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Oysters and Fish

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<h2 id="CODFISH">CODFISH.</h2> Boiled Codfish, Oyster Sauce.—The only thing that can be urged against this most excellent fish is its homely name. Were it not so cheap, its good qualities would rapidly find64 favor at all gastronomic entertainments where palate-pleasing dishes are appreciated. Put the fish into boiling water, slightly salted; add a few whole cloves and peppers, and a bit of lemon-peel; pull gently on the fins, and when they come out easily the fish is done. Arrange neatly on a folded napkin, garnish, and serve with oyster sauce. Take six oysters to every pound of fish, and scald them in a half-pint of hot oyster liquor; take out the oysters, and add to the liquor, salt, pepper, a bit of mace, and an ounce of butter; whip into it a gill of milk, containing half of a teaspoonful of flour. Simmer a moment; add the oysters, and send to table in a sauce-boat. A four-pound fish should cook in about forty minutes. Codfish Tongues.—Wash four codfish tongues thoroughly in cold water; put them on the range in hot water, slightly salted, and boil thirty minutes; drain; arrange neatly on a folded napkin placed upon a hot dish; garnish with parsley and slices of lemon, and send to table with cream sauce. Codfish Steak.—Select a medium-sized fresh codfish, cut it in steaks crosswise of the fish about an inch and a half thick; sprinkle a little salt over them, and let them stand two65 hours. Cut into dice a pound of salt fat pork, fry out all the fat from them, and remove the crisp bits of pork; put the codfish steaks in a pan of corn-meal, dredge them with it, and, when the pork-fat is smoking hot, fry the steaks in it to a dark brown color on both sides. Squeeze over them a little lemon-juice, add a dash of freshly ground pepper, and serve with hot, old-fashioned, well buttered johnny-cake. New-England Codfish Balls.—Shred the codfish the night before, and soak it over night; drain quite dry on towel next day. Mash fine one pound of hot boiled potatoes. Take an equal amount of codfish, and divide it very fine. Mix both together, and add the beaten yolks of two eggs, two ounces of melted butter, and a saltspoonful of white pepper. Now beat the mixture until it is very light, for upon this process depends the success or failure of the dish. In shaping them together, do not press them any more than is absolutely necessary. Most cooks press them into cakes so hard that it is next to an impossibility to eat them. Dredge them lightly with a little flour, and fry them like doughnuts in smoking hot fat. When properly prepared and cooked they should fairly melt in the mouth, which they will do if thoroughly beaten and lightly handled. 66 Baked Cod.—When purchasing a four-pound cod, ask your fish-dealer to send you three “codfish-heads;” and as soon as the basket comes into the house, rub a little salt on the fish, chop the heads into six pieces each, and sprinkle a little salt over them. Place them in the centre of the baking-pan (to be used as supports for the fish), with a gill of water. Set the pan in the oven while you prepare the cod. Soak in cold water until soft a sufficiency of bread to fill the fish; drain off the water, and pound the bread to a paste; mix with it two tablepoonsfuls of melted butter, two raw eggs, a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce, with salt and pepper to taste. Put this stuffing inside the fish, and sew it up; place the cod in the pan with two or three pieces of butter on the upper side of the fish, and baste it frequently; when it is cooked, lay the fish on a hot platter, and garnish with fried oysters if convenient. Add a tablespoonful of brown flour to the pan, a wineglass of claret; mix, and strain the gravy into a sauce-boat. Time to cook, one hour. Salt Codfish with Cream.—Soak one pound and a half of salt codfish over night. Next morning set the fish to simmer for about two hours; drain off the water, and strip the fish into shreds; place it in a saucepan with a quart67 of milk and two ounces of butter; mix a tablespoonful of flour with two tablespoonfuls of cold milk, and add to the fish. Let the whole come to a boil; remove the dish from the fire, beat up one egg to a froth, add it to the fish, stir, and serve. Scrod.—Small codfish no larger than our tomcod are called scrod in Eastern Massachusetts. After they have been corned over night, they are broiled and fried. <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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