_Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons.
SOLES WITH MUSHROOMS.
328. INGREDIENTS.--1 pint of milk, 1 pint of water, 1 oz. b.u.t.ter, 1 oz.
salt, a little lemon-juice, 2 middling-sized soles.
_Mode_.--Cleanse the soles, but do not skin them, and lay them in a fish-kettle, with the milk, water, b.u.t.ter, salt, and lemon-juice. Bring them gradually to boil, and let them simmer very gently till done, which will be in about 7 minutes. Take them up, drain them well on a cloth, put them on a hot dish, and pour over them a good mushroom sauce. (_See_ Sauces.)
_Time_.--After the water boils, 7 minutes.
_Seasonable_ at any time.
_Sufficient_ for 4 persons.
SPRATS.
329. Sprats should be cooked very fresh, which can be ascertained by their bright and sparkling eyes. Wipe them dry; fasten them in rows by a skewer run through the eyes; dredge with flour, and broil them on a gridiron over a nice clear fire. The gridiron should be rubbed with suet. Serve very hot.
_Time_,--3 or 4 minutes. _Average cost_, 1d. per lb.
_Seasonable_ from November to March.
TO CHOOSE SPRATS.--Choose these from their silvery appearance, as the brighter they are, so are they the fresher.
SPRATS FRIED IN BATTER.
330. INGREDIENTS.--2 eggs, flour, bread crumbs; seasoning of salt and pepper to taste.
_Mode_.--Wipe the sprats, and dip them in a batter made of the above ingredients. Fry of a nice brown, serve very hot, and garnish with fried parsley.
Sprats may be baked like herrings. (_See_ No. 268.)
DRIED SPRATS.
331. Dried sprats should be put into a basin, and boiling water poured over them; they may then be skinned and served, and this will be found a much better way than boiling them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SPRAT.]
THE SPRAT.--This migratory fish, is rarely found longer than four or five inches, and visits the sh.o.r.es of Britain after the herring and other kinds of fish have taken their departure from them. On the coasts of Suffolk, Ess.e.x, and Kent, they are very abundant, and from 400 to 500 boats are employed in catching them during the winter season. Besides plentifully supplying the London market, they are frequently sold at sixpence a bushel to farmers for manuring purposes. They enter the Thames about the beginning of November, and leave it in March. At Yarmouth and Gravesend they are cured like red herrings.
BAKED STURGEON.
332. INGREDIENTS.--1 small sturgeon, salt and pepper to taste, 1 small bunch of herbs, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 lb. of b.u.t.ter, 1 pint of white wine.
_Mode_,--Cleanse the fish thoroughly, skin it, and split it along the belly without separating it; have ready a large baking-dish, in which lay the fish, sprinkle over the seasoning and herbs very finely minced, and moisten it with the lemon-juice and wine. Place the b.u.t.ter in small pieces over the whole of the fish, put it in the oven, and baste frequently; brown it nicely, and serve with its own gravy.
_Time_.--Nearly 1 hour. _Average cost_, 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb.
_Seasonable_ from August to March.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STURGEON.]
THE STURGEON.--This fish commences the sixth of Linnaean order, and all the species are large, seldom measuring, when full-grown, less than three or four feet in length. Its flesh is reckoned extremely delicious, and, in the time of the emperor Severus, was so highly valued by the ancients, that it was brought to table by servants crowned with coronets, and preceded by a band of music. It is an inhabitant of the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Caspian, and the Black Sea, and of the Danube, the Volga, the Don, and other large rivers. It is abundant in the rivers of North America, and is occasionally taken in the Thames, as well as in the Eske and the Eden. It is one of those fishes considered as royal property. It is from its _roe_ that _caviare_, a favourite food of the Russians, is prepared. Its flesh is delicate, firm, and white, but is rare in the London market, where it sells for 1s. or 1s. 6d. per lb.
THE STERLET is a smaller species of sturgeon, found in the Caspian Sea and some Russian rivers. It also is greatly prized on account of the delicacy of its flesh.
ROAST STURGEON.
333. INGREDIENTS.--Veal stuffing, b.u.t.tered paper, the tail-end of a sturgeon.
_Mode_.--Cleanse the fish, bone and skin it; make a nice veal stuffing (see Forcemeats), and fill it with the part where the bones came from; roll it in b.u.t.tered paper, bind it up firmly with tape, like a fillet of veal, and roast it in a Dutch oven before a clear fire. Serve with good brown gravy, or plain melted b.u.t.ter.
_Time_.--About 1 hour. _Average cost_, 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb.
_Seasonable_ from August to March.
_Note_.--Sturgeon may be plain-boiled, and served with Dutch sauce. The fish is very firm, and requires long boiling.
ESTIMATE OF THE STURGEON BY THE ANCIENTS.--By the ancients, the flesh of this fish was compared to the ambrosia of the immortals. The poet Martial pa.s.ses a high eulogium upon it, and a.s.signs it a place on the luxurious tables of the Palatine Mount. If we may credit a modern traveller in China, the people of that country generally entirely abstain from it, and the sovereign of the Celestial Empire confines it to his own kitchen, or dispenses it to only a few of his greatest favourites.
MATELOT OF TENCH.
334. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 pint of stock No. 105, 1/2 pint of port wine, 1 dozen b.u.t.ton onions, a few mushrooms, a f.a.ggot of herbs, 2 blades of mace, 1 oz. of b.u.t.ter, 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley, thyme, 1 shalot, 2 anchovies, 1 teacupful of stock No. 105, flour, 1 dozen oysters, the juice of 1/2 lemon; the number of tench, according to size.
_Mode_.--Scale and clean the tench, cut them into pieces, and lay them in a stewpan; add the stock, wine, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and mace, and simmer gently for 1/2 hour. Put into another stewpan all the remaining ingredients but the oysters and lemon-juice, and boil slowly for 10 minutes, when add the strained liquor from the tench, and keep stirring it over the fire until somewhat reduced. Rub it through a sieve, pour it over the tench with the oysters, which must be previously scalded in their own liquor, squeeze in the lemon-juice, and serve.
Garnish with croutons.
_Time_. 3/4 hour.
_Seasonable_ from October to June.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TENCH.]
THE TENCH.--This fish is generally found in foul and weedy waters, and in such places as are well supplied with rushes.
They thrive best in standing waters, and are more numerous in pools and ponds than in rivers. Those taken in the latter, however, are preferable for the table. It does not often exceed four or five pounds in weight, and is in England esteemed as a delicious and wholesome food. As, however, they are sometimes found in waters where the mud is excessively fetid, their flavour, if cooked immediately on being caught, is often very unpleasant; but if they are transferred into clear water, they soon recover from the obnoxious taint.
TENCH STEWED WITH WINE.
335. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 pint of stock No. 105, 1/2 pint of Madeira or sherry, salt and pepper to taste, 1 bay-leaf, thickening of b.u.t.ter and flour.
_Mode_.--Clean and crimp the tench; carefully lay it in a stewpan with the stock, wine, salt and pepper, and bay-leaf; let it stew gently for 1/2 hour; then take it out, put it on a dish, and keep hot. Strain the liquor, and thicken it with b.u.t.ter and flour kneaded together, and stew for 5 minutes. If not perfectly smooth, squeeze it through a tammy, add a very little cayenne, and pour over the fish. Garnish with b.a.l.l.s of veal forcemeat.
_Time_.--Rather more than 1/2 hour.