scover this by washing one of them, and tasting the flesh
of it, which in the fine anchovy is mellow, red, and high-flavoured, and
the bone moist and oily. Make only as much as will soon be used, the
fresher it is the better.

Put ten or twelve anchovies into a mortar, and pound them to a pulp; put
this into a very clean iron, or silver, or very well tinned saucepan;
then put a large table-spoonful of cold spring-water (we prefer good
vinegar) into the mortar; shake it round, and pour it to the pounded
anchovies, set them by the side of a slow fire, very frequently stirring
them together till they are melted, which they will be in the course of
five minutes. Now stir in a quarter of a drachm of good Cayenne pepper
(No. 404). and let it remain by the side of the fire for a few minutes
longer; then, while it is warm, rub it through a hair-sieve,[280-++]
with the back of a wooden spoon.

The essence of anchovy, which is prepared for the committee of taste, is
made with double the above quantity of water, as they are of opinion
that it ought to be so thin as not to hang about the sides of the
bottle; when it does, the large surface of it is soon acted upon by the
air, and becomes rancid and spoils all the rest of it.

A roll of thin-cut lemon-peel infused with the anchovy, imparts a fine,
fresh, delicate, aromatic flavour, which is very grateful; this is only
recommended when you make sauce for immediate use; it will keep much
better without: if you wish to acidulate it, instead of water make it
with artificial lemon-juice (No. 407*), or add a little of Coxwell's
concrete acid to it.

_Obs._--The above is the proper way to perfectly dissolve
anchovy,[281-*] and to incorporate it with the water; which, if
completely saturated, will continue suspended.

To prevent the separation of essence of anchovy, and give it the
appearance of being fully saturated with fish, various other expedients
have been tried, such as dissolving the fish in thin water gruel, or
barley-water, or thickening it with mucilage, flour, &c.: when any of
these things are added, it does not keep half so well as it does without
them; and to preserve it, they overload it with Cayenne pepper.

MEM.--You cannot make essence of anchovy half so cheap as you can buy
it. Thirty prime fish, weighing a pound and a quarter, and costing 4_s._
6_d._, and two table-spoonfuls of water, made me only half a pint of
essence; you may commonly buy that quantity ready-mad