Eel Patties.—Skin, clean, and wash an eel, cut it up into small pieces, and cover it with vinegar. Melt in a saucepan 2 oz. butter, stir into it 1 tablespoonful flour, and 2 tablespoonfuls stock or broth, well freed from fat, add the finely minced rind of ½ lemon, some chopped capers, 1 teaspoonful minced parsley, with salt and nutmeg to taste. Take the pieces of eel out of the vinegar, put them into the sauce, and let them stew until thoroughly cooked. Have some patty-pans lined with short paste, put into each 1, 2, or 3 pieces of eel, cover over with the same paste, make a small opening in the cover, brush them over with an egg, and bake in a quick oven. The sauce should be well reduced, and served separately.
Herring Salad.—Thoroughly wash 4 soft-roed bloaters, remove the bones and skin, and put the roes aside; arrange the 4 fillets of each fish neatly round a dish. Chop finely and separately the whites and yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs, also some parsley, some shallot or parboiled onion, and some pickled beetroot, keeping each separate. Lay these different things in some sort of pattern in the centre of the dish. Take the roes and mash them by means of a spoon with enough oil and vinegar, in the proportions of 2 to 1, to make a thickish sauce; add pepper to taste, and pour the same over the herring fillets, avoiding to disarrange the minced eggs, &c., in the centre.
Oysters.—(a) Open some oysters, beard them, and loosen them carefully from their shells. Sprinkle over each oyster a small proportion of anchovies, well washed, boned, and finely minced, a little pounded mace, squeeze over a few drops of lemon juice, add a small piece of butter, and lastly sprinkle a little flour or fine breadcrumbs over. Put the shells into a slow oven to bake until the contents are of a light brown colour. Serve very hot with cut lemons.
(b) Remove some oysters from their shells, and put them into a stewpan with their liquor; add 4 finely minced, boned, and skinned sardines, the juice of ½ lemon, a few chopped capers, and grated nutmeg to taste; lastly, add flour and butter in due proportions, and stew gently until cooked. Have ready some shapes lined with short paste. Put 2 or 3 oysters into each, cover over with paste, make an incision in the top, and bake in a quick oven.
(c) When they have been well cleaned put them, with some sea-water, some lemon juice, and grated nutmeg, into a saucepan. Let them just come once to the boil, remove them from the fire, and let them stand until the next day, then put them into earthenware jars, pour melted butter over them, and keep them in a cool place. When prepared in this way they can be used for patties, sauces, and also for scalloping.
(d) Soak for one night 3 or 4 herring-roes, dry them on a cloth, and cut them up in 3 or 4 pieces, about the size of an oyster. Get some scallop shells, put in each a piece of fresh butter the size of a small nut, the least bit of pounded mace, a few drops of anchovy sauce, or ¼ anchovy well washed, boned, and minced. Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice and sprinkle a little flour or breadcrumbs over; then lay a piece of roe on this, with 3 or 4 capers, and again sprinkle a little flour or breadcrumbs over, and put them into a slow oven till they begin to colour.
Parsley and Lemon Sauce.—Wash a handful of parsley and mince it up finely with the pulp and rind of a lemon; melt a pat of butter in a saucepan, mix with it 1 tablespoonful flour, add the minced parsley and lemon, sufficient broth or stock to make the sauce, a little pounded mace and a few capers; stir over the fire, and when partly cooked add, off the fire, the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up.
Pike.—(a) Soup.—Boil until quite soft 2 oz. well-washed rice in sufficient salt and water, with a small piece of butter. Take 1 lb. flesh of pike well freed from bones and skin, divide it into small pieces, and toss them in butter until cooked; mince it finely, together with 3 hard-boiled yolks of eggs, pound in a mortar, and stir them into the rice, with salt and pepper to taste; add sufficient water to make the soup, and pass the whole through a fine sieve. Let the soup come to the boil, and serve over small sippets of toast.
(b) Stewed, with Butter Sauce.—Prepare some stock. Cleanse the fish, remove the inside, cut off the fins, rub it well with salt, and pour over it a glass of vinegar. Lay the fish in the stock, and simmer gently until thoroughly cooked, strain, and serve with the following sauce: Put 3 oz. butter in a saucepan, add to it 2 spoonfuls milk and some grated nutmeg, add sufficient stock strained from the fish to make the sauce. Let the sauce boil, then add, off the fire, the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up with 1 gill cream, pour over the fish, and serve. This dish is improved by stewing the fish the previous day, then allowing it to get cold in the stock, and stewing it a second time when wanted.
Sardine Sauce.—Remove the tails, skin, and bone from 1 doz. sardines, cut them up into small pieces. Take a shallot, a small quantity of parsley, and the thin rind and pulp of ½ lemon; mince all very finely. Melt in a saucepan a pat of butter with 1 tablespoonful flour. When it has taken colour, add the above mince, with enough stock to make the sauce; let it boil, and lastly add a little grated nutmeg.