Day Five - Wednesday

Day Five!  Another simple breakfast to start today, and not much real cooking until dinner time...

Breakfast:  Bread and Jam;  Cheese;  Dried Fruit

It was a bit odd for us eating cheese with our breakfast, but it wouldn't have been odd then (and indeed probably wouldn't be still, for many people).

Lunch:  Leftover vegetables and sausages from Tuesday night's dinner.  

Eating leftovers for lunch the next day is quite a normal thing for us, and it would have been for the Victorians too.  It would not have been unusual for them to have leftover dinner foods as part of breakfast in fact, but I didn't think my family was ready for stewed cabbage for breakfast!

Tea:  Leftover Seed-Cake;  Strawberries

Dinner:  Cod's Head and Shoulders with Cream Sauce;  Beef Fritters;  Potato Salad;  Beetroot.

It's a bit like something out of a horror movie, isn't it?  I had to put parsley over its eyes so that Daughter wouldn't freak out.  LOL

After breakfast this morning, I had headed off to the fish market to buy a fish.  Seafood was widely available and fairly cheap in Victorian England, and quite a variety was enjoyed.  The most popular white-fleshed fish were cod and haddock, but even the working classes were able to obtain seafood such as herring, sprats, eels, oysters, mussels, cockles, and whelks.

I found a nice whole Rankin Cod, which the people at the fish market gutted and cleaned for me.  Once I got it home, I set about cutting it up.  I am not used to buying whole fish, so this was a bit of an adventure.  Luckily, my father has been a keen amateur fisherman for most of his life, so I have seen filleting etc done many times.  First I removed the front of the fish, a little way back from the head (so it included the wings), kept this piece whole and popped it into the fridge.  Next, I filleted what was left, removed the skin and small bones from the fillets, and froze them for use later in the week.

When it was time to make dinner, I followed Eliza Acton's instructions for boiling the "head and shoulders" of the cod.  This seems to have been a very popular method of cooking fish;  both Miss Acton and Mrs Beeton give very matter-of-fact instructions on this, before even mentioning other methods of cooking.  In fact, it is more like poaching, as the instructions are very clear that the cooking be done "very gently".

I followed Eliza's instructions on cooking time etc, and when the fish came out of the water, it was perfectly cooked, and absolutely beautiful.  I also made Acton's "Cream Sauce For Fish", to go with it.

Husband and Daughter found this way of serving the fish to be challenging.  They were unsure of how to tackle it, and concerned about getting bones.  I therefore served the morsels of fish onto their plates for them.  They agreed that it was tender and tasty though.

The interesting thing about cooking this, is that you actually end up eating some of the best parts of the fish - the wings and the cheeks.  Often these parts are never seen by people who favour the fillets (which, I freely admit, is us usually, just out of convenience).  It does require a bit more work, but they really are lovely.

The sauce was rich and tasty, without overpowering the flavour of the fish.

For our vegetables tonight, I served leftover beetroot from Tuesday night, and also made Mrs Beeton's Potato Salad.  

This was basically boiled potatoes, sliced after cooking, tossed in vinegar and "salad oil" (which is apparently what the English called olive oil at this time) with a little parsley.  It was an excellent accompaniment to the fish.

As only a small serving of fish is obtained from the head and shoulders of a cod this size, I decided to use up the last of Sunday's roast beef by making Mrs Beeton's Beef Fritters.  This does what it says on the tin - it is essentially slices of cold roast beef, dipped in a batter, and fried in lard or dripping.  They were crispy and tasty, and I can feel very successful about not having wasted any of our roast meat!

For dessert tonight, I made Mrs Beeton's "Apple Fritters".

This had a separate batter made for it, as the ingredients and method were both different from that used for the beef.  Next, I peeled the apples, sliced them thickly, and punched the core of each slice out with a cutter.

Then I dipped each slice in the batter, dropped it into boiling lard. and cooked it until it was "a nice brown".  The fritters were then "strewn" with sugar, and served.

Oh, wow.  These were amazing.  They actually weren't crispy like I thought they would be, but the batter took on an almost doughnut-like flavour and texture, and the apple was cooked, but still retained some texture (it wasn't just apple mush).

I cut three apples up for this, and we ate the lot.  I will definitely be making them again!