About 3 lbs. of fish
2 onions
2 table-spoons of olive oil
¹⁄₂ a lemon
2 small tomatoes
1 glass white wine
1 laurel leaf
4 pepper corns
1 table-spoon chopped parsley
Bread
Wash the fish and cut it across in slices of different sizes. Take a large iron sauce-pan, fry the onions with olive oil in it. When they are coloured a good brown add the fish to the sauce-pan and just cover it with warm water. Add also a laurel leaf, the inside of half a lemon (from which the pips have been removed), two small tomatoes (peeled and the seeds taken out) cut in dice and a glass of light white wine, the pepper-corns and salt. Make up a big fire. Set the sauce-pan on it and let the contents boil violently for twelve to fifteen minutes. Then add a table-spoon of chopped parsley. Let it continue boiling for a minute.
In a warmed soup tureen put a number of slices of roll or bread. Pour the liquid over them. See that they become thoroughly soaked with it. Add the best of the fish and serve.
The best fish to use for Bouillabaisse are cod, whiting, mullet, sole, turbot and langouste. It is absolutely essential that all the fish used should be perfectly fresh.
In France 4 cloves of garlic would be added with the tomatoes, but this is optional.
1 lb. cod or halibut
1 quart milk
1 sliced onion
1 table-spoon white roux
Cook the fish in boiling salted water until it flakes easily. Drain it. Take away the bones and skin and rub the fish through a sieve. Put the sliced onion in the milk and boil for ten minutes. Remove the onion. Add the white roux to the milk. Stir till well mixed. Add the fish. Season.
1 pint oysters
¹⁄₂ pint water
1 pint milk
1 gill thick cream
1 table-spoon white roux
Cover the oysters with the cold water. After a little while remove them. Strain the liquor. Put it on to boil and skim. When clear add the oysters. Let them simmer until their edges ruffle and their bodies grow plump. (This should take about five minutes.) Take out the oysters, set them where they will keep warm. Add the liquor to the milk, which should be boiling. Add the roux and seasoning. Simmer five minutes. Add the boiling cream. Add the oysters.
¹⁄₂ lb. salmon
1 quart white stock
2 anchovies
¹⁄₂ head of celery
A piece of parsley
1 clove
1 gill cream
1 table-spoon white roux
Let half a pound of the salmon stew gently with the chopped anchovies, in two ounces of butter, for twenty minutes, being very careful that it does not brown. Add the stock, the celery, cut fine, parsley, spice and herbs. Bring to the boil. Add the white roux. Simmer for an hour-and-a-half. Put through a tammy. Return to the fire. Add the boiling cream. Season and serve at once.