Books Index  ~  Accomplisht Cook or The Art & Mystery of Cookery by Robert May

Section XVII.

OR, The Fifth Section of FISH.

Shewing the best way to Dress Eels, Conger, Lump, and Soals.

To boil Eels to be eaten hot.

Draw them, flay them, and wipe them clean, then put them in a posnet or stew-pan, cut them three inches long, and put to them some white-wine, white-wine vinegar, a little fair water, salt, large mace, and a good big onion stew the foresaid together with a little butter; being finely stewed and tender, dish them on carved sippets, or on slices of French bread, and serve them with boil’d currans boil’d by themselves, slic’t lemon, barberries, and scrape on sugar.

Otherways.

Draw and flay them, cut them into pieces, and boil them in a little fair water, white-wine, an anchove, some oyster-liquor, large mace, two or three cloves bruised, salt, spinage, sorrel, and parsley grosly minced with a little onion and pepper, dish them upon fine carved sippets; then broth them with a little of that broth, and  beat up a lear with some good butter, the yolk of an egg or two, and the rinde and slices of a lemon.

To stew Eels.

Flay them, cut them into pieces, and put them into a skillet with butter, verjuyce, and fair water as much as will cover them, some large mace, pepper, a quarter of a pound of currans, two or three onions, three or four spoonfuls of yeast, and a bundle of sweet herbs, stew all these together till the fish be very tender, then dish them, and put to the broth a quarter of a pound of butter, a little salt, and sugar, pour it on the fish, sippet it, and serve it hot.

To stew Eels in an Oven.

Cut them in pieces, being drawn and flayed, then season them with pepper, salt, and a few sweet herbs chopped small, put them into an earthen pot, and set them up on end, put to them four or five cloves of garlick, and two or three spoonfulls of fair water, bake them, and serve them on sippets.

To stew Eels otherways to be eaten hot.

Draw the eels, flay them, and cut them into pieces three inches long, then put them into a broad mouthed pipkin with as much white-wine and water as will cover them put to them some stripped tyme, sweet marjoram, savory, picked parsley, and large mace, stew them well together and serve them on fine sippets, stick bay-leaves round the dish garnish the meat with slic’t lemon, and the dish with fine grated manchet.

To stew whole Eels to be eaten hot.

Take three good eels, draw, flay them, and truss them round, (or in pieces,) then have a quart of white-wine,  three half pints of wine-vinegar, a quart of water, some salt, and a handful of rosemary and tyme bound up hard, when the liquor boils put in the eels with some whole pepper, and large mace; being boil’d, serve them with some of the broth, beat up thick with some good butter and slic’t lemon, dish them on sippets with some grapes, barberries, or gooseberries.

Otherways.

Take three good eels, draw, flay, and scotch them with your knife, truss them round, or cut them in pieces, and fry them in clarified butter, then stew them between two dishes, put to them some two or three spoonfuls of claret or white-wine, some sweet butter, two or three slices of an orange, some salt, and slic’t nutmeg; stew all well together, dish them, pour on the sauce, and run it over with beaten butter, and slices of fresh orange, and put fine sippets round the dish.

To dress Eels in Stoffado.

Take two good eels, draw, flay them, and cut them in pieces three inches long, put to them half as much claret wine as will cover them, or white-wine, wine-vinegar, or elder-vinegar, some whole cloves, large mace, gross pepper, slic’t ginger, salt, four or five cloves of garlick, being put into a pipkin that will contain it, put to them also three or four sprigs of sweet herbs, as rosemary, tyme, or sweet marjoram; 2 or 3 bay leaves, and some parsley; cover up the pipkin, and paste the cover, then stew it in an oven, in one hour it will be baked, serve it hot for dinner or supper on fine sippets of French bread, and the spices upon it, the herbs, slic’t lemon, and lemon-peel, and run it over with beaten butter.

To souce Eels in Collars.

Take a good large silver eel, flay it (or not) take out the back bone, and wash and wipe away the blood with a dry cloth, then season it with beaten nutmeg and salt, cut off the head and roul in the tail; being seasoned in the in side, bind it up in a fine white cloth close and streight; then have a large skillet or pipkin, put in it some fair water and white wine, of each a like quantity, and some salt, when it boils put in the eel; being boil’d tender take it up, and let it cool, when it is almost cold keep it in sauce for your use in a pipkin close covered, and when you will serve it take it out of the cloth, pare it, and dish it in a clean dish or plate, with a sprig of rosemary in the middle of the Collar: Garnish the dish with jelly, barberries and lemon.

If you will have it jelly, put in a piece of ising-glass after the eel is taken up, and boil the liquor down to a jelly.

To jelly Eels otherways.

Flay an eel, and cut it into rouls, wash it clean from the blood, and boil it in a dish with some white-wine, and white-wine vinegar, as much water as wine and vinegar, and no more of the liquor than will just cover it; being tender boil’d with a little salt, take it up and boil down the liquor with a piece of ising-glass, a blade of mace, a little juyce of orange and sugar; then the eel being dished, run the clearest of the jelly over it.

To souce Eels otherways in Collars.

Take two fair eels, flay them, and part them down the back, take out the back-bone, then take tyme, parsley, & sweet marjoram, mince them small, and mingle them with nutmeg, ginger, pepper, and salt; then strow it on  the inside of the eels, then roul them up like a collar of brawn, and put them in a clean cloth, bind the ends of the cloth, and boil them tender with vinegar, white-wine, salt, and water, but let the liquor boil before you put in the Eels.

To souce Eels otherways in a Collar or Roll.

Take a large great eel, and scowr it with a handful of salt, then split it down the back, take out the back bone and the guts, wipe out the blood clean, and season the eel with pepper, nutmeg, salt, and some sweet herbs minced and strowed upon it, roul it up, and bind it up close with packthred like a collar of brawn, boil it in water, salt, vinegar, and two or three blades of mace, boil it half an hour; and being boil’d, put to it a slic’t lemon, and keep it in the same liquor; when you serve it, serve it in a collar or cut it out in round slices, lay six or seven in a dish, and garnish it in the dish with parsley and barberries, or serve with it vinegar in saucers.

To souce Eels otherways cut in pieces, or whole.

Take two or three great eels, scowr them in salt, draw them and wash them clean, cut them in equal pieces three inches long, and scotch them cross on both sides, put them in a dish with wine-vinegar, and salt; then have a kettle over the fire with fair water and a bundle of sweet herbs 2 or three great onions, and some large mace; when the kettle boils put in the eels, wine, vinegar, and salt; being finely boil’d and tender, drain them from the liquor and when they are cold take some of the broth and a pint of white wine, boil it up with some saffron beaten to powder, or it will not colour the wine; then take out the spices of the liquor where it was boiled   and put it in the last broth made for it, leave out the onions and herbs of the first broth, and keep it in the last.

To make a Hash of Eels.

Take a good large eel or two, flay, draw, and wash them, bone and mince them, then season them with cloves and mace, mix with them some good large oysters, a whole onion, salt, a little white-wine, and an anchove, stew them upon a soft fire, and serve them on fine carved sippets, garnish them with some slic’t orange and run them over with beaten butter thickned with the yolk of an egg or two, some grated nutmeg, and juyce of orange.

To make a Spitch-Cock, or broil’d Eels.

Take a good large eel, splat it down the back, and joynt the back-bone; being drawn, and the blood washed out, leave on the skin, and cut it in four pieces equally, salt them, and bast them with butter, or oyl and vinegar; broil them on a soft fire, and being finely broil’d, serve them in a clean dish, with beaten butter and juyce of lemon, or beaten butter, and vinegar, with sprigs of rosemary round about them.

To broil salt Eels.

Take a salt eel and boil it tender, being flayed and trust round with scuers, boil it tender on a soft fire, then broil it brown, and serve it in a clean dish with two or three great onions boil’d whole and tender, and then broil’d brown; serve them on the eel with oyl and mustard in saucers.

To roast an Eel.

Cut it three inches long, being first flayed and drawn, split it, put it on a small spit, & roast it, set a dish under  it to save the gravy, and roast it fine and brown, then make sauce with the gravy, a little vinegar, salt, pepper, a clove or two, and a little grated parmisan, or old English cheese, or a little botargo grated; the eel being roasted, blow the fat off the gravy, and put to it a piece of sweet butter, shaking it well together with some salt, put it in a clean dish, lay the eel on it, and some slices of oranges.

To roast Eels otherways.

Take a good large silver eel, draw it, and flay it in pieces of four inches long, spit it on a small spit with some bay-leaves, or large sage leaves between each piece spit it cross ways, and roast it; being roasted, serve it with beaten butter, beaten with juyce of oranges, lemons, or elder vinegar, and beaten nutmeg, or serve it with venison sauce, and dredge it with beaten caraway-seed, cinamon, flour, or grated bread.

To bake Eels in Pye, Dish or Patty-pan.

Take good fresh water eels, draw, and flay them, cut them in pieces, and season them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, lay them in a pye with some prunes, currans, grapes, gooseberries, or barberries, large mace, slic’t dates and butter, close it up and bake it, being baked, liquor it with white-wine, sugar, and butter, and ice it.

If you bake it in a dish in paste, bake it in cold butter paste, rost the eel, & let it be cold, season it with nutmeg pepper, ginger, cinamon, and salt, put butter on the paste, and lay on the eel with a few sweet herbs chopped, and grated bisket-bread, grapes, currans, dates, large mace, and butter, close it up and bake it, liquor it, and ice it.

Otherways.

Take good fresh water eels; flay and draw them, season   them with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, being cut in pieces, lay them in the pie, and put to them some two or three onions in quaters, some butter, large mace, grapes, barberries or gooseberries, close them up and bake them; being baked liquor them with beaten butter, beat up thick with the yolks of two eggs, and slices of an orange.

Sometimes you may bake them with a minced onion, some raisins of the sun, and season them with some ginger, pepper, and salt.

To bake Eels otherways.

Take half a douzen good eels, flay them and take out the bones, mince them and season them with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, lay some butter in the pye, and lay a lay of Eel, and a lay of watred salt Eel, cut into great lard as big as your finger, lay a lay of it, and another of minced eel, thus lay six or seven lays, and on the top lay on some whole cloves, slic’t nutmeg, butter, and some slices of salt eel, close it up and bake it, being baked fill it up with some clarified butter, and close the vent. Make your pye round according to this form.

To bake Eels with Tenches in a round or square Pie to eat cold.

Take four good large eels, flayed and boned, and six good large tenches, scale, splat, and bone them, cut off the heads and fins, as also of the eels; cut both eels, and tenches a handful long, & season them with pepper, salt and nutmeg; then lay some butter in the bottom of the pie, lay a lay of eels, and then a lay of tench, thus do five or six layings, lay on the top large mace, & whole cloves  and on that butter, close it up and bake it; being baked and cold, fill it up with clarified butter.

Or you may bake them whole, and lay them round in the pye, being flayed, boned, and seasoned as the former, bake them as you do a lampry, with two or three onions in the middle.

To make minced Pies of an Eel.

Take a fresh eel, flay it and cut off the fish from the bone, mince it small, and pare two or three wardens or pears, mince of them as much as of the eel, or oysters, temper and season them together with ginger, pepper, cloves, mace, salt, a little sanders, some currans, raisins, prunes, dates, verjuyce, butter, and rose-water.

Minced Eel Pyes otherways.

Take a good fresh water eel flay, draw, and parboil it, then mince the fish being taken from the bones, mince also some pippins, wardens, figs, some great raisins of the sun, season them with cloves, mace, pepper, salt, sugar, saffron, prunes, currans, dates on the top, whole raisins, and butter, make pies according to these forms; fill them, close them up and bake them, being baked, liquor them with grape verjuyce, slic’t lemon, butter, sugar, and white-wine.

Other minced Eel Pyes.

Take 2 or three good large eels, being cleans’d, mince them & season them with cloves, mace, pepper, nutmeg,   salt, and a good big onion in the bottom of your pye, some sweet herbs chopped, and onions, put some goosberries and butter to it, and fill your pie, close it up and bake it, being baked, liquor it with butter and verjuyce, or strong fish broth, butter, and saffron.

Otherways.

Mince some wardens or pears, figs, raisins, prunes, and season them as abovesaid with some spices, but no onions nor herbs, put to them goosberries, saffron, slic’t dates, sugar, verjuyce, rose-water, and butter; then make pyes according to these forms, fill them and bake them, being baked, liquor them with white batter, white-wine and sugar, and ice them.

To boil Conger to be eaten hot.

Take a piece of conger being scalded and wash’d from the blood and slime, lay it in vinegar & salt, with a slice or two of lemon, and some large mace, slic’t ginger, and two or three cloves, then set some liquor a boiling in a pan or kettle, as much wine and water as will cover it when the liquor boils put in the fish, with the spices, and salt, and when it is boil’d put in the lemon, and serve the fish on fine carved sippets; then make a lear or sauce with beaten butter, beat with juyce of oranges or lemons, serve it with slic’t lemon on it, slic’t ginger and barberries; and garnish it with the same.

To stew Conger.

Take a piece of conger, and cut it into pieces as big as a hens egg, put them in a stew-pan or two deep dishes with some large mace, salt, pepper, slic’t nutmeg, some white-wine, wine vinegar, as much water, butter, and slic’t ginger, stew these well together, and serve them on sippets with slic’t orange, lemon, and barberries, and run them over with beaten butter.

To marinate Conger.

Scald and draw it, cut it into pieces, and fry it in the best sallet oyl you can get; being fried put it in a little barrel that will contain it; then have some fryed bay-leaves, large mace, slic’t ginger, and a few whole cloves, lay these between the fish, put to it white-wine, vinegar, and salt, close up the head, and keep it for your use.

To souce Conger.

Take a good fat conger, draw it at two several, vents or holes, being first scalded and the fins shaved off, cut it into three or four pieces, then have a pan of fair water, and make it boil, put in the fish, with a good quantity of salt, and let it boil very softly half an hour: being tender boil’d, set it by for your use for present spending; but to keep it long, boil it with as much wine as water, and a quart of white-wine vinegar.

To souce Conger in Collars like Brawn.

Take the fore part of a conger from the gills, splat it, and take out the bone, being first flayed and scalded, then have a good large eel or two, flay’d also and boned, seasoned in the inside with minced nutmeg, mace, and salt, seasoned and cold with the eel in the inside, bind it up hard in a clean cloth, boil it in fair water, white-wine and salt.

To roast Conger.

Take a good fat conger, draw it, wash it, and scrape off the slime, cut off the fins, and spit it like an S. draw it with rosemary and time, put some beaten nutmeg in his belly, salt, some stripped time, and some great oysters parboil’d, roast it with the skin on, and save the gravy for the sauce, boil’d up with a little claret-wine, beaten butter, wine vinegar, and an anchove or two, the fat blown off, and beat up thick with some sweet butter, two or three slices of an orange, and elder vinegar.

Or roast it in short pieces, and spit it with bay-leaves between, stuck with rosemary. Or make venison sauce, and instead of roasting it on a spit, roast it in an oven.

To broil Conger.

Take a good fat conger being scalded and cut into pieces; salt them, and broil them raw; or you may broil them being first boiled and basted with butter, or steeped in oyl and vinegar, broil them raw, and serve them with the same sauce you steeped them in, bast them with rosemary, time, and parsley, and serve them with the sprigs of those herbs about them, either in beaten butter, vinegar, or oyl and vinegar, and the foresaid herbs: or broil the pieces splatted like a spitch-cock of an eel, with the skin on it.

To fry Conger.

Being scalded, and the fins shaved off, splat it, cut it into rouls round the conger, flour it, and fry it in clarified butter crisp, sauce it with butter beaten with vinegar, juyce of orange or lemon, and serve it with fryed parsley, fryed ellicksanders, or clary in butter.

To bake Conger in Pasty proportion.

In Pye Proportion.

Bake it any way of the sturgeon, as you may see in the next Section, to be eaten either hot or cold, and make your pies according to these forms.

To stew a Lump.

Take it either flayed (or not) and boil it, being splated in a dish with some white-wine, a large mace or two, salt, and a whole onion, stew them well together, and dish them on fine sippets, run it over with some beaten butter, beat up with two or three slices of an orange, and some of the gravy of the fish, run it over the lump, and garnish the meat with slic’t lemon, grapes, barberries, or gooseberries.

To bake a Lump.

Take a lump, and cut it into pieces, skin and all, or flay it, and part it in two pieces of a side, season it with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and lay it in the pye, lay on it a bay-leaf or two, three or four blades of large mace, the slices of an orange, gooseberries, grapes, barberries, and butter, close it up and bake it, being baked liquor it with beaten butter.

Thus you make bake it in a dish, pye, or patty-pan.

To boil Soals.

Draw and flay them, then boil them in vinegar, salt, white-wine and mace, but let the liquor boil before you put them in; being finely boil’d, take them up and dish them in a clean dish on fine carved sippets, garnish the fish with large mace, slic’t lemon, gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, and beat up some butter thick with juyce of oranges, white-wine, or grape verjuyce and run it over the fish. Sometimes you may put some stew’d oysters on them.

Otherways.

Take the soals, flay and draw them, and scotch one side with your knife, lay them in a dish, & pour on them some  vinegar and salt, let them lie in it half an hour, in the mean time set on the fire some water, white-wine, six cloves of garlick, and a faggot of sweet herbs; then put the fish into the boiling liquor, and the vinegar and salt where they were in steep; being boiled, take them up and drain them very well, then beat up sweet butter very thick, and mix with it some anchoves minced small, and dissolved in the butter, pour it on the fish being dished, and strow on a little grated nutmeg, and minced orange mixt in the butter.

To stew Soals.

Being flayed and scotched, draw them and half fry them, then take some claret wine, and put to it some salt, grated ginger, and a little garlick, boil this sauce in a dish, when it boils put the soals therein, and when they are sufficiently stewed upon their backs, lay the two halves open on the one side and on the other; then lay anchoves finely washed and boned all along, and on the anchoves slices of butter, then turn the two sides over again, and let them stew till they be ready to be eaten, then take them out of the sauce, and lay them on a clean dish, pour some of the liquor wherein they were stewed upon them, and squeeze on an orange.

Otherways.

Draw, flay, and scotch them, then flour them and half fry them in clarified butter, put them in a clean pewter dish, and put to them three or four spoonfuls of claret wine, two of wine vinegar, two ounces of sweet butter, two or three slices of an orange, a little grated nutmeg, and a little salt; stew them together close covered, and being well stewed dish them up in a clean dish, lay some sliced lemon on them, and some beaten butter, with juyce of oranges.

To dress Soals otherways.

Take a pair of Soals, lard them with water’d salt Salmon, then lay them on a pye-plate, and cut your lard all of an equall length, on each side lear it but short; then flour the Soals, and fry them in the best ale you can get; when they are fryed lay them on a warm dish, and put to them anchove sauce made of some of the gravy in the pan, and two or three anchoves, grated nutmeg, a little oyl or butter, and an onion sliced small, give it a warm, and pour it on them with some juyce, and two or three slices of orange.

To souce Soals.

Take them very new, and scotch them on the upper or white side very thick, not too deep, then have white-wine, wine vinegar, cloves, mace, sliced ginger, and salt, set it over the fire to boil in a kettle fit for it; then take parsley, tyme, sage, rosemary, sweet marjoram, and winter savory, the tops of all these herbs picked, in little branches, and some great onions sliced, when it boils put in all the foresaid materials with no more liquor than will just cover them, cover them close in boiling, and boil them very quick, being cold dish them in a fair dish, and serve them with sliced lemon, and lemon-peels about them and on them.

Otherways.

Draw them and wash them clean, then have a pint of fair water with as much white-wine, some wine vinegar & salt; when the pan or kettle boils, put in the soals with a clove or two, slic’t ginger, and some large mace; being boil’d and cold, serve them with the spices, some of the gravy they were boil’d in, slic’t lemon, and lemon-peel.

To jelly Soals.

Take three tenches, 2 carps, and four pearches, scale them and wash out the blood clean, then take out all the  fat, and to every pound of fish take a pint of fair spring-water or more, set the fish a boiling in a clean pipkin or pot, and when it boils scum it, and put in some ising-glass, boil it till one fourth part be wasted, then take it off and strain it through a strong canvas cloth, set it to cool, and being cold, divide it into three or four several pipkins, as much in the one as in the other, take off the bottom and the top, and to every quart of broth put a quart of white-wine, a pound and a half of refined sugar, two nutmegs, 2 races of ginger, 2 pieces of whole cinamon, a grain of musk, and 8 whites of eggs, stir them together with a rowling-pin, and equally divide it into the several pipkins amongst the jellies, set them a stewing upon a soft charcoal fire, when it boils up, run it through the jelly-bags, and pour it upon the soals.

To roast Soals.

Draw them, flay off the black skin, and dry them with a clean cloth, season them lightly with nutmeg, salt, and some sweet herbs chopped small, put them in a dish with some claret-wine and two or three anchoves the space of half an hour, being first larded with small lard of a good fresh eel, then spit them, roast them and set the wine under them, baste them with butter, and being roasted, dish them round the dish; then boil up the gravy under them with three or four slices of an orange, pour on the sauce, and lay on some slices of lemon.

Marinate, broil, fry and bake Soals according as you do Carps, as you may see in the thirteenth Section.