Oyster Pie.
Beard the oysters; scald and strain them from their liquor, and season the liquor with pepper, salt, and anchovy, a lump of butter, and bread crumbs. Boil up to melt the anchovies; then just heat your oysters in it; put them all together into your pie-dish, and cover them with a puff-paste.
If you put your oysters into a fresh pie, you must cover them at the top with crisped crumbs of bread; add more to the savouring if you like it.
Perch, to fricassee.
Boil the perch, and strip them of the bones; half cover them with white wine; put in two or three anchovies, a little pepper and salt, and warm it over the fire. Put in a little parsley and onions, with yolks of eggs well beaten. Toss it together; put in a little thick butter; and serve it up.
Pike, to dress.
If you would serve it as a first dish, do not scale it; take off the gills, and, having gutted it, boil it in court bouillon, as a side-dish, or entrée. It may be served in many ways. Cut it into pieces, and put it into a stewpan, with a bit of butter, a bunch of all sorts of sweet herbs, and some mushrooms; turn it a few times over the fire, and shake in a little flour; moisten it with some good broth and a pint of white wine, and set it over a brisk fire. When it is done, add a trifle of salt and cayenne pepper, the yolk of three eggs, and half a pint of cream, stirring it till well mixed. Serve up hot.
Pike stuffed, to boil.
Clean a large pike; take out the gills; prepare a stuffing with finely grated bread, all sorts of sweet-herbs, particularly thyme, some onions, grated lemon-peel, oysters chopped small, a piece of butter, the boiled yolk of two eggs, and a sufficient quantity of suet to hold the ingredients together. Put them into the fish, and sew it up. Turn the tail into the mouth, and boil it in pump water, with two spoonfuls of vinegar and a handful of salt. It will take forty minutes to boil, if a large fish.