Having rubbed your sprats witli salt and pepper, to every
two pints of vinegar put one pint of red wine. Dissolve
a pennyworth of cocliineal✪ Baked Sprats, and lay your sprats in a deep
earthen dish. Pour in as much red wine, vineqar, and
cochineal, as will cover them. Tie a paper over them, and
set them in an oven all night. They will keep some time,
and eat well.
145. Roast Gurnet.
Fill the belly of the lish with stuffing, sew it up Avith
packthread, and truss it with its tail in its mouth ; butter
a saute-pan, and put two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots
and a glass of sherry into it ; egg the fish Avith a paste-
brush, bread-crumb, and lay a few pieces of butter upon
it ; then put it in the saute-pan and place it in the oven
for half an hour, or longer if required. When done, dish it
without a napkin, tirst drawing out the packthread ; then
put twelve tablespoonfuls of brown sauce in the saute-pan,
vrith four ditto of broth, a quarter ditto of sugar, and a half
ditto of essence of anchovy✪ Roast Gurnet ; boil this five minutes, pour it
round the fish, pass the salamander over, and serve.
146. Skate -with Iiiver Sauce.
Crimp or cut the skate into pieces, boil, and serve on
it a sauce made as follows : — Put into a saucepan parsle}^
chibbols, mushrooms, a clove of garlic, all finely minced, and
a little butter; give it a turn or two on the fire, and add
a good dust of flour, then a bit of butter, capers, and a
minced anchovy, with the liver of the skate, first boiled and
bruised, and pepper and salt ; moisten with grav}^ or water,
and thicken on the fire. Leave out the garlic, if you like.
202 THE THOBOUGE GOOD COOK.
147. Skate au Beurra Noir.
Boil the skate as above, drain it well and dish it with-
out a naphin. Put half a pound of butter in a stew-pan,
and set it on the fire till it gets quite black; then fry iu
it half a handful of parsley✪ Skate with Liver Sauce (that has been well washed
and picked) quite crisp, and pour over the fish ; put
fivx3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with a little pepjDer and salt,
into the same stew-pan, boil it a minute, pour over the
fish, put into the oven five minutes, and serve very hot.
" Beurre noir " is, litorall}^, " black " butter. It should be
darker than the " burnt " butter, directions for making which
I have given you below (No. 148). Black butter is easy to
make, and is far from expensive ; 3^et, in the course of more
than fifty years' dining out in London, I have rarely, if ever,
met with " black" or " burnt" sauce for white fish at middle-
class English dinner-tables ; or, for the matter of that, at
aristocratic dinner-tables, either. If you want " beurre noir "
you must go to a second-rate French or Italian restaurant
in Soho. Why ? Because the eternal melted butter is still
the prevailing curse of the English kitchen. " Fifty religions
and one sauce ! "
148. Crimped Skate witli Surnt Butter.
Boil the skate in water, with vinegar and salt added, and a
few slices of onions. Only let it just boil up. When done,
serve it with burnt butter made thus : — Boil two good spoon-
fuls of vinegar, with salt and pepper✪ Crimped Skate with Burnt Butter ; at the same time fry
some butter till it becomes very brown, and pour it on the
vinegar. Garnish with fried parsley.
149. Fresh Sturgeon.
The best mode of dressing the fish is to cut it in thin slices
like veal cutlets and broil it. Serve very hot, and eat with a
Page 118 · 6 recipe records on this page
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Having rubbed your sprats witli salt and pepper, to every two pints of vinegar put one pint of red wine. Dissolve a pennyworth of cochineal, and lay your sprats in a deep earthen dish. Pour in as much red wine, vinegar, and cochineal, as will cover them. Tie a paper over them, and set them in an oven all night. They will keep some time, and eat well.
145. Roast Gurnet.
Fill the belly of the lish with stuffing, sew it up with packthread, and truss it with its tail in its mouth ; butter a saute-pan, and put two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots and a glass of sherry into it ; egg the fish Avith a pastebrush, bread-crumb, and lay a few pieces of butter upon it ; then put it in the saute-pan and place it in the oven for half an hour, or longer if required. When done, dish it without a napkin, tirst drawing out the packthread ; then put twelve tablespoonfuls of brown sauce in the saute-pan, vrith four ditto of broth, a quarter ditto of sugar, and a half ditto of essence of anchovy ; boil this five minutes, pour it round the fish, pass the salamander over, and serve.
146. Skate -with Liver Sauce.
Crimp or cut the skate into pieces, boil, and serve on it a sauce made as follows : — Put into a saucepan parsley, chibbols, mushrooms, a clove of garlic, all finely minced, and a little butter; give it a turn or two on the fire, and add a good dust of flour, then a bit of butter, capers, and a minced anchovy, with the liver of the skate, first boiled and bruised, and pepper and salt ; moisten with gravy, or water, and thicken on the fire. Leave out the garlic, if you like.
147. Skate au Beurra Noir.
Boil the skate as above, drain it well and dish it without a napkin. Put half a pound of butter in a stew-pan, and set it on the fire till it gets quite black; then fry iu it half a handful of parsley (that has been well washed and picked) quite crisp, and pour over the fish ; put five tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with a little pepper and salt, into the same stew-pan, boil it a minute, pour over the fish, put into the oven five minutes, and serve very hot.
" Beurre noir " is, literally, " black " butter. It should be darker than the " burnt " butter, directions for making which I have given you below (No. 148). Black butter is easy to make, and is far from expensive ; yet, in the course of more than fifty years' dining out in London, I have rarely, if ever, met with " black" or " burnt" sauce for white fish at middleclass English dinner-tables ; or, for the matter of that, at aristocratic dinner-tables, either. If you want " beurre noir " you must go to a second-rate French or Italian restaurant in Soho. Why ? Because the eternal melted butter is still the prevailing curse of the English kitchen. " Fifty religions and one sauce ! "
148. Crimped Skate witli Burnt Butter.
Boil the skate in water, with vinegar and salt added, and a few slices of onions. Only let it just boil up. When done, serve it with burnt butter made thus : — Boil two good spoonfuls of vinegar, with salt and pepper ; at the same time fry some butter till it becomes very brown, and pour it on the vinegar. Garnish with fried parsley.
149. Fresh Sturgeon.
The best mode of dressing the fish is to cut it in thin slices like veal cutlets and broil it. Serve very hot, and eat with a
Records on this page
Skate au Beurre NoirBaked SpratsRoast GurnetSkate with Liver SauceCrimped Skate with Burnt ButterCrimped Skate with Burnt Butter