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COD (a la Creme)
Boil a slice of cod, and, while it is warm, break it into convenient-sized pieces, or the remains of cold cod may be used instead. Put a pint of new milk into a saucepan, with a blade of mace, a tea-spoonful of salt, and half the rind of a small lemon. Let it stand by the side of the fire till the milk is hot and the flavour of the lemon and mace is drawn out; then strain it into a basin. Put a piece of butter the size of a large egg into a saucepan, and, when it is melted, mix two table-spoonfuls of flour very smoothly with it; add the milk gradually till the sauce is of the proper thickness; let it boil a few minutes, then put in the pieces of fish. Let them heat through. Serve with sippets of toasted bread. Time, half an hour. Probable cost, exclusive of the fish, 6d. Sufficient for four persons.
A Victorian way of using up cold boiled cod, and one of the better ones: it is essentially a béchamel infused with mace and lemon peel. The only thing that can go wrong is overheating the fish once it is in the sauce.
- Add the fish last, off the boilThe cod is already cooked. Once the sauce has thickened, drop the heat and let the pieces warm through for three or four minutes without stirring hard, or they will shred into threads and go dry.
- A pintThis is an imperial pint, 20 fl oz or roughly 2½ cups. With about 4 tablespoons of butter to the recipe's 2 tablespoons of flour you get a sauce on the thin side of coating, which is what is wanted here.
- Butter the size of a large eggAbout 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons. Paired with the two tablespoons of flour it makes a slightly butter-heavy roux.
- New milkSimply fresh whole milk, as opposed to milk that had stood and been skimmed. Whole milk is the right substitute; skimmed will give a thin, chalky sauce.
- A blade of maceOne piece of the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg, removed after infusing. If you only have ground mace, use a pinch and accept that the sauce will be flecked and slightly cloudy rather than clear.
- Infusing the milk"By the side of the fire" means gentle heat, not a simmer. Bring the milk to steaming on low, cover, and leave it 10-15 minutes before straining; boiling it will curdle nothing but will drive off the lemon aroma.
- Lemon rindPare it in strips with no white pith attached. Pith turns the sauce bitter over a long infusion.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of toast, set around the edge of the dish. They are structural as much as decorative — the sauce is loose and the toast is what you eat it with.
- YieldFour servings, as stated. The recipe gives no weight of fish at all, only 'a slice of cod' or whatever cold cod remains.
Cassell's makes plain the honest context for it: boiled cod was a standard family dinner, it was bought in thick slices or steaks, and what came off the table cold on Monday had to reappear as something else. Mace and lemon peel were the conventional English seasoning for white fish and white sauce through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, well before nutmeg's outer coat became the specialist item it is now. The "à la crème" of the title is doing some work — there is no cream in it at all, only milk, butter and flour, and the French tag lent a plain dish of warmed-over cod enough dignity for the dining room. The costing of sixpence is given exclusive of the fish, which was assumed to be already paid for and already cooked.