FoodNetArchive

Scientific cooking with scientific methods

1911

Page 31 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1911. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Make a sauce with two tablespoons of butter, two of flour, one cup of white stock or milk, a teaspoon of grated onion, two cups of any kind of cold flaked fish, one tablespoon of curry powderCurry of Fish. Mix the curry pow- der with the flour. Fried Smelts. The smelt is a small, delicious fish to fry, and makes a beautiful garnish when fried in rings for a large fish to be served for a dinner party. To prepare them you open the gill on the outside, and with the thumb and finger take hold of the inner gill and can easily pull out all the part that is not fit to be served. You will find they all come away together, and the fish will retain its shape perfectly. Clean by running the w^ater on them. Wipe dry. Dip them in milk and roll them in flour, or, if they are large enough, crumb and egg them and fry in deep fat. Use care not to put too many in the frying-basket at a time. They want to be served very crisp, with Tartar or Mayonnaise sauce. The smelt, when perfectly fresh, has very much the odor of a freshlv cut cucumber. eS SCIENTIFIC COOKING. Whitebait. Whitebait is one of the small fishes which you clean carefully. Dry by rubbing them in a napkin. Roll them in flour, using care to get them thoroughly cov- ered, but shake them to get off all loose flour. Immerse them in deep fat, until they take on a nice light brown color. They are so small they only take a little while to cook. Use care not to put too many in the frying- basket at a time. Drain them on a shallow pan lined with paper, and keep them hot and crisp in the oven. Pan Fish. These include the bass, perch, porgies, butter-fish, etc., and are all prepared in the same way. Scale, wash, remove head, or not, as you like; but, if head is left on, take out the eyes. Split them in halves, or, if very small, cook whole. They want to be wiped dry and rolled in flour or corn meal, and sprinkled with salt and pepper. They can be sauted in pork fat or lard, or half beef drippings and lard mixed, but the salt-pork fat is the best, as it imparts a nice flavor to the fish, and' a few pieces of the pork rolled in the corn meal and fried crisp is nice to eat with the fish. OYSTERS AND SHELL-FISH. 69 CHAPTER IX. OYSTERS AND SHELLFISH. OYSTERS are in season from September to May. They are sold in the shell by the barrel, peck and dozen, or, after removing from the shell, by the quart. "When of medium size, there are about forty-five or fifty to the quart. The freshness of the oyster is of importance, and for this reason it is best to buy in the shell, for the reason that after the shell is removed, preservatives are used by the fish dealers. The shells are on the right and left sides of the oyster, and are called the right and left valves. The one on which the oyster rests grows faster and is deeper, and is known as the left valve. The oyster valves are joined by a very elas- tic ligament which admits of the opening and closing of the shell, and when you go to an oyster bed you will hear the opening and closing of these shells as the oyster feeds. The oyster is attached to the shell, by a tough muscle, which is sometimes removed, toge«ther with the outside of the gill, and when this is done they are said to be bearded. The body of the oyster is made up largely of liver.