Part 59 (1/2)
Take four large carps, scale them & wipe off the slime clean, bone them, and cut each side into two pieces of every carp, then have four large fresh water eels, fat ones, boned, flayed, and cut in as many pieces as the carps, season them with nutmeg, pepper, and salt; then have a pye ready, either round or square, put b.u.t.ter in the bottom of it, then lay a lay of eel, and a lay of carp upon that, and thus do till you have ended; then lay on some large mace and whole cloves on the top, some sliced nutmeg, sliced ginger, and b.u.t.ter, close it up and bake it, being baked and cold, fill it up with clarified b.u.t.ter.
_Otherways._
Take eight carps, scale and bone them, sc.r.a.pe and wash off the slime, wipe them dry, and mince them very fine, then have four good fresh water eels, flay and bone them, and cut them into lard as big as your finger, then have pepper, cloves, mace, and ginger severally beaten and mingled with some salt, season the fish and also the eels, cut into lard; then make a pye according to this form, lay some b.u.t.ter in the bottom of the pye, then a lay of carp upon the b.u.t.ter, so fill it, close it up and bake it.
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 sea.r.s.ed, or ginger fine beaten, then beat up the sauce, with half a pound of b.u.t.ter, 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 b.u.t.ter. 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 b.u.t.ter, 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 sea.r.s.ed 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 c.o.c.kles broiled or boiled out of the sh.e.l.ls and washed with vinegar, a f.a.ggot of sweet herbs, the liver stamped and put to it, and horse raddish sc.r.a.ped or slic't, boil all the foresaid together, dish the pike on sippets, and beat up the sauce with some good sweet b.u.t.ter 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 quant.i.ty, 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 f.a.ggot, 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 b.u.t.ter, 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 b.u.t.ter, and lay on some barberries or grapes.
Sometimes for change you may put some horse-raddish sc.r.a.ped, or the juyce of it.
_To boil a Pike in White Broth._