Tench, Broiled with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

• three or four tench
• a little pepper
• a little salt
• an onion, a finely-minced shallot
• a table-spoonful of parsley chopped small
• a pinch of powdered thyme
• as much oil as will cover them

Method

1. 1

   Clean and draw the tench, then scale.

2. 2

   Soak in boiling water for 3 minutes, then season with pepper, salt, onion, shallot, parsley, and thyme.

3. 3

   Cover with oil and marinate for 1-2 hours.

4. 4

   Wrap in oiled paper and broil over a clear fire until done.

5. 5

   Serve hot with piquant sauce.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 1977. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Tench, Broiled, with Fine Herbs.— Wash, clean, and di'aw three or four tench, and lay them in boiling water for three minutes ; then scale them carefully from head to tail. Lay them on a dish, and sprinkle over them a little pepper and salt, an onion, a finely-minced shallot, a table-spoonful of parsley chopped small, and a pinch of powdered thyme. Pour over the fish as much oil as will cover them, and let them lie for an hour or two. Wrap each fisb separately with the herbs, &c., in two thicknesses of writing-paper which has been dipped in the oil in which the fish was placed, and broil over a clear fire. When they are done enough, take off the paper, and serve on a hot dish, pouring piquant sauce over them. Time to broil, five to ten minutes, according to size. Tench, Choosing of. — Barbel are easily mistaken for tench, and are sometimes sold as that fish. It is worth while observing, there- fore, that tench, spawn in July, so if any fish, be sold for tench in INIarch or April, and proves to be full of spawn, it cannot be tench, but is a cheat upon the purchaser, and must be barbel. Tench is in season aU the year, but is most valued in the six winter months. Tench, Fried. — Scale, draw, and clean the fish with gi-eat care, and remove the gills. Dry them well, and flour them, then put them into boiling fat, and when they are brown on one side turn them upon the other. Drain them on soft paper before the fire, and serve on a hot dish. Garnish with crisped parsley, and send a little sauce to table with them in a tureen. Time to fry, six to twelve minutes, according to size. Tench, Fried (another way). — After having scaled and emptied the tench, split the back of the fish, but take care not to touch the belly, for if you do it will divide. Let it pickle for "thi-ee hours in vinegar, salt, pepper, stalks of parsley, and onions. Then drain it, and dip it into flour. Fry of a fine colour and quite firm. The dripping must be very hot. This you try with a drop of water, which, being- thrown into the dripping, occasions a noise if it is in a proper state. Send it up to table on a cloth with fried parsley all roimd ; if you have a soft roe, fry it likewise, and serve it in the middle. Tench Pie. — Butter a pie-disb rather thickly, and line the edges with a good crust. Put in the tench, season with, pepper' and salt, and grate a little nutmeg over it. Place small lumps of butter here and there upon it, and pour over it a little claret and water. Cover the dish with crust, and bake the pie in a well- heated oven. Have ready a little nicely-seasoned strong gravy, and when the pie is done enough, pour it in thi-ough the hole at the top. A good pie may be made with tench and eels. The fish should be cut into convenient-sized pieces, and placed in layers in the dish with a little pepper and salt, chopped parsley, and an anchovy cut small between each layer. Time to bake, about an hour. Sufficient for three or four persons. Tench, Sauces for.— Tench maybe served w4th melted butter, anchovy sauce, parsley sauce, poulette sauce, or with . a -n-hite sauce prepared as follows: — Rub a large lump of butter to a smooth paste with a tea-spoonful of flour. Add a table-spoonful of water, and stir TEisr ( 966 ) THI the rnixtiiro over the fire for two minutes. Pour in a quarter of a pint of thick cream, or, failing cream, use milk. Have a filleted an- chovy finely minced. Stir the sauce over the fire until it is on the point of boiling-, add a table-spoonful of Indian soy, pour it into a tureen, stir for a minute or two, put with it a little popper and salt and a table-spoonful of strained Icmon-j uice. Tenctl, Stewed. — Take about two pounds of tench ; clean, scale, and draw the fish care- fully, and remove the gills. Put six ounces of good dripping or butter into a stewpan with a mushroom chopped small, a sliced carrot, a finelj'-minced onion, a turnip, a bunch of pars- ley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, the thin rind of half a lemon, and two or three cloves. Stir these over a clear fire for six or eight minutes, then dredge over them a table-spoonful of flour, and pour in half a pint of stock or M-ater and the strained juice of two lemons. Put in the tench, and let it boil, then add half a tumbler- ful of claret, a table-spoonful of Worcester sauce, a little salt

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