Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea. Marion Harland
fat so soon as they are done; lay in a cullender or sieve and shake gently, to free them from every drop of grease. Turn out for a moment on white paper to absorb any lingering drops, and send up on a hot dish.
A pretty way of serving them is to line the dish with clean, white paper, and edge this with a frill of colored tissue paper—green or pink. This makes ornamental that which is usually considered a homely dish.
Stewed Eels à l’Allemande.
1 cup of boiling water.
1 cup rather weak vinegar.
1 small onion, chopped fine.
A pinch of cayenne pepper.
½ saltspoonful mace.
1 saltspoonful salt.
About 2 pounds of eels.
3 table-spoonfuls melted butter.
Chopped parsley to taste.
Make a liquor in which to boil the eels, of the vinegar, water, onion, pepper, salt and mace. Boil—closely covered—fifteen minutes, when strain and put in the eels, which should be cleaned carefully and cut into pieces less than a finger long. Boil gently nearly an hour. Take them up, drain dry, and put into a sauce made of melted butter and chopped parsley. Set the vessel containing them in another of hot water, and bring eels and sauce to the boiling point, then serve in a deep dish.
Eels Stewed à l’Americain.
3 pounds eels, skinned and cleaned, and all the fat removed from the inside.
1 young onion, chopped fine.
4 table-spoonfuls of butter.
Pepper and salt to taste, with chopped parsley.
Cut the eels in pieces about two inches in length; season, and lay in a saucepan containing the melted butter. Strew the onion and parsley over all, cover the saucepan (or tin pail, if more convenient) closely, and set in a pot of cold water. Bring this gradually to a boil, then cook very gently for an hour and a half, or until the eels are tender. Turn out into a deep dish.
There is no more palatable preparation of eels than this, in the opinion of most of those who have eaten it.
Fricasseed Eels.
3 pounds fresh eels, skinned, cleaned, and cut into pieces about two inches long.
1 small onion, sliced.
Enough butter, or good dripping, to fry the eels.
1 cup good beef or veal gravy, from which the fat has been skimmed. Season with wine, catsup and lemon-juice.
Pepper and salt with minced parsley for seasoning.
A little flour.
Flour the eels and fry in the dripping, or butter, until brown. Take them out and set aside to cool while you fry the sliced onion in the same fat. Drain this, also the eels, from every drop of grease. When the eels are almost cold, lay them in the bottom of a tin pail or farina-kettle, sprinkle the onion, parsley and other seasoning over them. Add to your gravy a little anchovy sauce, or flavorous catsup; the juice of half a lemon, and a glass of brown sherry. Pour over the eels, cover closely, and set in a pot of warm water. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer, after the contents of the inner vessel are heated through, about twenty minutes. Too much, or hard cooking, will spoil them.
Serve upon a chafing-dish.
Cutlets of Halibut, Cod or Salmon.
3 pounds fish, cut in slices three-quarters of an inch thick, from the body of the fish.
A handful of fine bread-crumbs, with which should be mixed pepper and salt with a little minced parsley.
1 egg beaten light.
Enough butter, lard or dripping to fry the cutlets.
Cut each slice of fish into strips as wide as your two fingers. Dry them with a clean cloth; rub lightly with salt and pepper; dip in the egg, then the bread-crumbs, and fry in enough fat to cover them well. Drain away every drop of fat, and lay upon hot white paper, lining a heated dish.
Cutlets of Cod, Halibut or Salmon à la reine.
Prepare the fish as in the last receipt until after frying it, when have ready the following sauce:
1 cup strong brown gravy—beef or veal.
1 teaspoonful anchovy sauce or mushroom catsup.
Pepper, salt, a pinch of parsley and a very little minced onion.
1 glass brown sherry and juice of half a lemon.
Thicken with browned flour.
Lay the fried cutlets evenly in a broad saucepan with a top, cover with the gravy and heat slowly all through, but do not let them boil. Take up the cutlets with care, and arrange upon a chafing-dish. Pour the gravy over them.
These are very nice, and well worth the additional trouble it may cost to prepare the sauce.
Baked Cod or Halibut.
A piece of fish from the middle of the back, weighing four, five or six pounds.
A cupful of bread-crumbs, peppered and salted.
2 table-spoonfuls boiled salt pork, finely chopped.
A table-spoonful chopped parsley, sweet marjoram and thyme, with a mere suspicion of minced onion.
1 teaspoonful anchovy sauce, or Harvey’s, if you prefer it.
½ cupful drawn butter.
Juice of half a lemon.
1 beaten egg.
Lay the fish in very cold salt-and-water for two hours; wipe dry; make deep gashes in both sides at right angles with the back-bone and rub into these, as well as coat it all over with a force-meat made of the crumbs, pork, herbs, onion and seasoning, bound with raw egg. Lay in the baking-pan and pour over it the drawn butter (which should be quite thin), seasoned with the anchovy sauce, lemon-juice, pepper and a pinch of parsley. Bake in a moderate oven nearly an hour—quite as long if the piece be large, basting frequently lest it should brown too fast. Add a little butter-and-water when the sauce thickens too much. When the fish is done, remove to a hot dish, and strain the gravy over it.
A few capers or chopped green pickles are a pleasant addition to the gravy.