The accomplisht cook Part 65

_To marinate Conger._

Scald and draw it, cut it into pieces, and fry it in the best sallet oyl you can get; being fried put it in a little barrel that will contain it; then have some fryed bay-leaves, large mace, slic't ginger, and a few whole cloves, lay these between the fish, put to it white-wine, vinegar, and salt, close up the head, and keep it for your use.

_To souce Conger._

Take a good fat conger, draw it at two several, vents or holes, being first scalded and the fins shaved off, cut it into three or four pieces, then have a pan of fair water, and make it boil, put in the fish, with a good quant.i.ty of salt, and let it boil very softly half an hour: being tender boil'd, set it by for your use for present spending; but to keep it long, boil it with as much wine as water, and a quart of white-wine vinegar.

_To souce Conger in Collars like Brawn._

Take the fore part of a conger from the gills, splat it, and take out the bone, being first flayed and scalded, then have a good large eel or two, flay'd also and boned, seasoned in the inside with minced nutmeg, mace, and salt, seasoned and cold with the eel in the inside, bind it up hard in a clean cloth, boil it in fair water, white-wine and salt.

_To roast Conger._

Take a good fat conger, draw it, wash it, and sc.r.a.pe off the slime, cut off the fins, and spit it like an S. draw it with rosemary and time, put some beaten nutmeg in his belly, salt, some stripped time, and some great oysters parboil'd, roast it with the skin on, and save the gravy for the sauce, boil'd up with a little claret-wine, beaten b.u.t.ter, wine vinegar, and an anchove or two, the fat blown off, and beat up thick with some sweet b.u.t.ter, two or three slices of an orange, and elder vinegar.

Or roast it in short pieces, and spit it with bay-leaves between, stuck with rosemary. Or make venison sauce, and instead of roasting it on a spit, roast it in an oven.

_To broil Conger._

Take a good fat conger being scalded and cut into pieces; salt them, and broil them raw; or you may broil them being first boiled and basted with b.u.t.ter, or steeped in oyl and vinegar, broil them raw, and serve them with the same sauce you steeped them in, bast them with rosemary, time, and parsley, and serve them with the sprigs of those herbs about them, either in beaten b.u.t.ter, vinegar, or oyl and vinegar, and the foresaid herbs: or broil the pieces splatted like a spitch-c.o.c.k of an eel, with the skin on it.

_To fry Conger._

Being scalded, and the fins shaved off, splat it, cut it into rouls round the conger, flour it, and fry it in clarified b.u.t.ter crisp, sauce it with b.u.t.ter beaten with vinegar, juyce of orange or lemon, and serve it with fryed parsley, fryed ellicksanders, or clary in b.u.t.ter.

_To bake Conger in Pasty proportion._

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_In Pye Proportion._

Bake it any way of the sturgeon, as you may see in the next Section, to be eaten either hot or cold, and make your pies according to these forms.

_To stew a Lump._

Take it either flayed (or not) and boil it, being splated in a dish with some white-wine, a large mace or two, salt, and a whole onion, stew them well together, and dish them on fine sippets, run it over with some beaten b.u.t.ter, beat up with two or three slices of an orange, and some of the gravy of the fish, run it over the lump, and garnish the meat with slic't lemon, grapes, barberries, or gooseberries.

_To bake a Lump._

Take a lump, and cut it into pieces, skin and all, or flay it, and part it in two pieces of a side, season it with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and lay it in the pye, lay on it a bay-leaf or two, three or four blades of large mace, the slices of an orange, gooseberries, grapes, barberries, and b.u.t.ter, close it up and bake it, being baked liquor it with beaten b.u.t.ter.

Thus you make bake it in a dish, pye, or patty-pan.

_To boil Soals._

Draw and flay them, then boil them in vinegar, salt, white-wine and mace, but let the liquor boil before you put them in; being finely boil'd, take them up and dish them in a clean dish on fine carved sippets, garnish the fish with large mace, slic't lemon, gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, and beat up some b.u.t.ter thick with juyce of oranges, white-wine, or grape verjuyce and run it over the fish. Sometimes you may put some stew'd oysters on them.

_Otherways._

Take the soals, flay and draw them, and scotch one side with your knife, lay them in a dish, & pour on them some vinegar and salt, let them lie in it half an hour, in the mean time set on the fire some water, white-wine, six cloves of garlick, and a f.a.ggot of sweet herbs; then put the fish into the boiling liquor, and the vinegar and salt where they were in steep; being boiled, take them up and drain them very well, then beat up sweet b.u.t.ter very thick, and mix with it some anchoves minced small, and dissolved in the b.u.t.ter, pour it on the fish being dished, and strow on a little grated nutmeg, and minced orange mixt in the b.u.t.ter.

_To stew Soals._

Being flayed and scotched, draw them and half fry them, then take some claret wine, and put to it some salt, grated ginger, and a little garlick, boil this sauce in a dish, when it boils put the soals therein, and when they are sufficiently stewed upon their backs, lay the two halves open on the one side and on the other; then lay anchoves finely washed and boned all along, and on the anchoves slices of b.u.t.ter, then turn the two sides over again, and let them stew till they be ready to be eaten, then take them out of the sauce, and lay them on a clean dish, pour some of the liquor wherein they were stewed upon them, and squeeze on an orange.

_Otherways._

Draw, flay, and scotch them, then flour them and half fry them in clarified b.u.t.ter, put them in a clean pewter dish, and put to them three or four spoonfuls of claret wine, two of wine vinegar, two ounces of sweet b.u.t.ter, two or three slices of an orange, a little grated nutmeg, and a little salt; stew them together close covered, and being well stewed dish them up in a clean dish, lay some sliced lemon on them, and some beaten b.u.t.ter, with juyce of oranges.

_To dress Soals otherways._

Take a pair of Soals, lard them with water'd salt Salmon, then lay them on a pye-plate, and cut your lard all of an equall length, on each side lear it but short; then flour the Soals, and fry them in the best ale you can get; when they are fryed lay them on a warm dish, and put to them anchove sauce made of some of the gravy in the pan, and two or three anchoves, grated nutmeg, a little oyl or b.u.t.ter, and an onion sliced small, give it a warm, and pour it on them with some juyce, and two or three slices of orange.

_To souce Soals._

Take them very new, and scotch them on the upper or white side very thick, not too deep, then have white-wine, wine vinegar, cloves, mace, sliced ginger, and salt, set it over the fire to boil in a kettle fit for it; then take parsley, tyme, sage, rosemary, sweet marjoram, and winter savory, the tops of all these herbs picked, in little branches, and some great onions sliced, when it boils put in all the foresaid materials with no more liquor than will just cover them, cover them close in boiling, and boil them very quick, being cold dish them in a fair dish, and serve them with sliced lemon, and lemon-peels about them and on them.

_Otherways._

Draw them and wash them clean, then have a pint of fair water with as much white-wine, some wine vinegar & salt; when the pan or kettle boils, put in the soals with a clove or two, slic't ginger, and some large mace; being boil'd and cold, serve them with the spices, some of the gravy they were boil'd in, slic't lemon, and lemon-peel.

_To jelly Soals._

Take three tenches, 2 carps, and four pearches, scale them and wash out the blood clean, then take out all the fat, and to every pound of fish take a pint of fair spring-water or more, set the fish a boiling in a clean pipkin or pot, and when it boils sc.u.m it, and put in some ising-gla.s.s, boil it till one fourth part be wasted, then take it off and strain it through a strong canvas cloth, set it to cool, and being cold, divide it into three or four several pipkins, as much in the one as in the other, take off the bottom and the top, and to every quart of broth put a quart of white-wine, a pound and a half of refined sugar, two nutmegs, 2 races of ginger, 2 pieces of whole cinamon, a grain of musk, and 8 whites of eggs, stir them together with a rowling-pin, and equally divide it into the several pipkins amongst the jellies, set them a stewing upon a soft charcoal fire, when it boils up, run it through the jelly-bags, and pour it upon the soals.

_To roast Soals._

Draw them, flay off the black skin, and dry them with a clean cloth, season them lightly with nutmeg, salt, and some sweet herbs chopped small, put them in a dish with some claret-wine and two or three anchoves the s.p.a.ce of half an hour, being first larded with small lard of a good fresh eel, then spit them, roast them and set the wine under them, baste them with b.u.t.ter, and being roasted, dish them round the dish; then boil up the gravy under them with three or four slices of an orange, pour on the sauce, and lay on some slices of lemon.

Marinate, broil, fry and bake Soals according as you do Carps, as you may see in the thirteenth Section.