INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

FISH. REMARKS
In 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 soon, as they spoil more readily than any other fish.

It is customary to eat fish only at the commencement of the dinner. Fish and soup are generally served up alone, before any of the other dishes appear, and with no vegetable but potatoes. It considered a solecism in good taste to accompany them with any other productions of the garden except a little horseradish, parsley, &c. as garnishing.

In England, and at the most fashionable tables in America, bread only is eaten with fish. To this rule salt cod is an exception.

CATFISH SOUP
Catfish that have been caught near the middle of the river are much nicer than those that are taken near the shore where they have access to impure food. The small white ones are the best. Having cut off their heads, skin the fish, clean them, and cut them in three. To twelve small catfish, allow a pound and a half of ham. Cut the ham into small pieces or slice it very thin, and scald it two or three times in boiling water, lest it be too salt. Chop together a bunch of parsley and some sweet marjoram stripped from the stalks. 

Put these ingredients into a soup kettle and season them with pepper: the ham will make it salt enough. Add a head of celery cut small, or a large tablespoon of celery seed tied up in a bit of clear muslin to prevent its dispersing. Put in two quarts of water, cover the kettle, and let it boil slowly till everything is sufficiently done, and the fish and ham quite tender. Skim it frequently. 

Boil in another vessel a quart of rich milk, in which you have melted one-fourth pound of butter divided into small bits and rolled in flour. Pour it hot to the soup, and stir in at the last the beaten yolks of four eggs. Give it another boil, just to take off the rawness of the eggs, and then put it into a tureen, taking out the bag of celery seed before you send the soup to table. In making toast for soup, cut the bread thick and pare off all the crust. Toast it and cut it into small squares. 

WATER SOUCHY
Cut up four flounders, or half a dozen perch, two onions, and a bunch of parsley. Put them into three quarts of water, and boil them till the fish go entirely to pieces and dissolve in the water. Then strain the liquor through a sieve, and put it into a kettle or stew-pan. Have ready a few more fish with the heads, tails, and fins removed, and the brown skin taken off. Cut little notches in them, and lay them for a short time in very cold water. Then put them into the stew-pan with the liquor or soup-stock of the first fish. Season with pepper, salt, and mace, and add one-half pint of white wine or two tablespoons of vinegar. Boil it gently for one-fourth hour and skim it well.

Provide some parsley roots, cut into slices and boiled till very tender; and also a quantity of parsley leaves boiled nice and green. After the fish-pan has boiled moderately fifteen minutes, take it off the fire, and put in the parsley roots; also a little mushroom catchup.

Take out the fish and lay them in a broad deep dish or in a tureen, and then pour on the soup very gently for fear of breaking them. Strew the green parsley leaves over the top. Have ready plates of bread and butter, which it is customary to eat with water souchy.

You may omit the wine or vinegar, and flavor the soup just before you take it from the fire with essence of anchovy, or with any other of the essences and compound fish-sauces that are in general use.

Water souchy (commonly pronounced sookey) is a Dutch soup. It may be made of any sort of small fish; but flounders and perch are generally used for it. It is very good made of carp.

CHOWDER
Take a pound or more of salt pork and having half boiled it, cut it into slips, and cover the bottom of a pot with some of them. Then strew on some sliced onion. Have ready a large fresh cod, or an equal quantity of haddock, tautog, or any other firm fish. Cut the fish into large pieces and lay part of it on the pork and onions. Season it with pepper, then cover it with a layer of biscuit or crackers that have been previously soaked in milk or water. You may add also a layer of sliced potatoes.

Next proceed with a second layer of pork, onions, fish, &c. and continue as before till the pot is nearly full; finishing with soaked crackers. Pour in about a pint and a half of cold water. Cover it close, set it on hot coals, and let it simmer about an hour. Then skim it, and turn it out into a deep dish. Leave the gravy in the pot till you have thickened it with a piece of butter rolled in flour, and some chopped parsley. Then give it one boil up, and pour it hot into the dish.

Chowder may be made of clams, first cutting off the hard part.

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