ROAST STURGEON.
333. INGREDIENTS.—Veal stuffing, buttered paper, the tail-end of a sturgeon.
Mode.—Cleanse the fish, bone and skin it; make a nice veal stuffing (see Forcemeats), and fill it with the part where the bones came from; roll it in buttered paper, bind it up firmly with tape, like a fillet of veal, and roast it in a Dutch oven before a clear fire. Serve with good brown gravy, or plain melted butter.
Time.—About 1 hour. Average cost, 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb.
Seasonable from August to March.
Note.—Sturgeon may be plain-boiled, and served with Dutch sauce. The fish is very firm, and requires long boiling.
ESTIMATE OF THE STURGEON BY THE ANCIENTS.—By the ancients, the flesh of this fish was compared to the ambrosia of the immortals. The poet Martial passes a high eulogium upon it, and assigns it a place on the luxurious tables of the Palatine Mount. If we may credit a modern traveller in China, the people of that country generally entirely abstain from it, and the sovereign of the Celestial Empire confines it to his own kitchen, or dispenses it to only a few of his greatest favourites.
MATELOT OF TENCH.
334. INGREDIENTS.—1/2 pint of stock No. 105, 1/2 pint of port wine, 1 dozen button onions, a few mushrooms, a faggot of herbs, 2 blades of mace, 1 oz. of butter, 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley, thyme, 1 shalot, 2 anchovies, 1 teacupful of stock No. 105, flour, 1 dozen oysters, the juice of 1/2 lemon; the number of tench, according to size.
Mode.—Scale and clean the tench, cut them into pieces, and lay them in a stewpan; add the stock, wine, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and mace, and simmer gently for 1/2 hour. Put into another stewpan all the remaining ingredients but the oysters and lemon-juice, and boil slowly for 10 minutes, when add the strained liquor from the tench, and keep stirring it over the fire until somewhat reduced. Rub it through a sieve, pour it over the tench with the oysters, which must be previously scalded in their own liquor, squeeze in the lemon-juice, and serve. Garnish with croutons.