proper quantities ; a little ordinary pepper and a tea-
spoonful of anchovy sauce✪ Lobster Cutlets have been added, and the
mass shaped into little pats about as large as oval pic-
nic biscuits ; these have been egged over and covered
with very fine bread-crumbs, then fried in hot fat for
about a couple of minutes, and a little piece of red
claw stuck into each at the finish by way of garnish.
Now these five nice dishes are all ready, and we
presume the dishes have also been got ready to put
them in. First of all we will take flounders souchet.
Pick out the smallest flounders you can, boil them in
some water with a little salt, when tender take them
out with a slice, keeping the white side uppermost, and
place them in a vegetable-dish of boiling water, drop
into this water two or three little sprigs of clean
double parsley✪ Flounders Souchet, and serve quickly, handing round the
brown bread and butter. Eel souchet can be done in
exactly a similar manner. The cook must now have
ready two frying-pans, one filled with hot boiling fat,
and the other with fresh lard for the whitebait, to
which we shall come by and by. We shall now sup-
pose the fish for frying ready on a dish on the dresser,
and we will take eels, filleted sole, flounders, whitings,
smelts, & c. ; now these must be all treated alike, first
they must be dried, then floured, then dipped in well-
beaten-up egg, then dipped in fine dry bread-crumbs,
and then sprinkled over with fine bright golden bread-
Fish Dinners.
229
raspings, in order to insure the colour being right.
Suppose the cook has just sent up the flounders
souchet ; let the next course be fried eels, and salmon
and pickle sauce. Take the eels ready prepared and
throw them into the boiling fat ; if the fat boil, four or
five minutes is ample time, if the fat is deep enough to
cover the fish. Take a hot vegetable-dish, turn out
the salmon and sauce into it, and put on the
cover; next take a clean napkin and warm it, and fold
it up, and put it on a hot dish ; hold a dish-cover to
the fire for a minute, and cover over the napkin ; take
the eels out of the fat and put them for half a minute
on to a hot coarse cloth to drain, put them on the
clean napkin with a few pieces of green parsley round,
and send them up with the salmon. Suppose the next
course is turbot, smelts, and red mullet ; the turbot, or
rather a slice of one, is supposed to be boiling in a
saucepan ; take it out and put it on a cloth to drain ;
take first half a dozen smelts and pop them into the fat
you have just taken the eels out of ; a very short time
will cook them. Place the turbot on a fish-napkin, put
a piece of parsley on the top of it, and place the fried
smelts round the edge. The red mullet simply wants
slipping off the tin on to an ordinary dish just as it is,
and the next course is done. The lobster cutlets might
be sent up with some fried fish instead, 'as we presume
no one would think of having all this fish at one dinner.
230
Common-sense Cookery.
Page 93 · 2 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1880. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
proper quantities ; a little ordinary pepper and a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce have been added, and the mass shaped into little pats about as large as oval picnic biscuits ; these have been egged over and covered with very fine bread-crumbs, then fried in hot fat for about a couple of minutes, and a little piece of red claw stuck into each at the finish by way of garnish.
Now these five nice dishes are all ready, and we presume the dishes have also been got ready to put them in. First of all we will take flounders souchet. Pick out the smallest flounders you can, boil them in some water with a little salt, when tender take them out with a slice, keeping the white side uppermost, and place them in a vegetable-dish of boiling water, drop into this water two or three little sprigs of clean double parsley, and serve quickly, handing round the brown bread and butter. Eel souchet can be done in exactly a similar manner. The cook must now have ready two frying-pans, one filled with hot boiling fat, and the other with fresh lard for the whitebait, to which we shall come by and by. We shall now suppose the fish for frying ready on a dish on the dresser, and we will take eels, filleted sole, flounders, whitings, smelts, & c. ; now these must be all treated alike, first they must be dried, then floured, then dipped in well-beaten-up egg, then dipped in fine dry bread-crumbs, and then sprinkled over with fine bright golden bread-
Fish Dinners.
raspings, in order to insure the colour being right. Suppose the cook has just sent up the flounders souchet ; let the next course be fried eels, and salmon and pickle sauce. Take the eels ready prepared and throw them into the boiling fat ; if the fat boil, four or five minutes is ample time, if the fat is deep enough to cover the fish. Take a hot vegetable-dish, turn out the salmon and sauce into it, and put on the cover; next take a clean napkin and warm it, and fold it up, and put it on a hot dish ; hold a dish-cover to the fire for a minute, and cover over the napkin ; take the eels out of the fat and put them for half a minute on to a hot coarse cloth to drain, put them on the clean napkin with a few pieces of green parsley round, and send them up with the salmon. Suppose the next course is turbot, smelts, and red mullet ; the turbot, or rather a slice of one, is supposed to be boiling in a saucepan ; take it out and put it on a cloth to drain ; take first half a dozen smelts and pop them into the fat you have just taken the eels out of ; a very short time will cook them. Place the turbot on a fish-napkin, put a piece of parsley on the top of it, and place the fried smelts round the edge. The red mullet simply wants slipping off the tin on to an ordinary dish just as it is, and the next course is done. The lobster cutlets might be sent up with some fried fish instead, 'as we presume no one would think of having all this fish at one dinner.
Common-sense Cookery.
Records on this page
Lobster CutletsFlounders Souchet