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Skate Soup

The bones of skate are so delicate and gristly that they can easily be converted to jelly; consequently, good nourishing soup may be made of this fish. Clean two pounds of skate, and hang it in the open air for a day; cut it into small neat fillets, and put the trimmings and the head into a saucepan with two quarts of fish stock or water. Let it simmer gently for an hour, and carefully remove the scum as it rises; then add an onion, a turnip, a bunch of parsley, and a few sticks of celery, and simmer all gently together till the liquor is reduced to one quart. When this point is reached, the soup may be finished in two ways: either thicken the broth with a little brown thickening, add the fillets, simmer them till done enough, and flavour the soup with a dessert-spoonful of ketchup, a glass of sherry, and pepper and salt if required; or drop two ounces of vermicelli into the soup, and when it is done enough, which it will be in a few minutes, mix with the soup a quarter of a pint of cream beaten up with the yolk of an egg, stir it over the fire for eight or ten minutes, but on no account allow it to boil, and serve very hot. When the soup is finished in the latter of these two ways, it is well to boil all the skate in the stock, and thus dispense with the fillets. Time, two hours and a half. Probable cost, 1s. 4d. per pint. Sufficient for six or eight persons.