117. - Clam Soup, (Prepared By A Dublin Lady.)

Put forty or fifty clams, in the shells, with as little water as possible. When the liquor has run out from the opened shells, take the clams out and chop them fine, with an onion, a bunch of minced celery, and some mace and pepper. Put all in the soup, and thicken it with two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, and if you choose, add a little milk. Simmer twenty minutes; stir in the beaten yolks of five eggs; put bits of toasted bread into the tureen and serve.

118. - Lake And Pond Fish Soup

For every person take a pound each of any fresh-water fish that can be obtained; wash them in salt and water, and stew them with a tomato, carrots, leeks, fried onions, and sweet herbs, in as much water as will cover them; and let them stew until the whole is reduced to a pulp; then strain the liquor, and boil it for another hour until it becomes quite smooth. Then have ready some roots of any sort that may be in season, which have been chopped small, and boiled either in milk or water: add them to the 60up, and let it simmer for one-quarter of an hour; season it, if milk has been used, with mace and celery, with a little cayenne; but if made solely with water, then use Chili vinegar, soy, mushroom ketchup, or any of the savory sauces.

Fish

Fish should be well washed, scaled, and cleaned, by drawing the entrails through a slit in the under side. The roe and liver should be separated, washed, and cooked with the fish. The roe proves the fish in season. Slimy fish may be scalded in salt and water, but must be dried before cooking.

Fresh fish, when boiled, should be placed in cold, and shell-fish in boiling water.

To keep oysters after washing them, lay them in a tub in a cool cellar, with the deep part of the shell undermost. Sprinkle them with salt and Indian meal, then fill the tub with cold water. Change the water every day. and the oysters will keep fresh a fortnight.

Fish should be garnished with horseradish or parsley. The only vegetable served with fish is potatoes.

121. - Cod Fish

Fresh cod is good boiled, fried, or made into a chowder. It is too dry a fish to broil. Salt cod should be soaked in lukewarm water till the skin will come off easily - then take up the fish, scrape off the skin, and put it in fresh water, and set it on a very moderate fire, where it will keep warm without boiling, as it hardens by boiling. It takes between three and four hours to cook it soft - serve it up with drawn butter.

122. - To Boil Cod Fish

Crimped cod is preferable to the plain; it is likewise better cut in slices than cooked whole; to boil it well, have the water ready boiling with one pound of salt to every six quarts; put in your fish, draw your fish-kettle to the corner of the fire, where let it simmer slowly from twenty minutes to half an hour; when done, the bone in the centre will draw out easily; if boiled too much, it would eat tough and stringy; should the fish not be crimped, add more salt to the water, it will cause the fish to eat firmer.