Mrs. Seely's Cook Book: A Manual of French and American Cookery : with ..

Boll four or five pounds of fresh cod. When cooked, drain and shred in fine pieces and set away to cool. Make the following sauce for a five-pound piece of fish. Boil one quart of milk with one onion and a little finely chopped parsley. Set it aside. Mix one cup of butter with enough flour to absorb it. Add this to the milk and boil until it is the consistency of custard. Season with a dash of cayenne and salt to taste. Put a layer of shredded fish in a baking dish, cover with a layer of sauce, then a layer of fish, and so on until the dish is filled. Have the last layer of cream. Cover with fine bread crumbB. FISH, OYSTERS, LOBSTERS, TERRAPIN 105 Sprinkle with pieces of butter and bake in the oven until the top is a nice brown. Small boiled potato balls covered with cream sauce should be served with this. Baked Ood Select a fresh cod, cut off the head and fins, draw, wash, and split it down the belly. Remove the bone from the thick part only, and make small lengthwise incisione in the skin in order to prevent the fish from curling while it is cooking. Put it to soak for three hours in a dressing made as follows : salt, white pepper, a little Worcestershire sauce, and some sweet oil. Drain and place in a pan. Baste it with melted butter and sprinkle with fine bread crumbs. Moisten with two glasses of white wìne and one pint of ojster liquor. Bake in a slow oven and then cover with a buttered paper and bake a light brown in a moderate oven. Drain and thicken the liquid with a little flour kneaded with butter, add some lemon juice and finely chopped parsley. Pour this round the fish and serve. Baked Cod's Head Wash and thoroughly clean a cod's head. Stuff the gills with veal forcemeat. Place the head in a pan, season with salt, white pepper, and a little chopped parsley. Mix one pint of stock, a scant pint of Sherry wine, and a little tomato catsup, and pour into the pan. Cover the fish with buttered paper and bake in a moderate oven. The fish must be well basted while it is cooking. When the head is nearly cooked, sprinkle it with fine bread crumbs. The average sized head should bake in one hour and a quarter. Mix the liquor in the pan with two gills of brown sauce, strain it, and add two ounces of butter and a little lemon juice. Boil for four minutes and then pour over the fish or serve in separate dìsh. Codfish à la Mode Take one teacup of salt codfish picked up fine, two teacups of mashed potatoes, one pint of cream or milk. Mix them well together and then add two eggs well beaten. Stir them in thoroughly and then add a half cup of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Put in a baking dish and bake twenty or thirty minutes. Colonial Codfish Pie, with Crust Line a deep baking dish with a biscuit crust. To make the crust, sift together four cups of fiour, one heaping teaspoon of soda, and two teaspoons of cream of tartar (or in place of tbese three heaping teaspoons of baking powder), and one teaspoon of salt. In this rub one-half a cup of shortening and about a pint of milk, that is, enough to make a medium soft dough. In roUing out the upper crust spread butter on twice and f old and roU out.