Chapter 27

Take a pound of sturgeon, a pound of a fresh fat eel, a pound of carp, a pound of turbut, a pound of mullet, scaled, cleans'd, and bon'd, a tench, and a lobster, cut all the fishes into the form of dice, and mingle with them a quart of prawns, season them all together with pepper, nutmeg & salt, mingle some cockles among them, boil'd artichocks, fresh salmon, and asparagus all cut into dice-work. Then make pyes according to these forms, lay butter in the bottom of them, then the meat being well mingled together, next lay on some gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, slic't oranges or lemons, and put butter on it, with yolks of hard eggs and pistaches, close it up and bake it, and being baked liquor it with good sweet butter, white-wine, or juyce of oranges.

_To make minced Pyes of Sturgeon._

Flay a rand of it, and mince it with a good fresh water eel, being flay'd and bon'd, then mince some sweet herbs with an onion, season it with cloves, mace, pepper, nutmeg and salt, mingle amongst it some grapes, gooseberries, or barberries, and fill the pye, having first put some butter in the bottom of it, lay on the meat, and more butter on the top, close it up, bake it, and serve it up hot.

_Otherways._

Mince a rand of fresh sturgeon, or the fattest part of it very small, then mince a little spinage, violet leaves, strawberry leaves, sorrel, parsley, sage, savory, marjoram, and time, mingle them with the meat, some grated manchet, currans, nutmeg, salt, cinamon, cream, eggs, sugar, and butter, fill the pye, close it up, and bake it, being baked ice it.

_Minced Pyes of Sturgeon otherways._

Flay a rand of sturgeon, and lard it with a good fat salt eel, roast it in pieces, and save the gravy, being roasted mince it small, but save some to cut into dice-work, also some of the eels in the same form, mingle it amongst the rest with some beaten pepper, salt, nutmeg, some gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, put butter in the bottom of the pye, close it up and bake it, being baked liquor it with gravy, juyce of orange, nutmeg, and butter.

Sometimes add to it currans, sweet herbs, and saffron, and liquor it with verjuyce, sugar, butter, and yolks of eggs.

_To make Chewits of Sturgeon, according to these Forms._

Mince a rand of sturgeon the fattest part, and season it with pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinamon, ginger, caraway-seed, rose-water, butter, sugar, and orange peel minced, mingle all together with some slic't dates, and currans, and fill your pyes.

_To make a Lumber Pye of Sturgeon._

Mince a rand of sturgeon with some of the fattest of the belly, or a good fat fresh eel, being minced, season it with pepper, nutmeg, salt, cinamon, ginger, caraways, slic't dates, four or eight raw eggs, and the yolks of six hard eggs in quarters, mingle all together, and make them into balls or rolls, fill the pye, and lay on them some slic't dates, large mace, slic't lemon, grapes, gooseberries, or barberries, and butter, close it up, and bake it, being bak'd liquor it with butter, white-wine, and sugar.

Or only add some grated bread, some of the meat cut into dice-work, & some rose-water, bak'd in all points as the former, being baked cut up the cover, and stick it with balls, with fryed sage-leaves in batter; liquor it as aforesaid, and lay on it a cut cover, scrape on sugar.

_To make an Olive Pye of Sturgeon in the Italian fashion._

Make slices of sturgeon, hack them, and lard them with salt salmon, or salt eel, then make a composition of some of the sturgeon cut into dice-work, some fresh eel, dry'd cherries, prunes taken from the stones, grapes, some mushrooms & oysters; season the foresaid things all together in a dish or tray, with some pepper, nutmeg, and salt, roul them in the slices of the hacked sturgeon with the larded side outmost, lay them in the pye with the butter under them; being filled lay on it some oysters, blanched chesnuts, mushrooms, cockles, pine-apple-seeds, grapes, gooseberries, and more butter, close it up, bake it, and then liquor it with butter, verjuyce, and sugar, serve it up hot.

_To bake Sturgeon to be eaten hot with divers farcings or stuffings._

Take a rand and cut it into small pieces as big as a walnut, mince it with fresh eel, some sweet herbs, a few green onions, pennyroyal, grated bread, nutmeg, pepper, and salt, currans, gooseberries, and eggs; mingle all together, and make it into balls, fill the pye with the whole meat and the balls, and lay on them some large mace, barberries, chesnuts, yolks of hard eggs, and butter; fill the pye, and bake it, being baked, liquor it with butter and grape-verjuyce.

Or mince some sturgeon, grated parmisan, or good Holland cheese, mince the sturgeon, and fresh eel together, being fine minced put some currans to it, nutmeg, pepper, and cloves beaten, some sweet herbs minced small, some salt, saffron, and raw yolks of eggs.

_Other stuffings or Puddings._

Grated bread, nutmeg, pepper, sweet herbs minced very fine, four or five yolks of hard eggs minced very small, two or three raw eggs, cream, currans, grapes, barberries and sugar, mix them all together, and lay them on the Sturgeon in the pye, close it up and bake it, and liquor it with butter, white-wine, sugar, the yolk of an egg, and then ice it.

_To make an Olio of Sturgeon with other Fishes._

Take some sturgeon and mince it with a fresh eel, put to it some sweet herbs minc't small, some grated bread, yolks of eggs, salt, nutmeg, pepper, some gooseberries, grapes or barberries, and make it into little balls or rolls. Then have fresh fish scal'd, washed, dryed, and parted into equal pieces, season them with pepper, nutmeg, salt, and set them by; then make ready shell-fish, and season them as the other fishes lightly with the same spices. Then make ready roots, as potatoes, skirrets, artichocks and chesnuts, boil them, cleanse them, and season them with the former spices. Next have yolks of hard eggs, large mace, barberries, grapes, or gooseberries, and butter, make your pye, and put butter in the bottom of it, mix them all together, and fill the pye, then put in two or three bay-leaves, and a few whole cloves, mix the minced balls among the other meat and roots; then lay on the top some large mace, potatoes, barberries, grapes, or gooseberries, chesnuts, pistaches and butter, close it up and bake it, fill it up with beaten butter, beaten with the juyce of oranges, dish and cut up the cover, and put all over it slic't lemons, and sometimes to the lear the yolk of an egg or two.

_To make minced Herring Pies._

Take salt herrings being watered, crush them between your hands, and you shall loose the fish from the skin, take off the skin whole, and lay them in a dish; then have a pound of almond paste ready, mince the herrings, and stamp them with the almond paste, two of the milts or rows, five or six dates, some grated manchet, sugar, sack, rose-water, and saffron, make the composition somewhat stiff, and fill the skins, put butter in the bottom of your pye, lay on the herring, and on them dates, gooseberries, currans, barberries, and butter, close it up and bake it, being baked liquor it with butter, verjuyce, and sugar.

Make minced pyes of any meat, as you may see in page 232, in the dishes of minced pyes you may use those forms for any kind of minced pies, either of flesh, fish, or fowl, which I have particularized in some places of my Book.

_Otherways._

Bone them, and mince them being finely cleansed with 2 or three pleasant pears, raisins of the sun, some currans, dates, sugar, cinamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and butter, mingle all together, fill your pies, and being baked, liquor them with verjuyce, claret, or white-wine.

_To make minced Pies of Ling, Stock-fish, Harberdine,_ &c.

Being boil'd take it from the skin and bones, and mince it with some pippins, season it with nutmeg, cinamon, ginger, pepper, caraway-seed, currans, minced raisins, rose-water, minced lemon-peel, sugar, slic't dates, white-wine, verjuyce, and butter, fill your pyes, bake them, and ice them.

_Otherways._

Mince them with yolks of hard eggs, mince also all manner of good pot-herbs, mix them together, and season them with the seasoning aforesaid, then liquor it with butter, verjuyce, sugar, and beaten cinamon, and then ice them; making them according to these forms.

* * * * * * * * *

SECTION XIX.

or,

The Seventh Section of FISH.

_Shewing the exactest Ways of Dressing all manner of Shell-Fish._

_To stew oysters in the French Way._

Take oysters, open them and parboil them in their own liquor, the quantity of three pints or a pottle; being parboil'd, wash them in warm water clean from the dregs, beard them and put them in a pipkin with a little white wine, & some of the liquor they were parboil'd in, a whole onion, some salt, and pepper, and stew them till they be half done; then put them and their liquor into a frying-pan, fry them a pretty while, put to them a good piece of sweet butter, and fry them a therein so much longer, then have ten or twelve yolks of eggs dissolved with some vinegar, wherein you must put in some minced parsley, and some grated nutmeg, put these ingredients into the oysters, shake them in the frying-pan a warm or two, and serve them up.

_To stew Oysters otherways._

Take a pottle of large great oysters, parboil them in their own liquor, then wash them in warm water from the dregs, & put them in a pipkin with a good big onion or two, and five or six blades of large mace, a little whole pepper, a slic't nutmeg, a quarter of a pint of white wine, as much wine-vinegar, a quarter of a pound of sweet butter, and a little salt, stew them finely together on a soft fire the space of half an hour, then dish them on sippets of French bread, slic't lemon on them, and barberries, run them over with beaten butter, and garnish the dish with dryed manchet grated and searsed.

_To stew Oysters otherways._

Take a pottle of large great oysters, parboil them in their own liquor, then wash them in warm water, wipe them dry, and pull away the fins, flour them and fry them in clarifi'd butter fine and white, then take them up, and put them in a large dish with some white or claret wine, a little vinegar, a quarter of a pound of sweet butter, some grated nutmeg, large mace, salt, and two or three slices of an orange, stew them two or three warms, then serve them in a large clean scowred dish, pour the sauce on them, and run them over with beaten butter, slic't lemon or orange, and sippets round the dish.

_Otherways._

Take a pottle of great oysters, and stew them in their own liquor; then take them up, wash them in warm water, take off the fins, and put them in a pipkin with some of their own liquor, a pint of white-wine, a little wine vinegar, six large maces, 2 or three whole onions, a race of ginger slic't, a whole nutmeg slic't, twelve whole pepper corns, salt, a quarter of a pound of sweet butter, and a little faggot of sweet herbs; stew all these together very well, then drain them through a cullender, and dish them on fine carved sippets; then take some of the liquor they were stewed in; beat it up thick with a minced lemon, and half a pound of butter, pour it on the oysters being dished, and garnish the dish and the oysters with grapes, grated bread, slic't lemon, and barberries.

_Or thus._

Boil great oysters in their shells brown, and dry, but burn them not, then take them out and put them in a pipkin with some good sweet butter, the juice of two or three oranges, a little pepper, and grated nutmeg, give them a warm, and dish them in a fair scowred dish with carved sippets, and garnish it with dryed, grated, searsed fine manchet.

_To make Oyster Pottage._

Take some boil'd pease, strain them and put them in a pipkin with some capers, some sweet herbs finely chopped, some salt, and butter; then have some great oysters fryed with sweet herbs, and grosly chopped, put them to the strained pease, stew them together, serve them on a clean scowred dish on fine carved fippets, and garnish the dish with grated bread.

_Otherways._

Take a quart of great oysters, parboil them in their own liquor, and stew them in a pipkin with some capers, large mace, a faggot of sweet herbs, salt, and butter, being finely stewed, serve them on slices of dryed _French_ bread, round the oysters slic't lemon, and on the pottage boil'd spinage, minced, and buttered, but first pour on the broth.

_To make a Hash of Oysters._

Take three quarts of great oysters, parboil them, and save their liquor, then mince 2 quarts of them very fine, and put them a stewing in a pipkin with a half pint of white wine, a good big onion or two, some large mace, a grated nutmeg, some chesnuts, and pistaches, and three or 4 spoonfuls of wine-vinegar, a quarter of a pound of good sweet butter, some oyster liquor, pepper, salt, and a faggot of sweet herbs; stew the foresaid together upon a soft fire the space of half an hour, then take the other oysters, and season them with pepper, salt and nutmeg, fry them in batter made of fine flour, egg, salt, and cream, make one half of it green with juyce of spinage, and sweet herbs chopped small, dip them in these batters, and fry them in clarified butter, being fried keep them warm in an oven; then have a fine clean large dish, lay slices of French bread all over the bottom of the dish, scald and steep the bread with some gravy of the hash, or oyster-liquor, & white wine boil'd together; dish the hash all over the slices of bread, lay on that the fryed oysters, chesnuts, and pistaches; then beat up a lear or sauce of butter, juyce of lemon or oranges, five or six, a little white-wine, the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs, and pour on this sauce over the hash with some slic't lemon, and lemon-peel; garnish the dish with grated bread, being dryed and searsed, some pistaches, chesnuts, carved lemons, & fryed oysters.

Sometimes you may use mushrooms boild in water, salt, sweet herbs--large mace, cloves, bayleaves, two or three cloves of garlick, then take them up, dip them in batter & fry them brown, make sauce for them with claret, and the juyce of two or three oranges, salt, butter, the juyce of horse-raddish roots beaten and strained, grated nutmeg, and pepper, beat them up thick with the yolks of two or three eggs, do this sauce in a frying-pan, shake them well together, and pour it on the hash with the mushrooms.

_To marinate great oysters to be eaten hot._

Take three quarts of great oysters ready opened, parboil them in their own liquor, then take them out and wash them in warm water, wipe them dry and flour them, fry them crisp in a frying-pan with three pints of sweet sallet oyl, put them in a dish, and set them before the fire, or in a warm oven; then make sauce with white wine; wine-vinegar, four or five blades of large mace, two or three slic't nutmegs, two races of slic't ginger, some twenty cloves, twice as much of whole pepper, and some salt; boil all the foresaid spices in a pipkin, with a quart of white wine, a pint of wine vinegar, rosemary, tyme, winter savory, sweet marjoram, bay leaves, sage, and parlsey, the tops of all these herbs about an inch long; then take three or four good lemons, slic't dish up the oysters in a clean scowred dish, pour on the broth, herbs, and spices on them, lay on the slic't lemons, and run it over with some of the oyl they were fried in, and serve them up hot. Or fry them in clarified butter.

_Oysters in Stoffado._

Parboil a pottle or three quarts of great Oysters, save the liquor and wash the oysters in warm water, then after steep them in white-wine, wine-vinegar, slic't nutmeg, large mace, whole pepper, salt, and cloves; give them a warm on the fire, set them off and let them steep two or three hours; then take them out, wipe them dry, dip them in batter made of fine flour, yolks of eggs, some cream and salt, fry them, and being fryed keep them warm, then take some of the spices liquor, some of the oysters-liquor, and some butter, beat these things up thick with the slices of an orange or two, and two or three yolks of eggs; then dish the fryed oysters in a fine clean dish on a chafing-dish of coals, run on the sauce over them with the spices, slic't orange, and barberries, and garnish the dish with searsed manchet.

_To Jelly Oysters._

Take ten flounders, two small pikes or plaice, and 4 ounces of ising glass; being finely cleansed, boil them in a pipkin in a pottle of fair spring-water, and a pottle of white-wine, with some large mace, and slic't ginger; boil them to a jelly, and strain it through a strainer into a bason or deep dish; being cold pare off the top and bottom and put it in a pipkin, with the juyce of six or seven great lemons to a pottle of this broth, three pound of fine sugar beaten in a dish with the whites of twelve eggs rubbed all together with a rouling-pin, and put amongst the jelly, being melted, but not too hot, set the pipkin on a soft fire to stew, put in it a grain of musk, and as much ambergriece well rubbed, let it stew half an hour on the embers, then broil it up, and let it run through your jelly-bag; then stew the oysters in white wine, oyster-liquor, juyce of orange, mace, slic't nutmeg, whole pepper, some salt, and sugar; dish them in a fine clean dish with some preserved barberries, large mace, or pomegranat kernels, and run the jelly over them in the dish, garnish the dish with carved lemons, large mace, and preserved barberries.

_To pickle Oysters._

Take eight quarts of oysters, and parboil them in their own liquor, then take them out, wash them in warm water and wipe them dry, then take the liquor they were parboil'd in, and clear it from the grounds into a large pipkin or skillet, put to it a pottle of good white-wine, a quart of wine vinegar, some large mace, whole pepper, and a good quantity of salt, set it over the fire, boil it leisurely, scum it clean, and being well boil'd put the liquor into eight barrels of a quart a piece, being cold, put in the oyster, and close up the head.

_Otherways._

Take eight quarts of the fairest oysters that can be gotten, fresh and new, at the full of the Moon, parboil them in their own liquor, then wipe them dry with a clean cloth, clear the liquor from the dregs, and put the oysters in a well season'd barrel that will but just hold them, then boil the oyster liquor with a quart of white-wine, a pint of wine-vinegar, eight or ten blades of large mace, an ounce of whole pepper, four ounces of white salt, four races of slic't ginger, and twenty cloves, boil these ingredients four or five warms, and being cold, put them to the oysters, close up the barrel, and keep it for your use.

When you serve them, serve them in a fine clean dish with bay-leaves round about them, barberries, slic't lemon, and slic't orange.

_To souce Oysters to serve hot or cold._

Take a gallon of great oysters ready opened, parboil them in their own liquor, and being well parboil'd, put them into a cullender, and save the liquor; then wash the oysters in warm water from the grounds & grit, set them by, and make a pickle for them with a pint of white-wine, & half a pint of wine vinegar, put it in a pipkin with some large mace, slic't nutmegs, slic't ginger, whole pepper, three or four cloves, and some salt, give it four or five warms and put in the oysters into the warm pickle with two slic't lemons, and lemon-peels; cover the pipkin close to keep in the spirits, spices, and liquor.

_To roast Oysters._

Strain the liquor from the oysters, wash them very clean and give them a scald in boiling liquor or water; then cut small lard of a fat salt eel, & lard them with a very small larding-prick, spit them on a small spit for that service; then beat two or three yolks of eggs with a little grated bread, or nutmeg, salt, and a little rosemary & tyme minced very small; when the oysters are hot at the fire, baste them continually with these ingredients, laying them pretty warm at the fire. For the sauce boil a little white-wine, oyster-liquor, a sprig of tyme, grated bread, and salt, beat it up thick with butter, and rub the dish with a clove of garlick.

_To roast Oysters otherways._

Take two quarts of large great oysters, and parboil them in there own liquor, then take them out, wash them from the dregs, and wipe them dry on a clean cloth; then haue slices of a fat salt eel, as thick as a half crown peice, season the oysters with nutmeg, and salt, spit them on a fine small wooden spit for that purpose, spit first a sage leafe, then a slice of eel, and then an oyster, thus do till they be all spitted, and bind them to another spit with packthread, baste them with yolks of eggs, grated bread and stripped time, and lay them to a warm fire with here and there a clove in them; being finely roasted make sauce with the gravy, that drops from them, blow off the fat, and put to it some claret wine, the juyce of an orange, grated nutmeg, and a little butter, beat it up thick together with some of the oyster-liquor, and serve them on this sauce with slices of orange.

_Otherways._

Take the greatest oysters you can get, being opened parboil them in their own liquor, save the liquor, & wash the oysters in some water, wipe them dry, & being cold lard them with eight or ten lardons through each oyster, the lard being first seasoned with cloves, pepper, & nutmeg, beaten very small; being larded, spit them upon two wooden scuers, bind them to an iron spit and rost them, baste them with anchove sauce made of some of the oyster-liquor, let them drip in it, and being enough bread them with the crust of a roul grated, then dish them, blow the fat off the gravy, put it to the oysters, and wring on them the juyce of a lemon.

_To broil Oysters._

Take great oysters and set them on a gridiron with the heads downwards, put them up an end, and broil them dry, brown, and hard, then put two or three of them in a shell with some melted butter, set them on the gridiron till they be finely stewed, then dish them on a plate, and fill them up with good butter only melted, or beaten with juyce of orange, pepper them lightly, and serve them up hot.

_To broil Oysters otherways upon paper._

Broil them on a gridiron as before, then take them out of the shells into a dish, and chuse out the fairest, then have a sheet of white paper made like a dripping pan, set it on the gridiron, and run it over with clarified butter, lay on some sage leaves, some fine thin slices of a fat fresh eel, being parboil'd, and some oysters, stew them on the hot embers, and being finely broil'd, serve them on a dish and a plate in the paper they are boil'd in, and put to them beaten butter, juyce of orange, and slices of lemon.

_To broil large Oysters otherways._

Take a pottle of great oysters opened & parboil them in there own liquor, being done, pour them in to a cullender, and save the liquor, then wash the oysters in warm water from the grounds, wipe them with a clean cloth, beard them, and put them in a pipkin, put to them large mace, two great onions, some butter, some of their own liquor, some white-wine, wine vinegar, and salt; stew them together very well, then set some of the largest shells, on a gridiron, put 2 or 3 in a shell, with some of the liquor out of the pipkin, broil them on a soft fire, and being broil'd, set them on a dish and plate, and fill them up with beaten butter.

Sometimes you may bread them in the broiling.

_To fry Oysters._

Take two quarts of great Oysters being parboil'd in their own liquor, and washed in warm water, bread them, dry them, and flour them, fry them in clarified butter crisp and white, then have butter'd prawns or shrimps, butter'd with cream and sweet butter, lay them in the bottom of a clean dish, and lay the fryed oysters round about them, run them over with beaten butter, juyce of oranges, bay-leaves stuck round the Oysters, and slices of oranges or lemons.

_Otherways._