Chapter II · (continued 2)

Very good French cooks put them at once into boiling water and keep them over a brisk fire for about fifteen minutes. They dress them also without taking off the scales or fins until they are ready to serve, when they strip the whole of the skin off carefully, and stick the red fins into the middle of the backs; the fish are then covered with the Steward’s sauce, thickened with eggs.

In warm water, 8 to 10 minutes; in boiling, 12 to 15 minutes.

TO FRY PERCH OR TENCH.

Scale, and clean them perfectly; dry them well, flour and fry them in boiling lard. Serve plenty of crisped or fried parsley round them.

TO FRY EELS.

[In season all the year, but not so well-conditioned in April and May as in other months.]

First kill, then skin, empty, and wash them as clean as possible; cut them into four-inch lengths, and dry them well in a soft cloth. Season them with fine salt, and white pepper, or cayenne, flour them thickly, and fry them a fine brown in boiling lard; drain and dry them as directed for soles, and send them to table with plain melted butter or anchovy sauce. Eels are sometimes dipped into batter and then fried; or into egg and fine bread-crumbs (mixed with minced parsley or not, at pleasure), and served with plenty of crisped parsley round, and on them.

It is an improvement for these modes of dressing the fish to open them entirely; and remove the bones: the smaller parts should be thrown into the pan a minute or two later than the thicker portions of the bodies or they will not be equally done.

BOILED EELS.

(German Receipt.)

Pare a fine lemon, and strip from it entirely the white inner rind; slice it, and remove the pips with care; put it with a blade of mace, a small half-teaspoonful of white peppercorns, nearly twice as much of salt, and a moderate-sized bunch of parsley, into three pints of cold water, bring them gently to boil, and simmer them for twenty minutes; let them become quite cold; then put in three pounds of eels skinned; and cleaned with great nicety, and cut into lengths of three or four inches; simmer them very softly from ten to fifteen minutes, lift them with a slice into a very hot dish, and serve them with a good Dutch sauce, or with parsley and butter acidulated with lemon-juice, or with chili vinegar.

For boiled eels with sage (German Receipt), see Chapter of Foreign Cookery.

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EELS.

(Cornish Receipt.)

Skin, empty, and wash as clean as possible, two or three fine eels, cut them into short lengths, and just cover them with cold water; add sufficient salt and cayenne to season them, and stew them very softly indeed from fifteen to twenty minutes, or longer should they require it. When they are nearly done, strew over them a teaspoonful of minced parsley, thicken the sauce with a teaspoonful of flour mixed with a slice of butter, and add a quarter of a pint or more of clotted cream. Give the whole a boil, lift the fish into a hot dish, and stir briskly the juice of half a lemon into the sauce; pour it upon the eels, and serve them immediately: Very sweet thick cream is, we think, preferable to clotted cream for this dish. The sauce should be of a good consistence, and a dessertspoonful of flour will be needed for a large dish of the stew, and from one and a half to two ounces of butter. The size of the fish must determine the precise quantity of liquid and of seasoning which they will require.

RED HERRINGS, À LA DAUPHIN.

Take off the heads, open the backs of the fish, and remove the backbones: soak the herrings, should they be very dry, for two or three hours in warm milk and water, drain and wipe them. Dissolve a slice of fresh butter, and mix it with the beaten yolks of a couple of eggs and some savoury herbs minced small: dip the fish into these, and spread them thickly with fine bread-crumbs; broil them of a light brown, over a moderate fire, and serve them on hot buttered toasts, sprinkled with a little cayenne.

RED HERRINGS, COMMON ENGLISH MODE.

This fish is rendered infinitely more delicate by pouring boiling water on it before it is dressed, and leaving it to soak for half an hour, or more, should it be highly dried. The fresh Yarmouth bloaters do not require this. Cut off the heads and tails, open the herrings at the back, and warm them through before the fire, or upon the gridiron. They may be rubbed with a bit of cold butter, and seasoned with a slight sprinkling of pepper or cayenne, when these are liked, or served quite plain.

ANCHOVIES FRIED IN BATTER.

Scrape very clean a dozen or more of fine anchovies, and soak them in plenty of spring water from two to six hours: then wipe them dry, open them, and take out the backbones, without dividing the fish. Season the insides highly with cayenne, close the anchovies, dip them into the French batter of Chapter V., or into a light English batter, and fry them a pale amber-colour: in from four to five minutes they will be quite sufficiently done.

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