Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book, 3rd ed. Eliza Leslie
fresh salmon, cut from the middle of the fish, well cleaned and carefully scaled. Wipe it dry in a clean coarse cloth. Then dredge it with flour, put it on the spit, and place it before a clear bright fire. Baste it with fresh butter, and roast it well; seeing that it is thoroughly done to the bone. Serve it up plain; garnishing the dish with slices of lemon, as many persons like a little lemon-juice with salmon. This mode of cooking salmon will be found excellent. A small one or a salmon-trout may be roasted whole.
BAKED SALMON.—A small salmon may be baked whole. Stuff it with forcemeat made of bread-crumbs; chopped oysters, or minced lobster; butter; cayenne; a little salt, and powdered mace,—all mixed well, and moistened with beaten yolk of egg. Bend the salmon round, and put the tail into the mouth, fastening it with a skewer. Put it into a large deep dish; lay bits of butter on it at small intervals; and set it into the oven. While baking, look at it occasionally, and baste it with the butter. When one side is well browned, turn it carefully in the dish, and add more butter. Bake it till the other side is well browned. Then transfer it to another dish with the gravy that is about it, and send it to table.
If you bake salmon in slices, reserve the forcemeat for the outside. Dip each slice first in beaten yolk of egg, and then in the forcemeat, till it is well coated. If in one large piece, cover it in the same manner thickly with the seasoning.
The usual sauce for baked salmon is melted butter, flavoured with the juice of a lemon, and a glass of port wine, stirred in just before the butter is taken from the fire. Serve it up in a sauce-boat.
BOILED TURBOT OR SHEEP’S-HEAD FISH.—Having cleaned and washed the fish, soak it an hour or two in salt and water to draw off the slime. Then let it lie half an hour or more in cold water. Afterwards drain, and wipe it dry. Score the back deeply with a knife. The whiteness of the fish will be much improved by rubbing it over with a cut lemon. The fish-kettle must be large, and nicely clean. Lay the fish with its back downward, on the strainer of the kettle. Cover it well with cold water, (milk and water in equal portions will be better still,) and add a small table-spoonful of salt. Do not let it come to a boil too fast, and skim it carefully. When the scum has ceased to rise, diminish the heat under the kettle, and let it simmer for about half an hour or more; not allowing it to boil hard. When the fish is done, take it up carefully with a fish-slice; and having prepared the sauce, pour it over the fish and send it to table hot.
For the sauce mix together very smoothly, with a broad bladed knife, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, two tea-spoonfuls of flour. Put them into a clean sauce-pan, and hold it over the fire, and stir them till melted. Then add a large salt-spoonful of powdered mace, and as much cayenne as will lie on a sixpence. It will be much improved by the addition of some boiled lobster, chopped small. When the sauce has simmered two or three minutes, add very gradually, half a pint of rich cream, and let it come almost to a boil, stirring all the time. After the fish is taken up, pour the sauce over it hot. Or you may send it to table in a sauce-boat. In this case ornament the fish with the coral of the lobster put on in a handsome figure.
Another way of dressing this fish is, after it has been boiled to set it on ice to get cold; and then, having carefully removed the bones, cut the flesh into small squares, put it into a stew-pan, and having mixed the above sauce, add it to the fish, and let it stew slowly in the sauce; but do not let it come to a boil. When thoroughly hot, take it up, and send it to table in a deep dish.
BAKED TURBOT OR SHEEP’S-HEAD FISH.—Having cleaned the fish, soak it an hour or two in salt and water, and afterwards wash it well through two or three fresh waters. Then dry it in a clean towel. Score it deeply, across the back; and then lay it in a deep white baking-dish. Mix together a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg; add a salt-spoon of cayenne; a few sprigs of sweet-marjoram and sweet basil finely minced; two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter; and two table-spoonfuls of grated bread-crumbs. Stir this mixture into a pint of rich cream. Pour this marinade over the fish, cover it, and let it stand half an hour. Then bake it in the marinade; and send it hot to table.
If the fish is too large to be baked whole, cut it into fillets; extracting the bone.
Salmon-trout may be baked in this manner.
SEA BASS WITH TOMATOES.—Take three large fine sea-bass, or black-fish. Cut off their heads and tails, and fry the fish in plenty of lard till about half done. Have ready a pint of tomatoes, that have been pickled cold in vinegar flavoured with a muslin bag of mixed spices. Drain the tomatoes well from the vinegar; skin them, and mash them in a pan; dredging them with about as much flour as would fill a large table-spoon heaped up. Pour the mixture over the fish while in the frying pan; and continue frying till they are thoroughly done.
Cutlets of halibut may be fried in this manner with tomatoes: also, any other pan-fish.
Beef-steaks or lamb-chops are excellent fried thus with tomatoes.
BAKED SALMON-TROUT.—Having cleaned the fish, and laid it two hours in weak salt and water, dry it in a cloth, and then rub both the inside and outside with a seasoning of cayenne pepper, powdered mace, nutmeg, and a little salt mixed well together. Then lay it in a deep baking pan, turn the tail round into the mouth, and stick bits of fresh butter thickly over the fish. Put it into an oven, and bake it well; basting it frequently with the liquid that will soon surround it. When you suppose it to be nearly done, try it by sticking down to the back-bone a thin-bladed knife. When you find that the flesh separates immediately from the bone, it is done sufficiently. Serve it up with lobster-sauce.
Any large fresh fish may be baked in this way.
CREAM TROUT.—Having prepared the trout very nicely, and cut off the heads and tails, put the fish into boiling water that has been slightly salted, and simmer them for five minutes. Then take them out, and lay them to drain. Put them into a stew-pan, and season them well with powdered mace, nutmeg, and a little cayenne, all mixed together. Put in as much rich cream as will cover the fish, adding some bits of the fresh yellow rind of a small lemon. Keep the pan covered, and let the fish stew for about ten minutes after it has begun to simmer. Then dish the fish, and keep them hot till you have finished the sauce. Mix, very smoothly, a small tea-spoonful of arrow-root with a little milk, and stir it into the cream. Then add the juice of the lemon. Pour the sauce over the fish, and then send them to table.
Turbot or sheep’s-head fish may be dressed as above; of course it will require a large proportion of seasoning, &c., and longer time to cook.
Carp is very nice stewed in this manner.
STEWED COD-FISH.—Take a fine fresh cod, and cut into slices an inch thick, separated from the bones. Lay the pieces of fish in the bottom of a stew-pan: season them with a grated nutmeg; half a dozen blades of mace; a salt-spoonful of cayenne pepper, and a small saucer-full of chopped celery, or a bunch of sweet herbs tied together. Pour on half a pint of oyster liquor diluted with two wine glasses or a jill of water, and the juice of a lemon. Cover it close, and let it stew gently till the fish is almost done, shaking the pan frequently. Then take a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg; roll it in flour, and add it to the stew. Also, put in two dozen large fine oysters, with what liquor there is about them. Cover it again; quicken the fire a little, and let the whole continue to stew five minutes longer. Before you send it to table remove the bunch of sweet herbs.
Rock-fish may be stewed in this manner. Fresh salmon also.
FRIED COD-FISH.—Take the middle or tail part of a fresh cod-fish, and cut it into slices not quite an inch thick, first removing the skin. Season them with a little salt and cayenne pepper. Have ready in one dish some beaten yolk of egg, and in another some grated bread-crumbs. Dip each slice of fish twice into the egg, and then twice into the crumbs. Fry them in fresh butter, and serve them up with the gravy about them.
Halibut may be fried as above.
STEWED HALIBUT.—Cut the fish into pieces about four inches square, of course omitting the bone. Season it very slightly with salt, and let it rest for half an hour. Then take it out of the salt, put it into a large deep dish, and strew over it a mixture of cayenne pepper, ground white ginger, and grated nutmeg. Lay among it some small bits of fresh butter rolled in grated cracker. Add half a pint of vinegar, (tarragon vinegar if you have it.)