FISH
Fish that has white flesh requires about ten minutes to the pound in boiling and fifteen minutes in baking.
The old idea that fish is a “brain” food was long since proved to be without foundation, but it has not yet been proved that an overdiet of fish does not lead to skin troubles.
Never buy a fish that has dull eyes, white gills, or soft, spongy flesh. When a fish is fresh, the eyes are bright, the gills red and the flesh firm and odorless. Lobsters and crabs, if alive, should be lively, or, if boiled, the lobster’s tail should be tight against the body, not hanging limp.
The proper cooking of fish is not a simple matter; if it is underdone it is uneatable, while overdone fish is tough and tasteless. The cooking of a fish depends upon the size, kind, the nature of the water from which it was taken, its character and the character of the water in which it is cooked.
H. J. S.
By bad soaking the fish is sometimes spoiled, made flabby and tasteless, and voted a failure, when, if properly cooked and treated, it would be appetizing. Use cold water or milk, and keep while soaking in a cool place.
Mrs. H. A. S.
Follow the directions for soaking given in the foregoing recipe. Wipe the fish dry; brush it lightly with olive oil; lay it on the broiler with skin side up first, then broil quickly. Lay on a hot platter, squeeze one-half lemon over it and send it to the table at once. A few sprigs of watercress or crisp red radishes go well with broiled mackerel.
Mrs. E. F. Jones
One cup of soft boiled potatoes mashed while hot and fresh into half a cup of shredded codfish. Fish and potatoes should be well mashed together, seasoned with one tablespoon of butter and a beaten egg, dropped into a pan of boiling-hot lard or fat, and fried until a delicate brown. When lifted from fat, they should drain a moment on brown paper and go to the table hot.
Mrs. A. Cooper
One tablespoonful oil, onions, parsley, a little flour, tomatoes and Chili. Fry this all together; add enough water to make as much gravy as you wish; season to taste; add codfish and let boil until tender.
E. L. S.
One kitchen spoonful of lucca or olive oil. Let same get very hot; add a chopped onion; let brown; then addtwo tablespoonfuls of flour; also brown this. Now slowly stir in three cups of cold water so as not to lump. When this is stirred smoothly add chopped parsley, one toe of garlic, salt, pepper, and a large tomato cut in quarters. Now add your sliced fish and let boil until tender. Serve cold.
Mrs. H. A. S.
Trout, blue, or any whole fish may be used. Have onion, garlic and parsley chopped finely together. Line bottom of dish with cracker crumbs, parsley, etc.; put your fish in dish and repeat the parsley, crumbs, etc. Then pour over this one cup of white wine or sherry, one cup of bouillon, pepper, salt, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce; put small pieces of butter on top. Bake in hot oven from thirty to forty minutes. Before serving garnish with round slices of lemon and finely chopped parsley.
Mrs. H. A. S.
Cut fresh mackerel in pieces about three inches square; flatten with a wet knife; place in buttered pan, season with salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice. Cover with buttered paper, bake ten minutes. Sauce: Mix a teaspoon each of hashed mushrooms, small onions and parsley in a cup of vinegar with cayenne pepper; heat until vinegar is almost absorbed, then add four tablespoonfuls of soup stock and the chopped mushrooms. Boil gently;add a tablespoonful capers, two chopped gherkins; simmer until thick as rich cream, and lastly add a wine-glass of sherry.
Mrs. Oppenheimer
Thoroughly wash and pick over a pound of spinach, put it over the fire with no more water than clings to the leaves and cook for ten minutes. At the end of that time drain the spinach and chop it fine. Have ready thin filets of flounders, halibut, or whitefish. Cover them with acidulated warm water—a slice of lemon in the water is all that is wanted—and add a slice of onion, a sprig of parsley and a bit of bay leaf. Simmer for ten minutes and drain. Put the minced spinach into the bottom of a buttered baking dish, arrange the filets on it, cover with a cream sauce to which a tablespoonful of grated cheese has been added, and brown in the oven.
Mrs. Sam Moss
A medium-sized fish is bought and cut in filets. Then it is washed, dried, cut into strips, and covered for an hour with salt, pepper, minced parsley, olive oil, and a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce. At the end of that time the fish is rolled in flour, then is brushed with beaten egg, dipped in bread crumbs and rolled into little rolls tied with a thread. The rolls are then fried in deep fat. The fish is served with slices of lemon sprinkled with parsley.
Mrs. H. Moss
One cup cream, four tablespoonfuls bread crumbs, one tablespoon butter, one pint of oysters, paprika, a little nutmeg and salt. Boil the cream, add the bread crumbs, then the butter. Chop the oysters fine; add oysters, then season, add a little chopped parsley. Serve hot on buttered toast with olives and a little gherkin.
Mrs. Joe Newman
Boil live lobster (that has been thoroughly washed) in the following for forty minutes: two quarts water, parsley, onions, thyme, one bay leaf, pepper, salt. Remove lobster, separate it, leaving meat in shell. Chop one onion, one bay leaf, thyme, red pepper, garlic, parsley; melt one tablespoon butter and cook the above chopped herbs until yellow; thicken with flour, add enough water to make plenty of sauce, pepper, and salt. Place lobster in this; cook twenty minutes. Serve on large platter, very hot.
Mrs. L. S. Firetag
Three lobsters, one-half cup sherry, one cup of cream, one tablespoonful butter, yolks of three eggs. Boil live lobsters twenty minutes in salt water; when cool pick out the meat, put it in the wine and butter, and let cook three minutes, always stirring; then add cream, and let scald; add salt, pepper and yolks of the eggs.
Mrs. D. Tim
Pick twelve crabs or one can crab meat, one-half teaspoon salt, one-half pint cream, one and one-half tablespoon butter, one tablespoon flour, chopped parsley, a little cayenne. Put cream into double boiler; when it is scalded add butter and flour after it has been rubbed together till smooth; add parsley, then crab meat; fill shells, put bread crumbs on top, with small piece of butter. Bake until light brown.
Mrs. Shipley
Melt one-fourth cup of butter; in this cook two slices of onion, a sprig or two of parsley, three slices of carrot and one-fourth of a green pepper pod cut in strips until browned. In the meantime scald one quart of oysters and drain carefully; cook one-third cup flour in the butter with the vegetables until well browned; add one cup of oyster liquor and one-half cup of cream. Stir constantly until the sauce thickens, then strain over the drained oysters; let heat over boiling water. Serve hot in ramequins.
Mrs. H. J. S.
Cut the boiled lobster into cubes with a silver knife and for each glass allow a tablespoonful of Chili sauce, a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, two teaspoonfuls of horseradish, and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. Serve the lobster around theglasses containing the sauce or in the sauce as preferred. Use low cocktail glasses in cracked ice.
Mrs. Baum
Take six to twelve oysters, cook them in one-half pint of their own liquor, season with salt and white pepper and butter; cook for five minutes, stirring all the time. Serve in bowls or soup plates.
Mrs. Marx
Dry a quart of oysters in a cloth; dip each oyster in melted butter well peppered, then in beaten egg or in cracker crumbs; broil on a wire broiler; from three to five minutes. Dip over each a little melted butter. Serve hot with slices of lemon.
Mrs. Blum
Roast in a pan over a hot fire or in a hot oven. When they crack open, empty the juice into a saucepan, add the clams, with butter, pepper, and a little salt.
Mrs. Hirsch
Take out the sand-bags and pull out the spongy substance from the sides. Wash and wipe dry; roll in cracker meal which has been seasoned, then dip in a beaten egg. Then have a deep frying-pan ready filled with seething hot butter, and fry brown. Serve very hot and garnish.
Mrs. Greenberg