BAKED COD OR HALIBUT
Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea By Marion Harland [Mary Virginia Terhune] (1875)
BAKED COD OR HALIBUT.
• A piece of fish from the middle of the back, weighing four, five or six pounds.
• A cupful of bread-crumbs, peppered and salted.
• 2 table-spoonfuls boiled salt pork, finely chopped.
• A table-spoonful chopped parsley, sweet marjoram and thyme, with a mere suspicion of minced onion.
• 1 teaspoonful anchovy sauce, or Harvey's, if you prefer it. 1/2 cupful drawn butter.
• Juice of half a lemon.
• 1 beaten egg.
Lay the fish in very cold salt-and-water for two hours; wipe dry; make deep gashes in both sides at right angles with the back-bone and rub into these, as well as coat it all over with a force-meat made of the crumbs, pork, herbs, onion and seasoning, bound with raw egg.
Lay in the baking-pan and pour over it the drawn butter (which should be quite thin), seasoned with the anchovy sauce, lemon-juice, pepper and a pinch of parsley.
Bake in a moderate oven nearly an hour,--quite as long if the piece be large, basting frequently lest it should brown too fast.
Add a little butter-and-water when the sauce thickens too much. When the fish is done, remove to a hot dish, and strain the gravy over it.
A few capers or chopped green pickles are a pleasant addition to the gravy.
The complete 'Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea' may be found on the Michigan State University website: 'Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project' http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/
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