Independence on a 5-Acre Farm

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LOBSTERS, CRABS AND CRAWFISH

Lobsters, crabs and crawfish may be taken in pots (see your local fishermen). The "parlour pot" much used in the north east coast is best for the occasional fisherman, for it can be left down a week or more and the lobsters are unlikely to get out. Also the bait will not be eaten and will go on working. It has a "parlour" at one end of the pot into which the lobsters can crawl and thus leave the bait chamber. Salt herring make good bait for lobsters but crabs like fresh fish. Whisper it not in sporting circles but a tin of Kit-e-Kat with a few holes punched in it will bring 'em in.

The new tangle net, or ray net, is the best way of catching shell fish though, and will catch anything else that happens along. It's a killer, and if used indiscriminately will denude our coasts. A short length for a self-supporting family or community is quite justifiable though (Bridport Gundry).

SKATES AND RAYS

Skates and rays should be "winged", that is the head part cut right out with a semi-circular cut of the knife, and the tail part and guts served the same. This leaves the two—wings" tied together by the middle. Hang the wings up in the wind for a few days before you cook them. Scald the wings in boiling water for a few seconds to skin. Haul the thorns of thornback off with a pair of pincers. Cook by frying in milk and butter, pepper and salt and what have you.

CONGER EEL

Dorothy Hartley gives this recipe for conger eel in Food in England, but I have not tried it. Take the whole middle out of a big conger, rub inside with a cut onion, wipe over with a little dry mustard. Stuff with a good well-flavoured forcemeat and sew up strongly. Cut an apple in two and use each half to plug the ends. Tie up with tape like a packet. Roast it with dripping and cider, basting often. Eat with samphire pickle.

SOLE

To skin a sole, scale its bottom by scraping. Skin its top by nicking the skin near the tail and pulling forward-but following your pulling hand with your other hand to hold the flesh down, otherwise you will rip it off.

OYSTERS

Oysters can be preserved: steam for half an hour; soak for five minutes in brine of 2 lbs. salt in 1 gallon water; dip in olive oil; lay on wire trays and smoke in hot dense smoke (180° F.) for half an hour. Turn them once during this treatment.

Pack in jars, fill up with oil, sterilize in a pressure cooker at 15 lbs. pressure for 15 minutes, or for half an hour by standing the jars in boiling water. Seal. I have never done this but got it out of a book.

POTTING

The east coast fisherman pot mackerel or herring, and we do too. Cut your fish up into chunks (three or four from a fish), salt in dry salt for twelve hours, wash the salt out, put them in an earthenware pot and cover with vinegar. The usual bay leaves, pepper corns, a chilly, and whatever common sense suggests. Cover with greaseproof paper and put in a slow oven overnight. Take out, make sure it is well covered, and it will keep until mackerels come again. Don't mind if a little mould forms on top of the vinegar. Eat cold, late at night when you come home from the pub and your wife has nothing to welcome you with but tongue pie, cold bum and the copperstick.

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