Charlotte Mary Yonge - "The Chosen People"

J. Wardle - "General Gordon"

Gabriele D'Annunzio - "The Child of Pleasure"

Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson - "Three Comedies"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

E >> Eliza Leslie >> Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches




You may omit the wine or vinegar, and flavour the soup just before
you take it from the fire with essence of anchovy, or with any
other of the essences and compound fish-sauces that are in general
use.

Water souchy (commonly pronounced _sookey_) is a Dutch soup.
It may be made of any sort of small fish; but flounders and perch
are generally used for it. It is very good made of carp.




FISH.


REMARKS.

In choosing fresh fish, select only those that are thick and firm,
with bright scales and stiff fins; the gills a very lively red,
and the eyes full and prominent. In the summer, as soon as they
are brought home, clean them, and put them in ice till you are
ready to cook them; and even then do not attempt to keep a fresh
fish till next day. Mackerel cannot be cooked too soon, as they
spoil more readily than any other fish.

Oysters in the shell may be kept from a week to a fortnight, by
the following process. Cover them with water, and wash them clean
with a birch broom. Then lay them with the deep or concave part of
the shell undermost, and sprinkle each of them well with salt and
Indian meal. Fill up the tub with cold water. Repeat this every
day; first pouring off the liquid of the day before.

The tub must stand all the time in a cool cellar, and be covered
well with an old blanket, carpeting, or something of the sort.

If carefully attended to, oysters kept in this manner will not
only live but fatten.

It is customary to eat fish only at the commencement of the
dinner. Fish and soup are generally served up alone, before any of
the other dishes appear, and with no vegetable but potatoes; it
being considered a solecism in good taste to accompany them with
any of the other productions of the garden except a little horseradish,
parsley, &c. as garnishing.

In England, and at the most fashionable tables in America, bread
only is eaten with fish. To this rule salt cod is an exception.


TO BOIL FRESH SALMON

Scale and clean the fish, handling it as little as possible, and
cutting it open no more than is absolutely necessary. Place it on
the strainer of a large fish-kettle and fill it up with cold
water. Throw in a handful of salt. Let it boil slowly. The length
of time depends on the size and weight of the fish. You may allow
a quarter of an hour to each pound; but experience alone can
determine the exact time. It must however be thoroughly done, as
nothing is more disgusting than fish that is under-cooked. You may
try it with a fork. Skim it well or the colour will be bad.

The minute it is completely boiled, lift up the strainer and rest
it across the top of the kettle, that the fish may drain, and
then, if you cannot send it to table immediately, cover it with a
soft napkin or flannel several folds double, to keep it firm by
absorbing the moisture.

Send it to table on a hot dish. Garnish with scraped horseradish
and curled parsley. Have ready a small tureen of lobster sauce to
accompany the salmon.

Take what is left of it after dinner, and put it into a deep dish
with a close cover. Having saved some of the water in which the
fish was boiled, take a quart of it, and season it with half an
ounce of whole pepper, and half an ounce of whole allspice, half a
pint of the best vinegar, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil it; and
when cold, pour it over the fish, and cover it closely again. In a
cold place, and set on ice, it will keep a day or two, and may be
eaten at breakfast or supper.

If much of the salmon has been left, you must proportion a larger
quantity of the pickle.

Boil salmon trout in a similar manner.


TO BAKE FRESH SALMON WHOLE

Having cleaned a small or moderate sized salmon, season it with
salt, pepper, and powdered mace rubbed on it both outside and in.
Skewer it with the tail turned round and put to the mouth. Lay it
on a stand or trivet in a deep dish or pan, and stick it over with
bits of butter rolled in flour. Put it into the oven, and baste it
occasionally, while baking, with its own drippings.

Garnish it with horseradish and sprigs of curled parsley, laid
alternately round the edge of the dish; and send to table with it
a small tureen of lobster sauce.

Salmon trout may be drest in the same manner.


SALMON BAKED IN SLICES.

Take out the bone and cut the flesh into slices. Season them with
cayenne and salt. Melt two ounces of butter that has been rolled
in flour, in a half pint of water, and mix with it two large
glasses of port wine, two table-spoonfuls of catchup, and two
anchovies. This allowance is for a small quantity of salmon. For a
large dish you must proportion the ingredients accordingly. Let
the anchovies remain in the liquid till they are dissolved. Then
strain it and pour it over the slices of salmon. Tie a sheet of
buttered paper over the dish, and put it into the oven.

You may bake trout or carp in the same manner.


SALMON STEAKS

Split the salmon and take out the bone as nicely as possible,
without mangling the flesh. Then cut it into fillets or steaks
about an inch thick. Dry them lightly in a cloth, and dredge them
with flour. Take care not to squeeze or press them. Have ready
some clear bright coals, such as are fit for beef-steaks. Let the
gridiron be clean and bright, and rub the bars with chalk to
prevent the fish from sticking. Broil the slices thoroughly,
turning them with steak tongs. Send them to table hot, wrapped in
the folds of a napkin that has been heated. Serve up with them
anchovy, or prawn, or lobster sauce.

Many epicures consider this the best way of cooking salmon.

Another way, perhaps still nicer, is to take some pieces of white
paper and butter them well. Wrap in each a slice of salmon,
securing the paper around them, with a string or pins. Lay them on
a gridiron, and broil them over a clear but moderate fire, till
thoroughly done. Take off the paper, and send the cutlets to table
hot, garnished with fried parsley.

Serve up with them prawn or lobster sauce in a boat.


PICKLED SALMON.

Take a fine fresh salmon, and having cleaned it, cut it into large
pieces, and boil it in salted water as if for eating. Then drain
it, wrap it in a dry cloth, and set it in a cold place till next
day. Then make the pickle, which must be in proportion to the
quantity of fish. To one quart of the water in which the salmon
was boiled, allow two quarts of the best vinegar, one ounce of
whole black pepper, one ounce of whole allspice, and a dozen
blades of mace. Boil all these together in a kettle closely
covered to prevent the flavour from evaporating. When the vinegar
thus prepared is quite cold, pour it over the salmon, and put on
the top a table-spoonful of sweet oil, which will make it keep the
longer.

Cover it closely, put it in a dry cool place, and it will be good
for many months.

This is the nicest way of preserving salmon, and is approved by
all who have tried it. Garnish with fennel.


SMOKED SALMON.

Cut the fish up the back; clean, and scale it, and take out the
roe, but do not wash it. Take the bone neatly out. Rub it well
inside and out with a mixture of salt and fine Havanna sugar, in
equal quantities, and a small portion of saltpetre. Cover the fish
with a board on which weights are placed to press it down, and let
it lie thus for two days and two nights. Drain it from the salt,
wipe it dry, stretch it open, and fasten it so with pieces of
stick. Then hang it up and smoke it over a wood fire. It will be
smoked sufficiently in five or six days.

When you wish to eat it, cut off slices, soak them awhile in
lukewarm water, and broil them for breakfast.


TO BOIL HALIBUT.

Halibut is seldom cooked whole; a piece weighing from four to six
pounds being generally thought sufficient. Score deeply the skin
of the back, and when you put it into the kettle lay it on the
strainer with the back undermost. Cover it with cold water, and
throw in a handful of salt. Do not let it come to a boil too fast.
Skim it carefully, and when it has boiled hard a few minutes, hang
the kettle higher, or diminish the fire under it, so as to let it
simmer for about twenty-five or thirty minutes. Then drain it, and
send it to table, garnished with alternate heaps of grated horseradish
and curled parsley, and accompanied by a boat of egg-sauce.

What is left of the halibut, you may prepare for the supper-table
by mincing it when cold, and seasoning it with a dressing of salt,
cayenne, sweet oil, hard-boiled yolk of egg, and a large
proportion of vinegar.


HALIBUT CUTLETS.

Cut your halibut into steaks or cutlets about an inch thick. Wipe
them with a dry cloth, and season them with salt and cayenne
pepper. Have ready a pan of yolk of egg well beaten, and a large
flat dish of grated bread crumbs.

Put some fresh lard or clarified beef dripping into a frying pan,
and hold it over a clear fire till it boils. Dip your cutlets into
the beaten egg, and then into the bread crumbs. Fry them of a
light brown. Serve them up hot, with the gravy in the bottom of
the dish.

Salmon or any large fish may be fried in the same manner.

Halibut cutlets are very fine cut quite thin and fried in the best
sweet oil, omitting the egg and bread crumbs.


TO BROIL MACKEREL.

Mackerel cannot be eaten in perfection except at the sea-side,
where it can be had immediately out of the water. It loses its
flavour in a very few hours, and spoils sooner than any other
fish. Broiling is the best way of cooking it.

Clean two fine fresh mackerel, and wipe them dry with a cloth.
Split them open and rub them with salt. Spread some very bright
coals on the hearth, and set the gridiron over them well greased.
Lay on the mackerel, and broil them very nicely, taking care not
to let them burn. When one side is quite done, turn them on the
other. Lay them, on a hot dish, and butter and pepper them before
they go to table. Garnish them with lumps or pats of minced
paisley mixed with butter, pepper and salt.


BOILED MACKEREL.

Clean the mackerel well, and let them lie a short time in vinegar
and water. Then put them into the fish-kettle with cold water and
a handful of salt. Boil them slowly. If small, they will be
sufficiently cooked in twenty minutes. When the eye starts and the
tail splits they are done. Take them up immediately on finding
them boiled enough. If they stand any time in the water they will
break.

Serve them up with parsley sauce, and garnish the dish with lumps
of minced parsley.

They are eaten with mustard.

For boiling, choose those that have soft roes.

Another way is to put them in cold salt and water, and let them
warm gradually for an hour. Then give them one hard boil, and they
will be done.


TO BOIL SALT CODFISH.

The day previous to that on which it is to be eaten, take the fish
about four o'clock in the afternoon, and put it into a kettle of
cold water. Then place it within the kitchen fire-place, so as to
keep it blood-warm. Next morning at ten, take out the fish, scrub
it clean with a hard brash, and put it into a kettle of fresh cold
water, into which a jill of molasses has been stirred. The
molasses will be found an improvement. Place the kettle again near
the fire, until about twenty minutes before dinner. Then hang it
over the fire, and boil it hard a quarter of an hour, or a little
more.

When done, drain it, and cut it into large pieces. Wrap them
closely in a fine napkin and send them to table on a large dish,
garnished round the edge with hard-boiled eggs, either cut in
half, or in circular slices, yolks and whites together. Have ready
in a small tureen, egg-sauce made with, drawn butter, thickened
with hard-boiled eggs chopped fine. Place on one side of the fish
a dish of mashed potatoes, on the other a dish of boiled parsnips.

The most usual way of preparing salt cod for eating when it comes
to table, is (after picking out all the bones) to mince it fine on
your plate, and mix it with mashed potato, parsnip, and egg-sauce;
seasoning it to your taste with cayenne and mustard. What is left
may be prepared for breakfast nest morning. It should be put into
a skillet or spider, which must be well buttered inside, and set
over hot coals to warm and brown. Or it may be made up into small
cakes and fried.

You may add to the mixture onions boiled and chopped.


TO BOIL FRESH COD.

Having washed and cleaned the fish, leave out the roe and liver;
rub some salt on the inside, and if the weather is very cold you
may keep it till next day. Put sufficient water in the fish-kettle
to cover the fish very well, and add to the water a large handful
of salt. As soon as the salt is entirely melted put in the fish. A
very small codfish will be done in about twenty minutes, (after
the water has boiled;) a large one will take half an hour, or
more. Garnish with the roe and liver fried, or with scraped
horseradish. Send it to table with oyster-sauce in a boat. Or you
may make a sauce by flavouring your melted butter with a glass of
port wine, and an anchovy boned and minced.


ANOTHER WAY OF BOILING FRESH COD.

Put the fish into cold water with a handful of salt, and let it
slowly and gradually warm for three hours if the cod is large, and
two hours if it is small. Then increase the fire, and boil it hard
for a few minutes only.


BAKED SHAD.

Keep on the head and fins. Make a force-meat or stuffing of grated
bread crumbs, cold boiled ham or bacon minced fine, sweet
marjoram, pepper, salt, and a little powdered mace or cloves.
Moisten it with beaten yolk of egg. Stuff the inside of the fish
with it, reserving a little to rub over the outside, having first
rubbed the fish all over with yolk of egg. Lay the fish in a deep
pan, putting its tail to its mouth. Pour into the bottom of the
pan a little water, and add a jill of port wine, and a piece of
butter rolled in flour. Bake it well, and when it is done, send it
to table with the gravy poured round it. Garnish with slices of
lemon.

Any fish may be baked in the same manner.

A large fish of ten or twelve pounds weight, will require about
two hours baking.


TO BROIL A SHAD.

Split and wash the shad, and afterwards dry it in a cloth. Season
it with salt and pepper. Have ready a bed of clear bright coals.
Grease your gridiron well, and as soon as it is hot lay the shad
upon it, and broil it for about a. quarter of an hour or more,
according to the thickness. Butter it well, and send it to table.
You may serve with it melted butter in a sauce-boat.

Or you may cut it into three pieces and broil it without
splitting. It will then, of course, require a longer time. If done
in this manner, send it to table with melted butter poured over
it.


BOILED ROCK-FISH.

Having cleaned the rock-fish, put it into a fish-kettle with water
enough to cover it well, having first dissolved a handful of salt
in the water. Set it over a moderate fire, and do not let it boil
too fast. Skim it well.

When done, drain it, and put it on a large dish. Have ready a few
eggs boiled hard. Cut them in half, and lay them closely on the
back of the fish in a straight line from the head to the tail.
Send with it in a boat, celery sauce flavoured with a little
cayenne.


SEA BASS OR BLACK FISH.

May be boiled and served up in the above manner.


PICKLED ROCK-FISH.

Have ready a large rock-fish. Put on your fish-kettle with a
sufficiency of water to cover the fish amply; spring or pump water
is best. As soon as the water boils, throw in a tea-cup full of
salt, and put in the fish. Boil it gently for about half an hour,
skimming it well. Then take it out, and drain it, laying it
slantingly. Reserve a part of the water in which the fish has been
boiled, and season it to your taste with whole cloves, allspice,
and mace. Boil it up to extract the strength from the spice, and
after it has boiled add to it an equal quantity of the best
vinegar. You must have enough of this liquid to cover the fish
again. When the fish is quite cold, cut off the head and tail, and
cut the body into large pieces, extracting the back-bone. Put it
into a stone jar, and when the spiced liquor is cold, pour it on
the fish, cover the jar closely, and set it in a cool place. It
will be fit for use in a day or two, and if well secured from the
air, and put into a cold place will keep a fortnight.


FRIED PERCH.

Having cleaned the fish and dried them, with a cloth, lay them,
side by side, on a board or large dish; sprinkle them with salt,
and dredge them with flour. After a while turn them, and salt and
dredge the other side. Put some lard or fresh beef-dripping into a
frying-pan, and hold it over the fire. When the lard boils, put in
the fish and fry them of a yellowish brown. Send to table with
them in a boat, melted butter flavoured with anchovy.

Flounders or other small fish may be fried in the same manner.

You may know when the lard or dripping is hot enough, by dipping
in the tail of one of the fish. If it becomes crisp immediately,
the lard is in a proper state for frying. Or you may try it with a
piece of stale bread which will become brown directly, if the lard
is in order.

There should always be enough of lard to cover the fish entirely.
After they have fried five minutes on one side, turn them and fry
them five minutes on the other. Skim the lard or dripping always
before you put in the fish.


TO FRY TROUT.

Having cleaned the fish, and cut off the fins, dredge them with
flour. Have ready some beaten yolk of egg, and in a separate dish
some grated bread crumbs. Dip each fish into the egg, and then
strew them with bread crumbs. Put some butter or fresh beef-dripping
into a frying-pan, and hold it over the fire till it is
boiling hot; then, (having skimmed it,) put in the fish and fry
them.

Prepare some melted butter with a spoonful of mushroom-catchup and
a spoonful of lemon-pickle stirred into it. Send it to table in a
sauce-boat to eat with the fish.

You may fry carp and flounders in the same manner.


TO BOIL TROUT.

Put a handful of salt into the water. When it boils put in the
trout. Boil them fast about twenty minutes, according to their
size.

For sauce, send with them melted butter, and put some soy into it;
or flavour it with catchup.


FRIED SEA BASS.

Score the fish on the back with a knife, and season them with salt
and cayenne pepper. Cut some small onions in round slices, and
chop fine a bunch of parsley. Put some butter into a frying-pan
over the fire, and when it is boiling hot lay in the fish. When
they are about half done put the onions and parsley into the pan.
Keep turning the fish that the onions and parsley may adhere to
both sides. When quite done, put them into the dish in which they
are to go to table, and garnish the edge of the dish with hard
boiled eggs cut in round slices.

Make in the pan in which they have been fried, a gravy, by adding
some butter rolled in flour, and a small quantity of vinegar. Pour
it into the dish with the fish.


STURGEON CUTLETS OR STEAKS.

This is the most approved way of dressing sturgeon. Carefully take
off the skin, as its oiliness will give the fish a strong and
disagreeable taste when cooked. Cut from the tail-piece slices
about half an inch thick, rub them with salt, and broil them over
a clear fire of bright coals. Butter them, sprinkle them with
cayenne pepper, and send them to table hot, garnished with sliced
lemon, as lemon-juice is generally squeezed over them when eaten.

Another way is to make a seasoning of bread-crumbs, sweet herbs,
pepper and salt. First dip the slices of sturgeon, in beaten yolk
of egg, then cover them with seasoning, wrap them up closely in
sheets of white paper well buttered, broil them over a clear fire,
and send them to table either with or without the papers.


STEWED CARP.

Having cut off the head, tail, and fins, season the carp with
salt, peppers and powdered mace, both, inside and out. Rub the
seasoning on very well, and let them lay in it an hour, Then put
them into a stew-pan with a little parsley shred fine, a whole
onion, a little sweet marjoram, a tea-cup of thick cream or very
rich milk, and a lump of butter rolled in flour. Pour in
sufficient water to cover the carp, and let it stew half an hour.

Perch may be done in the same way.

You may dress a piece of sturgeon in this manner, but you must
first boil it for twenty minutes to extract the oil. Take off the
skin before you proceed to stew the fish.


CHOWDER.

Take a pound or more of salt pork, and having half boiled it, cut
it into slips, and with some of them cover the bottom of a pot.
Then strew on some sliced onion. Have ready a large fresh cod, or
an equal quantity of haddock, tutaug, or any other firm fish. Cut
the fish into large pieces, and lay part of it on the pork and
onions. Season it with pepper. Then cover it with a layer of
biscuit, or crackers that have been previously soaked in milk or
water. You may add also a layer of sliced potatoes.

Next proceed with a second layer of pork, onions, fish, &c. and
continue as before till the pot is nearly full; finishing with
soaked crackers. Pour in about a pint and a half of cold water.
Cover it close, set it on hot coals, and let it simmer about an
hour. Then skim it, and turn it out into a deep dish. Leave the
gravy in the pot till you have thickened it with a piece of butter
rolled in flour, and some chopped parsley. Then give it one boil
up, and pour it hot into the dish.

Chowder may be made of clams, first cutting off the hard part.




SHELL FISH


PICKLED OYSTERS.

Take a hundred and fifty fine large oysters, and pick off
carefully the bits of shell that may be sticking to them. Lay the
oysters in a deep dish, and then strain the liquor over them. Put
them into an iron skillet that is lined with porcelain, and add
salt to your taste. Without salt they will not be firm enough. Set
the skillet on hot coals, and allow the oysters to simmer till
they are heated all through, but not till they boil. Then take out
the oysters and put them into a stone jar, leaving the liquor in
the skillet. Add to it a pint of clear strong vinegar, a large
tea-spoonful of blades of mace, three dozen whole cloves, and
three dozen whole pepper corns. Let it come to a boil, and when
the oysters are quite cold in the jar, pour the liquor oh them.

They are fit for use immediately, but are better the next day. In
cold weather they will keep a week.

If you intend sending them a considerable distance you must allow
the oysters to boil, and double the proportions of the pickle and
spice.


FRIED OYSTERS.

Get the largest and finest oysters. After they are taken from the
shell wipe each of them quite dry with a cloth. Then beat up in a
pan yolk of egg and milk, (in the proportion of two yolks to half
a jill or a wine glass of milk,) and grate some stale broad grated
very fine in a large flat dish. Cut up at least half a pound of
fresh butter in the frying-pan, and hold it over the fire till it
is boiling hot. Dip the oysters all over lightly in the mixture of
egg and milk, and then roll them up and down in the grated bread,
making as many crumbs stick to them as you can.

Put them into the frying-pan of hot butter, and keep it over a hot
fire. Fry them brown, turning them that they may be equally
browned on both sides. If properly done they will be crisp, and
not greasy.

Serve them, dry in a hot dish, and do not pour over them the
butter that may be left in the pan when they are fried.

Oysters are very good taken out of the shells and broiled on a
gridiron.


SCOLLOPED OYSTERS.

Having grated a sufficiency of stale bread, butter a deep dish,
and line the sides and bottom thickly with bread crumbs. Then put
in a layer of seasoned oysters, with a few very small bits of
butter on them. Cover them thickly with crumbs, and put in another
layer of oysters and butter, till the dish is filled up, having a
thick layer of crumbs on the top. Put the dish into an oven, and
bake them a very short time, or they will shrivel. Serve them up
hot.

You may bake them in large clam shells, or in the tin scollop
shells made for the purpose. Butter the bottom of each shell;
sprinkle it with bread crumbs; lay on the oysters seasoned with
cayenne and nutmeg, and put a morsel of butter on each. Fill up
the shells with a little of the oyster liquor thickened with bread
crumbs, and set them on a gridiron over coals, browning them
afterwards with a red-hot shovel.


STEWED OYSTERS.

Put the oysters into a sieve, and set it on a pan to drain the
liquor from them. Then cut off the hard part, and put the oysters
into a stew-pan with some whole pepper, a few blades of mace, and
some grated nutmeg. Add a small piece of butter rolled in flour.
Then pour over them about half of the liquor, or a little more.
Set the pan on hot coals, and simmer them gently about five
minutes. Try one, and if it tastes raw cook them a little longer.
Make some thin slices of toast, having cut off all the crust.
Butter the toast and lay it in the bottom of a deep dish. Put the
oysters upon it with the liquor in which they were stewed.

The liquor of oysters should never be thickened by stirring in
flour. It spoils the taste, and gives them a sodden and
disagreeable appearance, and is no longer practised by good cooks.

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