_The best way to stew a Carp._

Dress the carp and take out the milt, put it in a dish with then
carp, and take out the gall, then save the blood, and scotch the
carp on the back with your knife; if the carp be eighteen inches,
take a quart of claret or white wine, four or five blades of large
mace, 10 cloves, two good races of ginger slic't, two slic't
nutmegs, and a few sweet herbs, as the tops of sweet marjoram, time,
savory, and parsley chopped very small, four great onions whole,
three or four bay-leaves, and some salt; stew them all together in a
stew-pan or clean scowred kettle with the wine, when the pan boils
put in the carp with a quarter of a pound of good sweet butter, boil
it on a quick fire of charcoal, and being well stew'd down, dish it
in a clean large dish, pour the sauce on it with the spices, lay on
slic't lemon and lemon-peel, or barberries, grapes, or gooseberries,
and run it over with beaten butter, garnish the dish with dryed
manchet grated and searsed, and carved sippets laid round the dish.

In feasts the carps being scal'd, garnish the body with stewed
oysters, some fryed in white batter, some in green made with the
juyce of spinage: sometimes in place of sippets use fritters of
arms, somtimes horse-raddish, and rub the dish with a clove or two
of garlick.

For more variety, in the order abovesaid, sometimes dissolve an
anchove or two, with some of the broth it was stewed in, and the
yolks of two eggs dissolved with some verjuyce, wine, or juyce of
orange; sometimes add some capers, and hard eggs chopped, as also
sweet herbs, _&c._

_To stew a Carp in the French fashion._

Take a Carp, split it down the back alive, & put it in boiling
liquor, then take a good large dish or stew-pan that will contain
the carp; put in as much claret wine as will cover it, and wash off
the blood, take out the carp, and put into the wine in the dish
three or four slic't onions, three or four blades of large mace,
gross pepper, and salt; when the stew-pan boils put in the carp and
cover it close, being well stewed down, dish it up in a clean
scowred dish with fine carved sippets round about it, pour the
liquor it was boiled in on it, with the spices, onions, slic't
lemon, and lemon-peel, run it over with beaten butter, and garnish
the dish with dryed grated bread.

_Another most excellent way to stew a Carp._

Take a carp and scale it, being well cleansed and dried with a clean
cloth, then