The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 13

The hen lobsters are best for this purpose, as the eggs impart a good colour. It may be pounded in a marble mortar, but, if baked enough, will do as well without it.

_Crawfish, to make red._

Rub the fish with aqua vitae, which will produce the desired effect most completely.

_Eels broiled whole._

Skin, wash, and dry your eels, and score them with the knife, seasoning them with pepper, salt, thyme, parsley, and crumbs of bread, turning them round and skewering them across; you may either roast or broil them as you like best: the sauce to be melted b.u.t.ter with lemon juice.

_Eels, to collar._

Scour large silver eels with salt; slit them, and take out the back-bones; wash and dry them; season with shred parsley, sage, an onion, and thyme. Then roll each into collars, in a cloth; tie them close with the heads, bones, and a bundle of herbs, and boil them in salt and water. When tender, take them up, and again tie them close; drain the pickle, and put them into it.

_Eels, to fry._

Cut every eel into eight pieces; mix them with a proper quant.i.ty of yolks of eggs, and well season with pepper, and salt, and bread rubbed fine, with parsley and thyme; then flour them, and fry them. You may cook them as plain as you like, with only salt and flour, and serve them up with melted b.u.t.ter and fried parsley.

_Eels, to pot._

Into an earthen pan put Jamaica and common pepper, pounded fine, and salt; mix them and strew some at the bottom of the pan; cut your eels and lay them over it, and strew a little more seasoning over them. Then put in another layer of eels, repeating this process till all the eels are in. Lay a few bay leaves upon them, and pour as much vinegar as you may think requisite; cover the pan with brown paper and bake them. Pour off the liquor, cover them with clarified b.u.t.ter, and lay them by for use.

_Eels, to pickle._

Drain, wash, and well cleanse your eels, and cut off the heads. Cut them in lengths of four or five inches, with their skins on; stew in them some pepper and salt, and broil them on a gridiron a fine colour: then put them in layers in a jar, with bay-leaf, pepper, salt, a few slices of lemon, and a few cloves. Pour some good vinegar on them; tie strong paper over, and p.r.i.c.k a few holes in it. It is better to boil the seasoning with some sweet herbs in the vinegar, and let it stand to be cold before it is put over the eels. Two yolks of eggs boiled hard should be put in the vinegar with a tea-spoonful of flour of mustard.

Two yolks are sufficient for twelve pounds of eels.

_Eels, to roast._

Skin your eels; turn, scotch, and wash them with melted b.u.t.ter; skewer them crosswise; fix them on the spit, and put over them a little pepper, salt, parsley, and thyme; roast them quick. Fry some parsley, and lay it round the dish; make your sauce of b.u.t.ter and gravy.

_Eels, to spitchc.o.c.k._

Leave the skin on the eels; scour them with salt; wash them; cut off their heads and slit them on the belly side; take out the bone and guts.

Wash and wipe them well; cut them in pieces three inches long, and wipe them quite dry. Put two ounces of b.u.t.ter, with a little minced parsley, thyme, sage, pepper and salt, and a little chopped shalot, in a stewpan; when the b.u.t.ter is melted, stir the ingredients together, and take the pan off the fire; mix the yolks of two eggs with them and dip the eels in, a piece at a time; then roll them in bread crumbs, making as much stick on as you can. Rub the gridiron with a bit of suet; set it over a clear fire, and broil your eels of a fine crisp brown; dust them with crisp parsley. Sauce, anchovy and b.u.t.ter, or plain b.u.t.ter in a boat.

_Another way._

Wash your eels well in their skins with salt and water; dry and slit them; take out the back-bone, and slash them: season them with chopped parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper. Clean the inside with melted b.u.t.ter; cut them into pieces about three inches long and broil them; make the sauce with b.u.t.ter and orange juice.

_Eels, to stew._

Take five pounds of middling shafflings, cut off their heads, skin, and cut them in pieces as long as your finger. Wash them in several waters; dry them well with a cloth, lay them in a pan, sprinkle over them half an ounce of white salt, and let them lie an hour. Lay them in a stewpan, and add half a pint of French white wine, a quarter of a pint of water, two cloves beaten, a blade of mace, a large onion peeled, and the rind of a lemon; stew all these gently half an hour: then take the eels out of the liquor, skim off all the fat, and flour the eels all over; put to the liquor in which they were stewed an anchovy, washed and boned, and mix sorrel and parsley, half a handful of each, and half a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter. Let it just boil up; put in the eels; when they boil, lay them on sippets in your dish, and send them up hot to table.

_Another way._

Cover the fish close in a stewpan with a piece of b.u.t.ter as big as a walnut rolled in flour, and let it stew till done enough, which you will know by the eels being very tender. Take them up and lay them on a dish; strain your sauce, and give it a quick boil and pour it over the fish.

Garnish with lemon.

_Fish, to recover when tainted._

When fish of any kind is tainted plunge it in cold milk, which will render it sweet again.

_Fish, in general, to dress._

Take water, salt, half a pint of vinegar, a sprig of thyme, a small onion, and a little lemon peel; boil them all together, then put in your fish, and when done enough take them out, drain them well, and lay them over a stove to keep hot.

If you fry fish, strew some crumbs of grated bread very fine over them, and fry them in sweet oil; then drain them well and keep them hot.

_Fish, to dress in Sauce._

Cut off the heads, tails, and fins, of two or three haddocks or other small fish; stew them in a quart of water, with a little spice and anchovy, and a bunch of sweet herbs, for a quarter of an hour; and then skim. Roll a bit of b.u.t.ter in flour, and thicken the liquor; put down the fish, and stew them with a little chopped parsley, and cloves, or onions.

_Fish hashed in Paste._

Cut the fish into dice about three quarters of an inch square; prepare white sauce the same as for fowls, leaving out the mushrooms and truffles; add a little anchovy sauce to give it a good colour, and a pinch of cayenne pepper and salt. When the sauce is done, throw in the dice of fish, and when thoroughly hot serve it.

There should be a little more b.u.t.ter in the sauce than is commonly used in the white sauce for fowls.

_Fish, to Cavietch._

Cut the fish into slices, season them with pepper and salt, and let them lie for an hour; dry them well with a cloth, flour and fry them brown in oil: boil a quant.i.ty of vinegar proportionate to that of the fish to be prepared: cover the fish with slices of garlic and some whole pepper and mace; add the same quant.i.ty of oil as vinegar, mix them well together, and salt to your taste. When the fish and liquor are quite cold, slice onions and lay at the bottom of the pan; then put a layer of fish, and so on, till the whole is in. The liquor must be cold before it is poured on the fish.

_Gudgeon._

Dress as you would smelts.

_Haddocks, to bake._

Bone two or three haddocks, and lay them in a deep pan with pepper, salt, b.u.t.ter and flour, and two or three anchovies, and sufficient water to cover them. Cover the pan close for an hour, which is required to bake them, and serve them in the saucepan.