Marion Cabell Tyree

In selecting fish, notice if the flesh is firm and hard, the eyes full and prominent, the scales bright, the fins stiff, and the gills red, as all these indications denote their being fresh. Wash the fish, rub it with salt and pepper, and lay it on a dish, or hang it up till ready to cook. Never keep it lying in water, either in preparing it for cooking, or in trying to keep it till the next day.

In boiling fish, put it in boiling water, and simmer very slowly. It will require an hour to boil a large fish, and about twenty minutes for a small one. Every housekeeper should have a fish-kettle for fish.

Be careful to have boiling-hot lard in the frying-pan when you go to fry fish. First rub salt and pepper and flour or meal on the fish, then keep it well covered while frying, as you should do to every thing that is being fried. Doing this will enable you to fry the fish (or other article of food) a pretty amber color, while at the same time it will be perfectly done.

Always have a tin sheet for lifting boiled fish and for turning broiled fish. Before broiling, rub with pepper and salt, and then grease with fresh butter. Lay the fish on a gridiron well greased with sweet lard and lay the tin sheet over it. When you wish to turn, take the gridiron from the fire, holding the tin sheet on top the fish. Hold them together, then lay them on a table with the tin sheet down and the gridiron uppermost. Carefully raise the gridiron, leaving the fish lying unbroken on the tin sheet. The cook may now easily slide the fish on the gridiron, put it again on the fire and brown the other side, putting the tin sheet back on top of it. Every thing should be covered while being broiled. When done, lay it on a dish and pour over it melted butter in which has been stirred pepper, salt, and minced parsley. If devilled fish is desired, add to this dressing, one tablespoonful pepper vinegar, one of celery vinegar, one of walnut catsup, one of made mustard, one wine-glassful of acid fruit jelly. In making sauces for fish, never use the water in which the fish has been boiled.

Full directions for stewing fish are to be found in the subsequent pages.

Fish À la CrÊme.

Boil a firm fish, remove the bones, pick it to pieces. Mix one pint cream or milk with two tablespoonfuls flour, one onion, one-half pound butter (or less), and salt.

Set it on the fire and stir until it is as thick as custard. Fill a baking-dish alternately with fish, cracker, and cream. Bake for thirty minutes, use four crackers.—Mrs.W.C.R.

Halibut.

Boil one pound halibut, then chop it very fine and add eight eggs well beaten; pepper and salt to taste, then one cup butter.

Put it in a stewpan and cook until the eggs are done sufficiently. Serve very hot on toast.—MissF.N.

Halibut.

Halibut should be cut in slices of four pounds each. If to be boiled, cover with salt water, and skim often; drain off and serve with butter sauce.

If baked or fried, garnish with horseradish and serve with melted butter.

Fish Chowder.

Fry a few slices of salt pork, cut the fish in small pieces, pare and slice the potatoes, add a little onion chopped fine.

Place all in layers in the kettle; season with salt and pepper. Stew over a slow fire thirty minutes.

Cat-fish Chowder.

To be made of New River cat-fish.

Wash the fish in warm water, put it on in just water enough to cover it, boil until tender or until the bones will slip out; take out the largest bones, chop up the fish, put it in a stewpan with a pint of water, a large lump of butter.

1 cup of cream, pepper and not much salt.

1 onion, one teaspoonful mustard, one-half teacupful walnut catsup.

Stew until quite thick, garnish with sliced lemon and serve hot.—Mrs.P.W.

Cat-fish Chowder or Hog-fish.

Take two cat-fish, skin, and boil till thoroughly done; pick very fine and add:

2 good sized onions.

¼ pound butter.

1 tablespoonful salt.

1 tablespoonful pepper.

2 tablespoonfuls Worcestershire sauce.

Add a little celery or celery-seed, a little thyme, a little parsley.

Pour over all about one quart of boiling water and cook fast about half an hour.—MissF.N.

Fish Chowder.

Take any large fish, and cut in thin slices, lay some slices of fat bacon at the bottom of the pot and then a layer of fish, onions, cracker dust, red and black pepper, salt, and butter.

Then more layers, until you have used all the fish. Cover the whole with water and cook until well done.—Mrs.D.

Boiled Sheep's-head.

Clean the fish and boil well done. Serve hot with butter and egg sauce.

To Bake a Sheep's-head.

Put two tablespoonfuls butter and two tablespoonfuls lard in a skillet; also, with that, two tablespoonfuls flour, a little parsley, one pint boiling water, a little wine, catsup, salt, and cayenne pepper. Boil a few minutes; then take four eggs, half a pint cream or butter; beat well together. Lay the fish in a large deep dish, pour gravy from skillet over it; spread butter over top of fish. The bottom of the oven to be quite hot, top slow.—MissE.W.

Boiled Sheep's-head or Rock.

Lay the fish in a fish boiler, in a cloth, to prevent breaking. Throw into the water a handful parsley, and when the fish is done, lay some sprigs on it in the dish.—Mrs.D.

Baked Sheep's-head.

Put the fish in a pan and cover with water; put a little parsley, onions, and fat bacon, chopped up together, black pepper and salt, in the fish and over it, and when nearly done, beat up one egg and a little flour, and pour over it to thicken the gravy. Rock or shad may be cooked the same way.—Mrs.D.

Baked Sheep's-head.

When ready for cooking, salt and pepper well, gash the sides in three or four places. Cut four onions very fine, to which add one pint bread crumbs, fat meat minced very fine, as it suits better than lard, cayenne pepper, thyme, a little salt, and the yolks of two eggs, all mashed together, with which stuff the fish inside and gashes on the outside. Then sprinkle over with flour and black pepper; put into a large pan with one quart cold water. Bake two hours, slowly. Serve with or without sauce, according to taste.—MissF.N.

Boiled Rock-fish.

Clean the fish nicely, rub well with salt and pepper. Put into a large deep pan, that it may lie at full length; cover with cold water, adding salt and pepper. Boil steadily for three-quarters of an hour; dish and serve with melted butter and sauce or catsup.—MissF.N.

Boiled Rock-fish.

Clean nicely and hang it up; do not lay it in water, but wash it when ready for cooking. Put on in boiling water, seasoning with salt to taste. It takes two hours to boil, if large. Serve with egg sauce, and send to the table in a napkin to keep hot.—Mrs.W.

To Stew Rock-fish.

Take a rock, clean and season with parsley, sweet marjoram, onions, one-half pint water, salt to taste, one pint Port wine, one-half pound butter, and a little flour. Put them in a dish, and set in a stewpan. One hour is sufficient for cooking.—Mrs.J.T.

Baked Rock.

Boil the fish and take out the bones. Season with cream, butter, pepper, and salt, and grated bread crumbs over the top. Bake slightly in a flat dish or scollop shells.—Mrs.R.

To Pickle Rock.

Cut a rock-fish into pieces and put in a kettle with sufficient water to cover it. Put in a handful of salt, some white pepper, one tablespoonful allspice, a few cloves and mace.

When the fish is nearly done, add a quart of vinegar. In putting away, use as much liquor as will cover it.—Mrs.J.W.S.

Baked Shad.

Open the shad down the back, wash well and salt it; wipe dry and rub inside and out with a little cayenne pepper. Prepare a stuffing of bread, seasoned with pepper, salt, thyme, or parsley, celery-seed, a little chopped onion, piece of butter, size of a walnut.

Tie up the fish and put in a baking pan with one pint water (to a good sized fish) and butter, size of a hen's egg. Sprinkle with flour, baste well and bake slowly an hour and a half.—Mrs.J.H.F.

To Fry Shad.

Clean and hang in a cool place. When ready to use wash thoroughly, cut up and sprinkle lightly with flour, pepper, salt, and fry with lard.—Mrs. R——.

To Roast Shad.

Fill the inside with forcemeat, sew it up and tie it on a board, not pine, cover with bread crumbs, a little salt, and pepper, and place before the fire. When done one side, turn it; when sufficiently done, pull out the thread; dish and serve with drawn butter and parsley.—Mrs.D.

To Broil Shad.

Clean, wash, and split the shad, and wipe it dry.

Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and place it over a clear, slow fire, with the skin down so as to retain the juice; put on a clean gridiron, rubbed with lard. Turn it when nearly done; take up, and season with a generous piece of butter, salt, and pepper to taste.—Mrs.S.

Potted Shad.

Cut the fish as for frying; pack in a stone jar with layers of mixed spices, seasoning with salt; after the jar is filled, pour vinegar over; cover tightly with a cloth. Put the jar in a large pot of water and boil until the fish is thoroughly done.

A nice relish for tea.—Mrs.C.L.T.

To Barbecue a Shad.

Split the back of the fish, pepper and salt it, and put on the gridiron with the skin down.

Baste the upper side of the fish with butter; brown a little piece of butter with a small quantity of flour, and when brown add pepper, salt, and a little water.

Dish in a tureen.—Mrs.J.W.S.

Scolloped Sturgeon.

Four pounds sturgeon, boiled; when cold, pick to pieces and then wash and squeeze out the water. Make a mayonnaise dressing, using celery, cayenne pepper instead of black pepper, and salt. Serve on white lettuce leaves.—Mrs.R.R.

Sturgeon Cutlet.

Remove all the fat from the fish; cut it into steak pieces. Beat up the yolks of eggs enough to moisten the pieces well; dip them into the beaten egg. Have ready a dish of grated bread crumbs (stale bread is best), then roll them in the bread crumbs and pepper them well.

Prepare a vessel of melted lard, have it boiling hot, but not burnt; lay in the pieces of fish and cover with a lid. Turn them over as they brown and remove the lid when they are nearly done.—Mrs. Dr.P.C.

Sturgeon or Drum.

Slice it like beefsteak, and roll in a thin egg batter, and fry in hot lard.

Chopped parsley and black pepper may be added, if liked.—Mrs.D., Suffolk.

Baked Sturgeon.

Wash the skin well, put in a pan and bake for three-quarters of an hour. Then take it out on a dish; pierce it with a knife in several places. Make a stuffing of pot-meat, bread crumbs, onions, parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt, all chopped well together. Stuff the holes with the mixture and put the rest in the gravy; return to the pan and bake until done.—Mrs.D.

To Fry Perch.

Sprinkle with salt and dredge with flour; after a while dredge with flour the other side. When the lard boils hard, skim it well and put in the fish. Serve hot.—Mrs.W.

To Fry Trout.

Split the fish down the back, insert a thin slice of fat pork. Squeeze lemon juice over it and fry brown.—Mrs.J.I., La.

Boiled Cod-fish.

Boil over a slow fire and skim frequently. Season with salt. Garnish with parsley and rings of hard boiled eggs, and serve with butter and egg-sauce.

Cod-fish Balls.

One-fourth fish, to three-fourths potatoes, eggs enough to moisten. Season with pepper and salt, and fry brown.

Nantucket Cod-fish.

Cut the thick part out of a firm, white dried codfish, and soak it over night, then cut into very small pieces and parboil for a few minutes, changing the water until the fish remains but slightly salted. Drain off the water, leaving the fish in the saucepan. Pour over a little more milk than will cover it; when it becomes heated, add a little butter and pepper, thicken with flour stirred smooth in milk. Stir constantly for a few minutes.

To Dress Salt Cod-fish.

Take one-third of a large fish; soak it from three to four hours; next, boiling it till thoroughly done, pick the meat fine, taking out all the bones. Then add:

Mix all well together in a stewpan, with—

Boil half an hour, and add a liberal supply of butter just before serving. If preferred, the salt and mustard need not be put in until during the cooking.—Mrs.A.C.

Boiled Mackerel.

Well wash the fish, put it into nearly boiling water with one tablespoonful salt in it; boil up quickly, then let it simmer gently for a quarter of an hour, and if the fish be very large, a few minutes longer. Serve in a hot dish.—Mrs.B.

To Broil Mackerel.

If the mackerel is fresh, after it is nicely scaled and cleaned, dry it; pepper and salt and broil it on a gridiron; baste it with fresh butter. After it is broiled, put it on a hot dish, pour melted butter over it, and serve. If the fish is salt, pour boiling water over it, soak it several hours; butter and pepper, and broil; serve in the same way as the fresh.—Mrs.R.

To Cook Salt Mackerel.

Soak the fish over night in fresh water. In the morning drain off the water and place on a gridiron to broil, dressing with hot butter.—Mrs.T.

Baked Salmon.

When washed and dried, sprinkle over pepper and salt. Have ready in a baking-pan a small grating; lay the fish on this, with bits of butter over it; set in a hot oven, basting often and freely with butter. When nicely browned, butter a sheet of white paper and lay over it, to prevent its getting too dry; when done and tender, place on a hot dish. Add to the gravy one teacupful milk, one tablespoonful pepper vinegar, pepper, salt, and a mashed Irish potato smoothly mixed in; boil, and pour over the fish. Sift over all browned cracker. Garnish with bleached tops of celery and curled parsley alternately.—Mrs.T.

Boiled Salmon.

After the fish has been cleaned and washed, dry it and sew it up in a cloth; lay it in a fish-kettle, cover with warm water, and simmer until done and tender. Meanwhile have ready in a saucepan one pint cream, two tablespoonfuls fresh butter, salt, pepper, minced parsley, and thyme; let it boil up once, not too quickly. Take the fish from the kettle, carefully unwrap it, lay it for a moment on a folded napkin to dry. Have ready a hot dish, lay the fish on it carefully, without breaking it, pour over the cream. Slice some hard-boiled eggs, and lay over the fish alternately with sliced lemon. Border the edges of the dish with curled parsley.—Mrs.S.T.

Salmon Steak.

When well dried, pepper and salt, sift over powdered cracker, and lay upon a gridiron, which has been first greased with butter or lard, over hot coals. As soon as the side next to the fire is brown, turn it by carefully slipping under it a batter-cake turner and holding the fish on it with the other hand, lest it should break. When both sides are of a light brown, lay in a hot dish; pepper and salt again; pour over melted butter; place the cover on, and serve.—Mrs.T.

Pickled Salmon.

Soak the salmon twenty-four hours, changing the water. Put it in boiling water, with a little vinegar. When done and cold, boil your vinegar with spice and pour on the fish.—Mrs.A.P.

German Fish Stew.

Put the fish in a kettle to boil. Stew together in a saucepan one onion chopped fine and a wine-glass of sweet oil; when well done, pour them in with the fish. Then mix yolks of three eggs, juice of two lemons strained, one tablespoonful sifted flour. Beat these well together, and pour upon the fish when nearly done. Then add ginger, pepper, and salt to taste; stew three or four minutes, after mixing all the ingredients. Oysters may be cooked by the same receipt, only substituting one quart oysters for the fish.—Mrs.A.D.