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Cooking of True Proteids Continued: Fish: Remove
CUCUMBERS TO SERVE WITH FISH Let the cucumbers stand an hour or more in very cold or ice water. Remove the skin with a handy slicer, to give a channeled effect, and cut in thin, even slices. For one medium-sized cucumber rub over the salad dish with the cut side of a clove of garlic; put into a bowl three tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of vinegar, and one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of salt, pepper and onion juice, beat with a fork until thoroughly mixed, then pour over the cucumber slices disposed in a circle in the dish.
PHILADELPHIA RELISE Chop very fine enough crisp cabbage to make a pint; chop very fine, also, two mild green or red peppers and mix the two thoroughly together, then set aside (covered) in a cool place until ready to use. Note that both peppers and cabbage are to be chopped exceedingly fine, as fine as in is possible to chop them. Mix together thoroughly one teaspoonful of celery seed, one-fourth a teaspoonful of mustard seed, half a teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth a cup of brown sugar and one-fourth a cup of vinegar, and let stand some time. When ready to serve mix the two together. This perhaps is mix too much to prepare at once, as it is good, if kept chilled, as long as it lasts. Lemon skins (either whole or in halves) carefully freed from pulp, and with a thin slice cut from one end, to make them stand level, are often used as a receptacle for this relish.
Two cold accompaniments for fish, both made without cooking. Neither needs adjustment for modern equipment, but the quantities and a few assumptions are worth spelling out.
- The cucumber soakSoaking in very cold or ice water was commonly advised for the thicker-skinned, seedier cucumbers of the period. With modern thin-skinned or English cucumbers, 20-30 minutes is enough to firm the slices.
- "Handy slicer" for a channeled effectProbably a grooving or channel knife drawn lengthwise down the cucumber, so that the peeled stripes leave a fluted edge on each slice; the book does not describe the tool further. A vegetable peeler used in narrow strips gives the same look; a mandoline handles the thin, even slicing.
- Dressing proportionsThree tablespoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar is the familiar three-to-one ratio still in ordinary use. The whole quantity dresses one medium cucumber, so scale up in that ratio rather than making a large batch.
- Onion juiceGrate a piece of onion on a fine rasp and use the liquid that collects, or press grated onion in a sieve. A quarter teaspoon is all that is called for; onion powder is not a substitute here as it will cloud the dressing.
- Garlic on the dishRubbing the cut clove around the salad dish gives a trace of garlic without pieces of it. Do not add chopped garlic instead; the cucumber salad is meant to be clean-tasting against fish.
- Chop the relish as fine as statedThe instruction is repeated in the original for a reason. Coarse cabbage stays watery and separate; cut very fine, it absorbs the sweet-sour dressing in the short time it stands. A knife gives a better result than a food processor, which bruises cabbage into liquid.
- Peppers"Mild green or red peppers" means sweet bell or frying peppers, not chiles.
- Standing time and keepingThe dressing is mixed and left to stand so the sugar dissolves and the celery and mustard seed soften. Combine with the vegetables only at serving; kept covered and cold, the finished relish holds three or four days, losing crunch as it goes.
- YieldA pint of chopped cabbage plus the peppers makes considerably more than two servings, as the original concedes. Lemon shells hold roughly two tablespoons each, so a batch fills a good many more than a meal for two requires.
Cabbage relishes of this kind, chopped fine and dressed with sugar, vinegar and celery seed, were printed under the name Philadelphia relish in American cookbooks around the turn of the twentieth century; similar mixtures, coarser cut and given time to stand, are related to the pepper cabbage and pepper hash still eaten in southeastern Pennsylvania. Both dishes here belong to the older service of fish, where a fried or boiled fish arrived with something raw, acid and cold beside it rather than a sauce. The hollowed lemon shell as a serving cup is characteristic of the period's table style, and the cucumber's fluted edge belongs to the same impulse.