CHAP. viii. THE FOURTH DAY. 115 



First, open your pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a 

 little slit towards the belly ; out of these take his guts and keep 

 his liver, which you are to shred very small with thyme, sweet 

 marjoram, and a little winter-savory; to these put some pickled 

 oysters, and some anchovies, two or three, both these last 

 whole ; for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not : 

 to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you 

 are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be 

 well salted : if the pike be more than a yard long, then you may 

 put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then 

 less butter will suffice : these being thus mixed with a blade or 

 two of mace, must be put into the pike's belly, and then his 

 belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly, if it be 

 possible : if not, then as much of it as you possibly can ; but 

 take not off the scales : then you are to thrust the spit through 

 his mouth out at his tail; and then take four, or five, or six 

 split sticks or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape 

 or filleting: these laths are to be tied round about the pike's 

 body from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick 

 to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit : let him be 

 roasted very leisurely, and often basted with claret wine and 

 anchovies and butter mixed together, and also with what 

 moisture falls from him into the pan : when you have roasted 

 him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you unwind 

 or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you purpose to eat 

 him out of; and let him fall into it with the sauce that is 

 roasted in his belly ; and by this means the pike will be kept 

 unbroken and complete : then, to the sauce which was within, 

 and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of 

 the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four 

 oranges : lastly, you may either put into the pike with the 

 oysters two cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the 

 pike is cut off the spit ; or to give the sauce a haut-gout let the 

 dish into which you let the pike fall be rubbed with it : the 

 using or not using of this garlick is left to your discretion. 

 M. B. 



This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very 



