Fish Chowder.
- 3 lbs. of cod, cut into strips an inch thick and four inches long, and freed from bone so far as is possible without breaking the fish.
- 1 pint of oysters.
- 2 large onions cut into thin slices.
- About ½ lb. Boston crackers, split, and buttered thickly.
- Pepper and salt.
- 1 cup of milk.
- Parsley.
Cover the bottom of your soup-kettle with the fish; pepper and salt; strew with sliced onion, and this with the split crackers, buttered sides down. Follow this order until your ingredients are all in the pot, and cover them with cold water. Stew gently for an hour, keeping the water at the original level by replenishing from the tea-kettle. By this time the fish should be thoroughly done, if it has cooked steadily. Take it up with a perforated skimmer, and cover in the tureen to keep hot, while you strain the chowder to get out the bones, returning the crackers with the liquor to the soup-kettle, when you have rinsed it out. Thicken with two teaspoonfuls of corn-starch wet up in a cup of milk, and when this has boiled, add the oysters, cut small, two great spoonfuls of butter, and a little chopped parsley. Stew for three minutes, pour slowly over the fish in the tureen. Send sliced lemon around with it.
This is a most palatable chowder when properly prepared. You can use fewer crackers, if you dislike a thick soup.