90 On Cottage Economy and Cookery. 



Fresh fish, except upon our coasts, or when a glut of mackerel, 

 pilchards, or herrings is brought to market, is out of the reach 

 of the poor ; but the latter, when salted, make a good relish to 

 potatoes either fried or boiled. When fresh, thej may, however, 

 be kept sweet for a long time by cutting off the head, fins, and 

 tail, and laying them in the bottom of a jar, sprinkled with pepper 

 and salt, with alternate layers of sliced onions, until the jar is 

 full : then pour in vinegar and send it to be baked ; or they may 

 be eaten cold, as a relish, with potatoes. 



The despised little sprat is seldom salted ; but if eaten fresh it 

 is very nutritious, and so cheap that on our coasts it is sold to the 

 farmers for manure at the rate of 6f/. to 7d. the bushel. Now if 

 a quantity of these are deprived merely of their heads and tails, 

 without being gutted, then fried with cold sliced potatoes, they 

 make a capital dish; or, when browned, if the contents of the 

 pan be mixed, quite hot, with a quantity of boiled rice, it will 

 l3e found to form a more savoury and substantial meal than when 

 eaten with bread. 



Fish, however, although yielding a very comfortable abundance 

 to a great mass of the labouring population, yet is not nearly so 

 nutritious as meat. It should not, therefore, be the constant diet 

 of a working man ; and when he can change it, during a couple 

 of days in the week, for beef or bacon, he should always do so. 



Cheap soups add greatly to the comfort of a family; and it 

 would be well if the housewife would pay attention to the few 

 simple and economical modes of preparing them and vegetables, 

 as stated here and in other tracts on the same subject : to which 

 may be added this observation ; that, in whatever way they are 

 made, the flavour will always be greatly improved if the onions 

 (which should always form a portion of the contents) are sliced 

 and fried in a little fat of any kind before being put into the soup. 

 A common mistake in making soup, as well as in boiling meat, 

 is to boil it much too fast, and for too short a time. The pot, 

 in fact (and an earthen pot is both the cleanest and the best) 

 ought to be almost always kept merely simmering by the fire ; 

 and the smallest fire is large enough, if the soup be allowed to 

 remain near it long enough. 



The liquor in which any meat is boiled should always be saved 

 for the making of soup, and the bones even of fish should also be 

 preserved ; for, although quite bare of meat, yet if stewed down 

 for several hours, they will yield a species of broth, which along 

 with peas or oatmeal will make good soup. A lot of bones may 

 always be got from the butcher for 2d., and they are never scraped 

 so clean as not to have some scraps of meat adhering to them. 

 Put them into an iron pot — a digester, if you have one — large 

 enough to hold a gallon; and in winter, when the cottage is 



