The 1901 Cookbook Archive

Section IX: Fish — Historical Fish Notes and the Complete English Recipe Index

Complete English translation of Section IX’s historical fish introduction: 158 paragraphs, 31 headings and two lists, with all 212 fish recipes indexed in English.

Complete historical chapter notes in English: All 158 paragraphs, 31 subsection headings, and both explanatory lists from the 1901 Russian fish chapter follow in their original sequence. The 212 numbered fish recipes appear in their original order below and open their existing English translations. Period categories, prices and quantities are preserved.

Historical safety notice: The 1901 book includes outdated claims about fish freshness, storage, killing fish, medical benefits of cod, the treatment of stockfish with lye and quicklime, and crayfish handling. These passages document historical practice, not present-day food-safety, animal-handling or medical recommendations. For practical preparation, follow current food-safety requirements and do not reproduce hazardous historical chemical treatments.

Note.

1) The nutritional value of fish is almost equal to that of beef.

2) Fish are divided into three groups:

Fish with white flesh, such as pike and zander.
Fish with red flesh, such as salmon and trout.
Fish with fatty flesh, such as whitefish, cod and eel.

3) Fish with white flesh are considered easier to digest, while fish with red flesh are held to be the most nourishing.

Cod is considered the healthiest fish of all.

4) The months in which different fish are tastiest:

Burbot in January; pike from February to April; tench from May to July; crayfish from May to September; trout from May to August; salmon and eel from June to August; carp from September to April, and so on.

5) To keep a fish alive for several days in winter, it is recommended to put a piece of bread soaked in water into its mouth and place it in snow.

In summer, pour a small glass of vodka or wine into its mouth and cover the fish with moss in the cellar.

6) Fish can be kept alive in water for a long time only in river water, that is, the water in which they lived; in other water, including well or spring water, they soon die.

7) The tastiest fish is a live fish killed immediately before cooking. The preferred way to kill it, according to the book, is to cut with a sharp knife immediately behind the head, separating the brain from the spinal column.

8) A fish that has died on its own is much inferior to a fresh one, particularly one killed immediately before cooking.

9) Frozen fish is generally inferior to, and significantly cheaper than, fresh fish or fish that has just died. When buying fish that has died, it is especially important to make sure it is fresh, because only then is it considered tasty and wholesome.

10) To determine whether a fish is fresh, examine its gills: red ones indicate freshness, whereas very dark or pale ones are a reason to reject it. White gills supposedly indicate that a fish has been frozen for a second time; to make sure such gills have not been colored artificially, rub them with a damp cloth.

The eyes should be full and bright, not cloudy or sunken; the skin should be firm. If the bones separate from the flesh when a fish is cut lengthwise from head to tail, it should be rejected.

Frozen fish can likewise be judged by its prominent eyes and overall appearance. If the skin is shiny and coated with frost and the fish is straight, the author considers it fresh; if the skin is dull, the ice has fallen away, the tail is bent or the flesh has depressions, the fish may have thawed and been frozen again, and is deemed unsuitable.

11) Do not kill a fresh fish before it is needed; keep it in fresh water, changing the water frequently. If it can no longer be kept in water, kill it as described in note 7, clean its surface immediately, cut it open from head to tail and carefully remove the entrails without rupturing the gall bladder, which would make the fish and the ukha prepared from it so bitter that everything would have to be discarded.

12) If the fish is to be used at once, wash and salt it. If it is to be kept until the next day, place it unwashed in a cold place or on ice; wash it thoroughly the following day before use. If intended for a pie, gut and wash it, wipe it dry, rub it all over with salt at the rate of one teaspoon per pound of fish, wrap tightly in a napkin and leave for about two hours to dry it. Otherwise excessive moisture will make the bottom of the pastry heavy and damp.

13) To cook a large whole fish, from one pound upward, thoroughly while preserving its flavor, lower it into cold water or cold fish stock prepared with white roots alone, such as, for six diners, one parsley root, one leek, one celery root, three or four onions, one or two bay leaves and twenty to thirty allspice berries. Add only enough liquid to cover the fish.

Bring it once to a boil over high heat, then finish cooking slowly in a covered saucepan or, better, a fish kettle. Arrange the thicker parts over stronger heat: set the middle of the fish kettle over the hottest part of the stove.

If the fish has only just been caught, however, use neither roots nor spices, because the flavor of truly fresh fish is held to be excellent on its own.

14) If a fish kettle is unavailable, a large saucepan may be used. To keep the fish whole, sew it into a napkin or clean cloth, bend it carefully and lower it into the saucepan. When cooked, lift it carefully onto a board, straighten it, undo the stitches and transfer it from the napkin to a long fish platter suited to its size.

15) Small fish and pieces weighing less than one pound should instead be lowered into boiling water.

16) When the eyes turn white and protrude, the fish is considered done.

17) To prevent a muddy taste, two or three glowing pieces of birch charcoal, free of dust and ash, are placed in the water during cooking.

18) If the fish has only just been killed, make a lengthwise cut along its back before cooking so that the skin will not burst during boiling.

19) Fish takes approximately ten to fifteen minutes to cook from the moment the liquid boils, depending on its thickness.

20) Frozen fish must be put into cold water for cooking.

21) When a fish is cooked in a fish kettle for serving on its own, hot or cold, the water should be heavily salted: for example, two heaped teaspoons of salt for three glasses of water. The resulting stock is then no longer suitable for use.

If the stock will also be used, allow half a teaspoon of salt for each three glasses of ukha, and use that same amount to salt the fish before cooking; otherwise the stock might become too salty. The ukha can be salted again just before serving.

For fish to be fried, rub with salt at the rate of half a teaspoon per pound of fish.

22) Fish is sometimes steamed: place it on the grate of a fish kettle and add salted water, fish stock, wine or cucumber brine, as is sometimes done with sterlet, keeping the liquid below the grate so that the fish cooks only in the steam.

23) Cook fish lying flat in a fish kettle that is not too narrow.

24) If salted fish is used, first soak it in cold water, changing the water several times, and remove the skin before cooking. Lightly salted fish need not be soaked at all.

25) Scrape off scales with a knife while the fish is immersed in water, so the scales will not scatter. The scales are cut from frozen fish.

26) Gut fish as follows. After removing the scales, cut open the belly, remove the liver and then all the other entrails. If the fish has already died, remove the gills as well. Rinse thoroughly in cold water after gutting. Remove the gall bladder carefully. Some fish are gutted through an opening where the gills have been cut away.

27) Sterlet, trout, burbot and ruffe are used exclusively boiled.

28) For frying, small fish and portions cut from a large fish are cooked on the stove in a frying pan, preferably on a copper baking sheet, turning them from one side to the other. The stove should be less hot than for frying meat, since fish cooks more quickly. Frying takes about fifteen minutes.

29) Fish must be fried or boiled thoroughly, because undercooked fish is unpleasant to eat and considered harmful. A large fish should therefore be split lengthwise in half, the bones removed, the flesh rubbed with salt and each half divided into portions. Make several cuts in the thicker part of each portion. Do not be sparing with the butter or oil when frying: the fat should be boiling hot in the pan. Adding it a little at a time prevents proper browning and can cause the fish to burn.

30) Some people sprinkle fish with lemon juice; if doing so, add it immediately before frying, since the acidity can otherwise cause the flesh to fall apart.

31) For small fish such as young whitefish, burbot, smelt, vendace, fresh herring, selyava, Baltic herring and small smelt, and for portions of larger fish, clean, wash and salt them, dry them thoroughly with a towel, then coat in flour or sifted breadcrumbs, dip into well-beaten egg and coat in breadcrumbs again. Put into hot fat and fry, turning on both sides. The greater the quantity of fat added at once, the better, according to this historical instruction.

32) If fish is deep-fried, the frying fat must be well clarified, already boiling, and plentiful enough for the fish to be immersed in it. On removing the fish, set it for about three minutes on a sieve lined with absorbent paper; otherwise it may smell of the frying fat.

Less butter or oil is required than deep-frying fat, although in general considerably more is needed than for frying, for example, meat cutlets.

33) Only fish with firm, cohesive flesh should be deep-fried.

34) Many consider baked fish tastier. For a medium-sized fish, such as bream, tench, carp, whitefish or flounder, clean and salt it, wipe it dry, put it on a baking sheet and coat the whole fish thoroughly in butter or oil. Bake it in the oven, frequently basting with the fat that runs from it, until done.

35) Towards the end of cooking, fresh sour cream and spring onions are added to some fish, such as young whitefish and crucian carp. Dill and parsley may also be sprinkled over them if desired.

36) Almost all the salads named in the relevant section, including vinaigrette, may be served with fried fish.

Garnish with greens and half-slices of lemon without skin or seeds.

37) When serving a large fish boiled in a fish kettle, lay it on the platter with the backbone upward, gently pressing and thereby spreading the belly portion. Fish for historical mayonnaise dishes is arranged in the same way: with the backbone in the middle, the flesh is easy to take from either side.

38) The proportions are intended for six people.

For seven to nine people, increase the proportions one and a half times.
For ten to twelve people, double the fish quantity and multiply the sauce by one and a half.
For thirteen to eighteen people, double both the fish and the sauce.
For nineteen to twenty-four people, double the fish but triple the sauce.

Nelma Whitefish and Beluga Sturgeon.

Note.

The fish is served boiled and fried and is added to botvinya. Gut through the belly; it may be boiled, fried or marinated.

Ruffe.

Note.

1) Small ruffe are only washed, not gutted. The author considers them especially useful for producing a stock that sets. Ruffe are divided into three sizes: small, medium and large. Large ones are gutted through the cut-out gills.

2) They are best in January and February, before the first grass appears.

3) They are used exclusively for ukha and for lanspik (the setting stock from which aspic and historical mayonnaise dishes are made). The tastiest ukha is said to be made from one pound of ruffe, one pound of burbot and one pound of whitefish.

4) A pound contains ten to fifteen small ruffe, while a single large ruffe may weigh three-quarters of a pound.

5) When making ukha from ruffe, choose small fish, lower them into the measured quantity of cold water and boil until they break down completely, as described in the note on ukha.

Proceed in exactly the same way when making fish lanspik.

6) Remove the fillets from large ruffe and cook them by lowering them into already boiling ukha made from the heads and bones of similar fish. Place the cooked fillets in an earthenware bowl on ice and then use them for ruffe aspic.

Ruffe are also added when boiling other fish, to strengthen the flavor of the stock intended for sauce or ukha.

Flounder, Also Called Sole.

Note.

A large flounder weighs half a pound and costs 12 kopecks per pound; a small one costs 9 kopecks per pound.

It is fried whole: scrape the scales from the lower side, remove the skin from the upper side, gut the fish, scrape the blood from the vertebrae and rub it with lemon.

Crucian Carp.

Note.

Scrape off the scales, gut and rinse. Leave small fish whole and cut large ones into portions. Salt them, wrap tightly in a napkin and leave for an hour. If frying, sprinkle both sides with a little pepper, coat in flour, and so on.

Carp.

Note.

River carp are tastier than pond-raised carp. They are said to taste best in May, June, July and August. The author advises giving a pond-caught carp strong vinegar to swallow before killing it in order to improve the flavor.

Smelt, Selyava, Vendace, Small Smelt and Gudgeon.

Note.

Ten small smelt make a pound; six to eight large ones, or four specially selected ones, make a pound. They are boiled, fried, marinated and smoked.

Everything prepared from smelt can also be prepared from selyava and vendace.

Bream.

Note.

Remove the scales, gut through the opening where the gills have been cut away, wash and dry with a towel, and continue as directed for the particular dish.

Tench.

Note.

Put a killed tench into hot water to remove the slime and make the scales easier to scrape off. The original repeats the instruction to place it in hot water. Then transfer it to cold water and, while keeping it there, scrape off the scales down to the white skin with the blunt side of a knife, taking care not to tear the skin. Gut through the belly, remove the fins and gills, wash and dry. Tench is considered best from May to July.

Salmon.

Note.

Scald salmon to make it easier to remove the scales. Serve it boiled, hot or cold, or add it to botvinya. It is also used for historical mayonnaise and pâté dishes, and served fried in paper parcels.

Lampreys.

Navaga.

Note. Navaga has no scales; it is only necessary to gut it, remove the outer skin, cut off the head, salt it and lower it into cold water. Large specimens weigh one pound and the smallest a quarter-pound; the stated price is 10 kopecks per pound. It is boiled, fried or marinated.

Burbot.

Note.

Burbot is mostly used for ukha and pâtés. Cut the skin around the head, thread a cord through the eyes with a needle, tie it and hang the fish. Loosen the skin around the head with a knife, then pull it off the entire burbot by hand; a pinch of salt between the fingers makes it easier to grip. Slit the belly, gut and wash the fish, salt it and wipe with a napkin. The individual recipes give further instructions.

The liver is particularly prized in burbot.

After removing the gall bladder, wash the liver thoroughly and cook it in ukha, with which it is served in slices. Alternatively, fry the washed liver in butter, slice it and use it to garnish fish dishes.

The burbot's head is not boiled even for ukha, because it was considered harmful.

Burbot is used for ukha No. 121 and pâté No. 1437, and is also marinated.

Perch.

Note.

Perch is used not only for ukha but also for aspic and historical mayonnaise dishes, since it gives the stock both flavor and setting strength. It is fried and sometimes boiled in beer. Scrape off the scales, gut and wash. Leave half-pound fish whole and divide larger fish into portions, salt them and wrap in a napkin for a full hour. To fry, remove from the napkin, sprinkle both sides with pepper, coat in flour and fry as usual.

Ukha is prepared from perch with ruffe and whitefish added.

Sturgeon.

Note.

1) Sturgeon is served boiled or fried and added to pies and meatless shchi. Scald it with hot water, then clean, gut and wash.

2) If serving the fish whole, lay it flat on the grate of a fish kettle and pour over cooled fish stock or cooled salted water in which white roots, two onions, allspice and ordinary pepper, bay leaf and sometimes a handful of caraway seeds have been boiled. Cover, place over high heat to bring once to a boil, skim off the foam and finish cooking slowly.

3) When done, lift the fish out with the grate, transfer to a long fish platter and immediately remove the skin. Slice with the sharpest knife for serving. The specific recipes continue from this point.

4) If cooking less than one pound of sturgeon, lower it into boiling fish stock that has already been prepared from small ruffe, roots and spices.

5) Use one spoonful of salt per three glasses of water.

6) If frying, likewise scald the sturgeon with boiling water and remove the skin first; baste it as frequently as possible during frying with melted butter or another oil allowed for meatless dishes.

Halibut.

Note. It is used in pies with sour cabbage or fresh cabbage.

Gudgeon.

Vendace.

Note.

Everything prepared from smelt can also be prepared from vendace. It is fried, marinated and smoked.

Baltic Herring (Salakushka).

Note.

Fifteen fish weigh a pound, and a pound costs seven kopecks. They are mostly eaten fried, but also in a liquid fish solyanka or cooked in a pan with cabbage.

After frying they may be marinated, that is, covered with vinegar boiled with spices; see No. 3575.

Selyava.

Herring.

Note.

Herring are covered in scales, which must be removed carefully with a knife so as not to cut the skin. Fresh herring is excellent fried, and especially in small open-topped pies known as rasstegai.

Salted herring is to be soaked for thirty-six hours in milk, kvass, beer, tea or water, changing the liquid several times.

Herring is served as an appetizer, for breakfast, fried with sauce, stuffed, in forshmak, in vinaigrette or with croutons. It is smoked and marinated.

Salmon or Catfish.

Whitefish (Sigi).

Note. Large whitefish are boiled, fried, baked, stewed and smoked; small whitefish are only fried. Whitefish are particularly good in pies. Clean and gut them, sometimes through a cut along the back, remove the backbone, wash, dry and salt, and wrap tightly in a towel.

Small Smelt (Snetki).

Note.

They are brought to St Petersburg only frozen and are the smallest kind of fish. Those from Lake Beloye are considered the best. Fresh-frozen snetki cost ten kopecks per pound, while salted ones cost seven or eight. They are not gutted: wash them as thoroughly as possible and dry on a napkin. They are boiled in meatless fish soups or fried.

Sterlet.

Note.

Sterlet is served boiled, in ukha, in pâtés, fried or baked. Remove the scutes or scales along the back and sides. Gut through the belly. To remove the viziga lying along the spine, make a cut near the tail and carefully pull it out with a needle; if it breaks, make another cut farther up. Wash in cold water and wipe completely dry with a towel. Cook on the grate of a fish kettle, barely covered with fish broth, or by steaming, as described in the general note.

Zander (Pike-Perch).

Note.

Those from Gdov are considered best. The stated price is eighteen kopecks per pound, or twelve kopecks frozen. Zander is used for many dishes: ukha, aspic, historical mayonnaise, pudding and sometimes pies. It is served boiled, fried or baked. It is an extremely delicate fish and difficult to keep alive, because it often dies soon after being taken out of the water.

Remove the scales, gut it, cut out the gills and rinse in cold water. Tie the head with thread and set the fish on the grate in a fish kettle. Half an hour before dinner, salt it and add just enough cold stock to cover it, made from white roots, three or four onions, two bay leaves, a bundle of herbs and fifteen to thirty allspice berries. Cover and place over high heat. The water will boil after about a quarter of an hour, and the zander will be ready after another quarter-hour. Lift it out with the grate, gently transfer to a long fish platter suited to its length, and continue serving as described.

Cod.

Note.

This is a particularly large sea fish, described in the book as the healthiest of all. Cod-liver oil is obtained from it. Fresh cod is said to be exceedingly delicious, but the book states it can be obtained fresh only where it is caught, namely in the White Sea and Arctic Ocean.

It is extremely delicate and, according to the book, impossible to transport fresh, so it is salted immediately.

Once salted it quickly develops a strong unpleasant smell, which the author says does not diminish its nourishment, digestibility or medicinal qualities.

The book claims that northern peoples who eat this fish throughout the year are especially healthy and free from scrofula. It describes cod as almost the only food besides bread that people accustomed to it never tire of and would not exchange for any delicacy.

Cod is eaten boiled or baked.

Newly salted cod is to be soaked for a whole day, changing the water frequently, and then, before serving, boiled in two or three changes of water.

Stockfish is prepared from air-dried or dried cod as follows. Put the dried cod into a wooden vessel, cover with strong lye and replace the lye once a day for four days. Drain it, cover the fish for one day with water mixed with quicklime; when it turns white, rinse again and soak for one day in river water, changing the water three times in that day.

In winter, fish treated in this way can be prepared for several meals. To cook it, take four or five pounds, cover with water and place over moderate heat. As soon as the water warms, drain it and add fresh water; repeat until the water is no longer sticky. Then warm the water again without letting it boil, as boiling would make the stockfish tough. Drain in a sieve, add a little salt, transfer to a covered serving dish to keep warm and serve.

Another, quicker method of preparing stockfish is as follows. In the evening beat the cod thoroughly with the blunt side of a wooden tool or axe, soak it overnight in river water, and the next day put it into cold salted water. Cook slowly under a lid; near the end bring it to a strong boil, move to the edge of the stove, and drain the fish in a sieve.

A third method, regarded as better, uses dried cod cut into pieces. Wash it in two changes of water and soak it for a week in the strongest possible brine, that is, very heavily salted cold water. At the end of the week boil fresh, lightly salted water, add the cod removed from the brine and lightly squeezed, immediately reduce to gentle heat, let it simmer for about three hours and serve with butter, eggs and the like.

The tastiest cod, of course, is fresh cod.

Eel.

Note.

After killing an eel with a blow from a hammer to the head between the eyes, rub it dry with sand to remove all the slime, then wash and wipe it. Cut the skin near the head, thread a string through the eyes with a needle, tie it and hang the eel from a nail.

Loosen the skin around the head with a knife and pull it off the entire eel by hand. Because it is slippery, hold a pinch of salt between the fingers. Slit the eel lengthwise, gut, wash and wipe with a napkin. The particular recipes provide further details.

If the eel is intended for marinating, it is better to leave the skin on, since the tastiest fat is said to lie beneath it. Instead rub with sand, wash, gut and rinse again.

Trout.

Note.

1) Trout may have white or pink flesh; they are further divided into several kinds according to flavor:

a) Neva trout, called truite saumonée by the French, is considered the tastiest of all varieties. It has a small head, a thick body and pink-red flesh and is described as very delicate. It should be killed ten minutes before use. Fishermen call it tameshka.

b) Small trout called Gatchina trout. The printed text says to clean them eight hours before serving.

c) Trout called Swedish trout are medium-sized and flat, with red flesh, but are less tasty than Neva trout. The book says they should be killed the day before use.

d) Ordinary trout have white flesh and are considered the least tasty of these varieties.

2) Trout is generally served whole, boiled, hot or cold. It is also used for historical mayonnaise dishes and pâtés.

Two hours before dinner, after killing the trout, gut it, remove the gills and clean away the blood along the backbone. Tie the head with Dutch thread and set the fish in a fish kettle on its grate. Cover it with prepared stock of white roots, onions and spices. Three-quarters of an hour before dinner, put the kettle over high heat, bring once to a boil, then move it to low heat for another quarter-hour. A very large trout is cooked for half an hour from the moment of boiling.

Lift the trout onto the table with its grate, remove the upper skin, carefully transfer it to a long fish platter on a napkin, and cover it with another napkin to keep it warm.

Pike.

Note.

Scrape the scales off in water, gut through the opening left by removing the gills, wash, and take the skin off like a bag; add a little salt. Pike roe is considered harmful in the book and is therefore recommended for discarding. Pike is served boiled, baked, fried or stuffed.

Pike is also used for cutlets, zrazy, rolls, historical mayonnaise, aspic and pudding, and is marinated.

Fish Cutlets.

Note.

1) If the cutlets are made from fish whose flesh binds together well, such as pike, zander or perch, eggs are not added to the forcemeat. For cutlets made from other kinds of fish, two or three eggs are added.

2) Four pounds of whole fish yield one and a half pounds of flesh. The liquid or butter added should be one-quarter of the flesh by weight, either entirely butter or a mixture of butter with milk or cream.

3) Bread crumb is added only if there is not enough fish, because cutlets taste better without bread.

Crayfish.

Note. Crayfish are caught in May, June, July and August.

There are two kinds: some greenish, others blackish. The blackish kind is considered better, and their feet should be red underneath.

1) The author regards undercooked crayfish as especially harmful, as well as crayfish that were already dead before cooking. The following signs are given for distinguishing live from dead crayfish after boiling:

2) The tail, called the neck in this book, is said always to remain extended in a crayfish that died before cooking, whereas in a live crayfish it is curled under, more tightly the healthier and stronger the animal was.

3) Living crayfish are first put into plenty of water at summer temperature and stirred with a spatula to rinse off dirt, then drained in a sieve. When the water has run off, boil them.

4) Serve them hot. If they are to be served cold, let them cool without removing them from the cooking water.

5) To remove the meat from the tails and legs, take the crayfish out of the cooled stock, let them dry slightly and then clean them.

6) The author determines that crayfish are cooked when a crack forms between the back and the tail.

7) The stomach is sometimes removed from a living crayfish so that it will not give the tail an unpleasant flavor.

8) Crayfish are sometimes cooked directly in the sauces with which they will be served.

9) Cleaned crayfish tails added to soup or sauce should not be boiled; they should merely be heated thoroughly.

10) Stuffed crayfish shells intended for soup or garnish should be boiled separately in boiling salted water.

11) When shells are to be used to make crayfish butter for sauces, the eyes must be removed and the entrails cleared out; then wash the shells with cold water.

12) If the shells are intended for soup or sauce, however, the book allows the entrails to remain; the shells are pounded with them, fried in butter and so forth.

Numbered recipes in English

The original chapter lists 212 unique numbered recipes. The following links open their English translations, in the original printed order.

Nelma Whitefish and Beluga Sturgeon.

Ruffe.

Flounder, Also Called Sole.

Crucian Carp.

Carp.

Smelt, Selyava, Vendace, Small Smelt and Gudgeon.

Bream.

Tench.

Salmon.

Lampreys.

Navaga.

Burbot.

Perch.

Sturgeon.

Halibut.

Gudgeon.

Vendace.

Baltic Herring (Salakushka).

Selyava.

Herring.

Salmon or Catfish.

Whitefish (Sigi).

Small Smelt (Snetki).

Sterlet.

Zander (Pike-Perch).

Cod.

Eel.

Trout.

Pike.

Fish Cutlets.

Crayfish.

Numbered recipes in English

Recipes 1130–1161

Recipes 1162–1193

Recipes 1194–1225

Recipes 1226–1257

Recipes 1258–1289

Recipes 1290–1321

Recipes 1322–1341

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