Pike à la Walton

Ingredients:

Stuffing:

 -Pike’s liver
 -Thyme (timian)
 -Sweet marjoram (merian- Marjorana Hortensis)
 -Winter savoury (wintersar-Satureia Montana)
 -Mace
 -2-3 cloves of garlic
 -2-3 whole pickled oysters
 -2-3 anchovies
 -Pound of butter
 -Salt

Basting:

 Red wine
 Anchovies
 Butter

Sauce:

 Juice of 3-4 oranges
 Butter or cream


Open pike at gills, maybe a small slit towards belly to remove guts (keep liver) without destroying fish. Don’t remove scales.
Shred liver finely with thyme, sweet marjoram and summer savoury and two pinches of mace. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic, 2-3 whole pickled oysters and 2-3 whole anchovies. For a fish of less than a yard add about a pound of butter, add salt to taste and put mixture in fish belly. Sew up belly to keep juices inside.
Thread fish on spit, use laths and cooking rope to bind fish firmly around spit.
Roast leisurely while basting with mixture of wine, anchovies and butter and the drippings of the fish.
Mix belly fill with butter (cream?) and orange juice, serve with potatoes and green beans?