Cat Fish Soup
Product Description
This recipe (and its variations Eel Soup) is taken from the book, "Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery" by Marion Harland. Published in Toronto by Rose Publishing Company, circa 1900.
Cat Fish Soup.
Few persons are aware into what a variety of tempting dishes this much-abused fish can be made. Those who have only seen the bloated, unsightly creatures that play the scavengers about city wharves, are excusable for entertaining a prejudice against them as an article of food. But the small catfish of our inland lakes and streams are altogether respectable, except in their unfortunate name.
6 cat fish, in average weight half a pound apiece.
1/2 lb. salt pork.
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
1 head of celery, or a small bag of celery seed.
Skin and clean the fish and cut them up. Chop the pork into small pieces. Put these together into the pot, with two quarts of water, chopped sweet herbs and the celery seasoning. Boil for an hour, or until fish and pork are in rags, and strain, if you desire a regular soup for a first course. Return to the saucepan and add the milk, which should be already hot. Next the eggs, beaten to a froth, and a lump of butter the size of a walnut. Boil up once, and serve with dice of toasted bread on the top. Pass sliced lemon, or walnut or butternut pickles with it.
Eel Soup.
Eel soup is made in precisely the same manner as cat-fish, only boiled longer. A chopped onion is no detriment to the flavor of either, and will remove the muddy taste which these fish sometimes acquire from turbid streams.
Cat Fish Soup.
Few persons are aware into what a variety of tempting dishes this much-abused fish can be made. Those who have only seen the bloated, unsightly creatures that play the scavengers about city wharves, are excusable for entertaining a prejudice against them as an article of food. But the small catfish of our inland lakes and streams are altogether respectable, except in their unfortunate name.
6 cat fish, in average weight half a pound apiece.
1/2 lb. salt pork.
1 pint milk.
2 eggs.
1 head of celery, or a small bag of celery seed.
Skin and clean the fish and cut them up. Chop the pork into small pieces. Put these together into the pot, with two quarts of water, chopped sweet herbs and the celery seasoning. Boil for an hour, or until fish and pork are in rags, and strain, if you desire a regular soup for a first course. Return to the saucepan and add the milk, which should be already hot. Next the eggs, beaten to a froth, and a lump of butter the size of a walnut. Boil up once, and serve with dice of toasted bread on the top. Pass sliced lemon, or walnut or butternut pickles with it.
Eel Soup.
Eel soup is made in precisely the same manner as cat-fish, only boiled longer. A chopped onion is no detriment to the flavor of either, and will remove the muddy taste which these fish sometimes acquire from turbid streams.
