Take out the gills, empty and clean the fish very thoroughly, and soak it for half an hour with a cup of vinegar thrown into as much water as will cover it well, should there be any danger of its having a muddy taste.[[49]] Wipe the inside dry, and fill it with oyster-forcemeat, or with common veal forcemeat made either with butter or with suet (for which see Chapter [VIII].); curl the fish round, and fasten it with the tail in the mouth, lay it on a fish-plate, cover it well with cold water, throw in some salt as soon as it boils, skim it well, and boil the fish gently from half to a whole hour according to its size. Some persons prefer the scales taken off the pike when it is prepared for this mode of dressing; and many cooks still put the fish into boiling water well salted and skimmed. Serve it with plain melted butter, or anchovy sauce.
[49]. Soaking fish is always better avoided when it can be so; well washing the inside with strong vinegar would perhaps remove the objectionable flavour without it.
Moderate sized, 1/2 hour; large, 1 hour.
Obs.—We must repeat that it is impossible to give for fish which varies so much in quality as well as in size, directions for the exact time which is required to cook it; a few minutes, more or less, must often be allowed; and it should always be watched attentively, and lifted from the water as soon as it is done.
TO BAKE PIKE.
(Common Receipt.)
Pour warm water over the outside of the fish, and wipe it very clean with a coarse cloth drawn from the head downwards, that the scales may not be disturbed; then wash it well in cold water, empty, and cleanse the inside with the greatest nicety, fill it either with the common forcemeat No. 1, or with No. 4 of Chapter [VIII.], sew it up, fasten the tail to the mouth, give it a slight dredging of flour, stick small bits of butter thickly over it, and bake it from half to three quarters of an hour, should it be of moderate size, and upwards of an hour, if it be large. Should there not be sufficient sauce with it in the dish, melted butter and a lemon, or anchovy sauce may be sent to table with it. When more convenient the forcemeat may be omitted, and a little fine salt and cayenne, with some bits of butter, put into the inside of the fish, which will then require rather less baking. A buttered paper should always be laid over it in the oven, should the outside appear likely to become too highly coloured or too dry before the fish is done; and it is better to wrap quite small pike in buttered paper at once before they are sent to the oven.
Moderate-sized pike, 30 to 45 minutes; large pike, 1 to 1-1/4 hour.
TO BAKE PIKE.
(Superior Receipt.)