The Queen Cook Book: A Careful Compilation of Recipes and Practical ...

^< %a»«k «'• The Queen Cook Book 85 Creamed Cod Fish. For four persons, pick up a bowl full of cod fish fine, picking out all the bones. Freshening by squeezing it with hand in a quart of cold water from three to five minutes, leaving salt enough in it to salt the cream or milk it is cooked in. Put it in a pint of milk or half cream, squeeze all the water out. If you use milk one tablespoon of good butter, if cream, no butter. Thicken with a tablespoon of flour, one beaten egg, and boil four minutes, just enough to cook the flour, do not boil the fish any more as it makes it hard; you can put it on as many half slices of bread as persons to eat. Sprinkle the top with white pepper, slice hard boiled eggs, as many as there are persons, laying them on top. For a weak stomach cook it in water, let them sip the thin broth. The beauty of this depends upon not freshening too much or not enough, this requires some experience. Soaking or scalding cod fish to freshen it takes all the cod fish flavor out of it, and no amount of seasoning can put it back. Cod Fish Balls. Freshen the fish the same as for creamed fish, squeeze dry, to one cup of cod fish put two cups of seasoned mashed potatoes, two beaten eggs, mix well with a fork, with cream enough to moisten and a little butter. Make into balls one-half inch thick, nearly three inches across, allowing two for a person. Dip in beaten egg and then in flour. Brown m butter and drippings. These are very nice. Do not cook too fast. In cool weather you can prepare enough for two meals. They are good for supper or break* fast, with boiled eggs or poached eggs on toast. 86 The Queen Cook Book Boiled Cod Fish. Boil a piece of cod fish according to size of family, boil thirty minutes slowly. Serve with mashed potatoes and drawn butter for dinner. Fried Frogs. The hind legs are the only parts that are used. In the markets you buy them ready skinned. Wash them in strong salt water, then pour on boiling hot water, let stand on them five minutes, then rub them with lemon juice after wiping them dry, then rub with salt, boil three minutes, wipe dry, dip in beaten egg and then in flour or fine rolled cracker, then fry in hot spider with half butter and half drippings and brown them. Can prepare them in same way and broil them; dress as broiled chicken. Lobsters. Lobsters when freshly caught, have some muscular action in their claws which may be excited by pressing the eyes. The heaviest lobsters for their size are the best. A four-pound one is good size. The male is thought to have the highest flavor, the flesh is firmer and the shell has a brighter red, and is considered best during fall and spring. It may be readily distinguished from the female, as the tail is narrower and the two uppermost fins within the tail are stiff and hard; those of the female are soft and the tail broader. Never buy a dead lobster. They should be perfectly fresh and very lively. The male lobster is preferred for eating and the female for making sauces and The Queen Cook Book 8/ soups. The female has a broader tail and fewer claws than the male. If possible always boil the lobster at home, but in some localities where it is a necessity to buy them boiled, see that the tail is stiff and elastic, so that when you bend it out, it springs back immediately, otherwise they were dead before boiling. Lobsters boiled when dead are watery and soft; they are poisonous. To Boil and Open a Lobster.