Souchet of Sprats

Ingredients

• a pint of fresh sprats
• a cupful of thin bouillon
• three sprigs of parsley
• half a sliced carrot
• plenty of salt
• plenty of pepper
• a glass of sherry
• A squeeze of lemon

Method

1. 1

   Prepare sprats by cutting off heads and tails.

2. 2

   Cook in bouillon with parsley and carrot for ten minutes.

3. 3

   Strain, return fish to pan with more parsley and carrot, boil for five minutes, then add lemon and sherry before serving.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The cult of the chafing dish (1904) by Frank Schloesser, page 17. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Souchet of Sprats. Now for sprats ; a good supper dish, and eke for breakfast too, because they are so fat that no butter or oil is required, but plenty of salt and pepper. Buy a pint of fresh sprats, soak and dry them very carefully, handling them as little as possible. Cook them as a water souchet or Zootje, an old Dutch method, formerly much honoured at Greenwich fish dinners, and originally made of flounders. But flounders are not con- venient for a Chafing Dish, so you must per- force fall back on sprats. Don't slip ! Cut off^ the heads and tails of the sprats and put them into the pan with a cupful of thin bouillon, three sprigs of parsley, half a sliced carrot, and plenty of salt and pepper. Let this boil up for ten minutes. Take it ofi^ ; strain the liquor, return the fish to the pan with three more sprigs of parsley and another sliced half carrot. Boil up again for five minutes this time. A squeeze of lemon and a glass of sherry

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