“I instantly pictured to myself this unknown marine animal. . . . I thought it must be something midway between a fish and a crab. As it was from the sea they made of it, of course, a very nice hot fish soup with savoury pepper and laurel leaves, or broth with vinegar and fricassee of fish and cabbage, or crayfish sauce, or served it cold with horse- radish. . . . I vividly imagined it being brought from the market, quickly cleaned, quickly put in the pot, quickly, quickly, for everyone was hungry . . . awfully hungry! From the kitchen rose the smell of hot fish and crayfish soup.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
362. INGREDIENTS.--4 anchovies, 1 oz. of butter, 1/2 pint of melted butter, cayenne to taste. _Mode_.--Bone the anchovies, and pound them in a mortar to a paste, with 1 oz. of butter. Make the melted butter hot, stir in the pounded anchovies and cayenne; simmer for 3 or 4 minutes; and if liked, add a squeeze of lemon-juice. A more general and expeditious way of making this sauce is to stir in 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls of anchovy essence to 1/2 pint of melted butter, and to add seasoning to taste. Boil the whole up for 1 minute, and serve hot. _Time_.--5 minutes. _Average cost_, 5d. for 1/2 pint. _Sufficient_, this quantity, for a brill, small turbot, 3 or 4 soles, &c. ANCHOVY BUTTER (_see_ No. 227). [Illustration: THE CAPISCUM.] CAYENNE.--This is the most acrid and stimulating spice with which we are acquainted.
Sources: The passage is from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Beeton, The Book of Household Management of 1861, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — moss cloth, teapot stamp.