If Mrs. Bennet had been able to get fish, she might have served something like this.

To Stew a Carp or Tench

Scrape them very clean, then gut them, wash them and the roes in a pint of good stale beer, to preserve all the blood and boil the carp with a little salt in the water.

In the mean time strain the beer, and put it into a sauce-pan, with a pint of red wine, two or three blades of mace, some whole pepper, black and white, an onion stuck with cloves, half a nutmeg bruised, a bundle of sweet herbs, a piece of lemon peel as big as a six pence, an anchovy, and a little piece of horse-radish. Let these boil together softly for a quarter of an hour, covered close; then strain the liquor and add to it half the hard roe beat to pieces, two or three spoonfuls of ketchup, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and a spoonful of mushroom pickle; let it boil, and keep stirring it till the sauce is thick and enough; if it wants any salt, you must put some in; then take the rest of the roe, and beat it up with the yolk of an egg, some nutmeg, and a little lemon-peel cut small; fry it in fresh butter in little cakes, and some pieces of bread cut three-corner ways and fried brown. When the carp are enough take them up, pour your sauce over them, lay the cakes round the dish, with horse-radish scraped fine, and fried parsley. The rest lay on the carp, and put the fried bread about them, lay round them sliced lemon garnish upon the edge of the dish, and two or three pieces on the carp. Send them to table hot.