Camp cookery (Kephart)

Fish, Boiled. — None but fish of good size should be boiled. If the fish is started in cold water and not allowed to boil hard, it will be less likely to fall apart, but the flavor will not be so good. It is better to wrap the fish in a clean cloth and drop it into boiling water well salted. A tablespoonful of vinegar, or the juice of a lemon, improves the dish. Leave the head on, but remove the fins. Boil very gently until the flesh will easily part from the bones. Time depends on species; from eight to ten minutes per pound for thick fish, and five minutes for small ones. Boiled fish require considerable seasoning and a rich sauce, or at least melted butter, to accompany them. Besides vinegar or lemon, onions, carrots, cloves, etc., may be used in the water. Recipes for sauces follow. (See also pages 63 and 80.) Butter Sauce. — 2 heaped tablespoonfuls butter. 1 heaped tablespoonful flour. 1 teaspoon ful salt. % teaspoonful pepper. Put the butter in a cold pan, and rub into it the flour, salt, and pepper, beating well. Then pour on a scant half-pint boiling water. Cook two minutes. Use immediately. White Sauce. — 2 tablespoonfuls butter. 2 heaped tablespoonfuls flour. 1 pint milk. 14 teaspoon ful salt. Ys teaspoonful pepper. Cook butter until it bubbles. Add flour, and cook thoroughly. Remove from direct heat of fire, but let it simmer, and add the milk in thirds, rubbing into a smooth paste each time as it thickens. Season last. Cold fish that has been left over is good when heated in this sauce. It can be served thus, or baked and some chopped pickles sprinkled over the top. India Sauce. — Make a white sauce as above, add a teaspoonful of curry powder, and some pickles, chopped small, with a little of the vinegar. Lemon Sauce. — 1 lemon. 3 tablespoonfuls sugar. 14 pint milk. 1 scant tablespoonful butter. Put the milk, sugar, and thin rind of the lemon into a pan and simmer gently ten minutes. Then add the juice of the lemon and the butter rolled in flour. Stir until butter is dissolved and strain or pour off clear. Fish Chowder. — Cut the fish into pieces the right size for serving, and remove all the bones possible. For 5 or 6 lbs. of fish take % lb. clear fat salt pork, slice it, and fry moderately. Slice two good-sized onions and fry in the fat. Have ready ten potatoes pared and sliced. Into your largest pot place first a layer of fish, then one of potatoes, then some of the fried onion, with pepper, salt, and a little flour, then a slice or two of the pork. Repeat these alternate layers until all has been used. Then pour the fat from the frying-pan over all. Cover the whole with boiling water^ and cook from twenty to thirty minutes, according to thickness of fish. Five or ten minutes before serving, split some hard crackers and dip them in cold water (or use stale bread or biscuits similarly), add them to the chowder, and pour in about a pint of hot milk. The advantage of first frying the pork and onion is that the fish need not then be cooked overdone, which is the case in chowders started with raw pork in the bottom of the kettle and boiled.