PREPARATION OF FOOD COOKERY. 



bread, pepper, and salt over it, and stick pieces of 

 butter thickly over the top. Set it before a clear 

 fire to brown. A rich oyster sauce, made with 

 beef gravy instead of water, and highly seasoned 

 with Cayenne pepper, salt, and ketchup, is poured 

 in the dish around the fish. Do not thicken the 

 sauce with flour. 



To dress a Middle Cut of Cod. Clean the piece 

 of cod, and make a stuffing of bread-crumbs, 

 parsley, and onions chopped small, pepper and 

 salt, a bit of butter, moistened with egg. Put this 

 stuffing into the open part of the fish, and fix it in 

 with skewers. Then rub the fish over with beat 

 egg, and strew crumbs of bread, pepper, and salt 

 over it. Stick also some bits of butter on it. Set 

 it in a bachelor's or Dutch oven before the fire to 

 bake. Serve with melted butter or oyster sauce. 



To boil Haddocks, or a cut of Cod. This is the 

 simplest of all operations. Clean the fish well, 

 and wash and boil with a little salt in the water, 

 the first for twenty minutes or half an hour, the 

 other for about three-quarters of an hour. Eat 

 with oyster sauce, or melted butter and ketchup. 



Fillets of Haddocks. This is a most delicious 

 dish when well prepared. Take pretty large 

 haddocks, which clean and wash well. They 

 will be firmer and better if they lie for a night in 

 salt. When to be dressed, wash them and dry 

 them. Cut off the head, tail, and fins ; then skin 

 them, being careful not to tear the flesh. Cut the 

 flesh neatly from the bone, and divide each side 

 into two pieces. Dust them with flour, dip them 

 into beat egg, and strew bread-crumbs over them. 

 Fry them in a frying-pan, with a sufficiency of hot 

 dripping or lard to cover them. Be careful that 

 the dripping is not hot enough to scorch the fish. 

 The way to ascertain the proper degree of heat of 

 the fat is to dip a thin slice of bread into it, and 

 when it makes the bread of a light-brown tinge, 

 put in the fish. If the fat be too hot, it will make 

 the bread of a deep brown. Turn the pieces care- 

 fully, so as to brown both sides, and when done, 

 lay them before the fire on a drainer for a few 

 minutes. Serve in a dish, garnished with parsley. 

 Sauce oyster sauce, or with a little ketchup 

 added. The fat in which haddocks are fried will 

 serve again, if put through a hair-sieve, and poured 

 in ajar, and kept in a cool place. 



To fry Skate, Soles, Flounders, Whitings, and 

 Eels, or any other White Fish. Skate and soles 

 are skinned and dressed in the same manner as 

 haddocks, but soles are usually fried whole, not 

 cut in pieces ; large ones may be cut into halves. 

 Flounders are fried in the same manner, whole, 

 but do not require to be skinned. Eels must be 

 skinned and cut in pieces. 



To bake Haddocks. Take two or three had- 

 docks, gut and clean them, and lay them all night 

 among salt. When to be used, skin them, and 

 cut off the heads, tails, and fins. Make a stuffing 

 of bread-crumbs, chopped onions, and parsley, and 

 a little bit of butter. Sew this into the bellies of 

 the fish. Rub them over with butter, strew bread- 

 crumbs over them, and bake them in an oven or 

 before the fire. 



Fish and Sauce. Take two or three haddocks, 

 gut and clean them, and lay them all night among 

 salt. When to be used, skin them, cut off the 

 heads, tails, and fins. Boil these trimmings for 

 three-quarters of an hour in a little water. Brown 

 a little flour and butter in a stewpan, and then 



strain the liquor, and put it to the butter; add 

 sliced onion, chopped parsley, salt, a little Cayenne 

 pepper, and a spoonful of ketchup. When all this 

 has been boiled for a few minutes, cut the fish in 

 pieces, and let it boil gently till it is ready. With 

 a little white stock and more water, this may be 

 called, and is, an excellent fish soup. 



To scallop Oysters. Scald the oysters in their 

 own liquor. Pick them out of the liquor, and lay 

 them in a dish, or scallop-shells, or tins, strewing 

 crumbs of bread mixed with pepper and salt over 

 each layer, and finishing with crumbs. Moisten 

 the whole with a small quantity of the liquor in 

 which the oysters were scalded, and stick pieces 

 of butter thickly over the top. Place the dish 

 before the fire to bake. From ten to twenty 

 minutes will be required, according to the quantity. 



Sprats, which are very plentiful throughout 

 some of the winter months, form a cheap and 

 palatable addition to the dinner-table. They are 

 excellent when boiled in salt-water, and served 

 cold with a little vinegar. They are very good 

 when fried. Clean them and wipe them dry, then 

 dip them in oatmeal, and fry in lard or beef-drip- 

 ping till they are of a nice light-brown colour. 

 Small sprats are as nice as whitebait, which fish, 

 in fact, is the young of the herring, or the sprat 

 The whitebait served at the tables of fashionable 

 taverns in London is a mixture of the young of 

 various fish. 



Fresh Herrings as at fnverary.Cut oft" the 

 heads, fins, and tails, scale, gut, and wash the 

 herrings. Split them open, and dust the inside 

 with fine pepper and salt Place two herrings 

 flat together, the backs outmost, then dip in toasted 

 oatmeal, and fry in dripping for seven minutes. 



Boiled Herrings. The Loch Fyne fresh herring 

 is never more delicious than when boiled in water 

 which contains plenty of salt Salt herrings, when 

 to be eaten with potatoes, should be boiled upon 

 the top of the potatoes. They are excellent, done 

 ;n this manner. 



Mackerel may be cooked much after the same 

 r ashion as fresh herrings. They are excellent 

 aroilecl and eaten with a little pepper and salt, and 

 they are never better than when they are boiled 

 with plenty of salt in the water. 



ENTREES, OR MADE DISHES. 



Stewed Veal. Take two pounds of any fleshy 

 part of veal, and cut into neat pieces. Have an 

 >gg beat up, and some bread-crumbs, with minced 

 sarsley, onions, white pepper, and salt, on a plate. 

 Have some lard or dripping in the frying-pan. Dip 

 the cut veal in the egg, and then in the crumbs, 

 and fry till the veal is of a nice light brown. Put 

 n a stewpan with a little water two tea-spoonfuls 

 of flour, an onion, a little parsley, and two slices 

 of lemon, and stew slowly with closed cover for an 

 lour. Serve slices of lemon round the dish. 



Curried Rabbit, &*c. Cut a rabbit into pieces, 

 wash well, and put in a stewpan with a quarter 

 of a pound of butter, a dessert-spoonful of curry- 

 powder, and three or four large onions, and as 

 much water as will cover the meat Stew slowly 

 with closed cover for two hours. Half an hour 

 before dishing, add a table-spoonful of flour 

 moistened with cold water. Eat with potatoes, 

 and rice prepared as follows : Take a breakfast- 

 cupful of rice, wash till the water runs clear, and 



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