Which I with sword will open.”

BAKED OYSTERS

• 1 quart oysters
• 2 ozs. (2 heaping tablespoonfuls) butter
• 2 ozs. (2 heaping tablespoonfuls) flour
• ½ pint (1 cup) milk
• ½ pint (1 cup) cream
• 1 heaping tablespoonful grated cheese
• A little melted butter
• Some fine bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoonful white wine
• Salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste

Scald the oysters in their liquor, and put them aside to cool; then divide each oyster into four pieces.

Melt the butter, stir in the flour, then add gradually the milk and cream; stir until thickened, and add the seasonings, wine, and cheese. Butter sufficient octagon ramequins, put in a layer of the oysters, fill up with the sauce, pour a little melted butter over each, sprinkle some bread crumbs on the top, and bake in a moderate oven for ten minutes.

• 2 slices cod
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 tablespoonfuls olive oil
• 1 tablespoonful chopped capers
• 3 boned and chopped anchovies
• 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
• 1 heaping tablespoonful (1 oz.) butter
• A few bread crumbs
• Salt and paprika to taste

Rub a shallow fireproof dish with a cut clove of garlic, then lay in the fish and add the oil.

Bake in the oven, and when three parts cooked take out and sprinkle in the capers, anchovies, parsley, bread crumbs, salt, and paprika; divide the butter into tiny pieces, lay it on the top, and return it to the oven to brown and to finish cooking.

Serve hot in the casserole.

COLD MACKEREL, VINAIGRETTE

• 1 mackerel
• 1 bunch parsley
• 1 slice lemon
• 6 tablespoonfuls tarragon vinegar
• 2 teaspoonfuls made mustard
• 1 teaspoonful salt
• 12 tablespoonfuls olive oil
• 1 teaspoonful chopped shallots
• 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoonful chopped gherkins and capers

Clean the mackerel, leaving the head on, wrap it in a piece of cheesecloth, and boil in boiling salted water until tender.

The water should contain a little vinegar. Put the tarragon vinegar into a basin, add the mustard, salt, olive oil, parsley, shallots, gherkins, and capers. Remove the cloth from the fish, then lay the mackerel in an earthenware dish, pour the sauce over it and let it marinate thoroughly. It should be put into the refrigerator as soon as cool.

Serve cold in a bed of parsley garnished with slices of lemon.

CRAB À LA CARMEN

• 1 good-sized crab
• 2 tablespoonfuls olive oil
• 1 chopped shallot
• 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoonfuls bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoonfuls chopped cooked chicken
• 1 teaspoonful tarragon vinegar
• 1 tablespoonful cream
• 3 tablespoonfuls fish stock
• ½ pint (1 cup) white sauce
• 2 hard cooked egg yolks
• Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the crab, then remove the meat from it. Put the oil into a casserole, add the crab meat, the shallot, and parsley; stir over the fire until quite hot; then add the bread crumbs, vinegar, chicken, cream, stock, and seasonings; fill some flange ramequins very full with the mixture, heaping them in the center; pour over each some of the white sauce, and sprinkle over the top the sieved hard cooked yolks of eggs.

Stand them in a pan containing a little boiling water on the stove until thoroughly hot, then serve.

• 1½ lbs. cooked fish
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• 2 large onions
• 1 large apple
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) rice flour
• 1 tablespoonful curry powder
• 1 tablespoonful chutney
• 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoonful salt
• 1½ pints (3 cups) fish stock
• ½ lb. (1 cup) boiled rice
• ½ cupful shrimps
• 2 hard cooked eggs

Free the fish from skin and bones. Melt the butter in a fireproof dish, then put in the apple and the onion cut into small pieces, fry together until a nice brown color, then stir in the rice flour, curry powder, chutney, the strained juice of the lemon, salt, and stock; simmer for fifty minutes, then add the fish.

Arrange the hot boiled rice around a casserole, turn the curry into the center; garnish with the shrimps made hot in a little cream and quarters of the hard cooked eggs.

Serve very hot.

FINNAN HADDIE

• 1 medium sized finnan haddie
• 2 ozs. (2 heaping tablespoonfuls) butter
• Salt and pepper

Select a well-cured medium sized fish. If not well cured it will probably be tasteless and flabby. Wash it well, trim off the fins, the tail, and the two bones at the head.

Lay it in a buttered casserole, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, pour in enough boiling water to cover it, and allow it to simmer for ten minutes.

Drain it from the water, return it to the casserole with the butter, and cook it for ten minutes in the oven.

See that it is thoroughly cooked, but not hardened.

FISH SOUFFLÉ

• ½ lb. cooked chopped fish
• 6 boiled potatoes
• 3 heaping tablespoonfuls (3 ozs.) butter
• 1 teaspoonful anchovy extract
• 1 teaspoonful made mustard
• ¼ pint (½ cup) thick cream
• 1 oz. (½ cup) bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoonfuls (1 oz.) chopped suet
• 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley
• 5 egg whites
• A few browned bread crumbs
• Salt and paprika to taste

Boil the potatoes and rub them through a sieve while they are hot; mix with them the butter, salt, paprika, anchovy extract, mustard, cream, fish, white bread crumbs, suet, parsley, and the whites of eggs beaten stiffly.

Mix carefully and turn into a well-buttered fireproof soufflÉ dish; sprinkle the top of the soufflÉ with the browned bread crumbs and here and there put a little bit of butter; place it on a baking tin and cook in a moderate oven for about forty minutes.

Serve at once.

FLOUNDER AU GRATIN

• 1 large flounder
• 2 chopped shallots
• 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• ¼ pint (½ cup) white wine
• ½ cupful bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper

Clean and skin the fish. Salt and pepper both sides of the flounder, then lay it in a fireproof au gratin dish, sprinkle in the shallots and the parsley; add the butter divided into small pieces, the wine, and the layer of bread crumbs.

Let it cook in the oven for about half an hour.

HADDOCK AND MACARONI

• 1 lb. boiled haddock
• ½ pint (1 cup) white sauce
• ¼ lb. macaroni
• 2 small skinned tomatoes
• Seasoning of salt and pepper
• 3 pickled gherkins
• 1 heaping tablespoonful (1 oz.) butter

Break the macaroni in pieces from one to one and a half inches long, put it into a pan of fast boiling, salted water, add the butter, and boil until it is tender without being in the least mashed; drain and wash the macaroni in a little hot water.

Heat the sauce in a fireproof dish, stir in the fish without breaking the flakes, and season it nicely with salt and pepper.

Arrange a border of the hot macaroni around a hot casserole, pile the fish and sauce in the middle.

Cut the tomatoes in quarters; cook them for a few minutes on a buttered baking tin, then arrange them round the fish. Cut the gherkins into shreds and place them in small heaps on the macaroni.

Heat in the oven for a few moments and serve hot.

HADDOCK AU GRATIN

• 1 haddock weighing 4 lbs.
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• Salt and pepper
• 2 lemons
• 4 ozs. (½ cup) melted butter
• ½ cupful grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoonfuls buttered bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoonful potato flour
• 1 gill (½ cup) thick cream

Boil the haddock in boiling salted water with the two ounces of butter, seasoning of salt and pepper, and the strained juice of one lemon.

When it is ready remove the skin, put the fish into a buttered gratin dish, pour over it the melted butter, and sprinkle over it a little red pepper and lemon juice.

Cover it with the cheese and the buttered bread crumbs and put in a hot oven to brown.

Mix the potato flour with the cream, make hot, and pour over the fish just before sending to table.

Garnish with a thinly sliced lemon.

HALIBUT TIMBALE

• 1½ lbs. fresh halibut
• 1 teaspoonful salt
• A few grains red pepper
• 1 gill (½ cup) whipping cream
• 5 egg whites
• 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley

Put the fish through a meat-chopper, add to it the parsley, salt, red pepper, whipped cream, and the whites of eggs stiffly beaten.

Mix carefully and turn into a well-buttered earthenware mold, cover, and steam steadily for half an hour.

Serve with egg sauce.

LOBSTER NEWBURG

• 1 lobster
• ½ pint (1 cup) cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 heaping tablespoonful (1 oz.) butter
• 1 wineglassful sherry wine
• Salt and red pepper to taste

Take the meat from a boiled lobster and cut it into dice; sautÉ it in the butter, then add the seasonings, sherry wine, and the yolks of eggs mixed with the cream.

Stir until the mixture begins to thicken, then remove it from the fire and serve at once in hot ramequins.

• 1 medium sized mackerel
• 1 lb. skinned tomatoes
• 1 wineglassful sherry wine
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• 1 slice onion
• Juice ½ lemon
• ½ pint (1 cup) stock
• 1 teaspoonful powdered herbs
• ½ cupful bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley

Cook the mackerel in the oven with the stock, sherry wine, herbs, lemon juice, and onion, cover with a buttered paper; when cooked, remove the skin, split the fish open, and remove the bones; butter a fireproof dish, lay in a layer of sliced tomatoes, a little salt and pepper, then a layer of fish and some tiny pieces of butter, repeat this until the fish is used; finally put a layer of sliced tomatoes on the top; pour over the stock in which the fish was cooked, cover with bread crumbs and some small pieces of butter, and cook in a moderate oven for twenty minutes; sprinkle the parsley over the top and serve at once.

OYSTER CURRY

• 1 quart oysters
• ½ pint (1 cup) tomatoes
• 3 tablespoonfuls curry powder
• ½ pint (1 cup) beef stock
• 1 apple
• 2 tablespoonfuls flour
• 1 teaspoonful salt
• 1 cupful plain boiled rice
• 2 tablespoonfuls butter
• 1 Spanish onion

Chop the onion and brown it in one tablespoonful of the butter in a casserole or earthenware dish, add the curry powder, the remaining tablespoonful of butter, the apple chopped, and the stock.

Simmer slowly for half an hour.

Put the oysters, their liquor, and the tomatoes into another pan over the fire. When the edges of the oysters begin to ruffle put the two mixtures together.

Add the salt, and thicken with the flour moistened with a little cold water. Boil for five minutes stirring constantly.

Serve with the hot plain boiled rice.

SCALLOPS EN CASSEROLE

• 18 scallops
• ½ pint (1 cup) white stock
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• ¼ pint (½ cup) cream
• 1 small onion
• 2 shallots
• 1 heaping tablespoonful (1 oz.) flour
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 chopped mushrooms
• Some small pieces puff pastry
• Salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste

Put the scallops and mushrooms into a casserole with one tablespoonful of the butter, cover, and let cook for ten minutes.

Peel and chop finely the onion and shallots, blanch them in water, and drain.

Put them into an earthenware pan with the remainder of the butter and cook until a light brown color; stir in the flour, mix for a few minutes over the fire, add the stock and scallop liquor, simmer for fifteen minutes, stirring in the yolks of eggs one at a time, season with salt, pepper, and a dust of red pepper, put in the scallops and mushrooms, and heat but do not boil; mix in the cream just before serving.

Garnish the top with the pieces of pastry.

STEWED EELS

• 2 or 3 eels
• ½ pint (1 cup) white stock
• 2 tablespoonfuls cream
• 2 ozs. (2 heaping tablespoonfuls) flour
• 2 ozs. (2 heaping tablespoonfuls) butter
• ½ teaspoonful whole white peppers
• Seasoning of salt, pepper, and red pepper
• Bunch of parsley
• ¼ teaspoonful lemon juice
• 1 small onion
• Blade of mace
• Bunch of sweet herbs

Skin and divide the eels into pieces about two inches long, put them into a casserole with the stock, sliced onion, herbs, mace, lemon juice, parsley, and whole peppers. Bring to the boil, skim, and allow to simmer for twenty minutes; lift out the eels and strain the stock.

Melt the butter in the casserole, stir in the flour, add the liquid from the fish, the cream, and boil for five minutes, stirring all the time, then add the seasonings and the eels, allow to heat thoroughly, and serve.

• 4 large fresh herrings
• 1 cupful bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper to taste

Split the herrings up the back, remove the backbones, lay two herrings open on a buttered fireproof dish; mix together the bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, egg well beaten, and one tablespoonful of the butter; lay this on the split herrings, place the other two on the top, sandwich fashion; put the remainder of the butter on the top, sprinkle with bread crumbs, and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes.

Serve with parsley sauce.

TERRAPIN STEW

• 2 terrapins
• 4 hard cooked yolks of eggs
• ½ lb. (1 cup) butter
• 1 tablespoonful salt
• 1 teaspoonful white pepper
• 3 tablespoonfuls browned flour
• 1 pint (2 cups) cream
• 1 wineglassful sherry wine

Encourage the terrapin to move about in lukewarm water for a few minutes, then plunge head first into a pan of boiling water.

Remove from the water in about five minutes, or as soon as the thin white skin can be removed from the head and feet, then put back into fresh boiling water and simmer for forty minutes, or until the upper shell separates readily from the lower on a slight pressure. Drain, lay them on their backs, heads from you; then loosen the shells and take them off. Remove the sand bags, bladders, and the thick part of the intestines and the gall sacks, which are found embedded in one lobe of the liver, and throw them away. The meat is separated and the giblets cut up fine. Place all in a casserole and barely cover with boiling water. Simmer for half an hour, then add the dressing. Mash the egg yolks with the butter, then add the salt, pepper, flour, and cream. Stir until smooth and creamy, then add to the terrapin and simmer for fifteen minutes, stirring frequently. If too thick, reduce with a little boiling water. Add the wine and serve very hot.

TROUT WITH POTATOES

• 1 fresh trout
• ½ pint (1 cup) milk
• 2 tablespoonfuls chopped parsley
• 3 large potatoes
• 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (2 ozs.) butter
• ¼ pint (½ cup) cream
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg white
• Oyster sauce

Boil the trout in boiling salted water for twenty minutes or until ready; when cold, bone it and flake it, and lay it in a well-buttered fireproof dish; bring the milk and parsley to the boil and pour them over the fish; boil the potatoes, then mash them with the butter, cream, salt, and pepper, spread them over the fish, smooth the surface, then mark it in fancy design with a fork; place the casserole in a hot oven for ten minutes. Remove it from the oven, beat up the white of the egg stiffly, brush it over the top of the potatoes, and continue to bake for fifteen minutes. Serve hot with the oyster sauce. The sauce may be served in an earthenware gravy boat.