Ingredients.—Egg and bread-crumbs, hot lard. Mode.—Scale and clean the fish, brush it over with egg, and cover with bread-crumbs. Have ready some boiling lard; put the fish in, and fry a nice brown. Serve with plain melted butter or anchovy sauce. Time.—10 minutes. Seasonable from September to November.
Note.—Fry tench in the same way.
PERCH, Stewed with Wine.
Ingredients.—Equal quantities of stock and sherry, 1 bay-leaf, 1 clove of garlic, a small bunch of parsley, 2 cloves, salt to taste; thickening of butter and flour, pepper, grated nutmeg, ½ teaspoonful of anchovy sauce. Mode.—Scale the fish and take out the gills, and clean them thoroughly; lay them in a stewpan with sufficient stock and sherry just to cover them. Put in the bay-leaf, garlic, parsley, cloves, and salt, and simmer till tender. When done, take out the fish, strain the liquor, add a thickening of butter and flour, the pepper, nutmeg, and the anchovy sauce, and stir it over the fire until somewhat reduced, when pour over the fish, and serve. Time.—About 20 minutes. Seasonable from September to November.
PETITES BOUCHÉES.
Ingredients.—6 oz. of sweet almonds, ¼ lb. of sifted sugar, the rind of ½ lemon, the white of 1 egg, puff-paste. Mode.—Blanch the almonds, and chop them fine; rub the sugar on the lemon-rind, and pound it in a mortar; mix this with the almonds and the white of the egg. Roll some puff-paste out; cut it in any shape that may be preferred, such as diamonds, rings, ovals, &c., and spread the above mixture over the paste. Bake the bouchées in an oven, not too hot, and serve cold. Time.—¼ hour, or rather more. Average cost, 1s. Sufficient for ½ lb. of puff-paste. Seasonable at any time.
PHEASANT.
If this bird be eaten three days after it has been killed, it then has no peculiarity of flavour; a pullet would be more relished, and a quail would surpass it in aroma. Kept, however, a proper length of time,—and this can be ascertained by a slight smell and change of colour,—then it becomes a highly-flavoured dish, occupying, so to speak, the middle distance between chicken and venison. It is difficult to define any exact time to “hang” a pheasant; but any one possessed of the instincts of gastronomical science, can at once detect the right moment when a pheasant should be taken down, in the same way as a good cook knows whether a bird should be removed from the spit, or have a turn or two more.
PHEASANT, Broiled (a Breakfast or Luncheon Dish).
Ingredients.—1 pheasant, a little lard, egg and bread-crumbs, salt and cayenne to taste. Mode.—Cut the legs off at the first joint, and the remainder of the bird into neat pieces; put them into a frying-pan with a little lard, and when browned on both sides, and about half done, take them out and drain them; brush the pieces over with egg, and sprinkle with bread-crumbs with which has been mixed a good seasoning of cayenne and salt. Broil them over a moderate fire for about 10 minutes, or rather longer, and serve with mushroom-sauce, sauce piquante, or brown gravy, in which a few game-bones and trimmings have been stewed. Time.—Altogether ½ hour. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Seasonable from the 1st of October to the beginning of February.