Cod-fish cuttings, Dutch plaice, skate, dabs, haddocks, cod's-heads, cod's-tails, or any fresh-water fish you may happen to catch when fishing, conger eels cut in slices, and almost any kind of fish which may come within reach of your means, are all more or less fit for making a good mess of soup for a meal. First, chop fine some onions, and put them into a pot with enough water to furnish about half a pint for each person to be provided for, and set this on the fire to boil for ten minutes; then add your pieces of fish, of about four ounces each; season with thyme, pepper, and salt, and boil the soup for about fifteen minutes longer, when it will be ready for dinner. Some well-boiled potatoes will prove a welcome addition to this soup.
Note.—This kind of fish soup will prove the more advantageous near the sea-coast, where inferior kinds of fish are always very cheap.
[No. 119. Soused Mackerel.]
When mackerel are to be bought at six for a shilling, this kind of fish forms a cheap dinner. On such occasions, the mackerel must be placed heads and tails in an earthen dish or pan, seasoned with chopped onions, black pepper, a pinch of allspice, and salt; add sufficient vinegar and water in equal proportions to cover the fish. Bake in your own oven, if you possess one, or send them to the baker's.
Note.—Herrings, sprats, or any other cheap fish, are soused in the same manner.
[No. 120. A Dinner of Red Herrings.]
The cheaper sort of red herrings are always too salty, and unpleasantly strong-flavoured, and are therefore an indifferent kind of food, unless due precaution is taken to soak them in water for an hour before they are cooked. First, soak the red herrings in water for an hour; wipe, and split them down the back; toast or broil them on both sides for two or three minutes, and having placed them on a dish, put a bit of butter and some chopped onion upon each herring; pour a little vinegar over all, and this will make a cheap and savoury dish to be eaten with well-boiled potatoes.
[No. 121. To Fry Fish.]
For this purpose you must have some kind of fat. Either lard, butter, or dripping fat, would be excellent; but they must be bought, and cost a little money. True; but then, if you can afford yourselves a bit of meat occasionally, by dint of good thrift you should save the fat from the boiled meat, or the dripping from your baked meats, and thus furnish yourselves with fat for frying your fish twice a-week; and let me tell you that by introducing fish as an occasional part of your daily food, your health, as well as your pockets, would feel the benefit of such a system of economy. Suppose, then, that you have bought some cheap kind of fish, such as herrings, large flounders, plaice, small soles, or any other small or flat fish. First of all, let the fish be washed and wiped dry, and rubbed all over with a little flour. Next, put about two ounces of fat, free from water, in a frying-pan on the fire, and, as soon as it is hot, put the fish in to fry, one or two at a time, according to their size, as, unless they have room enough in the frying-pan they do not fry well; this must be carefully attended to, and when the fish is a little browned on one side, turn it over with a tin fish-slice, that it may be fried on the other side also; and, as soon as done, place the fried fish on a dish and then fry the others. When all your fish are fried, with what fat remains in the pan fry some onions, and place them round the fish, and, by way of adding an extra relish to your meal, just throw a few table-spoonfuls of vinegar, some pepper and salt, into the frying-pan, give it a boil up, and pour this round the fish.