COD PIE. (Economical.) I.
235. INGREDIENTS.--Any remains of cold cod, 12 oysters, sufficient melted butter to moisten it; mashed potatoes enough to fill
up the dish.
Mode.--Flake the fish from the bone, and carefully take away all the skin. Lay it in a pie-dish, pour over the melted butter and oysters (or oyster sauce, if there is any left), and cover with mashed potatoes. Bake for 1/2 an hour, and send to table of a nice brown colour.
Time.--1/2 hour.
Seasonable from November to March. II.
236. INGREDIENTS.--2 slices of cod; pepper and salt to taste; 1/2 a teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, 1 large blade of pounded mace, 2 oz. of butter, 1/2 pint of stock No. 107, a paste crust (see Pastry). For sauce, 1 tablespoonful of stock, 1/4 pint of cream or milk, thickening of flour or butter; lemon-peel chopped very fine to taste; 12 oysters.
Mode.--Lay the cod in salt for 4 hours, then wash it and place it in a dish; season, and add the butter and stock; cover with the crust, and bake for 1 hour, or rather more. Now make the sauce, by mixing the ingredients named above; give it one boil, and pour it into the pie by a hole made at the top of the crust, which can easily be covered by a small piece of pastry cut and baked in any fanciful shape--such as a leaf, or otherwise.
Time.--1-1/2 hour. Average cost, with fresh fish, 2s. 6d.
Seasonable from November to March.
Sufficient for 6 persons.
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Note.--The remains of cold fish may be used for this pie.
CURRIED COD.
237. INGREDIENTS.--2 slices of large cod, or the remains of any cold fish; 3 oz. of butter, 1 onion sliced, a teacupful of white stock, thickening of butter and flour, 1 small teaspoonful of curry-powder, 1/4 pint of cream, salt and cayenne to taste.
Mode.--Flake the fish, and fry it of a nice brown colour with the butter and onions; put this in a stewpan, add the stock and thickening, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir the curry-powder into the cream; put it, with the seasoning, to the other ingredients; give one boil, and serve.
Time.--3/4 hour. Average cost, with fresh fish, 3s.
Seasonable from November to March.
Sufficient for 4 persons.
THE FOOD OF THE COD.--This chiefly consists of the smaller species of the scaly tribes, shell-fish, crabs, and worms. Their voracity is very great, and they will bite at any small body they see moved by the water, even stones and pebbles, which are frequently found in their stomachs. They sometimes attain a great size, but their usual weight is from 14 to 40 lbs.
COD A LA CREME.
238. INGREDIENTS.--1 large slice of cod, 1 oz. of butter, 1 chopped shalot, a little minced parsley, 1/4 teacupful of white stock,
1/4 pint of milk or cream, flour to thicken, cayenne and lemon-juice to taste, 1/4 teaspoonful of powdered sugar.
Mode.--Boil the cod, and while hot, break it into flakes; put the butter, shalot, parsley, and stock into a stewpan, and let them boil for 5 minutes. Stir in sufficient flour to thicken, and pour to it the milk or cream. Simmer for 10 minutes, add the cayenne and sugar, and, when liked, a little lemon-juice. Put the fish in the sauce to warm gradually, but do not let it boil. Serve in a dish garnished with croutons.
Time.--Rather more than 1/2 hour. Average cost, with cream, 2s. Seasonable from November to March.
Sufficient for 3 persons.
Note.--The remains of fish from the preceding day answer very well for this dish.
COD A LA BECHAMEL.
239. INGREDIENTS.--Any remains of cold cod, 4 tablespoonfuls of bechamel (see Sauces), 2 oz. butter; seasoning to taste of
pepper and salt; fried bread, a few bread crumbs.
Mode.--Flake the cod carefully, leaving out all skin and bone; put the bechamel in a stewpan with the butter, and stir it over the fire till the latter is melted; add seasoning, put in the fish, and mix it well with the sauce. Make a border of fried bread round the dish, lay in the fish, sprinkle over with bread crumbs, and baste with butter. Brown either before the fire or with a salamander, and garnish with toasted bread cut in fanciful shapes.
Time.--1/2 hour.
Average cost, exclusive of the fish, 6d.
THE HABITAT OF THE COD.--This fish is found only in the seas of the northern parts of the world, between the latitudes of
45deg and 66deg. Its great rendezvous are the sandbanks of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and New England. These places are its favourite resorts; for there it is able to obtain great quantities of worms, a food peculiarly grateful to it. Another cause of its attachment to these places has been said to be on account of the vicinity to the Polar seas, where it returns to spawn. Few are taken
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north of Iceland, and the shoals never reach so far south as the Straits of Gibraltar. Many are taken on the coasts of Norway, in the Baltic, and off the Orkneys, which, prior to the discovery of Newfoundland, formed one of the principal fisheries. The London market is supplied by those taken between the Dogger Bank, the Well Bank, and Cromer, on the east coast of England.
COD A LA MAITRE D'HOTEL.
240. INGREDIENTS.--2 slices of cod, 1/4 lb. of butter, a little chopped shalot and parsley; pepper to taste, 1/4 teaspoonful of
grated nutmeg, or rather less, when the flavour is not liked; the juice of 1/4 lemon.
Mode.--Boil the cod, and either leave it whole, or, what is still better, flake it from the bone, and take off the skin. Put it into a stewpan with the butter, parsley, shalot, pepper, and nutmeg. Melt the butter gradually, and be very careful that it does not become like
oil. When all is well mixed and thoroughly hot, add the lemon-juice, and serve. Time.--1/2 hour. Average cost, 2s. 6d.; with remains of cold fish, 5d. Seasonable from November to March.
Sufficient for 4 persons.
Note.--Cod that has been left will do for this.
THE SEASON FOR FISHING COD.--The best season for catching cod is from the beginning of February to the end of April; and although each fisherman engaged in taking them, catches no more than one at a time, an expert hand will sometimes take four hundred in a day. The employment is excessively fatiguing, from the weight of the fish as well as from the coldness of the climate.
COD A L'ITALIENNE.
241. INGREDIENTS.--2 slices of crimped cod, 1 shalot, 1 slice of ham minced very fine, 1/2 pint of white stock, No. 107; when
liked, 1/2 teacupful of cream; salt to taste; a few drops of garlic vinegar, a little lemon-juice, 1/2 teaspoonful of powdered sugar.
Mode.--Chop the shalots, mince the ham very fine, pour on the stock, and simmer for 15 minutes. If the colour should not be good, add cream in the above proportion, and strain it through a fine sieve; season it, and put in the vinegar, lemon-juice, and sugar. Now boil the cod, take out the middle bone, and skin it; put it on the dish without breaking, and pour the sauce over it.
Time.--3/4 hour. Average cost, 3s. 6d., with fresh fish.
Seasonable from November to March.
Sufficient for 4 persons.
THE FECUNDITY OF THE COD.--In our preceding remarks on the natural history of fishes, we have spoken of the amazing fruitfulness of this fish; but in this we see one more instance of the wise provision which Nature has made for supplying the wants of man. So extensive has been the consumption of this fish, that it is surprising that it has not long ago become extinct; which would certainly have been the case, had it not been for its wonderful powers of reproduction. "So early as 1368," says Dr. Cloquet,
"the inhabitants of Amsterdam had dispatched fishermen to the coast of Sweden; and in the first quarter of 1792,