Eels, Stewed
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons.-2 lbs. of middling-sized eels, 1 pint of medium stock, 1/4 pint of port EELS À LA TARTARE. wine; salt, cayenne and mace to taste: 1 teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, the juice of a lemon. AVERAGE COST, 2s. 6d.
Skin, wash and clean the eels thoroughly; cut them into pieces 3 inches long, and put them into strong salt-and-water for 1 hour; dry them well with a cloth, and fry them brown. Put the stock on, with the heads and tails of the eels, and simmer for 1/2 hour strain it, and add all the other ingredients. Put in the eels, and stew gently for 1/2 hour, when serve.
TIME.-2 hours.
SEASONABLE from June to March.
Eels à la Tartare. - INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons.-2 lbs. of eels, 1 carrot, 1 onion, a little flour, 1 glass of sherry; salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste; bread-crumbs, 1 egg, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. AVERAGE COST, exclusive of the sauce, 2s. 3d.
Rub the butter on the bottom of the stewpan; cut up the carrot and onion, and stir them over the fire for 5 minutes; dredge in a little flour, add the wine and seasoning, and boil for an hour. Skin and wash the eels, cut them into pieces, put them to the other ingredients, and simmer till tender. When they are done, take them out, let them get cold, cover them with egg and bread-crumbs, and fry them a nice brown. Put them on a dish, pour sauce piquante over, and serve them hot.
TIME.-1 hour.
SEASONABLE from August to March.
Eggs. There is only one opinion as to the nutritive properties of eggs, although the qualities of those belonging to different birds vary somewhat. Those of the common hen are most esteemed as delicate food, particularly when "new-laid." The quality of eggs depends much upon the food given to the hen. Eggs in general are considered most easily digestible when little subjected to the art of cookery. The lightest way of dressing them is by poaching, which is is effected by putting them for a minute or two into brisk boiling water: this coagulates the external white, without doing the inner part too much. Eggs are much better when new-laid than a day or two afterwards. The usual time allotted for boiling hens' eggs in the shell is 3 to 3 minutes: less time than that in boiling water will not be sufficient to solidify the white, and more will make the yolk hard and less digestible; it is very difficult to guess accurately as to the time. Great care should be employed in putting them EGG BALLS. into the water, to prevent cracking the shell, which inevitably causes a portion of the white to exude, and lets water into the egg. For the purpose of placing eggs in water, always choose a large spoon in preference to a small one. Eggs are often beaten up raw in nutritive beverages.
The eggs of the turkey are almost as mild as those of the hen; the egg of the goose is large, but well-tasted. Ducks' eggs have a rich flavour; the albumen is slightly HENS' EGGS.
GEESE'S EGGS. transparent, or bluish, when set, or coagulated by boiling, which requires less time than hens' eggs. Guinea-fowl eggs are smaller and more delicate than those of the hen. Eggs of wild fowl are generally coloured, often spotted; and the taste generally partakes somewhat of the bird they belong to. Those of land birds that are eaten, as the plover, almost invariably boiled a long time and eaten cold, lapwing, ruff, &c., are in general much esteemed; but those of sea-fowl have, more or less, a strong fishy taste. The eggs of the turtle are very numerous: they consist of yolk only, without shell, and are delicious.
When fresh eggs are dropped into a vessel full of boiling water, they crack, because the eggs being well filled, the DUCKS' EGGS.
TURKEYS' EGGS. shells give way to the efforts of the interior fluids, dilated by heat. If the volume of hot water be small, the shells do not crack, because its temperature is reduced by the eggs before the interior dilatation can take place. Stale eggs, again, do not crack, because the air inside is easily compressed.
