Anchovy Butter

Ingredients

• 12 fine mellow anchovies
• 0.75 lb very fresh butter
• 0.5 saltspoonful cayenne
• nutmeg, finely grated
• mace, freshly pounded
• 0.5 teaspoonful rose pink

Instructions

1. Scrape the skin quite clear from the anchovies and free the flesh entirely from the bones.
2. Pound the anchovy flesh as smooth as possible in a mortar.
3. Rub the pounded anchovy through the back of a hair-sieve with a wooden spoon.
4. Wipe out the mortar and put back the anchovies with the very fresh butter, cayenne, finely grated nutmeg, and freshly pounded mace.
5. Beat them together until they are thoroughly blended.
6. If using rose pink for colour, pound it well and mix it very equally with the butter.
7. Place the butter in a very cool place or over ice until firm before moulding.
8. For table service, mould the butter in small shapes and turn it out, optionally making it into pats stamped with a tasteful impression and placed alternately with pats of lobster-butter and decorated with light foliage.
9. For kitchen use, press the butter down into jars or pattypans and keep it in a cool place.
10. To convert it into a fish sauce, mix two or three ounces of the butter with a teaspoonful of flour and a few spoonsful of cold water or pale veal stock, and keep constantly stirred until they boil.