The Accomplisht Cook

 

Section XIV.

OR, The Second Section of FISH. Shewing the most Excellent Ways of Dressing of Pikes.

To boil a Pike.
Wash him very clean, then truss him either round whole, with his tail in his mouth, and his back scotched, or splatted and trust round like a hart, with his tail in his mouth, or in three pieces, & divide the middle piece into two pieces; then boil it in water, salt, and vinegar, put it not in till the liquor boils, & let it boil very fast at first to make it crisp, but afterwards softly; for the sauce put in a pipkin a pint of white wine, slic’t ginger, mace, dates quartered, a pint of great oysters with the liquor, a little vinegar and salt, boil them a quarter of an hour.

Then mince a few sweet herbs & parsley, stew them till half the liquor be consumed; then the pike being boiled dish it, and garnish the dish with grated dry manchet fine searsed, or ginger fine beaten, then beat up the sauce, with half a pound of butter, minced lemon, or orange, put it on the pike, and sippet it with cuts of puff-paste or lozenges, some fried greens, and some yellow butter. Dish it according to these forms.

 

To boil a Pike otherways.
Take a male pike alive, splat him in halves, take out his milt and civet, and take away the gall, cut the sides into three pieces of a side, lay them in a large dish or tray, and put upon them half a pint of white wine vinegar, and half a handful of bay-salt beaten fine; then have a clean scowred pan set over the fire with as much rhenish or white-wine as will cover the pike, so set it on the fire with some salt, two slic’t nutmegs, two races of ginger slic’t, two good big onions slic’t, five or six cloves of garlik, two or three tops of sweet marjoram, three or four streight sprigs of rosemary bound up in a bundle close, and the peel of half a lemon.

Let these boil with a quick fire, then put in the pike with the vinegar, and boil it up quick; whilest the pike is boiling, take a quarter of a pound of anchoves, wash and bone them, then mince them and put them in a pipkin with a quarter of a pound of butter, and 3 or four spoonfuls of the liquor the pike was boiled in; the pike being boiled dish it, & lay the ginger, nutmegs, and herbs upon it, run it over with the sauce, and cast dried searsed manchet on it. This foresaid liquor is far better to boil another pike, by renewing the liquor with a little wine.

To boil a Pike and Eel together.
Take a quart of white-wine, a pint and a half of white wine vinegar, two quarts of water, almost a pint of salt, a handful of rosemary and tyme, let your liquor boil before you put in your fish, the herbs, a little large mace, and some twenty corns of whole pepper.

To boil a Pike otherways.
Boil it in water, salt, and wine vinegar, two parts water, and one vinegar, being drawn, set on the liquor to boil, cleanse the civet, and truss him round, scotch his back, and when the liquor boils, put in the fish and boil it up quick; then make sauce with some white-wine vinegar, mace, whole pepper, a good handful of cockles broiled or boiled out of the shells and washed with vinegar, a faggot of sweet herbs, the liver stamped and put to it, and horse raddish scraped or slic’t, boil all the foresaid together, dish the pike on sippets, and beat up the sauce with some good sweet butter and minced lemon, make the sauce pretty thick, and garnish it as you please.

Otherways. Take as much white-wine and water as will cover it, of each a like quantity, and a pint of vinegar, put to this liquor half an ounce of large mace, two lemon-peels, a quarter of an ounce of whole cloves, three slic’t nutmegs, four races of ginger slic’t, some six great onions slic’t, a bundle of six or seven sprigs or tops of rosemary, as much of time, winter-savory, and sweet marjoram bound up hard in a faggot, put into the liquor also a good handful of salt, and when it boils, put in the fish being cleansed and trussed, and boil it up quick.

Being boiled, make the sauce with some of the broth where the pike was boiled, and put it in a dish with two or three anchoves being cleansed and minced, a little white wine, some grated nutmeg, and some fine grated manchet, stew it on a chafing dish, and beat it up thick with some sweet butter, and the yolk of an egg or two dissolved with some vinegar, give it a warm, and put to it three or four slices of lemon.

Then dish the pike, drain the liquor from it upon a chafing-dish of coals, pour on the sauce, and garnish the fish with slic’t lemons, and the spices, herbs, and boil’d onions, run it over with beaten butter, and lay on some barberries or grapes. Sometimes for change you may put some horse-raddish scraped, or the juyce of it.

To boil a Pike in White Broth.
Cut your pike in three pieces, then boil it in water, salt, and sweet herbs, put in the fish when the liquor boils; then take the yolks of six eggs, beat them with a little sack, sugar, melted butter, and some of the pike broth then put it on some embers to keep warm, stir it sometimes lest it curdle; then take up your pike, put the head and tail together in a clean dish, cleave the other piece in two, and take out the back-bone, put the one piece on one side, and the other piece on the other side, but blanch all, pour the broth on it, and garnish the fish with sippets, strow on fine ginger or sugar, wipe the edge of the dish round, and serve it.

To Boil a Pike in the French Fashion, a-la-Sauces d’Almaigne, or in the German Fashion.
Take a pike, draw him, dress the rivet, and cut him in three pieces, boil him in as much wine as water, & some lemon-peel, with the liquor boils put in the fish with a good handful of salt, and boil him up quick. Then have a sauce made of beaten butter, water, the slices of two or three lemons, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some grated nutmeg; the pike being boiled dish it on fine sippets, and stick it with some fried bread run it over with the sauce, some barberries or lemon, and garnish the dish with some pared and slic’t ginger, barberries, and lemon peel.

To boil a Pike in the City Fashion.
Take a live male pike, draw him and slit the rivet, wash him clean from the blood, and lay him in a dish or tray, then put some salt and vinegar to it, (or no vinegar; but only salt); then set on a kettle with some water & salt, & when it boils put in the pike, boil it softly, and being boiled, take it off the fire, and put a little butter into the kettle to it, then make a sauce with beaten butter, the juyce of a lemon or two, grape verjuyce or wine-vinegar, dish up the pike on fine carved sippets, and pour on the sauce, garnish the fish with scalded parsley, large mace barberries, slic’t lemon, and lemon-peel, and garnish the dish with the same.

To stew a Pike in the French Fashion.
Take a pike, splat it down the back alive, and let the liquor boil before you put it in, then take a large deep dish or stewing pan that will contain the pike, put as much claret-wine as will cover it, & wash off the blood take out the pike, and put to the wine in the dish three or four slic’t onions, four blades of large mace, gross pepper, & salt; when it boils put in the pike, cover it close, & being stewed down, dish it up in a clean scowred dish with carved sippets round abound it, pour on the broth it was stewed in all over it, with the spices and onions, and put some slic’t lemon over all, with some lemon-peel; run it over with beaten butter, and garnish the dish with dry grated manchet. Thus you may also stew it with the scales on or off. Sometimes for change use horse-raddish.

To stew a Pike otherways in the City Fashion.
Take a pike, splat it, and lay it in a dish, when the blood is clean washed out, put to it as much white-wine as will cover it, and set it a stewing; when it boils put in the fish, scum it, and put to it some large mace, whole cinamon, and some salt, being finely stewed dish it on sippets finely carved. Then thicken the broth with two or three egg yolks, some thick cream, sugar, and beaten butter, give it a warm and pour it on the pike, with some boil’d currans, and boil’d prunes laid all over it, as also mace, cinamon, some knots of barberries, and slic’t lemon, garnish the dish with the same garnish, and scrape on fine sugar. In this way you may do Carp, Bream, Barbel, Chevin, Rochet, Gurnet, Conger, Tench, Pearch, Bace, or Mullet.

To hash a Pike.
Scale and bone it, then mince it with a good fresh eel, being also boned and flayed, put to it some sweet herbs fine stripped and minced small, beaten nutmeg, mace, ginger, pepper, and salt; stew it in a dish with a little white wine and sweet butter, being well stewed, serve it on fine carved sippets, and lay on some great stewed oysters, some fryed in batter, some green with juyce of spinage, other yellow with saffron, garnish the dish with them, and run it over with beaten butter.

To souce a Pike.
Draw and wash it clean from the blood and slime, then boil it in water and salt, when the liquor boils put it to it, and boil it leisurely simmering, season it pretty savory of the salt, boil it not too much, nor in more water then will but just cover it. If you intend to keep it long, put as much white-wine as water, of both as much as will cover the fish, some wine vinegar, slic’t ginger, large mace, cloves, and some salt; when it boils put in the fish, spices, and some lemon-peel, boil it up quick but not too much; then take it up into a tray, and boil down the liquor to a jelly, lay some slic’t lemon on it, pour on the liquor, and cover it up close; when you serve it in jelly, dish and melt some of the jelly, and run it all over, garnish it with bunches of barberries and slic’t lemon. Or being soust and not jellied, serve it with fennil and parsley. When you serve it, you may lay round the dish divers Small Fishes, as Tench, Pearch, Gurnet, Chevin, Roach, Smelts, and run them over with jelly.

To souce and jelly Pike, Eeel, Tench, Salmon, Conger, &c.
Scale the foresaid fishes, being scal’d, cleansed and boned, season them with nutmeg and salt, or no spices at all, roul them up and bind them like brawn, being first rouled in a clean white cloth close bound up round it, boil them in water, white-wine, and salt, but first let the pan or vessel boil, put it in and scum it, then put in some large mace and slic’t ginger. If you will only souce them boil them not down so much; if to jelly them, put to them some ising-glass, and serve them in collars whole standing in the jelly.

Otherways to souce and jelly the foresaid Fishes.
Make jelly of three tenches, three perches, and two carps, scale them, wash out the blood, and soak them in fair water three or four hours, leave no fat on them, then put them in a large pipkin with as much fair spring water as will cover them, or as many pints as pound of fish, put to it some ising-glass, and boil it close covered till two parts and a half be wasted.

Then take it off and strain it, let it cool, and being cold take off the fat on the top, pare the bottom, and put the jelly into three pipkins, put three quarts of white-wine to them, and a pound and a half of double refined sugar into each pipkin; then to make one red put a quarter of an ounce of whole cinamon, two races of ginger, two nutmegs, two or three cloves, and a little piece of turnsole dry’d, the dust rubbed out and steep’d in some claret-wine, put some of the wine into the jelly. To make another yellow, put a little saffron-water, nutmeg, as much cinamon as to the red jelly, and a race of ginger sliced.

To the white put three blades of large mace, a race of ginger slic’t, then set the jelly on the fire till it be melted, then have fiveteen whites of eggs beaten, and four pound and a half of refined sugar, beat amongst the eggs, being first beaten to fine powder; then divide the sugar and eggs equally into the three foresaid pipkins, stir it amongst the sugar very well, set them on the fire to stew, but not to boil up till you are ready to run it; let each pipkin cool a little before you run it, put a rosemary branch in each bag, and wet the top of your bags, wring them before you run them, and being run, put some into orange rinds, some into scollop shells, or lemon rindes in halves, some into egg shells or muscle shells, or in moulds for Jellies. Or you may make four colours, and mix some of the jelly with almonds-milk.

You may dish the foresaid jellies on a pie-plate on a great dish in four quarters, and in the middle a lemon finely carved or cut into branches, hung with jellies, and orange peels, and almond jellies round about; then lay on a quarter of the white jelly on one quarter of the plate, another of red, and another of amber-jelly, the other whiter on another quarter, and about the outside of the plate of all the colours one by another in the rindes of oranges and lemons, and for the quarters, four scollop shells of four several colours, and dish it as the former.

Pike Jelly otherways.
Take a good large pike, draw it, wash out the blood, and cut it in pieces, then boil it in a gallon or 6 quarts of fair spring water, with half a pound of ising-glass close covered, being first clean scum’d, boil it on a soft fire till half be wasted; then strain the stock or broth into a clean bason or earthen pan, and being cold pare the bottom and top from the fat and dregs, put it in a pipkin and set it over the fire, melt it, and put it to the juyce of eight or nine lemons, a quart of white-wine, a race of ginger pared and slic’t, three or four blades of large mace, as much whole cinamon, and a grain of musk and ambergriese tied up in a fine clean clout.

Then beat fifteen whites of eggs, and put to them in a bason four pound of double refined sugar first beaten to fine powder, stir it with the eggs with a rouling pin, and then put it among the jelly in the pipkin, stir them well together, and set it a stewing on a soft charcoal fire, let it stew there, but not boil up but one warm at least, let it stew an hour, then take it off and let it cool a little, run it through your jelly-bag, put a sprig of rosemary in the bottom of the bag, and being run, cast it into moulds. Amongst some of it put some almond milk or make it in other colours as aforesaid.

To make White Jelly of two Pikes.
Take two good handsome pikes, scale and draw them, and wash them clean from the blood, then put to them six quarts of good white-wine, and an ounce of ising-glass, boil them in a good large pipkin to a jelly, being clean scummed, then strain it and blow off the fat. Then take a quart of sweet cream, a quart of the jelly, a pound and a half of double refined sugar fine beaten, and a quarter of a pint of rose-water, put all together in a clean bason, and give them a warm on the fire, with half an ounce of fine searsed ginger, then set it a cooling, dish it into dice-work, or cast it into moulds and some other coloured Jellies. Or in place of cream put in almond-milk.

To roast a Pike.
Take a pike, scour off the slime, and take out the entrails, lard the back with pickled herrings, (you must have a sharp bodkin to make the holes to lard it) then take some great oysters and claret-wine, season the oysters with pepper and nutmeg, stuff the belly with oysters, and intermix the stuffing with rosemary, tyme, winter savory, sweet marjoram, a little onion, and garlick, sow these in the belly of the pike.

Then prepare two sticks about the breadth of a lath, (these two sticks and the spit must be as broad as the pike being tied on the spit) tie the pike on winding packthred about it, tye also along the side of the pike which is not defended by the spit and the laths, rosemary, and bays, baste the pike with butter and claret wine with some anchoves dissolved in it; when the pike is wasted or roasted, take it off, rip up the belly, and take out the whole herbs quite away, boil up the gravy, dish the pike, put the wine to it, and some beaten butter.

To fry Pikes.
Draw them, wash off the slime and the blood clean, wipe them dry with a clean cloth, flour them, and fry them in clarifi’d butter, being fried crisp and stiff, make sauce with beaten butter, slic’t lemon, nutmeg, and salt, beaten up thick with a little fried parsley. Or with beaten butter, nutmeg, a little claret, salt, and slic’t orange. Otherways, oyster-liquor, a little claret, beaten butter, slic’t orange, and nutmeg, rub the dish with a clove of garlick, give the sauce a warm, and garnish the fish with slic’t lemon or orange and barberries. Small pikes are best to fry.

To fry a Pike otherways.
The pike being scalded and splatted, hack the white or inside with a knife, and it will be ribbed, then fry it brown and crisp in clarified butter, being fried, take it up, drain all the butter from it, and wipe the pan clean, then put it again into the pan with claret, slic’t ginger, nutmeg, an anchove, salt, and saffron beat, fry it till it half be consumed, then put in a piece of butter, shake it well together with a minced lemon or slic’t orange, and dish it, garnish it with lemon, and rub the dish with a clove of garlick.

To broil a Pike.
Take a pike, draw it & scale it, broil it whole, splat it or scotch it with your knife, wash out the blood clean, and lay it on a clean cloth, salt it, and heat the gridiron very hot, broil it on a soft fire, baste it with butter, and turn it often; being finely broil’d, serve it in a dish with beaten butter, and wine-vinegar, or juyce of lemons or oranges, and garnish the fish with slices of oranges or lemons, and bunches of rosemary.

Otherways. Take a pike, as abovesaid, being drawn, wash it clean, dry it, and put it in a dish with some good sallet oyl, wine vinegar, and salt, there let it steep the space of half an hour, then broil it on a soft fire, turn it and baste it often with some fine streight sprigs of rosemary, parsley, and tyme, baste it out of the dish where the oyl and vinegar is; then the pike being finely broil’d, dish it in a clean dish, put the same basting to it being warmed on the coals, lay the herbs round the dish, with some orange or lemon slices.

To broil Mackarel or Horn kegg.
Draw the Mackarel at the gills, and wash them, then dry them, and salt and broil them with mints, and green fennil on a soft fire, and baste them with butter, or oyl and vinegar, and being finely broil’d, serve them with beaten butter and vinegar, or oyl and vinegar, with rosemary, time, and parsley; or other sauce, beaten butter, and slices of lemon or orange.

To broil Herrings, Pilchards, or Sprats.
Gill them, wash and dry them, salt and baste them with butter, broil them on a soft fire, and being broi’ld serve them with beaten butter, mustard, and pepper, or beaten butter and lemon; other sauce, take the heads and bruise them in a dish with beer and salt, put the clearest to the herrings.

To bake Pikes.
Bake your pikes as you do carp, as you may see in the foregoing Section, only remember that small pikes are best to bake.