Note 74 — Chapter VI · REPTILES, FISHES, INSECTS.

Several kinds of fish which we now think coarse or insipid, would doubtless become, through the culinary skill of the monastic chef “savoury dishes” such as even a lordly abbot’s soul might relish. For the benefit of readers who may like to try the fish of our district under most favourable conditions, I here give two or three recipes for cooking them. Francatelli, no mean authority, says, “a pike cooked properly can hold its own against many fish from the sea.” Boiled with horseradish sauce and mustard it makes an excellent dish. Perch, with sorrel sauce and mayonnaise, is equally good. Carp, fried with butter, is excellent. Chub, taken in frosty weather, are firm, at other times rather flabby, but treated in either of the above ways they are more than palatable. Roach, cooked on a gridiron, with butter, make a nice breakfast. Tench, with port wine sauce, are a luxury. Eels, though despised in Scotland, are very good stewed.