When I buy fish, I often pan-fry it in butter, rather than deep fry it. Sometimes I’ll bake fish, but I’ve never boiled it. I like fish a lot and need to cook it more often and in different ways. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS DRESSING FISH In dressing fish of any kind for the table, great care is necessary in cleaning it. It is a common error to wash it too much, and by this means the flavor…
It’s often hard to give cooked meat a good flavor, especially if it’s lean. Although it’s easy to open a packet or jar of gravy or other prepared sauces, I don’t like eating preservatives and artificial ingredients. When I make my own sauce, I know what ingredients are going into it. And if you don’t eat much meat, you might experiment and try some of these sauces on vegetables. RECIPES BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS SAUCESAll sauces should be sent…
Back in the 1800s, codfish was plentiful along the east coast in the U.S. and cookbooks often had recipes for fish balls. Fish balls are no longer popular here, but quite common in Scandinavia, China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS COMMON FISH BALLS Pare six medium-sized potatoes and put in boiling water. Boil half an hour. Drain off all the water, turn the potatoes into a tray with one pint of finely-chopped cod fish, and…
I’ve seen a whole fish for sale in grocery stores, but not just the fish’s head. I never heard of a fish sound and didn’t even know they had tongues. The things I learn from reading old cookbooks! The Sound is the swim bladder of many of the bony fishes. Fish that have a skeleton made of cartilage instead of bone don’t have bladders. Fish Tongues are almost always attached to the bottom of the mouth, so they don’t protrude….
Anchovies is a name given to approximately 140 species of small “forage fish.” This means they are foraged and eaten by larger fish, sea birds, and marine mammals. Today, anchovies are mostly canned whole, bones and all. When cooked, they will almost completely dissolve, leaving only the flavor. I never realized the many ways you can use anchovies until I began reading through 1800s cookbooks. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS BUYING ANCHOVIES These delicate fish are preserved in…
Many cookbooks from the 1800s included recipes for cooking turtle; snapping turtle, box turtle, sea turtle, and diamondback terrapin. Today, many species of turtles are endangered and it’s illegal to capture or kill them. In the U.S., you can hunt diamondback terrapins and snapping turtles, but only in season and you must have a hunting license. INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS: TURTLE SOUP Kill the turtle at daylight in summer, the night before in winter, and hang it up to bleed….
INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS FISH. REMARKSIn choosing fresh fish, select only those that are thick and firm, with bright scales and stiff fins. The gills should be a very lively red and the eyes full and prominent. In the summer, as soon as they are brought home, clean them and put them in ice till you are ready to cook them. Even then, do not attempt to keep a fresh fish till next day. Mackerel cannot be cooked too…
Although eels look like water snakes to me, they are actually elongated fish. There are many species and they can be from 2 inches in length to 13 feet. Most eels live in the shallow waters of the ocean and are nocturnal. But the American eel lives mostly in freshwater and returns to the ocean to spawn. Recipes using eels were common in 1800s cookbooks, but so far I haven’t seen any in cookbooks printed in the 1900s and later….