Scotch Fish Soup

Take four haddocks, skin them, and take out all the bones; cut them into pieces about two inches long; then put the heads, skins, and bones, after being well washed, into four quarts of good beef-stock, with three onions, and let it boil for an hour; then strain the soup into a clean saucepan, into which put two onions, chopped very small, a turnip and a carrot, which latter are to be taken out. Let it boil five minutes, then put in your pieces of fish with a handful of minced parsley, and let it boil eight minutes. Season with pepper and salt. Some add two tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, but the compiler disapproves of it.

A Marseilles Receipt For Bouillabaise

Almost any sort of fish may be used in making bouillabaise, and the more kinds the better. Those generally used, because caught in the Mediterranean, are whitings, red mullets, soles, gurnet, turbot, lobsters, and cray-fish. Slice two large onions, place them in a wide but deep stew-pan made of thin metal; add four or five spoonfuls of the best olive oil. Fry the onions of a pale brown colour. Next place the fish, previously washed and cut in small pieces, in the pan, and cover them with warm water, but not more than equals the depth of the contents; add salt in moderation, half a bay leaf, and the flesh of half a lemon without rind or pips, two tomatoes cut in dice and the seeds removed, a small tumbler of light white wine, a few peppercorns, and four cloves of garlic. Set it on a very hot stove, and let it boil for twelve minutes. By this time the liquor should be reduced to a third of its original quantity; add a small pinch of saffron, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and allow it to boil a minute longer; taste and correct the seasoning if required.

Have ready your tureen or deep dish with two dozen slices of light French roll or bread, cut half an inch thick, laid in the bottom; pour some of the soup over, and turn the bread, so that it may be thoroughly soaked; then pour in the remainder, keeping back the inferior parts of the fish, and serve very hot.

This is sometimes varied by adding a liason made of the yolks of six or seven eggs, added to some of the soup, which is to be stirred quickly over the fire till it comes to the consistency of custard, and then poured over the slices of bread.

Bouillabaise A L'Anglaise

As the preceding receipt is often considered too strong for the English palate, this is in a milder form; it is excellent, and exceedingly nourishing and wholesome for an invalid. Take cod, mullet, whiting, turbot, or any other fish you like ; cut them cross ways, in pieces of from about two ounces to a quarter of a pound each. Slice two good-sized onions, place them in a stew-pan large enough to contain all the fish at the bottom, - a shallow pan is best. Add two tablespoonfuls of olive-oil; fry the onions a light brown; put in the fish with as much warm water as will cover them well, a teaspoonful of salt, half a one of pepper, half a bay leaf, the flesh of half a peeled lemon cut in dice, two tomatoes cut in slices and their seeds removed, two small glasses of sherry or other white wine, a few peppercorns, and half a clove of garlic. Set-on a fierce fire, and boil very fast for twelve minutes, or till the liquor is reduced to one-third. Then add a tablespoon-ful of chopped parsley, let it boil one minute longer, and pour it into a deep dish over slices of bread the same as the other.

This is also very good made with all sorts of fresh-water fish, and the garlic may be entirely omitted.

Oyster Soup

Take eighty oysters and their liquor; place them in a pan with salt, cayenne pepper, and a teaspoonful of chopped chervil; when boiling add three yolks of eggs beat up in half a pint of cream, and serve. This is enough for five persons. If the oysters have not sufficient liquor, a little water and salt may be added, and parsley may be used, if preferred, instead of chervil.