And yet the Egyptians, while mummying the cats and dogs and beetles, and such small deer, made no G.o.ds of the good carp or other fish which must have stocked the river Nile. They emblazoned the crocodile on their monuments, but never a fish. It is a singular foreshadowing of that great vice of the human race, ingrat.i.tude.
The Romans were fond of fish, and the records of their gastronomy abound in fish stories. We read of Licinius Cra.s.sus, the orator, that he lived in a house of great elegance and beauty. This house was called the "Venus of the Palatine," and was remarkable for its size, the taste of the furniture, and the beauty of the grounds. It was adorned with pillars of Hymettian marbles, with expensive vases and _triclinia_ inlaid with bra.s.s; his gardens were provided with fish-ponds, and n.o.ble lotus-trees shaded his walks. Aben.o.barbus, his colleague in the censorship, found fault with such luxury, such "corruption of manners," and complained of his crying for the loss of a lamprey as if it had been a favourite daughter!
This, however, was a tame lamprey, which used to come to the call of Cra.s.sus and feed out of his hand. Cra.s.sus retorted by a public speech against his colleague, and by his great power of ridicule turned him into derision, jested upon his name, and to the accusation of weeping for a lamprey, replied that it was more than Aben.o.barbus had done for the loss of any of his three wives!
In the sixteenth century, that golden age of the Vatican, the splendid court of Leo X. was the centre of artistic and literary life, and the witty and pleasure-loving Pope made its gardens the scene of his banquets and concerts, where he listened to the recitations of the poets who sprung up under his protection. There beneath the shadow of the ilex and the lauristines, in a circle so refined that ladies were admitted, Leo himself leaned on the shoulder of the handsome Raphael, who was allowed to caress and admire the Medicean white hand of his n.o.ble patron. We read that this famous Pope was so fastidious as to the fish dinners of Lent, that he invented twenty different recipes for the chowder of that day! Walking in disguise with Raphael through the fish-market, he espied a boy who, on his knees, was presenting a fish to a pretty _contadina_. The scene took form and immortality in the famous _Vierge au Poisson_, in which, conducted by the Angel Gabriel, the youthful Saint John presents the fish to the Virgin and child,--a beautiful picture for the church whose patron saint was a fisherman.
Indeed, that picture of the sea of Galilee, and the sacred meaning attached to the etymology of the word "fish," has given the finny wanderer of the seas a peculiar and valuable personality. All this, with the selection by our Lord of so many of his disciples from amongst the fishermen, the many poetical a.s.sociations which form around this, the cheapest and most delicate form of food with which the Creator has stocked this world of ours, would, if followed out, afford a volume of suggestion, quotation, poetry, and romance with which to embellish the art of entertaining.
Fish is now believed to produce aliment for the brain, and as such is recommended to all authors and editors, statesmen, poets and lawyers, clergymen and mathematicians,--all who draw on that finer fibre of the brain which is used for the production of poetry or prose.
England is famed for its good fish, as why should it not be, with the ocean around it? The turbot is, _par excellence_, the fish for a Lord Mayor"s dinner, and it is admirable _a la creme_ for anybody"s dinner.
Excellent is the whitebait of Richmond, that mysterious little dwarf.
Eaten with slices of brown bread and b.u.t.ter it is a very delicious morsel, and the whiting, which always comes to the table with his tail in his mouth, beautifully browned outside, white as snow within, what so excellent as a whiting, except a _sole au gratin_ with sauce Tartare?
Fresh herrings in Scotland are delicious, almost equal to the red mullets which Caesar once ate at Ma.r.s.eilles. The fresh sardines at Nice, and all along the Mediterranean, are very delicate, as are the thousand sh.e.l.l-fish. The langoose, or large lobster of France and the Mediterranean, is a surprise to the American traveller. Not so delicate as our American lobster, it still is admirable for a salad.
It is so large that the flesh--if a fish has flesh--can be sliced up and served like cold roast turkey.
The salmon, king of fish, inspires in his capture, in Scotland rivers, in Labrador, in Canada, some of the best writing of the day. William Black, in Scotland, and Dr. Wier Mitch.e.l.l, of Philadelphia, can tell stories of salmon-fishing which are as brilliant as Victor Hugo"s description of Waterloo, or of that mysterious jelly-fish in his novel, "The Toilers of the Sea."
The New York market boasts the red snapper, the sheepshead, the salmon, the salmon-trout, the Spanish mackerel, most toothsome of viands, the sea ba.s.s, cod, halibut, the shad, the greatest profusion of excellent oysters and clams, the cheap pan-fish, and endless eels.
The French make many fine dishes of eels, as the Romans did.
To be good, fish must be fresh. It is absolutely indispensable, to retain certain flavours, that the fish should go from one element to another, out of the water into the fire, and onto the gridiron or into the frying pan as soon as possible. Therefore, if the housewife has a fish seasonable and fresh, and a gridiron, she can make a good dish for a hungry man.
We shall begin with the cheapest of the products of the water, and although they may squirm out of our hands, try to bring to the table the despised eels.
An old proverb said that matrimony was a bag in which there were ninety-nine snakes and one eel, and the young lady who put her hand into this agreeable company had small chance at the eel. It would seem at first blush as if no one would care particularly for the eel. In old England, eels were exceedingly popular, and the monks dearly loved to feed upon them. The cellarist of Barking Abbey, Ess.e.x, in the ancient times of monastic foundations, was, amongst other eatables, to provide stewed eels in Lent and to bake eels on Shrove Tuesday. There were artificial receptacles made for eels. The cruel custom of salting eels alive is mentioned by some old writers.
"When the old serpent appeared in the guise of a stewed eel it was impossible to resist him."
Eels _en matelote_ should be cut in three-inch pieces, and salted; fry an onion brown in a little dripping, add half a pint of broth to the brown onion, part of a bay leaf, six broken pepper-corns, four whole cloves, and a gill of claret.
Add the eels to this and simmer until thoroughly cooked.
Remove the eels, put them on a hot dish, add a teaspoonful of brown flour to the sauce, strain and pour over the eels.
Spatch-cooked eels are good.
_Frica.s.seed eels_: Cut three pounds of eels into pieces of three inches in length, put them into a stewpan, and cover them with Rhine wine, or two thirds water and one third vinegar; add fifteen oysters, two pieces of lemon, a bouquet of herbs, one onion quartered, six cloves, three stalks of celery, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and salt to taste. Stew the eels one hour, remove them from the dish, strain the liquor.
Put it back into the saucepan with a gill of cream and an ounce of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, simmer gently a few minutes, pour over the fish, and you have a dish for a king.
Stewed eels are great favourites with _gourmets_, cooked as follows:--
Cut into three-inch pieces two pounds of medium-sized cleaned eels. Rub the inside of each piece with salt. Let them stand half an hour, then parboil them. Boil an onion in a quart of milk and remove the onion. Drain the eels from the water and add them to the milk. Season with half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and the smallest bit of mace. Simmer until the flesh falls from the bones.
Fried eels should be slightly salted before cooking. Do not cover them with batter, but dredge them with just flour enough to absorb all moisture, then cover them with boiling lard.
As for the thousand and one recipes for cooking an oyster, no one need tell an American hostess much on that subject. Raw, roasted, boiled, stewed, scalloped and baked in patties, what so savoury as the oyster?
They should be bought alive, and opened with care by an expert, for the bits of sh.e.l.l are dangerous. If eaten raw, pieces of lemon should be served with them. Plates of majolica to hold five or seven oysters are now to be bought at all the best crockery stores.
To stew oysters well, cream and b.u.t.ter should be added, and the whole mixture done in a silver dish over an alcohol lamp. Broiled oysters should be dipped first in melted b.u.t.ter, then in bread crumbs, then put in a very fine wire gridiron, and broiled over a bright bed of coals. Scalloped oysters should be carefully dried with a clean napkin, then laid in a deep dish on a bed of crumbs and fresh b.u.t.ter, all softened by the liquor of the oyster; a layer of oysters and a layer of crumbs should follow each other, with little walnuts of b.u.t.ter put between. The mixture should be put in a very hot oven and baked a delicate brown, but not dried.
The plain fried oyster is very popular, but it should not be cooked in small houses just before an entertainment, as the odour is not appetizing. To dip them in egg batter, then in bread-crumbs, and fry them in drippings is a common and good fashion. A more elaborate fashion is to beat up the yolks of four eggs with three tablespoonfuls of sweet oil, and season them with a teaspoonful of salt, and a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper. Beat up thoroughly, dip each oyster in this mixture and then in bread crumbs, and fry in hot oil. The best and most elegant way of cooking an oyster is, however, "_a la poulette_."
Scald the oysters in their own liquor, drain them, and add to the liquor, salt, half an ounce of b.u.t.ter, the juice of half a lemon, a gill of cream, and a teaspoonful of dissolved flour.
Beat the yolk of one egg, and add to the sauce, stir until the sauce thickens; place the oysters on a hot dish, pour the sauce over them, add a little chopped parsley and serve.
A simpler and more primitive but excellent way of cooking oysters is to clean the sh.e.l.ls thoroughly, and place them in the coals in an open fireplace, or to roast them in hot ashes until the sh.e.l.ls snap open.
When the oyster departs then the clam takes his place, and is delicious as an _avant gout_ or an appetizer at a dinner. If clams are broiled they must be done quickly, else they become hard and indigestible.
The soft-sh.e.l.l clam, scalloped, makes a good dish. Clean the sh.e.l.ls well, then put two clams to each sh.e.l.l, with half a teaspoonful of minced celery. Cut a slice of fat bacon small, add a little to each sh.e.l.l, put bread crumbs on top and a little pat of b.u.t.ter, bake in the oven until brown. A clam broth is a delicious and healthful beverage for sick or well; add cream and a spoonful of sherry to it, and it becomes a fabulously fine thing. In this mixture the clams must be strained out before the cream and wine are added.
But if the clam is good what shall we say of crabs. Hard-sh.e.l.l crabs must be boiled about twelve minutes, drained, and set away to cool.
Eaten with sandwiches and a dressing they are considered a delicacy for supper. They can be more cooked with chopped eggs, or treated like a chicken pasty, and cooked in a paste sh.e.l.l they are very good.
Take half an ounce of b.u.t.ter, half an onion minced, half a pound of minced raw veal, and a small carrot shredded, a chopped crab, a pint of boiling cream; simmer an hour, then strain into a saucepan, and what a sauce you have!
The soft-sh.e.l.l crab is an invalid. He is caught when he is helpless, feverish, and not at all, one would say, healthy. He is killed by the jarring of the train, by thunder, by some pa.s.sing noisy cart, and some say by a fall in stocks, or a sudden change in political circles.
Such sensitive creatures must be cooked as soon as possible. It is only necessary to remove the feathery substance under the pointed sides of the sh.e.l.ls, rinse them in cold water, drain, season with salt and pepper, dredge them in flour and fry in hot fat. Crab patties and crabs cooked in any other way than this fail to please the epicure.
Nothing with so p.r.o.nounced an individuality as a soft-sh.e.l.led crab should be disguised.
A devilled crab is considered good, but it should be cooked by a negro expert from Maryland.
Scallops are essentially good in stews, or fried, and when, cut in small pieces, with a pint of milk, a little b.u.t.ter, and a little salt, they again return to their beautiful sh.e.l.ls and are baked as a scallop, they are delicious. Put in pork fat, and fried, they are also very fine.
The lobster is now considered very healthful, and as conveying more phosphorus into the human system than any other fish. Broiled, devilled, stewed, cooked in a fashion called _Bourdelaise_, it is the most delicious of dishes, and as a salad what can equal it?
A baked whitefish with Bordeaux sauce is very fine.
Clean and stuff the fish with bread-crumbs, onions, b.u.t.ter, and sweet marjoram. Put it in a baking pan, add a liberal quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter previously rolled in flour, put in the pan a pint of claret, and bake for an hour. Remove the fish and strain the gravy, put in a teaspoonful of brown flour and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Halibut with an egg sauce and a border of parsley is a dish for a banquet, only the cook must know how to make egg sauce. Supposing we tell her?
Put two ounces of b.u.t.ter in a stew-pan; when it melts, add one ounce of flour. Stir for one minute or more, but do not brown.
Then add by degrees two gills of boiling water, stirring until smooth, and boiling about two minutes. If not perfectly smooth, pa.s.s it through a sieve; then add another ounce of b.u.t.ter cut in pieces. When the b.u.t.ter is melted, add three hard-boiled eggs, chopped not too fine, season with pepper and salt, and serve immediately.
This sauce is admirable for cod, and for all boiled fish.
But the "perfectest thing on earth" is a broiled fish, a shad for instance; and one of the best preventives against burning is to rub olive oil on the fish before putting it on the gridiron. Charcoal affords the best fire, and it must be free from all smoke and flame.
A little sweet b.u.t.ter, half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley and the juice of a lemon should be melted together, and stand ready to be poured over the broiled fish.
Mr. Lowell, in one of his delightful, witty papers in the Atlantic Monthly years ago, regretted that he could not find a gridiron near the St. Lawrence, although its patron saint suffered martyrdom on that excellent kitchen utensil. It is a lamentable fact that wood fires and gridirons are giving out. They contain within themselves the merits of all the kitchen ranges, all the lost juices of that early American cookery, which one who has tasted it can never forget. Where are the broils of our childhood?
Codfish is a family stand-by, but a tasteless fish unless covered with oysters or something very good; but salt-codfish b.a.l.l.s are a great luxury.
Brook trout, boiled, baked, and broiled, are all inferior to the fry.
The frying-pan has to answer for a mult.i.tude of sins, but nothing so base can be found as to deprive it of its great glory in sending us a fried brook-trout. "Clean and rinse a quarter-of-a-pound trout in cold water," says one recipe.