Ingredients.—¼ lb. of salt to each gallon of water; a little vinegar. Mode.—Scale and clean the pike, and fasten the tail in its mouth by means of a skewer. Lay it in cold water, and when it boils, throw in the salt and vinegar. The time for boiling depends, of course, on the size of the fish; but a middling-sized pike will take about ½ an hour. Serve with Dutch or anchovy sauce, and plain melted butter. Time.—According to size, ½ to 1 hour. Average cost.—Seldom bought. Seasonable from September to March.
PILLAU FOWL, based on M. Soyer’s Recipe (an Indian Dish).
Ingredients.—1 lb. of rice, 2 oz. of butter, a fowl, 2 quarts of stock or good broth, 40 cardamum-seeds, ½ oz. of coriander-seed, ¼ oz. of cloves, ¼ oz. of allspice, ¼ oz. of mace, ¼ oz. of cinnamon, ½ oz. of peppercorns, 4 onions, 6 thin slices of bacon, 2 hard-boiled eggs. Mode.—Well wash 1 lb. of the best Patna rice, put it into a frying-pan with the butter, which keep moving over a slow fire until the rice is lightly browned. Truss the fowl as for boiling, put it into a stewpan with the stock or broth; pound the spices and seeds thoroughly in a mortar, tie them in a piece of muslin, and put them in with the fowl. Let it boil slowly until it is nearly done; then add the rice, which should stew until quite tender and almost dry; cut the onions into slices, sprinkle them with flour, and fry, without breaking them, of a nice brown colour. Have ready the slices of bacon curled and grilled, and the eggs boiled hard. Lay the fowl in the form of a pyramid upon a dish, smother with the rice, garnish with the bacon, fried onions, and the hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters, and serve very hot. Before taking the rice out, remove the spices. Time.—½ hour to stew the fowl without the rice; ½ hour with it. Average cost, 4s. 3d. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. Seasonable at any time.
PINEAPPLE CHIPS.
Ingredients.—Pineapples; sugar to taste. Mode.—Pare and slice the fruit thinly, put it on dishes, and strew over it plenty of pounded sugar. Keep it in a hot closet, or very slow oven, 8 or 10 days, and turn the fruit every day until dry; then put the pieces of pine on tins, and place them in a quick oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool, and store them away in dry boxes, with paper between each layer. Time.—8 to 10 days. Seasonable.—Foreign pines, in July and August.
PINEAPPLE FRITTERS (an elegant dish).
Ingredients.—A small pineapple, a small wineglassful of brandy or liqueur, 2 oz. of sifted sugar; batter as for [apple fritters], which see. Mode.—This elegant dish, although it may appear extravagant, is really not so if made when pineapples are plentiful. We receive them now in such large quantities from the West Indies, that at times they may be purchased at an exceedingly low rate; it would not, of course, be economical to use the pines which are grown in our English pineries for the purposes of fritters. Pare the pine with as little waste as possible, cut it into rather thin slices, and soak these slices in the above proportion of brandy or liqueur and pounded sugar for 4 hours; then make a batter the same as for apple fritters, substituting cream for the milk, and using a smaller quantity of flour; when this is ready, dip in the pieces of pine, and fry them in boiling lard from 5 to 8 minutes; turn them when sufficiently brown on one side, and, when done, drain them from the lard before the fire, dish them on a white d’oyley, strew over them sifted sugar, and serve quickly. Time.—5 to 8 minutes. Average cost, when cheap and plentiful, 1s. 6d. for the pine. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. Seasonable in July and August.
PINEAPPLE, Preserved.
Ingredients.—To every lb. of fruit, weighed after being pared, allow 1 lb. of loaf sugar; ¼ pint of water. Mode.—The pines for making this preserve should be perfectly sound but ripe. Cut them into rather thick slices, as the fruit shrinks very much in the boiling. Pare off the rind carefully, that none of the pine be wasted; and, in doing so, notch it in and out, as the edge cannot be smoothly cut without great waste. Dissolve a portion of the sugar in a preserving-pan with ¼ pint of water; when this is melted, gradually add the remainder of the sugar, and boil it until it forms a clear syrup, skimming well. As soon as this is the case, put in the pieces of pine, and boil well for at least ½ hour, or until it looks nearly transparent. Put it into pots, cover down when cold, and store away in a dry place. Time.—½ hour to boil the fruit. Average cost, 10d. to 1s. per lb. pot. Seasonable.—Foreign pines, in July and August.