TENCH STEWED WITH WINE.
335. INGREDIENTS.—1/2 pint of stock No. 105, 1/2 pint of Madeira or sherry, salt and pepper to taste, 1 bay-leaf, thickening of butter and flour.
Mode.—Clean and crimp the tench; carefully lay it in a stewpan with the stock, wine, salt and pepper, and bay-leaf; let it stew gently for 1/2 hour; then take it out, put it on a dish, and keep hot. Strain the liquor, and thicken it with butter and flour kneaded together, and stew for 5 minutes. If not perfectly smooth, squeeze it through a tammy, add a very little cayenne, and pour over the fish. Garnish with balls of veal forcemeat.
Time.—Rather more than 1/2 hour.
Seasonable from October to June.
A SINGULAR QUALITY IN THE TENCH.—It is said that the tench is possessed of such healing properties among the finny tribes, that even the voracious pike spares it on this account.
The pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain, With ravenous waste devours his fellow train; Yet howsoe'er with raging famine pined, The tench he spares, a medicinal kind; For when by wounds distress'd, or sore disease, He courts the salutary fish for ease; Close to his scales the kind physician glides, And sweats a healing balsam from his sides.
In our estimation, however, this self-denial in the pike may be attributed to a less poetical cause; namely, from the mud-loving disposition of the tench, it is enabled to keep itself so completely concealed at the bottom of its aqueous haunts, that it remains secure from the attacks of its predatory neighbour.