The Cook Book, by "Oscar" of the Waldorf

Take the bone from a piece of fish, make it weigh six ounces, soak in cold water, put in a saucepan and boil for half an hour. Pound it to a pulp, being careful that all the bones are removed. Boil a half pound of potatoes and when done mash them up with the fish, adding a tablespoonful of melted butter and one egg. Make this into balls and fry to a light brown. Boiled Codfish with Cream Sauce. Take out the inside of a cod by the white skin of the belly, taking care to remove all blood. Place the fish in a kettle with salted cold water and boil fast at first and then slowly. When done take out and skin. Pour over it sauce made as follows: A quarter pound of butter put in a stew pan with one tablespoonful of flour, moisten with a pint of cream, add a little salt and pepper and a teaspoonful of essence of anchovies; place the pan on the fire, let thicken but not boil. Boiled Codfish with Hollandaise Sauce. Take the gills from a cod, also the entrails where the gills form a hole, chop off the fins and sprinkle over the fish a little salt, also putting some inside, then place in a cold place and let it remain for a few hours. Take it up, wash off the salt, tie the head with string, put it in a bowl of water and milk and let it disgorge for about three-quarters of an hour. Take it out and drain, put belly downward on a drainer in a fish kettle with enough cold salted water to cover it, add three cupfuls of milk and boil slowly until the cut begins to open. Cleaning Codfish. It is usual first to remove the gills by cutting their connection with the rest of the head and shoulders and pulling them out. Lay the fish on his back, open the belly by cutting down the center, remove the inside, carefully preserving the liver and roe, and leaving the sounds uninjured. If the fish is to be cooked whole it should be ••scored " to the bone transversely at intervals of two inches ; but if it is to be cooked in pieces, cut it in slices three inches thick and soak the fish in water for a quarter of an hour. Cod is crimped by being cut up and notched with a knife while partly alive; but some cooks object to this. The following recipes for cooking cod are carefully selected as likely to give sufficient variety to suit all tastes and to all purposes. The fish is usually divided, by the fishmonger, into •* head and shoulders,** ** middle " and "tail; " but although preference may be given to the middle cut, the tail is quite as good, although not so fleshy, and the head yields in quantity the gelatine that makes excellent soup. Codlings are for the most part amenable to the same treatment. Fillets of Codfish, Hollandaise. Take any number of fillets of cod, put in a buttered stewpan, add one gill of stock, season, sprinkle a little fine parsley over, and set in the oven, or on the stove, with a buttered paper over. When done put them upon a dish, bordered with mashed potatoes. Fried Cod. Cut a cod in slices, dust with pepper and salt and let remain for two hours. Wipe the slices dry, dip in yolk of egg and then in breadcrumbs, mix with flour, season and put in pan with plenty of fat and fry quickly. The tail is best for frying, and after removing the skin and bones, cut in slices and press with a cutlet bat. Fried Codfish, Maitre d'Hotel. Trim a few fillets of cod and dip them in flour. Rub some breadcrumbs through a wire sieve, whisk two whole eggs, season, and dip the fillets in the eggs, roll in the breadcrumbs and fry to a light brown. Serve with maitre d'hotel sauce in a boat. Hashed Codfish. Take a cupful of cooked cod, pick in pieces and soak in cold water for twelve hours. Boil some potatoes and add them to the finely chopped fish, a little at a time, put in a pan and stir. Heat some butter, put the hash in it and let it cook gently. Matelote of Codfish.