=Principles of cooking.=
1. The protein is affected as in all other foods where it occurs.
2. The fat is melted.
3. Connective tissue quickly softened.
To avoid the breaking of the fish it may be wrapped in cloth for boiling, and the water should simmer only. The coating of small fish or slices of large fish with beaten egg and crumbs tends to hold it together. In all cases avoid overcooking. Fish is done when a fork easily pierces it and separates the flakes of flesh from the bone.
=1. Boiled fish.=
Use thick pieces of large fish for boiling, or if small fish are used they may be boiled whole. Add salt and vinegar to water in proportion of 1 tablespoonful of salt and two of vinegar to three quarts of water. Use enough water to cover the fish. Wrap the fish in cheesecloth to prevent breaking apart, and plunge into boiling water. Do not let the water boil after fish is in. The fish is done when the flesh leaves the bone or when the flesh flakes apart easily. The usual time for a thick piece is 30-40 minutes.
_Mock Hollandaise sauce._
b.u.t.ter 3 tablespoonfuls Flour 3 tablespoonfuls Eggs 2 Milk 2 cups Salt 1 teaspoonful Lemon 1/2 to 1.
Make as for white sauce, adding the beaten eggs just before taking from fire and stirring until well thickened. Add lemon juice just before serving. This sauce is suitable for boiled fish and vegetables.
=2. Left over fish.=
Fish may be picked apart, mixed with cream sauce, and served as creamed fish or served as an escallop.
_Escalloped fish._
2 cups left over fish, picked over and freed of bones.
1 cup thin white sauce, dried bread crumbs b.u.t.tered.
b.u.t.ter a baking dish and line with crumbs. Add a layer of fish, using half, and cover with half the sauce. Cover with a layer of crumbs. Add another layer of fish, sauce, and crumbs, making this last layer of crumbs quite thick. Place in a hot oven and leave until crumbs are brown and fish is heated through.
_To b.u.t.ter crumbs._
Melt a little b.u.t.ter in a saucepan and turn the crumbs in, stirring them over and over with a spoon until all the crumbs are coated.
=3. Baked fish.=
Almost any medium sized fish is suitable for baking. The favorites are bluefish, shad, haddock, and halibut, sliced.
Clean the fish, seeing that all scales are removed. Stuff and sew.
Shape with skewers to form a letter S and place upright on a baking pan or lay fish on side. If the fish is not a fat kind, put strips of salt pork over it and in pan or cut gashes in fish and lay strips of pork in them. Dredge with flour. Bake one hour for a three-pound fish, in a hot oven, basting frequently with the tried-out fat. Serve with drawn b.u.t.ter or Hollandaise sauce.
_Fish stuffing._
Dried crumbs 1 cup Melted b.u.t.ter 1/2 cup Salt 1/4 teaspoonful Pepper 1/8 teaspoonful Onion juice A few drops Parsley} 1 teaspoonful Capers } each, finely Pickles } chopped
Mix ingredients in order given.
=4. Creamed codfish.=
Soak the fish in cold water, and pull it apart with knife and fork. Put it in a saucepan of cold water, allow the water to heat slowly, and stop the heating just before the water reaches the boiling point. Pour off the water, shake the saucepan over the fire, add a thin white sauce, No. 2, and reheat. Serve on toast if desired.
=5. Codfish b.a.l.l.s or cakes.=
_Ingredients._
Codfish, picked 1 cup Potatoes, cut in cubes 2 cups Egg 1 Salt, if needed to taste Flour for dredging
_Method._
Put the fish and potatoes in a stewpan, cover with cold water, bring the water to the boiling point, and cook until the potato is tender. The whole process will take about 20 minutes. Drain off the water very thoroughly and shake the stewpan over the fire to dry the contents. It is very necessary to have the mixture free from water. Mash and heat the mixture in the stewpan, and add the egg. Taste to see if more salt is needed, as is sometimes the case. Finish as follows:
(_a_) Shape into round flat cakes about an inch thick, dredge with flour and saute.
(_b_) The same, browning the cakes on a greased pan in the oven, or under the gas flame, turning if necessary.
(_c_) Shape in b.a.l.l.s, place these in a wire frying basket, lower the basket into hot fat until the b.a.l.l.s brown, lift the basket, drain, and drain the b.a.l.l.s on paper. Keep hot until it is time to serve.
_Laboratory management._--For individual work or work in groups of two, small fish, as perch, may be procured and these may be stuffed and baked in the period.
Sh.e.l.lFISH
The sh.e.l.lfish are of two cla.s.ses; the mollusks including clams, mussels (seldom used in this country), oysters, and scallops, and the crustaceans,--lobsters and crabs. None of the mollusks have high nutritive value, but they are a protein food, and add to the variety of the diet.
The composition of the oyster is shown in Fig. 65, and it will be noted that the fat percentage is small and the calorie value low.
=The oyster= is raised in beds in the ocean, or bays often near the river mouth, and it is the neighborhood to the river that makes it possible for the oyster to carry germs of contagion, particularly of typhoid fever, when city sewage poured into the river pa.s.ses over the oyster bed. Here, too, government protection is essential, and this is a matter that has created so much excitement that conditions are already improved. There is an a.s.sociation of oyster growers who make a point of advertising clean oyster beds, and cleanly methods of handling and transporting.
Oysters vary in size and flavor, the flavor seeming to depend upon the locality. The smaller are sought for serving raw, and the medium and larger for cooking. They are sold by the measure or number when taken from the sh.e.l.l, the latter giving the surer quant.i.ty; and the price is usually one cent apiece. They are in season from September to May. The whole flesh of the oyster is soft and edible, even the muscle by which it opens and shuts its sh.e.l.l being tender.
=Clams= are of two kinds, distinguished differently in different places.
They are known as hard and soft, or round and long, and in Rhode Island the hard round clam still bears the Indian name Quahaug, the soft sh.e.l.l clam being the only "clam."
The long clam lies buried in the soft mud of creeks and muddy sh.o.r.es left exposed at low tide, when they are dug by hoes from the mud. The round clam lies on the bottom of shallow warm waters, and is raked with an implement made for the purpose. The round clam is used when very young and small in place of raw oysters; but both kinds when matured have a tough portion that is not softened in cooking, and that is more or less indigestible. The long "neck" which protrudes from the sh.e.l.l has to be discarded.
Both kinds may be roasted in the sh.e.l.l, and are very palatable served hot with melted b.u.t.ter, salt, and pepper. They are most commonly used in soups and in chowder. They are purchased by the quant.i.ty or number, are cheaper than oysters, and are always in season.
=Scallops=, as purchased, are only a part of the animal in the sh.e.l.l, consisting solely of the round white muscle which operates the sh.e.l.l. The escallop, or scallop, is migratory, moving by a shooting motion, the mature scallops reaching the creeks and sh.o.r.es in the autumn, and though found in so-called beds they are not fixtures like the oysters. The flavor is sweet, and they have a quality that makes them more or less indigestible, especially when fried. They are very palatable and more digestible served in a stew made like an oyster stew. They are sold by the measure and are cheap in season.
=The lobster= is now a luxury, for methods of catching in the past have made them scarce in their old haunts. The lobster is a much more highly developed animal than the mollusk, having strong muscles inside its coat of mail, and the flesh has a protein content that compares very favorably with meat. When fresh, and not served with rich sauces or eaten at irregular hours, it is not especially indigestible, and may be the main dish at luncheon or supper, served simply with salt, pepper, and melted b.u.t.ter and not taken with meat foods. Its own delicious flavor needs no addition in the way of sauces and high seasoning.
=The crab= is essentially like the lobster, being smaller, and having a sweeter flavor. The soft sh.e.l.l crab is caught just as the old sh.e.l.l is shed, and is highly esteemed as a delicacy. Both lobsters and crabs are cooked in the sh.e.l.l, and if allowed to die naturally before cooking they are uneatable. They may be purchased alive or cooked, and one is surer of their condition when they are bought alive. Twenty-five cents a pound is now an average price for lobsters in sh.e.l.l. Crabs are somewhat less expensive at times, but soft sh.e.l.ls are always high-priced.
The following table shows the food value of a few of this group in terms of the weight of the 100-Calorie portion.
100-CALORIE PORTIONS OF FISH AND Sh.e.l.lFISH FRESH FISH
================================================= | WEIGHT OF 100-CALORIE PORTION | KIND |-----------------------------------| | AS PURCHASED | | |(Entrails Removed)| EDIBLE MATERIAL| -------------|------------------|----------------| | Ounces | Ounces | Blue fish | 7.8 | 4.0 | Cod. | 7.6 | 5.5 | Flounder | 12.5 | 6.2 | Haddock | 10.0 | 4.9 | Halibut steak| 3.5 | 2.9 | Mackerel | 4.5 | 2.5 | Salmon | 2.8 | 1.8 | -------------------------------------------------
SALT OR SMOKED FISH