or,
The Second Section of FISH.
_Shewing the most Excellent Ways of Dressing of Pikes._
_To boil a Pike._
Wash him very clean, then truss him either round whole, with his
tail in his mouth, and his back scotched, or splatted and trust
round like a hart, with his tail in his mouth, or in three pieces, &
divide the middle piece into two pieces; then boil it in water,
salt, and vinegar, put it not in till the liquor boils, & let it
boil very fast at first to make it crisp, but afterwards softly; for
the sauce put in a pipkin a pint of white wine, slic't ginger, mace,
dates quartered, a pint of great oysters with the liquor, a little
vinegar and salt, boil them a quarter of an hour; then mince a few
sweet herbs & parsley, stew them till half the liquor be consumed;
then the pike being boiled dish it, and garnish the dish with grated
dry manchet fine searsed, or ginger fine beaten, then beat up the
sauce, with half a pound of butter, minced lemon, or orange, put it
on the pike, and sippet it with cuts of puff-paste or lozenges, some
fried greens, and some yellow butter. Dish it according to these
forms.
_To boil a Pike otherways._
Take a male pike alive, splat him in halves, take out his milt and
civet, and take away the gall, cut the sides into three pieces of a
side, lay them in a large dish or tray, and put upon them half a
pint of white wine vinegar, and half a handful of bay-salt beaten
fine; then have a clean scowred pan set over the fire with as much
rhenish or white-wine as will cover the pike, so set it on the fire
with some salt, two slic't nutmegs, two races of ginger slic't, two
good big onions slic't, five or six cloves of garlik, two or three
tops of sweet marjoram, three or four streight sprigs of rosemary
bound up in a bundle close, and the peel of half a lemon; let these
boil with a quick fire, then put in the pike with the vinegar, and
boil it up quick; whilest the pike is boiling, take a quarter of a
pound of anchoves, wash and bone them, then mince them and put them
in a pipkin with a quarter of a pound of butter, and 3 or four
spoonfuls of the liquor the pike was boiled in; the pike being
boiled dish it, & lay the ginger, nutmegs, and herbs upon it, run it
over with the sauce, and cast dried searsed manchet on it.
This foresaid liquor is far better to boil another pike, by renewing
the liquor with a little wine.
_To boil a Pike and Eel together._
Take a quart of white-wine, a pint and a half of white wine vinegar,
two quarts of water, almost a pint of salt, a handful of rosemary
and tyme, let your liquor boil before you put in your fish, the
herbs, a little large mace, and some twenty corns of whole pepper.
_To boil a Pike otherways._
Boil it in water, salt, and wine vinegar, two parts water, and one
vinegar, being drawn, set on the liquor to boil, cleanse the civet,
and truss him round, scotch his back, and when the liquor boils, put
in the fish and boil it up quick; then make sauce with some
white-wine vinegar, mace, whole pepper, a good handful of cockles
broiled or boiled out of the shells and washed with vinegar,
a faggot of sweet herbs, the liver stamped and put to it, and horse
raddish scraped or slic't, boil all the foresaid together, dish the
pike on sippets, and beat up the sauce with some good sweet butter
and minced lemon, make the sauce pretty thick, and garnish it as you
please.
_Otherways._
Take as much white-wine and water as will cover it, of each a like
quantity, and a pint of vinegar, put to this liquor half an ounce of
large mace, two lemon-peels, a quarter of an ounce of whole cloves,
three slic't nutmegs, four races of ginger slic't, some six great
onions slic't, a bundle of six or seven sprigs or tops of rosemary,
as much of time, winter-savory, and sweet marjoram bound up hard in
a faggot, put into the liquor also a good handful of salt, and when
it boils, put in the fish being cleansed and trussed, and boil it up
quick.
Being boiled, make the sauce with some of the broth where the pike
was boiled, and put it in a dish with two or three anchoves being
cleansed and minced, a little white wine, some grated nutmeg, and
some fine grated manchet, stew it on a chafing dish, and beat it up
thick with some sweet butter, and the yolk of an egg or two
dissolved with some vinegar, give it a warm, and put to it three or
four slices of lemon.
Then dish the pike, drain the liquor from it upon a chafing-dish of
coals, pour on the sauce, and garnish the fish with slic't lemons,
and the spices, herbs, and boil'd onions, run it over with beaten
butter, and lay on some barberries or grapes.
Sometimes for change you may put some horse-raddish scraped, or the
juyce of it.
_To boil a Pike in White Broth._
Cut your pike in three pieces, then boil it in water, salt, and
sweet herbs, put in the fish when the liquor boils; then take the
yolks of six eggs, beat them with a little sack, sugar, melted
butter, and some of the pike broth then put it on some embers to
keep warm, stir it sometimes lest it curdle; then take up your pike,
put the head and tail together in a clean dish, cleave the other
piece in two, and take out the back-bone, put the one piece on one
side, and the other piece on the other side, but blanch all, pour
the broth on it, and garnish the fish with sippets, strow on fine
ginger or sugar, wipe the edge of the dish round, and serve it.
_To Boil a Pike in the French Fashion, a-la-Sauces d'Almaigne,
or in the German Fashion._
Take a pike, draw him, dress the rivet, and cut him in three pieces,
boil him in as much wine as water, & some lemon-peel, with the
liquor boils put in the fish with a good handful of salt, and boil
him up quick.
Then have a sauce made of beaten butter, water, the slices of two or
three lemons, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some grated
nutmeg; the pike being boiled dish it on fine sippets, and stick it
with some fried bread run it over with the sauce, some barberries or
lemon, and garnish the dish with some pared and slic't ginger,
barberries, and lemon peel.
_To boil a Pike in the City Fashion._
Take a live male pike, draw him and slit the rivet, wash him clean
from the blood, and lay him in a dish or tray, then put some salt
and vinegar to it, (or no vinegar; but only salt); then set on a
kettle with some water & salt, & when it boils put in the pike, boil
it softly, and being boiled, take it off the fire, and put a little
butter into the kettle to it, then make a sauce with beaten butter,
the juyce of a lemon or two, grape verjuyce or wine-vinegar, dish up
the pike on fine carved sippets, and pour on the sauce, garnish the
fish with scalded parsley, large mace barberries, slic't lemon, and
lemon-peel, and garnish the dish with the same.
_To stew a Pike in the French Fashion._
Take a pike, splat it down the back alive, and let the liquor boil
before you put it in, then take a large deep dish or stewing pan
that will contain the pike, put as much claret-wine as will cover
it, & wash off the blood take out the pike, and put to the wine in
the dish three or four slic't onions, four blades of large mace,
gross pepper, & salt; when it boils put in the pike, cover it close,
& being stewed down, dish it up in a clean scowred dish with carved
sippets round abound it, pour on the broth it was stewed in all over
it, with the spices and onions, and put some slic't lemon over all,
with some lemon-peel; run it over with beaten butter, and garnish
the dish with dry grated manchet. Thus you may also stew it with the
scales on or off.
Sometimes for change use horse-raddish.
_To stew a Pike otherways in the City Fashion._
Take a pike, splat it, and lay it in a dish, when the blood is clean
washed out, put to it as much white-wine as will cover it, and set
it a stewing; when it boils put in the fish, scum it, and put to it
some large mace, whole cinamon, and some salt, being finely stewed
dish it on sippets finely carved.
Then thicken the broth with two or three egg yolks, some thick
cream, sugar, and beaten butter, give it a warm and pour it on the
pike, with some boil'd currans, and boil'd prunes laid all over it,
as also mace, cinamon, some knots of barberries, and slic't lemon,
garnish the dish with the same garnish, and scrape on fine sugar.
In this way you may do Carp, Bream, Barbel, Chevin, Rochet, Gurnet,
Conger, Tench, Pearch, Bace, or Mullet.
_To hash a Pike._
Scale and bone it, then mince it with a good fresh eel, being also
boned and flayed, put to it some sweet herbs fine stripped and
minced small, beaten nutmeg, mace, ginger, pepper, and salt; stew it
in a dish with a little white wine and sweet butter, being well
stewed, serve it on fine carved sippets, and lay on some great
stewed oysters, some fryed in batter, some green with juyce of
spinage, other yellow with saffron, garnish the dish with them, and
run it over with beaten butter.
_To souce a Pike._
Draw and wash it clean from the blood and slime, then boil it in
water and salt, when the liquor boils put it to it, and boil it
leisurely simmering, season it pretty savory of the salt, boil it
not too much, nor in more water then will but just cover it.
If you intend to keep it long, put as much white-wine as water, of
both as much as will cover the fish, some wine vinegar, slic't
ginger, large mace, cloves, and some salt; when it boils put in the
fish, spices, and some lemon-peel, boil it up quick but not too
much; then take it up into a tray, and boil down the liquor to a
jelly, lay some slic't lemon on it, pour on the liquor, and cover it
up close; when you serve it in jelly, dish and melt some of the
jelly, and run it all over, garnish it with bunches of barberries
and slic't lemon.
Or being soust and not jellied, serve it with fennil and parsley.
When you serve it, you may lay round the dish divers Small Fishes,
as Tench, Pearch, Gurnet, Chevin, Roach, Smelts, and run them over
with jelly.
_To souce and jelly Pike, Eeel, Tench, Salmon, Conger,_ &c.
Scale the foresaid fishes, being scal'd, cleansed and boned, season
them with nutmeg and salt, or no spices at all, roul them up and
bind them like brawn, being first rouled in a clean white cloth
close bound up round it, boil them in water, white-wine, and salt,
but first let the pan or vessel boil, put it in and scum it, then
put in some large mace and slic't ginger. If you will only souce
them boil them not down so much; if to jelly them, put to them some
ising-glass, and serve them in collars whole standing in the jelly.
_Otherways to souce and jelly the foresaid Fishes._
Make jelly of three tenches, three perches, and two carps, scale
them, wash out the blood, and soak them in fair water three or four
hours, leave no fat on them, then put them in a large pipkin with as
much fair spring water as will cover them, or as many pints as pound
of fish, put to it some ising-glass, and boil it close covered till
two parts and a half be wasted; then take it off and strain it, let
it cool, and being cold take off the fat on the top, pare the
bottom, and put the jelly into three pipkins, put three quarts of
white-wine to them, and a pound and a half of double refined sugar
into each pipkin; then to make one red put a quarter of an ounce of
whole cinamon, two races of ginger, two nutmegs, two or three
cloves, and a little piece of turnsole dry'd, the dust rubbed out
and steep'd in some claret-wine, put some of the wine into the
jelly.
To make another yellow, put a little saffron-water, nutmeg, as much
cinamon as to the red jelly, and a race of ginger sliced.
To the white put three blades of large mace, a race of ginger
slic't, then set the jelly on the fire till it be melted, then have
fiveteen whites of eggs beaten, and four pound and a half of refined
sugar, beat amongst the eggs, being first beaten to fine powder;
then divide the sugar and eggs equally into the three foresaid
pipkins, stir it amongst the sugar very well, set them on the fire
to stew, but not to boil up till you are ready to run it; let each
pipkin cool a little before you run it, put a rosemary branch in
each bag, and wet the top of your bags, wring them before you run
them, and being run, put some into orange rinds, some into scollop
shells, or lemon rindes in halves, some into egg shells or muscle
shells, or in moulds for Jellies. Or you may make four colours, and
mix some of the jelly with almonds-milk.
You may dish the foresaid jellies on a pie-plate on a great dish in
four quarters, and in the middle a lemon finely carved or cut into
branches, hung with jellies, and orange peels, and almond jellies
round about; then lay on a quarter of the white jelly on one quarter
of the plate, another of red, and another of amber-jelly, the other
whiter on another quarter, and about the outside of the plate of all
the colours one by another in the rindes of oranges and lemons, and
for the quarters, four scollop shells of four several colours, and
dish it as the former.
_Pike Jelly otherways._
Take a good large pike, draw it, wash out the blood, and cut it in
pieces, then boil it in a gallon or 6 quarts of fair spring water,
with half a pound of ising-glass close covered, being first clean
scum'd, boil it on a soft fire till half be wasted; then strain the
stock or broth into a clean bason or earthen pan, and being cold
pare the bottom and top from the fat and dregs, put it in a pipkin
and set it over the fire, melt it, and put it to the juyce of eight
or nine lemons, a quart of white-wine, a race of ginger pared and
slic't, three or four blades of large mace, as much whole cinamon,
and a grain of musk and ambergriese tied up in a fine clean clout,
then beat fifteen whites of eggs, and put to them in a bason four
pound of double refined sugar first beaten to fine powder, stir it
with the eggs with a rouling pin, and then put it among the jelly in
the pipkin, stir them well together, and set it a stewing on a soft
charcoal fire, let it stew there, but not boil up but one warm at
least, let it stew an hour, then take it off and let it cool a
little, run it through your jelly-bag, put a sprig of rosemary in
the bottom of the bag, and being run, cast it into moulds. Amongst
some of it put some almond milk or make it in other colours as
aforesaid.
_To make White Jelly of two Pikes._
Take two good handsome pikes, scale and draw them, and wash them
clean from the blood, then put to them six quarts of good
white-wine, and an ounce of ising-glass, boil them in a good large
pipkin to a jelly, being clean scummed, then strain it and blow off
the fat.
Then take a quart of sweet cream, a quart of the jelly, a pound and
a half of double refined sugar fine beaten, and a quarter of a pint
of rose-water, put all together in a clean bason, and give them a
warm on the fire, with half an ounce of fine searsed ginger, then
set it a cooling, dish it into dice-work, or cast it into moulds and
some other coloured Jellies. Or in place of cream put in
almond-milk.
_To roast a Pike._
Take a pike, scour off the slime, and take out the entrails, lard
the back with pickled herrings, (you must have a sharp bodkin to
make the holes to lard it) then take some great oysters and
claret-wine, season the oysters with pepper and nutmeg, stuff the
belly with oysters, and intermix the stuffing with rosemary, tyme,
winter savory, sweet marjoram, a little onion, and garlick, sow
these in the belly of the pike; then prepare two sticks about the
breadth of a lath, (these two sticks and the spit must be as broad
as the pike being tied on the spit) tie the pike on winding
packthred about it, tye also along the side of the pike which is not
defended by the spit and the laths, rosemary, and bays, baste the
pike with butter and claret wine with some anchoves dissolved in it;
when the pike is wasted or roasted, take it off, rip up the belly,
and take out the whole herbs quite away, boil up the gravy, dish the
pike, put the wine to it, and some beaten butter.
_To fry Pikes._
Draw them, wash off the slime and the blood clean, wipe them dry
with a clean cloth, flour them, and fry them in clarifi'd butter,
being fried crisp and stiff, make sauce with beaten butter, slic't
lemon, nutmeg, and salt, beaten up thick with a little fried
parsley.
Or with beaten butter, nutmeg, a little claret, salt, and slic't
orange.
Otherways, oyster-liquor, a little claret, beaten butter, slic't
orange, and nutmeg, rub the dish with a clove of garlick, give the
sauce a warm, and garnish the fish with slic't lemon or orange and
barberries. Small pikes are best to fry.
_To fry a Pike otherways._
The pike being scalded and splatted, hack the white or inside with a
knife, and it will be ribbed, then fry it brown and crisp in
clarified butter, being fried, take it up, drain all the butter from
it, and wipe the pan clean, then put it again into the pan with
claret, slic't ginger, nutmeg, an anchove, salt, and saffron beat,
fry it till it half be consumed, then put in a piece of butter,
shake it well together with a minced lemon or slic't orange, and
dish it, garnish it with lemon, and rub the dish with a clove of
garlick.
_To broil a Pike._
Take a pike, draw it & scale it, broil it whole, splat it or scotch
it with your knife, wash out the blood clean, and lay it on a clean
cloth, salt it, and heat the gridiron very hot, broil it on a soft
fire, baste it with butter, and turn it often; being finely broil'd,
serve it in a dish with beaten butter, and wine-vinegar, or juyce of
lemons or oranges, and garnish the fish with slices of oranges or
lemons, and bunches of rosemary.
_Otherways._
Take a pike, as abovesaid, being drawn, wash it clean, dry it, and
put it in a dish with some good sallet oyl, wine vinegar, and salt,
there let it steep the space of half an hour, then broil it on a
soft fire, turn it and baste it often with some fine streight sprigs
of rosemary, parsley, and tyme, baste it out of the dish where the
oyl and vinegar is; then the pike being finely broil'd, dish it in a
clean dish, put the same basting to it being warmed on the coals,
lay the herbs round the dish, with some orange or lemon slices.
_To broil Mackarel or Horn kegg._
Draw the Mackarel at the gills, and wash them, then dry them, and
salt and broil them with mints, and green fennil on a soft fire, and
baste them with butter, or oyl and vinegar, and being finely
broil'd, serve them with beaten butter and vinegar, or oyl and
vinegar, with rosemary, time, and parsley; or other sauce, beaten
butter, and slices of lemon or orange.
_To broil Herrings, Pilchards, or Sprats._
Gill them, wash and dry them, salt and baste them with butter, broil
them on a soft fire, and being broi'ld serve them with beaten
butter, mustard, and pepper, or beaten butter and lemon; other
sauce, take the heads and bruise them in a dish with beer and salt,
put the clearest to the herrings.
_To bake Pikes._
Bake your pikes as you do carp, as you may see in the foregoing
Section, only remember that small pikes are best to bake.
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