See Obs. on Codfish after No. 149.

Turbot to boil.—(No. 140).

This excellent fish is in season the greatest part of the summer; when good, it is at once firm and tender, and abounds with rich gelatinous nutriment.Being drawn, and washed clean, if it be quite fresh, by rubbing it lightly with salt, and keeping it in a cold place, you may in moderate weather preserve it for a couple of days.168-*

An hour or two before you dress it, soak it in spring-water with some salt in it, then score the skin across the thickest part of the back, to prevent its breaking on the breast, which will happen from the fish swelling, and cracking the skin, if this precaution be not used. Put a large handful of salt into a fish-kettle with cold water, lay your fish on a fish-strainer, put it in, and when it is coming to a boil, skim it well; then set the kettle on the side of the fire, to boil as gently as possible for about fifteen or twenty minutes (if it boils fast, the fish will break to pieces); supposing it a middling-sized turbot, and to weigh eight or nine pounds.

Rub a little of the inside red coral spawn of the lobster through a hair sieve, without butter; and when the turbot is dished, sprinkle the spawn over it. Garnish the dish with sprigs of curled parsley, sliced lemon, and finely-scraped horseradish.

If you like to send it to table in full dress, surround it with nicely-fried smelts (No. 173), gudgeons are often used for this purpose, and may be bought very cheap when smelts are very dear; lay the largest opposite the broadest part of the turbot, so that they may form a well-proportioned fringe for it; or oysters (No. 183*); or cut a sole in strips, crossways, about the size of a smelt; fry them as directed in No. 145, and lay them round. Send up lobster sauce (No. 284); two boats of it, if it is for a large party.N.B. Cold turbot, with No. 372 for sauce; or take off the fillets that are left as soon as the turbot returns from table, and they will make a side dish for your next dinner, warmed in No. 364—2.Obs. The thickest part is the favourite; and the carver of this fish must remember to ask his friends if they are fin-fanciers. It will save a troublesome job to the carver, if the cook, when the fish is boiled, cuts the spine-bone across the middle.

A Brill,—(No. 143.)

Is dressed the same way as a turbot.

Soles to boil.—(No. 144.)

A fine, fresh, thick sole is almost as good eating as a turbot.

Wash and clean it nicely; put it into a fish-kettle with a handful of salt, and as much cold water as will cover it; set it on the side of the fire, take off the scum as it rises, and let it boil gently; about five minutes (according to its size) will be long enough, unless it be very large. Send it up on a fish-drainer, garnished with slices of lemon and sprigs of curled parsley, or nicely-fried smelts (No. 173), or oysters (No. 183).Obs. Slices of lemon are a universally acceptable garnish with either fried or broiled fish: a few sprigs of crisp parsley may be added, if you wish to make it look very smart; and parsley, or fennel and butter, are excellent sauces (see Nos. 261 and 265), or chervil sauce (No. 264), anchovy (No. 270).N.B. Boiled soles are very good warmed up like eels, Wiggy’s way (No. 164), or covered with white sauce (No. 364—2; and see No. 158).

Soles, or other Fish, to fry.—(No. 145.)

Soles are generally to be procured good from some part of the coast, as some are going out of season, and some coming in, both at the same time; a great many are brought in well-boats alive, that are caught off Dover and Folkstone, and some are brought from the same places by land-carriage. The finest soles are caught off Plymouth, near the Eddystone, and all the way up the channel, and to Torbay; and frequently weigh eight or ten pounds per pair: they are generally brought by water to Portsmouth, and thence by land; but the greatest quantity are caught off Yarmouth and the Knole, and off the Forelands.

Be sure they are quite fresh, or the cleverest cook cannot make them either look or eat well.

An hour before you intend to dress them, wash them thoroughly, and wrap them in a clean cloth, to make them perfectly dry, or the bread-crumbs will not stick to them.

Prepare some bread-crumbs,170-* by rubbing some stale bread through a colander; or, if you wish the fish to appear very delicate and highly-finished, through a hair-sieve; or use biscuit powder.

Beat the yelk and white of an egg well together, on a plate, with a fork; flour your fish, to absorb any moisture that may remain, and wipe it off with a clean cloth; dip them in the egg on both sides all over, or, what is better, egg them with a paste-brush; put the egg on in an even degree over the whole fish, or the bread-crumbs will not stick to it even, and the uneven part will burn to the pan. Strew the bread-crumbs all over the fish, so that they cover every part, take up the fish by the head, and shake off the loose crumbs. The fish is now ready for the frying-pan.

Put a quart or more of fresh sweet olive-oil, or clarified butter (No. 259), dripping (No. 83), lard,170-† or clarified drippings (No. 83); be sure they are quite sweet and perfectly clean (the fat ought to cover the fish): what we here order is for soles about ten inches long; if larger, cut them into pieces the proper size to help at table; this will save much time and trouble to the carver: when you send them to table, lay them in the same form they were before they were cut, and you may strew a little curled parsley over them: they are much easier managed in the frying-pan, and require less fat: fry the thick part a few minutes before you put in the thin, you can by this means only fry the thick part enough, without frying the thin too much. Very large soles should be boiled (No. 144), or fried in fillets (No. 147). Soles cut in pieces, crossways, about the size of a smelt, make a very pretty garnish for stewed fish and boiled fish.

Set the frying-pan over a sharp and clear fire; watch it, skim it with an egg-slice, and when it boils,170-‡ i. e. when it has done bubbling, and the smoke just begins to rise from the surface, put in the fish: if the fat is not extremely hot, it is impossible to fry fish of a good colour, or to keep them firm and crisp. (Read the 3d chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery.)

The best way to ascertain the heat of the fat, is to try it with a bit of bread as big as a nut; if it is quite hot enough, the bread will brown immediately. Put in the fish, and it will be crisp and brown on the side next the fire, in about four or five minutes; to turn it, stick a two-pronged fork near the head, and support the tail with a fish-slice, and fry the other side nearly the same length of time.

Fry one sole at a time, except the pan is very large, and you have plenty of fat.

When the fish are fried, lay them on a soft cloth (old tablecloths are best), near enough the fire to keep them warm; turn them every two or three minutes, till they are quite dry on both sides; this common cooks commonly neglect. It will take ten or fifteen minutes,171-* if the fat you fried them in was not hot enough; when it is, they want very little drying. When soles are fried, they will keep very good in a dry place for three or four days; warm them by hanging them on the hooks in a Dutch oven, letting them heat very gradually, by putting it some distance from the fire for about twenty minutes, or in good gravy, as eels, Wiggy’s way (Nos. 164, 299, 337, or 356).Obs. There are several general rules in this receipt which apply to all fried fish: we have been very particular and minute in our directions; for, although a fried sole is so frequent and favourite a dish, it is very seldom brought to table in perfection.171-†

Soles to stew.—(No. 146.)

These are half fried, and then done the same as eels, Wiggy’s way. See No. 164.

Fillets of Soles, brown or white.—(No. 147.)

Take off the fillets very nicely, trim them neatly, and press them dry between a soft cloth; egg, crumb, and fry them, &c. as directed in No. 145, or boil them, and serve them with No. 364—2.N.B. This is one of the best ways of dressing very large soles. See also No. 164.

Skate,172-*—(No. 148.)

Is very good when in good season, but no fish so bad when it is otherwise: those persons that like it firm and dry, should have it crimped; but those that like it tender, should have it plain, and eat it not earlier than the second day, and if cold weather, three or four days old it is better: it cannot be kept too long, if perfectly sweet. Young skate eats very fine crimped and fried. See No. 154.

Cod boiled.—(No. 149.)

Wash and clean the fish, and rub a little salt in the inside of it (if the weather is very cold, a large cod is the better for being kept a day): put plenty of water in your fish-kettle, so that the fish may be well covered; put in a large handful of salt; and when it is dissolved, put in your fish; a very small fish will require from fifteen to twenty minutes after the water boils, a large one about half an hour; drain it on the fish-plate; dish it with a garnish of the roe, liver, chitterlings, &c. or large native oysters, fried a light brown (see No. 183*), or smelts (No. 173), whitings (No. 153), the tail172-† of the cod cut in slices, or bits the size and shape of oysters, or split it, and fry it. Scolloped oysters (No. 182), oyster sauce (No. 278), slices of cod cut about half an inch thick, and fried as soles (No. 145), are very nice.Mem.—The SOUNDS (the jelly parts about the jowl), the palate, and the tongue are esteemed exquisites by piscivorous epicures, whose longing eyes will keep a sharp look-out for a share of their favourite “bonne bouche:” the carver’s reputation depends much on his equitable distribution of them.173-*

Salt Fish boiled.—(No. 150.)

Salt fish requires soaking, according to the time it has been in salt; trust not to those you buy it of, but taste a bit of one of the flakes; that which is hard and dry requires two nights’ soaking, changing the water two or three times; the intermediate day, lay it on a stone floor: for barrelled cod less time will do; and for the best Dogger-bank split fish, which has not been more than a fortnight or three weeks in salt, still less will be needful.

Put it into plenty of cold water, and let it simmer very gently till it is enough; if the water boils, the fish will be tough and thready.173-† For egg sauce, see No. 267; and to boil red beet-root, No. 127; parsnips, No. 128; Carrots, No. 129. Garnish salt fish with the yelks of eggs cut into quarters.Obs.—Our favourite vegetable accompaniment is a dish of equal parts of red beet-root and parsnips.N.B. Salted fish differs in quality quite as much as it does in price.

Slices of Cod boiled.—(No. 151.)

Half an hour before you dress them, put them into cold spring-water with some salt in it.

Lay them at the bottom of a fish-kettle, with as much cold spring-water as will cover them, and some salt; set it on a quick fire, and when it boils, skim it, and set it on one side of the fire to boil very gently, for about ten minutes, according to its size and thickness. Garnish with scraped horseradish, slices of lemon, and a slice of the liver on one side, and chitterling on the other. Oyster sauce (No. 278), and plain butter.Obs.—Slices of cod (especially the tail, split) are very good, fried like soles (No. 145), or stewed in gravy like eels (No. 164, or No. 364—2).174-*

Fresh Sturgeon.—(No. 152.)

The best mode of dressing this, is to have it cut in thin slices like veal cutlets, and broiled, and rubbed over with a bit of butter and a little pepper, and served very hot, and eaten with a squeeze of lemon-juice. Great care, however, must be taken to cut off the skin before it is broiled, as the oil in the skin, if burned, imparts a disgusting flavour to the fish. The flesh is very fine, and comes nearer to veal, perhaps, than even turtle.

Sturgeon is frequently plentiful and reasonable in the London shops. We prefer this mode of dressing it to the more savoury one of stewing it in rich gravy, like carp, &c. which overpowers the peculiar flavour of the fish.174-†

Whitings fried.—(No. 153.)

Skin174-‡ them, preserve the liver (see No. 228), and fasten their tails to their mouths; dip them in egg, then in bread-crumbs, and fry them in hot lard (read No. 145), or split them, and fry them like fillets of soles (No. 147).

A three-quart stew-pan, half full of fat, is the best utensil to fry whitings. They will be done enough in about five minutes; but it will sometimes require a quarter of an hour to drain the fat from them and dry them (if the fat you put them into was not hot enough), turning them now and then with a fish-slice.Obs.—When whitings are scarce, the fishmongers can skin and truss young codlings, so that you can hardly tell the difference, except that a codling wears a beard, and a whiting does not: this distinguishing mark is sometimes cut off; however, if you turn up his jowl, you may see the mark where the beard was, and thus discover whether he be a real whiting, or a shaved codling.

Skate fried.—(No. 154.)

After you have cleaned the fish, divide it into fillets; dry them on a clean cloth; beat the yelk and white of an egg thoroughly together, dip the fish in this, and then in fine bread-crumbs; fry it in hot lard or drippings till it is of a delicate brown colour; lay it on a hair-sieve to drain; garnish with crisp parsley (No. 318), and some like caper sauce, with an anchovy in it.

Plaice or Flounders, fried or boiled.—(No. 155.)

Flounders are perhaps the most difficult fish to fry very nicely. Clean them well, flour them, and wipe them with a dry cloth to absorb all the water from them; flour or egg and bread-crumb them, &c. as directed in No. 145.

To boil Flounders.

Wash and clean them well, cut the black side of them the same as you do turbot, then put them into a fish-kettle, with plenty of cold water and a handful of salt; when they come to a boil, skim them clean, and let them stand by the side of the fire for five minutes, and they are ready.Obs.—Eaten with plain melted butter and a little salt, you have the sweet delicate flavour of the flounder, which is overpowered by any sauce.

Water Souchy,175-*—(No. 156.)

Is made with flounders, whitings, gudgeons, or eels. These must be quite fresh, and very nicely cleaned; for what they are boiled in, is the sauce for them.

Wash, gut, and trim your fish, cut them into handsome pieces, and put them into a stew-pan with just as much water as will cover them, with some parsley, or parsley-roots sliced, an onion minced fine, and a little pepper and salt (to this some cooks add some scraped horseradish and a bay leaf); skim it carefully when it boils; when your fish is done enough (which it will be in a few minutes), send it up in a deep dish, lined with bread sippets, and some slices of bread and butter on a plate.Obs.—Some cooks thicken the liquor the fish has been stewing in with flour and butter, and flavour it with white wine, lemon-juice, essence of anchovy, and catchup; and boil down two or three flounders, &c. to make a fish broth to boil the other fish in, observing, that the broth cannot be good unless the fish are boiled too much.

Haddock boiled.—(No. 157.)

Wash it well, and put it on to boil, as directed in No. 149; a haddock of three pounds will take about ten minutes after the kettle boils.

Haddocks, salted a day or two, are eaten with egg sauce, or cut in fillets, and fried. Or, if small, very well broiled, or baked, with a pudding in their belly, and some good gravy.Obs. A piscivorous epicure protests that “Haddock is the poorest fish that swims, and has neither the delicacy of the whiting, nor the juicyness of the cod.”176-*

Findhorn Haddocks.—(No. 157*.)

Let the fish be well cleaned, and laid in salt for two hours; let the water drain from them, and then wet them with the pyroligneous acid; they may be split or not: they are then to be hung in a dry situation for a day or two, or a week or two, if you please; when broiled, they have all the flavour of the Findhorn haddock, and will keep sweet for a long time.

The pyroligneous acid, applied in the same way to beef or mutton, gives the fine smoke flavour, and may be kept for a considerable length of time.

Scotch way of dressing haddocks.—A haddock is quite like a different fish in London and in Edinburgh, which arises chiefly from the manner in which they are treated: a haddock should never appear at table with its head and skin on. For boiling, they are all the better for lying a night in salt; of course they do not take so long to boil without the skin, and require to be well skimmed to preserve the colour. After lying in salt for a night, if you hang them up for a day or two, they are very good broiled and served with cold butter. For frying, they should be split and boned very carefully, and divided into convenient pieces, if too large to halve merely; egg and crumb them, and fry in a good deal of lard; they resemble soles when dressed in this manner. There is another very delicate mode of dressing them; you split the fish, rub it well with butter, and do it before the fire in a Dutch oven.

To stew Cod’s Skull, Sole, Carp, Trout, Perch, Eel, or Flounder.—No. 158. (See also No. 164.)

When the fish has been properly washed, lay it in a stew-pan, with half a pint of claret or port wine, and a quart of good gravy (No. 329); a large onion, a dozen berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, and a few cloves, or a bit of mace: cover the fish-kettle close, and let it stew gently for ten or twenty minutes, according to the thickness of the fish: take the fish up, lay it on a hot dish, cover it up, and thicken the liquor it was stewed in with a little flour, and season it with pepper, salt, essence of anchovy, mushroom catchup, and a little Chili vinegar; when it has boiled ten minutes, strain it through a tamis, and pour it over the fish: if there is more sauce than the dish will hold, send the rest up in a boat.

The river trout comes into season in April, and continues till July; it is a delicious fish; those caught near Uxbridge come to town quite alive.

The eels and perch from the same water are very fine.Obs.—These fish are very nice plain boiled, with No. 261, or No. 264, for sauce; some cooks dredge them with flour, and fry them a light brown before they put them on to stew, and stuff them with No. 374, or some of the stuffings following.

To dress them maigre.

Put the fish into a stew-pan, with a large onion, four cloves, fifteen berries of allspice, and the same of black pepper; just cover them with boiling water, set it where they will simmer gently for ten or twenty minutes, according to the size of the fish; strain off the liquor in another stew-pan, leaving the fish to keep warm till the sauce is ready.

Rub together on a plate as much flour and butter as will make the sauce as thick as a double cream. Each pint of sauce season with a glass of wine, half as much mushroom catchup, a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy, and a few grains of Cayenne; let it boil a few minutes, put the fish on a deep dish, strain the gravy over it; garnish it with sippets of bread toasted or fried (No. 319).N.B. The editor has paid particular attention to the above receipt, and also to No. 224, which Catholics, and those whose religious tenets do not allow them to eat meat on maigre days, will find a very satisfactory substitute for the meat gravy soup (No. 200).

For sauce for maigre dishes, see Nos. 225, 305, and 364—2.Obs. Mushroom catchup (No. 439) and onions (No. 402) supply the place of meat better than any thing; if you have not these, wine, spice (No. 457), curry powder (No. 455), aromatic roots and herbs, anchovy and soy, or oyster catchup (No. 441), variously combined, and thickened with flour and butter, are convenient substitutes.

Maigre Fish Pies.

Salt-fish pie. The thickest part must be chosen, and put in cold water to soak the night before wanted; then boil it well, take it up, take away the bones and skin, and if it is good fish it will be in fine layers; set it on a fish-drainer to get cold: in the mean time, boil four eggs hard, peel and slice them very thin, the same quantity of onion sliced thin; line the bottom of a pie-dish with fish forcemeat (No. 383), or a layer of potatoes sliced thin, then a layer of onions, then of fish, and of eggs, and so on till the dish is full; season each layer with a little pepper, then mix a tea-spoonful of made mustard, the same of essence of anchovy, a little mushroom catchup, in a gill of water, put it in the dish, then put on the top an ounce of fresh butter broke in bits; cover it with puff paste, and bake it one hour.

Fresh cod may be done in the same way, by adding a little salt.

All fish for making pies, whether soles, flounders, herrings, salmon, lobster, eels, trout, tench, &c. should be dressed first; this is the most economical way for Catholic families, as what is boiled one day will make excellent pies or patties the next.

If you intend it for pies, take the skin off, and the bones out; lay your salmon, soles, turbot, or codfish, in layers, and season each layer with equal quantities of pepper, allspice, mace, and salt, till the dish is full. Save a little of the liquor that the fish was boiled in; set it on the fire with the bones and skin of the fish, boil it a quarter of an hour, then strain it through a sieve, let it settle, and pour it in the dish; cover it with puff-paste; bake it about an hour and a quarter. Shrimps, prawns, or oysters added, will improve the above; if for patties, they must be cut in small pieces, and dressed in a bechamel sauce (No. 364).

Cod-sounds for a pie should be soaked at least twenty-four hours, then well washed, and put on a cloth to dry. Put in a stew-pan two ounces of fresh butter, with four ounces of sliced onions; fry them of a nice brown, then put in a small table-spoonful of flour, and add half a pint of boiling water; when smooth, put in about ten cod-sounds, and season them with a little pepper, a glass of white wine, a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy, the juice of half a lemon; stir it well together, put it in a pie-dish, cover it with paste, and bake it one hour.

Perch, Roach, Dace, Gudgeons, &c. fried.—(No. 159.)

Wash the fish well, wipe them on a dry cloth, flour them lightly all over, and fry them ten minutes (No. 145) in hot lard or drippings; lay them on a hair-sieve to drain; send them up on a hot dish, garnished with sprigs of green parsley. Anchovy sauce, Nos. 270 and 433.

Perch boiled.179-*—(No. 160.)

Clean them carefully, and put them in a fish-kettle, with as much cold spring-water as will cover them, with a handful of salt; set them on a quick fire till they boil; when they boil, set them on one side to boil gently for about ten minutes, according to their size.

Salmon, Herrings, Sprats, Mackerel, &c. pickled.—(No. 161.)

Cut the fish into proper pieces; do not take off the scales; make a brine strong enough to bear an egg, in which boil the fish; it must be boiled in only just liquor enough to cover it; do not overboil it. When the fish is boiled, lay it slantingly to drain off all the liquor; when cold, pack it close in the kits, and fill them up with equal parts of the liquor the salmon was boiled in (having first well skimmed it), and best vinegar (No. 24); let them rest for a day; fill up again, striking the sides of the kit with a cooper’s adze, until the kit will receive no more; then head them down as close as possible.Obs. This is in the finest condition when fresh. Salmon is most plentiful about midsummer; the season for it is from February to September. Some sprigs of fresh-gathered young fennel are the accompaniments.N.B. The three indispensable marks of the goodness of pickled salmon are, 1st, The brightness of the scales, and their sticking fast to the skin; 2dly, The firmness of the flesh; and, 3dly, Its fine, pale-red rose colour. Without these it is not fit to eat, and was either stale before it was pickled, or has been kept too long after.

The above was given us as the actual practice of those who pickle it for the London market.N.B. Pickled salmon warmed by steam, or in its pickle liquor, is a favourite dish at Newcastle.

Salmon180-* boiled.—(No. 162.)

Put on a fish-kettle, with spring-water enough to well cover the salmon you are going to dress, or the salmon will neither look nor taste well: (boil the liver in a separate saucepan.) When the water boils, put in a handful of salt: take off the scum as soon as it rises; have the fish well washed; put it in, and if it is thick, let it boil very gently. Salmon requires almost as much boiling as meat; about a quarter of an hour to a pound of fish: but practice only can perfect the cook in dressing salmon. A quarter of a salmon will take almost as long boiling as half a one: you must consider the thickness, not the weight: ten pounds of fine full-grown salmon will be done in an hour and a quarter. Lobster Sauce, No. 284.Obs. The thinnest part of the fish is the fattest; and if you have a “grand gourmand” at table, ask him if he is for thick or thin.

The Thames salmon is preferred in the London market; and some epicures pretend to be able to distinguish by the taste, in which reach of the river it was caught!!!N.B. If you have any left, put it into a pie-dish, and cover it with an equal portion of vinegar and pump-water, and a little salt: it will be ready in three days.

Fresh Salmon broiled.—(No. 163.)

Clean the salmon well, and cut it into slices about an inch and a half thick; dry it thoroughly in a clean cloth; rub it over with sweet oil, or thick melted butter, and sprinkle a little salt over it: put your gridiron over a clear fire, at some distance; when it is hot wipe it clean; rub it with sweet oil or lard; lay the salmon on, and when it is done on one side, turn it gently and broil the other. Anchovy sauce, &c.Obs. An oven does them best.

Soles or Eels,181-* &c. &c. stewed Wiggy’s way.—(No. 164.)

Take two pounds of fine silver181-† eels: the best are those that are rather more than a half-crown piece in circumference, quite fresh, full of life, and “as brisk as an eel:” such as have been kept out of water till they can scarce stir, are good for nothing: gut them, rub them with salt till the slime is cleaned from them, wash them in several different waters, and divide them into pieces about four inches long.

Some cooks, after skinning them, dredge them with a little flour, wipe them dry, and then egg and crumb them, and fry them in drippings till they are brown, and lay them to dry on a hair sieve.

Have ready a quart of good beef gravy (No. 329); it must be cold when you put the eels into it: set them on a slow fire to simmer very gently for about a quarter of an hour, according to the size of the eels; watch them, that they are not done too much; take them carefully out of the stew-pan with a fish-slice, so as not to tear their coats, and lay them on a dish about two inches deep.

Or, if for maigre days, when you have skinned your eels, throw the skins into salt and water; wash them well; then put them into a stew-pan with a quart of water, two onions, with two cloves stuck in each, and one blade of mace; let it boil twenty minutes, and strain it through a sieve into a basin.

Make the sauce about as thick as cream, by mixing a little flour with it; put in also two table-spoonfuls of port wine, and one of mushroom catchup, or cavice: stir it into the sauce by degrees, give it a boil, and strain it to the fish through a sieve.N.B. If mushroom sauce (Nos. 225, 305, or 333), or white sauce (No. 364—2), be used instead of beef gravy, this will be one of the most relishing maigre dishes we know.Obs. To kill eels instantly, without the horrid torture of cutting and skinning them alive, pierce the spinal marrow, close to the back part of the skull, with a sharp-pointed skewer: if this be done in the right place, all motion will instantly cease. The humane executioner does certain criminals the favour to hang them before he breaks them on the wheel.

To fry Eels.—(No. 165.)

Skin and gut them, and wash them well in cold water, cut them in pieces four inches long, season them with pepper and salt; beat an egg well on a plate, dip them in the egg, and then in fine bread-crumbs; fry them in fresh, clean lard; drain them well from the fat; garnish with crisp parsley. For sauce, plain and melted butter, sharpened with lemon-juice, or parsley and butter.

Spitchocked Eels.—(No. 166.)

This the French cooks call the English way of dressing eels.

Take two middling-sized silver eels, leave the skin on, scour them with salt, and wash them, cut off the heads, slit them on the belly side, and take out the bones and guts, and wash and wipe them nicely; then cut them into pieces about three inches long, and wipe them quite dry; put two ounces of butter into a stew-pan with a little minced parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, and salt, and a very little chopped eschalot; set the stew-pan over the fire; when the butter is melted, stir the ingredients together, and take it off the fire, mix the yelks of two eggs with them, and dip the eel in, a piece at a time, and then roll them in bread-crumbs, making as much stick to them as you can; then rub the gridiron with a bit of suet, set it high over a very clear fire, and broil your eels of a fine crisp brown. Dish them with crisp parsley, and send up with plain butter in a boat, and anchovy and butter.Obs. We like them better with the skin off; it is very apt to offend delicate stomachs.

Mackerel boiled.183-*—(No. 167.)

This fish loses its life as soon as it leaves the sea, and the fresher it is the better.

Wash and clean them thoroughly (the fishmongers seldom do this sufficiently), put them into cold water with a handful of salt in it; let them rather simmer than boil; a small mackerel will be done enough in about a quarter of an hour; when the eye starts and the tail splits, they are done; do not let them stand in the water a moment after; they are so delicate that the heat of the water will break them.

This fish, in London, is rarely fresh enough to appear at table in perfection; and either the mackerel is boiled too much, or the roe183-† too little. The best way is to open a slit opposite the middle of the roe, you can then clean it properly; this will allow the water access, and the roe will then be done as soon as the fish, which it seldom is otherwise; some sagacious gourmands insist upon it they must be taken out and boiled separately. For sauce, see Nos. 263, 265, and 266; and you may garnish them with pats of minced fennel.N.B. The common notion is, that mackerel are in best condition when fullest of roe; however, the fish at that time is only valuable for its roe, the meat of it has scarcely any flavour.

Mackerel generally make their appearance off the Land’s End about the beginning of April; and as the weather gets warm they gradually come round the coast, and generally arrive off Brighton about May, and continue for some months, until they begin to shoot their spawn.

After they have let go their roes, they are called shotten mackerel, and are not worth catching; the roe, which was all that was good of them, being gone.

It is in the early season, when they have least roe, that the flesh of this fish is in highest perfection. There is also an after-season, when a few fine large mackerel are taken, (i. e. during the herring season, about October,) which some piscivorous epicures are very partial to; these fish having had time to fatten and recover their health, are full of high flavour, and their flesh is firm and juicy: they are commonly called silver mackerel, from their beautiful appearance, their colour being almost as bright when boiled as it was the moment they were caught.

Mackerel broiled.—(No. 169.)

Clean a fine large mackerel, wipe it on a dry cloth, and cut a long slit down the back; lay it on a clean gridiron, over a very clear, slow fire; when it is done on one side, turn it; be careful that it does not burn; send it up with fennel sauce (No. 265); mix well together a little finely minced fennel and parsley, seasoned with a little pepper and salt, a bit of fresh butter, and when the mackerel are ready for the table, put some of this into each fish.

Mackerel baked.184-*—(No. 170.)

Cut off their heads, open them, and take out the roes and clean them thoroughly; rub them on the inside with a little pepper and salt, put the roes in again, season them (with a mixture of powdered allspice, black pepper, and salt, well rubbed together), and lay them close in a baking-pan, cover them with equal quantities of cold vinegar and water, tie them down with strong white paper doubled, and bake them for an hour in a slow oven. They will keep for a fortnight.

Pickled Mackerel, Herrings, or Sprats.—(No. 171.)

Procure them as fresh as possible, split them, take off the heads, and trim off the thin part of the belly, put them into salt and water for one hour, drain and wipe your fish, and put them into jars or casks, with the following preparation, which is enough for three dozen mackerel. Take salt and bay-salt, one pound each, saltpetre and lump-sugar, two ounces each; grind and pound the salt, &c. well together, put the fish into jars or casks, with a layer of the preparation at the bottom, then a layer of mackerel with the skin-side downwards, so continue alternately till the cask or jar is full; press it down and cover it close. In about three months they will be fit for use.

Sprats broiled.—(No. 170*—Fried, see No. 173.)

If you have not a sprat gridiron, get a piece of pointed iron wire as thick as packthread, and as long as your gridiron is broad; run this through the heads of your sprats, sprinkle a little flour and salt over them, put your gridiron over a clear, quick fire, turn them in about a couple of minutes; when the other side is brown, draw out the wire, and send up the fish with melted butter in a cup.Obs. That sprats are young herrings, is evident by their anatomy, in which there is no perceptible difference. They appear very soon after the herrings are gone, and seem to be the spawn just vivified.

Sprats stewed.—(No. 170**.)

Wash and dry your sprats, and lay them as level as you can in a stew-pan, and between every layer of sprats put three peppercorns, and as many allspice, with a few grains of salt; barely cover them with vinegar, and stew them one hour over a slow fire; they must not boil: a bay-leaf is sometimes added. Herrings or mackerel may be stewed the same way.

To fry sprats, see No. 173.

Herrings broiled.—(No. 171*.)

Wash them well, then dry them with a cloth, dust them with flour, and broil them over a slow fire till they are well done. Send up melted butter in a boat.Obs. For a particular account of herrings, see Solas Dodd’s Natural Hist. of Herrings, in 178 pages, 8vo. 1752.

Red Herrings, and other dried Fish,—(No. 172.)

“Should be cooked in the same manner as now practised by the poor in Scotland. They soak them in water until they become pretty fresh; they are then hung up in the sun and wind, on a stick through their eyes, to dry; and then boiled or broiled. In this way they eat almost as well as if they were new caught.” See the Hon. John Cochrane’s Seaman’s Guide, 8vo. 1797, p. 34.

“Scotch haddocks should be soaked all night. You may boil or broil them; if you broil, split them in two.

“All the different sorts of dried fish, except stock fish, are salted, dried in the sun in prepared kilns, or by the smoke of wood fires, and require to be softened and freshened, in proportion to their bulk, nature, or dryness; the very dry sort, as cod, whiting, &c. should be steeped in lukewarm water, kept as near as possible to an equal degree of heat. The larger fish should be steeped twelve hours, the smaller about two; after which they should be taken out and hung up by the tails until they are dressed. The reason for hanging them up is, that they soften equally as in the steeping, without extracting too much of the relish, which would render them insipid. When thus prepared, the small fish, as whiting, tusks, &c. should be floured and laid on the gridiron; and when a little hardened on one side, must be turned and basted with sweet oil upon a feather; and when basted on both sides, and well heated through, taken up. A clear charcoal fire is the best for cooking them, and the fish should be kept at a good distance, to broil gradually. When they are done enough they will swell a little in the basting, and you must not let them fall again. If boiled, as the larger fish generally are, they should be kept just simmering over an equal fire, in which way half an hour will do the largest fish, and five minutes the smallest.

“Dried salmon, though a large fish, does not require more steeping than a whiting; and when laid on the gridiron should be moderately peppered. To herring and to all kinds of broiled salt fish, sweet oil is the best basting.”

The above is from Macdonald’s London Family Cook, 8vo. 1808, p. 139.Obs. Dr. Harte, in his Essay on Diet, 1633, fol. p. 91, protests, “a red herring doth nourish little, and is hard of concoction, but very good to make a cup of good drink relish well, and may be well called ‘the drunkard’s delight.’”

Smelts, Gudgeons, Sprats, or other small Fish, fried.—(No. 173.)

Clean and dry them thoroughly in a cloth, fry them plain, or beat an egg on a plate, dip them in it, and then in very fine bread-crumbs that have been rubbed through a sieve; the smaller the fish, the finer should be the bread-crumbs—biscuit powder is still better; fry them in plenty of clean lard or drippings; as soon as the lard boils and is still, put in the fish; when they are delicately browned, they are done; this will hardly take two minutes. Drain them on a hair-sieve, placed before the fire, turning them till quite dry. Obs. Read No. 145.

“Smelts are allowed to be caught in the Thames, on the first of November, and continue till May. The Thames smelts are the best and sweetest, for two reasons; they are fresher and richer than any other you can get: they catch them much more plentiful and larger in Lancashire and Norfolk, but not so good: a great many are brought to town from Norfolk, but barely come good, as they are a fish which should always be eaten fresh; indeed, all river fish should be eaten fresh, except salmon, which, unless crimped, eats better the second or third day: but all Thames fish, particularly, should be eaten very fresh; no fish eats so bad kept.”

Potted Prawns, Shrimps, or Cray-fish.—(No. 175.)

Boil them in water with plenty of salt in it. When you have picked them, powder them with a little beaten mace, or grated nutmeg, or allspice, and pepper and salt; add a little cold butter, and pound all well together in a marble mortar till of the consistence of paste. Put it into pots covered with clarified butter, and cover them over with wetted bladder.

Lobster.187-*—(No. 176.)

Buy these alive; the lobster merchants sometimes keep them till they are starved, before they boil them; they are then watery, have not half their flavour, and like other persons that die of a consumption, have lost the calf of their legs.Choose those that (as an old cook says, are “heavy and lively,” and) are full of motion, which is the index of their freshness.

Those of the middle size are the best. Never take them when the shell is incrusted, which is a sign they are old. The male lobster is preferred to eat, and the female (on account of the eggs) to make sauce of. The hen lobster is distinguished by having a broader tail than the male, and less claws.

Set on a pot, with water salted in the proportion of a table-spoonful of salt to a quart of water; when the water boils, put it in, and keep it boiling briskly from half an hour to an hour, according to its size; wipe all the scum off it, and rub the shell with a very little butter or sweet oil; break off the great claws, crack them carefully in each joint, so that they may not be shattered, and yet come to pieces easily; cut the tail down the middle, and send up the body whole. For sauce, No. 285. To pot lobster, No. 178.

^*_*^* These fish come in about April, and continue plentiful till the oyster season returns; after that time they begin to spawn, and seldom open solid.

Crab.—(No. 177.)

The above observations apply to crabs, which should neither be too small nor too large. The best size are those which measure about eight inches across the shoulders.

^*_*^* Crabs appear and disappear about the same time as lobsters. The cromer crabs are most esteemed; but numbers are brought from the Isle of Wight.

Potted Lobster or Crab.188-*—(No. 178).

This must be made with fine hen lobsters, when full of spawn: boil them thoroughly (No. 176); when cold, pick out all the solid meat, and pound it in a mortar: it is usual to add, by degrees, (a very little) finely-pounded mace, black or Cayenne pepper, salt, and, while pounding, a little butter. When the whole is well mixed, and beat to the consistence of paste, press it down hard in a preserving-pot, pour clarified butter over it, and cover it with wetted bladder.Obs.—Some put lobster without pounding it, and only cut it or pull it into such pieces as if it was prepared for sauce, and mince it with the spawn and soft parts and seasoning, and press it together as close as possible; in packing it, place the coral and spawn, &c. in layers, so that it may look regular and handsome when cut out. If you intend it as store (see N.B. to No. 284, to make sauce with), this is the best way to do it; but if for sandwiches, &c. the first is the best, and will keep much longer.

Dressed or buttered lobsters and crabs, are favourite ornamental dishes with those who deck their table merely to please the eye. Our apology for not giving such receipts will be found in Obs. to No. 322.

OYSTERS.189-*—(No. 181.)

The common189-† Colchester and Feversham oysters are brought to market on the 5th of August; the Milton, or, as they are commonly called, the melting natives,189-‡ do not come in till the beginning of October, continue in season till the 12th of May, and approach the meridian of their perfection about Christmas.

Some piscivorous gourmands think that oysters are not best when quite fresh from their beds, and that their flavour is too brackish and harsh, and is much ameliorated by giving them a feed.

To FEED189-§ oysters.—Cover them with clean water, with a pint of salt to about two gallons (nothing else, no oatmeal, flour, nor any other trumpery); this will cleanse them from the mud and sand, &c. of the bed; after they have lain in it twelve hours, change it for fresh salt and water, and in twelve hours more they will be in prime order for the mouth, and remain so two or three days: at the time of high water you may see them open their shells, in expectation of receiving their usual food. This process of feeding oysters is only employed when a great many come up together.

The real Colchester, or Pyfleet barrelled oysters, that are packed at the beds, are better without being put in water: they are carefully and tightly packed, and must not be disturbed till wanted for table. These, in moderate weather, will keep good for a week or ten days.

If an oyster opens his mouth in the barrel, he dies immediately.

To preserve the lives of barrelled oysters, put a heavy weight on the wooden top of the barrel, which is to be placed on the surface of the oysters. This is to be effected by removing the first hoop; the staves will then spread and stand erect, making a wide opening for the head of the barrel to fall down closely on the remaining fish, keeping them close together.

Mem.—The oysters which are commonly sold as barrelled oysters, are merely the smallest natives, selected from the stock, and put into the tub when ordered; and, instead of being of superior quality, are often very inferior. To immature animals there is the same objection as to unripe vegetables.Obs.—Common people are indifferent about the manner of opening oysters, and the time of eating them after they are opened; nothing, however, is more important in the enlightened eyes of the experienced oyster-eater.

Those who wish to enjoy this delicious restorative in its utmost perfection, must eat it the moment it is opened, with its own gravy in the under shell; if not eaten while absolutely alive, its flavour and spirit are lost.

The true lover of an oyster will have some regard for the feelings of his little favourite, and will never abandon it to the mercy of a bungling operator, but will open it himself, and contrive to detach the fish from the shell so dexterously, that the oyster is hardly conscious he has been ejected from his lodging, till he feels the teeth of the piscivorous gourmand tickling him to death.N.B. Fish is less nutritious than flesh: as a proof, when the trainer of Newmarket wishes to waste a jockey, he is not allowed meat, nor even pudding, if fish can be had. The white kinds of fish, turbots, soles, whiting, cod, haddock, flounders, smelts, &c. are less nutritious than the oily, fat fish, such as eels, salmon, herrings, sprats, &c.: the latter, however, are more difficult to digest, and often disturb weak stomachs, so that they are obliged to call in the assistance of Cayenne, Cognac, &c.

Shell-fish have long held a high rank in the catalogue of easily digestible and speedily restorative foods; of these the oyster certainly deserves the best character, but we think it has acquired not a little more reputation for these qualities than it deserves; a well-dressed chop191-* or steak, see No. 94, will invigorate the heart in a much higher ratio; to recruit the animal spirits, and support strength, there is nothing equal to animal food; when kept till properly tender, none will give so little trouble to the digestive organs, and so much substantial excitement to the constitution. See note under No. 185.

See Dr. Wallis and Mr. Tyson’s Papers on men’s feeding on flesh, in Phil. Trans. vol. xxii. p. 769 to 774; and Porphyry on Abstinence from Animal Food, translated by Thomas Taylor, 8vo. 1823.

We could easily say as much in praise of mutton as Mr. Ritson has against it, in his “Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty,” 8vo. London, 1802, p. 102. He says, “The Pagan priests were the first eaters of animal food; it corrupted their taste, and so excited them to gluttony, that when they had eaten the same thing repeatedly, their luxurious appetites called for variety. He who had devoured the sheep, longed to masticate the shepherd!!!

“Nature seems to have provided other animals for the food of man, from the astonishing increase of those which instinct points out to him as peculiarly desirable for that purpose. For instance; so quick is the produce of pigeons, that, in the space of four years, 14,760 may come from a single pair; and in the like period, 1,274,840 from a couple of rabbits, this is nothing to the millions of eggs in the milt of a codfish.”

Stew the oysters slowly in their own liquor for two or three minutes, take them out with a spoon, beard them, and skim the liquor, put a bit of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted, add as much fine bread-crumbs as will dry it up, then put to it the oyster liquor, and give it a boil up, put the oysters into scollop-shells that you have buttered, and strewed with bread-crumbs, then a layer of oysters, then of bread-crumbs, and then some more oysters; moisten it with the oyster liquor, cover them with bread-crumbs, put about half a dozen little bits of butter on the top of each, and brown them in a Dutch oven.Obs. Essence of anchovy, catchup, Cayenne, grated lemon-peel, mace, and other spices, &c. are added by those who prefer piquance to the genuine flavour of the oyster.

Cold fish may be re-dressed the same way.N.B. Small scollop-shells, or saucers that hold about half a dozen oysters, are the most convenient.

Stewed Oysters.—(No. 182*.)

Large oysters will do for stewing, and by some are preferred; but we love the plump, juicy natives. Stew a couple of dozen of these in their own liquor; when they are coming to a boil, skim well, take them up and beard them; strain the liquor through a tamis-sieve, and lay the oysters on a dish. Put an ounce of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted, put to it as much flour as will dry it up, the liquor of the oysters, and three table-spoonfuls of milk or cream, and a little white pepper and salt; to this some cooks add a little catchup, or finely-chopped parsley, grated lemon-peel, and juice; let it boil up for a couple of minutes, till it is smooth, then take it off the fire, put in the oysters, and let them get warm (they must not themselves be boiled, or they will become hard); line the bottom and sides of a hash-dish with bread-sippets, and pour your oysters and sauce into it. See Obs. to receipt No. 278.

Oysters fried.192-*—(No. 183.)

The largest and finest oysters are to be chosen for this purpose; simmer them in their own liquor for a couple of minutes, take them out and lay them on a cloth to drain, beard them and then flour them, egg and bread-crumb them, put them into boiling fat, and fry them a delicate brown.Obs. An elegant garnish for made dishes, stewed rump-steaks, boiled or fried fish, &c.; but they are too hard and dry to be eaten.

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