FISH
Frying. Boiling
Raw fish should be kept in an uncovered dish in the icebox. Always wash in a little vinegar and water before cooking.Smoked fishsuch as haddock should be boiled always in a deep frying pan allowing the water to cover it.
Kippersare difficult to cook without smell and to keep moist. The best way is to lay the kipper on its back in a flat meat dish. A small piece of butter should be always put into the dish first and a larger piece on the open side of the kipper, with a little white paper. Put into a quick oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. There will be no smell.
Dried Sprats, to be treated in the same way but they require only twelve to fifteen minutes in the oven, and a little more butter.
Bloaters, like kippers, after removing the head and cleaning and wiping on a damp cloth.
Plaice.Lay your fish on a perforated white stone strainer in a fish kettle. Cover with cold water, add a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of vinegar. Put over a quick fire, bring to a boil and keep it boiling for about fifteen minutes. Have ready the following sauce:—
Mix one dessertspoonful of flour smoothly with one ounce of butter. Add sufficient boiling milk to make up to half a pint, and a little salt. Put it into a double saucepan the bottom half containing boiling water. Stir with a spoon always the same way until it thickens. Chop about six sprigs of parsley (not stalk) and add to the sauce. Dish the fish in a flat dish and serve the sauce in a sauce boat.
Codmay be cooked in the same way only it must boil for fully half an hour after it has been brought to the boil.
Hake.As for cod but boil only for twenty-five minutes.
Halibut.Is seldom bought whole. Buy say two pounds and boil for twenty-five to forty minutes according to the thickness.
Turbot.Say two pounds. Must be put intoboilingwater and boiled gently for thirty minutes. Oystersauce, foundation as above, only the oysters (each cut in two) must be added after the sauce has thickened and kept stirred for four to five minutes.
Plaice.Cut about two pounds of filleted plaice into four pieces. Beat an egg in a plate, white and yolk together. Put the fish into it and then into rolled rusk crumbs. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan about half a pound of best tub lard and when thoroughly hot (it can be found out by dropping a crumb into the fat when it will sizzle) it is ready for the dish. Lay the fish into it and fry for ten to fifteen minutes. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and serve with a garniture of lemon.
This recipe applies to soles—unless the sole is very thick, when it must fry for twenty minutes. Whiting for twenty minutes and halibut for twenty-five minutes.
Make a batter of one teacupful of flour mixed carefully with milk till it is quite thin enough to run. Add a pinch of salt. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan a quarter pound of best tub lard boiling. Dip each smelt well into the batter and fry in the hot lard for ten to fifteen minutes.
Are treated like smelts but the batter must be only half as thick and the time required for cooking is from seven to ten minutes. Take up the fish from the batter with a slice and scatter into the boiling fat. Do not crowd the pan on any account.
Two or three freshly skinned eels cut into small pieces about two inches long. Put into a stone saucepan with a little salt and a piece of loaf sugar, one claret glass of white claret or cooking sherry, and about a teacupful of good beef stock. Cover the eels with water and slice a small Spanish onion into it. Stew gently for three-quarters of an hour, thicken with a little flour mixed with water and serve in the stone saucepan. Care must be taken not to break the fish when stirring in the thickening.
One and a half to two pounds in three or four cutlets, dip into a beaten egg and then roll in crumbs, made preferably of German rusks. Have ready a quarter of a pound of best tub lard in an enamelled frying pan and when hot put the fish in and fry fora quarter of an hour to twenty minutes, turning over once. To ascertain if properly cooked pass the knife down by the side of the bone and if cooked the knife will pass quite easily. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and garnish with parsley and lemon cut in quarters.
Lay a filleted sole in a rather deep meat dish and cover with milk and a little salt and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. This will make the sauce. Cover with another dish (flat) and bake in a quick oven for about half an hour. Serve very hot with the sauce and a little chopped parsley sprinkled over it.
Take about one and a half pounds of crimped skate. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of butter made hot and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Put it over the fire and let it slightly burn. Fry the skate in it for twenty minutes and then serve on a hot dish with a few slices of lemon laid round it.
Have eight fresh herrings or four large mackerel cleaned and remove the heads. Lay not veryclosely together with the backs upwards in a pie-dish. Fill the dish with vinegar and a few peppercorns, a little salt, an onion (sliced), and a piece of butter about the size of a walnut. Bake in a moderately quick oven for about one and a half hours. Serve in a glass dish and strain the vinegar over them.
Have ready cleaned and beheaded say six herrings with soft roes if possible. Lay six pieces of paper (buttered) on the hot shelf of the oven to melt the butter, then wrap each fish in a piece of paper. Have ready about a quarter of a pound of tub lard melted in an enamelled frying pan and lay the fish in the papers in the boiling fat. The fire must not be too fierce. Fry for about twenty or twenty-five minutes over a brisk fire. Dish up and serve in the papers.
Take for four persons two good-sized mullets. (Remove the head if desired; never split them open.) Have a deep enamelled frying pan ready. Put into it three ounces of butter, four or five wafer-thin slices of onion, two tablespoonfuls of bottled tomato sauce or catsup. Bring to a boil and lay the fish gently in the hot pan. Keep the butter boiling lightlyround the fish. Baste frequently with a large spoon; then carefully turn the fish, taking care not to tear the skin (thus spoiling the appearance). Generally it will take from thirty to forty minutes to cook the fish through. This can be easily ascertained by passing the blade of a fine knife gently through the fish by the side of the bone. Have a little more butter and tomato catsup melted together in a basin. Place the fish on a hot dish and pour the melted butter and tomato sauce you have ready over the fish and serve very hot. It should never be allowed to brown, so as to retain its pretty red colour.