Codfish
Product Description
This recipe is taken directly from the book, "The Complete Cook Book" by Janie Day Rees. Published in New York by Street & Smith, circa 1900. There was not much left of this book when it came into my possession. I am considering placing these recipes here to be a 'rescue mission.'
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Codfish.
One does not need a fish kettle to boil fish properly, but it is rarely sent to the table whole, yet tender, even by a cook who has her kitchen cupboard stocked with every convenience. On Friday next try boil cod with oyster sauce, and if the following recipe is carefully followed the family will not be aware that they are not indulging in halibut, which costs more than double. Cod carelessly boiled and without proper sauce is woolly and tasteless, but with care is just the reverse. If a fish kettle is not at hand, a plate in the bottom of an ordinary large saucepan will answer the purpose. The cod is then sewed or fastened with safety pins in a piece of cheese cloth, which should be washed out after use and kept for this purpose; the edges are to be sewn together, as there must be only one thickness over the fish. The fish is first washed in very cold water, placed in the cloth on the plate, covered with boiling salted water, ten minutes, exactly, allowed to each pound, then simmered surely but slowly. When the cloth is removed the fish will be in good shape and ready for the sauce to be thrown over. The latter is to be prepared whole the fish is cooking by stirring a tablespoonful of sifted flour into one of boiling butter, then adding gradually to this half a pint each of hot milk and oyster juice; when this is smooth the oysters are stirred in, pepper and salt to taste added, and as soon as the oysters begin to curl at the edges the sauce is completed. For a change, the oysters may be omitted, and boiled shrimps or chopped parsley added to the sauce instead.
-----------
Codfish.
One does not need a fish kettle to boil fish properly, but it is rarely sent to the table whole, yet tender, even by a cook who has her kitchen cupboard stocked with every convenience. On Friday next try boil cod with oyster sauce, and if the following recipe is carefully followed the family will not be aware that they are not indulging in halibut, which costs more than double. Cod carelessly boiled and without proper sauce is woolly and tasteless, but with care is just the reverse. If a fish kettle is not at hand, a plate in the bottom of an ordinary large saucepan will answer the purpose. The cod is then sewed or fastened with safety pins in a piece of cheese cloth, which should be washed out after use and kept for this purpose; the edges are to be sewn together, as there must be only one thickness over the fish. The fish is first washed in very cold water, placed in the cloth on the plate, covered with boiling salted water, ten minutes, exactly, allowed to each pound, then simmered surely but slowly. When the cloth is removed the fish will be in good shape and ready for the sauce to be thrown over. The latter is to be prepared whole the fish is cooking by stirring a tablespoonful of sifted flour into one of boiling butter, then adding gradually to this half a pint each of hot milk and oyster juice; when this is smooth the oysters are stirred in, pepper and salt to taste added, and as soon as the oysters begin to curl at the edges the sauce is completed. For a change, the oysters may be omitted, and boiled shrimps or chopped parsley added to the sauce instead.
