Potato Soup.—Boil and mash potatoes; about three pints when mashed, to three quarts of rich beef stock; ready boiling; add pepper and salt to taste; stir gradually into the boiling stock, then pass all through a sieve and return to the soup-kettle; simmer five minutes, and serve with fried bread; or, if liked, a half-pint of peas boiled soft, one onion, one head of celery, two spoonfuls of rice, may be put to the stock, well boiled, and the potatoes added when all are done; then pass through the sieve, return to soup-kettle, simmer five minutes, and serve.
FISH.
To boil Fresh Fish.—Clean, wash thoroughly, wipe dry, and then sew up in a cloth, kept solely for fish, and plunge at once into boiling water that has been first salted sufficiently. Sew the cloth up on the back of the fish. Take it out when done, cut the threads down the back of the fish, and cut the skin of the fish so that in taking off the cloth, the skin will come off with it, leaving the fish white and whole. Be careful not to break it, as it should come to the table in good condition. Eat with egg sauce or plain drawn butter. A fat shad is very nice boiled; but most people prefer cod, rock-fish, or bass.
Baked Salmon Trout, with Cream Gravy.—Wash and clean the fish carefully, wipe dry and lay in the bake-pan, with only enough water to keep from scorching. If very large, score the backbone a little, but do not cut the sides. Bake slowly, basting with butter and water, from three quarters of an hour to an hour, according to the size. Have ready a cup of rich cream, into which stir three or four table-spoonfuls of boiling water, else the cream will clot when heated. Into this stir gently two table-spoonfuls of melted butter and a little chopped parsley. Put this into a milk-boiler or farina-kettle, or any vessel that you can set into another, half filled with boiling water, to prevent the sauce from burning. Add to the cream and butter the gravy from the dripping-pan in which the fish was baked. Lay the trout on a hot platter and let the gravy boil up once, and then pour over the fish. Garnish with sprigs of parsley, arranged neatly. Use no spiced sauces and very little salt. Serve hot.
To fully appreciate the excellence of this fish with the cream sauce or gravy, one should be able to eat it a very short time after it is taken from the water, but the cream sauce is a great improvement to most baked fish.
Boiled Salmon Trout.—Wash and dry the fish after cleaning it nicely. Wrap in a clean fish-cloth, lay it in a fish-kettle, cover with cold, salted water, and boil slowly from half to three quarters of an hour, according to the size of the fish. When done, take off the cloth gently, so as not to break the trout; lay in a hot fish-platter and pour around it cream gravy like that used for baked salmon trout, and serve hot.
All fish, boiled or baked, are improved by cream gravy. If you cannot obtain cream, use rich milk, and thicken it a little.
Fried Halibut.—Have the slices seasoned some hours before frying, as it will be less liable to break in turning; when ready to fry, dip it in egg beaten up, and roll it in bread crumbs; then fry in hot lard, or have three or four slices of sweet salt pork fried till quite brown and crisp, and then fry the halibut in the hot lard which came from the pork. Dish it and lay the crisp brown pork around it.
Fish Chowder.—Haddock and striped bass are generally considered the best fish for chowder. Cut the fish in pieces about one inch thick and two inches square. Cut five or six good slices of the best salt pork, lay them in the bottom of an iron pot and fry till crisped, but do not scorch; take out the pork, leaving the fat; chop the pork in small pieces; put into the pot a layer of fish, a layer of split crackers and some of the chopped pork; a little red and black pepper; a little chopped onion; then another layer of fish, split crackers, and seasoning, and so on till all the fish is used. Then just cover all with water, and stew slowly till tender. Thicken the gravy with cracker crumbs and catsup if you like. Take out the fish, boil up the gravy once, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and pour the gravy over the fish. Add salt if necessary.
To prepare and dress Cold Fish.—Cut cold boiled fish into pieces about an inch long. Do not chop it. Take the yelks of four eggs, hard boiled, and rub them to a smooth paste with a few spoonfuls of salad-oil or melted butter. Add a little salt, pepper, and mustard,—the exact amount must be decided by your own taste and knowledge of how highly seasoned your family like their food. Add two teaspoonfuls of white sugar; rub all in with the paste, and the last thing after getting the paste perfectly smooth put in six table-spoonfuls of vinegar. Beat the mixture till very light, and just before pouring it over the fish beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth and stir in with it. Stir half the dressing into the picked-up fish. Serve in a glass dish, and spread the other half of the dressing over the top. Garnish with delicate leaves of lettuce, to be eaten with it.