The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 40

"TURBOTS. The finest brought to the London market are caught off the Dutch coast, or German Ocean, and are brought in well-boats alive. The commencement of the season is generally about March and April, and continues all the summer. Turbots, like other fish, do not sp.a.w.n all at the same time; therefore, there is always good and bad nearly all the year round. For this year or two past, there has been an immense quant.i.ty brought to London, from all parts, and of all qualities: a great many from a new fishery off Hartlepool, which are very handsome-looking turbot, but by no means equal to what are caught off the Dutch coast. Many excellent turbots are caught off Dover and Dungeness; and a large quant.i.ty brought from Scotland, packed in ice, which are of a very inferior quality, and are generally to be bought for about one-fourth the price of good turbots.

"_Brills_ are generally caught at the same place as turbots, and are generally of the same quality as the turbot, from the different parts."

[170-*] A large pair of soles will take the fourth part of a quartern loaf, which now costs twopence halfpenny. OATMEAL is a good subst.i.tute for bread-crumbs, and costs comparatively nothing!!

[170-+] The FAT _will do two or three times_, if strained through a hair-sieve, and put by; if you do not find it enough, put a little fresh to it. Read No. 83, and the 3d chapter of the Rudiments of Cookery.

[170-++] This requires a heat of upwards of 600 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer:--FRYING is, in fact, _boiling in fat_.

[171-*] If you are in haste, lay the sole on a clean, soft cloth, cover it with it, and gently press it upon the fish, to suck up the fat from its surface.

[171-+] The very indifferent manner in which the operation of frying fish is usually performed, we suppose, produced the following _jeu d'esprit_, which appeared in _The Morning Chronicle_:--

"The King's bench reports have cook'd up an odd dish, An action for damages, _fry_ versus _fish_.

But, sure, if for damages action could lie, It certainly must have been _fish_ against _fry_."

The author of _The Cook's Cookery_, 8vo. page 116, does not seem to think this fish can be too fresh; for he commences his directions with, "_If you can_, get a cod _hot_ out of the sea," &c.

[172-*] The skate comes to the New-York market in the spring, but is not esteemed, as we have many better fish. The part about the flap or side-fin is best. A.

[172-+] The TAIL is so much thinner than the thick part of the body, that, if boiled together, the former will be boiled too much, before the latter is done enough; therefore it should be dressed separate; and the best way of cooking it is to fry it in slices or fillets. See No. 151.

"_Cod_ generally comes into good season in October, when, if the weather is cold, it eats as fine as at any time in the year; towards the latter end of January and February, and part of March, they are mostly poor; but the latter end of March, April, and May, they are generally particularly fine; having shot their sp.a.w.n, they come in fine order.

_The Dogger-bank cod_ are the most esteemed, as they generally cut in large, fine flakes; the north-country cod, which are caught off the Orkney Isles, are generally very stringy, or what is commonly called _woolly_, and sell at a very inferior price, but are caught in much greater abundance than the Dogger cod. The cod are all caught with hook, and brought alive in well-boats to the London markets. The cod cured on the Dogger-bank is remarkably fine, and seldom cured above two or three weeks before brought to market; the _barrel cod_ is commonly cured on the coast of Scotland and Yorks.h.i.+re. There is a great deal of inferior cured salt-fish brought from Newfoundland and Iceland.

"The SKULL of a Dogger-bank cod is one of those concatenations of _t.i.t-bits_ which some epicures are fond of, either baked or boiled: it is composed of lots of pretty playthings or such finery, but will not do for those who want a good meal: it may be bought for about 2_s._: either boil it whole, or cut it into pieces, flour and dry them, and then egg and crumb, and fry them, or stew it (No. 158).

"The TAIL of a cod cut in fillets or slices, and fried, makes a good dish, and is generally to be bought at a very reasonable rate; if boiled, it is soft and watery. _The skull and tail_ of a cod is a favourite and excellent Scotch dish, stewed, and served up with anchovy or oyster sauce, with the liquor it is boiled in, in a tureen.

"_Ling_ is brought to the London market in the same manner as cod, but is very inferior to it, either fresh or salt."

[173-*] There are several species of codfish sold alive in the New-York markets: of these, the common cod is the best, and is in season from November till spring. The price varies from three to six cents the pound, as the market is well or scantily supplied. The head and shoulders of a large cod, boiled, is the best part to grace the dinner-table. It is full of rich gelatinous matter, which is savoury and easy of digestion. Cod's sounds and tongues are found on the stalls of the fishmongers in the winter season. They are rich and nouris.h.i.+ng, and may be prepared to garnish the dish, or served up separately boiled. A.

[173-+] "In the sea-port towns of the New-England states in North America, it has been a custom, time immemorial, among people of fas.h.i.+on, to dine one day in the week (Sat.u.r.day) on salt fish; and a long habit of preparing the same dish has, as might have been expected, led to very considerable improvements in the art of cooking it. I have often heard foreigners declare, that they never tasted salt fish dressed in such perfection: the secret of cooking it, is to keep it for several hours in water that is _just scalding hot_, but which is never made actually to boil."--COUNT RUMFORD'S _10th Essay_, p. 18.

[174-*] That part of a cod which is near the tail, is considered, in America, as the poorest part of the fish. A.

[174-+] Sturgeons, though sea-fish, ascend the fresh water rivers, and in the Hudson are taken 80 miles above the salt water. They were formerly called Albany beef, having been in plenty and cheap in the market of that city. They are not, however, esteemed even there; and since the running of the steamboats, and the quickness of their pa.s.sages, all the valuable fish of the sea-coast are found in that inland city. A.

[174-++] The French do not flay them, but split them, dip them in flour, and fry them in hot dripping.

[175-*] One of my culinary counsellors says, the heading of this receipt should be, "_How to dress a good dish of fish while the cloth is laying_." If the articles are ready, twelve minutes will do it, with very little trouble or expense. For richer stewed fish, see No. 164.

[176-*] Our experience goes to substantiate the same point. A.

[179-*] The perch of New-York are a small fresh-water fish, and seldom boiled, being better calculated for frying or broiling, as a relish at breakfast. A.

[180-*] SALMON. The earliest that comes in season to the London market is brought from the Severn, and begins to come into season the beginning of November, but very few so early, perhaps not above one in fifty, as many of them will not shoot their sp.a.w.n till January, or after, and then continue in season till October, when they begin to get very thin and poor. The princ.i.p.al supply of salmon is from different parts of Scotland, packed in ice, and brought by water: if the vessels have a fair wind, they will be in London in three days; but it frequently happens that they are at sea perhaps a fortnight, when the greater part of the fish is perished, and has, for a year or two past, sold as low as twopence per pound, and up to as much as eighteen pence per pound at the same time, owing to its different degrees of goodness. This accounts for the very low prices at which the itinerant fishmongers cry their "_delicate_ salmon," "_dainty fresh_ salmon," and "_live_ cod," "_new_ mackerel," &c. &c.

"Salmon gwilts, or salmon peel, are the small salmon which run from about five or six pounds to ten pounds, are very good fish, and make handsome dishes of fish, sent to table crooked in the form of an S.

"Berwick trout are a distinct fish from the gwilts, and are caught in the river Tweed, and dressed in the same manner as the gwilt.

"Calvered salmon is the salmon caught in the Thames, and cut into slices alive; and some few salmon are brought from Oxford to London alive, and cut. A few slices make a handsome, genteel dish, but it is generally very expensive; sometimes 15_s._ per pound."

[Fresh salmon comes to the New-York market from the eastern states, and mostly from Maine. It is also occasionally brought from the lakes and rivers of the northern part of New-York in winter. A.]

[181-*] Small fish and fillets of whiting, turbots, brills, &c. and slices of cod, or the head or tail of it, are excellent dressed the same way.

[181-+] The yellow eels taste muddy; the whiteness of the belly of the fish is not the only mark to know the best; the right colour of the back is a very bright coppery hue: the olive-coloured are inferior; and those tending to a green are worse.

[183-*] There are several species of mackerel in their season in the New-York market. That which arrives in the spring is most esteemed, and in greatest plenty. Spring mackerel is a migrating fish, and succeeds the shad, or commences its run along the coast of New-Jersey and Long Island, just before the shad disappears. It does not ascend the rivers, but continues its course north-eastward in immense shoals, and is taken by the fishermen with the hook and line, while sailing in smacks along the coast, from the mouth of the Delaware to Nova Scotia. These fish are kept in cars, and sold alive in the markets. They are mostly broiled, and brought to the breakfast-table. The larger ones sometimes grace the dining-table. They may be boiled, but are best when stuffed and baked in an oven. A.

[183-+] The roe of the male fish is soft, like the brains of a calf; that of the female is full of small eggs, and called hard roe.

[184-*] Mackerel of large size may be stuffed like a fowl, leaving the head on, and baked in an oven. A.

[187-*] Lobsters are in great plenty and perfection in the New-York markets. They are taken in Long Island Sound, and along the rocky sh.o.r.es of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Ma.s.sachusetts. A.

[188-*] Crabs are not esteemed as a delicacy by epicures unless they are soft, when they are fried whole. In July and August they shed their coats, and in this state may be cooked and eaten without being incommoded with their sh.e.l.ls. A.

[189-*] Oyster sauce, No. 278; preserved oysters, No. 280.

[189-+] Those are called common oysters, which are picked up on the French coast, and laid in the Colchester beds.

These are never so fine and fat as the natives, and seldom recover the shock their feelings receive from being transported from their native place: delicate little creatures, they are as exquisite in their own taste as they are to the taste of others!

[189-++] Oysters are thus called, that are born, as well as bred and fed, in this country, and are mostly spit in the Burnham and Mersey rivers: they do not come to their finest condition till they are near four years old.

[189---] WILL RABISHA, in his receipt to "broil oysters," (see his Cookery, page 144,) directs, that while they are undergoing this operation, they should be _fed_ with white wine and grated bread.

In BOYLE'S Works, 4to. 1772, vol. ii. p. 450, there is a very curious chapter on the eating of oysters.

[191-*] "Animal food being composed of the most nutritious parts of the food on which the animal lived, and having already been digested by the proper organs of an animal, requires only solution and mixture; whereas vegetable food must be converted into a substance of an animal nature, by the proper action of our own viscera, and consequently requires more labour of the stomach, and other digestive organs."--BURTON _on the Non-naturals_, page 213.

[192-*] New-York and other places on the sea-coast of the United States, afford oysters in great plenty and perfection, and the various methods of preparing them are well known. A.

BROTHS, GRAVIES, AND SOUPS.

_Beef Broth._[193-*]--(No. 185.)

Wash a leg or s.h.i.+n of beef very clean, crack the bone in two or three places (this you should desire the butcher to do for you), add thereto any tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs you have of meat, game, or poultry (_i. e._ heads, necks, gizzards, feet, &c.), and cover them with cold water; watch and stir it up well from the bottom, and the moment it begins to simmer, skim it carefully; your broth must be perfectly clear and limpid, on this depends the goodness of the soups, sauces, and gravies, of which it is the basis: then add some cold water to make the remaining sc.u.m rise, and skim it again; when the sc.u.m is done rising, and the surface of the broth is quite clear, put in one moderate-sized carrot, a head of celery, two turnips, and two onions, it should not have any taste of sweet herbs, spice, or garlic, &c.; either of these flavours can easily be added immediately after, if desired, by Nos. 420, 421, 422, &c. cover it close, set it by the side of the fire, and let it simmer very gently (so as not to waste the broth) for four or five hours, or more, according to the weight of the meat; strain it through a sieve into a clean and dry stone pan, and set it in the coldest place you have.

_Obs._ This is the foundation for all sorts of soups and sauce, brown or white.