Remove the scales and clean. Do not remove the head, tail, or fins. Put into a double boiler one tablespoon of butter, two cups of stale bread crumbs, one tablespoon of chopped onion, one teaspoon of chopped parsley, two teaspoons of chopped capers, one-fourth cup of sherry. Heat all the above ingredients, season with paprika and salt, and stuff the bass with the mixture. Sew up the fish, put into a hot oven, bake and baste with sherry wine and butter. A fish weighing four or five pounds is required for the above recipe.
I Take your fish, and remove all bones and skin. Put some butter to brown in a saucepan, and when it is colored, add the cod, sprinkling in pepper and salt and a good thickening of grated breadcrumbs. Let this all heat gently by the fire and turn it into paper cases, with chopped parsley on the top. II The above recipe can be followed for making fish rissoles, but, after having mixed it well, let it grow cold. Then form into balls, roll them in breadcrumbs, and throw them into boiling fat. III Take all the remains of the fish and heat them in butter. Make some mashed potatoes, and add to them some white sauce, made of flour, milk and butter. Mix this with the fish, so that it is quite moist, and do not forget salt and pepper. Place the mixture in a fireproof dish and sprinkle breadcrumbs over it. Bake for fifteen minutes, or till it is hot through, and serve as it is. [Mdlle. M. Schmidt, of Antwerp.]
Fillet the bream; cut each fillet into two pieces, wash and trim them. Make some tomato sauce by recipe given. Butter a pie dish, lay in the fillets, and season them; pour over the sauce, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Garnish with a little chopped parsley, and serve in the dish in which they were cooked.
Take a sole or fillets of any delicate fish. Lay on a fireproof dish, sprinkle with white pepper, salt and a little shalot, cover with claret or white wine, and let it cook in the oven till done. Draw off the liquor in a saucepan and let it boil up. Have ready the yolks of three eggs, well stirred (not beaten), the juice of a lemon, and two ounces of butter. Put all together in a bowl. Little by little add the hot sauce, stirring all the time. Pour it over the fish, and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve very hot. A few mushrooms are a palatable addition to this dish.
Fillet the mullet and cut into small pieces; dip in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Cover with French frying batter, the recipe for which is given elsewhere. Plunge into plenty of hot fat and fry until a good colour; drain for a few minutes on kitchen paper. Pile high on a dish, garnish with parsley, and serve hot.
Select the largest, thickest and fattest, the females being the best; they should be alive when brought from market. Wash and put them alive into boiling water, add a little salt, and boil them until thoroughly done, or from ten to fifteen minutes, after which take off the shell, extract the meat, and remove carefully the sand-bag and gall; also all the entrails; they are unfit to eat, and are no longer used in cooking terrapins for the best tables. Cut the meat into pieces, and put it into a stewpan with its eggs, and sufficient fresh butter to stew it well. Let it stew till quite hot throughout, keeping the pan carefully covered, that none of the flavor may escape, but shake it over the fire while stewing. In another pan make a sauce of beaten yolk of egg, highly flavored with Madeira or sherry, and powdered nutmeg and mace, a gill of currant jelly, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and salt to taste, enriched with a large lump of fresh butter. Stir this sauce well over the fire, and when it has almost come to a boil take it off. Send the terrapins to the table hot in a covered dish, and the sauce separately in a sauce tureen, to be used by those who like it, and omitted by those who prefer the genuine flavor of the terrapins when simply stewed with butter. This is now the usual mode of dressing terrapins in Maryland, Virginia, and many other parts of the South, and will be found superior to any other. If there are no eggs in the terrapin, "egg balls" may be substituted. (See recipe.)
Fillet the fish, wash and trim them, roll them lightly up with the skin inside. Rub a baking sheet with some butter or dripping. Put on the rolls of fish close together. Squeeze over them some lemon juice, cover with a piece of buttered paper, and bake in the oven for twenty minutes or until they look milk white. Dish them carefully, make the white sauce by recipe given, season it with pepper, salt, and half a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Chop half a teaspoonful of parsley very finely and stir it in, pour over the fish, and serve.
Make the curry sauce by recipe given elsewhere. Fillet the fish and cut each fillet in two pieces, butter a saucepan and lay in the fish; pour over the sauce, bring it up to the boil, and cook on the stove very slowly for an hour. Just before serving, season with salt and lemon juice to taste. Boil the rice and dry thoroughly; press into little cups or moulds. Dish the fish carefully and pour the sauce over it; garnish with the moulds of rice.
Make the veal seasoning by recipe given elsewhere; sew it into the eel and put it into a deep dish. Just cover it with water, and bake it in a good oven for about one hour. Take it up and keep hot, strain the liquor in which it has been cooked; take about one pint and make into a brown sauce with the butter and flour. Colour it with a few drops of caramel, let it boil for a few minutes, season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice; pour over the fish, and serve very hot.
Make some paste and roll it out thinly. Take a coffee cup and turning it upside down stamp out some rounds. Turn the cup the right way again, and put it on a round. Then you will see an edge of paste protruding all round. Turn this up with the end of a fork, which makes a pretty little edge. Do this with all, and fill the shallow cases then made with a good mayonnaise sauce in which you have put chopped celery and potato, and a small quantity of chopped gherkins. Lay three fillets of anchovy across each other to form a six-pointed star and season highly with cayenne pepper. All the above recipes can be followed using sardines instead of anchovies, and indeed one can use them in many other ways, with eggs, with lettuce, with tomatoes. As anchovies are rather expensive to buy, I give a recipe for mock anchovies, which is easy to do, but it must be done six months before using the fish.
