SC - Compleat Angler #3 carp, eel

[Christina van Tets]

Compleat Angler #3:  Carp, eel

Carp:

Part/book 1. chap 10, fourth day

But, first, I will tell you how to make this carp, that is so curious 
to be caught, so curious a dish of meat, as shall make him worth all 
your labour and patience;  and though it is not without some trouble 
and charges, yet it will recompense both.
    Take a carp, alive if possible [aargh - CJvT], scour him, and rub 
him clean with water and salt, but scale him not;  then open him, 
and put him, with his blood and his liver, which you must save when 
you open him, into a small pot or kettle;  then take sweet marjoram, 
thyme, and parsley, of each half a handful, a sprig of rosemary, and 
another of savory, bind them into two or three small bundles, and put 
them to your carp, with four or five whole onions, twenty pickled 
oysters, and three anchovies.  Then pour upon your carp as much 
claret wine as will only cover him, and season your claret well with 
salt, cloves, and mace, and the rinds of oranges and lemons:  that 
done, cover your pot and set it on a quick fire till it be 
sufficiently boiled;  then take out the carp and lay it with the 
broth into the dish, and pour upon it a quarter of a pound of the 
best fresh butter, melted and beaten with half-a-dozen spoonfuls of 
the broth, the yolks of two or three eggs, and some of the herbs 
shred;  garnish your dish with lemons, and so serve it up, and much 
good do you.


To cook an eel:

Book 1, chap. 13, the fourth day

And to commute for your patient hearing this long discourse, I shall 
next tell you how to make this Eel a most excellent dish of meat.
    First, wash him in water and salt, then pull off his skin below 
his vent or navel, and not much further;  having done that, take out 
his guts as clean as you can, but wash him not:  then give him three 
or four scotches with a knife, and then put into his belly and those 
scotches sweet herbs, and anchovy, and a little nutmeg grated, or cut 
very small;  and your herbs and anchovies must also be cut very 
small, and mixed with good butter and salt:  having done this, then 
pull his skin over him all but his head,, which you are to cut off, 
to the end you may tie his skin about that part where his head grew;  
and it must be so tied as to keep all his moisture within his skin:  
and having done this, tie him with tape or packthread to a spit, and 
roast him leisurely, and baste him with water and salt till his skin 
breaks, and then with butter;  and having roasted him enough, let 
what was put into his belly and what he drips be his sauce.

Cairistiona
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