The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory;. Bury Charlotte Campbell
butter, salt and pepper, and broil it, basting it with butter 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 butter 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 butter, 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 à la Poële, 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 glass 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 butter. Pound all together in a mortar till it becomes a paste. Put it into small pots, and pour over it clarified butter.
Another way
To a quart of pickled shrimps put two ounces of fresh butter, 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 butter 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 quantity 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 butter from the gravy; clarify it with more butter, and pour it on them.
Soles, to boil
The soles should be boiled in salt and water. Anchovy sauce.
Soles, to boil, à-la-Française
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 butter rolled in flour; let it boil till of a proper thickness; lay your soles in the dish, and pour the sauce over them.
A small turbot or any flat fish may be done the same way.
Soles, to stew
Cut and skin the soles, and half fry them; have ready the quantity you like of half white wine and half water, mixed with some gravy, one whole onion, and a little whole pepper. Stew them all together, with a little shred lemon, and a few mushrooms. When they are done enough, thicken the sauce with good butter, and serve it up.
Water Souchi
Put on a kettle of water with a good deal of salt in it, and a good many parsley roots; keep it skimmed very clean, and when it boils up throw in your perch or whatever fish you use for the purpose. When sufficiently boiled, take them up and serve them hot. Have ready a pint or more of water, in which parsley roots have been boiled, till it has acquired a very strong flavour, and when the fish are dished throw some of this liquor over them. The Dutch sauce for them is made thus: – To a pint of white wine vinegar add a blade or two of mace; let it stew gently by the fire, and, when the vinegar is sufficiently flavoured by the mace, put into it about a pound of butter. Shake the saucepan now and then, and, when the butter is quite melted, make all exceedingly hot; have ready the yolks of four good eggs beaten up. You must continue beating them while another person gently pours to them the boiling vinegar by degrees, lest they should curdle; and continue stirring them all the while. Set it over a gentle fire, still continuing to stir until it is very hot and of the thickness you desire; then serve it.
Sprats, to bake
Wipe your sprats with a clean cloth; rub them with pepper and salt, and lay them in a pan. Bruise a pennyworth of cochineal; put it into the vinegar, and pour it over the sprats with some bay-leaves. Tie them down close with coarse paper in a deep brown pan, and set them in the oven all night. They eat very fine cold.
You may put to them a pint of vinegar, half a pint of red wine, and spices if you like it; but they eat very well without.
Sturgeon, to roast
Put a walnut-sized bit of butter (or more if it is a large fish), rolled in flour, in a stewpan, with sweet-herbs, cloves, a gill of water, and a spoonful of vinegar; stir it over the fire, and when it is lukewarm take it off, and put in your sturgeon to steep. When it has been a sufficient time to take the flavour of the herbs, roast it, and when done, serve it with court bouillon, or any other fish sauce.
Turbot, to dress
Wipe your turbot very dry, then take a deep stewpan, put in the fish, with two bay-leaves, a handful of parsley, a large onion stuck with cloves, some salt, and cayenne; heat a pint of white wine boiling hot, and pour it upon the turbot; then strain in some very strong veal gravy, (made from your stock jelly,) more than will cover it; set it over a stove, and let it simmer very gently, that the full strength of the ingredients may be infused into it. When it is quite done, put it on a hot dish; strain the gravy into a saucepan, with some butter and flour to thicken it.
Plaice, dabs, and flounders, may be dressed in the same way.
Turbot, plain boiled
Make a brine with two handfuls of salt in a gallon of water, let the turbot lie in it two hours before it is to be boiled; then set on a fish-kettle, with water enough to cover it, and about half a pint of vinegar, or less if the turbot is small; put in a piece of horseradish; when the water boils put in the turbot, the white side uppermost, on a fish-plate; let it be done enough, but not too much, which will be easily known by the look. A small