fish

An old name for herrings. See: Alec Sauce

Cockles mixed with yolks, flour, cream and nutmeg, fried. "A side-dish either for noon or night." (Moxon 1764)

Pounded anchovies with hot spices and butter (Eaton 1822, etc).

Individual oysters wrapped in bacon and baked, served on a fried bread sippet. An alternative to 'Devils on Horseback' (qv).

Stewed mullet with sauce made of fish stock with wine and onions.

White crab meat mixed with breadcrumbs, lemon juice and pepper, formed into the crab shell and baked.

Herrings baked in half vinegar and half small beer with onion and bay (Eaton 1822), or more recently, with a moist stuffing.

Gutted mackerel either filled with gooseberry puree, or baked in it or served with it.

Whole fish, gutted but usually with head and fins on, baked.

Whole, gutted, fish baked. Served with grated cucumbers in cream.

Fish fillet, commonly haddock or plaice, in batter of wheatflour and beer, deep fried. Known at least since Glasse 1747.

Whole herring, soaked in brine before being very lightly smoked. Known by this name since the 1830's (OED)

A breakfast dish. See: Bloaters

Minced fish with breadcrumbs, onion, herbs and egg, rolled in crumb and fried, then stewed in fish-stock.

Hot-smoked and salted herring, gutted and head off, but roes left in place.

Crab meat shredded with butter and seasonings. Often served in a half-shell (Eaton 1822, etc).

Shredded crab (or lobster) meat sautéed with butter and spices.

Whole dressed trout stewed with butter.

Boiled whiting mashed with egg and butter "It is a most savoury dish" (Digby 1669).

Fish, especially salmon, the cooking of which is begun while it is still alive (Cury 1390, WM 1658 etc.). Lord Macaulay's 'History of England' (1860) has "Princ...

Original Receipt in 'The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet' by Hannah Woolley (Wooley 1672)

Fish and Chips

Haddock fillet pieces cooked with vegetables in cider.

Cockles are small saltwater clams of the Cardiidae. They are usually plain boiled.

Plate of Cockles fried in bacon fat, with bacon rashers.

Cod fillet piece coated with reduction of stock with butter and herbs, usually parsley, but occasionally dill.

The Sound is the swim bladder of a fish. Formerly a highly-prized delicacy.

Cod's head, boiled or baked whole, skinned and served with a rich sauce (Moxon 1764, Glasse 1747 Francatelli 1852, Mrs.B, etc).

Since a charter of 1189, the town of Colchester has controlled the oyster fisheries at the mouth of the river Blackwater, and Colchester Oysters, known as 'Colc...

Eels collared by pickling and hot-cooking.

Skinned and gutted eel, cut in short lengths and served in a parsley and cream sauce (Acton 1845, Mrs.B, etc)

Crab meat with, typically, mashed potato and breadcrumbs. Formed into patties and fried.

Picked white crab meat in thickened cream, often with sharp spice such as mace.

Picked white crab meat, cold, with salad accompaniments.

Garth Lowerson packing Craster Kippers- 1963

Crayfish or crawfish is a general term for small crustaceans other than crabs, including the lobster and similar. They are plain boiled. Mrs.B suggests them as ...

The combination of crayfish with bacon seems to be a Warwickshire speciality, occurring in various forms including a bacon and crayfish egg pie and here as a ch...

A method of preparing fish by slashing them while alive and leaving an hour or so in water before being plain boiled.

The edible crab, Cancer pagurus, is sometimes referred to as Cromer Crab, as it is commonly caught around the Norfolk town of Cromer.

Herring stuffed with breadcrumbs, onion and herring roe, served with mustard sauce.

Cutlet-shaped fish-cake, coated in breadcrumbs and fried. Known only from J.Salmon

White fish fillet dipped in flour batter and deep fried.

Fried whitebait very highly seasoned with Cayenne pepper. See: Whitebait

Dressed grey mullet pieces in thickened milk with parsley, under a shortcrust lid.

The common sole, Solea solea, of European waters. Usually lightly fried without batter.

Boiled snails, replaced in their shells with oil, herbs and then grilled (WM 1658)

Dish of eel pieces with butter, currants and sweet spices under a pastry cover (Robert May 1660, Glasse 1747, Rundell 1807, etc).

Made with onion and usually flavoured with mace (Glasse 1747, Walsh 1859, etc)

Browned eel pieces stewed in cider, often with onion (Rundell 1807, etc)

Sole (or other white fish) cooked in water, then in a sauce of double cream with mace, cayenne and lemon. (Acton 1845, Grigson 1974)

Elvers fried in bacon fat with whole egg mixed-in to form a type of omelette (Grigson 1974, etc)

Young eels, fried like whitebait.

Hollowed out small bread buns filled with oysters cooked in sour cream.

Oysters placed in scallop shells, butter and breadcrumbs over, grilled (Bradley 1728, Moxon 1764, etc). This is remarkably similar to the modern French 'Coquill...

Cornish Native 'Fal Oyster' (Ostrea edulis) collected from sub-tidal waters at the River Fal Estuary, Falmouth, Cornwall

Fenland Eels were formerly highly prized, being caught in large numbers in the many drainage ditches of the flatlands around Cambridge and Ely.

Layers of flaked fish, oysters and breadcrumb under a paste or breadcrumb topping, baked (Mrs.B)

Flaked fish with mashed potato, sometimes bound with egg, formed into patties, rolled in crumb and fried.

Flaked fish, as available, with onions in a white sauce, topped with small cheese scone rounds. Baked.

Now small slabs of white fish, often cod, typically 3ins by ½in by 1in, coated in golden-coloured crumb. Almost always commercially produced and supplied in a f...

Flaked fish formed into a loaf, bound with egg and, usually, with breadcrumb. Served cold.

A variant of Pan Haggerty , sliced potato and onion with flaked smoked fish mixed-in.

Assorted fish pieces, now almost invariably in a cream sauce, under a topping of mashed potato, baked. Ocasionally with a paste crust (Francatelli 1852, Mrs.B, ...

Fish chunks with seasoning and onions, in paste, boiled (Soyer 1845, etc)

Cooked fish with cream and seasonings put into a small dish or scallop-shell. Butter and breadcrumbs over, grilled (Mrs.B)

The European flounder is a flatfish, Platichthys flesus

White fish fillet, crumbed, and fried in fat (Mrs.B, etc)

Oysters, boiled then fried in butter with strong flavourings and parsley. Served with fried potatoes and toast sippets (Mrs.B)

Stewed oyster meat fried in batter of flour, breadcrumb and mace (Bradley 1728, Mrs.B, etc).

Fillet of haddock or whiting, briefly soaked in brine and then lightly smoked, usually dyed a golden colour.

Herrings, each wrapped and skewered around a hollowed-out tomato filled with breadcrumbs, butter, onion and seasonings. Baked.

Grayling, a fish of the salmon family (Thymallus thymallus), is most traditionallly cooked with wine or beer and strong herbs. J.Salmon gives beer with horeradi...

A dish of chopped, cooked, fish livers (Cury 1390, Austin 1440)

Usually a lightly-smoked haddock fillet, now with melted butter over, but more likely traditionally with melted butter sauce

Cod filled with parsley and thyme stuffing.

The Gurnet (or Gronnard, or Gurnard) is a sea fish with a large spiny head. Particularly associated with Hastings, but also caught elsewhere.

Mullet intestines filled with bean porridge, grebe fat and spiced walnuts.

Herring baked in a pie crust, in the receipt from Wooley 1672 with onions, currants, raisins and butter

Whole herring baked in an oatmeal crust.

Herring fillet grilled. Sauce of butter, flour, milk and mustard poured over.

From Izaak Walton's 'The Compleat Angler' of 1653:

Eels pieces cooked for approximately half an hour and cooled so as to form a jelly, sometimes with the assistance of gelatine. Often served with chilli vinegar.

Cooked in plain water and served with lemon.

Kippers are hot-smoked and therefore cooked, they can be reheated simply by placing in a jug of hot water.

Mashed potato and fish balls, dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried.

Flaked fish with breadcrumbs, egg and seasonings, baked in a rounded basin.

A form of Elver Cake, made by frying the tiny young eels in butter.

Nowadays a fish, split, gutted, opened, salted and smoked. Traditionally, the term refers to a method of production involving pickling and smoking, not the fish...

Lampreys (Petromyzon), sometimes known as 'nine eyes' because their seven extra eye-like gill slits, are primitive eel-like river animals. They live by attachin...

Haddock fried in lime-flavoured breadcrumbs, served with lime wedges. Known only from the the former British Food Trust.

On the rare occasions Limpets are eaten in England, they are boiled and eaten cold with vinegar.

Layers of ling (a fish of the cod family) with egg and under a pastry lid (Rundell 1807, White 1932, etc)

Diced lobster meat with mushrooms, cohered with meat glaze and set in a cutlet mould with pike forcemeat. Egged, crumbed and fried. Created by Charles Ranhofer ...

Red (ie. smoked) herrings, soaked in oil and vinegar, then grilled. Soaked and grilled again until very crisp. Served with salad (Digby 1669).

Poached sole fillets with wihite wine sauce presented with a pyramid of potato balls. A posh form of fish-and-chips.

Boiled herrings served with mustard sauce.

Chunks of white fish and other seafood (scallops, prawns) with onions, mushrooms and tomato under a shortcrust topping, unlike the mashed-potato topping of the ...

A freshly made paste of salted mackerel with mushrooms and cream (British Food Trust, etc)

Cooked mackerel with stewed chopped apricot (British Food Trust, etc)

Grilled fish with a gooseberry puree.

Pilchards marinated in sugar and vinegar with spices. Baked. Prepared at home, or commercially with a solid reputation for very long keeping.

Izaak Walton, in the 'The Complete Angler' of 1653 has; "And in the spring they make of them excellent Minnow-tansies; for being washed well in salt, and their ...

In English practice, any one of a variety of mixtures purporting to imitate crab or lobster meat. A very popular treat from a time when fresh crustaceans were n...

The extraordinarily ugly monkfish has rarely been favoured by English cooks. It is mentioned in angling and natural history texts back to the 16th century, but ...

Minced fish meat and fish liver cooked in sweet thickened broth. (Noble Boke 1480)

Carp fillets with balls of minced eel, breadcrumbs, marjoram, eggs, anchovy, nutmeg, plus oysters, mushrooms, lemon, bacon, claret and mace (Bradley 1728).

Soup-like stew made from shelled mussels and onion in a cream sauce.

Mussel meat mixed-in to suet dough with chopped bacon. Steamed or boiled.   (J.Salmon)

The marine mussel, of which about 10,000 tons are produced from England each year. Freshwater mussels are very rarely, if ever, used.

Mussels, boiled and shelled, in a thick cream sauce with parsley.

The English tradition of potted fish is of a cooked - not simply pickled or smoked - fish with sweet spices, always including mace. The 'Newcastle' version is d...

Mixed fish, typically herring, cod, with crab meat in stock, seasoned with parsley and mace, sprinkled with cheese and baked.

Tiny, single-mouthful pie cases filled with spiced fruit (prunes, dates, and currants) topped with chopped boiled oyster meat in verjuice and butter (Huswife 15...

Small bread-bun, hollowed out and the cavity filled with cooked oysters and breadcrumb. Known at least since Moxon 1764.

"To bake Oysters shels and all" .. a closed pie containing oysters in their shells with cloves and butter (Huswife 1594, Wooley 1672, etc)

Minced oyster meat with beef suet, breadcrumb, egg and spices. Formed into sausage shapes or patties. Fried (Acton 1845)

Known by this name in England at least since the 'Leechbook of Bald' of about 890.

Oysters in a sauce of ginger, sugar, saffron, pepper and salt (Austin 1440).

Cockle meat in vinegar and brine.

Uncooked, cleaned and dressed herring, rolled and skewered in spiced white vinegar with shredded onion.

Salmon fillets boiled in spiced vinegar. Known at least since Glasse 1747, etc.

Double crust pie of pilchards in a cream sauce. (Eaton 1822)

Whole plaice, filleted but not usually skinned, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried .

Salted, dried, fish, usually hake.

Alternate layers of cooked mussels and sliced potato, topped with potato and breadcrumbs. Baked (J.Salmon)

Porpoises are small cetaceans related to whales and dolphins, though the word has been used to refer to any small dolphin. Rarely eaten now, it appears in sever...

Formerly highly prized, now rare. Baked char, boned and flaked. Pressed into pots and covered with clarified butter. Served at breakfast with toast. Receipt in ...

The English tradition of potted fish is of a cooked - not simply pickled or smoked - fish with sweet spices, always including mace. There is also a distinct New...

Boiled brown shrimps mixed with clarified butter and spices (typically mace, cayenne and nutmeg), potted. Often eaten cold. A particular speciality of the Lanca...

A collation of cooked, shelled, prawns with salad and a rich cream sauce colored with tomato.

Prawns are plain boiled and eaten as a salad component or in sandwiches, or occasionally as a garnish to fish or meat dishes. They have little other use in Engl...

Boiled double-crust suet pastry filled with chopped eel, hard-boiled eggs, pork, eel stock, chopped onions and parsley.

The razor clams of English sand beaches are usually Ensis ensis, though a couple of other varieties are known. They are plain boiled.

A herring made red by smoking.

Oily white fish with a shellfish-like taste. Red mullet is grilled or fried, rarely ever plain boiled. The liver is sometimes considered a delicacy.

Mullet liver, usually fried, is considered a delicacy, which is why mullet are often sold ungutted.

Eel fillets in a very rich gravy, with nutmeg, parsley and sherry, either as a soup, stew or in a pie.

A rolled fillet of herring, in brine with sliced onions, spices etc.

The first known salmon receipt for salmon in an English cookbook is for 'Viande Cypre of Samoun', which may mean something like 'Salmon Meat Cyprus-style', thou...

Salmon steaks poached in cider.

Now usually a double crust pie, commonly of puff pastry, the fish in a white sauce.

Gutted pilchards layered with salt in large piles (baulks), for some days or weeks, then pressed to remove the excess oil. They were commonly distributed very c...

A general term for several slim eel-like small sea fishes of the Ammodytidae family. Abundant, but rarely caught for food Acton 1845 has them gutted, floured an...

Almond milk boiled with sweet spices. It isn't clear if 'sardeyne' is 'sardine'.

A 'Sardine' is not a type of fish, but a category: the term is applied to any small silvery oily fish, typically a small fish of the Herring family, Clupea pilc...

Crab meat cohered with egg or breadcrumbs, in a crab or scallop shell. Baked.

Scallops are bivalve molluscs, in English waters generally the 'Pecten maximus' variety. They are customarily supplied whole and shelled, whereas in other cuisi...

A gobbet-sized piece of fish in crumb or batter.

Eel pieces cooked in cider with cream and parsley. Served with bread sippets. (Grigson 1974)

Shrimps, often with other seafood such as haddock and anchovy, cooked, ground to a paste and potted with sweet spices and cayenne, sealed with clarified butter.

Shrimps lightly cooked with lettuce, butter and cream. Served on toast.

A small, oily, salmon-like, estuary fish (Osmerus eperlanus) which was once of huge commercial importance, but which has, over the last two centuries, gone into...

Smoked fish chunks in sauce with a grilled potato topping, often with cheese.

Open pie of flaked smoked haddock in a savoury custard

Snails, usually chopped and stewed in milk. Snail broth appears in several English cookbooks from the 15th to the 18th Centuries, most commonly as a food for in...

Snails crushed in beer, with herbs, distilled, "for weak Children, and old People" (WM 1671, Family Guide 1747, Robert May 1660, etc).

Snails boiled, then fried in oil with onions, minced herbs (parsley, pennyroyal, fennel, thyme, garlic, cloves) and breadcrumbs. Served on sippets with vinegar ...

(Although snails are clearly not a fish, they are customarily classified among shellfish, there not being anywhere else to put them)

Snails stewed in veal-broth, with cloves, Sack, Mace, and served with a white sauce of cream, butter and nutmeg, or else on sippets with a brown sauce of gravy,...

Sole fillets coated in butter blended with mushroom, almonds, parsley, nutmeg and lemon. Poached in white wine.

Dover sole with mushrooms in a puff pastry case with a Champagne cream sauce.

Baked potato, scooped out, and filled with rolled sole and mushrooms.

Shredded fish, or other light meat, with flavourings and vegetables (eg. onion and lemon). Traditionally served cold, formed into a shape (such as of a fish) of...

Fish chunks with apple.

Mackerel fillet very lightly stewed in vinegar with herbs, spices and onion, commonly served with gooseberry sauce

Cleaned herrings with cayenne and lemon, grilled with beef dripping.

Salmon soaked in vinegar and wine, then poached with cloves, cinnamon and mace. "You may doe Carps, Eeles, Trouts, &c. this way, alter the tast to your mind...

Eel cut into small pieces, coated in herbs and breadcrumbs, fried.

There is little tradition of eating squid in England, and, in the few places where it is treated as a delicacy rather than just as bait for the next catch, no o...

Stargazy Pie

Cockles with a distinctive blue cast collected from sand beds near Stiffkey in North Norfolk.

Sturgeon is very occasionally caught in English waters. Bradley 1728 says; "They are in great esteem when they are fresh taken, to be ... roasted or baked; besi...

Flaked fish in milk sauce with parsley and hard-boiled eggs, topped with mashed potato and baked.

Paste of butter, flaked bloater, Worcester sauce and cayenne pepper (possibly with egg or egg yolk) served hot on Suffolk Rusk.

Whole trout cooked with bay leaves inside, dressed with lemon juice and pepper. (Grigson 1974)

Tench stewed with lemon-peel, horseradish, herbs, cloves, white wine, anchovy, thickened liquor as sauce with shrimps. Garnish of fried bread soldiers, grated l...

The vendace, Coregonus albula, is now limited to two Cumbrian lakes, Bassenthwaite Lake and Derwentwater. Subject to protection under the Wildlife and Countrysi...

Stewed snails with sauce, most traditionally cider and parsley. This was a speciality of the former Miner's Arms in the village of Priddy in the Mendip Hills. I...

Trout filled with lemon stuffing and cooked in lemon and wine. Known only from British Food Trust

Crab meat with breadcrumbs and egg, slightly flavoured with hot spice (Worcester, mustard etc) onion and lemon. Formed into patties and fried. Known only from J...

The young 'fry' of herrings or sprats, usually collected from March to August. Washed, tossed lightly in flour and lightly deep-fried whole, head-on and un-gutt...

Shellfish of the species Ostrea edulis (Native oyster) and Crassostrea gigas (cultivated European oyster), grown to 3 to 5 years old. Whitstable has a long-stan...

Ox Tripe and Shrimps in a spiced white sauce.

A variety of Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus) found only in the deep of Windermere. A relative of the salmon, it has pink flesh and a delicate flavour. Char are...

Winkles, a type of marine snail, are boiled in salt water and eaten from the shell with a pin.

Lampreys in a sauce highly seasoned with anchovies and spices, the precursor of 'Worcester Sauce'

Young Lampreys boned, boiled and potted with sweet herbs such as mint and marjoram under clarified butter.

We can find no record of worms ever forming a part of English diet, though we do have several receipts for versions of Snail Water which include earthworms, but...

Fresh, salted herrings, neither smoked nor dried. See Bloaters

Cheese pastry sheets sandwiching kipper slices with cayenne, cut into strips, twisted, brushed with egg, sprinkled with cheese, baked. Known at least since Lili...