Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

<h2>FISH, OYSTERS, &amp;c.</h2> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Bake a Rock Fish.</h3> <p></p> <p>Rub the fish with salt, black pepper, and a dust of cayenne, inside and out; prepare a stuffing of bread and butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, parsley and thyme; mix an egg in it, fill the fish with this, and sew it up or tie a string round it; put it in a deep pan, or oval oven and bake it as you would a fowl. To a large fish add half a pint of water; you can add more for the gravy if necessary; dust flour over and baste it with butter. Any other fresh fish can be baked in the same way. A large one will bake slowly in an hour and a half, small ones in half an hour.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Stew a Rock Fish.</h3> <p></p> <p>Rub the fish with salt and pepper, and a little cayenne on the inside; put it in an oval stew-pan. To a fish that weighs six pounds, put a pint of water; when it is about half done; season it well with salt and pepper, and a little mace or cloves; rub a quarter of a pound of butter in a half a tea-cup of flour, with a little parsley and thyme; stir this in with a pint of oysters. Serve it with the gravy in the dish. A large fish should be allowed an hour, small ones half an hour.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Broil Shad.</h3> <p></p> <p>Soak a salt shad a day or night previous to cooking, it is best to drain an hour before you put it to the fire; if it hangs long exposed to the air, it loses its flavor: grease the gridiron to keep it from sticking; have good coals, and put the inside down first. Fresh shad is better to be sprinkled with salt, an hour before it is put to broil; put a plate over the top to keep the heat in. In broiling shad or other fresh fish you should dust them with corn meal before you put them down.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Bake a Fresh Shad.</h3> <p></p> <p>Make a stuffing of bread, butter, salt, pepper and parsley; fill a large shad with this, and bake it in a stove or oven.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Fry Fresh Fish.</h3> <p></p> <p>Have the fish well scalded, washed and drained; cut slits in the sides of each; season them with salt and pepper, and roll them in corn flour; have in your frying-pan hot lard or bacon drippings; if the fish have been kept several days, dip them in egg before rolling them in corn flour, to keep them from breaking; fry them light brown on both sides.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Fry Clams.</h3> <p></p> <p>After opening them as oysters, wash them in their own liquor and drain then; make a batter of an egg, flour and pepper; dip them in this, and fry them in butter.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Stew Clams.</h3> <p></p> <p>Strain the liquor and stew them in it for about twenty minutes; make a thickening of flour, water and pepper; stir this in and let it boil up; have some bread toasted and buttered in a deep dish, and pour the clams over.</p> <p>Clam soup may be made by putting an equal quantity of water with the liquor, and putting in toasted bread, crackers or dumplings.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Pot Fresh Herring.</h3> <p></p> <p>Scale and wash them well; cut off the heads and fins, and season them with salt, pepper and cloves; pack them neatly in a large jar, and pour on enough cold vinegar to cover them; put a plate over the top of the jar, and set it in a moderately warm oven, or on the top of a stove, in a pan of hot water, for five or six hours; they will keep in a cool place several weeks, and are an excellent relish. The jar or pan should be of stone ware, or fire-proof yellow ware.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Boil Salt Cod.</h3> <p></p> <p>Put your fish to soak over night; change the water in the morning, and let it stay till you put it on, which should be two hours before dinner; keep it at scalding heat all the time, but do not let it boil, or it will get hard; eat it with egg sauce or drawn butter. If you have any cod fish left from dinner, mix it with mashed potatoes, and enough flour to stick them together; season with pepper; make it into little cakes, and fry them in ham drippings.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Boil Salt Shad, Mackerel Or Herring.</h3> <p></p> <p>Wash the fish from the pickle; put it in a frying-pan; cover it with water, and let it boil fifteen minutes; take it up and drain it between two plates; put a little butter over and send it hot to the table: or, after boiling, you can flour, and fry it in drippings of any kind.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Boil Salt Salmon.</h3> <p></p> <p>Let salmon soak over night, and boil it slowly for two hours; eat it with drawn butter. To pickle salmon after it has been boiled, heat vinegar scalding hot, with whole peppers and cloves; cut the fish in small square pieces; put it in a jar, and pour the vinegar over. Shad may be done in the same way.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Boil Fresh Fish.</h3> <p></p> <p>After being well cleaned, rub the fish with salt, and pin it in a towel; put it in a pot of boiling water, and keep it boiling fast;--a large fish will take from half to three-quarters of an hour--a small one, from fifteen to twenty minutes. A fat shad is very nice boiled, although rock and bass are preferred generally; when done, take it up on a fish dish, and cover it with egg sauce or drawn butter and parsley. Pickled mushrooms and walnuts, and mushroom catsup, are good with boiled fish.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Stew Terrapins.</h3> <p></p> <p>Wash four terrapins in warm water; then throw them in a pot of boiling water, which will kill them instantly; let them boil till the shells crack; then take them out, and take off the bottom shell; cut each quarter separate; take the gall from the liver; take out the eggs; put the pieces in a stew-pan, pour in all the liquor, and cover them with water; put in salt, cayenne, and black pepper, and a little mace; put in a lump of butter the size of an egg, and let them stew for half an hour; make a thickening of flour and water, which stir in a few minutes before you take it up, with two glasses of wine; serve it in a deep covered dish; put in the eggs just as you dish it.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Oyster Soup.</h3> <p></p> <p>Strain the liquor from the oysters, and put it on to boil, with an equal quantity of water; take off the scum as it rises; put in pepper, salt, parsley, thyme and butter; stir in a thickening of flour and water; throw in the oysters, and let them scald. If you have cream, put in half a pint just before you take them up.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h4>Another Way.</h4> <p></p> <p>Strain the liquor from a gallon of oysters, and add to it an equal quantity of water; put it on the fire, and boil and skim it before you add the seasoning; then put in six large blades of mace, a little cayenne, and black or white pepper; (the latter, on account of the color, is preferable, as it is desirable to have the soup as white as possible;) afterwards, permit all to boil together about five minutes; then pour in the oysters and a quarter of a pound of butter, into which a dessert-spoonful of wheat flour has been rubbed fine; keep this at boiling heat until the oysters begin to look plump--when it is ready for the table, and must be served up very hot. If you can procure a pint of good cream, half the amount of butter will answer,--if you believe the cream to be rather old, even if it seems to be sweet, add before it goes into the soup, half a small tea-spoonful of soda, well mixed with it; after you put in the cream, permit it to remain on the fire long enough to arrive at boiling heat again, when it must be taken up, or it may curdle; throw into the tureen a little finely cut parsley.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Scolloped Oysters.</h3> <p></p> <p>Toast several slices of bread quite brown, and butter them on both sides; take a baking dish, and put the toast around the sides, instead of a crust.</p> <p>Pour your oysters into the dish, and season, to your taste, with butter, pepper and salt, adding mace or cloves.</p> <p>Crumb bread on the top of the oysters, and bake it with a quick heat about fifteen minutes.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Fry Oysters.</h3> <p></p> <p>Pick out the largest oysters and drain them; sprinkle them with pepper and salt; beat up an egg, and dip them first in it, and then in pounded crackers, and fry them in butter. It is a plainer way to dip them in corn meal.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Oyster Fritters.</h3> <p></p> <p>Make a thick batter with two eggs, some crumbs of bread and flour, and a little milk; season this well with pepper and salt; have in a frying-pan equal parts of lard and butter; drop in a spoonful of the batter and put into it one large oyster, or two small ones, let them brown slowly, so as not to burn; turn them carefully. This is a good way to have oysters at breakfast.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Stew Oysters.</h3> <p></p> <p>Open them and throw them in a stew-pan, with a lump of butter; make a thickening of flour and water, salt and pepper, and stir it in just as the oysters boil; when they are done, take them up in a deep covered dish, with buttered toast in the bottom.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>A Rich Oyster Pie.</h3> <p></p> <p>Strain off the liquor from the oysters, and put it on to boil, with some butter, mace, nutmeg, pepper and salt; just as it boils, stir in a thickening of milk and flour; put in the oysters, and stir them till they are sufficiently stewed; then take them off, and put in the yelks of two eggs, well beaten; do not put this in while it is boiling, or it will curdle. Line a dish, not very deep, with puff paste; fill it with white paper, or a clean napkin, to keep the top paste from falling in; put on a lid of paste, and bake it. When done, take off the lid carefully; take out the paper or napkin, and pour in the oysters. Send it hot to table.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>A Baltimore Oyster Pie.</h3> <p></p> <p>Make a crust after the directions given for puff paste; grease the bottom of a deep dish, cover it with paste; then season two quarts of raw oysters, (without the liquor,) with spices to your taste, (some preferring nutmeg, mace, cayenne pepper,--others, black pepper alone,) add butter and a heaped tea-cup of grated bread; put all together in the dish; then cover it with your paste, cut in strips, and crossed, or ornamented as your fancy dictates; a pound of butter to two quarts of oysters makes a rich pie; if the oysters are fine, less butter will answer.</p> <p>A pie of this size will bake in three-quarters of an hour, if the oven is in good order; if the heat is not quick allow it an hour.</p> <p>If in baking, the crust is likely to become too brown, put a piece of paper doubled over it, and the light color will be retained; when taken from the oven, if it should look dry, pour some of the liquor that was drained from the oysters in the dish, having previously strained and boiled it.</p> <p>As paste always looks more beautiful when just from the oven, arrange your dinner so that the pie may be placed on the table immediately it is done.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Plain Oyster Pie.</h3> <p></p> <p>Take from the shell as many oysters as you want to put in the pie; strain the liquor, put it with them over the fire and give them one boil; take off the scum, put in, if you wish to make a small pie, a quarter of a pound of butter, as much flour mixed in water as will thicken it when boiled, and mace, pepper, and salt to your taste; lay a paste in a deep dish, put in the oysters and cover them with paste; cut a hole in the middle, ornament it any way you please, and bake it. A shallow pie will bake in three-quarters of an hour.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Oyster Sauce.</h3> <p></p> <p>Plump the oysters for a few minutes over the fire; take them out and stir into the liquor some flour and butter mixed together, with a little mace and whole pepper, and salt to your taste; when it has boiled long enough, throw in the oysters, and add a glass of white wine, just as you take it up. This is a suitable sauce for boiled fowls.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Pickle 100 Oysters.</h3> <p></p> <p>Drain off the liquor from the oysters, wash them and put to them a table-spoonful of salt, and a tea-cup of vinegar; let them simmer over the fire about ten minutes, taking off the scum as it rises; then take out the oysters, and put to their own liquor a table-spoonful of whole black pepper, and a tea-spoonful of mace and cloves; let it boil five minutes, skim, and pour it over the oysters in a jar.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Oysters Pickled another way.</h3> <p></p> <p>Wash and drain the oysters, and put them in salt and water, that will bear an egg; let them scald till plump, and put them in a glass jar, with some cloves and whole peppers, and when cold cover them with vinegar.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Brown Oysters in their own Juice.</h3> <p></p> <p>Take a quart of large oysters, wash them in their own juice, drain and dip them in the yelk of eggs; heat butter in a frying-pan, and after seasoning them with pepper and salt, put them in separately; when they are brown on both sides, draw them to one side of the pan; strain the liquor, and put it in with a piece of butter and flour enough to thicken it.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>A Dish of Poached Eggs.</h3> <p></p> <p>Have ready a kettle of boiling water, pour it in a pan or speeder, which is set on coals; have the eggs at hand; put a little salt in the water, and break them in, one at a time, till you get all in; let them remain till the white is set, and take them out with an egg-spoon, and put on a dish that has buttered toast on it.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Fried Eggs.</h3> <p></p> <p>Slice and fry any kind of bacon, dish it; have the eggs ready in a dish, and pour them into the gravy; when done, take them up and lay them on the meat.</p> <p></p> <h3>Fried Eggs another way.</h3> <p></p> <p>Have your lard or butter boiling hot; break in one egg at a time; throw the hot fat over them with an egg slice, until white on the top; slip the slice under and take them out whole, and lay them on the dish or meat without breaking; season with salt.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>Omelet.</h3> <p></p> <p>Beat six or eight eggs, with some chopped parsley and a little salt; have the pan or speeder nicely washed; put in a quarter of a pound of butter, when it is hot, pour in the eggs; stir it with a spoon till it begins to form; when it is of a light-brown on the under side it is done; turn it out on a plate, and send to table immediately. Grated bread, soaked in cream, put in the omelet, some think an improvement. The dripping of a nice ham, some persons use for omelet instead of butter.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <h3>To Boil Eggs.</h3> <p></p> <p>Have the water boiling, and look at your watch as you put them in; two minutes and a half will cook them to please most persons; if you want them very soft, two minutes will be sufficient, or if less soft three minutes. If you wish them hard, as for lettuce, let them boil ten minutes. Spoons that have been used in eating eggs should be put in water immediately, as the egg tarnishes them.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <hr> <p></p> <p></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />