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Skate Soup

From Mrs. Beeton's household management (1907).

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A historical recipe

Mrs. Beeton's household management, by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton (1907).

United Kingdom

Known as a British recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Printed in United Kingdom: that says where the book was made, not where the dish comes from.

Ingredients 2 ingredients

  1. a pint of cream
  2. 3 pints of water

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Ingredients.
  2. — i skate, weighing from H to 2 Ib., i onion sliced, i strip of celery in small pieces, i bay-leaf, 2 ozs.
  3. of vermicelli, 2 yolks of eggs, £ of a pint of cream, salt and pepper, 3 pints of water.
  4. Method.
  5. — Clean the skate thoroughly, and let it hang at least a day, and in cold weather even longer.
  6. When ready to use, remove the skin, divide the flesh into fillets, which put aside.
  7. Put the bones and trim1- mings into a saucepan, add the water, onion, celery, bay-leaf, white pepper or peppercorns, and a little salt, and simmer gently for i hour.
  8. Strain, return the stock to the saucepan, bring to the boil, and add the fillets of fish.
  9. Continue to cook slowly for 10 minutes, then sprinkle in the vermicelli, and after 5 minutes further cooking, add the yolks of eggs and cream previously well beaten together.
  10. Stir and cook gently until the soup thickens slightly, then season to taste, and serve.
  11. Time.
  12. — About i| hours.
  13. Average Cost, is.
  14. 9d.
  15. to 23, Sufficient for 6 persons.
  16. Seasonable in winter.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Saucepan
  • Chef's knife
  • Cutting board
  • Wooden spoon
  • Sieve
Source public domain per archive.org metadata; unverified
Credit

From Mrs. Beeton's household management (1907), printed page 203, digitised by the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/mrsbeetonshouse00beetuoft

What was changed: Read by machine from the book's scanned text into ingredients and method. The title's capitals were tidied; spelling and scanning errors are left as they are.