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Modern Cookery

A simple boiled fish prepared with water, salt, and optional cold water addition.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and add salt to taste.

  2. Once boiling, skim off any scum and add the fish.

  3. Boil the fish for 3 to 10 minutes, depending on its size and thickness.

  4. Pour in an equal amount of cold water to the boiling water.

  5. Remove some water, leaving enough to keep the fish covered.

  6. Add the remaining salt and reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer until the fish is cooked through.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Fish
Is the main component; its thickness and size set how long it needs in the water.

The step that matters

Pouring in cold water after boiling. Adding cold water after the fish goes in drops the water temperature and slows the boil, so the fish cooks gently and stays intact rather than breaking apart.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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