or,
The Fifth Section of FISH.
_Shewing the best way to Dress Eels, Conger, Lump, and Soals._
_To boil Eels to be eaten hot._
Draw them, flay them, and wipe them clean, then put them in a posnet
or stew-pan, cut them three inches long, and put to them some
white-wine, white-wine vinegar, a little fair water, salt, large
mace, and a good big onion stew the foresaid together with a little
butter; being finely stewed and tender, dish them on carved sippets,
or on slices of French bread, and serve them with boil'd currans
boil'd by themselves, slic't lemon, barberries, and scrape on sugar.
_Otherways._
Draw and flay them, cut them into pieces, and boil them in a little
fair water, white-wine, an anchove, some oyster-liquor, large mace,
two or three cloves bruised, salt, spinage, sorrel, and parsley
grosly minced with a little onion and pepper, dish them upon fine
carved sippets; then broth them with a little of that broth, and
beat up a lear with some good butter, the yolk of an egg or two, and
the rinde and slices of a lemon.
_To stew Eels._
Flay them, cut them into pieces, and put them into a skillet with
butter, verjuyce, and fair water as much as will cover them, some
large mace, pepper, a quarter of a pound of currans, two or three
onions, three or four spoonfuls of yeast, and a bundle of sweet
herbs, stew all these together till the fish be very tender, then
dish them, and put to the broth a quarter of a pound of butter,
a little salt, and sugar, pour it on the fish, sippet it, and serve
it hot.
_To stew Eels in an Oven._
Cut them in pieces, being drawn and flayed, then season them with
pepper, salt, and a few sweet herbs chopped small, put them into an
earthen pot, and set them up on end, put to them four or five cloves
of garlick, and two or three spoonfulls of fair water, bake them,
and serve them on sippets.
_To stew Eels otherways to be eaten hot._
Draw the eels, flay them, and cut them into pieces three inches
long, then put them into a broad mouthed pipkin with as much
white-wine and water as will cover them put to them some stripped
tyme, sweet marjoram, savory, picked parsley, and large mace, stew
them well together and serve them on fine sippets, stick bay-leaves
round the dish garnish the meat with slic't lemon, and the dish with
fine grated manchet.
_To stew whole Eels to be eaten hot._
Take three good eels, draw, flay them, and truss them round, (or in
pieces,) then have a quart of white-wine, three half pints of
wine-vinegar, a quart of water, some salt, and a handful of rosemary
and tyme bound up hard, when the liquor boils put in the eels with
some whole pepper, and large mace; being boil'd, serve them with
some of the broth, beat up thick with some good butter and slic't
lemon, dish them on sippets with some grapes, barberries, or
gooseberries.
_Otherways._
Take three good eels, draw, flay, and scotch them with your knife,
truss them round, or cut them in pieces, and fry them in clarified
butter, then stew them between two dishes, put to them some two or
three spoonfuls of claret or white-wine, some sweet butter, two or
three slices of an orange, some salt, and slic't nutmeg; stew all
well together, dish them, pour on the sauce, and run it over with
beaten butter, and slices of fresh orange, and put fine sippets
round the dish.
_To dress Eels in Stoffado._
Take two good eels, draw, flay them, and cut them in pieces three
inches long, put to them half as much claret wine as will cover
them, or white-wine, wine-vinegar, or elder-vinegar, some whole
cloves, large mace, gross pepper, slic't ginger, salt, four or five
cloves of garlick, being put into a pipkin that will contain it, put
to them also three or four sprigs of sweet herbs, as rosemary, tyme,
or sweet marjoram; 2 or 3 bay leaves, and some parsley; cover up the
pipkin, and paste the cover, then stew it in an oven, in one hour it
will be baked, serve it hot for dinner or supper on fine sippets of
French bread, and the spices upon it, the herbs, slic't lemon, and
lemon-peel, and run it over with beaten butter.
_To souce Eels in Collars._
Take a good large silver eel, flay it (or not) take out the back
bone, and wash and wipe away the blood with a dry cloth, then season
it with beaten nutmeg and salt, cut off the head and roul in the
tail; being seasoned in the in side, bind it up in a fine white
cloth close and streight; then have a large skillet or pipkin, put
in it some fair water and white wine, of each a like quantity, and
some salt, when it boils put in the eel; being boil'd tender take it
up, and let it cool, when it is almost cold keep it in sauce for
your use in a pipkin close covered, and when you will serve it take
it out of the cloth, pare it, and dish it in a clean dish or plate,
with a sprig of rosemary in the middle of the Collar: Garnish the
dish with jelly, barberries and lemon.
If you will have it jelly, put in a piece of ising-glass after the
eel is taken up, and boil the liquor down to a jelly.
_To jelly Eels otherways._
Flay an eel, and cut it into rouls, wash it clean from the blood,
and boil it in a dish with some white-wine, and white-wine vinegar,
as much water as wine and vinegar, and no more of the liquor than
will just cover it; being tender boil'd with a little salt, take it
up and boil down the liquor with a piece of ising-glass, a blade of
mace, a little juyce of orange and sugar; then the eel being dished,
run the clearest of the jelly over it.
_To souce Eels otherways in Collars._
Take two fair eels, flay them, and part them down the back, take out
the back-bone, then take tyme, parsley, & sweet marjoram, mince them
small, and mingle them with nutmeg, ginger, pepper, and salt; then
strow it on the inside of the eels, then roul them up like a collar
of brawn, and put them in a clean cloth, bind the ends of the cloth,
and boil them tender with vinegar, white-wine, salt, and water, but
let the liquor boil before you put in the Eels.
_To souce Eels otherways in a Collar or Roll._
Take a large great eel, and scowr it with a handful of salt, then
split it down the back, take out the back bone and the guts, wipe
out the blood clean, and season the eel with pepper, nutmeg, salt,
and some sweet herbs minced and strowed upon it, roul it up, and
bind it up close with packthred like a collar of brawn, boil it in
water, salt, vinegar, and two or three blades of mace, boil it half
an hour; and being boil'd, put to it a slic't lemon, and keep it in
the same liquor; when you serve it, serve it in a collar or cut it
out in round slices, lay six or seven in a dish, and garnish it in
the dish with parsley and barberries, or serve with it vinegar in
saucers.
_To souce Eels otherways cut in pieces, or whole._
Take two or three great eels, scowr them in salt, draw them and wash
them clean, cut them in equal pieces three inches long, and scotch
them cross on both sides, put them in a dish with wine-vinegar, and
salt; then have a kettle over the fire with fair water and a bundle
of sweet herbs 2 or three great onions, and some large mace; when
the kettle boils put in the eels, wine, vinegar, and salt; being
finely boil'd and tender, drain them from the liquor and when they
are cold take some of the broth and a pint of white wine, boil it up
with some saffron beaten to powder, or it will not colour the wine;
then take out the spices of the liquor where it was boiled and put
it in the last broth made for it, leave out the onions and herbs of
the first broth, and keep it in the last.
_To make a Hash of Eels._
Take a good large eel or two, flay, draw, and wash them, bone and
mince them, then season them with cloves and mace, mix with them
some good large oysters, a whole onion, salt, a little white-wine,
and an anchove, stew them upon a soft fire, and serve them on fine
carved sippets, garnish them with some slic't orange and run them
over with beaten butter thickned with the yolk of an egg or two,
some grated nutmeg, and juyce of orange.
_To make a Spitch-Cock, or broil'd Eels._
Take a good large eel, splat it down the back, and joynt the
back-bone; being drawn, and the blood washed out, leave on the skin,
and cut it in four pieces equally, salt them, and bast them with
butter, or oyl and vinegar; broil them on a soft fire, and being
finely broil'd, serve them in a clean dish, with beaten butter and
juyce of lemon, or beaten butter, and vinegar, with sprigs of
rosemary round about them.
_To broil salt Eels._
Take a salt eel and boil it tender, being flayed and trust round
with scuers, boil it tender on a soft fire, then broil it brown, and
serve it in a clean dish with two or three great onions boil'd whole
and tender, and then broil'd brown; serve them on the eel with oyl
and mustard in saucers.
_To roast an Eel._
Cut it three inches long, being first flayed and drawn, split it,
put it on a small spit, & roast it, set a dish under it to save the
gravy, and roast it fine and brown, then make sauce with the gravy,
a little vinegar, salt, pepper, a clove or two, and a little grated
parmisan, or old _English_ cheese, or a little botargo grated; the
eel being roasted, blow the fat off the gravy, and put to it a piece
of sweet butter, shaking it well together with some salt, put it in
a clean dish, lay the eel on it, and some slices of oranges.
_To roast Eels otherways._
Take a good large silver eel, draw it, and flay it in pieces of four
inches long, spit it on a small spit with some bay-leaves, or large
sage leaves between each piece spit it cross ways, and roast it;
being roasted, serve it with beaten butter, beaten with juyce of
oranges, lemons, or elder vinegar, and beaten nutmeg, or serve it
with venison sauce, and dredge it with beaten caraway-seed, cinamon,
flour, or grated bread.
_To bake Eels in Pye, Dish or Patty-pan._
Take good fresh water eels, draw, and flay them, cut them in pieces,
and season them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, lay them in a pye
with some prunes, currans, grapes, gooseberries, or barberries,
large mace, slic't dates and butter, close it up and bake it, being
baked, liquor it with white-wine, sugar, and butter, and ice it.
If you bake it in a dish in paste, bake it in cold butter paste,
rost the eel, & let it be cold, season it with nutmeg pepper,
ginger, cinamon, and salt, put butter on the paste, and lay on the
eel with a few sweet herbs chopped, and grated bisket-bread, grapes,
currans, dates, large mace, and butter, close it up and bake it,
liquor it, and ice it.
_Otherways._
Take good fresh water eels; flay and draw them, season them with
nutmeg, pepper, and salt, being cut in pieces, lay them in the pie,
and put to them some two or three onions in quaters, some butter,
large mace, grapes, barberries or gooseberries, close them up and
bake them; being baked liquor them with beaten butter, beat up thick
with the yolks of two eggs, and slices of an orange.
Sometimes you may bake them with a minced onion, some raisins of the
sun, and season them with some ginger, pepper, and salt.
_To bake Eels otherways._
Take half a douzen good eels, flay them and take out the bones,
mince them and season them with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, lay some
butter in the pye, and lay a lay of Eel, and a lay of watred salt
Eel, cut into great lard as big as your finger, lay a lay of it, and
another of minced eel, thus lay six or seven lays, and on the top
lay on some whole cloves, slic't nutmeg, butter, and some slices of
salt eel, close it up and bake it, being baked fill it up with some
clarified butter, and close the vent. Make your pye round according
to this form.
_To bake Eels with Tenches in a round or square Pie to eat cold._
Take four good large eels, flayed and boned, and six good large
tenches, scale, splat, and bone them, cut off the heads and fins, as
also of the eels; cut both eels, and tenches a handful long, &
season them with pepper, salt and nutmeg; then lay some butter in
the bottom of the pie, lay a lay of eels, and then a lay of tench,
thus do five or six layings, lay on the top large mace, & whole
cloves and on that butter, close it up and bake it; being baked and
cold, fill it up with clarified butter.
Or you may bake them whole, and lay them round in the pye, being
flayed, boned, and seasoned as the former, bake them as you do a
lampry, with two or three onions in the middle.
_To make minced Pies of an Eel._
Take a fresh eel, flay it and cut off the fish from the bone, mince
it small, and pare two or three wardens or pears, mince of them as
much as of the eel, or oysters, temper and season them together with
ginger, pepper, cloves, mace, salt, a little sanders, some currans,
raisins, prunes, dates, verjuyce, butter, and rose-water.
_Minced Eel Pyes otherways._
Take a good fresh water eel flay, draw, and parboil it, then mince
the fish being taken from the bones, mince also some pippins,
wardens, figs, some great raisins of the sun, season them with
cloves, mace, pepper, salt, sugar, saffron, prunes, currans, dates
on the top, whole raisins, and butter, make pies according to these
forms; fill them, close them up and bake them, being baked, liquor
them with grape verjuyce, slic't lemon, butter, sugar, and
white-wine.
_Other minced Eel Pyes._
Take 2 or three good large eels, being cleans'd, mince them & season
them with cloves, mace, pepper, nutmeg, salt, and a good big onion
in the bottom of your pye, some sweet herbs chopped, and onions, put
some goosberries and butter to it, and fill your pie, close it up
and bake it, being baked, liquor it with butter and verjuyce, or
strong fish broth, butter, and saffron.
_Otherways._
Mince some wardens or pears, figs, raisins, prunes, and season them
as abovesaid with some spices, but no onions nor herbs, put to them
goosberries, saffron, slic't dates, sugar, verjuyce, rose-water, and
butter; then make pyes according to these forms, fill them and bake
them, being baked, liquor them with white batter, white-wine and
sugar, and ice them.
_To boil Conger to be eaten hot._
Take a piece of conger being scalded and wash'd from the blood and
slime, lay it in vinegar & salt, with a slice or two of lemon, and
some large mace, slic't ginger, and two or three cloves, then set
some liquor a boiling in a pan or kettle, as much wine and water as
will cover it when the liquor boils put in the fish, with the
spices, and salt, and when it is boil'd put in the lemon, and serve
the fish on fine carved sippets; then make a lear or sauce with
beaten butter, beat with juyce of oranges or lemons, serve it with
slic't lemon on it, slic't ginger and barberries; and garnish it
with the same.
_To stew Conger._
Take a piece of conger, and cut it into pieces as big as a hens egg,
put them in a stew-pan or two deep dishes with some large mace,
salt, pepper, slic't nutmeg, some white-wine, wine vinegar, as much
water, butter, and slic't ginger, stew these well together, and
serve them on sippets with slic't orange, lemon, and barberries, and
run them over with beaten butter.
_To marinate Conger._
Scald and draw it, cut it into pieces, and fry it in the best sallet
oyl you can get; being fried put it in a little barrel that will
contain it; then have some fryed bay-leaves, large mace, slic't
ginger, and a few whole cloves, lay these between the fish, put to
it white-wine, vinegar, and salt, close up the head, and keep it for
your use.
_To souce Conger._
Take a good fat conger, draw it at two several, vents or holes,
being first scalded and the fins shaved off, cut it into three or
four pieces, then have a pan of fair water, and make it boil, put in
the fish, with a good quantity of salt, and let it boil very softly
half an hour: being tender boil'd, set it by for your use for
present spending; but to keep it long, boil it with as much wine as
water, and a quart of white-wine vinegar.
_To souce Conger in Collars like Brawn._
Take the fore part of a conger from the gills, splat it, and take
out the bone, being first flayed and scalded, then have a good large
eel or two, flay'd also and boned, seasoned in the inside with
minced nutmeg, mace, and salt, seasoned and cold with the eel in the
inside, bind it up hard in a clean cloth, boil it in fair water,
white-wine and salt.
_To roast Conger._
Take a good fat conger, draw it, wash it, and scrape off the slime,
cut off the fins, and spit it like an S. draw it with rosemary and
time, put some beaten nutmeg in his belly, salt, some stripped time,
and some great oysters parboil'd, roast it with the skin on, and
save the gravy for the sauce, boil'd up with a little claret-wine,
beaten butter, wine vinegar, and an anchove or two, the fat blown
off, and beat up thick with some sweet butter, two or three slices
of an orange, and elder vinegar.
Or roast it in short pieces, and spit it with bay-leaves between,
stuck with rosemary. Or make venison sauce, and instead of roasting
it on a spit, roast it in an oven.
_To broil Conger._
Take a good fat conger being scalded and cut into pieces; salt them,
and broil them raw; or you may broil them being first boiled and
basted with butter, or steeped in oyl and vinegar, broil them raw,
and serve them with the same sauce you steeped them in, bast them
with rosemary, time, and parsley, and serve them with the sprigs of
those herbs about them, either in beaten butter, vinegar, or oyl and
vinegar, and the foresaid herbs: or broil the pieces splatted like a
spitch-cock of an eel, with the skin on it.
_To fry Conger._
Being scalded, and the fins shaved off, splat it, cut it into rouls
round the conger, flour it, and fry it in clarified butter crisp,
sauce it with butter beaten with vinegar, juyce of orange or lemon,
and serve it with fryed parsley, fryed ellicksanders, or clary in
butter.
_To bake Conger in Pasty proportion._
[Illustration]
_In Pye Proportion._
Bake it any way of the sturgeon, as you may see in the next Section,
to be eaten either hot or cold, and make your pies according to
these forms.
_To stew a Lump._
Take it either flayed (or not) and boil it, being splated in a dish
with some white-wine, a large mace or two, salt, and a whole onion,
stew them well together, and dish them on fine sippets, run it over
with some beaten butter, beat up with two or three slices of an
orange, and some of the gravy of the fish, run it over the lump, and
garnish the meat with slic't lemon, grapes, barberries, or
gooseberries.
_To bake a Lump._
Take a lump, and cut it into pieces, skin and all, or flay it, and
part it in two pieces of a side, season it with nutmeg, pepper, and
salt, and lay it in the pye, lay on it a bay-leaf or two, three or
four blades of large mace, the slices of an orange, gooseberries,
grapes, barberries, and butter, close it up and bake it, being baked
liquor it with beaten butter.
Thus you make bake it in a dish, pye, or patty-pan.
_To boil Soals._
Draw and flay them, then boil them in vinegar, salt, white-wine and
mace, but let the liquor boil before you put them in; being finely
boil'd, take them up and dish them in a clean dish on fine carved
sippets, garnish the fish with large mace, slic't lemon,
gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, and beat up some butter thick
with juyce of oranges, white-wine, or grape verjuyce and run it over
the fish. Sometimes you may put some stew'd oysters on them.
_Otherways._
Take the soals, flay and draw them, and scotch one side with your
knife, lay them in a dish, & pour on them some vinegar and salt, let
them lie in it half an hour, in the mean time set on the fire some
water, white-wine, six cloves of garlick, and a faggot of sweet
herbs; then put the fish into the boiling liquor, and the vinegar
and salt where they were in steep; being boiled, take them up and
drain them very well, then beat up sweet butter very thick, and mix
with it some anchoves minced small, and dissolved in the butter,
pour it on the fish being dished, and strow on a little grated
nutmeg, and minced orange mixt in the butter.
_To stew Soals._
Being flayed and scotched, draw them and half fry them, then take
some claret wine, and put to it some salt, grated ginger, and a
little garlick, boil this sauce in a dish, when it boils put the
soals therein, and when they are sufficiently stewed upon their
backs, lay the two halves open on the one side and on the other;
then lay anchoves finely washed and boned all along, and on the
anchoves slices of butter, then turn the two sides over again, and
let them stew till they be ready to be eaten, then take them out of
the sauce, and lay them on a clean dish, pour some of the liquor
wherein they were stewed upon them, and squeeze on an orange.
_Otherways._
Draw, flay, and scotch them, then flour them and half fry them in
clarified butter, put them in a clean pewter dish, and put to them
three or four spoonfuls of claret wine, two of wine vinegar, two
ounces of sweet butter, two or three slices of an orange, a little
grated nutmeg, and a little salt; stew them together close covered,
and being well stewed dish them up in a clean dish, lay some sliced
lemon on them, and some beaten butter, with juyce of oranges.
_To dress Soals otherways._
Take a pair of Soals, lard them with water'd salt Salmon, then lay
them on a pye-plate, and cut your lard all of an equall length, on
each side lear it but short; then flour the Soals, and fry them in
the best ale you can get; when they are fryed lay them on a warm
dish, and put to them anchove sauce made of some of the gravy in the
pan, and two or three anchoves, grated nutmeg, a little oyl or
butter, and an onion sliced small, give it a warm, and pour it on
them with some juyce, and two or three slices of orange.
_To souce Soals._
Take them very new, and scotch them on the upper or white side very
thick, not too deep, then have white-wine, wine vinegar, cloves,
mace, sliced ginger, and salt, set it over the fire to boil in a
kettle fit for it; then take parsley, tyme, sage, rosemary, sweet
marjoram, and winter savory, the tops of all these herbs picked, in
little branches, and some great onions sliced, when it boils put in
all the foresaid materials with no more liquor than will just cover
them, cover them close in boiling, and boil them very quick, being
cold dish them in a fair dish, and serve them with sliced lemon, and
lemon-peels about them and on them.
_Otherways._
Draw them and wash them clean, then have a pint of fair water with
as much white-wine, some wine vinegar & salt; when the pan or kettle
boils, put in the soals with a clove or two, slic't ginger, and some
large mace; being boil'd and cold, serve them with the spices, some
of the gravy they were boil'd in, slic't lemon, and lemon-peel.
_To jelly Soals._
Take three tenches, 2 carps, and four pearches, scale them and wash
out the blood clean, then take out all the fat, and to every pound
of fish take a pint of fair spring-water or more, set the fish a
boiling in a clean pipkin or pot, and when it boils scum it, and put
in some ising-glass, boil it till one fourth part be wasted, then
take it off and strain it through a strong canvas cloth, set it to
cool, and being cold, divide it into three or four several pipkins,
as much in the one as in the other, take off the bottom and the top,
and to every quart of broth put a quart of white-wine, a pound and a
half of refined sugar, two nutmegs, 2 races of ginger, 2 pieces of
whole cinamon, a grain of musk, and 8 whites of eggs, stir them
together with a rowling-pin, and equally divide it into the several
pipkins amongst the jellies, set them a stewing upon a soft charcoal
fire, when it boils up, run it through the jelly-bags, and pour it
upon the soals.
_To roast Soals._
Draw them, flay off the black skin, and dry them with a clean cloth,
season them lightly with nutmeg, salt, and some sweet herbs chopped
small, put them in a dish with some claret-wine and two or three
anchoves the space of half an hour, being first larded with small
lard of a good fresh eel, then spit them, roast them and set the
wine under them, baste them with butter, and being roasted, dish
them round the dish; then boil up the gravy under them with three or
four slices of an orange, pour on the sauce, and lay on some slices
of lemon.
Marinate, broil, fry and bake Soals according as you do Carps, as
you may see in the thirteenth Section.
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