trout in cold spring water; dry it in a towel. Cut half a pound of salt
pork into small pieces; put these into a thoroughly clean frying-pan;
fry out the clear fat, and remove the small pieces of pork. Rub a
little fine table-salt in the inside of the fish, and when the pork-fat
is smoking hot, add the fish to it; turn it three times before it is
done. When nicely browned, serve it on a hot dish, and send it to the
table without adding condiments of any kind. Should you be able to
procure fresh butter, a little may be put on the fish before it is
served, but it must be of the very best quality.
=Broiled Trout.=--The foregoing is a recipe for cooking trout
immediately after catching them. After they are brought to our city
markets from distant mountain streams, however, they are most toothsome
when broiled over a declining fire, and require a seasoning of salt,
pepper, and a little lemon-juice mixed with the sweetest of sweet
butter. Serve with hot plates.
=Brook Trout, Baked.=--Trout weighing a pound or over are best
when served baked, though many sportsmen will not listen to this
proposition. The outside of a large trout is almost ruined in broiling
before the centre of the fish is cooked. Do not split the fish down the
back. Take half a pint of fine grated bread-crumbs, and soak them in
a little milk; squeeze out the milk; add two ounces of table butter,
a saltspoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of white pepper, the
juice of a quarter of a lemon, and the slightest sprig of thyme; add
the yolk of one raw egg; mix; open the trout just enough to clean it
properly; remove the gills (leave the heads on), fill the cavity with
the stuffing, and sew it up carefully. Put the fish in a tin, on top
of it place small bits of butter previously rolled in flour, place it
in a good oven, and bake with the back toward the hottest part of the
oven. The length of time it will take to cook properly is from twenty
to thirty minutes, very often a little longer, for much depends on the
temperature of the oven.
=Brook Trout, Boiled.=--To boil trout seems an outrage; but when
one receives a large quantity of them, and there is danger of their
spoiling if not immediately used, put four small trout properly cleaned
into a saucepan, cover them with claret, add a slice of lemon, two
cloves, four whole peppers, the least bit of mace, and a heaping
saltspoonful of salt. Simmer slowly three-quarters of an hour; remove
the saucepan from the range, and when cold take out the fish, put them
in a dish, and pour the boiled wine over them. Serve at luncheon or
collations.
The head, tail, and fins of trout should not be removed before cooking.
MISCELLANEOUS.
=Catfish, Fried.=--Catfish and waffles is a combination dear to the
hearts of Philadelphians, and the road-houses near that city are
celebrated for cooking them. Select the fish already cleaned, as it
is a troublesome job to clean them, and pick out the white instead of
the red catfish; rub a little salt along the backbone on the inside,
and let the fish stand over night. Next day dredge them with corn-meal
or flour, and fry in a little fat; sprinkle salt and pepper over them
before serving.
=The Tenderloin Trout.=--Large catfish are caught in Southern rivers;
and while they are fair eating, they are not popular with the whites in
the vicinity of New Orleans. The restaurant people, however, cut the
fish into pieces an inch square and about four inches long; these are
dipped in egg, rolled in crumbs, and fried and served as tenderloin
trout.
=Fricasseed Eels.=--Cut up three pounds of eels into pieces of three
inches in length; put them into a stewpan, and cover them with Rhine
wine (or two-thirds water and one-third vinegar); add fifteen oysters,
two pieces of lemon, a bouquet of herbs, one onion quartered, six
cloves, three stalks celery, a pinch of cayenne, pepper and salt to
taste. Stew the eels one hour; remove them from the dish; strain the
liquor. Put it back into the stewpan with a gill of cream and an ounce
of butter rolled in flour; simmer gently a few minutes, pour over the
fish, and serve.
=Eel Patties.=--Take three medium-sized eels, and cut them up into
inch pieces. Put them in a stewpan, add salt, and cover them with cold
water. When the water comes to a boil, take them off the fire, wash
them in cold water, scrape off any fat that may adhere, return them to
the stewpan with just enough hot water to cover them, and add a blade
of mace, a bay leaf, a few whole peppers, a few sprigs of parsley, and
one lemon cut into slices. Stew gently until the fish will separate
from the bone; remove the fish from the broth, pick it into small
pieces, and set them aside; reduce the broth a little, strain, and
thicken with flour and butter. Return the fish to the broth, simmer a
moment, fill your patties, and serve; make patty-shells as directed for
oyster patties.
=Stewed Eels, Hoboken Turtle Club Style.=--Cut into three-inch pieces
two pounds of medium-sized cleaned eels. Rub the inside of each piece
with salt. Let stand half an hour, then parboil them. Boil an onion in
a quart of milk, and remove the onion. Drain the eels from the water,
and add them to the milk. Season with half a teaspoonful of chopped
parsley, salt and pepper, and the slightest suspicion of mace. Simmer
until the flesh falls from the bones.
Fried eels should be slightly salted before cooking them. Do not cover
them with batter, but dredge them with just flour enough to absorb all
moisture, then cover them with boiling fat, as for doughnut cooking.
Many New England families use corn-meal to dredge them with instead of
flour.
Eels _en matelotte_, or sailor fashion, are appreciated by many. Cut
them into three-inch pieces, and salt them. Fry an onion brown in a
little dripping; add half a pint of broth to the brown onion, part
of a bay leaf, six broken peppercorns, four whole cloves, and a gill
of claret. Add the eels to this, and simmer until thoroughly cooked.
Remove the eels, put them on a hot dish, add a teaspoonful of browned
flour to the sauce, strain, and pour over the eels.
=Pan Bass, Anchovy Butter.=--During February, March, and the first part
of April, there may be found in market a variety of bass which much
resembles the Oswego bass. They come from the Carolinas and Virginia,
and are excellent eating. Let them stand an hour in salt water, then
drain and wipe dry, and fry them in tried-out salt-pork fat. Serve them
with a butter made as follows: Mix together a teaspoonful of anchovy
paste with a tablespoonful of sweet butter, and, if not objected to,
add a few blades of chopped chives.
The chive has the flavor peculiar to the onion family, but in a mild
form. It is cultivated by truck gardeners, and may be found on the New
York vegetable stands as early as January. The retail price at the
first of the season is ten cents a tuft; as it becomes more plentiful,
it is offered at five cents.
Placed in the kitchen, it grows luxuriantly,--in fact, it grows faster
than it can be used by a small family. This very useful herb should be
in the kitchen window of every home where soups and salads are rightly
appreciated.
The chive grows wild in nearly all of the Middle and Eastern States,
and the first green spot seen in our parks is more than likely to be
chives. Cows eat it, and their milk has a slight garlic flavor. The
garlic flavor in milk is decidedly objectionable; yet the early Dutch
settlers planted the chives in the pastures for the cows to eat,
thereby imparting to the milk this peculiar flavor.
=Fillet of Flounder, Tartar Sauce.=--Cut the flesh from the bone
lengthwise, and then cut each piece into strips an inch wide. Dip them
in beaten egg. Roll them in cracker-crumbs, and fry in hot fat enough
to cover them. This dish appears on our French bills-of-fare as _filet
de sole_. Serve with _sauce tartare_.
=Fried Tomcods.=--These delicate, sweet-flavored pan-fish are called
frost-fish by dealers, but the fishermen along the Hudson call them
“Tommies.” Whatever name they are known by, they are delicious morsels
when fresh caught. Clean them without removing the heads, dry them in
a napkin, and salt their insides, dredge them with a little flour,
and fry them crisp in hot smoking fat. Put the clean fish into a
baking-tin. Over each fish place a thin slice of bacon, add salt and
pepper, and bake them twenty minutes in a hot oven.
=Broiled Salt Codfish.=--Cut half of a small codfish into medium-sized
square pieces; split them in two, and soak them over night in cold
water. Drain, and dry them in a napkin, next morning. Rub a little
butter over each piece, and broil them. Place them on a hot platter,
and pour a little melted butter over them.
Drawn butter is sometimes served with this dish. It should be very
smooth looking, and have a starchy appearance. Divide three ounces
of butter into little balls. Dredge them with flour. Put one-fourth
of them into a saucepan, and when they begin to melt, whisk to a
smooth consistency. Now add one more of the floured balls, and whisk
thoroughly until incorporated with the first. Repeat this process
until all are used. When smooth and thick, stir in a teaspoonful of
lemon-juice, and, if liked, a little chopped parsley.
=Broiled Salt Mackerel.=--“I like salt mackerel, but it does not
agree with me,” is a remark often heard in nearly all classes of
society. Many imagine they can eat cured fish with the same degree of
recklessness and lack of regard for dietetic laws which they often
show in eating more digestible food. They soon discover, however, that
something is radically wrong; just where the blame rests, is a matter
they settle to their own satisfaction by declaring that salt mackerel
was not intended for civilized people, because they are unable to eat
it without experiencing disagreeable after-effects.
Salt mackerel is really wholesome food, but, like all cured food, is
not so digestible as when fresh: it is therefore necessary to restore
it as near as possible to its original freshness. This is done by a
thorough soaking in a liberal quantity of fresh water. There is no
danger of the fish becoming too fresh; if it does, it is an easy matter
to add fresh salt, which is much more acceptable than condensed brine.
In selecting salt mackerel, examine them carefully. If rusty in
appearance reject them, “for rust in fish, if I am not mistaken, is
as bad as rust in steel or rust in bacon.” Large fish are likely to
be poor and coarse; a medium-sized or No. 2 is the most profitable
provided the white or under part of the fish is fat. After soaking
thoroughly, rub a little melted butter or olive-oil over them, and
broil not too close to the fire; do not cook them enough to dry up all
moisture, as they would then be unpalatable. After broiling, plunge
them into boiling water for a moment to swell them,--this treatment
gives the fish the appearance of being fat,--place on a hot plate, add
a little melted butter, a dash of pepper, and finally the juice of half
a lemon.
To avoid the unpleasantness referred to, drink all liquids first,
before eating a mouthful of the fish; masticate the food thoroughly
and slowly, and the result will be surprising. Those who eat salt fish
alternated with mouthfuls of liquid must expect the oily particles to
rise up, and create a gastronomic disturbance.
=Fried Porgies with Salt Pork.=--The much-abused porgy is one of the
sweetest of pan-fish. Select four good-sized porgies, and clean them,
but do not remove the heads. Cut into small dice a quarter of a pound
of fat salt pork, fry out the fat, and when it is very hot fry the fish
in it. While they are cooking, broil four small thin slices of the
pork, and serve by placing them on top of the fish. Pork gives a more
delicate flavor to the fish than bacon.
=Fish Curries.=--Cold boiled or baked fish is simply a luxury when
warmed up in a delicious curry sauce. This dish may be served at
breakfast or luncheon. Americans are fast learning the usefulness of
curry-powders; as yet they demand a mild form of curry, and a little
flour is added to the sauce to tone down the pungency of the curry.
=A Plain Fish Curry.=--Fry an onion quite brown in a little butter or
oil, add a teaspoonful of curry-powder and half a pint of hot water.
Dissolve a teaspoonful of flour in a little cold water; when free from
lumps add it to the sauce, then strain; divide the cold fish into
flakes, and warm it up in the sauce.
=Curry of Scallops.=--Wash a quart of scallops in cold water, drain,
put them in a saucepan, and let them simmer gently one hour. Blanch two
ounces of sweet almonds, remove husks, and fry a delicate brown; drain
from the hot butter, and pound to a paste with a clove of garlic, the
grated rind of a lemon. Mix two teaspoonfuls of curry, a little sauce,
and an ounce of butter, put it in the frying-pan, and add gradually
one half-pint of the scallop broth and the almond paste. Now add a
pint of hot milk; simmer until the liquid is reduced one-third, add the
scallops, and serve.
=Curry of Crayfish.=--These may be purchased by the quart at all
seasons. They are already boiled. Prepare the curry sauce as above
described, add the crayfish, and serve with rice; over all squeeze the
juice of a sweet orange.
=Curry of Eels, with Rice.=--Cut into two-inch pieces one medium-sized
eel or two small ones; put them in a saucepan, and cover with boiling
water; add a little salt, a piece of lemon-peel, and a tablespoonful
of vinegar; boil slowly one hour, and drain. Cut up a small onion, and
fry it brown in a little butter; add a pint of the water in which the
fish was boiled, and a teaspoonful of walnut catsup. Mix together a
teaspoonful of flour with a gill of cold water, rub it smooth, and add
a teaspoonful of dry curry-powder. Mix, and add it to the pan, strain,
and return to the pan; then add the eels; simmer fifteen minutes, and
serve surrounded by a border of boiled rice.
=Curry of Shad Roe.=--Fry half an onion very brown in a heaping
teaspoonful of dripping; add a teaspoonful of curry-powder, and a few
moments later add a gill of hot water; simmer five minutes, and add
a teaspoonful of flour dissolved in a little water. When it begins to
thicken, strain. While preparing the sauce, boil two roes in water well
salted. When done, place them on a hot platter, and pour the sauce over
them.
=Curry of Frogs’ Legs.=--This is an excellent dish. Wash one pound
of frogs’ legs in cold water; brown one-fourth of an onion in oil or
butter; add a teaspoonful of curry and a pint of hot water; pour this
in a saucepan, and add the frogs; simmer an hour and a half, and drain.
Mix a teaspoonful each of rice-flour and curry to a paste, with the
broth; add salt to taste, and half a pint of milk. Place on the range,
and when hot add the frogs. Blanch two dozen sweet almonds; rub off
the skins, split them, and toss them about in hot butter; season with
pepper and salt; when done squeeze a little lemon-juice over them, and
send to table on separate dish with the curry.
=Broiled Weakfish.=--When freshly caught, this is an excellent fish
and well flavored; but it loses its flavor when kept on ice more than
a day, and the flesh becomes soft and spongy. In color the weakfish is
of a bluish-gray, with faint speckled back and sides, belly white, the
fins yellow. It is in season from May to October, and is best-flavored
in the latest two months of that time. Select a medium-sized fish for
broiling; see that the flesh is firm, the eyes bright, and the gills
a bright red, and free from a soft, flabby appearance. Place the
well-cleaned whole fish on the table or fish-board, back towards you;
make an incision close to the head, down to the bone; hold the head
firmly with the left hand, and cut the fish in two lengthwise, keeping
the knife close to the bone the whole length of the fish; remove the
bone. (The bone and head may be boiled a few hours, seasoned, and
the broth used in fast-day soups.) Cut each piece of fish in two,
crosswise; rub on a little sweet oil or melted butter; broil the outer
side first, then the inner side, and serve with this side upwards on
the hot dish; pour over the fish well-made drawn butter (which see).
=Baked Whitefish, Bordeaux Sauce.=--Clean and stuff the fish. Put it in
a baking-pan, and add a liberal quantity of butter, previously rolled
in flour, to the fish. Put in the pan half a pint of claret, and bake
for an hour. Remove the fish, and strain the gravy; add to the latter
a gill more of claret, a teaspoonful of brown flour, and a pinch of
cayenne, and serve with the fish.
=Halibut, Egg Sauce.=--Select a three-pound piece of white halibut,
cover it with a cloth, and place it in a steamer; set the steamer over
a pot of fast boiling water, and steam two hours; place it on a hot
dish, surrounded with a border of parsley; and serve with egg-sauce,
which is made as follows:--
=Egg Sauce.=--Cream an ounce of butter; add to it one tablespoonful of
dry flour, a saltspoonful of salt, and half a saltspoonful of white
pepper (black pepper spoils its color). Stir it briskly, and add half
a pint of hot water. Divide an ounce of butter into little balls, roll
them in flour, and add them one at a time; stir constantly, and care
should be exercised not to allow the sauce to brown or discolor. Chop
three cold hard-boiled eggs, and add them to the sauce; let it heat
thoroughly, and serve in a boat.
=Fried Butterfish.=--These flat, slate-colored little fish are
excellent when quite fresh; and as they are easily cleaned, they are
recommended to house-keepers. Fry them in tried-out salt-pork fat,
which gives them a very nice flavor.
=Broiled Shad.=--The secret of having the fish juicy, and at the same
time properly cooked, is to rub a little olive-oil over it before
broiling, and broil it over a fire free from smoke or flame. Charcoal
affords the best fire. The sulphurous fumes of hard coal injure the
flavor of the fish. When done, have ready a little sweet butter melted
and mixed with salt, white pepper (black pepper spoils the looks of the
fish), half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley to two ounces of butter,
and the juice of half a lemon. Place the fish on a hot dish, pour the
hot sauce over it, and serve with hot plates.
=Baked Shad.=--Broiling is, next to planking, the best way of cooking
this excellent fish; but a baked shad is not to be despised. Prepare it
as follows:--
Make a stuffing of soaked bread-crumbs, butter, pepper, and salt; place
it lengthwise in a pan; roll walnuts of butter in flour, and put four
to six of them on top of the fish; fill the space around the fish with
inch slices of raw potato, and bake forty minutes. When done, serve
potatoes and fish together.
=Shad Roe à la Poulette.=--Cover a pair of roes with water slightly
salted; add a tablespoonful of vinegar and a slice of lemon; simmer
twenty minutes, and drain; put into a saucepan an ounce of butter; when
it begins to melt, whisk it, and add the juice of half a lemon.
Beat up the yolk of one egg with a gill of cream containing half a
teaspoonful of flour rubbed free from lumps; whisk this gently into the
warm butter; keep it quite warm until it thickens, but do not boil, or
it will curdle. Pour it over the shad roes, strew over the top a trifle
of chopped parsley, and serve.
=Broiled Royans.=--These delicate little fish are excellent as whet at
dinner-parties, and may be served _au naturel_, or broiled, or served
on toast. Procure them from the nearest grocer, open the can carefully
to prevent breaking the fish, remove the skin, and broil them over a
slow fire; arrange them on toast, squeeze a little lemon-juice over
them, and serve.
=Broiled Sardines.=--When neatly prepared, this forms an excellent
breakfast or luncheon dish.
Remove the sardines from the can without breaking them; scrape off the
skin, place them between double wire broilers, and broil to a delicate
brown; arrange neatly in a hot dish, squeeze a little lemon-juice over
them, and serve. Orange-juice is very nice with the above dish.
=Broiled Smelts, Sauce Tartare.=--Thoroughly clean half a dozen smelts,
split them in two, place them on a double wire broiler, and broil. Send
to table with _sauce tartare_, which is made as follows: Chop together
a few sprigs of parsley, six capers, one small pickle, a piece of
onion as large as a bean. Add these to half a pint of mayonnaise, mix,
and add a teaspoonful of French mustard, mix again, and serve.
=Smelts Fried, Sauce Tartare.=--Clean six small smelts, leave on the
heads, dip them in beaten egg, roll them in fine cracker-dust, and fry
in very hot fat. Serve with sauce tartare.
=Broiled Whitefish.=--The whitefish is one of the best of summer fish,
but does not stand long transportation very well. See that the flesh is
firm, and free from flabbiness. Cut the fish in two lengthwise, remove
the backbone, divide each piece in two; brush over it a little sweet
butter or olive-oil, and broil over a moderate fire for ten minutes.
Place it in a hot dish, squeeze the juice of a lemon over it, add salt
and pepper and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Garnish with tufts of
parsley and thin slices of lemon, and serve.
=Sheeps-head with Drawn Butter.=--The Englishman who wrote the
extraordinary statement that sheeps-head sometimes sold for “four or
five pounds sterling in New York” may be pleased to learn that the
price for this excellent fish is fifteen to eighteen cents per pound
on an average, and that the best mode of preparing it for table is to
boil or steam it, although broiled sheeps-head is very good.
Procure a medium-sized fish, clean it thoroughly, and rub a little salt
over it; wrap it in a cloth, and put it in a steamer; place this over a
pot of fast boiling water, and steam one hour; then lay it whole upon a
hot side-dish, garnish with tufts of parsley and slices of lemon, and
serve with drawn butter prepared as follows:--
=Drawn Butter.=--Take four ounces of butter, and roll it into small
balls; dredge these with flour; put one-fourth of them in a saucepan,
and as they begin to melt whisk them; add the remainder, one at a
time, until thoroughly smooth; while stirring add a tablespoonful of
lemon-juice and half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley; pour into a hot
sauce-boat, and serve.
=Broiled Sheeps-head.=--Split the fish in two lengthwise, and remove
the head and bone, brush over the fish a liberal quantity of melted
butter or oil, then broil over a fire free from flame or smoke. When
done, squeeze the juice of a lemon over the fish, then add salt,
pepper, and a pat of the choicest table butter.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Other
variations in hyphenation, spelling and punctuation remain unchanged.