To Keep Sprats
A historical recipe from The Belgian Cookbook, by Luck, Brian, Mrs. (1915).
A historical recipe
The Belgian Cookbook, by Luck, Brian, Mrs. (1915). Project Gutenberg eBook #7223.
From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: food kept without cooking or cold storage. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.
Belgium.
Associated with Belgium by the book is about Belgian cookery (Cooking, Belgian); the recipe itself names no place (confidence 0.4). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.
Credit
From The Belgian Cookbook, by Luck, Brian, Mrs. (1915). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #7223 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7223). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.
What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.
- Storage. The keeping times and places here are from before refrigeration. Follow current storage guidance.
Method
- A large quantity of these may be bought cheaply and kept for some weeks by this method.
- Put on to warm equal quantities of vinegar and water, what you think sufficient to cover your sprats, allowing for wastage;
- and stir in for every quart of liquor a small saltspoonful of mixed spice, four bay leaves, a shallot minced, a small bunch of bruised thyme, the thin rind of a half lemon, salt and pepper;
- if you can use tarragon vinegar so much the better.
- Clean the sprats, remove tails and heads, and lay them in a deep dish.
- Take your liquor and pour it over the fish, tie a large paper over all, and let them bake in a cool oven for two or three hours;
- or cook them in a double saucepan;
- in any case do them very slowly.
- Put aside to cool, and take out the fish to use as required.
- They will keep good four weeks.
Plating
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