It
is well and truly time to start talking turkey. Or chicken. Or ham. Or pork. Or
whatever. But, perhaps you are tired of
turkey, bored with chicken, hesitant about ham, or think that pork is passé? Although you still want something formidable
(but respectable-looking) for your Christmas table? Then I have just the idea
for you today.
From
The Cook and Houswife’s Manual (8th
edn. Edinburgh, 1847) by Christian Isobel Johnstone (aka the pseudonymous
Mistress Margaret Dods), I give you ……
To
Dress a Cod's Head and Shoulders,*
Scotch Fashion.
This was a great affair
in its day. It is still a formidable, nay, even a respectable-looking dish,
with a kind of bulky magnificence, which, at Christmas-tide, appears imposing
at the head of a long board. Have a quart of good stock ready for the sauce, made
of beef or veal, seasoned with onion, carrot, and turnip. Rub the fish, (a
deep-sea or rock-cod,) with salt over night, taking off the scales, but do not
wash it. When to be dressed wash it clean, then quickly dash hot water over the
upper side, and with a blunt knife remove the slime which will ooze out, taking
great care not to break the skin. Do the same to the other side of the fish;
then place it on the drainer, wipe it clean, and plunge it into a fish-kettle
of boiling water, with a handful of salt and a half-pint of vinegar. It must be
entirely covered, and will take from thirty to forty minutes' slow boiling. Set
it to drain, slide it carefully on a deep dish, and glaze with beat eggs, over
which strew fine bread-crumbs**, grated lemon-peel, pepper, and salt. Stick
numerous bits of butter over the fish, and place it before a clear fire,
strewing more crumbs, grated lemon-peel, and minced parsley over it, and
basting with the butter. In the mean while thicken the stock with butter
kneaded in flour, and strain it, adding to it half a hundred oysters nicely
picked and bearded, and a glassful of their liquor, two glasses of Madeira or
sherry, the juice of a lemon, the hard meat of two boiled lobster cut down, and
the soft part pounded. Simmer this sauce for five minutes, and skim it well;
wipe clean the edges of the dish in which the fish is crisping, and pour the
half of the sauce around it, serving the rest in a tureen. Garnish with fried oysters, small fried flounders, pickled
samphire, or slices of lemon. Cod's head is also dressed with a brown sauce, made of the stock, or with
butter nicely browned, and a little mushroom-catsup. This sauce is generally
made more piquant than the white, by
the addition of two boned anchovies. — Obs. This Scotch mode of dressing cod is
nearly the same as the French Cabillaud a
la Sainte Menehould, only the code is then stuffed with a forcemeat either
of meat or fish. Cod may be parboiled and finished in the oven with the above
sauce. Oysters, Muscles, or Cockles, may
supply the place of Lobster.
*Cod
is in high perfection about Christmas. It comes into season about Michaelmas,
when the other large fish are going out. The Dogger-bank cod are the most
esteemed in the London market; but very excellent fish are now sent from
Orkney, and many other parts. Cod of good quality are salted in the Hebrides,
and a little has been done in Ireland; but the great supply of salted fish
still comes from Newfoundland. The best cod are such as, with good size and
shape, have yellow spots upon a pure skin. Many persons justly prefer both salt
and fresh Ling to Cod ; Tusk is much superior to either of them, but is found
in small quantities.
**
Many cooks at this stage skin cod and
haddocks. All true gourmands detest flayed fish. Where not nicely crumbed
and browned, they are absolutely horrific and spectral. -^P. T.
And
for your breakfast (or dessert?), Mistress Dods supplies this Scottish golden
oldie:-
A Scotch Christmas Bun, from Mrs.
Fraser's Cookery.
Take half a peck of
flour, keeping out a little to work it up with; make a hole in the middle of
the flour, and break in sixteen ounces of butter; pour in a mutchkin (pint) of
warm water, and three gills of yeast, and work it up into a smooth dough. If it
is not wet enough, put in a little more warm water: then cut off onethird of
the dough, and lay it aside for the cover. Take three pounds of stoned raisins,
three pounds of cleaned currants, half a pound of blanched almonds cut
longwise; candied orange and citron peel cut, of each eight ounces; half an
ounce of cloves, an ounce of cinnamon, and two ounces of ginger, all beat and
sifted. Mix the spices by themselves, then spread out the dough; lay the fruit
upon it; strew the spices over the fruit, and mix all together. When it is well
kneaded, roll out the cover. Cover it neatly, cut it round the sides, prickle
it, and bind it with paper to keep it in shape ; set it in a pretty quick oven,
and, just before you take it out, glaze the top with a beat egg.*
*These
buns, weighing from four to eight, ten, twelve, and sixteen, or more pounds,
are still sent from Edinburgh, from the depots of Littlejohn and Mackie, to all
parts of the three kingdoms. Every country town, rural village, and
neighbourhood in England, Scotland, and Ireland, has its favourite
holiday-cake, or currant-loaf, under some such name as " Lady Bountiful's
loaf," " Mrs. Notable's cake," "Miss Thrifty's bun,"
&c. &c. We do not pretend to give receipts for all these—the formula is
endless—and they are all good.—The Irish receipt for Brude Breachd, page 546, is nearly the substance of all of them.
That they be well raised and well fired is all besides that is of any
importance. They should be baked in a dome-shaped fluted mould or Turk's cap,
but look still more imposing at
holiday-times, formed like large, respectable,
old fashioned household loaves. Leavened dough should be bought for them.
