Skate au Beurre Noir

Ingredients

• Boil the skate as above
• half a pound of butter
• five tablespoonfuls of vinegar
• a little pepper
• salt

Method

1. 1

   Drain the boiled skate and dish it.

2. 2

   Fry parsley in blackened butter, pour over the fish, then boil vinegar with pepper and salt, pour over, and bake for five minutes.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The thorough good cook (1895) by George Augustus Sala, page 116. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a little pepper ; then mix a teaspoonful of made mustard, the same of essence of anchoAy, a little mushroom catsup in a gill of cold Avatq^ place in the dish, on the top an ounce of fresh butter broken in bits, cover Avith puff paste, and bake for one hour. FISE. 199 139. Salt Fish Pudding. One pint of finely chopped cooked salt-fish, eight good- sized potatoes, three-fourths of a cupful of milk or cream, four eggs, salt, pepper, and two generous tablespoonfuls of butter. Pare the potatoes and boil thirty minutes. Drain the water from them, and mash very fine ; then mix thoroughly with the fish. Add the butter, seasoninsf, and milk or cream. Have two of the eggs well beaten, which stir into the mixture, and heap this in the dish in which it is to be served. Place in the oven for ten minutes. Beat the whites of the two remaining eggs to a stiff froth, and add a quarter of a tea- spoonful of salt ; then put in the yolks. Spread this over the fish, return to the oven to brown, and serve. A good and cheap dish. Salt fish should not (for hygienic reasons) be eaten very often ; and the same, in degree, may be said of all salted meats, with the exception of fat bacon. But the use which we make at present of salt fish is simply ridiculous. We eat it with boiled parsnips and egg sauce on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday : and there an end ! 140. Mock Anchovies. To a peck of perfectly fresh sj^rats just taken out of the water, and neither washed nor wiped, allow the following quantity of ingredients, all to be finely pounded, and well mixed together: — Two pounds of common salt, a quarter of a pound of bay-salt, four ounces of saltj)etre, two ounces of prunella salt, and a small portion of cochineal. Place alter- nately in a earthenware pan, till it be full, a layer of the sprats and a layer of the prepared mixture ; press the whole well down, and cover the ^a,n closely. They will require to stand six months before they are used. 200 THE THOBOUGH GOOD COOK. 141. Eedgeree for Breakfast. Boil four tablespoonfuls of rice; add any fish previously cooked, and nicely picked; cliop up a hard egg, and stir it in just before serving. Add some butter, pepper and salt, and a touch of mace. If you -wish to vary your kedgeree, sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan, or a little curry jjowder. 142, Fried Smelts. These delicate little fish, when perfectly fresh, must not be washed, but wiped with a clean cloth, and dredged with flour, or brushed over with a feather, dipped into the yolk of a beaten egg ; they are then rolled in a plate of finely grated bread-crumbs, and fried in boiling dripping, or fresh lard. They vary in size, and some will be done sooner than others. When of a clear golden - brown, take them out carefully, and lay them before the fire upon the back of a sieve to drain and keep hot. Dish them, heads and tails alternately. Garnish with fried parsley. Sauce : Melted butter. They may also be broiled. 143. Broiled Sprats. Clean them well ; dredge them slightly with flour, and put them in rows upon small skewers run through the heads ; or they may be fried like herrings, and served hot. Sauce : Melted butter, with a spoonful each of catsup, soy, and lemon pickle. These are a vulgar dainty, and slightly too oleaginous ; but their flavour is dehcious, and in winter they are amazingly cheap. FISH. 201 144. Baked Sprats. 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, 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 ; 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 (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

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