Soyer's standard cookery

Next take out the fish, and after removing the skin and bones replace the fish in the broth, adding a pint of boiling milk with which has been mixed the yolk of an egg, the juice of a small lemon, and a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Thicken with flour and butter, pass through a sieve, and serve very hot. Bouillabaisse. This is one of the famous dishes of the South of France and can be prepared with comparatively little trouble. Take three pounds of mixed fish — any kinds of fresh fish will do — and cut them into rather large pieces. Add a lobster or crayfish, also cut up, and, if liked, a couple of dozen mussels in their shells. Fry the whole lightly in half a pint of olive oil and then add two tomatoes, an onion, carrot, and a lemon, all sliced, together with a bay leaf, a little parsley, and as much saffron as will lie on a sixpence. A clove of garlic may be added if the flavor is not objected to. Stir the whole very carefully for ten minutes, adding a cupful or more of strong stock and a glass of white wine. Simmer for a quarter of an hour longer and add a few small triangles of toast. This may be served together, or the fish may be arranged on a dish, and the soup served separately. It is an improvement to serve a sauce poulette with the bouillabaisse. Eel Soup. Take two pounds of eels cut in pieces and cook them for twenty minutes in a pint of boiling water, to which has been added half a cupful of vinegar, a carrot, an onion, some parsley and a little pepper and salt. Then remove the eels and mix one-half of the eel broth with two quarts of white stock, adding a cupful of thinly sliced boiled carrot, the same quantity of cooked peas, and a little thyme and marjoram. Mix thoroughly, add a cupful of hot milk and the yolk of one egg, and pour the whole into a soup-tureen over the eels. In Hamburg, a dish of stewed pears is always served with eel soup. Shrimp Cream. Shell and chop fifty shrimps and fry them in two ounces of butter. Place them in two quarts of white stock, together with three anchovies, a sliced onion, four ounces of boiled rice, a piece of stale bread, and pepper and salt to taste. After cook- ing slowly for two hours press through a sieve, add a tablespoonful of sherry, and serve as hot as possible. Oyster Soup. Put four dozen oysters into a stewpan with their liquor, place upon the fire; when upon the point of boiling, drain them upon a sieve catching the liquor in a bowl ; take off the beards, which put into the liquor, and the oysters into a souptureen; then put a quarter of a pound of butter into another stewpan over the fire, and when melted add six ounces of flour, stir over a slow fire for a short time, but keeping it quite white; let it cool, then add the liquor and beards of the oysters, a quart of milk, and two quarts of stock, stir over the fire until boiling, then season with a teaspoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper, five peppercorns, half a blade of mace, a tablespoonful of Harvey sauce, half ditto of essence of anchovies; let boil quickly for ten minutes, skim it well, add a gill of cream, if handy, strain through a hair sieve over the oysters and serve. The Fisherman's Soup.