This is the most approved way of dressing sturgeon. Carefully take off the skin, as its oiliness will give the fish a strong and disagreeable taste when cooked. Cut from the tail-piece slices about half an inch thick, rub them with salt, and broil them over a clear fire of bright coals. Butter them, sprinkle them with cayenne pepper, and send them to table hot, garnished with sliced lemon, as lemon-juice is generally squeezed over them when eaten. Another way is to make a seasoning of bread-crumbs, sweet herbs, pepper and salt. First dip the slices of sturgeon, in beaten yolk of egg, then cover them with seasoning, wrap them up closely in sheets of white paper well buttered, broil them over a clear fire, and send them to table either with or without the papers.
The mackerel is one of the most beautiful of fish, being known by its silvery whiteness. It sometimes attains to the length of twenty inches, but usually, when fully grown, is about fourteen or sixteen inches long, and about two pounds in weight. To carve a baked mackerel, first remove the head and tail by cutting downward at 1 and 2; then split them down the back, so as to serve each person a part of each side piece. The roe should be divided in small pieces and served with each piece of fish. Other whole fish may be carved in the same manner. The fish is laid upon a little sauce or folded napkin, on a hot dish, and garnished with parsley.
Choose small fish of different kinds and fillet them. As only half the fillets are wanted for the souchet, the rest may be dressed in another way. Wash the bones in cold water and remove the black substance from them, put them into two quarts of cold water with a teaspoonful of salt, and when it boils remove the scum and add 1 dozen peppercorns, one carrot, one small turnip, one onion, a small piece of celery, and a fagot of herbs. Put the vegetables in whole. Boil this together for one hour, then strain off through a hair sieve and return to the saucepan; wash the vegetables that have been boiled in it, slice them up and put them into the liquor. Cut the fillets of fish into small pieces and put them in; simmer for half an hour, then put in a little lemon juice, pour into a tureen, and sprinkle a little chopped parsley on the top. Send brown bread and butter to table with it and a lemon.
Put the mackerel into a large pan of cold water with the skin up, and soak it all one afternoon and night, changing the water four times. In the morning put it in a pan on the fire with enough water to cover it, and drop in a slice of onion, minced fine, a teaspoonful of vinegar, and a sprig of parsley. Simmer it twenty minutes,--that is, let it just bubble slowly,--and while it is cooking make a cup of white sauce as before: one tablespoonful of butter, melted, one tablespoonful of flour, one cup of hot milk, a little salt. Cook till smooth. Take up the fish and pour off all the water; place it on a hot platter and pour the sauce over it.
Put the fish into cold water with a handful of salt, and let it slowly and gradually warm for three hours if the cod is large, and two hours if it is small. Then increase the fire, and boil it hard for a few minutes only.
Twenty-five small clams, one quart of milk, half a cupful of butter, one table-spoonful of chopped parsley, three potatoes, two large table-spoonfuls of flour, salt, pepper. The clams should be chopped fine end put into a colander to drain. Pare the potatoes, and chop rather fine. Put them on to boil with the milk, in a double kettle. Rub the butter and flour together until perfectly creamy, and when the milk and potatoes have been boiling fifteen minutes, stir this in, and cook eight minutes more. Add the parsley, pepper and salt, and cook three minutes longer. Now add the clams. Cook one minute longer, and serve. This gives a very delicate soup, as the liquor from the clams is not used. Fish Chowder. Five pounds of any kind of fish, (the light salt-water fish is the best), half a pound of pork, two large onions, one quart of sliced potatoes, one quart of water, one pint of milk, two table-spoonfuls of flour, six crackers, salt, pepper. Skin the fish, and cut all the flesh from the bones. Put the bones onto cook in the quart of water, and simmer gently ten minutes. Fry the pork; then add the onions, cut into slices. Cover, and cook five minutes; then add the flour, and cook eight minutes longer, stirring often. Strain on this the water in which the fish bones were cooked and boil gently for five minutes; then strain all on the potatoes and fish. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer fifteen minutes. Add the milk and the crackers, which were first soaked for three minutes, in the milk. Let it boil up once, and serve. The milk maybe omitted, and a pint of tomatoes used, if you like.
1 can of fish, or 1 pint. 1 large cup of cracker or bread crumbs. 1 large cup of white sauce.
Prepare this dish almost as you did the scalloped oysters. Take out all the bones and skin and juice from the fish; butter a baking-dish, put in a layer of fish, then salt and pepper, then a layer of crumbs and butter, and a layer of white sauce, then fish, seasoning, crumbs and butter again, and have the crumbs on top. Dot over with butter and brown in the oven, or serve in small dishes.
One pint bowlful of raw fish, two heaping bowlfuls of pared potatoes, (let the potatoes be under medium size), two eggs, butter, the size of an egg, and a little pepper. Pick the fish very fine, and measure it lightly in the bowl. Put the potatoes into the boiler, and the fish on top of them; then cover with boiling water, and boil half an hour. Drain off all the water, and mash fish and potatoes together until fine and light. Then add the butter and pepper, and the egg, well beaten. Have a deep kettle of boiling fat. Dip a table-spoon in it, and then take up a spoonful of the mixture, having care to get it into as good shape as possible. Drop into the boiling fat, and cook until brown, which should be in two minutes. Be careful not to crowd the balls, and, also, that the fat is hot enough. The spoon should be dipped in the fat every time you take a spoonful of the mixture. These balls are delicious.
