dish.

Put in then the meat of the claws, and that you have picked out of the

body; pick off the furry parts from the latter, and take out the lady;

then take the spawn, beat it in a mortar, likewise all the shells. Set

them on to stew with some water, two or three spoonfuls of vinegar,

pepper, salt, and some pounded mace. A large piece of butter, rolled in

flour, must be added when the goodness of the shells is obtained. Give a

boil or two and pour into the dish strained: strew some crumbs over, and

put a paste over all. Bake slowly, but only till the paste be done.

_Curry of Lobsters or Prawns._

When taken out of the shells, simmer them as above.

_Buttered Lobsters._

Pick the meat out; cut it and warm with a little weak brown gravy,

nutmeg, salt, pepper, and butter, with a little flour. If done white, a

little white gravy and cream.

_Hot Crab._

Pick the meat out of a crab, clear the shell from the head, then put the

former, with a very small bit of nutmeg, salt, pepper, a bit of butter,

crumbs of bread, and three spoonfuls of vinegar, into the shell again,

and set it before the fire. You may brown it with a salamander.

Dry toast should be served to eat it upon.

_To dress Red Herrings._

Choose those that are large and moist; cut them open, and pour some

boiling small beer over them, to soak half an hour. Drain them dry, and

make them just hot through before the fire; then rub some cold butter

over them and serve. Egg sauce, or buttered eggs and mashed potatoes,

should be served with them.

_Baked Herrings or Sprats._

Wash and drain without wiping them. Season with Jamaica pepper in fine

powder, salt, a whole clove or two: lay them in a pan with plenty of

black pepper, an onion, and a few bayleaves. Put half vinegar and half

small beer, enough to cover them. Put paper over the pan, and bake in a

slow oven. If you like, throw saltpetre over them the night before, to

make them look red. Gut, but do not open them.

_To smoke Herrings._

Clean and lay them in salt, and a little saltpetre one night; then hang

them on a stick, through the eyes, on a row. Have ready an old cask, on

which put some sawdust, and in the midst of it a heater red hot; over

the smoke fix the stick, and let them remain twenty four hours.

_Fried Herrings._

Serve them of a light brown, and onions sliced and fried.

_Broiled Herrings._

Floured first, and done of a good colour. Plain butter for sauce. They

are very good potted like mackerel.

_Soals._

If boiled, they must be served with great care to look perfectly white,

and should be much covered with parsley.

If fried, dip them in egg, and cover them with fine crumbs of bread. Set

on a fryingpan that is just large enough, and put into it a large

quantity of fresh lard or dripping; boil it, and immediately slip the

fish into it. Do them of a fine brown. When enough, take them out

carefully, and lay them upon a dish turned under side uppermost, and

placed slantingly before the fire to drain off the fat. If you wish them

to be particularly nice, lay them on clean cap paper, and let lie some

minutes.

Observe, that fish never looks well if not fried in plenty of fat, and

_that_ boiling hot, before it be put into it. The dripping may serve

again with a little fresh. Take care the fat does not become black.

Butter makes every thing black that is fried in it. The soals should

just fit the inside of the dish, and a fringe of curled parsley garnish

the edge completely, which looks beautifully.

Soals that have been fried, eat good cold with oil, vinegar, salt, and

mustard. _Note._ Fine oil gives the finest colour, but is expensive.

_Stewed Soals, and Carp_,

Are to be done like lampreys.

_Soals, in the Portuguese way._

Take one large or two lesser; if the former, cut the fish in two; if

they are small, they need only be split. The bones being taken out, put

the fish into a pan, with a bit of butter and some lemonjuice: give it a

fry; then lay the fish on a dish, and spread a forcemeat over each

piece, and roll it round, fastening the roll with a few small skewers.

Lay the rolls into a small earthen pan; beat an egg and wet them, then

strew crumbs over, and put the remainder of the egg, with a little meat

gravy, a spoonful of caper liquor, an anchovy chopped fine, and some

parsley chopped, into the bottom of the pan; cover it close, and bake,

until the fish be done enough, in a slow oven. Then place the rolls in

the dish for serving; cover it to keep it hot until the gravy baked be

skimmed: if not enough, a little fresh, flavoured as above, must be

prepared and added to it.

The stuffing to be made as on the following page.

_Stuffing for Soals baked._

Pound cold beef, mutton, or veal, a little, then add some fat bacon,

that has been lightly fried, cut small, and some onions, a little

garlick or shalot, some parsley, anchovy, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

Pound all fine with a few crumbs, and bind it with two or three yelks of

eggs.

The heads of the fish are to be left on one side of the split part, and

kept on the outer side of the roll; and when served, the heads are to be

turned towards each other in the dish.

Garnish with fried or dried parsley.

_Soal, Cod, or Turbot Pie: another sort of stuffing._

Boil two pounds of eels tender; pick all the flesh clean from the bones;

throw the latter into the liquor the eels were boiled in, with a little

mace, salt and parsley, and boil till very good, and come to a quarter

of a pint, and strain it. In the mean time cut the flesh of the eels

fine, likewise some lemonpeel, parsley, and an anchovy: put to them

pepper, salt, nutmeg, and some crumbs. Melt four ounces of butter and

mix, then lay it in a dish at the bottom: cut the flesh of two or three

soals clean from the bones, and fins; lay it on the forcemeat, and pour

the eelbroth in. The bones of the soals should be boiled with those of

the eels. You may boil them with one or two little eels, and pour it,

well seasoned, on the fish, and put no forcemeat.

_An excellent way of dressing a large Plaice, especially if there be a

roe._

Sprinkle it with salt, and keep it twenty four hours, then wash and wipe

it dry: wet it over with eggs; cover with crumbs of bread; make some

lard or fine dripping, and two large spoonfuls of vinegar boiling hot,

lay the fish in, and fry it a fine colour. Drain it from the fat, and

serve with fried parsley round, and anchovy sauce. You may dip the fish

in vinegar, and not put it in the pan.

_To fry Smelts._

They should not be washed more than necessary to clean. Dry in a cloth,

then lightly flour, but shake it off. Dip them in plenty of egg, then

into bread crumbs grated fine, and plunge them into a good pan of

boiling lard. Let them continue gently boiling, and a few minutes will

make them a bright yellow brown. Take care not to take off the light

roughness of the crumbs, or their beauty will be lost.

_Boiled Carp._

Serve in a napkin, and with the sauce directed for it among sauces.

_Cod’s head and shoulders_,

Will eat much finer, by having a little salt rubbed down the bone, and

along the thick part, even if to be eaten the same day.

Tie it up, and put on the fire in cold water which will completely cover

it: throw a handful of salt in it. Great care must be taken to serve it

without the smallest speck of black or scum. Garnish with a large

quantity of double parsley, lemon, horseradish, and the milt, roe, and

liver, and smelts fried, if approved. If the latter, be cautious that no

water hang about the fish, or the beauty of the smelts will be taken

off, as well as their flavour.

Serve with plenty of oyster or shrimp sauce, and anchovy, and butter.

Some people boil the cod whole; but there is no fish, that is more

proper to help, than in a large head and shoulders, the thinner parts

being overdone and tasteless before the thick be ready: but the whole

fish may be purchased, at times, more reasonably, and the lower half, if

sprinkled the least, and hung up, will be in high perfection one or two

days: or it may be made salter, and served with egg sauce, potatoes, and

parsnips.

_Crimp Cod._

Boil, broil, or fry.

_Cod sounds boiled._

Soak them in warm water till soft, then scrape and clean; and if to be

dressed white, boil them in milk and water, and when tender serve them

in a napkin. Egg sauce.

_Cod sounds ragout._

Prepare as above, then stew them in white gravy seasoned; cream, butter,

and a little bit of flour added before you serve, gently boiling up. A

bit of lemonpeel, nutmeg, and the least pounded mace, should give the

flavour.

_Curry of Cod_,

Should be made of sliced cod that has either been crimped, or sprinkled

a day to make it firm. Fry it of a fine brown, with onions, and stew it

with a good white gravy, a little curry powder, a bit of butter and

flour, three or four spoonfuls of rich cream, salt and Cayenne.

_Fish Pie._

Cod or Haddock, sprinkled with salt to give firmness, slice and season

with pepper and salt, and place in a dish mixed with oysters. Put the

oyster liquor, a little broth, and a bit of flour and butter, boiled

together, into the dish cold. Put a paste over; and when it comes from

the oven, pour in some warm cream. If you please you may put parsley

instead of oysters.

_Haddock._

Do the same as cod, and serve with the same sauce; or, stuff with

forcemeat as page eleventh. Or broil them with stuffing.

_Oysters to stew._

Open them and separate the liquor from them, then wash them from the

grit: strain the liquor, and put with the oysters a bit of mace and

lemonpeel, and a few white peppers. Simmer them very gently, and put

some cream, and a little flour and butter.

Serve with sippets.

_Scalloped Oysters._

Put them with crumbs of bread, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a bit of

butter, in scallop shells or saucers, and bake them before the fire, in

a Dutch oven.

_Oyster Patties or small Pie._

As you open the oysters, separate them from the liquor, which strain;

parboil them, after taking off the beards. Parboil sweetbreads, and

cutting them in slices, lay them and the oysters in layers: season very

lightly with salt, pepper, and mace. Then put half a teacup of liquor,

and the same of gravy. Bake in a slow oven; and before you serve, put a

teacup of cream, a little more oyster liquor and a cup of white gravy,

all warmed, but not boiled. If for patties, the oysters should be cut in

small dice, gently stewed, and seasoned as above, and put into the paste

when ready for table.

_Fried Oysters, to garnish boiled fish._

Make a batter of flour, milk, and eggs; season it a very little; dip the

oysters in it, and fry them a fine yellow brown. A little nutmeg should

be put into the seasoning, and a few crumbs of bread into the flour.

_To pickle Oysters._

Wash four dozen of oysters in their own liquor; then strain, and in it

simmer them till scalded enough: take them out and cover them. To the

liquor put a few peppercorns, a blade of mace, a table spoonful of salt,

three of white wine, and four of vinegar: simmer fifteen minutes; and

when cold, pour it on the oysters, and keep them in a jar close covered.

_Another way._

Open the number you intend to pickle: put them into a saucepan, with

their own liquor, for ten minutes; simmer them very gently; then put

them into a jar, one by one, that none of the grit may stick to them,

and cover them, when cold, with the pickle thus made. Boil the liquor

with a bit of mace, lemon peel, and black peppers; and to every hundred,

put two spoonfuls of the best undistilled vinegar.

They should be kept in small jars, and tied close with bladder, for the

air will spoil them.

_Stuffing for Pike, Haddock, &c._

Of fat bacon, beefsuet, and fresh butter, equal parts; some parsley,

thyme, and savory; a little onion, and a few leaves of scented marjoram,

shred finely; an anchovy or two; a little salt and nutmeg, and some

pepper.

If you have oysters, three or four may be used instead of anchovies. Mix

all with crumbs of bread, and two yelks and whites of eggs, well beaten,

and parsley shred fine.

_Sprats_,

When cleaned, should be fastened in rows by a skewer, run through the

heads, and then broiled and served hot and hot.

Sprats baked, as herrings, page 8.

—— fried, as do. page 9.

_To dress fresh Sturgeon._

Cut slices, rub egg over, then sprinkle with crumbs of bread, parsley,

pepper, salt, and fold in paper, and broil gently.

Sauce; butter, anchovy, and soy.

_Thornback, or Skate_,

Should be hung one day at least, before it be dressed, and may be served

either boiled, or fried in crumbs, being first dipped in egg.

_Crimp Skate._

Boiled, and sent up in a napkin; or fried as above.

_Maids_,

Should be likewise hung one day at least. May be boiled or fried; or if

of a tolerable size, the middle may be boiled and the fins fried. They

should be dipped in egg, and covered with crumbs.