Home › The Principles of Cookery › Pate of Fish

Pate of Fish

Boil and mash smoothly, with an ounce of butter and a spoonful of milk or cream to each pound, as many potatoes as will make a border about three inches high within the rim of the dish which it is intended to use; three pounds of potatoes will be sufficient for a moderate-sized dish. Raise this border, ornament it in any fanciful way, then brush it over with beaten egg, and put it in a hot oven until it is lightly browned. Have ready some hot crab, or some fish stewed in sauce, and when the potatoes are coloured put in the preparation, and serve very hot. To prepare the fish--Take two pounds of cold boiled fish, which has been picked carefully from the bones and broken into small pieces, warm these in a pint of good white sauce, nicely flavoured and seasoned; stir it gently over the fire until the fish is hot, then turn the whole into the hollow in the centre of the potatoes. If no stock is at hand, the white sauce may be made as follows. Simmer the bones of the fish, with a handful of parsley, an onion stuck with one clove, half a blade of mace, and a pint of water, until the liquid is reduced one-half; strain it, and mix with it four table-spoonfuls of thick cream, season with salt and cayenne, and thicken with a little flour and butter. It is then ready for the fish. To prepare the crab--Pick the meat from the shell, mix with it the eighth of its bulk in finely-grated bread-crumbs, and season with salt, cayenne, and a little grated nutmeg. Pound the mixture in a mortar, moisten with a little gravy, which has been thickened with flour and butter, add a table-spoonful of sherry, and stir the preparation over the fire until it is quite hot; squeeze the juice of a small lemon over it, and it is ready for use. Time to warm the fish in the sauce--until it is quite hot, without boiling. Probable cost, according to the nature of the fish. Sufficient for five or six persons.