FoodNet

Culinary jottings

1885

Page 188

Presented as published in 1885. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Many of the dishes detailed in the previous chapters, especially those spoken of under the title of " Eggs, mac- caroni, and cheese," will be found practicable in the camp ; amongst the menus, more than one nice recipe for cooking mutton, fowls, and chickens, has been recorded ; in short, if the pilgrim be blessed by the possession of an intelligent cook, and provided with a judicious assortment of culinary necessaries and stores, his tent life should never fail to possess amongst its many attractions that indubitably important one — a really good dinner. Note. — For various methods of treating preserved food of all kinds, see Wyvern's annotated catalogue of Messrs. John Moir and Son's provisions. PART II. THIRTY MENUS, I I NOTES, tHE tnenus have been th.orouglily revised and cor- rected. They are all susceptible of being doubled for larger parties than those for which thej have been designed ; and though each of them is given in French, the English names of all the dishes will be found in the margin of the detail of instructions. Those who are anxious to adopt the more modern form of menu will find a note at the end of each of the larger bills-of-fare showing what alteration is necessary to effect their object. I have not attempted to treat of sweet dishes in this work, but the entremets sucres chosen for each bill-of-fare have been carefully described. For hors d'oeuvres, please consult the chapter I have devoted to them. The recipes given for the treatment of fish apply, it will be found, to the varieties of the finny tribe best known and esteemed at Madras, viz. : — the seer, pomfret, sole, grey mullet, and whiting. Of these the first being a large salmon-shaped fish, which is cut up and sold much in the same manner as salmon, is susceptible of being similarly cooked. Small seer are flabby and unfit for the table. The pomfret may, as far as its flavour and the texture of its flesh are concerned, be best compared perhaps with 33 3^4 NOTES TO MENU. the turbot or brill, but as it never reaches as great a size as either of those fish, it can be trimmed when desired in fillets, and cooked like soles. The sole and whiting can be treated exactly like the fishes of the same name at home. The only difference being that the Indian sole is, as a rnle, wanting in the depth of flesh possessed by the European variety when in proper season. The mullet is a far larger fish than the English grey mullet, and not nearly as rich. If taken in back-waters, it requires very careful cleaning to rid it of the muddy taste it acquires in such circumstances. Rcmembenng the peculiainties of these fish, a little re- flection will .enable my readers in other parts of India to apply the recipes I have given to almost any fish that may be at their disposal.