A Breakfast Dish of Bloaters

Ingredients

• smoked and dried fish
• milk
• bits of butter
• finely chopped parsley
• sprigs of water cress

Method

1. 1

   Prepare the fish by removing head, tail, and skin.

2. 2

   Soak in cold water overnight or for 20 minutes in hot water.

3. 3

   Arrange filets in a baking dish, cover with milk, dot with butter, and bake in a bag for 15 minutes.

4. 4

   Garnish with parsley or water cress.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Standard Paper-Bag Cookery (1912) by Emma Paddock Telford, page 11. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

A Breakfast Dish of Bloaters. — Few people know how very nice smoked and dried fish can be when cooked in a paper bag and seasoned in the French fashion. Cut off the head and tail of the fish, loosen the skin at the neck with a knife and holding it firmly between the knife and finger, pull it off. Split the fish with a sharp 31 32 STANDARD PAPER BAG COOKERY knife, remove the backbone and soak in cold water over night, or if you forget to do that, for twenty minutes in water nearly at the boiling point. Arrange the filets in a wooden baking dish, cover with milk, dot with bits of but- ter, put in bag and bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. Garnish with a little finely chopped parsley or sprigs of water cress and serve with paper-bag baked potatoes. On a cool morning there are few more appetizing break- fast dishes, while its cheapness puts it within the reach of the most impecunious. For a change the filets may be baked in buttered paper cases or cooked au gratin still in paper bags. Cat Fish.— For the small sized cat fish — clean, wash, dry well, salt and pepper inside and out, then grease well with butter or vegetable oil and roll in fine, sifted bread crumbs or corn meal. Lay in a well greased bag on thin sliced bacon, put a few more slices of bacon on top. Seal and cook half an hour. Codfish Cones. — " Pick up " enough salt codfish to make two cupfuls of the shreds. Cover with cold water and let stand for two hours, then drain, make a cream sauce, using two level tablespoonfuls each butter and flour, and one cupful of hot milk. Mash and season enough hot boiled potatoes to measure two cupfuls, add sauce and fish and beat well with a fork. Shape in small cones, brush with melted butter, dredge with fine bread crumbs and put in a paper bag. Cook ten minutes. If desired some thin slices of bacon can be cooked at the same time in a separate bag and be used as a garnish for the cones. Codfish a la Creme. — Cook the fish first in boiling salted water which has been very slightly acidulated with vinegar. Let it cook until the flesh separates from STANDARD PAPER; BAG COOKERY 55 the bones. After draining thoroughly and removing the skin and bones, break the flesh into large flakes. Pour a highly seasoned white sauce over it. It may now be cook- ed in a wooden baking dish in the bag, or it may be pre- pared as follows: Press it into the form of an oblong mould, using only just enough sauce to hold the flakes to- gether. Not as much sauce is needed as when the fish is browned in a baking dish. Brush the top liberally with melted butter, sprinkle with rolled cracker crumbs. Put the mold in a paper bag in the oven, and let the fish ac- quire a nutty, crisp crust. Send to the table garnished with lemon and parsley or thin slices of tomato and a fevr sprays of water cress. Paper Bagged Eels. — Eels may be cooked in a pa- per bag without growing as hard as they are apt to do as ordinarily treated. Allow one-half pound of eels (after they are dressed) to a person. ^Wash them thoroughly, removing all blood from slit in eels. Cut in two-inch pieces, put in a dish and sprinkle a teaspoonful of salt to every pound over them. Now pour over them boiling water, enough to cover well, and let stand until water is cold. Pour water off and leave eels where they will drain until nearly dry. Take sufficient Indian meal to roll them in, add a little pepper to it and roll each piece un- til well covered. Place in a well-greased bag and cook about twenty minutes, when they will be a rich brown, thoroughly cooked and deliciously juicy. Flounder a la Meuniere. — Chop a small shallot and mix with a teaspoonful of anchovy paste, a squeeze of lemon juice, an ounce of butter, a little chopped parsley, a dash of cayenne, salt and pepper to taste. Put the fish with the seasoning inside of a well buttered bag, after dredging the 34. STANDARD PAPER BAG COOKERY fish with flour. Pour a tablespoonful of melted butter over the fish, seal up and cook. A two-pound fish, whole, requires thirty minutes. The same weight of filets cook in eight minutes. Filets of Flounder. — Remove the filets from a medi- um sized flounder and cut each filet in two. Season with salt and pepper and a few drops of lemon juice and fold each filet in two or roll up skin side inwards. Put a small piece of butter, or a teaspoonful of vegetable oil on top of each and place carefully in the well-greased bag. Seal the mouth of the bag, and cook about ten minutes on the wire grid in a hot oven. Remove from the bag, lift carefully on to a hot platter, garnish with water cress or parslied lemon slices and serve. Finnan Haddie. — Pick out a fish that is thick through the centre, weighing about two pounds. Soak in cold water, after washing well, for an hour. Brush all over with melted butter, dredge with flour, put in a well- buttered bag, skin side down, dot with butter and pour over it a cup of hot milk. Seal securely and bake in a very hot oven twenty minutes. The fish may be served whole, or flaked — free from bones and skin — and served with cream sauce. Finnan Haddie. — Prepare in the regular way, lay in wood cookery dish, skin side down, season with bits of butter

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.