The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 16

_Pike, to broil._

Split it, and scotch it with a knife on the outside; season it with salt; put the gridiron on a clear fire, make it very hot, then lay on the pike; baste it with b.u.t.ter, turn it often, and, when broiled crisp and stiff put it into a dish, and serve it up with b.u.t.ter and the juice of lemons, or white wine vinegar. Garnish with slices of oranges or lemons.

_Pike in Court Bouillon._

Scale and well wash your pike; lay it in a pan; pour vinegar and salt over it; let it lie for an hour, then take it out, season with pepper, a little salt, sweet herbs, cloves, and a bay leaf, with a piece of b.u.t.ter. Wrap it up in a napkin, and put it into a stewpan, with some white wine, a lemon sliced, a little verjuice, nutmeg, cloves, and a bay leaf. Let this liquor boil very fast; put in the pike, and when done lay it on a warm dish, and strain the liquor into a saucepan; add to it an anchovy washed and boned, a few capers, a little water, and a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour: let these simmer till of proper thickness, and pour them over the fish.

_Pike Fricandeau._

Cut a pike in several pieces, according to its size, after having scaled, gutted, and washed, it. Lard all the upper part with bacon cut small, and put it into a stewpan with a gla.s.s of red wine (or white wine if for white sauce) some good broth, a bunch of sweet-herbs, and some lean veal cut into dice. When it is stewed and the sauce strained off, complete it in the manner of any other fricandeau; putting a good sauce under it, either brown or white, as you chuse.

_Pike, German way of dressing--delicious!_

Take a pike of moderate size; when well washed and cleansed, split it down the back, close to the bone, in two flat pieces. Set it over the fire in a stewpan with salt and water; half boil it. Take it out; scale it; put it into the stewpan again, with a very little water, and some mushrooms, truffles, and morels, an equal quant.i.ty, cut small; add a bunch of sweet herbs. Let it stew very gently, closely covered, over a very slow fire, or the fish will break; when it is almost done, take out the herbs, put in a cupful of capers, chopped small, three anchovies split and shred fine, a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and a table-spoonful of grated Parmesan cheese. Pour in a pint of white wine, and cover the stewpan quite close. When the ingredients are mixed, and the fish quite done, lay it in a warm dish, and pour the sauce over it.

_Pike, to pot._

After scaling the fish, cut off the head, split it, take out the back-bone, and strew it over with bay salt and pepper. Cover and bake it; lay it on a coa.r.s.e cloth to drain, and when cold put it in a pot that will just hold it, and cover with clarified b.u.t.ter.

If not well drained from the gravy it will not keep.

_Pike, to roast._

Scale and slash the fish from head to tail; lard it with the flesh of eels rolled up in sweet-herbs and seasoning; fill it with fish and forced meat. Roast it at length; baste and bread it; make the sauce of drawn b.u.t.ter, anchovies, the roe and liver, with mushrooms, capers, and oysters. Ornament with sliced lemon.

_Pike au Souvenir._

Wash a large pike; gut and dry it; make a forcemeat with eel, anchovy, whiting, pepper, salt, suet, thyme, bread crumbs, parsley, and a bit of shalot, mixed with the yolks of eggs; fill the inside of the fish with this meat; sew it up; after which draw with your packing-needle a piece of packthread through the eyes of the pike, through the middle and the tail also in the form of S; wash it over with the yolk of an egg, and strew it with the crumbs of bread. Roast or bake it with a caul over it.

Sauce--melted b.u.t.ter and capers.

_Pike a la Tatare, or in the Tartar fashion._

Clean your pike; gut and scale it; cut it into bits, and lay it in oil, with salt, cayenne pepper, parsley, scallions, mushrooms, two shalots, the whole shred very fine; grate bread over it and lay it upon the gridiron, basting it, while broiling, with the rest of the oil. When it is done of a good colour, serve it in a dry dish, with sauce _a la remoulade_ [see Sauces] in a sauce-boat.

_Fresh Salmon, to dress._

Cut it in slices, steep it in a little sweet b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper, and broil it, basting it with b.u.t.ter while doing. When done, serve over it any of the fish sauces, as described (see the Sauces), or you may serve it with court bouillon, which will do for all kinds of fish whatever.

_Salmon, to dress _en caisses_, that is, in small paper cases._

Take two slices of fresh salmon, about the thickness of half a finger; steep it an hour in sweet b.u.t.ter with mushrooms, a clove of garlic, and a shalot, all shred fine, half a laurel-leaf, thyme, and basil, reduced to a fine powder, salt, and whole pepper. Then make a neat paper box to contain your salmon; rub the outside of it with b.u.t.ter, and put the salmon with all its seasoning and covered with grated bread into it; do it in an oven, or put the dish upon a stove, and, when the salmon is done, brown it with a salamander. When you serve it, squeeze in the juice of a large lemon. If you serve it with Spanish sauce, the fat must be taken off the salmon before you put in the sauce.

_Salmon a la Poele, or done on the Stove._

Put three or four slices of fillet of veal, and two or three of ham, having carefully cut off the fat of both, at the bottom of a stewpan, just the size of the salmon you would serve. Lay the salmon upon it, and cover it with thin slices of bacon, adding a bunch of parsley, scallions, two cloves of garlic, and three shalots. Boil it gently over a moderate stove fire, a quarter of an hour; moisten it with a gla.s.s of champagne, or fine white wine; let it continue to stew slowly till thoroughly done; and the moment before you serve it strain off the sauce, laying the salmon in a hot dish. Add to the sauce five or six spoonfuls of cullis; let it boil up two or three times, and then pour it over the salmon, and serve up.

_Scallops._

Pick the scallops, and wash them extremely clean; make them very dry.

Flour them a very little. Fry them of a fine light brown. Make a nice, strong, light sauce of veal and a little ham; thicken a very little, and gently stew the scallops in it for half an hour.

_Shrimps, to pot._

Pick the finest shrimps you can procure; season them with a little mace beaten fine, and pepper and salt to your taste. Add a little cold b.u.t.ter. Pound all together in a mortar till it becomes a paste. Put it into small pots, and pour over it clarified b.u.t.ter.

_Another way._

To a quart of pickled shrimps put two ounces of fresh b.u.t.ter, and stew them over a moderate fire, stirring them about. Add to them while on the fire twelve white peppercorns and two blades of mace, beaten very fine, and a very little salt.--Let them stew a quarter of an hour: when done, put them down close in pots, and pour clarified b.u.t.ter over them when cold.

_Smelts, to fry._

Dry and rub them with yolk of egg; flour or strew some fine bread crumbs on them; when fried, lay them in the dish with their tails in the middle of it. Anchovy sauce.

_Smelts, to pickle._

Take a quarter of a peck of smelts, and put them into a jar, and beat very fine half an ounce of nutmegs, and the same quant.i.ty of saltpetre and of pepper, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and a quarter of a pound of common salt. Wash the fish; clean gut them, after which lay them in rows in a jar or pan; over every layer of smelts strew your seasoning, with some bay-leaves, and pour on boiled red wine sufficient to cover them. Put a plate or a cover over, and when cold tie them down close.

_Smelts, to pot._

Clean the inside of the fish, and season them with salt, pounded mace, and pepper. Bake them, and when nearly cold lay them upon a cloth; then put them into pots, taking off the b.u.t.ter from the gravy; clarify it with more b.u.t.ter, and pour it on them.

_Soles, to boil._

The soles should be boiled in salt and water. Anchovy sauce.

_Soles, to boil, a-la-Francaise._

Put a quart of water and half a pint of vinegar into an earthen dish; skin and clean a pair of soles; put them into vinegar and water, let them remain there for two hours. Dry them with a cloth, and put them into a stewpan, with a pint of wine, a quarter of a pint of water, a little sweet marjoram, a very little thyme, an onion stuck with four cloves, and winter savory. Sprinkle a very little bay salt, covering them close. Let them simmer gently till they are done; then take them out, and lay them in a warm dish before the fire. Put into the liquor, after it is strained, a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour; let it boil till of a proper thickness; lay your soles in the dish, and pour the sauce over them.