Home › The Principles of Cookery › Minnow

Minnow

This is a diminutive fish whose home is in rivers, brooks, and canals. It is best known, perhaps, as affording amusement to juvenile anglers. The flavour of the minnow is good, and when a sufficient number can be procured by a casting-net, they make an excellent fry, not unlike whitebait, but rather luscious and cloying. In Izaak Walton's time, a dish called minnow tansies was made from them, now quite out of use. The minnows were gutted, well washed in salt and water, and their heads and tails being cut off, they were put with yolks of eggs, well beaten, a few cowslips and primrose-flowers, and a little tansy, shredded small, and fried in butter. The sauce was butter, vinegar or verjuice, and sugar.