Put it into hot water, and boil gently for five minutes or longer if the fish is very thick. Take it out of water and put it on to a hot dish, rub a small piece of cold butter over it and cook for a few minutes either in the oven or in front of the fire. One or two soft boiled eggs broken over it is a nice way of serving it, or a few very thin slices of bacon well cooked may be placed round the dish as a garnish.
This is an essentially Flemish soup. One uses carp, eels, tench, roach, perches, barbel, for the real waterzoei is always made of different kinds of fish. Take two pounds of fish, cut off the heads and tails, which you will fry lightly in butter, adding to make the sauce a mixed carrot and onion, three cloves, a pinch of white pepper, a sprig of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf; pour in two-thirds of water and one-third of white wine till it more than covers the ingredients and let it simmer for half- an-hour. Then the pieces of fish must be cut an equal size, and they are placed to cook quickly in this liquor for twenty minutes. Five minutes before serving add a lemon peeled and cut into slices and the pips removed. Some people bind the sauce with breadcrumbs grated and browned. You serve, with this dish, very thin slices of bread and butter. For English tastes, the heads and tails should be removed when dressing the dish.
Take a middling turbot-head, pretty well cut off, wash it clean, take out the gills, season it pretty well with mace, pepper and salt, so put it into a deep dish with half a pound of butter, cover it with a light puff-paste, but lay none in the bottom; when it is baked take out the liquor and the butter that it was baked in, put it into a sauce-pan with a lump of fresh butter and flour to thicken it, with an anchovy and a glass of white wine, so pour it into your pie again over the fish; you may lie round half a dozen yolks of eggs at an equal distance; when you have cut off the lid, lie it in sippets round your disk, and serve it up.
Having buttered the inside of a deep pie plate, line it with puff paste, or common pie crust, and prepare another sheet of paste for the lid; put a clean towel into the dish (folded so as to support the lid), set it into the oven and bake the paste well; when done, remove the lid and take out the towel. While the paste is baking, prepare the oysters. Having picked off carefully every bit of shell that may be found about them, drain the liquor into a pan and put the oysters into a stewpan with barely enough of the liquor to keep them from burning; season them with pepper, salt and butter; add a little sweet cream or milk, and one or two crackers rolled fine; let the oysters simmer, but not boil, as that will shrivel them. Remove the upper crust of pastry and fill the dish with the oysters and gravy. Replace the cover and serve hot. Some prefer baking the upper crust on a pie plate, the same size as the pie, then slipping it off on top of the pie after the same pie is filled with the oysters.
Boil a calf's head (after having cleaned it) until tender, then split it in two, and keep the best half (bone it if you like); cut the meat from the other in uniform pieces, the size of an oyster; put bits of butter, the size of a nutmeg, all over the best half of the head; sprinkle pepper over it, and dredge on flour until it looks white, then set it on a trivet or muffin rings in a dripping-pan; put a cup of water into the pan, and set it in a hot oven; turn it that it may brown evenly; baste once or twice. Whilst this is doing, dip the prepared pieces of the head in wheat flour or batter, and fry in hot lard or beef drippings a delicate brown; season with pepper and salt and slices of lemon, if liked. When the roast is done put it on a hot dish, lay the fried pieces around it, and cover it with a tin cover; put the gravy from the dripping-pan into the pan in which the pieces were fried, with the slices of lemon, and a tablespoonful of browned flour, and, if necessary, a little hot water. Let it boil up once, and strain it into a gravy boat, and serve with the meat.
Having boiled the crabs, extract all the meat from the shell, cut it fine, and season it to your taste with nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper. Add a bit of butter, some grated bread crumbs, and sufficient vinegar to moisten it. Fill the back-shells of the crab with the mixture; set it before the fire, and brown it by holding a red-hot shovel or a salamander a little above it. Cover a large dish, with small slices of dry toast with the crust cut off. Lay on each slice a shell filled with the crab. The shell of one crab will contain the meat of two.
Take a pound or more of salt pork, and having half boiled it, cut it into slips, and with some of them cover the bottom of a pot. Then strew on some sliced onion. Have ready a large fresh cod, or an equal quantity of haddock, tutaug, or any other firm fish. Cut the fish into large pieces, and lay part of it on the pork and onions. Season it with pepper. Then cover it with a layer of biscuit, or crackers that have been previously soaked in milk or water. You may add also a layer of sliced potatoes. Next proceed with a second layer of pork, onions, fish, &c. and continue as before till the pot is nearly full; finishing with soaked crackers. Pour in about a pint and a half of cold water. Cover it close, set it on hot coals, and let it simmer about an hour. Then skim it, and turn it out into a deep dish. Leave the gravy in the pot till you have thickened it with a piece of butter rolled in flour, and some chopped parsley. Then give it one boil up, and pour it hot into the dish. Chowder may be made of clams, first cutting off the hard part.
Mackerel cannot be eaten in perfection except at the sea-side, where it can be had immediately out of the water. It loses its flavour in a very few hours, and spoils sooner than any other fish. Broiling is the best way of cooking it. Clean two fine fresh mackerel, and wipe them dry with a cloth. Split them open and rub them with salt. Spread some very bright coals on the hearth, and set the gridiron over them well greased. Lay on the mackerel, and broil them very nicely, taking care not to let them burn. When one side is quite done, turn them on the other. Lay them, on a hot dish, and butter and pepper them before they go to table. Garnish them with lumps or pats of minced paisley mixed with butter, pepper and salt.
Fillet the mullet and cut into small pieces; dip in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Cover with French frying batter, the recipe for which is given elsewhere. Plunge into plenty of hot fat and fry until a good colour; drain for a few minutes on kitchen paper. Pile high on a dish, garnish with parsley, and serve hot.
You can buy very nice, fresh crab meat in tins, and the shells also. A very delicious dish is made by mixing a cup of rich cream sauce with the crab meat, seasoning it well with salt and pepper and putting in the crab-shells; cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven. This is a nice thing to have for a company luncheon.
