Page:The Virginia Housewife or, Methodical Cook, Mary Randolph, 1836.djvu/67

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE VIRGINIA HOUSEWIFE.
61

is reduced to half a pint, take the fish out and lay them on a dish, cover them to keep them hot, rub a spoonful of butter into one of flour, add a large tea-spoonful of curry powder, thicken the gravy with it, shake it over the fire a few minutes, and pour it over the fish; be careful to have the gravy smooth.


TO DRESS A COD’S HEAD AND SHOULDERS.

Take out the gills and the blood from the bone, wash the head very clean, rub over it a little salt, then lay it on your fish plate; throw in the water a good handful of salt, with a glass of vinegar, then put in the fish, and let it boil gently half an hour; if it is a large one, three quarters; take it up very carefully, strip the skin nicely off, set it before a brisk fire, dredge it all over with flour, and baste it well with butter; when the froth begins to rise, throw over it some very fine white bread crumbs; you must keep basting it all the time to make it froth well; when it is a fine light brown, dish it up, and garnish it with a lemon cut in slices, scraped horse-radish, barberries, a few small fish fried and laid around it, or fried oysters—cut the roe and liver in slices, and lay over it a little of the lobster out of the sauce in lumps, and then serve it up.


TO MAKE SAUCE FOR THE COD’S HEAD.

Take a lobster, if it be alive, stick a skewer in the vent of the tail, (to keep the water out,) throw a handful of salt in the water; when it boils, put in the lobster, and boil it half an hour; if it has spawn on it,