Fish Cakes
Boil together the heads, tails, fins, and bones of any fish in enough water to cover them. Season with onion juice, herbs, a little mace, and salt and pepper. Mince the fish, and mix together 2 parts of fish to 1 of bread crumbs. Moisten with melted butter and the white of an egg, and fry nearly ten minutes in butter.
Strain the gravy and put it into a stewpan with the fish. Cover the kettle closely, and stew gently for fifteen minutes.
A two-stage dish: a quick stock from the fish frame, then cakes of minced fish browned in butter and finished in that stock. The instructions run slightly out of order, so read the whole thing before starting.
- SequenceSet the stock going first, since it needs to simmer while you mix and shape the cakes. The gravy is strained and returned to the pan, the fried cakes go in, and the whole thing stews together.
- Don't overcook the stockFish bones give most of what they have in 20 to 25 minutes, and longer simmering is generally held to make the stock bitter and gluey. The recipe sets no time. Skim, strain through a fine sieve, and discard the solids.
- Onion juiceGrate a small onion and press the pulp through a sieve, or grate it on a microplane and use the resulting slurry. Half an onion yields roughly a tablespoon; the recipe gives no quantity.
- MaceThe outer covering of the nutmeg, sold as blades or ground. A blade or a scant quarter teaspoon ground is enough for a quart of stock; it is assertive and easily overdone.
- The 2-to-1 ratioTwo parts minced fish to one part crumbs; the recipe does not say whether by volume or weight, and volume is the easier reading. Fresh soft crumbs absorb far more moisture than dry ones, so start with less butter than you think and add until the mix just holds together when pressed.
- Frying timeTen minutes in butter is long enough to brown the butter past pleasant. Four to five minutes a side over medium heat, to a firm brown crust, is the object here — the crust is what keeps the cakes intact in the gravy.
- The final stewFifteen minutes in simmering stock will soften any cake that was fried timidly. Keep the liquid at a bare tremble, no boil, and use enough only to come halfway up the cakes rather than submerge them.
- Stewpan and kettleThe recipe switches words mid-sentence and appears to mean the same vessel throughout. A 10-inch sauté pan with a lid works, and its width lets you turn the cakes once without crowding.
- YieldA pound of cooked fish, with crumbs in the stated proportion, makes about eight cakes, serving four. Serve the cakes with the gravy spooned over.