Sue's Diner: Cod Sounds and Tongues

This week's recipe is one of those recipes that shows how the BryonySeries cookbook: Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony," which is a permanent fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties, is as much culinary history as it is culinary kitchen adventure.

Cod "sounds" are actually fish's air or swim bladder, the part of the cod that keeps it afloat in water. A dish of cod sounds and tongues was actually a yummy delicacy in the nineteenth century and one that Bryony Marseilles Simons relished, although her time-traveling counterpart Melissa Marchellis found them hard to stomach.

This recipe does appear in the BryonySeries cookbook: Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles from "Bryony," and you can also view it on the Sue's Diner page on the BryonySeries website.

But check out the recipe this week. It will be gone some time next week. A new recipe will take it's place. 

If you have any questions or comments, email us at bryonyseries@gmail.com.

And if you do lay your hands on cod sounds and tongues (I have no idea where to buy them) and try the recipe at home, please let us know how it turned out!

By the way, Sue's Diner is only real in the BryonySeries world. But didn't Timothy do a great job making the page look like a real menu at a vintage diner?

Here is the full diner page: bryonyseries.com/sue-s-diner. You can't really order, of course (wouldn't it be great if you could?).

For more BryonySeries recipes, check out our three cookbooks at our BryonySeries bryonyseries.com/general-store.

Melted Butter

Not so simple back in the day...

I found this at http://cookbook.vcdesignconcept.com/19th_century/. This is the same place where I discovered the recipe for the flannel cakes from John Simons' youth.


MELTED BUTTER

Sometimes called drawn butter, melted butter is the foundation of most of the common sauces.

Have a covered sauce-pan for this purpose. One lined with porcelain will be best. 

Take a quarter of a pound of the best butter, cut it up, and mix with it about two tea-spoonfuls of flour. 

When it is thoroughly mixed, put it into the sauce-pan, and add to it four table-spoonfuls of cold water. 

Cover the sauce-pan, and set it in a large tin pan of boiling water. Shake it round continually (always moving it the same way) till it is entirely melted and begins to simmer. Then let it rest till it boils up.

TIPS:

If you set it on hot coals, or over the fire, it will be oily.

If the butter and flour is not well mixed it will be lumpy.

If you put too much water, it will be thin and poor. All these defects are to be carefully avoided.

In melting butter for sweet or pudding sauce, you may use milk instead of water.