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Cod, Spiced
Boil four pounds of middle cut of cod, and set it aside. Pour into a stewpan a pint of the water in which it was boiled, add three-quarters of a pint of vinegar, a quarter of an ounce of allspice, a quarter of an ounce of whole pepper, six cloves, two bay-leaves, and half a dessert-spoonful of salt, and let the liquid simmer for an hour. Skim it, add the butter, and boil. Place the cod in a narrow dish, deep enough to allow of the fish being submerged in the liquor, which must now be poured over it. Leave it till next day. Serve it cold with lettuce hearts and a good mayonnaise sauce. Probable cost, 2s. 6d.
A cooked-then-soused cod, closer to a pickle than a stew, meant to be eaten cold the following day. Two things in the text need sorting out before you start: the butter that appears from nowhere, and the overnight rest.
- The phantom butterThe instruction "add the butter" refers to an ingredient never listed, an omission in the printed text. A small knob, say around 1 oz (30 g), is a reasonable guess; it enriches the liquor and sets as a thin cap when cold. Leaving it out entirely does no harm.
- Refrigerate the steeping"Leave it till next day" assumed a cold larder. Cool the fish and liquor quickly, cover, and hold it in the refrigerator. The vinegar is protective but not a substitute for chilling four pounds of cooked fish.
- Poach, do not boilCod at a rolling boil sheds its flakes and goes cottony. Bring salted water barely to a tremble, slide in the fish, and hold it at about 160-170F until the flesh just parts at the bone — roughly 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness. It will firm further in the acid liquor.
- Middle cutThe thick centre section of a whole cod, sold today as a loin or centre-cut piece. Four pounds is a large joint; two thick loin pieces of about 2 lb each work identically and fit a standard dish better.
- The liquor proportionsA pint of cooking water to three-quarters of a pint of vinegar is roughly 570 ml to 425 ml — a sharp but not raw pickle. Use malt or cider vinegar at about 5 per cent acidity; modern distilled vinegar is harsher and will flatten the spice.
- Spice weightsA quarter-ounce is about 7 g; for both allspice berries and whole black peppercorns that is roughly a tablespoon of whole spice. Half a dessertspoonful of salt is about a teaspoon. Simmering an hour reduces the liquid noticeably, so cover the pan loosely.
- The dish mattersA narrow, deep vessel is specified so the modest quantity of liquor covers the fish entirely. A loaf tin or a deep rectangular container does this better than a wide platter, where the top of the fish will sit dry and grey.
- Yield and servingFour pounds of cod feeds eight to ten as a cold course. Lift the fish clear of the liquor, drain it, and serve with lettuce hearts and mayonnaise as directed; a spoonful of the strained pickle stirred into the mayonnaise ties the plate together.
Souse — fish or meat cooked and then steeped in spiced vinegar — was one of the oldest English methods of keeping cooked food edible for a few days without ice, and it survived into the Victorian kitchen as a cold-table dish rather than a strictly preservative one. Cassell's places this among its cod entries at a time when the North Sea and northern trawl fisheries, plus the railway, had made fresh cod widely available in British towns; the quoted cost is 2s. 6d. for a dish serving eight or more. The pairing with mayonnaise and lettuce hearts reflects the late-nineteenth-century fashion for cold fish salads at luncheon and supper, where a dish made the day before was an asset rather than a compromise.