Part 62 (1/2)

_To souce Mullets or Bace._

Draw them & boil them with the scales, but first wash them clean, & lay them in a dish with some salt, cast upon them some slic't ginger, & large mace, put some wine vinegar to them, and two or three cloves; then set on the fire a kettle with as much wine as water, when the pan boils put in the fish and some salt; boil it with a soft fire, & being finely boiled and whole, take them up with a false bottom and 2 wires all together. If you will jelly them, boil down the liquor to a jelly with a piece of ising-gla.s.s; being boil'd to a jelly, pour it on the fish, spices and all into an earthen flat bottomed pan, cover it up close, and when you dish the fish, serve it with some of the jelly on it, garnish the dish with slic't ginger and mace, and serve with it in saucers wine vinegar, minc't fennil and slic't ginger; garnish the dish with green fennil and flowers, and parsley on the fish.

_To marinate Mullets or Bace._

Scale the mullets, draw them, and sc.r.a.pe off the slime, wash & dry them with a clean cloth, flour them and fry them in the best sallet oyl you can get, fry them in a frying pan or in a preserving pan, but first before you put in the fish to fry, make the oyl very hot, fry them not too much, but crisp and stiff; being clear, white, and fine fryed, lay them by in an earthen pan or charger till they be all fry'd, lay them in a large flat bottom'd pan that they may lie by one another, and upon one another at length, and pack them close; then make pickle for them with as much wine vinegar as will cover them the breadth of a finger, boil in it a pipkin with salt, bay-leaves, sprigs or tops of rosemary, sweet marjoram, time, savory, and parsley, a quarter of a handful of each, and whole pepper; give these things a warm or two on the fire, pour it on the fish, and cover it close hot; then slice 3 or 4 lemons being par'd, save the peels, and put them to the fish, strow the slices of lemon over the fish with the peels, and keep them close covered for your use. If this fish were barrel'd up, it would keep as long as sturgeon, put half wine vinegar, and half white-wine, the liquor not boil'd, nor no herbs in the liquor, but fry'd bay-leaves, slic't nutmegs, whole cloves, large mace, whole pepper, and slic't ginger; pack the fishes close, and once a month turn the head of the vessel downward; will keep half a year without barrelling.

Marinate these fishes following as the mullet; _viz_, Bace, Soals, Plaice, Flounders, Dabs, Pike, Carp, Bream, Pearch, Tench, Wivers, Trouts, Smelts, Gudgeons, Mackarel, Turbut, Holly-bur, Gurnet, Roachet, Conger, Oysters, Scollops, c.o.c.kles, Lobsters, Prawns, Crawfish, Muscles, Snails, Mushrooms, Welks, Frogs.

_To marinate Bace, Mullet, Gurnet, or Rochet otherways._

Take a gallon of vinegar, a quart of fair water, a good handful of bay-leaves, as much of rosemary, and a quarter of a pound of pepper beaten, put these together, and let them boil softly, season it with a little salt, then fry your fish in special good sallet oyl, being well clarifi'd, the fish being fryed put them in an earthen vessel or barrel, lay the bay-leaves, and rosemary between every layer of the fish, and pour the broth upon it, when it is cold close up the vessel; thus you may use it to serve hot or cold, and when you dish it to serve, garnish it with slic't lemon, the peel and barberries.

_To broil Mullet, Bace, or Bream._

Take a mullet; draw it, and wash it clean, broil it with the scales on, or without scales, and lay it in a dish with some good sallet oyl, wine vinegar, salt, some sprigs of rosemary, time, and parsley, then heat the gridiron, and lay on the fish, broil it on a soft fire, on the embers, and baste it with the sauce it was steep'd in, being broiled serve it in a clean warm dish with the sauce it was steeped in, the herbs on it, and about the dish, cast on salt, and so serve it with slices of orange, lemon, or barberries.

Or broil it in b.u.t.ter and vinegar with herbs as above-said, and make sauce with beaten b.u.t.ter and vinegar.

Or beaten b.u.t.ter and juyce of lemon and orange.

Sometimes for change, with grape verjuyce, juyce of sorrel, beaten b.u.t.ter and the herbs.

_To fry Mullets._

Scale, draw, and scotch them, wash them clean, wipe them dry and flour them, fry them in clarified b.u.t.ter, and being fried, put them in a dish, put to them some claret wine, slic't ginger, grated nutmeg, an anchove, salt, and some sweet b.u.t.ter beat up thick, give the fish a warm with a minced lemon, and dish it, but first rub the dish with a clove of garlick.

The least Mullets are the best to fry.

_To bake a Mullet or Bace._

Scale, garbidge, wash and dry the Mullet very well, then lard it with a salt eel, season it, and make a pudding for it with grated bread, sweet herbs, and some fresh eel minced, put also the yolks of hard eggs, an anchove wash'd & minc'd very small, some nutmeg, & salt, fill the belly or not fill it at all, but cut it into quarters or three of a side, and season them with nutmeg, ginger, and pepper, lay them in your pie, and make b.a.l.l.s and lay them upon the pieces of Mullet, then put on some capers, prawns, or c.o.c.kles, yolks of eggs minced, b.u.t.ter, large mace, and barberries, close it up, and being bak'd cut up the lid, and stick it full of cuts of paste, lozenges, or other pretty garnish, fill it up with beaten b.u.t.ter, and garnish it with slic't lemon.

Or you may bake it in a patty pan with better paste than that which is made for pyes.

This is a very good way for tench or bream.

SECTION XVI.

or,