Herrings a la Russe

Ingredients

• some fine, cleaned fillets of salted herrings
• sliced, cold boiled potatoes
• oil
• vinegar
• chopped chervil
• fennel
• tarragon
• shallots

Method

1. 1

   Cut salted herring fillets into thin slices.

2. 2

   Dish up and alternate rows of sliced fillets with rows of sliced cold boiled potatoes.

3. 3

   Season with oil and vinegar, and finish with chopped chervil, fennel, tarragon, and shallots.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Soyer's standard cookery (1912) by Nicolas Soyer, page 227. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Herrings a la Russe. Cut some fine, cleaned fillets of salted herrings into thin slices. Dish up, and alternate the rows of sliced fillets with rows of sliced, cold boiled potatoes. Season with oil and vine- gar, and finish up with chopped chervil, fennel, tarragon, and shallots. Herrings Paysanne. These hors-d'oeuvres are at their best in the months of Sep- tember and October, when the first shoals of herrings begin to appear. They can only be kept a few days, but they form an excellent dish, and their flavor is exquisite. Before serving them, it is only needful to skin them, whereupon they may be dished up with a little chopped parsley. Send a bowl of French beans to the table with them, the vegetables having been freshly cooked, kept somewhat firm, buttered, and not cooled. Some cooks serve the beans cold, in the form of a salad, but as a rule they are preferred hot with butter, while the herrings should be very cold. Oysters. The best oysters to be had are those of Whitstable, and Col- chester. Oysters are the dish par excellence: and they are so easily digested that the most delicate invalid can partake of them freely. With the exception of caviare, they are the only hors- d'oeuvres which should ever appear on the menu of a well- ordered dinner. Oysters ought to be served cold; hence the prevailing custom of dishing them on ice. In England they are served plain on the flat half of the shell. Send some slices of brown bread and butter and lemon to the table with the oysters. Melon with Port, Marsala, or Sherry, Etc. Select a cantaloupe melon and let it be just ripe. Make a STANDARD COOKERY. 333 round incision about the stalk, three inches in diameter; with- draw the plug thus cut, and through the resulting hole thor- oughly remove all the pips by means of a silver spoon. Now pour one-half pint of best port, marsala, or sherry into the melon, replace the plug, and keep the melon for two or three hours in a cooler surrounded by broken ice. Do not cut the melon into slices when serving it. It should be taken to the table whole, and then the piece containing the stalk is with- drawn and the fruit is cut into shell-like slices with a silver spoon, and served with a little of the accompanying wine upon iced plates. Smoked Breast of Goose. Cut it into the thinnest possible slices, and garnish with very green parsley. Plain Olives. Olives of all kinds are suitable for hors-d'ceuvres, and are served plain. They are excellent, provided they be fleshy, firm, very green, and moderately salted. Stuffed Olives. Select large Spanish olives and stone them, either by cut- ting them spirally, or by means of a special machine. In the place of the stone, put one of the butters or creams for hors- d'ceuvres. Before serving these olives, let them rest awhile in a moderately warm atmosphere. Stuffed olives are generally kept in the cool, immersed in oil with which they become thor- oughly saturated, therefore it follows that the moment they come into contact with a slightly higher temperature they will exude that oil and reach the table swimming in oil, and not at all appetising. Hence the warning given above. Hard-Boiled Eggs as a Basis for Hors-d'CEuvres. EGG DISKS. — Cut the eggs laterally into roundels a third of an inch in thickness, discarding the two end pieces of each egg, so that the shapes may be almost uniform, and the yolks appear about the same size throughout. In the center of each roundel make a little rosette of butter, by means of a small, grooved pipe, use different butters, such as the shrimp, mont- pellier, cavaire, and other kinds in order to vary the colors. HALVED, STUFFED EGGS. — Take some very small, hard-boiled eggs, cut them into two, lengthwise ; remove the yolks, and trim the oval hollow of each of the remaining whites to the shape of an oblong, the edges of which may then be indented. 334 STANDARD COOKERY. Garnish, with a puree of either tunny, salmon, milt, or a hash or salpicon of lobster, shrimp, etc., thickened by means of a mayonnaise with jelly, or a fine macedoine of vegetables with mayonnaise, or a puree composed of the withdrawn yolks com- bined with a little butter, some cold Bechamel sauce, and herbs. QUARTERED, STUFFED EGGS. — Proceed as above and stuff the halved white with a buttered puree, or a puree mixed with jelly, leave the stuffing to set, and then cut the halves in two. SALAD OF EGGS. — With alternate rows of sliced eggs and either tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, or beetroot, and a salad- seasoning composed of oil and vinegar

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