CHAPTER IX.

BAKING.

SOME joints of meat bake to advantage. It is convenient, occasionally, to send the dinner out to be cooked, and the meat which suffers least from such cookery ought to be selected; veal is good baked, so is pork, a sucking pig, a goose, and a duck; but not mutton. Some pieces of beef bake well, with peeled potatoes under to catch the gravy, and brown. Some sorts of fish also bake well. (_See Fish in the Index._)

_Breast, Loin, Fillet, or Shoulder of Veal._

The two last stuffed with forcemeat; put the joint on a stand in a deep baking dish, and stick bits of butter over the top. The heat of the oven strong, but not fierce. Baste often; when nearly done, sprinkle salt over, and ten minutes before it is taken out, dredge with flour.

_Pig._

Put it in a shallow baking dish, wrap the ears and tail in buttered paper; send a good sized piece of butter tied in muslin, for the baker to rub over it frequently.

_Goose and Duck._

Prepare as for roasting: put them on a stand, and turn {82}them when half done.--_Wild Goose_ the same, with a piece of suet inside.

_Ham._

Boil it till half done, then cover it with a paste of flour and water, and set it in an oven, hot enough for bread, till you think it done.

_Ox Cheek._

Cover with a strong seasoning of pepper, salt, and minced onion. Bake three or four hours, according to its size, then set it by till next day, take off the fat, and warm it as you want it. A _Shin of beef_ in the same way.

_Hare and Rabbit._

Prepare as for roasting, and baste it constantly with butter. The stuffing should be rich.

_A Fawn._

Put a caul over and set it in the oven; about a quarter of an hour before it is done, take off the caul and baste well with butter. It will bake in the same time that a pig requires.

Meat pies require the oven to be as hot as for joints of meat, yet they should not be scorched. They also require time to soak through, or the meat will not be done.

Fish pies require half an hour less baking than the same sized meat pies.

Great nicety is required in baking fruit pies and light pastry. All these ought to be baked at home; when the precise heat of the oven, required, may be attained, which it rarely can be at the bakehouse. Pastry suffers, too, in being exposed to the air on its way to the oven; and it ought not to wait long before it is baked.

_Pork._

Any joint will bake well. It must be scored. Rub it over with oil, or stick bits of butter all over it. Put it on a stand, and put peeled potatoes under it; also, you may put onions and apples. Sprinkle dry sage over, before you serve it. Stuff the pork, or not, as you choose.

{83}CHAPTER X.

BROILING.

THIS is seldom excelled in, though it appears simple, and is of general utility; for few like to dine on cold meat, and none dislike a broil. There is no economy in broiling, but such meat, poultry, or game, as cannot be hashed with advantage, had best be broiled.

The great art in broiling is to have a suitable fire. It must be strong, bright, and clear, and entirely free from smoke; if half burnt down, so much the better. Have two gridirons, one for meat and poultry, the other for fish. Those which hang before the fire are useful. A gridiron should be rubbed clean immediately after being used, not set aside with a particle of grease or soot attached to it. Just before you lay meat on, after you have made it hot, rub the gridiron with a piece of fresh suet, if for meat; if for fish, rub with chalk. A pair of steak-tongs is indispensable. Above all things, it is necessary that the broil be served immediately, closely covered on its way from the fire to the table, and that the plates and the dish be hot.

_Beef Steaks._

These are eaten in perfection in England only, and, it is said, best in the Chop-houses in London, where daily practice makes the cooking perfect, and because in London the best beef may always be procured. No skill in broiling will render tough meat tender. Steaks are best from the middle of the rump (unless it be the under part of the sirloin), after the meat has been killed five days (if the weather permit), or even longer. They should be of about ¾ of an inch in thickness; beat them a very little. Sprinkle a little salt over the fire, lay the steaks on the hot gridiron, {84}turn them frequently, and when the fat blazes and smokes much, quickly remove the gridiron for an instant, till it be over, and the steak will be sufficiently done, in from ten to fifteen minutes. Have a hot dish by the side of the fire; and, to gratify the taste of some persons, rub it with a piece of eschalot; at all events let the dish be _hot_, and as you turn the steaks, if there be any gravy at the top, drop it into the dish. Before you dish them, put a piece of fresh butter, and a spoonful of catsup in the dish; then sprinkle the dish with a little salt, lay the steaks in the dish, and turn them once or twice, to express the gravy. Garnish with horse-radish, or pickles. Oyster, and many other sauces may be served; some beef steak eaters say that its own gravy, pepper and salt, are all that a good beef steak requires, unless it be a little sliced raw onion or tarragon; others like fried onions.

_Beef Steaks, with Potatoes._

Beat them flat; season on both sides with pepper, salt, and such mixed spices as you choose; dip the steaks in melted butter, lay them on the gridiron, and broil them, as directed in the last receipt. Have a little finely-rubbed parsley, or chopped eschalot, a piece of butter, and some pepper and salt, in a hot dish; when the steaks are done, lay them in it, turn them once or twice, and arrange slices of potatoes fried, round them. _Or_: spread mashed potatoes quite hot in the dish, and lay the steaks on.

_Blade bone of Veal._

Broil it till quite done. Serve it with stewed mushrooms, or a garnish of pickled mushrooms and slices of lemon.

_Mutton and Lamb Chops, also Rabbit and Fowl cut up, Sweetbread and Kidneys._

These may all be broiled in the same way as plain beef steak. Take care that the fat which drops from mutton and lamb, does not smoke the chops; where there is danger, take off the gridiron, and hold it aslant over the fire. {85}Kidneys must, to prevent their curling, be stretched on a skewer. They may be dressed in a more savoury way, thus: dip them in egg, then in a mixture of bread-crumbs, and savoury herbs, before you put them on the gridiron. For mutton, a piece of butter in a hot dish, with a little catsup, is good sauce; but no catsup for lamb; cucumber sauce is better.--(_See Blade bone of Pork._)

_Pork Chops_

Require a very strong fire, and more cooking than mutton, for they must be well done, about a quarter of an hour; cut them once to ascertain the state they are in. Mix in a _little_ gravy, rather thin than rich, a spoonful of made mustard; pour this quite hot, over the chops, in the dish, to mix with their own gravy; then strew over them a little dry sage, rubbed small, and some chopped eschalot. Pork chops may be dressed in a Dutch oven.

_Blade bone of Pork._

Cut it with a small quantity of meat to it: lay it on the gridiron, and when nearly done, pepper and salt it well, then rub a piece of butter over, and serve it directly. Mutton in the same way.

_Chickens and Pigeons._

After a chicken is picked, singed and washed, or wiped clean, truss, and lay it open, by splitting down the back; season the inside with pepper and salt, and lay that side on the gridiron, at a greater distance from the fire than you put a steak, for it will take longer to cook; at least half an hour is necessary for a good sized chicken. From time to time remove the chicken from the fire, and rub it over with a piece of butter, tied in muslin. Run a knife into the breast to ascertain if it be done. The gizzard should be scored, well seasoned, broiled and divided, to garnish the chicken, with the liver, and slices of lemon. Serve mushroom sauce or parsley and butter. You may egg the chicken and strew grated bread over it, and broil till it is of a fine brown; take care that the fleshy side is not {86}burnt. Pigeons are broiled in the same way, or may be done whole; in which case truss and put inside each a large piece of butter, pepper and salt, tie close at both ends, lay them on the gridiron, and turn them frequently. You may brush them with egg, and roll them in bread-crumbs and chopped parsley, with which mixture dredge them whilst broiling. Parsley and butter in the dish, with mushroom catsup, if you like. Stewed mushrooms are served with these, or pickled mushrooms as garnish. Chickens should be skinned before they are broiled for a sick person.

_Partridges._

Prepare as above, and place them in a frying-pan in which you have melted a little very delicate dripping, or butter; let them stay ten minutes; turn them once, finish on the gridiron; this makes them more firm than they would otherwise be. Poor man's sauce (_see Sauces_) is good with all broiled birds.

(_See in Index for Devils, also in Made Dishes, for Cutlets._)

_Note._--_Sauce Robert_ is good with all broils.

{87}CHAPTER XI.

FRYING.

NOT so difficult to _fry_ as it is to _broil_ well, and it is quite as good, for some things, but the fat must be good. Lard, butter, dripping, topfat (i.e. the cake of fat which is taken off soup or broth, when it has stood a night), oil, and suet, are all good for frying. If butter, suet and dripping be clarified, the pan will not be so apt to burn, and the fat will be more delicate. Housekeepers lose much of their credit by neglecting this, and similar niceties. The pan should be thick at the bottom: an oval shape is best, particularly for fish. The fire not fierce, as fat soon scorches, and the meat may be burnt, before it is half cooked; neither must it be too slack, for then the meat will be soddened; and if fish, of a bad colour, and not crisp. Ascertain the heat by throwing a bit of bread in; if the pan be too hot the bread will be burnt up. The fat in which veal, lamb or sweetbreads have been fried, will do for fish; let it stand to settle, then pour the top carefully from the sediment, and put it by. Fritters, pastry or sweet things, must be fried in good butter, lard or oil.

Care is required to fry fish well, and is attainable only by practice. To ascertain the heat of the pan, dip the tail of the fish into the boiling fat, and if it crisps quickly, the pan is ready.

Fries, as well as broils, served hot, as soon as off the fire, or they will be spoiled.

_To Clarify Butter._

Cut in pieces, and put it into a jar: set that in a kettle of boiling water, to melt; skim carefully, take the jar out of the water, let the butter cool a little, then pour it gently off, keeping back the milky sediment.

{88}_Suet._

Chop beef, mutton, or veal suet, take off all skin and fibrous parts, melt it _slowly_, as in the last receipt, or in a Dutch oven, before the fire. Strain, and pour it off: beef or mutton dripping may be done the same way, and is good for peas soup, and for plain pastry. For soup, it may be seasoned, after it is melted and strained. A piece of charcoal will remove a rancid taste, put into the melting fat, and stirred round a few minutes. Use butter or lard in frying white meat.

_Beef Steaks and Mutton Chops_

Must be fried in butter. Steaks the size directed for broiling will be done in from ten to fifteen minutes. When nearly done, cover with a dish and let the pan remain five minutes by the fire, after you take it off. Then lay the steaks in a hot dish, and add to the gravy in the pan a piece of butter rolled in flour, a glass of port wine, or some catsup, a very little water, pepper, salt, a little minced eschalot or onion; let this boil, then pour it over the steaks. Garnish with horse-radish, and serve mashed potatoes and pickles. (_See Made Dishes, for Cutlets._)

_Veal Cutlets_

May be cut from the fillet or the loin, ½ an inch thick: brush them over with egg, cover with bread-crumbs, and fry of a nice light brown, in a good deal of butter or lard. You may, if you choose, add to the bread-crumbs, a mixture of parsley, lemon thyme, lemon peel, and a little nutmeg and cayenne. When done place the cutlets in a hot dish, while you make some gravy in the pan; pour all the fat out, and pour in ¼ pint of boiling water, the same of melted butter, and let it boil till thickish, then add Harvey sauce, white wine, and any other sauce you like: strain this over the cutlets. Garnish with rashers of bacon, curled parsley, and slices of bacon. Cutlets, _without gravy_, may be served round mashed potatoes.

_Lamb and Pork Chops._

Pork chops may be cut from neck or loin. Fry the same {89}as veal, either plain or egged. Garnish with slices of lemon, or crisped parsley. Pork chops, egged, are improved, to some persons' tastes, by a little finely chopped onion and sage. You may make a sauce thus: put the chops on a dish, keep hot while you pour part of the fat from the pan, stir in a tea-spoonful of flour, moisten ½ pint of water, or broth, a table-spoonful of vinegar, a little salt and pepper, and 6 small gherkins or slices (or _for lamb, pickled mushrooms_), put the chops back into the pan to re-warm in the sauce, and serve it altogether. You may add mustard to the sauce; also, chopped onions, for pork. If there be no herbs used before, you may sprinkle dried parsley over lamb chops in the dish; also, lemon peel.

_Sausages._

Some suppose that these do not require fat to fry them. It should be butter or dripping, not lard (a little for beef or pork, more for veal), and sausages ought to cook slowly, that they may be done, without being scorched, and not burst. Prick them with a darning needle to prevent this, but gradual heating is the best preventative. Drain, _very_ lightly flour, and set them before the fire to froth. For dinner or supper, serve mashed potatoes with sausages.

_Rabbits_

_Must_ be young, either tame or wild. Carve in joints, brush these with egg, and dip them in bread-crumbs, in which there may be, if you like it, some dried parsley, grated ham or lemon peel; fry nicely and serve with rashers; make some gravy in the pan as directed for veal cutlets.

_Eggs with Ham or Bacon._

Soak the slices, of ham or bacon, in lukewarm water, and dry them in the folds of a cloth; and they will be less hard than fried bacon usually is. The pan used to fry eggs should be delicately clean. A good method is, to melt a little fat in the pan, pour that off, and then, whilst the pan is quite hot, rub it hard with a cloth. Let the bacon be nearly done, and if the fat be burnt, pour that off, and put in some fresh; then slip the eggs gently in. When they {90}are done lay the slices of bacon in a dish, trim the eggs, and lay them on the bacon. The eggs may be fried in one pan, and the bacon in another; some prefer the latter broiled. For breakfast, slices of ham or bacon should not be broiled or fried, but toasted before the fire.

_Sweetbreads._

Parboil them while fresh, and then fry them in long slices, or whole, in plain butter; or else egged, covered with bread-crumbs, and seasoned with lemon peel, pepper, and a sprig of basil. Garnish with crisped parsley, and lemon sliced: serve on a toast, with either parsley and butter, or plain butter, and a very little walnut, mushroom or any other catsup. Garnish with small slices of crisped bacon. (_See Made Dishes._)

_Ox, Calves', and Lamb's Liver, and Pig's Harslet_,

Must be quite sound. Cut the liver in long thin slices, soak in water, then dry them in a cloth, flour, and season with pepper, salt, a little onion, or eschalot and sage, chopped fine. Fry the slices in butter or lard, of a light brown, and when nearly done, put into the pan some slices of bacon. When you take the liver and bacon out of the pan, pour in a tea-cupful of boiling water, dredge some flour in, let it boil up, and pour this gravy over the liver. You may fry a handful of parsley in the gravy. You may improve this gravy, by adding to it pepper, salt, a wineglass of vinegar, lump of sugar, and a tea-spoonful of made mustard. Garnish with crisped parsley; serve mashed potatoes, or better still, stewed cucumbers. Of the pig's harslet, the lights, sweetbread, and heart may be parboiled, cut up, and fried with the liver. _Or_:--After the fashion of _Herefordshire_, cut in slices, 2 inches thick, the liver, griskins, heart, kidney, lights, crow, and some fat of bacon; rub these slices well with a seasoning, composed of onions, apples, a _little_ sage, and plenty of pepper and salt; then put them on a small spit in alternate slices of lean and fat, cover all over with a pig's caul, and roast it three hours, or more, if the harslet be large. When done, remove the caul and pour a kettle of boiling water over. Make some gravy of the water that has been poured over, and flavour it with port wine, cyder, and walnut catsup. Serve apple sauce. _Harslet_ is {91}very good stewed in just enough water to make gravy, and seasoned well. A little cayenne.

_Tripe._

Boiled tender, cut in long narrow slips, these dipped in a batter of egg and flour, and, if you like, a little minced onion and salt. Fry from seven to ten minutes, of a light brown. Serve, if approved of, onion sauce.--(_Cow-Heel the same._)

_To Fry Parsley._

After it has been washed and picked, shake the parsley backwards and forwards in a cloth till dry; then put it into a pan of hot fat, and fry it quickly of a light brown; take it out with a slice the moment it is crisp--it will be spoiled if done too much. Lay it on a sieve before the fire. Herbs, lemon peel, and onions, must always be chopped fine before they are mixed with bread-crumbs to fry. _Or_: Spread it on paper in a Dutch oven before the fire, and turn it often till it is crisp.

_To Fry Bread Sippets._

Cut a slice of bread about a ¼ inch thick, divide it into pieces of any shape you like. Make some fat quite hot, in the frying-pan, put in the sippets, and fry of a light brown; take them up with a slice, and drain them before the fire ten minutes. Take care the pan be not hot enough to burn.

_To Fry Bread Crumbs._

The bread two days old: rub it into very smooth crumbs, put them into a stew-pan with some butter; set it near a moderate fire, and stir them constantly with a wooden spoon, till of a fine light brown; spread them on a sieve to drain, and stir occasionally. Serve with roasted sweetbreads, small birds, and game, if approved. (_See Made Dishes._)

{92}CHAPTER XII.

SOUPS AND BROTHS.

THE prejudice against French soup, arising from a belief that it must be _maigre_, is as ridiculous as was the assuming that all Frenchmen are the small, thin, miserable looking creatures which they used to be represented in caricatures. Soup is nourishing, and also economical, as it converts into palatable food, the coarser parts of meat, all trimmings, and much that could not be cooked with effect in any other way.

The French excel, merely because they take such pains in making soup, and not from the quality or quantity of their ingredients. A little meat with slow and regular boiling, will produce richer soup, than double the quantity, if the soup kettle be suffered to boil fast one quarter of an hour, and to stop boiling altogether the next quarter of an hour.--The fault most common in English soup is, the want of the juice of meat, caused by too quick and irregular boiling, to remedy which want, recourse is had to pepper, herbs, and wine. It is very easy to vary the _sort_ of soup, by making a good clear _stock_, or what the French call _bouillon_, and the next or following days, flavour it, or add vegetable ingredients to your taste. Soup made solely of brown meat or game, without vegetables, will keep better than that made of veal, fowl, any vegetable substance, or fish. As the French are great economists in their kitchens, and are most scientific cooks, it may not be amiss to recommend their practice.

Read the directions for boiling meat, for they must be observed in the first process of soup making. Always use the softest water; and, as a general rule, give a quart to a pound of meat for soup, rather less for gravy. Place the soup-kettle over a moderate fire, that the meat may be gradually heated through, which will cause it to swell and become tender; also the water will penetrate into it, and {93}extract all the gross particles, which will then go off in scum. If it be suffered to boil up quickly, it will be just as if scorched before the fire, and will never yield any gravy.--After the soup has been near to a boil for half an hour, let it boil _gently_, to throw up the scum; remove that carefully, and when you think no more will appear, put in the vegetables and a little salt: these will cause more scum to rise; watch and take it off, then cover the pot close, and place it so, by the fire, that it may boil or _simmer_ gently, and not vary its rate of boiling. From four to six hours may be enough, but an hour more would not be too much, for the bare meat and vegetables; all flavouring ingredients should be allowed the shortest possible time, because their flavour evaporates in boiling. Great extravagance is often committed for the want of attention to this, for a larger quantity of costly ingredients is used, than need be if they were put in just at the proper time. It may be necessary to put in _some_ of these things earlier than others; but this must rest with the discretion of the cook. Remember that where catsup is used, care must be observed not to give so much salt as where there is none.

If the soup waste much in boiling, add boiling water. Keep the lid close, and remove it as seldom as possible, because so much of the flavour escapes by that means. If the soup be over-watered, leave the lid half way off, that some of it may evaporate in steam.

French cooks, I believe, invariably brown the meat and vegetables first, thus: put a good piece of butter in a stew or frying-pan, then the meat and vegetables and a little water (no seasoning), set it over a sharp fire, turn it frequently that none of it may burn, or the flavour will be spoiled; when it is all browned, put your quantity of water to it. The soup may, perhaps, have a finer flavour, but it will not be so clear, for after the meat has been fried the scum will not be extracted from it in boiling.

Thickening may be made of bread-raspings. But that most commonly used, is flour rubbed in butter or fat skimmings. Flour or meal is coloured, spread on a plate, in a Dutch oven before the fire. Turn it with a spoon till it is of the colour you wish. Keep covered close, for use. Potato flour, a table-spoonful, mixed smooth in a cup of water, is a nice thickening. Barley and oatmeal, also Indian {94}corn meal, in the same quantity. Thickening should be put in after that scumming has taken place which the vegetables have made necessary. But the French mode of thickening soup is best of all. (_See Roux._)

Some persons boil vegetables by themselves to a mash, and pulp them through a sieve into the soup. This helps to thicken it. The fatter the meat, the more of green vegetables, such as leeks and greens, may be used. Meat should not be very fat, nor yet all lean, for soup.

No seasoning whatever, except salt, should be given to plain stock, if not to be eaten the day it is made. Thickened soup requires a greater quantity of flavouring ingredients than clear soup, as the thickening material absorbs a portion of the flavouring.--Take care not to over-season, for this is a common fault. Of wine, the quantity should not exceed a wine-glassful to a quart. The sort must depend upon taste, but claret is best for brown soup; Madeira for Mock Turtle; Brandy is used in soup, and so is lump sugar. Vegetable soup requires a little cayenne.

Soup or stock to be eaten on the following day, should stand by the side of the fire a quarter of an hour to settle, before it is strained; the fat skimmed carefully off, and put by. Strain the stock into an unglazed vessel. In hot weather, let it stand in a cool place; if you wish to keep it three or four days, boil it up every day. When you rewarm it, take off the cake of fat at the top, and hold back the sediment. Be careful in warming soup, that it do not get smoked. Also remember that it should but just come to a boil, and be taken off the fire, for every bubble tends to flatten its flavour. When macaroni, or other paste, or any kind of green vegetable, is added at the time of re-warming the soup, of course time must be given for such addition to be cooked; it is best partly cooked by itself first.

Ham is used for making stock; but except for ragouts, or sauces very highly flavoured, I should reject it.

When cream is added, it must be boiled first, or it will curdle. Pour it in by degrees, stirring all the while.

The French use earthenware soup-kettles, and some prefer them to the cast-iron digester, or stock-pot. Tammis cloths (bought at the oil shops) are better for straining than sieves.

Never use stale meat for broth or soup. Vegetables as {95}fresh as possible. The older and drier the onion, the stronger its flavour.

_Plain Stock._

Having read the foregoing directions, get a leg or shin of beef, break it in two or three places, wash it, and cut some nice pieces to eat. Cover with water, and boil it slowly. If you wish it to be very good, add an old fowl, rabbit, any trimmings of meat, or gizzards of poultry, or bones, but mind that whatever it be, it is quite fresh; take care that you take off the first scum as it rises, then put in salt, and a large carrot, a head of celery, two turnips, and two onions. Simmer this so gently as not to waste the liquor, from four to five hours, then strain as directed.--Rabbits are excellent in making stock. More onions may be used than I have given directions for in this receipt; indeed, where their flavour is not objected to, it is scarcely possible to use too many, for nothing enriches soup and gravy so much. The meat of shin of beef is excellent for your family dinner; before what is cut into smallish pieces are cooked too much, take them out and keep hot to serve with a little of the soup poured over, as sauce. Serve pickles.

_Soup and Bouilli._

About 5 lbs. of fresh, juicy rump, or flank of beef, four quarts of water, let it come slowly to a boil, put in a heaped table-spoonful of salt, taking off all the scum carefully; put in three carrots, four turnips, two leeks, one head of celery, three onions (one burnt), three cloves in each, a small bunch of herbs; this should boil very gently five hours. All the vegetables cut or sliced. Some persons like a small cabbage cut up in this. Serve the bouilli garnished with the vegetables; put slices of bread in your tureen and pour the soup over, without straining. Tomata sauce is good with bouilli.

_Good Plain Stock._

7 lbs. of knuckle of veal cut in pieces, five inches in diameter, also ¾ lb. of lean ham, cut in dice, put ¼ lb. of butter into a stew-pan, turn it round, then put in the meat, two {96}onions, four cloves in each, a turnip, carrot, leek and a head of celery. Cover the pan and keep skimming its contents over a sharp fire, until there be a thick white glaze that will adhere to the spoon; then put in four quarts of soft water, and when coming to a boil, set it on one side of the fire, that it may _simmer_ for three hours. Skim off the fat, and strain it.

_Very good Clear Gravy Soup._

First heat, then rub with a coarse cloth, a good-sized stew-pan or stock-pot, then rub the bottom and sides with a marrow, or a large piece of butter. Lay in about 6 or 7 lbs. of shin of beef chopped across, a knuckle or scrag of veal, four shanks or the knuckle part of a leg of mutton, and any trimmings of meat, game or poultry you have, a slice of carrot, a head of celery, two onions, two leeks, and turnip sliced, and two table-spoonsful of salt. Let this catch, not burn, over a rather brisk fire, and add five quarts of soft water. When it has been carefully scummed once, give it a pint of cold water, to throw up more scum. Simmer slowly full four hours. Place it by the side of the hearth to settle, skim off the fat, and strain it. Of this soup, which ought to be very clear, are made many sorts, on following days, thus:--

_Vermicelli._--Boil the quantity you wish to use, in a little water, till nearly cooked enough, then put it into the clear soup, when you put that on the fire to re-warm. _Brown thickening, which see, in the Index._

_Maccaroni Soup._--The same as the last, but do not make it too thick. Boil the maccaroni till rather more than three parts cooked, and put it into the soup to finish while that is heating. Cream is an improvement. Serve grated parmesan. _White thickening._

_Carrot or Turnip Soup._--Cut red carrots in thin strips, boil them till tender, and put them into clear soup, when it is rewarmed. _Or_: Boil six or eight carrots quite tender, then pulp them through a sieve into the soup. Scoop turnips into little balls, or cut them in any shapes you like, boil them till tender, and put into the soup. _Brown thickening._

_Celery and Asparagus Soup._--Cut these in pieces rather more than ½ an inch in length, and boil them gently, till {97}tender, then put them into clear gravy soup. Cream may be used if the thickening be white.

_Julienne Soup._--Cut leeks and celery in squares, turnips and carrots in strips, boil them till tender, and put into clear brown soup. _Or_: Cut carrots and turnips in strips, put a large tea-cupful of these into a stewpan with ½ lb. of butter, and shake it over the fire till they are tender and look transparent, then pour in the stock; add young peas, two onions, two leeks, a small lettuce, some sorrel and chervil, all these cut small; simmer gently till the vegetables are cooked, then put in three lumps of sugar.

_Clear Herb Soup._

Cut up what herbs you like the flavour of; also leeks, celery, carrots, turnips, cabbage, lettuce, and young onions, in preference to old ones, a handful of young peas, put the whole into boiling water, and give them just a scald. Drain them on a sieve, put them into some clear stock, and simmer slowly till the roots are tender. Season with salt, and a very little cayenne, if you choose.

_A Clear Soup._

Cut 6 lbs. of gravy beef small, put it into a large stewpan, with two onions, a small carrot and turnip, a head of celery, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a pint of water. Stew slowly an hour, add nine pints of boiling water. Simmer it slowly six hours, strain, and let it stand till next day. Take off the fat, pour it from the sediment, and boil up with whatever flavouring ingredient you choose. This may be made _Julienne_ by putting in the mixture of vegetables as directed above. Also _Ox-tail_ by adding one to it.

_Brown Soup._

Make this as clear gravy soup, and strain it. Then fry to a nice brown 2 lbs. rump steaks, cut in small pieces, drain them from the fat, and put them in the soup. Let them simmer an hour, add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste, also a wine-glassful of any catsup you like, and when done, let it stand by the fire, to allow the fat to rise; take that off, and serve the soup with the steaks.

{98}_Plain White Soup._

Soak a large knuckle of veal, put it into the soup-kettle with 2 fowls skinned, or a rabbit, ¼ lb. of lean undressed bacon or ham, a bunch of lemon thyme, 2 onions, 1 carrot, 1 turnip, a head of celery, a few white peppercorns, and 2 blades of mace, cover with water, and boil for two hours and a half, and strain. This should form a jelly. To re-warm it, take off the top fat, clear the soup from the sediment, and put it in a stewpan. Add vermicelli or maccaroni, previously boiled, till nearly done.

_Another White Soup._

Fry 2½ lbs. veal, and ¼ lb. ham or bacon, with a faggot of herbs, 2 onions, a parsnip cut small, and a head of celery. When the gravy is drawn, pour upon it 2 quarts of water, and 2 quarts of skim milk. Boil it slowly an hour and a half. Add 2 table-spoonfuls of oatmeal, rubbed smooth in a tea-cupful of broth. Boil half an hour, then strain it into the tureen. _Cow heel_ and _calf's feet_ are good in making white soup; also rabbits, in place of fowls. When veal is dear, use lean beef.

_Another with herbs._

Boil a quart of beef and a quart of veal stock together, with a table-spoonful of chopped tarragon, and one of chervil; when tender, have ready a coffee-cupful of cream and three eggs beaten together, stir them gently in, and keep stirring till cooked, but do not let it boil.

_Lorraine Soup._

Blanch ½ lb. of sweet and 1 oz. bitter almonds, pound them in a mortar, with a very little water, to a paste. Take all the white part of a cold roast fowl, skin and mince it very fine, with the yolks of 3 hard-boiled eggs, and some fine bread-crumbs; put this into a pint of _plain white soup_, with a large piece of lemon peel, and a little mace and nutmeg; let it come to a boil, add a quart more of the same stock boiling hot, and after it has simmered a few minutes, strain the soup, and add, by degrees, a quart of cream which has been boiled.

{99}_Onion Soup._

The number of onions must depend upon taste; if 10 or 12, chop and stew them, in a saucepan, with a good piece of butter; stew them gradually, and when done, add some good stock: salt, pepper, and cayenne, if the stock be not already seasoned. This may be strained, and a pint of boiling cream added, to make it more delicate.--_Another_: cut small silver onions in rings, fry them of a light colour, drain and cook them for twenty minutes in _clear gravy soup_. Serve toasted sippets.

_Onion Soup Maigre._

Fry in clarified butter 12 large onions, 2 heads of celery, a large carrot and a turnip, all chopped. When soft, pulp them through a sieve, into 2 quarts of boiled water, thickened with 4 or 5 oz. of butter, worked up with potato flour, and seasoned with mace and white peppercorns, 2 lumps of sugar, or you may thicken with the beat yolks of 4 eggs. Bread sippets in the tureen.

_Green Peas Soup._

An old-fashioned, but good receipt. Boil quite soft, 3 pints of green peas, and work them through a hair sieve. Put into the water in which the peas were boiled, 3 large slices of ham, a small knuckle of veal, a few beet leaves shred small, a turnip, 2 carrots, and a little more water. Boil an hour and a half. Then strain the liquor into a bowl, and mix it with the pulp. Put in a little juice of spinach, which is obtained by squeezing the spinach, after it has been boiled, through a cloth. This will give a good colour. Then give it a gentle boil, to take off the taste of the spinach, slice in the whitest part of a head of celery, and a lump of sugar the size of a walnut. Cut a slice of bread into little square pieces, a slice of bacon in the same manner, and fry together in fresh butter, of a light brown. Cut a large lettuce in slices, fry that, after the other, then put them all together into the tureen. Have ready boiled, a pint of young peas, put them also into the tureen, and pour the soup over.--Onions may be added if approved.--Serve toasted bread, and also dry powdered mint.

{100}_Green Pea or Asparagus Soup._

Put 5 pints of peas, with ½ lb. of butter and ¼ lb. lean ham, in dice, into a stew-pan with two onions cut up and a little parsley, moisten it with water, and keep stirring or shaking over a sharp fire; when quite tender put in a thickening of flour rubbed smooth with water or broth, and having stirred that well in, add 3 quarts of any stock you have; whatever salt and pepper you think is required, also cayenne if you like, and 3 lumps of sugar: boil ten minutes and strain it. This may be served at once; or, after you have strained it, you may boil it up again with ½ pint of boiling milk, skim it, and serve on crisp sippets. _Asparagus_ the same way: keep back part of the heads, and boil them separately, not very tender, cut them in pointed pieces, and put into the strained soup.

_Artichoke Soup._

Wash and peel 2 doz. Jerusalem artichokes, and cut them in thin slices. Put 2 large onions, 1 turnip, a head of celery, 2 bay leaves, a sprig of thyme, and 1 lb. of lean ham into a stew-pan, with ½ lb. butter, stir all the time, and let it fry over a slow fire 20 minutes; it will form a white glaze, then take it off, and put it all with the artichokes into a stew-pan with a pint of thin broth or soft water, and simmer it, till all the vegetables are quite tender, then put in 3 table-spoonsful of flour rubbed smooth with broth, mix well together; add 3 quarts of good stock and a pint of boiled milk, a tea-spoonful of salt, the same of sugar, let it just boil up, then strain it, and boil it up again with mushroom catsup, and a glass of white wine; and pour it over fried bread in the tureen.

_A good Maigre Soup._

Melt slowly, in a stew-pan, ¾ lb. butter, put in a head of celery, 1 carrot, and 1 turnip sliced, shake them well and let them brown; add three quarts of boiling water, 1½ pint of young peas, and some black pepper; when these are done, let it settle, strain the soup into another stew-pan, leaving all sediment; put it on again with 3 large onions in slices, {101}another head of celery, and 3 turnips and carrots in pretty shapes. Boil slowly till done, then serve the soup.

_Yellow Peas Soup_

Should soak the night before, and if old, again in the morning, in lukewarm water. Allow 1½ lb. to 4 quarts of soft water, with 3 lbs. of lean sinewy beef, or fresh trimmings of meat, poultry, or roast beef bones, a small piece of pickled pork, the shank of a bacon or mutton ham, or the root of a tongue a little salted, and soaked and washed; also 2 carrots, 2 turnips, and 6 rather small onions. Scum well, as soon as it boils, and stir the peas up from the bottom; add another quart of boiling water, or the liquor of any boiled meat. (Pot liquor should always be saved for peas soup.) Let it simmer till the peas will pulp. Then strain through a coarse sieve. Take the onions out from the pulp, and put the latter back into the soup, with a fresh head of celery, or a large tea-spoonful of celery seed, tied in muslin, and some salt and pepper. Simmer it, if thin, three-quarters of an hour, to thicken it; then put it into the tureen, let it stand covered a few minutes, and remove the fat which will have gathered on the top. Shake dried mint or parsley over the soup, and serve with dice of toasted bread.--This soup may be made in a very economical way, by the means of pot liquor, roast beef bones, fragments of meat, and fresh clarified dripping. The liquor in which a leg of pork has been boiled, should be saved for peas soup.--Very little pieces of boiled pork may be served in peas soup, also cucumbers cut and fried, or bacon cut and fried. A pickled herring is used to give flavour, when there is no pot liquor. Peas soup is very good quite maigre; the water must be soft, and the peas boiled long and slowly, before they are pulped.

_Carrot Soup plain._

Scrape and wash six large carrots, and peel off the outsides quite thick; put these into a soup-kettle, with a large head of celery, an onion cut thin, two quarts of soft water, or pot liquor, and, if you have them, roast beef bones. After this has been boiled and scummed, set it by the fire, keep it close covered and simmer it gently two hours. {102}Strain through a sieve, and pulp the vegetables, with a wooden spoon, into a clean saucepan, and as much broth as will make it as thick as peas soup; season with salt and pepper. Make it hot, and send it to table. Add what spices you like. Serve toasted bread, either fried or plain.--_Celery_ and _Turnip_ soup the same way. When celery cannot be procured, the seed pounded fine, about ½ a drachm, put in a quarter of an hour, will give the flavour of two heads of celery.

_Mock Turtle Soup._

Make it the day before it is wanted. Get a good sized calf's head, the skin on, scald and split it, take out the brains, and the bones of the nose, and lay it in lukewarm water to soak. Change the water often, to draw out the blood and slime. When the head is quite clean, put it into a stew-pan with rather more soft cold water than to cover it. Let it come to a boil rather quickly, and scum well. Then boil gently, rather more than half an hour. Take out the head, place it in a dish, and when cold, cut it into small neat pieces: skin the tongue, and cut it up. Keep the meat covered, and set it by till the next day. Put all the bones and refuse parts of the head into the soup-kettle, in the liquor in which it was boiled, with a knuckle of veal broken, and about 3 lbs. shin of beef, but the latter must be soaked first. Let this boil, then take off all the scum, and simmer it gently from four hours and a half to six hours, strain it into a pan, and set it by. When you want to make the soup, take off the cake of fat, and pour the stock into a large stew-pan, holding back the sediment; set it on the fire, let it come quickly to a boil, then throw in a little salt to facilitate the rising of whatever scum there may still be, and take this off. Put in from 10 to 12 sliced onions, browned in the frying-pan; also a few sprigs of fried sage, a few leaves of sweet basil, and the peel of a large lemon, not fried; a little cayenne, black pepper to your taste, a very little allspice, three blades of mace, some cloves, one eschalot, and the thickening; which latter may be of flour worked up in butter, or of brown _roux_ (which _see in the Index_). Let it simmer nearly two hours, or till it taste strong, and be of a good colour; pass it gently through a hair-sieve into another stew-pan, and put into that the cut {103}up pieces of head, and what wine you choose, Madeira, sherry, or claret, about a wine-glassful of either of the two former, to a quart of soup. When the meat is tender, the soup is done, and from half to three-quarters of an hour ought to cook it.

Have ready 12 each of forcemeat and egg balls to serve in the tureen. _Forcemeat balls_ are made of veal or fowl, suet and parsley, all minced very fine, mixed with bread-crumbs, salt, pepper, cayenne, lemon-peel, nutmeg, and allspice, and wetted with yoke of egg, to make up into balls. Fry of a light brown, and lay them in a small sieve to drain before you put them in the tureen. _Egg balls_ are eggs boiled hard, the yoke taken from the white and pounded well in a mortar, a little salt added, and as much raw yolk of egg and flour as will bind these into balls, not bigger than a marble. Put them into the soup soon enough to cook them. Before you serve the soup, squeeze the juice of a lemon into the tureen.

Some persons put ox palates, in slices, in mock turtle; pickled cucumbers cut very thin may also be an improvement. The above is not an expensive receipt, though, perhaps, quite rich enough. _Cheaper Mock Turtle_ may be made of cow-heels or calf's feet, stewed gently, strained, and the liquor added to plain stock of beef, an onion, and what herbs and other seasonings you like. Cut up the feet, and put them into the soup, just before you serve it. Add lemon juice and wine, if you like.

_Hare Soup._

The hare must be quite fresh. Cut it up (washed, but not soaked), put it in a stewpan, with six middling-sized onions (two burnt), two bay leaves, a blade of mace, three cloves, a bunch of parsley, a little sweet basil, thyme, and celery, also a little broth, plain stock, or, if you have neither, soft water, to cover the meat. If you desire it to be very good, add 1 lb. of gravy beef, notched and browned first; when it has come to a boil, and been scummed, put in three quarts of water, and simmer, if the hare be young, three hours; if old, longer. Strain it, set the best pieces cut rather small apart, to serve in the tureen, and cut all the meat off the other parts, to pound with soaked crumb of {104}bread, to give thickness to the soup. When this is put into the strained soup, season it to your taste, and add catsup and port wine; also fried forcemeat balls, if you like.

_Another, and a better._

If you happen to have two hares, one old and tough, the other young, cut up the first and put it on in three quarts of water, with three onions, two anchovies, six cloves, a blade of mace, a teaspoonful of salt, half a one of cayenne, and simmer it four hours. Meantime, roast the other hare, properly stuffed, till half done, then cut it up, and put it all, with the stuffing, into the soup, and let it simmer gently nearly an hour. You will have kept back some of the best pieces to serve in the soup the next day, unless you prefer it clear without any meat, in which case put it all in. Next day, when you re-warm it, add a tumbler of port wine. Not having the old hare, two rabbits may be found very good.

_Rabbit Soup._

Cut up the rabbits, and if two, put the pieces into water sufficient to cover them; let it boil slowly, and take off all the scum; when no more rises, add two quarts of good stock (or soft water), prepared of shin of beef and veal, or of knuckle of veal alone, or of trimmings of veal and two or three shanks of mutton: this stock must be already flavoured with onions or eschalots, white peppercorns, and mace; simmer gently till the meat is quite tender, and then put it by till next day. Take off all fat before you re-warm it; take out the liver, rub it through a sieve, moisten with a little flour and butter, and add to the soup, also a teacupful of Port, the same of white wine, a table-spoonful of walnut catsup, and lemon pickle.

_Game and Venison Soup_,

May be made of any and of every kind of game. Skin the birds; if large ones, carve them; if small ones, only split down the back; fry them, with slices of ham or bacon, and a _little_ sliced onion and carrot. Drain the pieces, lay them in a stewpan with some good _stock_, a head of celery, a little chopped parsley, and what seasonings you like. Stew gently {105}for an hour. If venison be at hand, fry some small steaks, and stew with the birds. Serve the meat in the soup, taking out the ham.

_Another, and plainer._

In the season, and in houses where game abounds, make soup as follows: cut the meat off the breasts of any cold birds, and pound it in a mortar. Boil the legs, and all the bones, in whatever broth you have, for an hour. Boil four large turnips to a mash, and pulp them to the pounded meat, mix these well, then strain in the broth, by degrees, and let it stand close by the fire, in the stew-pan, but do not let it boil. Season to your taste. Just before you serve it, beat the yolks of 6 eggs in a pint of cream, and pass through a sieve; then put the soup on the fire, and as it is coming to a boil, stir in the cream, and keep stirring a few minutes, but do not let it quite boil, or it will curdle.

_Stewed Knuckle of Veal and Soup_,

May be made of the breast, shoulder-blade, or scrag, but best of the knuckle. Cut it in three pieces: wash, break, and place it on skewers, in the stew-pan, with 1 lb. of streaked bacon, a head of celery, 4 onions, 2 carrots, 1 turnip, a bunch of parsley and lemon thyme, and a few black and Jamaica peppercorns. Cover the meat with water, and let it simmer till quite tender. Strain the soup, put it on the fire again, and season and thicken it to your taste. Either serve the meat in the tureen with the soup, or put it in a dish with the bacon, and the vegetables round it. You may pour parsley and butter over the meat, or serve it in a boat. A little rice flour is good to thicken with. Some have whole rice boiled, as for eating, and put to the soup when it is returned to the fire. Others use vermicelli. Eggs and cream beaten together and strained, would enrich this soup; when you put them in, stir all the time, and take off the soup before it quite boils.

_Mulligatawny Soup._

Put a few slices of bacon into a stew-pan with a knuckle of veal, and no vegetables; simmer an hour and three {106}quarters; cut about 2½ lbs. of breast of veal into rather small pieces, add the bones, and gristly parts of the breast, to the knuckle which is stewing; fry the pieces of meat, and 6 sliced onions, in a stew-pan, with a piece of good clarified dripping or butter. Strain the stock if done, and put the fry to it, set it on the fire, and scum carefully; simmer it an hour. Have ready mixed in a batter, 2 dessert-spoonsful of curry powder, the same of lightly browned flour, and salt and cayenne as you choose; add them to the soup. Simmer the meat till quite tender. You may have 2 chickens parboiled, and use them in place of the breast of veal. The above receipt is a plain one.

_Another and richer._

Make a strong stock of a knuckle of veal, roast beef bones, a ham bone, a faggot of sweet herbs, 2 carrots, 4 turnips, 8 onions, 1 clove of garlic, 3 heads of celery, previously fried in butter, 6 cloves, some black pepper, salt, cayenne, mace, and mushroom powder; stew it all in 5 quarts of water, eight hours, then strain through a fine sieve. When cold take off all the fat, and if the stock be not rich enough, add to 3 quarts, a pint of good gravy; rub 3 table-spoonsful of curry powder, 1 of ground rice, and 1 of turmeric with some butter and flour, then moisten with a little stock, and add it by degrees to the rest, and simmer it two hours. Add 2 or 3 wine-glassfuls of sherry or Madeira, 1 of oyster, 1 of walnut pickle, 1 of eschalot or chili vinegar, 2 table-spoonsful of soy, 2 of Harvey or Reading sauce, and 1 of essence of anchovy; simmer it a few minutes. Have ready 2 chickens, or a rabbit, parboiled, then browned in fresh butter, or pieces of ox-tail previously cooked, add whichever of these it may be to the soup, simmer it again till the meat be cooked, then squeeze in the juice of a lemon and serve. Serve rice, cayenne, chili vinegar, and pickles.--_Cold Arrack_, or _Rum Punch_, after mulligatawny.

_Ox-Tail Soup._

Three tails will make a good sized tureen-ful of soup; it is very strengthening, is considered an elegant, and is by no means an expensive soup. Have the tails divided at the {107}points, rub with suet, and soak them in lukewarm water. Lay them in a stew-pan with 6 onions, a turnip, 2 carrots, some peppercorns, and 3 quarts of soft water. Let it simmer two hours and a half; take out the tails, cut them in small pieces, thicken it brown, then strain it into a fresh stew-pan, put in the pieces of meat, boil up and skim it; put more pepper, if wanted, and either catsup, or Port wine.

_Grouse Soup._

Roast 3 birds, cut off all the meat, reserve some nice pieces to serve in the tureen; put the bones and all the rest into 2 quarts of good stock, and boil them half an hour; then pound the meat in a mortar; put a large onion, ½ a carrot and turnip, cut up, into a stew-pan with ½ lb. butter, 2 sprigs each of parsley, thyme, 2 bay leaves, 6 peppercorns, and ½ a blade of mace, and stir them a few minutes over the fire; then add a pint of stock, and stew it all till tender, put in the pounded meat, and 4 oz. of flour rubbed smooth, and the soup, mix it all well together, simmer it 20 minutes, stirring all the while; if required, add salt, and a table-spoonful of sugar; strain it into another stew-pan, boil it up, skim it well, and pour into the tureen over the reserved slices of meat, and some fried pieces of bread, cut in any shape you please. The _stock_ for the above is good made of 4 or 5 lbs. of beef and 1 or 2 rabbits, according to the quantity, and the richness you require. I should put a large wine-glassful of Port into a moderate sized tureen-ful.

_Partridge and Pheasant Soup._

The same as the above.

_Poacher's Soup._

This excellent soup may be made of any kind of game. About 4 lbs. of any of the coarse parts of venison, beef, or the same weight in shanks, or lean mutton, for the stock; boil in it celery, onions, carrots, turnips, what herbs you like, and ¼ oz. of mixed black and Jamaica peppers. Simmer three hours, then strain it. Skin and cut up a black cock, a woodcock, a pheasant, half a hare, a rabbit, a brace {108}of partridges, or grouse, or slices of venison; any one, or parts of several of these, according to what you may require and what game you may have. Season the meat with such mixed spices as you like, then flour and fry it in the frying-pan, or put them, at once, into the strained stock, for the frying process is not actually necessary. Put in with the pieces of meat, about 10 small onions, 2 heads of celery cut up, and 6 peeled potatoes; when the stock comes to a boil, add a small white cabbage, or a lettuce quartered, black pepper, salt, and allspice if you like. Simmer till the meat be tender. If the meat be composed of small birds, the vegetables must be put into the soup and cooked before the meat, for _that_ must not be _overdone_. This may be enriched by wine, catsup, anchovies, and forcemeat balls.

_Scotch Barley Broth._

About 4 lbs. of mutton to 4 quarts of water, and ¼ lb. of Scotch barley (more or less according to taste), a large spoonful of salt, also a large cup of soaked split peas, if in season. Scum carefully, and let the broth boil slowly an hour. Then add 2 carrots, 2 turnips, cut small, 3 onions, or 3 leeks sliced, and a head of celery, or a bunch of parsley, and some green or split peas. When these are done, season to your taste. This may be made of beef, with greens instead of turnips. The meat, if mutton, is served in a dish, with parsley and butter; and the vegetables in the soup. Remove the fat from the top before you serve.

_Hotchpotch, a German dish._

Cut 6 lbs. of either beef or mutton, or both, into nice shaped pieces, and put to them as much water as you require soup. Boil and scum well, then put in carrots and turnips sliced, parsley chopped, leeks and German greens cut up, suiting the quantity to the meat. Serve all together.

_A Pepper Pot._

Three quarts of water, 2 lbs. of mutton or veal, and a small piece of lean bacon; a fowl if you have it; as many carrots, turnips, and onions as you like, and a tea-cupful of {109}rice. Scum well, season highly, and let it stand a little before you serve it, to take off the fat.

_Scotch Cock-a-leekie._

Make a stock of 5 lbs. of shin of beef, strain, and put to it a large fowl trussed for boiling, and when it boils, put in six leeks (blanched), in pieces an inch long. In half an hour put in six more leeks and the seasoning; if these leeks do not make the soup thick enough, put more. When the fowl is done, serve it in the soup.

_Mutton Broth._

Put 2 lbs. of scrag of mutton into a saucepan, with just enough water to cover, and when that is near boiling, pour it off, and carefully take all the scum off the meat; then put it back into the saucepan with four pints of boiling water, a table-spoonful of grits, a little salt, and an onion; set it over a slow fire, scum well, and then put in two turnips, and simmer it slowly two hours. (_See Cooking for the Sick._)

_Veal Broth._

The knuckle is best, but the scrag is good. A gallon of water to the knuckle, add an onion, a blade of mace and salt. Carefully scum, and boil it gently till the meat be thoroughly done, and the liquor greatly reduced. Add vermicelli or rice.

_Chicken Broth_

Should simmer very gently, and its strength will be in proportion to the quantity of water. A good-sized chicken will make a quart of very good broth. As this is seldom made except for invalids, neither onion, carrot, nor turnip ought to be used. A bunch of parsley may be boiled in the broth, then taken out and chopped fine. Skim the fat off the broth, and serve the parsley in it.

_Milk Soup._

Boil two quarts with a little salt, cinnamon, and sugar. {110}Lay thin slices of toasted bread in a tureen, pour a little hot milk over them, and cover close that they may soak. Beat the yolks of five eggs, add them by degrees to the milk; stir it over the fire till it thickens, take it off instantly or it will curdle; pour it into the tureen upon the bread. You may stir into the boiling milk a ¼ lb. of sweet almonds, and a few bitter ones, all blanched. In France _buttermilk_ is cooked in this way, and poured on thin slices of boiled apples, spread in a tureen.

_Ox-Head Soup._

Put half an ox cheek into a tub of cold water, and let it soak two hours. Take it out, break the bones not already broken, and wash it well in lukewarm water. Then put it in a pot, cover with cold water, and let it boil; scum carefully, put in salt, one head of celery, one turnip, two carrots, two large onions (one burnt), a bay leaf, two dozen berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, a good handful of parsley, some marjoram, savory, and lemon thyme; cover the soup kettle close, and set it over a slow fire. As the liquor is coming to a boil, scum will rise, take that off, and let the soup stew gently by the fire three hours. Then take out the head, pour the soup through a fine sieve into a stone-ware pan, and set both by till the next day. Cut the meat into small pieces, skim all fat from the top of the liquor, and put about two quarts of it, all the meat, and a head of celery cut up and fried with an onion, into a clean saucepan, and simmer it half an hour. Cayenne may be added, a glass of white wine, or a table-spoonful of brandy.

_Giblet Soup._

Scald two sets of fresh giblets, and pick them very clean. Cut off the noses, split the heads, and divide the gizzards and necks into small pieces; crack the bones of the legs, put all into a stewpan, and cover them with cold water. When it boils scum well, and put in three sprigs each of lemon thyme, winter savory, or marjoram, and a little bunch of parsley; also twenty berries of allspice, and the same of black pepper, in a muslin bag; let this _stew very gently_, till the gizzards are tender, which will be in about an hour and {111}a half. Lift out the giblets with a skimmer, or spoon with holes, into a tureen, and keep it, covered, by the fire. Melt 1½ oz. of fresh butter in a clean saucepan, stir in enough flour to make a paste, and pour in, by degrees, a ladleful of the giblet liquor, and the rest by degrees, and boil it ten minutes, stirring all the time. Skim and strain the soup through a fine sieve into a bason. Rince the stewpan, return the soup into it, and add a glass of Port wine, a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup, and a little salt. Give it one boil up, put the giblets in to get hot, and serve it.--You may make this much better by using plain stock in place of water, and a ham bone. You may add a pint of Madeira also; squeeze a small Seville orange into the tureen, and add three lumps of sugar and a little cayenne.

_Soup Maigre._

Cut the white part of eight-loaved lettuces small as dice, wash and drain them, also a handful of purslain, the same of parsley. Cut six large cucumbers into pieces the size of a crown piece, peel and mince four large onions, and have three pints of young peas. Put ¾ lb. of fresh butter into a stewpan, brown it of a high colour, and put in all the vegetables, with thirty whole peppers, and stew it ten minutes, stirring all the time, to prevent burning. Add a gallon of boiling water, and one or two French rolls, cut in three pieces, and toasted of a light brown. Cover the stew-pan, and let the soup stew gradually two hours. Put in ½ drachm of beaten mace, two cloves bruised, nutmeg and salt to your taste; boil it up, and just before you serve, squeeze the juice of one lemon into it: do not strain it.--Soup may be made of any, and of every sort of vegetable, in the same manner, but they must be thoroughly cooked. Cream is an improvement, and French rolls, if not stewed in the soup, may be cut in slices, toasted, and put into the tureen before the soup.

_Stock for Fish Soup._

This may be made of either meat or fish, the latter for maigre days. If meat, make it the same as for meat soup. If fish be used, it may be cod's head, haddocks, whitings, {112}eels, skate, and all white fish. Boil the fish for stock in two quarts of water, with two onions, some salt, a piece of lemon peel, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Scum carefully, and strain it. If the soup is to be brown, you may brown the fish for stock in the frying-pan before you boil it. Fish stock will not keep.

_Lobster Soup._

For this there should be a good stock, of beef, ham, onions, and fresh fish trimmings; strain it and pulp back the onions. Pound the spawn and all the body of the lobster, and stir it smoothly into the soup. Cut all the meat of the claws in small pieces, and put it in the soup also. Add cayenne, white pepper, and a glass of sherry. _Or_--Having a stock of fish prepared, cut up the meat of the lobster in pieces, and mix the coral with it. Bruise the spawn with a little flour in a mortar, wet it with a little of the strained stock, and mix it by degrees into the rest. Take half of the cut up meat and coral, add oysters, an anchovy, a blade of mace, nutmeg, lemon peel grated, and a little cayenne; pound all together, with the yolks of two eggs, and a very little flour, and make forcemeat balls for the soup; fry or brown them in a Dutch oven, or use them without being browned or fried. Put the balls and the remainder of the cut up meat into the soup, let it simmer half an hour, then serve it, first squeezing half a lemon or Seville orange in the tureen. Madeira may be added.

_Oyster Soup._

Veal makes the most delicate stock; it should be strong and clear: put to it a quart of the hard part of fresh juicy oysters, which have been pounded in a mortar with the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs. Simmer for half an hour, then strain it into a fresh stewpan, and put in another quart or more of oysters, trimmed, and washed from their shells, also some mace and cayenne, and let it simmer ten minutes. Beat the yolks of three eggs, take out a little soup in a cup, let it cool, mix it by degrees with the eggs, and stir into the soup, having first drawn that aside from the fire; stir all the time until you send it to table, or it will curdle. Give {113}this soup any additional flavour you like. The oysters put in whole, may be first run on fine wire skewers, and fried.

_Another Maigre._

Into four pints of water put five onions fried in butter, some mace, salt, pepper, and what herbs you like, in a small quantity. When this has boiled, and been carefully scummed, put in 1 lb. of fresh butter, a few mushrooms, and a 100 oysters; thicken with vermicelli, and let the soup boil gently a quarter of an hour.

_Cray Fish Soup._

If to be maigre, the stock must be made of fish alone; it must be quite fresh, and 3 lbs. will make two quarts; put in an onion or two, and some black and Jamaica peppers. Boil the fish to a mash, and keep straining the liquor till clear. About four dozen cray fish will be enough, pick and stew them in the soup, after it has been strained, till done; add a little cayenne, and the spawn of a lobster pounded, and stirred in to thicken as well as flavour the soup. _Prawns_, _cockles_, and _muscles_, in the same way. It may be made of meat stock, and flavoured to be richer.

_Eel Soup._

To 3 lbs. of eels, cut in pieces, allow three quarts of water; after this has boiled and been scummed, add two rather large crusts of toasted bread, eight blades of mace, three onions, a few whole peppercorns, and a faggot of herbs. Let this boil gently till half wasted, and then serve it with dice of toasted bread. You may add ¼ pint of cream, with a dessert-spoonful of flour, rubbed smooth in it. (_For fish forcemeats see in the Index._)

{114}CHAPTER XIII.

FISH.

_To Boil._

THE fish-kettle ought to be roomy: the water should, according to some, be cold, and spring water, and be slow in coming to a boil. I incline to this: according to others, it ought to be hot at the time of putting in the fish, upon the supposition that the shorter time it is in water the better. Experience must, however, be the best instructor; and much depends on the size, and sort of the fish. A handful of salt in the water, helps to draw the slime from the fish, and gives it firmness. Vinegar is used for the latter purpose, particularly for cod and turbot.--When the water boils, take off the scum, and place the fish-kettle by the side of the fire, to simmer gently; the usual allowance of time is twelve minutes to the pound, but there is no certain rule. Run a sharp knife into the thick part, and if it divide easily from the bone, it is done. When you think the fish done, lift up the strainer, and place it across the kettle to drain, and if it have to wait, put a heated cover on it, and over that, several folds of flannel; this is the best substitute for a _Bain Marie_. It must not stay an instant in water, after it is done. Serve on a fish drainer, which, as well as the dish, ought to be quite hot, for half cold fish is very bad. Crisp parsley, slices of lemon and barberries, also picked red cabbage, are used to garnish.

Some cooks say that _salt fish_ should scarcely _boil_ at all, but remain till tender, in hot water, just coming to a boil; put it on in cold water, and let it be a long time heating through.

Stock for gravy, for stewing, or sauce, is made of meat or fish, according to whether it be to be maigre or not. Any white fish, and the trimmings of all quite fresh fish, may be used. These may be browned first, in the {115}frying-pan, then put into 1 or 2 quarts of water, according to the quantity you require, with a bunch of sweet herbs, onion, eschalot, mace, and lemon peel; boil it and scum well; then strain it, and put in the fish to stew. Fish stock is best made on the morning it is wanted. _Court Bouillon_, for boiling or stewing fish, is as follows: to a gallon of water, a handful of salt, 2 onions, 2 carrots, and eschalots, a bunch of parsley, thyme, and basil, 2 bay leaves, 12 peppercorns, and 6 cloves, also a large piece of butter. Stew, then strain it. This may be enriched as required. It keeps well, and is a good basis for stock.

_To Fry._

This is rather difficult, and requires exceeding care and attention. Some people consider that lard is essential, but clarified dripping is as good. Oil is used in countries where the olive tree grows. Wash, and lay the fish in the folds of a clean cloth, for it must be quite dry. Flour it lightly, if to be covered with bread-crumbs, for if not quite dry, the bread will not adhere to it. The crumbs of stale bread; or to be very delicate in appearance, use biscuit powder. Having floured the fish, brush over with yolk and white of egg, then strew over the crumbs or powder, so as to cover every part of the fish. The frying-pan of an oval shape. The fire hot, but not fierce. If not hot enough, the fish will be soddened, if too hot, it will catch and burn. There should be fat enough to cover the fish; let it boil, (for frying is, in fact, _boiling in fat_,) skim it with an egg slice, as it becomes hot, then dip the tail of the fish in to ascertain the heat; if it become crisp at once the pan is ready, then lay in the fish. When done, lay it before the fire to dry, either on whity brown paper or a soft cloth; turn it two or three times, and if the frying fat has not been sufficiently hot, this will, in some measure, remedy the defect.--Fat in which veal or lamb has been fried may be used for fish, when it has settled long enough to be poured from the sediment.

_Turbot to Boil._

First wash well, and soak it in salt and water; when quite clean, score the skin of the back, or the belly will crack {116}when the fish begins to swell. Do not take off the fins, as they are a delicacy. Place it on a fish-strainer, in a roomy turbot-kettle, the back downwards. You may rub it over with lemon juice, to keep it white. Cover the fish with cold water, and throw in salt. Allow 1 lb. salt to a gallon and a half of water. It should be quite half an hour in coming to a boil, scum well, then draw the kettle to the side, and if a fish of 10 lbs. weight (larger are not so good), let it simmer 30 minutes, but if it do not simmer _gently_ the fish will be spoiled and the skin cracked. When done, garnish with slices of lemon, scraped horse-radish, parsley, barberries, whole capers, or the pea of a lobster, forced through a sieve. A very few smelts or sprats fried, laid round the turbot. Lobster sauce is most esteemed, but shrimp or anchovy sauce answer very well. (_See to dress Cold Turbot._)

_Brill._

The same as turbot, except that you put it into boiling water, the flesh being softer. _Or_: parboiled, covered with egg and crumbs, and browned before the fire, or in the frying-pan. If 6 lbs. simmer it ½ an hour, but when it begins to crack it is done.

_John Dory._

The same as brill.

_Sole to Boil._

Wash clean, cover it with cold water, put in a handful of salt, and let it come gently to a boil, take off the scum, and set the fish-kettle aside; let it simmer very gently five minutes, and it is done, unless very large, then eight or ten minutes. Oyster sauce.

_Cod to Boil._

Wash clean, and rub the inside with salt; cover it with water, in the kettle. A small fish will be done in fifteen minutes after the water boils; a large one will take half an hour; but the tail being much thinner than the thick part, it will be done too much if boiled all at once; {117}therefore, the best way is to cut the tail in slices, to fry, and garnish the head and shoulders, or serve separately. Lay the roe on one side, the liver on the other side of the fish. Serve oyster, shrimp sauce, or plain melted butter; also scalloped oysters.--Garnish with lemon, and horse-radish. If the fish be in _slices_, the water should be made to boil as soon as possible after they are in it, and 10 minutes will cook them: pour shrimp or anchovy sauce over the slices. If you wish it to be rich, having some clear broth, put in a boned anchovy, some pickled oysters, chopped fine, pepper, salt, a glass of Port wine, and a thickening of butter and flour; boil this up, skim it, and pour over the slices of cod.

_Cod to Boil Crimp._

Put it into boiling hot salt and water, draw it to the side, and let it simmer 15 or 20 minutes, according to its size. Slices less. Oyster sauce.

_Salt Cod and Ling._

Soak it, according to the time it has been salted. If hard and dry, two nights, changing the water two or three times. The best _Dogger Bank_ split fish require less. Let there be plenty of water, and the fish a long time in becoming heated through. Then simmer _very gently_, or it will be tough. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs, in quarters. Serve egg sauce, parsnips, or beet-root.

_Cod to Fry._

Cut in thick slices; flour or egg, and cover with bread-crumbs or biscuit powder. Fry in hot dripping or lard.

_Cod's Head and Shoulders._

Wash clean, then quickly dash boiling water over it, which will cause the slime to ooze out; this should be carefully removed with a knife, but take care not to break the skin; wipe the head clean, and lay it on a strainer, in a turbot-kettle of boiling water; put in salt and a tea-cupful of vinegar. Take care that it is quite covered. Simmer {118}from thirty to forty minutes. Drain, and put it into a rather deep dish; glaze it with beaten yolk of egg, strew bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, and lemon-peel over, stick in bits of butter, and brown it before the fire; baste with butter, constantly strewing more bread-crumbs and chopped parsley over.--A rich sauce for this is made as follows; have a quart of beef or veal stock; or, if to be maigre, a rich well-seasoned fish stock; thicken with flour rubbed in butter, and strain it; add 50 oysters, picked and bearded, or the hard meat of a boiled lobster cut up, and the soft part pounded, 2 glasses of sherry, and the juice of a lemon. Boil it altogether, five minutes, skim and pour part into the dish where the fish is: the rest serve in a sauce tureen. It may be garnished with fried smelts, flounders, or oysters. The French stuff it with meat or fish forcemeat, with some balls of the same fried, as a garnish.--_Cold cod_ may be dressed as cold turbot. The head may be baked; bits of butter stuck all over it.

_Cod Sounds._

Scald, clean, and rub them with salt; take off the outer coat, and parboil, then flour and broil them. Pour over a thickened gravy, which has a tea-spoonful of made mustard, cayenne, and what other seasoning you like.--_Or,_ fried, and served with the same kind of sauce.--_Or_, dressed in _ragout_, parboiled, cut in pieces, and stewed in good gravy, or in white sauce. Serve mustard and lemon.

_Cabeached Cod._

Boil vinegar enough to cover the pieces of fish, a little mace, a few peppercorns, a few cloves, and a little salt; when this is cold put a tea-cupful of olive oil. Cut the tail part of a cod fish in slices, rub pepper and salt on each, fry them in oil, then lay them on a plate to cool; when cold, put them into a pan or jar, and pour the pickle over. If you like, lay thin slices of onion between the fish. _Salmon_ is good in this way. Serve salad with this.

_Cod to Stew._

Lay three slices of cod in a stewpan, with ½ pint of weak {119}white wine, _not_ sweet, 6 oz. butter, two dozen oysters and their liquor, three blades of mace, salt, pepper, and a few crumbs of bread; stew this gently, and thicken with flour before you serve it.

_Salmon to Boil_,

Should be well cleaned and scaled (the less washing the better), and cut open as little as possible. Let there be water enough to well cover the fish, and salt in the proportion of 1 lb. to a gallon and a half. When it begins to boil, scum well, and put the fish in; for most cooks, I believe, are of opinion that salmon eats _firmer_ when put on in hot or boiling water. A fish of 10 lbs. will take a full hour, or a little more, but it must only simmer all the time. Let the drainer be hot, put a folded napkin on it, and serve the fish directly. Garnish with curled parsley, horseradish, or slices of lemon. Serve shrimp, anchovy, or lobster sauce, also plain melted butter. Cucumber, and also salad, are eaten with salmon.

_To boil Crimp._

Cut off the head, with about two inches of the neck, and clean the fish, opening it as little as possible, and do not cut it up the breast; also cut off the tail. Then cut the fish in circular slices, wash them, and lay them in salt and water. Put the head and tail on the strainer of the kettle, and pour in boiling water, with a little salt, and a very little vinegar; boil it five minutes, then put in the slices, and boil fifteen minutes, scumming all the time. Put the head and tail in the middle of the dish, the slices round. Sauces the same as the last.--Mustard is good with salmon.

_Salmon to Grill._

Split the salmon, and endeavour not to mangle it in taking out the bone. Cut it into fillets four inches in breadth. Dry, but do not beat or press them, in the folds of a linen cloth, or dust them with flour to dry them. Have a clear fire, as for steaks, rub the gridiron with chalk, lay on the slices, and turn them occasionally. Serve very hot, with anchovy or shrimp sauce. French cooks steep the {120}slices in oil, cover them with seasonings and fine herbs, and broil them, basting the while with oil. Caper sauce with this. Salmon may be thus prepared, then _fried_.--Some put the slices in paper to broil.

_Salmon, Trout, Haddock, or Gurnet to bake._

Mix a seasoning of salt, pepper, and allspice, and rub a little in the fish. If a small salmon, turn the tail round to the mouth, and run a skewer through the fish to keep it in form. Place it on a stand, in a deep dish, cover with bits of butter, and strew the remainder of the seasoning over. Put it in the oven (an American or Dutch oven, before the fire, is very good for this), and baste occasionally with the liquor which runs from it. Garnish and serve the same sauce as boiled salmon. _Slices_ of salmon may be baked this way.--Or: make it richer as follows: boil in a quart of vinegar, a piece of butter, 2 onions, the same of eschalot and carrots, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, some basil, cloves, and allspice. Having cleaned and scaled the fish, fill it with fish forcemeat, sew it up, turn the tail into the mouth and skewer it. Place it on a stand in a baking dish, and pour the liquor over. Baste it from time to time. When the fish is done, pour off the liquor, and boil it up with an anchovy, cayenne, lemon juice, and a little thickening of butter rolled in flour. Place the fish in a rather deep dish, and strain the liquor round it. A _salmon peel_ is best suited to this, being less rich than large salmon. (_See Haddock to stew._)

_Salmon to Pickle._

Cut the fish in pieces, not very small, and boil them in a little water and salt, scumming carefully all the time. When done, lift the fish out into a pan, and boil the liquor up with vinegar and spices to your taste, with black pepper, mace and ginger. Pour it cold over the fish.--_Or_: into the best vinegar, put 1 pint of white wine (supposing there to be 2 quarts of liquor or water to 1 of vinegar), add mace, ginger, horse-radish, cloves, allspice, a bay leaf, a sprig of lemon thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour it cold over the fish. Put away carefully, in a vegetable dish, any salmon left at table, strew over it ½ a salt-spoonful of cayenne; boil 12 {121}allspice in a pint of white wine vinegar, and pour it scalding hot over the salmon. Keep it in a cool place.

_Salmon to Dry._

Cut the fish down, take out the roe, and rub the whole with common salt; let it hang twenty-four hours to drain. Pound 3 oz. saltpetre, 2 oz. bay salt, and 2 oz. coarse sugar; rub these into the salmon, and lay it on a large dish for two days; then rub with common salt, and in twenty-four hours it will be fit to dry. Drain it, wipe it dry, stretch it open and fasten it with pieces of stick, in order that it may dry equally; hang it in a chimney corner where wood or peat is burnt, and it will be smoked in five days. Broil slices for breakfast. If too much smoked, or too dry, soak the slices in lukewarm water, before you broil them. To make this more relishing, dip the slices in oil, then in a seasoning of herbs and spices, and broil them.

_Salmon to Collar._

Clean, scale, and bone the fish, then season it highly with mace, cloves, pepper and salt, roll it up into a handsome collar, and bandage it; then bake it with vinegar and butter, or simmer in vinegar and water. Serve melted butter, and anchovy sauce.

_Salmon to Pot._

Do not wash, but clean with a cloth, and scale the fish, rub with salt, and let it lie three hours; then drain, and cut it into pieces. Sprinkle over them a seasoning of mace, black and Jamaica pepper, pounded, and lay them in a dish; cover them with melted butter, and set the dish in the oven. When done, drain the fat from the fish, and lay the pieces into little pots; when cold, cover with clarified butter.

_Sturgeon_

Is generally roasted or baked, if the former, tie a piece of 3 or 4 lbs. on a lark spit, and fasten that to a large one, baste with butter, and serve with a rich meat or maigre gravy highly flavoured. Serve besides, or instead of gravy, {122}oyster, lobster, or anchovy sauce. _Slices_ of sturgeon may be egged, rolled in bread-crumbs, seasonings, and herbs, then broiled in buttered papers. Also it is _stewed_ in good beef gravy.

_Skate._

This should be broad, thick, and of a bluish cream colour. It must be quite fresh, if to be crimp, and put on in hot water. It will keep, in cold weather, two or three days, but will eat tender. Shrimp, lobster, or caper sauce, parsley and butter, or onion sauce.--_Or_: put into a stew-pan ½ pint of water, ½ pint of vinegar, all the trimmings of the skate, two onions, a clove of garlic, some parsley, and a little basil. Boil till the trimmings are cooked to a mash, then strain and put the skate into the liquor; it should just come to a boil, and stand by the side of the fire ten minutes. Garnish with the liver. Serve caper sauce.

_Skate to Fry._

Parboil it first, then cut in thin slices, and dip them in egg and bread-crumbs. Then either fried or broiled. Both ways skate is good _cold,_ with mustard, pepper, oil and vinegar.

_Thornback and Maids._

Dress the same as Skate.

_Trout to Boil._

Put a good-sized fish into boiling water, in which there is a handful of salt, and simmer gently 20 minutes. Melted butter plain, or with chopped gherkins.

_Haddock to Boil._

The night before, fill the eyes with salt, and hang the fish up. _Or_, for a few hours before cooking, sprinkle them with salt. Serve egg sauce. It may be stuffed, as in the next receipt.

_Haddocks to Stew, Bake, or Roast._

If you have six small ones, take the heads, tails and {123}trimmings of all, and one whole fish, boil these in a quart of water or broth, with an onion, sweet herbs, and cayenne; boil well, and thicken with brown flour; add spices, and mushroom catsup, or essence of anchovy; strain this, boil again, and skim well; then lay in the rest of your haddocks, cut in pieces. If there require more sauce, add as much as is necessary, of any broth or gravy you have; some oysters, or oyster-pickle. When done, take the fish out with a slice, lay it in a dish, and pour the sauce, which ought to be thick, round. This fish may be stuffed with meat, or rich forcemeat, and dressed whole in the above gravy.--_Another_: the fish being well cleaned, dry it, and put in the stuffing directed for fillet of veal; tie the tail to the mouth, put the haddock in a pie-dish, rub it over with flour, half fill the dish with veal stock, and bake it in a slow oven 40 minutes. A glass of white wine, or half a one of brandy, oyster-pickle, or lemon juice, either of these may be used, according to taste. _Gurnet_ the same. _To Roast_: Stuff a good-sized one with veal stuffing, and dangle it before the fire; baste with butter, and when nearly done, take the gravy out of the pan, skim off the fat, then boil up the gravy with pepper, salt, and a wine-glassful of Port wine.

_Haddocks to Bake, quite plain._

Boil and mash some potatoes. Season the fish, and put a piece of butter inside, lay it in the middle of the dish, and put a thick border of the potatoes round. Brush over the whole with egg, stick bits of butter over the fish, and bake for half an hour; when in the oven a short time, pour a little melted butter and catsup in the dish.

_Haddock or Mackerel to Broil._

Split the fish, bone the haddock, salt it, and hang it for two days in the chimney corner.

_Haddocks, Soles, Flounders, Plaice, Perch, Tench, Trout, Whitings, and Herrings to Fry._

Haddocks, soles, and generally whitings, are skinned. Plaice wiped, not washed, and must lie three or four hours {124}after being rubbed with salt. When the fish is cleaned and wiped dry, dust with flour, and lay it gently into the boiling fat; having first egged and dipped it into bread-crumbs. The fat may be either lard, butter, dripping, or oil. Turn it carefully, lift it out when done, and lay it on a sheet of paper in a sieve, whilst you fry the rest; or put it before the fire, if it require drying. Garnish with curled parsley, and slices of lemon. Serve very hot. Shrimp or anchovy sauce, and plain butter. _Whitings_ and _haddocks_ should have the tail skewered into the mouth.

_Mackerel and Herrings to Boil._

The fresher these are eaten the better. They require a great deal of cleaning. Choose soft roes to boil. A small mackerel will be done in a quarter of an hour. When the eye starts it is done, and should not stand in the water. Serve fennel boiled and chopped, in melted butter, and garnish with lumps of chopped fennel. Both these may be broiled, whole or split, and sprinkled during the cooking with chopped herbs and seasonings.

_Mackerel and Herrings to Bake._

Choose fine ones, in season, cut off the heads and take out the roes. Pound together some mace, nutmeg, Jamaica pepper, cloves, and salt; put a little of this into each fish, then put a layer of them into a pan, and a layer of the mixture upon them, then another layer of fish, and so on. Fill the vessel with vinegar, and tie over close with brown paper. Bake them 6 or 8 hours. To be eaten cold.

_Mackerel and Herrings to Pickle._

The same as salmon.--_Or_: as follows: get them as fresh as possible. Take off the heads, split the fish open, and lay them in salt and water an hour; prepare the following pickle: for 1½ dozen mackerel, take 1 lb. common and 1 lb. bay salt, 1 oz. saltpetre, 1 oz. lump sugar broken, and mix well together. Take the fish out of the water, drain and wipe them. Sprinkle a little salt over them, put a layer into a jar or cask (the skin side downwards), then a layer of {125}the mixture, till the vessel is full. Press it down, and cover close. Ready in three months.

_Red Herrings and Sardinias to Broil._

Open and trim them, skin them or not, as you like. If hard, soak in lukewarm water. Broil them, either over or before the fire, and rub butter over as they broil.

_Carp, Perch, and Tench to Stew._

If very large, divide the fish. Rub the inside with salt and mixed spices, stick in a few cloves, and a blade or two of mace, in pieces, lay them in a stew-pan, and cover with good fish, or meat stock. Put in 2 onions, an anchovy chopped, cayenne, 3 glasses of claret, or 2 of Port. When done, take the fish up, and keep it hot, while you thicken the gravy with butter and browned flour; add mushroom catsup, oyster-pickle, chili vinegar, or the juice of a lemon; simmer the sauce, skim and pour it over the fish. The roe may be kept back and fried, to garnish the fish, with sippets of bread fried. Use horse-radish and slices of lemon also, to garnish. Where meat gravy is not used, more wine is required.--_Cod's skull, Soles, Eels, Flounders, Trout, Whitings and fillets of Turbot, Cod and Halibut_, may be dressed the same way. _Or_: having parboiled the fish, brown it in the frying-pan, and stew it in good gravy seasoned with sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, basil, onions, pepper, salt, and spices: when nearly done, thicken the sauce, and flavour it, with a small portion each, of Worcester, Harvey's and Reading sauces, soy, anchovy sauce, oyster-pickle, catsup, and an equal portion of Port and white wine. The carp's blood should not be omitted.

_Carp and Pike (or Jack) to Boil or Bake._

If to be maigre, make a forcemeat of the yolks of 3 eggs, some oysters bearded, 3 anchovies, an onion and some parsley, all chopped; mace, black pepper, allspice, and salt, pounded; mix this with biscuit flour, or crumbs of bread, and the fish being well cleaned and scaled, fill it with the stuffing, and sew it up. If to bake, lay it in a deep dish, {126}stick butter over, and baste plentifully, as it bakes, in a moderate oven. Serve anchovy sauce. _Or_: you may take the fish out, and keep it hot, whilst you make a rich sauce thus: thicken the gravy in the dish, and boil it up with parsley and sweet herbs; then strain it, add made mustard, a glass of Port wine, and one of chili or any other flavouring vinegar, also pounded mace, salt, and cayenne. Pour this over the fish.

_Eels to Stew._

Skin and cut them in pieces. They may be egged and rolled in bread-crumbs, or merely floured. If to be maigre, stew them in fish stock; if otherwise, in good clear beef gravy, in which seasoning herbs, and roots have been boiled. Stew the fish gently, until done, then take them out, keep them hot, and thicken the gravy with browned flour, or what you like; add a glass of white wine, and one of mushroom catsup, also a spoonful of made mustard; boil it up, strain and pour it over the fish. Garnish with scraped horse-radish, and barberries. _Whiting_, also _slices of Turbot_, in the same way.

_Lampreys to Stew._

After cleaning the fish carefully, remove the cartilage which runs down the back, and season well with cloves, mace, nutmeg, allspice, a tea-spoonful of mushroom powder, a little black pepper and cayenne; put it into a stew-pan with good gravy to cover it, and sherry or Madeira; keep the pan covered till the fish is tender, then take it out, and keep it hot while you boil up the liquor with essence of anchovy, lemon pickle, Gloucester sauce, and thickening; add the juice of a lemon, a spoonful of made mustard, 1 of soy, and 1 of chili vinegar. Fry the spawn to put round the fish.

_Eels to Fry._

They should always be _gently parboiled_, before they are either fried or broiled, then allowed to be cold, before they are cut up; but if very small, turn the tail round to the mouth, and fry it whole. Rub with a mixture of spices, {127}brush with egg, and cover them with bread-crumbs. Fry of a light brown, and lay them on a sieve to drain.--Small eels are sometimes boiled, and served with dried sage and parsley strewed over.

_Eels to Collar._

Choose a large eel. Slit open the belly and take out the bone. Rub it well with a mixture of pepper, salt, parsley, sage, thyme, and lemon peel. Roll up, quite tight, and bind it with tape; then boil it gently, in salt, a little vinegar, and water to cover it, till tender. It will keep in the pickle it was boiled in.

_Eels to Spitchcock._

They are not skinned, but well cleaned, and rubbed with salt. Take out the bone, wash and dry them in a cloth. Either cut in pieces, or roll them round and cook them whole. First (parboiled) dip the fish into a thick batter of eggs, chopped parsley, sage, eschalot, lemon peel, pepper and salt; then roll them in bread-crumbs or biscuit powder, dip again in batter, and again in the crumbs. Broil over a clear fire. Garnish with curled parsley or slices of lemon, and serve anchovy sauce, or butter flavoured with cucumber vinegar.

_Trout to Stew._

The fish being cleaned, put it into a stew-pan, with half champagne and half rhenish, or half moselle and half sherry, in all a tumbler full; season with pepper, salt, an onion with 3 cloves in it, and a very little parsley and thyme, also a crust of bread. When the fish is done, lift it out whilst you thicken the sauce; bruise the bread, but if that be not enough, add a little flour rubbed smooth, and a bit of butter, boil it up and pour over the trout in the dish. Garnish with sliced lemon and fried bread.

_Sprats, Smelts, and Gudgeon to Bake, Boil, or Fry._

Rub the gridiron with chalk or mutton suet, and set it over a clear fire. Run a long thin skewer through the heads of the sprats, and lay them on the gridiron. They {128}should be eaten quite hot.--To _bake_, lay them in a deep dish, strew bits of butter, pepper, salt and spices over, cover with vinegar, and set them in the oven.--To _fry_, dip them in batter, then in a mixture of seasoning, chopped herbs, and biscuit powder, and fry them.

_Allice or Shad._

These are broiled and eaten with caper sauce.

_Red Mullet._

The inside is not taken out. Wash the outside of the fish, fold it in oiled paper, lay in a rather shallow dish, and bake it gently. Make a sauce of the liquor, a piece of butter rolled in flour, a little anchovy essence, and a glass of sherry. Boil it up, and serve in a tureen. Send the fish to table in the paper.

_Water Souchy._

_Eels, whitings, soles, flounders, and mackerel_ are generally used. Stew it in clear fish stock, until done, eight minutes will be enough; add cayenne, catsup, an anchovy, and any other flavouring ingredient; let it boil up, skim, and serve hot altogether in a tureen.

_Pipers to dress._

Stuff the fish with a forcemeat of suet, bread-crumbs, 2 eggs, chopped parsley, pepper, salt and cayenne. Skewer the tail in the mouth, flour and egg the fish, and bake in a hot oven. Drain it, and serve with Dutch sauce.

_Cray Fish to Boil._

Boil in the shell; five minutes is enough. Some cooks put a bunch of herbs in the water. Serve on a napkin.

_Lobsters and Crabs to Boil._

Have plenty of water, make it quite salt, brush the lobster or crab, and put it in. From forty to fifty minutes {129}for the middling size, more if very large, less if very small. They will throw up a great deal of scum, which must be taken off. Wipe the lobster with a damp cloth, rub a piece of butter over, then wipe it with a dry cloth. Take off the large claws, and crack them; split down the tail, and place the whole neatly in a dish. A very nice sauce, as follows: boil hard 2 eggs, pound the yolk in a mortar, with a little vinegar, and the spawn of the lobster, make it quite smooth, add a large spoonful of salad oil, 3 spoonsful of good vinegar, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and a little cayenne and salt.

_Lobster or Crab, to eat hot._

Cut the meat in pieces, or mince it fine; season with spices, nutmeg, cayenne and salt, and warm it in a little good gravy, thickened: or if maigre, fish stock, or just enough water to moisten the meat, and a good-sized piece of butter rolled in flour, a little cream, and some catsup. Serve on toasted sippets; or have the shell of a lobster or crab cleaned, and serve the meat in it.--_Another way_ is, not to warm the mince _over_ the fire, but to put it into the shell, and set that before the fire in a Dutch oven, strew some fine bread-crumbs or biscuit powder over all, and stick some bits of butter over that; brown with a salamander, and serve quite hot. _Prawns_ the same way.--Lobster is sometimes fricasseed, in rich veal gravy; or with cream, and yolk of egg. Garnish with pickled cucumber, or other pickle.--Lobster may be cooked as follows: chop the meat of a large one, and mix with it a very little lemon peel, pepper, salt, nutmeg, butter, cream, and crumbs of stale bread; roll this well, and divide it into small quantities; put each one into light puff paste, the size of sausages, rub them over with yolk of egg, then with bread-crumbs; fry of a yellow brown, and serve with crisped parsley.--_Or_: wash and clean some spinach and put it into a saucepan, with the meat of a lobster, or a pint of picked shrimps cut small, an onion, a clove of garlic minced, salt and cayenne; when nearly done, add 2 onions sliced and fried; cover close a few minutes; garnish with slices of lemon.

_Lobsters and Crabs to Pot._

Parboil the fish, cut it into small pieces, put a layer into {130}a potting can, or deep tin dish, sprinkle salt, pepper, cayenne and pounded mace over, then a layer of the spawn and coral, then a layer of the meat, and so on, till all is in, press it down, pour melted butter over, and put it half an hour in a slow oven. Let it then get cold, take off the butter, take out the meat and pack it into small pots; clarify the butter, and pour over. The butter left may turn to account in sauces, as it will be highly flavoured. If for sandwiches, the meat must be pounded in a mortar before it is baked, that it may spread more easily.

_Prawns, Shrimps, and Cray Fish to Pot._

Boil them in salt and water, pick them carefully, then pound in a mortar, with, to 1 lb. fish, a salt-spoonful of mace, the same of allspice, half the quantity of salt and cayenne, the ¼ of a nutmeg grated, and butter to make it a thick paste. Put into pots, pour clarified butter over, and tie it down close.

_Prawns and Shrimps to Butter._

Take them out of their shells, and warm them in gravy, with a bit of butter rolled in flour, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Simmer it a little, stir all the time, and serve with toasted sippets.

_Prawns or Cray Fish in Jelly._

Make a good calf's-feet or cow-heel jelly, and boil in it some trimmings of cod, turbot, and skate, a little horse-radish, lemon peel, an onion, a piece of pounded mace, grated nutmeg and grated tongue, hung beef, or ham. Boil it well, strain, and let it get cold. Take off the fat, pour the jelly from the sediment, and boil it up with 2 glasses of white wine, and the whites of 4 eggs whisked to a froth. Do not stir this as it boils. When done, let it stand a quarter of an hour to settle; then pass it through a jelly bag: pour some of it into a mould, or deep dish, to become firm; then stick in the fish, neatly picked, in any form you like, and fill up the dish with jelly. When quite cold, turn it out.

_Fish Cake._

Pick the fish from the bones, add 1 lb. of mashed {131}potatoes to 2 lbs. fish, a little white pepper, mace, cayenne, and lemon peel; flavour either with essence of anchovy, of lobster, of shrimp, or of oyster, according to taste and the sort of fish; add Harvey's or Camp or Gloucester sauce, also lemon pickle and eschalot vinegar, to your taste: mix the whole with a little melted butter and an egg, dip in bread-crumbs, and fry of a light brown. Use no salt with the above sauces.--_Another_: Having some cold boiled fish, add to it the third of its weight in bread-crumbs, a little butter beaten with a spoon, a small onion, parboiled and minced fine, pepper, salt, and the whites of 2 eggs to bind; mixed well together, make it in the form of a thick cake, and fry on both sides of a light brown: stew it in good gravy, made from either meat or fish stock, and flavoured with onion, pepper, and salt. Thicken the sauce, and add mushroom catsup.

_Fish to Pull._

When cold, pick the fish clean from the bones, and to 1 lb. add two table-spoonsful of anchovy, two of lemon pickle, one of Harvey's, one of Camp sauce, one of chili vinegar, a little cayenne, white pepper, and mace; when nearly hot, add a piece of butter rolled in flour to thicken it, then make it quite hot, put it in a dish, grate bread-crumbs over, and baste with melted butter, to moisten them, then brown with a salamander, or in a Dutch oven, or on a tin before the fire, with a Scotch bonnet behind it.--_Or_: Pick from the bones, in flakes, any cold or boiled fish, salmon, cod, turbot, sole, skate or pike; and to 1 lb. fish, add ½ pint of cream, or ¼ lb. of butter, a table-spoonful of mustard, the same of essence of anchovy, mushroom catsup, any flavouring sauce you like, salt and pepper; heat it in a saucepan, put it into a hot dish, strew crumbs of bread over, moisten the top with thin melted butter, and brown in a Dutch oven.

_A Salmagundi._

Wash and cut open, then take out the meat from the bones of two large herrings, mince the fish with cold chicken, two hard-boiled eggs, one onion, a boned anchovy, and a little grated ham, season with cayenne, vinegar, and oil, salt, if necessary; and serve the mince, garnished with {132}heaps of chopped boiled egg, parsley and pickles, also spun butter.

_Oysters to Stew._

Choose plump natives, beard and stew two dozen in their own liquor, till just coming to a boil; take them out and lay them in a dish, whilst you strain the liquor into a saucepan; add a little piece of butter rubbed in flour, a blade of mace, a few peppercorns, lemon peel, three table-spoonsful of cream, and a little cayenne. Lay the oysters in, cover the saucepan, and let them simmer five minutes, very gently. Have toasted sippets in a deep dish, take out the oysters when done with a silver spoon, lay them in and pour the gravy over.--The French strew grated parmesan over the oysters, before the sauce. _Oysters to Grill._--Toss them in a stew-pan in a little of their own liquor, a piece of butter, and a little chopped parsley, but do not let them boil. Clean their own shells, lay an oyster in each, and some little bits of butter. Put the shells on the gridiron, in two minutes they will be done. _Oysters to Brown._--Open carefully, lift them out of their liquor, and dip each one in yolk of egg, beaten up with flour, pepper and salt, then brown them in a frying-pan, with a piece of butter; take them out, pour the liquor into the pan, thicken with a piece of butter rolled in flour, add a little catsup, minced lemon peel, and parsley, let it boil up, put in the oysters, and stir them in it a few minutes. Serve on toasted sippets. _Oysters to Fry._--Make a batter of three or four eggs, a table-spoonful of flour, a tea-spoonful of salt, and the ¼ of one of cayenne, also a very little mace. Cover the oysters well with this, and fry in boiling lard of a light brown; then grate toasted or brown bread over them, and put before the fire for three minutes in a Dutch oven. _Oysters or Cockles to Scallop._--Stew the oysters in their own gravy. Have ready some bread-crumbs, put a layer into the scallop shells, or dish, moisten with the oyster liquor, and put some little bits of butter, then a layer of oysters, then of crumbs, till the shell is full; a light sprinkling of salt, pepper, and cayenne; let bread-crumbs be at the top, and lay on some little bits of butter. Brown before the fire in a Dutch oven. _Cold fish_ may be re-cooked in this way for supper or luncheon. _Oysters in Dean Swift's way._--Wash the shells {133}clean, and put the oysters, unopened, into an earthen pot, with their hollow sides downwards; set the pot, covered, in a kettle of water, and make that boil. Do not let the water get into the shells; three or four minutes will cook the oysters.

_Oysters to Keep._

Wash them clean, lay them, bottom downwards, into a tub, and cover them with strong salt and water, in the proportion of a large handful of salt to a pail of water. Some persons sprinkle them with flour or oatmeal; this fattens them, but does not always improve the flavour.

See in the Index for _Curry of Fish_.