Salt-fish pie. The thickest part must be chosen, and put in cold water to soak the night before wanted; then boil it well, take it up, take away the bones and skin, and if it is good fish it will be in fine layers; set it on a fish-drainer to get cold: in the mean time, boil four eggs hard, peel and slice them very thin, the same quantity of onion sliced thin; line the bottom of a pie-dish with fish forcemeat (No. 383), or a layer of potatoes sliced thin, then a layer of onions, then of fish, and of eggs, and so on till the dish is full; season each layer with a little pepper, then mix a tea-spoonful of made mustard, the same of essence of anchovy, a little mushroom catchup, in a gill of water, put it in the dish, then put on the top an ounce of fresh butter broke in bits; cover it with puff paste, and bake it one hour.
Fresh cod may be done in the same way, by adding a little salt.
All fish for making pies, whether soles, flounders, herrings, salmon, lobster, eels, trout, tench, &c. should be dressed first; this is the most economical way for Catholic families,[179] as what is boiled one day will make excellent pies or patties the next.
If you intend it for pies, take the skin off, and the bones out; lay your salmon, soles, turbot, or codfish, in layers, and season each layer with equal quantities of pepper, allspice, mace, and salt, till the dish is full. Save a little of the liquor that the fish was boiled in; set it on the fire with the bones and skin of the fish, boil it a quarter of an hour, then strain it through a sieve, let it settle, and pour it in the dish; cover it with puff-paste; bake it about an hour and a quarter. Shrimps, prawns, or oysters added, will improve the above; if for patties, they must be cut in small pieces, and dressed in a bechamel sauce (No. 364).