Cooking from the Past
From the Fish Section - Cod Au Gratin
The second in our series of recipes from the past taken from 'The Buxton Recipe Book' published in 1912.
Take a piece of the middle of a cod, boil it (not too much) in salted water and divide into flakes. With ½ pint of the water in which the fish was boiled, make rather a thick white sauce, using 2oz of butter to 1oz of flour with a grate of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Butter and rub with a shallot a dish which will stand the heat of the oven; arrange on it a foundation of mashed potatoes. Make a layer of flakes of cod, mask with the sauce and add a grating of parmesan cheese. Make another layer of fish etc and strew lightly over the whole some w ell-dried bread crumbs. Put the dish in a brisk oven and serve directly the dish is a golden brown.
This reipe was contributed by Mrs Brittain, Melrose, Park Road, Buxton. Make a note in your diary to have a look at the display of snowdrops in the front garden in February.
This contributor must be Vera Brittain’s mother, close to the time her daughter was working at The Dome, formerly the Devonshire Royal Hospital – see Vera’s book, “Testament of Youth”.