A Guide to Modern Cookery

Chapter XIV Fish

In matters culinary, fish comprise not only the vertebrates of the sea and river, but also the esculent crustacea, mollusca, and chelonia, and one batrachian. Of course, the animals representing these various classes differ enormously in respect of their importance as articles of diet. Fresh-water fish, for instance, with the exception of salmon and some kinds of trout, are scarcely ever eaten in England; and the same applies to the frog. As regards salt-water fish, although certain species, such as the sole and the turbot, are in great demand, many other and excellent ones which are looked upon as inferior are seldom put into requisition by first-class cookery. Thus, Brill, Red Mullet, and Bass are not nearly so popular as they deserve to be, and never appear on a menu of any importance. No doubt, Fashion—ever illogical and wayward—exercises her tyrannical sway here, as in other matters of opinion; for it will be found, even when the distinctions among fish are once established, that there exist a host of incongruities in the unwritten law. Fresh cod is a case in point; should this fish appear on the menu of a grand dinner given by Royalty, the guests would not think it at all out of place; but if the chef of a large modern hotel ventured to include it among the items of a plain table-d’hôte dinner he would most probably incur the scorn and indignation of his clientèle.

This example, than which none could be better suited to our case, successfully shows that the culinary value of the fish has far less to do with the vogue the latter enjoys than the very often freakish whims of the public.

One can but deplore the arbitrary proscription which so materially reduces the resources at the disposal of a cook, more particularly at a time when the universally imperious cry is for novelty and variety in dishes and menus respectively; and one can only hope that reason and good sense may, at no remote period, intervene to check the purposeless demands of both entertainers and their guests in this respect.

753 — Shad

chiefly served grilled.

754 — Fresh Anchovies

extremely rare, and may be grilled or fried.

755 — Eels

considered as common, and principally used in the preparation of a pie held in high esteem by the frequenters of coffee-shops along the banks of the Thames. Small eels are also fried. But the many ways of dressing them which are common on the Continent are seldom practised in England.

756 — Pike

plentiful and of excellent quality; only used in the preparation of forcemeat and quenelles; the directions for the latter will be given later. Albeit they are sometimes served crimped, or cooked whole in a court-bouillon au bleu, accompanied by parsley or caper sauce, &c. Small pike are generally prepared “à la Meunière,” or fried.

757 — Carp

in still less demand than the pike, and only prized for its milt. It must, however, be admitted that in England, more than anywhere else, I believe, this fish is too often spoilt by the taint of mud.

758 — Dorado

served boiled with any of the English fish sauces; but, in my opinion, it is best grilled, after the manner generally adopted in the South of France.

759 — Sturgeon

very rare; it is braised, like veal.

760 — Féra

very scarce on the market; comes from the Swiss or Savoy lakes, and is only served à la Meunière.

761 — Gudgeon

very abundant in all rivers, but never eaten.

762 — Frogs

the pet abomination of all classes of the population, with but few exceptions; nevertheless “Nymphes à l’Aurore,” the recipe of which I gave among the hors-d’œuvres, are generally appreciated.

763 — Fresh Herrings

abundant and of excellent quality; seldom used in first-class cookery, except, perhaps, for their milt. Bloaters and kippered herrings are, with reason, preferred; of these I shall speak later.

764 — Lampreys

chiefly used in preparing pies similar to those referred to in No. 755.

765 — Fresh-Water Herrings

like the Féra, come from Switzerland or Savoy, and are very scarce on the English market. Prepared especially à la Meunière.

766 — Lotte

very scarce on the English market; only prized for its liver.

767 — Mostele

only caught in the region of Monaco; cannot bear transport; especially served à la Meunière or à l’Anglaise.

768 — Mussels

only used as garnish.

769 — Nonat

replaced in England by whitebait, which it greatly resembles.

770 — Perch

very moderately appreciated; chiefly served fried, when small, and boiled with some fish sauce when large.

771 — Skate

generally served boiled, with caper sauce; occasionally with brown butter. The smaller specimens are better fried. Often offered for sale, crimped.

772 — Sardines

generally of inferior quality; used in the preparation of sprats.

773 — Sterlet

almost unknown in England.

774 — Turtle

with the exception of those firms which make this their speciality, is almost exclusively used in preparing Turtle Soup. The flippers are sometimes served braised au Madère.

I do not think it at all necessary to lay any further stress upon the series of preparations bearing the names of Croquettes, Cromesquis, Côtelettes (côtelettes here only mean those prepared from cooked fish, and which are really but a form of croquettes), Coquilles, Bouchées, Palets, &c., which may be made from any kind of cooked fish. These preparations are so well known that it would be almost superfluous to repeat their recipes.

775 — Divers Ways of Cooking Fish

The divers ways of cooking fish are all derived from one or another of the following methods:—

(1) Boiling in salted water, which may be applied equally well to large pieces and slices of fish.

(2) Frying, particularly suited to small specimens and thin slices of larger ones.

(3) Cooking in butter, otherwise “à la Meunière,” best suited to the same pieces as No. 2.

(4) Poaching, with short moistening, especially suited to fillets or small specimens.

(5) Braising, used particularly for large pieces.

(6) Grilling, for small specimens and collops.

(7) Cooking au Gratin, same as grilling.

776 — The Boiling of Fish in Salted Water

The procedure changes according as to whether the fish is to be cooked whole or in slices. If whole, after having properly cleaned, washed, and trimmed it, lay it on the drainer of the utensil best suited to its shape; i.e., a fish-kettle. Cover it with water, salt it in the proportion of one-quarter oz. of salt per quart of water, cover the utensil, and bring the liquid to the boil. As soon as this is done skim and move the kettle to the side of the fire, where the cooking of the fish may be completed without boiling.

If the fish is cut into slices, plunge these, which should never be cut too thin, into boiling salted water, and move the fish-kettle containing them to the side of the fire; complete their cooking slowly without allowing the water to boil.

The object of this process is to concentrate, inside the fish, all the juices contained in its flesh, whereof a large portion escapes when the cut fish is plunged in cold water gradually brought to the boil. If this method is not applied to large fish, cooked whole, the reason is that the sudden immersion of these in boiling water would cause such a shrinking of their flesh that they would burst and thereby be spoiled.

In the case of certain kinds of fish, such as Turbot and Brill, milk is added to the water in the proportion of one-eighth of the latter, the object being to increase the whiteness of the fish.

For the various kinds of Salmon and Trout, the court-bouillon (No. 163) is used in the place of salted water, but the general working process remains the same.

The boiled fish is dished on a napkin and drainer; it is garnished with fresh parsley; and the sauce announced on the menu, together with some plain-boiled and floury potatoes, is sent to the table separately.

777 — The Frying of Fish

In Part I. of this work I explained the general theory of frying (Chapter X., No. 262); I shall now, therefore, only concern myself with the details of the operation in its relation to fish.

As a rule, frying should never be resorted to for very large fish or very thick slices of the latter, for, owing to the very high temperature that the operation enjoins, the outside of the fish would be dried up before the inside had even become affected.

If the fish to be fried is somewhat thick, it is best to cut several gashes in it, lengthwise and across, these being deeper and closer together the thicker the fish may be. The object of this measure is to facilitate the cooking, but the measure itself is quite unnecessary when dealing with small fish. In the case of flat-fish, partly detach the two underlying fillets on either side of the back-bone instead of gashing them.

All fish intended for frying (except Blanchailles and Whitebait) should first be steeped in salted milk, then rolled in flour before being plunged into the hot fat. If they be “panés à l’anglaise,” however, as they generally are in England, the milk may be dispensed with, in which case, after they have been lightly coated with flour, they are completely dipped in an anglaise (No. 174) and afterwards rolled in white bread-crumbs. They should then be patted with the blade of a knife so as to ensure the cohesion of the whole coating, and, finally, the latter should be criss-crossed with the back of a knife with the view of improving the appearance when fried.

Fried fish are served either on a napkin, on a drainer, or on special dish-papers. They are garnished with fried parsley and properly trimmed half-lemons.

778 — The Cooking of Fish à la Meunière

This excellent mode of procedure is only suited to small fish or the slices of larger ones. Nevertheless, it may be resorted to for chicken-turbots, provided their weight do not exceed four lbs.

The operation consists in cooking the fish (or slices or fillets of fish) in the frying-pan with very hot butter, after having seasoned them and sprinkled them with flour. If the fish are very small, ordinary butter is used; if, on the other hand, they are large, the procedure demands clarified butter. When the fish is sufficiently coloured on one side, it is turned over for the completion of the operation. This done, it is transferred, by means of a spatula, to a hot dish, whereon, after having been salted, it is sent to the table.

It may be served as it is with a garnish of trimmed half-lemons.

Fish prepared in this way are termed “dorés” (gilded), “Soles dorés,” “Turbotins dorés,” &c., in order to distinguish them from those prepared à la Meunière.

If the fish is announced “à la Meunière,” a few drops of lemon should be sprinkled upon it; it should be seasoned with salt and pepper, and garnished with concassed, scalded parsley. At the last moment a piece of butter, in proportion to the size of the fish, is put in the frying-pan, and is heated until it begins to brown slightly. This is poured over the fish immediately, and the latter is sent to the table at once while still covered by the froth resulting from the contact of the butter with the parsley.

779 — The Poaching of Fish

This method is best suited to sole, chicken-turbots, and brill, as well as to the fillets of various fish.

Having laid the fish to be poached in a baking-tray or a sautépan, either of which should have been previously buttered, season it moderately with salt and moisten with a little very white fish or mushroom fumet; very often the two latter are mixed. Cover the utensil, push it into a moderate oven, and baste from time to time, especially when a large fish is cooking. When the fish is done, drain it carefully, place it on a dish, and, as a rule, reduce the poaching-liquor and add it to the sauce. Poached fish are always served sauced; i.e., covered with the sauce which properly forms their accompaniment. More often than not they are garnished after the manner which will be described later.

I most emphatically urge: (1) the use of very little fish fumet for the poaching, but this fumet should be perfect and should, above all, not be cooked for longer than the required time; (2) that the fish be not covered with buttered paper as is often done, for nowadays a suitable paper is very rarely found. All papers found on the market are, owing to the chemical products used in their manufacture, liable to impart a more or less pungent smell to the objects they enclose, which in either degree would prove seriously prejudicial to the preparation.

These remarks not only apply to fish, but to all those objects with which paper was formerly used at some stage in their cooking process.

780 — The Braising of Fish

This method is generally applied to whole or sliced salmon, to trout, and to chicken-turbot. Sometimes the fish treated in this way is larded on one side with strips of bacon-fat, truffles, gherkins, or carrots. The mode of procedure is exactly the same as that described under the “Braising of White Meats” (No. 248). Moisten these braisings in the proportion of one-half with white wine or red wine (according as to how the fish is to be served), and for the other half use a light fish fumet. Place the fish on the drainer of a fish-kettle just large enough to hold the former, and moisten in such wise that the cooking-liquor at the beginning of the operation does not cover more than three-quarters of the depth of the fish. Unless it be for a Lenten dish, the fish may be covered with slices of bacon while cooking. In any case, baste it often. Take care not to close the lid down too tightly, in order that the liquor may be reduced simultaneously with the cooking of the fish.

When the operation is almost completed, take the lid off the fish-kettle with the view of glazing the fish; then take the former off the fire. Now withdraw the drainer with the fish upon it, and lay it athwart the top of the fish-kettle, and let it drain; tilt the fish on to a dish, and cover the latter pending its despatch to the table. Strain the stock remaining in the fish-kettle through a strainer; let it stand for ten minutes, remove all the grease that has formed on its surface, and use it to complete the sauce as I directed above.

Braised fish are generally accompanied by a garnish, the constituents of which I shall give in the particular recipes relating to braising.

781 — The Grilling of Fish

This method is best suited to small fish, to medium-sized chicken-turbots, and to large-sectioned fish.

Unless they are very small, it is best to gash both sides of fish intended for grilling; the reasons given above for this measure likewise apply here.

All white and naturally dry fish should be rolled in flour and besprinkled with butter or very good oil before being placed on the grill to be exposed to the heat of the fire. The flour forms a crust around the fish, which keeps it from drying and gives it that golden colour quite peculiar to objects thus treated.

Salmon, trout, red mullet, mackerel, and herrings, the flesh whereof is fatty, need not be floured, but only besprinkled with melted butter.

Owing to the somewhat fragile texture of most fish, a special double gridiron is used, by means of which they may be turned without fear of damage. This gridiron is placed upon the ordinary grill. I have already given in Part I. of this work the radical principles of grilling (Nos. 257 and 260); to this, therefore, the reader is begged to refer.

Grilled fish are served on a very hot dish, without paper or a napkin; they are garnished with fresh parsley and grooved slices of lemon.

Butter à la Maître d’Hôtel, anchovy butter, devilled sauce, Roberts’ sauce Escoffier, and butter à la Ravigote constitute the best adjuncts to grilled fish.

782 — The Cooking of Fish au Gratin

I described all the details of this method under Complete Gratin (No. 269), to which I must ask the reader to refer. This process is best suited to small fish, such as sole, whiting, red mullet, chicken-turbot, &c.

783 — The Crimping of Fish

Crimped fish is quite an English speciality. This method of preparation is applied more particularly to salmon, fresh cod, haddock, and skate. The first three of these fish may be prepared whole or in slices, while skate is always cut into more or less large pieces after it has been skinned on both sides.

In order to crimp a whole fish, it should be taken as it leaves the water. Lay it on something flat, and make deep lateral gashes on both its sides from head to tail. Allow a space of about one and one-half inches to two inches between each gash. This done, put the fish to soak in very cold water for an hour or so. When the fish is to be cooked sliced, divide it up as soon as it is caught, and put the slices to soak in very cold water, as in the case of the whole fish.

But does this barbarous method, which stiffens and contracts the flesh of the fish, affect its quality so materially as connoisseurs would have us believe?

It is very difficult to say, and opinions on the matter are divided. This, however, is certain, that fish prepared in the way above described is greatly relished by many.

Whether whole or sliced, crimped fish is always boiled in salted water. Its cooking presents a real difficulty, in that it must be stopped at the precise moment when it is completed, any delay in this respect proving prejudicial to the quality of the dish.

Crimped fish is served like the boiled kind, and all the sauces suited to the latter likewise obtain with the former. Besides the selected sauce, send a sauceboat to the table containing some of the cooking-liquor of the fish.

Salmon (Saumon)

Salmon caught on the Rhine, or Dutch salmon, is generally considered the most delicate that may be had, though, in my opinion, that obtained from certain English rivers, such, for instance, as the Severn, is by no means inferior to the foregoing. Here in England this excellent fish is held in the high esteem it deserves, and the quantity consumed in this country is considerable. It is served as plainly as possible, either boiled, cold or hot, grilled, or à la Meunière; but whatever be the method of preparation, it is always accompanied by cucumber salad.

The slices of salmon, however, thick or thin, large or small, take the name of “Darnes.”

784 — Boiled Salmon

Boiled salmon, whether whole or sliced, should be cooked in court-bouillon in accordance with directions given at the beginning of the chapter (No. 776). All fish sauces are suited to it, but more especially the following, viz.:—Hollandaise sauce, Mousseline sauce, Melted butter, Shrimp sauce, Nantua sauce, Cardinal sauce, &c.

Crimped salmon admits of precisely the same sauces.

785 — Broiled Salmon

Cut the salmon to be grilled in slices from one inch to one and one-half inches thick. Season with table-salt, sprinkle with melted butter or oil, and grill it for the first part on a rather brisk fire, taking care to moderate the latter towards the close of the operation. Allow about twenty-five minutes for the grilling of a slice of salmon one and one-half inches thick. Butter à la Maître d’Hôtel, anchovy butter, and devilled sauce Escoffier are the most usual adjuncts to grilled salmon.

786 — Saumon à la Meunière

Having cut the salmon into moderately thick slices, season these, dredge them slightly, and cook them in the frying-pan with very hot clarified butter.

It is important that the salmon be set and that the cooking be rapid.

Serve it in either of the two ways indicated above (No. 778).

Various Ways of Preparing Salmon

In addition to the three methods of serving salmon described above, and those cold preparations with which I shall deal later, the fish in question lends itself to a whole host of dressings which are of the greatest utility in the varying of menus. The principles of these dressings I shall now give.

787 — Cadgerée of Salmon

Prepare one lb. of cooked salmon, cleared of bones and skin, and cut into small pieces; four hard-boiled eggs cut into dice; one lb. of well-cooked pilaff rice; and three-quarters pint of Béchamel flavoured with curry.

Dish in a hot timbale, alternating the various products, and finish with a coating of sauce.

788 — Côtelettes de Saumon

Prepare some mousseline forcemeat for salmon, the quantity whereof will be in accordance with the number of cutlets to be made, and rub it through a coarse sieve. Line the bottom and sides of some buttered tin moulds, shaped like cutlets, with a coating one-half inch thick of the prepared forcemeat.

Fill the moulds to within one-third inch of their brims with a cold salpicon of mushrooms and truffles, thickened by means of reduced Allemande sauce, and cover this with the forcemeat.

Set the cutlets to poach, turn out the moulds; treat the cutlets à l’anglaise, and cook them with clarified butter.

Arrange in a circle round a dish, put a frill on a piece of fried bread counterfeiting the bone of the cutlet, garnish with fried parsley, and send to the table, separately, a “Dieppoise” sauce, Shrimp sauce, or a purée of fresh vegetables, such as peas, carrots, &c. In the latter case, serve at the same time a sauce in keeping with the garnish.

789 — Coulibiac de Saumon

Preparation.—Have ready two lbs. of ordinary brioche paste without sugar (No. 2368). Stiffen in butter one and one-half lbs. of small salmon collops, and prepare one-sixth lb. of mushrooms and one chopped onion (both of which should be fried in butter), one-half lb. of semolina kache (No. 2292) or the same weight of rice cooked in consommé; two hard-boiled eggs, chopped; and one lb. of vesiga, roughly chopped and cooked in consommé.

For this weight of cooked vesiga about two and one-half oz. of dried vesiga will be needed, which should be soaked for at least four hours in cold water, and then cooked for three and one-half hours in white consommé. It may also be cooked in water.

Roll the brioche paste into rectangles twelve inches long by eight inches wide, and spread thereon in successive layers the kache or the rice, the collops of salmon, the chopped vesiga, the eggs, the mushrooms, and the onion, and finish with a layer of kache or rice. Moisten the edges of the paste and draw the longest ends of it towards each other over the enumerated layers of garnish, and join them so as to properly enclose the latter.

Now fold the two remaining ends over to the centre in a similar way. Place the coulibiac thus formed on a baking-tray, and take care to turn it over in order that the joining parts of the paste lie underneath.

Set the paste to rise for twenty-five minutes, sprinkle some melted butter over the coulibiac, sprinkle with some very fine raspings, make a slit in the top for the escape of vapour, and bake in a moderate oven for forty-five or fifty minutes. Fill the coulibiac with freshly-melted butter when withdrawing it from the oven.

Darnes de Saumon

The few recipes dealing with “Darnes de Saumon,” which I give below, may also be adapted to whole salmon after the size of the fish has been taken into account in measuring the time allowed for cooking.

790 — Darne de Saumon Chambord

As already explained, the term “darne” stands for a piece of salmon cut from the middle of that fish, and the size of a darne is in proportion to the number of people it is intended for.

Proceed after the manner directed under “The Braising of Fish” (No. 780); moisten in the proportion of two-thirds with excellent red wine and one-third with fish stock, calculating the quantity in such wise that it may cover no more than two-thirds of the depth of the darne. Bring to the boil, then set to braise gently, and glaze the darne at the last moment.

Garnish and Sauce.—Garnish with quenelles of truffled mousseline forcemeat for fish, moulded by means of a spoon; two large ornamented quenelles; truffles fashioned like olives; pieces of milt dipped in Villeroy sauce, treated à l’anglaise and fried when about to dish up; small gudgeon or smelts treated similarly to the milt, and trussed crayfish cooked in court-bouillon.

The sauce is a Genevoise, made from the reduced cooking-liquor of the darne.

Dishing Up.—Surround the darne by the garnishes enumerated, arranging them tastefully, and pierce it with two hatelets, each garnished with a small truffle, an ornamented quenelle, and a crayfish.

Send the sauce to the table separately.

791 — Darne de Saumon Daumont

Poach the darne in a court-bouillon prepared beforehand.

Dishing Up and Garnish.—Surround the darne by medium-sized mushrooms stewed in butter and garnished with small crayfish tails cohered by means of a few tablespoonfuls of Nantua sauce; small round quenelles of mousseline forcemeat for fish, decorated with truffles, and some slices of milt treated à l’anglaise, and fried when about to dish up.

Serve the Nantua sauce separately.

792 — Darne de Saumon Lucullus

Skin one side of the darne, lard it with truffles, and braise it in champagne.

The Garnish Round the Darne.—Very small garnished patties of crayfish tails; small cassolettes of milt; small mousselines of oysters, poached in dariole-moulds.

Sauce.—The braising-liquor of the darne finished by means of ordinary and crayfish butter in equal quantities. Send it to the table separately.

793 — Darne de Saumon Nesselrode

Remove the spine and all other internal bones. Stuff the darne with raw lobster mousse stiffened by means of a little pike forcemeat.

Line a well-buttered, round and even raised-pie mould with a thin layer of hot-water, raised-pie paste (this is made from one lb. of flour, four oz. of lard, one egg, and a little lukewarm water), which should be prepared in advance and made somewhat stiff. Now garnish the inside of the pie with thin slices of bacon and place the darne upright in it. (To simplify the operation the darne may be stuffed at this stage.) Cover the pie with a layer of the same paste, pinch its edges with those of the original lining, make a slit in the top for the steam to escape, and cook in a good oven.

When the pie is almost baked, prod it repeatedly with a larding-needle; when the latter is withdrawn clear of all stuffing the pie should be taken from the oven. This done, turn it upside down in order to drain away the melted bacon and other liquids inside it, but do not let it drop from the mould. Then tilt it on to a dish and take off the mould. Do not break the crust except at the dining-table.

Sauce.—Serve an American sauce with the pie, the former being prepared from the remains of the lobsters used in making the mousse, finished with cream, and garnished with very fine oysters (cleared of their beards), poached when about to dish up.

794 — Darne de Saumon Régence

Braise the darne in white wine in accordance with the directions given in No. 780.

Garnish.—Surround the darne by spoon-moulded quenelles of whiting forcemeat prepared with crayfish butter, oysters cleared of their beards and poached, small, very white mushrooms, and poached slices of milt.

Normande sauce finished with truffle essence.

795 — Darne de Saumon Royale

Braise the darne in Sauterne wine.

Garnish.—Bunches of crayfishes’ tails, small quenelles of mousseline forcemeat for fish, small mushrooms, slices of truffle, and little balls of potato raised by means of the large, round spoon-cutter, and cooked à l’anglaise.

Send a Normande sauce separately.

796 — Darne de Saumon Valois

Poach the darne in a white wine court-bouillon.

Garnish.—Potato balls raised with the spoon-cutter or turned to the shape of olives, and cooked in salted water, poached slices of milt, and trussed crayfish cooked in court-bouillon.

Send a Valois sauce separately.

797 — Mousseline de Saumon

In Part I. I dealt with the preparation of mousseline forcemeat (No. 195), and also the method of poaching spoon-moulded quenelles (No. 205). Now mousselines are only large quenelles which derive their name from the very light forcemeat of which they are composed. These mousseline quenelles are always moulded with the ordinary tablespoon, they are garnished on top with a fine, raw slice of the fish under treatment, and poached after the manner already described.

798 — Mousseline Alexandra

Having made the salmon mousseline forcemeat, mould the quenelles and place them, one by one, in a buttered sautépan. Place a small, round and very thin slice of salmon on each, and poach them in a very moderate oven with lid on the utensil containing them.

Drain on a piece of linen, arrange them in a circle on a dish, place a slice of truffle upon each slice of salmon, coat with Mornay sauce, and glaze.

Garnish the centre of the dish with very small peas or asparagus-heads cohered with butter just before dishing up.

799 — Mousseline de Saumon à la Tosca

Combine one and one-half oz. of crayfish cream-cullis with each pound of the salmon mousseline forcemeat. Mould and poach as above, drain, and arrange in a circle on a dish.

Garnish each mousseline with a thin slice of milt cooked in lightly-browned butter, four crayfish tails cut lengthwise into two, and a slice of truffle at each end. Coat with a light Mornay sauce, finished with crayfish butter, and glaze quickly.

N.B.—In addition to these two recipes, all the garnishes suitable for fillets of sole may be applied to mousselines. Garnishes of early-season vegetable purées also suit them admirably, and therein lies an almost inexhaustible source of variety.

800 — Cold Salmon

When salmon is to be served cold it should, as far as possible, be cooked, either whole or in large pieces, in the court-bouillon given under No. 163 and cooled in the latter. Pieces cooked separately may seem better or may be more easily made to look sightly, but their meat is drier than that of the salmon cooked whole. And what is lost in appearance with the very large pieces is more than compensated for by their extra quality.

In dishing cold salmon the skin may be removed and the fillets bared, so that the fish may be more easily decorated, but the real gourmet will always prefer the salmon served in its natural silver vestment.

In decorating cold salmon use pieces of cucumber, anchovy fillets, capers, slices of tomato, curled-leaf parsley, &c.

I am not partial to the decorating of salmon with softened butter, coloured or not, laid on by means of the piping-bag. Apart from the fact that this method of decoration is rarely artistic, the butter used combines badly with the cold sauces and the meat of the salmon on the diner’s plate. Very green tarragon leaves, chervil, lobster coral, &c., afford a more natural and more delicate means of ornamentation. The only butter fit to be served with cold salmon is Montpellier butter (No. 153), though this, in fact, is but a cold sauce often resorted to for the coating of the cold fish in question.

Among the garnishes which suit cold salmon, I might mention small peeled, and emptied tomatoes garnished with some kind of salad; hard-boiled eggs, either wholly stuffed, or stuffed in halves or in quarters, barquettes, tartlets and cassolettes made from cucumber or beetroot, parboiled until almost completely cooked and garnished with a purée of tunny, of sardines, of anchovies, &c.; small aspics of shrimps or of crayfishes’ tails; small slices of lobster, &c.

Almost all the cold sauces may accompany cold salmon.

801 — Saumon Froid, Ou Darne de Saumon Froid à la Royale

Having drained and dried the salmon or the darne, remove the skin from one of its sides, and coat the bared fillets with a layer of a preparation of mousse de saumon, letting it lie rather more thickly over the middle than the sides. Coat the layer of mousse with mayonnaise sauce thickened by means of fish jelly, and leave to set.

Now let some clear fish jelly set on the bottom of the dish to be sent to the table; place the salmon or the darne on this jelly, and surround the piece with a border consisting of Montpellier butter, using for the purpose a piping-bag fitted with a grooved pipe.

Decorate the centre of the piece by means of a fine fleur-de-lys made from truffles, and encircle it with two royale crowns made from anchovy fillets.

802 — Saumon Froid Ou Darne de Saumon à la Parisienne

Remove the skin in suchwise as to leave the bared portion in the shape of a regular rectangle, equidistant from the tail and the head; or, in the case of a darne, occupying two-thirds of its surface.

Cover the bared portion with mayonnaise sauce thickened with fish jelly and leave it to set.

Now stand the piece on a small cushion of rice or semolina, shaping the latter like the piece itself; trim the sauced rectangle with a border of Montpellier butter, laid on by means of a piping-bag fitted with a small grooved pipe. Garnish the centre of the rectangle with pieces of lobster coral, the chopped, hard-boiled white and yolk of an egg, chervil leaves, &c.

Encircle the piece with a border of small artichoke-bottoms, garnished, in the form of a dome, with a small macédoine of vegetables cohered with cleared mayonnaise.

Send a mayonnaise sauce to the table separately.

803 — Saumon Froid Ou Darne de Saumon Froid à la Riga

Prepare a salmon or a darne as in the preceding recipe, and dish it on a cushion in order that it may be slightly raised.

804 — Saumon Froid, Ou Darne de Saumon Froid en Belle-Vue

Skin the salmon or the darne, set the piece upright upon the belly side, and decorate the fillets with pieces of truffles, poached white of egg, chervil leaves, and tarragon, &c.

Coat the garnish with a little melted fish aspic so as to fix it.

This done, sprinkle the piece, again and again, with the same melted aspic jelly in order to cover it with a kind of transparent veil.

Place the piece thus prepared in a crystal receptacle similarly shaped to the fish, and fill the former to the brim with very clear, melted jelly.

When dishing up, incrust the receptacle containing the fish in a block of clean ice which, in its turn, is laid on the dish to be sent to the table. Another way is to place the crystal utensil direct upon the dish and to surround the former with broken ice.

805 — Saumon Froid, Ou Darne de Saumon Froid au Chambertin

Poach the salmon or the darne in a court-bouillon consisting of very clear fish fumet and Chambertin wine, in equal quantities, and leave to cool. Prepare an aspic jelly from the court-bouillon.

Skin and decorate the salmon or the darne and glaze it with white aspic jelly, exactly as directed above, in the case of the Belle-vue.

Dish in the same way, in a crystal receptacle, and fill the latter with the prepared aspic jelly. Serve on a block of ice, or with broken ice around the utensil.

806 — Saumon Froid, Ou Darne de Saumon Froid à la Norvegienne

Skin and decorate the salmon or the darne, and glaze it with white aspic jelly precisely as in No. 804.

Let a coating of very clear jelly set on the bottom of the dish to be sent to the table. Upon this aspic jelly lay a cushion the same shape as the fish, of semolina, or of carved rice.

Set the piece (salmon or darne), decorated and glazed, upon this cushion, and lay thereon a row of fine prawns, cleared of their abdominal shell.

Surround with a garnish of small cucumber timbales, well parboiled, marinaded, and garnished dome-fashion, with a purée of smoked salmon; halved, hard-boiled eggs, glazed with aspic; very small tomatoes, or halved medium-sized ones, peeled, pressed in the corner of a towel to return them to their original shape, stuck with a bit of parsley-stalk, and decorated with leaves of green butter moulded by means of the piping-bag; and small barquettes of cooked and marinaded beetroot, garnished with shrimps’ tails cohered with mayonnaise.

Send a Russe sauce separately.

807 — Côtelettes Froides de Saumon

Liberally butter some tin cutlet-shaped moulds. Line their bottoms and sides with a very red slice of salmon, as thin as a piece of cardboard. This slice should be long enough to project outside the brim of the mould to the extent of one-half inch.

Garnish the insides of the moulds with well-seasoned salmon meat, and draw the projecting lengths of salmon across this meat so as to enclose the latter and finish off the cutlets.

Arrange the moulds on a baking-tray; poach the cutlets, dry, in a moderate oven; turn them out of their moulds on to another tray as soon as they are poached, and let them cool. Then coat them with a half-melted aspic, and decorate them according to fancy, either with very green peas or a leaf of chervil with a bit of lobster coral in its centre—in a word, something simple and neat.

These cutlets, which are generally served at ball-suppers, may be dished on a tazza, on a cushion of rice, semolina, corn-flour, or stearine, and laid almost vertically against a pyramid of vegetable salad cohered by means of mayonnaise with aspic. In this case the dish is finished off with a hatelet stuck into the middle of the pyramid.

The cutlets may also be arranged in a circle on a flat, shallow, silver or crystal dish, and covered with a delicate cold melted jelly.

Whatever be the selected method of dishing, always send to the table with the cutlet a sauceboat of cold sauce.

808 — Médaillons de Saumon

These médaillons have the same purpose as the cutlets already described, and are prepared thus:—

Arrange them on a buttered tray; poach them, dry, in a moderate oven, and cool them under a light weight.

Now trim them neatly, with an even cutter, oval or round, in accordance with the shape they are intended to have.

Coat them, according to their purpose, either with mayonnaise sauce or one of its derivatives, thickened with jelly, or a white, pink, or green chaud-froid sauce. Decorate it in any way that may be fancied, and glaze them with cold melted aspic jelly.

Dish after the manner described under “Côtelettes” (see above).

809 — Mayonnaise de Saumon

Garnish the bottom of a salad-bowl with moderately seasoned, ciseled lettuce. Cover with cold, cooked and flaked salmon, thoroughly cleared of all skin and bones.

Coat with mayonnaise sauce, and decorate with anchovy fillets, capers, stoned olives, small slices or roundels or quarters of hard-boiled eggs, small hearts of lettuce, a border of little roundels of radish, &c.

810 — Salade de Saumon

This preparation comprises the same ingredients as the above, with the exception of the mayonnaise sauce. The decorating garnish is placed directly upon the salmon, and the whole is seasoned in precisely the same way as an ordinary salad.

Trout

From the culinary standpoint, trout are divided into two quite distinct classes, viz., large trout, whereof the typical specimen is Salmon-trout, and small or fresh-water trout.

811 — Truite Saumonée (Salmon Trout)

In its many preparations, salmon-trout may be replaced by salmon, and all the recipes relating to the former may be adapted to the latter.

In any case, however, as its size is less than that of salmon, it is very rarely cut into darnes, being more generally served whole.

The few recipes that follow are proper to salmon-trout.

812 — Truite à la Cambacérès

Select a male trout in preference; clean it, and remove its gills without opening it in the region of the belly.

Lard the bared portions with truffles and the red part only of carrots cut into rods.

This done, spread out a napkin, lay the trout thereon, belly under, and, with a sharp knife, separate the two fillets from the bones, beginning in the region of the head and proceeding straight down to where the body converges towards the tail.

The spine being thus liberated, sever it at both ends; i.e., from the tail and the head, and withdraw it, together with all the adhering ventral bones. The intestines are then removed, the inside of the fish is well cleaned, the fillets are seasoned on their insides, and the trout is stuffed with a mousseline forcemeat of raw crayfish. The two fillets are drawn together, and the trout, thus reconstructed, is covered with thin slices of bacon and laid on the drainer of the fish-kettle and braised in Sauterne wine.

When the fish is done, remove the slices of bacon, glaze it, and dish it up. Surround it with alternate heaps of morels tossed in butter and milt à la Meunière.

Send to the table, separately, a fine Béchamel sauce, combined with the braising-liquor of the trout, strained and reduced, and finished with crayfish butter.

813 — Truites Saumonées Froides

We are now concerned with a whole series of unpublished “Trout” preparations, which are at once of superfine delicacy and agreeable aspect, and which admit of clean and easy dishing.

Cook a trout weighing from two to three lbs. in court-bouillon, and let it cool in the latter. Then drain it; sever the head and tail from the body, and put them aside. Completely skin the whole fish, and carefully separate the two fillets from the bones.

Deck each fillet with tarragon and chervil leaves, lobster coral, poached white of eggs, &c., and set them, back to back, upon a mousse of tomatoes lying in a special, long white or coloured porcelain dish about one and one-half to two inches deep.

Replace the head and tail, and cover the whole with a coating of half-melted, succulent fish aspic, somewhat clear. Let the aspic set, and incrust the dish containing the trout in a block of ice, or surround it with the latter broken.

814 — Preparation de la Mousse de Tomates

This mousse, like those which I shall give later, is really a bavarois without sugar. Its recipe is exactly the same as that of the “bavarois of fruit,” except with regard to the question of sugar.

Cook one-half lb. of tomato pulp (cleared of skin and seeds, and roughly chopped) in one oz. of butter. When the pulp has thoroughly mingled with the butter, add thereto two tablespoonfuls of velouté thickened by means of eight leaves of gelatine per quart of the sauce.

Rub through tammy, and add to the preparation, when almost cold, half of its volume of barely-whipped cream. Taste the mousse; season with a few drops of lemon juice, and if it still seems flat, add the necessary salt and a very little cayenne.

N.B.—It will be seen that I prescribe cream only half-whipped. This precaution, however, does not apply to “Mousse de Tomates” alone, but to all mousses. Well-whipped cream imparts a dry and woolly taste to them, whereas, when it is only half-whipped, it renders them unctuous and fresh to the palate.

From the point of view of delicacy, the respective results of the two methods do not bear comparison.

815 — Other Preparations of Trout After the Same Recipe

By proceeding exactly as directed in the foregoing recipe, and by substituting one of the following mousses for the “Mousse de Tomates,” it will be found that considerable variety may be introduced into menus:—

1. Crayfish Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with crayfish tails and tarragon leaves.

2. Lobster Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with slices of lobster, coral, and chervil.

3. Shrimp Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with crayfish tails and capers.

4. Capsicum Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with strips of grilled capsicum.

5. Physalia Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with chervil, tarragon, and bunches of physalia around the fillets.

6. Green Pimentos Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with strips of green pimentos.

7. Early-season Herb Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with chopped, hard-boiled eggs, and chopped parsley.

8. Volnay Mousse with fillets of trout, decked with anchovy fillets, capers, and olives.

N.B.—In the making of “Mousse au Volnay” and “au Chambertin” the base of the preparations is supplied by cleared velouté, to which is added the reduced cooking-liquor of the trout.

All these recipes are equally suitable for sole or chicken-turbot.

815a — Ondines aux Crevettes Roses

Prepare a very delicate trout mousse, mould it in egg-moulds, and garnish the centre with trimmed prawns’ tails. Let the mousse set; then speedily turn the ondines out of their moulds, and lay them in a deep entrée-dish. Between each of them lay a few prawns, the tails of which should be shelled. Cover the whole, little by little, with some excellent, half-melted jelly; here and there add a few sprigs of chervil, and then fill up the dish with jelly, so as to completely cover the mousses.

816 — Fresh-Water Trout

The best are those procured in mountainous districts, where the clear water they inhabit is constantly refreshed by strong currents.

The two leading methods of preparing them are called, respectively, “Au bleu” and “à la Meunière.” Having already described the latter, I shall now give my attention to “Truite au bleu.”

This preparation is held in very high esteem in Switzerland and Germany, where fresh-water trout are not only plentiful, but of excellent quality.

817 — Truites au Bleu

The essential condition for this dish consists in having live trout. Prepare a court-bouillon with plenty of vinegar (No. 163), and keep it boiling in a rather shallow basin.

About ten minutes before dishing them, take the trout out of water; stun them by a blow on the head; empty and clean them very quickly, and plunge them into the boiling liquid, where they will immediately shrivel, while their skin will break in all directions.

A few minutes will suffice to cook trout the average weight of which is one-third lb.

Drain them and dish them immediately upon a napkin, with curled-leaf parsley all round. Serve them with a Hollandaise sauce or melted butter.

Soles

Sole may be served whole or filleted, and a large number of the recipes given for the whole fish may be adapted to its fillets.

As a rule, the fillets are made to appear on the menu of a dinner owing to the fact that they dish more elegantly and are more easily served than the whole fish, the latter being generally served at luncheons.

Nevertheless, in cases where great ceremony is not observed at a dinner, soles may well be served whole, inasmuch as no hard-and-fast rule has ever obtained in this matter.

818 — Sole Alice

This sole is prepared, or rather its preparation is completed, at the table.

Have an excellent fish fumet (No. 11), short and very white. Trim the sole; put it into a special, deep earthenware dish, the bottom of which should be buttered; pour the fumet over it and poach gently.

Now send it to the table with a plate containing separate heaps of one finely-chopped onion, a little powdered thyme, and three finely-crushed biscottes.

In the dining-room the waiter places the dish on a chafer, and, taking off the sole, he raises the fillets therefrom, and places them between two hot plates. He then adds to the cooking-liquor of the sole the chopped onion, which he leaves to cook for a few moments, the powdered thyme and a sufficient quantity of the biscotte raspings to allow of thickening the whole.

At the last minute he adds six raw oysters and one oz. of butter divided into small pieces.

As soon as the oysters are stiff, he returns the fillets of sole to the dish, besprinkles them copiously with the sauce, and then serves them very hot.

N.B.—In order to promote the poaching of the soles, more particularly when they are large, the fillets on the upper side of the fish should be slightly separated from the bones. By this means the heat is able to reach the inside of the fish very quickly, and the operation is accelerated.

819 — Sole Mornay

Lay the sole on a buttered dish; sprinkle a little fish fumet over it, and add one-half oz. of butter divided into small pieces. Poach gently.

Coat the bottom of the dish on which the sole is to be served with Mornay sauce; drain the fish, lay it on the prepared dish; cover it with the same sauce; sprinkle with grated Gruyère and Parmesan, and glaze at a Salamander.

820 — Sole Mornay des Provençaux

This sole, which used to be served at the famous restaurant of the “Frères Provençaux,” was prepared, and always may be prepared, as follows:—

Poach the sole in fish fumet and butter, as directed in the preceding recipe; drain it, and place it on a dish; cover it with white-wine sauce; sprinkle liberally with grated cheese, and glaze quickly.

821 — Sole au Champagne

Poach the sole in a buttered dish with one-half pint of champagne. Dish it; reduce its cooking-liquor to half; add thereto one-sixth pint of velouté, and complete with one and one-half oz. of best butter.

Cover the sole with this sauce; glaze, and garnish each side of the dish with a little heap of a julienne of filleted sole, seasoned, dredged, and tossed in clarified butter at the last moment in order to have it very crisp.

N.B.—By substituting a good white wine for the champagne, a variety of dishes may be made, among which may be mentioned: Soles au Chablis, Soles au Sauterne, Sole au Samos, Sole au Château Yquem, &c., &c.

822 — Sole Colbert

On the upper side of the fish separate the fillets from the spine, and break the latter in several places. Dip the sole in milk; roll it in flour; treat it à l’anglaise, and roll the separated fillets back a little, so that they may be quite free from the bones.

Fry; drain on a piece of linen; remove the bones, and fill the resulting space with butter à la Maître d’Hôtel.

Serve the sole on a very hot dish.

823 — Sole à la Daumont

Bone the sole; i.e., sever the spine near the tail and the head; remove it, and leave those portions of the fillets which lie on the remaining extremities of it intact. Garnish the inside with whiting forcemeat finished with crayfish butter, and rearrange the fillets in such wise as to give a natural and untouched appearance to the fish. Poach it on a buttered dish with one-sixth pint of white wine, the same quantity of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and one oz. of butter cut into small lumps.

Drain and dish the sole, and cover it with Nantua sauce. Place around it four mushrooms stewed in butter and garnished with crayfish tails in Nantua sauce; four small, round quenelles of whiting forcemeat with cream, decked with truffles; and four slices of milt treated à l’anglaise and fried at the last moment.

824 — Sole Dorée

As I explained under “Fish à la Meunière” (No. 778), “Sole Dorée” is a sole fried in clarified butter, dished dry, and garnished with slices of carefully peeled lemon.

825 — Sole Dugléré

All fish treated after this recipe, with the exception of soles, should be divided up.

Put the sole in a buttered dish with one and one-half oz. of chopped onion, one-half lb. of peeled and concassed tomatoes, a little roughly-chopped parsley, a pinch of table salt, a very little pepper, and one-eighth pint of white wine. Set to poach gently, and then dish the sole.

Reduce the cooking-liquor; thicken it with two tablespoonfuls of fish velouté; complete with one oz. of butter and a few drops of lemon juice, and cover the fish with this sauce.

826 — Sole Grillée

Season the sole; sprinkle oil thereon, and grill the fish very gently. Send it, garnished with slices of lemon, on a very hot dish.

827 — Sole Grillée, aux Huîtres à l’Américaine

This sole may be either grilled or poached, almost dry, in butter and lemon juice. With the procedure remaining the same, it may also be prepared in fillets. Whatever be the mode of procedure, serve it on a very hot dish, and surround it at the last moment with six oysters poached in a little boiling Worcestershire sauce.

Cover the sole immediately with very hot fried bread-crumbs, and add thereto a pinch of chopped parsley.

828 — Sole à la Fermière

Put the sole, seasoned, on a buttered dish with a few aromatics. Add one-third pint of excellent red wine, and poach gently with lid on.

Dish up; strain the cooking-liquor, and reduce it to half; thicken it with a lump of manied butter the size of a hazel-nut, and finish the sauce with one oz. of butter.

Encircle the sole with a border of mushrooms sliced raw and tossed in butter. Pour the prepared sauce over the sole, and set to glaze quickly.

829 — Sole à la Hollandaise

Break the spine of the sole by folding it over in several places. Put the fish in a deep dish; cover it with slightly salted water; set to boil, and then poach gently for ten minutes with lid on.

Drain and dish on a napkin with very green parsley all round. Serve at the same time some plainly boiled potatoes, freshly done, and two oz. of melted butter.

830 — Sole Saint-Germain

Season the sole; dip it in melted butter, and cover it with fresh bread-crumbs, taking care to pat the latter with the flat of a knife, in order that they may combine with the butter to form a kind of crust. Sprinkle with some more melted butter, and grill the fish gently so that its coating of bread-crumbs may acquire a nice golden colour. Dish the sole, and surround it with potatoes turned to the shape of olives, and cooked in butter.

Send a Béarnaise sauce to the table separately.

831 — Sole Florentine

Poach the sole in a fish fumet and butter. Spread a layer of shredded spinach, stewed in butter, on the bottom of a dish; place the sole thereon; cover it with Mornay sauce; sprinkle with a little grated cheese, and set to glaze quickly in the oven or at a salamander.

832 — Sole Montreuil

Poach the sole in one-sixth pint of fish fumet, one-sixth pint of white wine, and one-half oz. of butter.

833 — Sole au Gratin

Partly separate the fillets from the bones on the upper side of the fish, and slip a lump of butter, the size of a walnut, under each.

This done, place the sole on a well-buttered gratin dish, on the bottom of which a pinch of chopped shallots and parsley has been sprinkled, together with one or two tablespoonfuls of Gratin sauce.

Lay four cooked mushrooms along the sole, and surround it with one oz. of raw mushrooms, cut into rather thin slices.

Add two tablespoonfuls of white wine; cover the sole with Gratin sauce; sprinkle with fine raspings followed by melted butter, and set the gratin to form in pursuance of the directions given under complete Gratin (No. 269).

When taking the sole from the oven, sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice and a pinch of chopped parsley upon it, and serve at once.

834 — Sole au Chambertin

Season the sole and poach it on a buttered dish with one-third pint of Chambertin wine.

As soon as it is poached, drain it, dish it, and keep it hot. Reduce the cooking-liquor to half, add thereto a little freshly-ground pepper and two or three drops of lemon-juice, thicken with a lump of manied butter the size of a walnut, and finish the sauce with one and one-half oz. of butter.

Cover the sole with the sauce, set to glaze quickly, and garnish both sides of the dish with a little heap of julienne of filleted sole, seasoned, dredged, and tossed in clarified butter at the last moment so that it may be very crisp.

835 — Remarks Concerning “Soles aux Grands Vins”

Taking recipe No. 834 as a model, and putting into requisition all the good wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux, the following varieties are obtained, viz.:—Soles au Volnay, au Pommard, au Romanée, au Clos-Vougeot, or soles au Saint-Estèphe, au Château-Larose, au Saint-Émilion, &c., &c.

836 — Sole Montgolfier

Poach the sole in one-sixth pint of white wine and as much of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms. Drain, dish, and cover it with a white wine sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the sole and one tablespoonful of a fine julienne of spiny lobster’s tail, mushrooms, and very black truffles. Surround the sole with a border of little palmettes made from puff-paste and cooked without colouration.

837 — Sole Sur le Plat

Partly separate the fillets from the bones on the upper side of the fish, and slip a piece of butter the size of a walnut under each.

Lay the sole on a liberally buttered dish, moisten with one-fifth pint of the cooking-liquor of fish, and add a few drops of lemon-juice.

Cook in the oven, basting often the while, until the cooking-liquor has by reduction acquired the consistence of a syrup and covers the sole with a translucent and glossy coat.

N.B.—By substituting for the mushroom cooking-liquor a good white or red wine, to which a little melted pale meat-glaze has been added, the following series of dishes may be prepared, viz.:—Sole sur le plat au Chambertin. Sole sur le plat au vin rouge. Sole sur le plat au Champagne. Sole sur le plat au Chablis, &c., &c.

838 — Sole Régence

Poach the sole in a little white wine and two-thirds oz. of butter cut into small pieces.

Drain the sole, dish it, and surround it with six quenelles of whiting forcemeat finished with crayfish butter, moulded by means of a small spoon; four poached oysters (cleared of their beards); four small cooked and very white mushrooms; four small truffles, turned to the shape of olives; and four small poached slices of milt. Cover the sole and the garnish with a Normande sauce finished with a little truffle essence.

839 — Sole Portugaise

Poach the sole in white wine and the cooking-liquor of fish. Drain, dish, and surround with a garnish consisting of two medium-sized tomatoes, peeled, pressed, minced, cooked in butter, and combined with minced and cooked mushrooms, and a large pinch of chopped chives.

Coat the sole with white wine sauce, plentifully buttered, and take care that none of the sauce touches the garnish.

Set to glaze quickly, sprinkle the garnish with a pinch of chopped parsley when taking the sole from the oven, and serve immediately.

840 — Sole Cubat

Poach the sole in one-fifth pint of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms and one-half oz. of butter cut into small pieces.

Coat the bottom of the dish intended for the sole with a purée of mushrooms, place the drained sole on this purée, lay six fine slices of truffle along the fish, coat with Mornay sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and glaze quickly.

841 — Sole aux Huîtres

Open and poach six oysters. Poach the sole in the liquor of the oysters, drain it, dish it, and surround it with the oysters (cleared of their beards).

Coat with a white wine sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the sole, and glaze quickly.

842 — Sole à la Meunière

Proceed for this dish as directed under “Fish à la Meunière” (No. 778).

843 — Sole Meunière aux Concombres, Otherwise Doria

Prepare a sole à la Meunière. Garnish it at both ends with little heaps of cucumber, turned and cooked in butter with a little salt and a pinch of sugar.

844 — Sole Meunière aux Aubergines

Prepare a sole à la Meunière in the usual way. Surround it with a fine border of egg-plant rundles one-third inch thick, seasoned, dredged, and fried in clarified butter, just in time to be arranged round the sole when it is ready. The question of time is important, for if the fried rundles be allowed to wait at all they very quickly lose their crispness.

845 — Sole Meunière aux Cèpes

Prepare the sole à la Meunière in the usual way and surround it with a border of sliced cèpes frizzled in butter just before dishing up.

846 — Sole Meunière aux Morilles

Surround the sole with very fresh morels cooked in salted water and then tossed in butter just before dishing up. Sprinkle a pinch of chopped parsley over the morels.

847 — Sole Meunière aux Raisins

The sole being ready, encircle it with fresh skinned Muscadel grapes prepared in advance.

848 — Sole Meunière à l’Orange

When the sole is cooked and dished, lay thereon a row of orange slices, peeled to the pulp and thoroughly pipped, or some sections of oranges, likewise peeled to the pulp and carefully pipped. This done, cover the sole and the garnish with lightly-browned butter and serve instantly.

849 — Sole Lutèce

Line the bottom of the dish intended for the sole with a coating of shredded spinach tossed in lightly-browned butter. Place the sole, prepared à la Meunière, upon this spinach; lay a few rundles of onion and slices of artichoke-bottom tossed in butter upon the fish; and on either side of the sole lay a border of potato-slices, freshly cooked in salted water and well browned in butter.

At the last moment cover the whole with lightly-browned butter.

850 — Sole Murat

Toss in butter, separately (1) one medium-sized potato cut into dice; (2) two small raw artichoke-bottoms, likewise cut into dice. Prepare the sole à la Meunière, dish it, and surround it with the tossed potato and artichoke-bottom, mixed when cooked. Lay on the sole five slices of tomato, one-half inch thick, seasoned, dredged, and tossed in very hot oil; sprinkle a few drops of pale melted meat-glaze, a little lemon-juice, and a pinch of concassed parsley over the sole, and cover the whole with slightly-browned butter. Serve instantly.

851 — Sole à la Provençale

Poach the sole in one-sixth pint of fish fumet, two tablespoonfuls of oil and a piece, the size of a pea, of garlic, well crushed. Drain and dish the sole. Coat it with Provençale sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor, and sprinkle a little concassed parsley over it.

Surround the sole with four little tomatoes and four medium-sized mushrooms stuffed with duxelles flavoured with a mite of garlic; these latter should be put in the oven just in time for them to be ready at the dishing up of the fish.

852 — Sole Arlésienne

Poach the sole in a little fish fumet. Dish it, reduce the fumet, and add thereto the following garnish:—Cook a little chopped onion in butter, add two medium-sized, peeled, emptied, and concassed tomatoes, a bit of garlic, and some concassed parsley. Cook with lid on, add the reduced fumet and twelve pieces of vegetable-marrow, turned to the shape of olives and cooked in butter.

Cover the sole with this garnish and set a little heap of fried onion at each end of the dish.

853 — Sole à la Royale

Poach the sole in a few tablespoonfuls of fish fumet and two-thirds oz. of butter cut into small lumps. Dish the sole and set upon it four small cooked mushrooms, four small quenelles of fish forcemeat, four crayfishes’ tails, and four slices of truffle.

Surround the sole with potato-balls, raised by means of the round spoon-cutter and cooked à l’anglaise, and coat the sole and garnish with Normande sauce.

854 — Sole à la Russe

Prepare twelve grooved and very thin roundels of carrots, cut a small onion into fine slices. Put these vegetables into and cut a small onion into fine slices. Put these vegetables into one-seventh pint of white wine, and one-third pint of fish fumet. Cook and, in the process, reduce the moistening by half, and pour this preparation into a deep dish.

Partly separate the fillets from the bones on the upper side of the sole, slip a piece of butter, the size of a walnut, under each fillet, and put the fish into a deep dish containing the preparation. Poach and baste frequently the while.

As soon as it is poached, dish the sole, also the vegetables used in cooking, and keep the whole hot.

Reduce the cooking-liquor to one-eighth pint, add a few drops of lemon juice, and finish it away from the fire with one and one-half oz. of butter. Coat the sole and the garnish with this sauce.

855 — Sole Richelieu

Prepare the sole exactly as directed under “Sole à la Colbert” (No. 822). When it is fried, remove the bones and dish it. Garnish the inside with butter à la maître-d’hôtel, and lay thereon a row of sliced truffles.

856 — Sole Normande

Poach the sole on a buttered dish with one-sixth pint of fish fumet, and the same quantity of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms. Drain and dish the sole, and surround it with mussels, poached oysters (cleared of their beards), shrimps’ tails, and small cooked mushrooms. Put the sole in the oven for a few minutes, tilt the dish in order to get rid of all liquid, and coat the sole and the garnish with Normande sauce. Make a little garland of pale meat-glaze on the sauce, and finish the garnish with the following articles:—Six fine slices of truffle set in a row upon the sole; six small crusts in the shape of lozenges, fried in clarified butter and arranged round the truffles; four gudgeons treated à l’anglaise and fried at the last moment; and four medium-sized trussed crayfish cooked in court-bouillon.

Set the gudgeons and the crayfish round the dish.

857 — Sole Marguery

Poach the sole in white wine and fish fumet in the proportions already given.

Drain and dish the sole, and surround it with a border of mussels and shrimps’ tails. Coat the sole and the garnish with white wine sauce, well finished with butter, and set to glaze quickly.

858 — Sole Marinière

Liberally butter a dish, sprinkle a coffeespoonful of chopped shallots on the bottom, lay the sole thereon, and poach the latter with one-sixth pint of white wine and the same quantity of the very clear cooking-liquor of mussels. Drain and dish the sole, surround it with mussels (cleared of their beards), and keep it hot.

Reduce the cooking-liquor to half; thicken with a tablespoonful of velouté, and the yolks of two eggs, and finish it, away from the fire, with two and one-half oz. of butter and a pinch of chopped parsley.

Tilt the dish so as to rid it of the liquid accumulated on the bottom, coat the sole and the garnish with the prepared sauce, and glaze quickly.

859 — Sole au Vin Blanc

Partly separate the fillets from the bones on the upper side of the sole, and slip a piece of butter, as large as a walnut, under each fillet. Lay the sole in a dish, the bottom of which should be buttered and garnished with a small onion, chopped. Moisten with one-quarter pint of ordinary white wine, as much fish fumet, and a few tablespoonfuls of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms. Poach gently with lid on.

Drain and dish the sole, and coat it with a white wine sauce, prepared in accordance with one of the methods given in the chapter on Sauces (No. 111). Glaze quickly, or serve without glazing.

N.B.—“Sole au Vin Blanc” may be prepared after the above recipe, but ordinary white wine may be replaced by one of the Rhine wines or Moselle, by some Johannisberg, or by a good white Burgundy or Bordeaux wine, such as Chablis-Moutonne, Savigny, Montrachet, Barsac, Sauternes, and even Château-Yquem or Château-Latour.

In any of these cases the name of the wine may be mentioned, and on the menu may be written Sole au Barsac, Sole au Château-Yquem, &c.

860 — Sole Dieppoise

Poach the sole with one-sixth pint of fish fumet and a few tablespoonfuls of the cooking-liquor of mussels.

Drain and dish the sole, surround it with poached mussels (shelled and cleared of their beards) and shrimps’ tails, and coat the fish and the garnish with a white wine sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor.

861 — Sole Diplomate

Poach the sole in very clear fish fumet.

Drain it, dish it, and coat it with Diplomate sauce.

Set upon it a row of six fine slices of black truffle; these should have been previously glazed with pale meat-glaze.

862 — Sole Bonne Femme

Butter the bottom of the dish intended for the sole, and besprinkle it with two chopped shallots, one pinch of parsley, and one and one-half oz. of raw minced mushrooms. Lay the sole upon this garnish, moisten with one-quarter pint of white wine and as much fish fumet, and poach gently, taking care to baste from time to time.

When the sole is poached, drain off the cooking-liquor into a vegetable-pan, and reduce it quickly to half; effect the leason with two tablespoonfuls of fish velouté, and finish the sauce with two oz. of butter. Coat the sole with this sauce and set it to glaze in a fierce oven or at a salamander.

863 — Sole Parisienne

Poach the sole in white wine, the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and some butter. Drain it thoroughly, dish it, and coat it with white wine sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the sole. Garnish with a row of six slices of truffle and six fine roundels of cooked mushrooms kept very white, and finish with four medium-sized trussed crayfish.

864 — Sole Nantua

Poach the sole in one-sixth pint of fish fumet and a few tablespoonfuls of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms.

Drain and dish the sole, surround it with twelve shelled crayfishes’ tails, and coat it with Nantua sauce.

Lay a row of very black truffle slices along the middle of the fish.

Fillets of Sole

Subject to the kind of dish required, fillets of sole are either kept in their natural state, they are stuffed and folded over, or they are simply folded over without being stuffed, each of which methods of preparation will be specially referred to in the recipes.

Whatever be the method adopted, always skin the fillets thoroughly; i.e., remove the thin membrane which lies beneath the skin, the tendency of which, during the cooking process, is to shrink and thereby disfigure the fillet.

This done, flatten out the fillets with the broad side of a wet knife, and trim them slightly if necessary. The poaching of fillets of sole must be effected without allowing the cooking-liquor to boil, the object being to prevent the pieces losing their shape. Fillets should also be kept very white.

In cases where the exact amount of the poaching-liquor is not given, allow one-quarter pint to every four fillets, i.e., to every sole.

865 — Filets de Soles Américaine

Arrange the folded fillets in a deep, buttered dish, and poach them in fish fumet.

Drain, and dish them in the form of an oval, letting them overlap one another with their tail-ends hidden. Garnish the centre of the dish with slices of lobster prepared à l’américaine (No. 939), and coat the whole with the lobster’s sauce.

866 — Filets de Soles Anglaise

Treat the fillets à l’anglaise with fresh and fine bread-crumbs. Pat the bread-crumbs over the egg with the flat of a knife, that the two may be well combined; and, with the back of a knife, criss-cross the coating of the fillets.

Cook them gently in clarified butter. Serve on a hot dish, and sprinkle the fillets with half-melted butter à la maître-d’hôtel.

867 — Filets de Soles Andalouse

Coat the upper sides of the fillets with fish forcemeat combined, per pound, with three oz. of chopped capsicum. Roll them up, after the manner of a scroll (see No. 914), and smooth the forcemeat on the top. Poach the fillets in butter and fish fumet.

The following should have been prepared beforehand:—(1) As many small half-tomatoes, stewed in butter and garnished by means of rizotto with capsicums, as there are fillets of sole; (2) the same number of roundels of egg-plant, seasoned, dredged, and fried in oil.

When dishing, arrange the roundels of egg-plant round the dish; place a stuffed tomato on each roundel of egg-plant, and a poached fillet of sole upon each tomato. Sprinkle with lightly-browned butter, and serve at once.

868 — Filets de Soles Caprice

Dip the fillets in melted, seasoned butter, and then roll them in fresh and fine bread-crumbs. Pat the bread-crumbs with the flat of the knife, and with the back of the same instrument criss-cross the surface of the fillets. Sprinkle with melted butter, and set to grill gently, taking care that the coating of bread-crumbs acquires a nice, light-brown colour.

Lay on each grilled fillet the half of a peeled banana, cooked in butter, and send to the table, separately, a Roberts sauce Escoffier, finished with butter.

869 — Filets de Soles Catalane

Poach, in the oven, as many emptied and seasoned half-tomatoes as there are fillets of sole. Cook some very finely-minced onion in oil, without letting it acquire any colour, and allow one tablespoonful of the onion to each half-tomato.

Fold the fillets of sole, and poach them in fish fumet just a few minutes before dishing them. Garnish the half-tomatoes with onion; arrange them in a circle on a dish, and place a fillet of sole upon each. Quickly reduce the cooking-liquor of the fillets, and finish it with butter in the proportion of one oz. per one-eighth pint of reduced fumet.

Coat the fillets and set to glaze quickly.

870 — Filets de Soles Clarence

Fold the fillets, and poach them in fish fumet.

They may be dished after the two following methods:—

1. Put a preparation of Duchesse potatoes in a piping-bag fitted with a large, grooved pipe, and describe therewith an ornamental design containing as many divisions as there are fillets of sole. Lightly gild and brown in the oven. This design, consisting of scroll-work, should be prepared before poaching the fillets. Lay a fillet in each division of the design, and coat with American sauce, prepared with curry and combined with the meat of the lobster (cut into small dice) which has served in the preparation of the sauce. Take care that no sauce touches the scroll-work, which should remain well-defined.

2. Bake some large potatoes in the oven. Open them; remove their pulp, and put into each baked shell a tablespoonful of American sauce au currie referred to above. Add a poached fillet of sole; coat with American sauce; dish these garnished potatoes on a napkin, and serve very hot.

871 — Filets de Soles aux Champignons

Stew two oz. of small mushrooms in butter. Fold the fillets, and poach them in one-sixth pint of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Arrange the fillets in an oval, and garnish the centre of the dish with the stewed mushrooms.

Reduce the cooking-liquor of the fillets to one-third; add thereto two tablespoonfuls of velouté; finish the sauce with one oz. of butter, and coat the fillets and the garnish.

872 — Filets de Soles aux Crevettes

Fold the fillets, and poach them in fish fumet.

Dish them in an oval; garnish the middle with one oz. of shelled shrimps’ tails, kept very hot, and coat the fillets and the garnish with shrimp sauce.

873 — Filets de Soles Chauchat

Poach the fillets of sole, folded, in butter and lemon juice.

Coat the bottom of a dish with Mornay sauce, and set the fillets of sole thereon in the form of an oval. Surround the fish with roundels of cooked potatoes turned to the shape of corks.

Cover the fillets and the garnish with Mornay sauce, and glaze quickly in a fierce oven or at the salamander.

874 — Filets de Soles Bercy

Butter the bottom of the dish intended for the soles, and sprinkle it with two finely-chopped shallots. Lay the fillets lengthwise upon the dish, side by side; moisten with three tablespoonfuls of white wine and as much fish fumet, and add one-half oz. of butter cut into small pieces.

Cook in the oven, basting frequently the while, and glaze at the last minute. Besprinkle with a few drops of lemon juice, and when about to serve drop a pinch of chopped parsley upon each fillet.

Or, poach the fillets with chopped shallots, and increase the moistening. As soon as the fillets are ready, drain off their cooking-liquor into a vegetable-pan; reduce it speedily to one-third, and add a few drops of meat-glaze, a little lemon juice, one-half oz. of butter, and one pinch of chopped parsley.

Coat the fillets, and set to glaze quickly.

N.B.—Sole à la Bercy may be prepared after either of the two methods.

875 — Filets de Soles Dejazet

Treat the fillets of sole à l’anglaise and grill them as explained under No. 830.

Dish them, cover them thinly with half-melted tarragon butter, and deck each fillet with five or six parboiled, tarragon leaves.

876 — Filets de Soles Grand Duc

Fold the fillets of soles over, and poach them in fish fumet and the cooking-liquor of mushrooms. Arrange them in an oval on a dish, with their tails pointing inwards; place a fine slice of truffle in the middle of each fillet, and between each of the latter three shelled crayfishes’ tails.

Coat with Mornay sauce, and set to glaze quickly.

When taking the dish from the oven, set in its centre a fine heap of very green asparagus-heads, cohered with butter at the moment of dishing.

877 — Filets de Soles Joinville

Select some fine fillets of soles; fold them, and poach them in the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and butter, taking care to keep them very white. Arrange them in an oval, with their tails pointing upwards and the carapace of a crayfish fixed on each fillet; and garnish the middle of the dish with a salpicon or a short julienne, consisting of one and one-half oz. of cooked mushrooms, one-half oz. of truffle, and one and one-half oz. of shrimps’ tails cohered by means of a few tablespoonfuls of Joinville sauce. Coat the fillets and the garnish with the same sauce, and deck each fillet with a fine slice of truffle coated with meat-glaze.

Set the garnish in the middle of the dish, shaping it like a dome; coat it with Joinville sauce, and surround it with the fillets of sole, which should slightly overlap one another and have their tails uppermost. Fix a carapace of crayfish on the tail of each fillet, and deck each with a slice of very black truffle.

With this method of dishing, the garnish alone is coated with sauce, the fillets thus forming a white, encircling border.

878 — Filets de Soles Judic

Fold, and poach the fillets in butter and lemon juice.

Arrange them in an oval round a dish, laying each upon a nice little braised and trimmed half lettuce, and place upon each fillet a quenelle of sole mousseline-forcemeat in the shape of a flattened oval, poached at the time of dishing up.

Coat with Mornay sauce and glaze quickly. When taking the dish out of the oven, encircle the fillets of sole with a thread of buttered meat-glaze.

879 — Filets de Soles à la Hongroise

Fry in butter, without colouration, one small tablespoonful of chopped onion seasoned with a very little paprika; moisten with three tablespoonfuls of white wine and one-sixth pint of fish fumet; add two small peeled, pressed, and roughly-chopped tomatoes, and set to cook for seven or eight minutes.

Fold the fillets of sole; lay them on a buttered dish; pour the above preparation thereon, and poach them. Arrange them in a circle on a dish; reduce their cooking-liquor to a stiff consistence; add a few tablespoonfuls of cream and a few drops of lemon juice, and coat the fillets with this sauce.

880 — Filets de Soles Lady Egmont

Fold the fillets, and poach them in a few tablespoonfuls of excellent fish fumet.

Also for every four fillets (i.e., per sole) finely mince one oz. of well-cleaned mushrooms, and cook them quickly in butter, lemon juice, a little salt, and pepper. This done, add the cooking-liquor to the fish fumet, and keep the cooked minced mushrooms hot.

Reduce the combined cooking-liquor and fish fumet to half; add thereto one oz. of butter and two tablespoonfuls of cream; and to the resulting sauce add the reserved minced mushrooms and two tablespoonfuls of freshly-cooked and well-drained asparagus-heads, uncooled.

881 — Filets de Soles Marinette

Poach a sole in fish fumet and the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and drain it on a napkin. When it is still lukewarm, carefully raise its fillets and trim them.

Break an egg into a bowl; beat it well, and add enough grated Gruyère and Parmesan to it (mixed in equal quantities) to produce a dense paste. Mix a dessertspoonful of cold Béchamel sauce with this paste; add salt and cayenne pepper; spread an even thickness of one inch of it over two of the fillets of sole; lay thereon the two remaining fillets, and put aside in the cool.

When the egg and cheese paste is very stiff, dip the fillets in a Villeroy sauce, and leave the latter to cool. Then treat the stuffed and sauced fillets à l’anglaise, and fry them, just before serving, in very hot fat.

Dish on a napkin with very green parsley all round.

882 — Filets de Soles Marie Stuart

Fold the fillets, and poach them in fish fumet. Arrange them in an oval on a dish; coat them with the sauce given under “Filets de soles à la New-burg” (No. 890), and place on each fillet a quenelle of fish forcemeat in the shape of a quoit and decked with a slice of truffle. These quenelles should, if possible, be poached just before dishing up, and well drained before being laid on the fillets of sole.

883 — Filets de Soles Mignonette

Cook the fillets in butter, and set them in a hot timbale.

Surround them with potato-balls the size of peas, raised by means of the round spoon-cutter, and cooked beforehand in butter.

Lay upon the fillets eight or ten slices of fresh truffle heated in one-sixth pint of very light meat-glaze.

Finish the glaze in which the slices of truffle have been heated with two-thirds oz. of butter and a few drops of lemon juice, and pour it over the fillets and their garnish. Serve very hot.

884 — Filets de Soles Mimi

Divide a live lobster into two, lengthwise, and prepare it à l’américaine, taking care to keep the sauce short.

When the lobster is cooked, take the meat from the tail; cut it into as many slices as there are fillets of sole, and keep them hot.

Remove all the meat from the claws, and that remaining in the carcass; pound all of it smoothly, add two tablespoonfuls of cream, and rub through a fine sieve. Prepare a garnish of spaghetti with cream, and add thereto the purée of lobster.

Fold the fillets of sole, and poach them in Chablis wine and butter. All this being done, lay the two emptied halves of the lobster on a napkin lying on a dish, setting them back to back. Fill these lobster shells to the brim with the prepared garnish of spaghetti. Upon this garnish lay the poached fillets of sole, sandwiching a slice of lobster between every two; besprinkle the whole with a short and fine julienne of very black truffle.

Send the lobster sauce, finished with a few tablespoonfuls of cream, to the table separately. Proceed as quickly as possible with the dishing up, in order that the dish may reach the table very hot.

885 — Filets de Soles Mexicaine

Coat the fillets with fish forcemeat, and roll them to resemble scrolls (see No. 914). Poach them in fish fumet as directed for the paupiettes. Lay each rolled fillet in a grilled mushroom garnished with one-half tablespoonful of peeled, pressed, and concassed tomato cooked in butter, and arrange them in an oval on a dish.

Coat them with Béchamel sauce combined with a purée of tomatoes and capsicums cut into small dice, in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls of the purée and two-thirds oz. of the capsicums per pint of the sauce.

886 — Filets de Soles Mirabeau

Poach the fillets, left in their natural state, in fish fumet.

Dish them and coat with white wine and Genevoise sauces, alternating the two, white and brown. Lay a thin strip of anchovy fillet between each of the fillets of sole; deck those of the latter coated with white sauce with a slice of truffle, and those coated with brown sauce with a star of blanched tarragon leaves.

887 — Filets de Soles Miramar

Divide each of the fillets into slices; season them and cook them in butter. Cut fifteen roundels (one-third inch thick) of egg-plant; season, dredge, and toss them in butter, taking care to keep them very crisp.

Take a timbale of suitable size, and line its sides with a layer (three-quarters inch thick) of pilaff rice.

Just before serving, sprinkle with one oz. of lightly-browned butter.

888 — Filets de Soles aux Huîtres

Open and poach twelve oysters. Poach the fillets of sole, folded, in the oyster liquor strained through linen, and a piece of butter as large as a walnut.

Arrange in an oval on a dish; garnish the centre with the poached oysters (cleared of their beards), and coat the fillets of sole and the oysters with Normande sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the fillets.

889 — Filets de Soles Nelson

Fold the fillets, and poach them in fish fumet.

Arrange them in a circle on a dish; coat them with white-wine sauce, and glaze quickly.

Garnish the centre of the dish with a pyramid of potato-balls cooked in butter and of a light-brown colour. Surround the fillets with poached milt.

890 — Filets de Soles New-Burg

Prepare a lobster à la New-burg, in accordance with one of the recipes given (No. 948 and 949). Cut the tail into as many slices as there are fillets of sole, and keep them hot.

Cut the remainder of the lobster meat into dice, and add these to the sauce. Fold the fillets of sole, and poach them in fish fumet. Arrange them in an oval on a dish; lay a slice of lobster upon each fillet, and coat with the lobster-sauce combined with the dice, prepared as directed above.

891 — Filets de Soles Orientale

Prepare the fillets exactly as those à la New-burg, but season the sauce with curry.

Having dished and sauced the fillets, set a pyramid of rice à l’Indienne in the middle of the dish, or send the rice to the table separately, in a timbale; either way will be found to answer.

892 — Filets de Soles Persane

Prepare the fillets as in the case of those à la New-burg, but season the sauce with paprika, and add thereto one oz. of capsicums cut into large dice. Send some pilaff rice with saffron to the table separately.

893 — Filets de Soles Orly

Season the fillets; dip them into batter and, a few minutes before serving, put them into very hot fat. Drain them; dish them on a napkin with fried parsley, and serve a tomato sauce separately.

N.B.—There are several ways of preparing these fillets of sole. Thus they may be simply dipped in milk, dredged, and impaled on a hatelet. They may also be marinaded, treated à l’anglaise, and twisted into cork-screw shape.

Always, however, dish them on a napkin with fried parsley and, in every case, send a tomato sauce to the table separately.

This last accompaniment is essential.

894 — Filets de Soles Olga, Otherwise “Otero”

Bake beforehand, in the oven, as many fine, well-washed potatoes as there are fillets of sole. As soon as they are done, remove a piece of the baked shell, and withdraw the pulp in such wise as to leave nothing but the long, parched shells. Fold the fillets, and poach them with a little excellent fish fumet. Garnish the bottom of each prepared shell with a tablespoonful of shelled shrimps’ tails, cohered with a white-wine sauce.

Put a poached fillet of sole upon this garnish; cover with sufficient Mornay sauce to completely fill the shell; sprinkle with grated cheese, and glaze quickly. Dish on a napkin the moment the fillets have been taken from the oven, and serve immediately.

895 — Filets de Soles Polignac

Fold the fillets, and poach them in one-quarter pint of white wine, a few tablespoonfuls of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and a piece of butter about the size of a walnut.

Dish the fillets in an oval. Reduce the cooking-liquor to half; thicken it by means of two tablespoonfuls, bare, of fish velouté; finish the sauce with one oz. of butter, and add thereto three small, cooked, finely-minced mushrooms, and one tablespoonful of a julienne of truffles.

Coat the fillets with sauce, and set to glaze.

896 — Filets de Soles Paysanne

For the fillets of soles, cut two small carrots, two new onions, a stick of celery, and the white of one leek in paysanne fashion. Season these vegetables with a very little table-salt and a pinch of sugar; stew them in butter; moisten sufficiently to cover them with lukewarm water; and add a few pieces of broccoli, a tablespoonful of peas, and the same quantity of French beans cut into lozenges.

When they are cooked, tilt the dish so as to pour all the liquor away into a vegetable-pan; this done, reduce the liquor to one-fifth pint, and add to it three oz. of butter.

Pour this sauce into the dish containing the fillets and the vegetable garnish, and serve immediately.

897 — Filets de Soles en Pilaw à la Levantine

Cut the fillets into collops, and toss these in butter. Prepare some pilaff rice after the usual recipe (No. 2255), and add thereto one oz. of capsicum cut into dice.

Also toss in butter one and one-half oz. of egg-plant, cut into dice and seasoned, and put these with the fillets of sole. Mould the rice into a border round the dish; put the fillets and the egg-plant in the middle, and coat the two with curry sauce without letting the latter touch the rice.

N.B.—In the case of pilaff rice with fillets of sole, the rice should border the dish, and the fillets of sole, tossed in butter, should be laid in the middle and coated with brown butter.

898 — Filets de Soles Pompadour

Treat the fillets with butter and bread-crumbs, and grill them. Garnish them all round with a thread of very firm Béarnaise tomatée. Dish and surround them with a border of Château potatoes (No. 2208).

Lay a fine slice of truffle, moistened with melted meat-glaze, on each fillet.

899 — Filets de Soles Rachel

Coat the fillets with some delicate fish forcemeat; put four slices of truffle on the forcemeat of each of the fillets; fold the latter, and poach them in one-sixth pint of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut, cut into small pieces.

Arrange the fillets in an oval on a dish, and coat them with white-wine sauce combined with one tablespoonful of freshly-cooked and uncooled asparagus-heads, and one tablespoonful of truffle in dice per every one-half pint of the sauce.

900 — Filets de Soles Vénitienne

Fold the fillets, and poach them in fish fumet.

Arrange them in a circle on a dish, alternating them with thin crusts, in the shape of hearts, fried in butter. Coat with Venetian sauce combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the fillets.

901 — Filets de Soles Verdi

Prepare a garnish of macaroni cut into dice; cohere this with cream and grated Gruyère and Parmesan, and add three oz. of lobster meat and one and one-half oz. of truffles in dice per every one-half lb. of the macaroni.

Poach the fillets of sole in fish fumet, keeping the fillets in their natural state. Lay the macaroni very evenly on the dish; set the poached fillets of sole upon it; coat with Mornay sauce, and set to glaze quickly.

902 — Filets de Soles Victoria

Fold the fillets, and poach them in fish fumet.

Arrange them in an oval on a dish, and garnish the centre with three oz. of the meat from the tail of the spiny lobster, and one oz. of truffle in dice per every four fillets.

Coat the fillets and the garnish with Victoria sauce, and set to glaze quickly.

903 — Filets de Soles Véronique

Raise the fillets of a fine sole; beat them slightly; fold and season them, and put them in a special earthenware, buttered dish.

With the bones, some of the trimmings of the fish, a little minced onion, some parsley stalks, a few drops of lemon juice, and white wine and water, prepare two spoonfuls of fumet.

This done, strain it over the fillets, and poach them gently.

Drain them carefully; reduce the fumet to the consistence of a syrup, and finish it with one and one-half oz. of butter. Arrange the fillets in an oval on the dish whereon they have been poached; cover them with the buttered fumet, and set to glaze quickly. When about to serve, set a pyramid of skinned and very cold muscadel grapes in the middle of the dish.

Put a cover on the dish, and serve immediately.

904 — Filets de Soles Walewska

Poach the fillets in fish fumet, keeping them in their natural state.

Dish, and surround them with three langoustines’ tails cut into two lengthwise, and stewed in butter (with lid on) with six fine slices of raw truffle.

Coat with a delicate Mornay sauce, and set to glaze quickly.

N.B.—The Mornay sauce may, according to circumstances, be combined with one and one-half oz. of langoustine butter per pint.

905 — Filets de Soles Wilhelmine

Prepare some potato shells as directed under “Filets de soles Olga” (No. 894). Garnish them with a tablespoonful of cucumber with cream; put a fillet of sole into each garnished shell, a fine Zeeland oyster on each fillet, and cover with Mornay sauce.

Set to glaze quickly, and dish on a napkin.

Various Preparations of Soles and Fillets of Sole

906 — Mousselines de Soles

The directions given under “Mousselines de Saumon” (No. 797) apply in all circumstances to Mousselines of Sole. I shall therefore refrain from repeating the recipe, since, the quantities remaining the same, all that is needed is the substitution of the meat of sole for that of salmon. Thus, I shall only state here, by way of reminding the reader, that these excellent preparations admit of all the fish sauces and garnishes, and that they may also be accompanied by all purées of fresh vegetables.

907 — Turban de Filets de Soles à la Villaret

Raise the fillets of three soles; flatten them slightly with a moistened beater, and trim them very straight on either side.

Liberally butter a medium-sized savarin-mould. Lay the fillets aslant in this mould, with their tail-ends over-reaching its inner edge and their other ends projecting over its outer edge; slip a fine slice of truffle between each, and let them slightly overlap one another.

When the mould is completely lined with the fillets of sole, fill it up with lobster mousseline forcemeat. Gently tap the mould on a folded napkin lying on the table, with the object of settling the forcemeat, and then draw the overhanging ends of the fillets across the latter.

Set to poach in a bain-marie in a moderate oven.

This done, take the mould out of the bain-marie; let it stand for a few minutes, and then turn it upside-down upon the dish. Leave it to drain; soak up the liquid that has leaked out on to the dish; take off the mould, and moisten the surface of the fillets by means of a small brush dipped in melted butter. The object of this last measure is to glaze the fish and to remove therefrom the froth resulting from its poached albumen.

Now garnish the centre of the moulding with shrimps’ tails, mushrooms, poached milt, and slices of truffle, the whole cohered by means of Béchamel sauce finished with lobster butter.

908 — Turban de Filets de Soles et Saumon Villaret

Proceed as in the preceding recipe, but alternate the fillets of sole with very red slices of salmon of the same size as the fillets.

The combination yields an excellent result, and the varying strips of white and orange which constitute the body of the moulded crown lend sightliness to the dish.

N.B.—The designation “à la Villaret,” relating to the crown alone, in no wise affects the constituents of the garnish; these may either remain the same as those of the preceding recipe, or may be replaced by something similar. The sauce alone remains unalterable, and this should be a good Béchamel finished with lobster butter.

909 — Timbale de Filets de Soles Cardinal

For ten people, prepare a timbale crust (No. 2394) the diameter of which should be greater than the height; line it with fine, short paste, and decorate it with noodle paste.

Raise the fillets of three medium-sized soles, flatten them slightly; coat them with whiting forcemeat prepared with crayfish butter, and roll them into scroll-form. Also prepare ten small slices of the meat of a medium-sized ordinary or spiny lobster’s tail, ten small grooved and cooked mushrooms, fifteen slices of truffle, and three-quarters pint of Cardinal sauce finished with a lobster butter.

When about to serve, lay the poached, rolled fillets of sole (well drained) in a circle round the bottom of the timbale; put the slices of lobster and the mushrooms in the centre, and cover the whole with Cardinal sauce.

Set upon the sauce, just over the centre of the timbale, a large, grooved mushroom (cooked and kept very white), and encircle the latter with fifteen slices of truffle.

Place the timbale, thus garnished, on a folded napkin lying on a dish, and serve at once.

910 — Timbale de Filets de Soles Carmélite

Prepare (1) a timbale crust as above; (2) a lobster à la New-burg made from raw lobster (No. 948); (3) twelve rolled fillets of sole stuffed with fish forcemeat finished with lobster butter; (4) three oz. of sliced truffles.

Poach the rolled fillets in fish fumet; slice the meat of the lobster’s tail, and put the poached fillets, the slices of lobster and the slices of truffle into the lobster sauce. Heat the whole well, without boiling; pour the sauce and garnish into the timbale crust, and deck the top with twelve fine slices of truffle.

Dish the timbale on a folded napkin, and serve instantly.

911 — Timbale de Filets de Soles Grimaldi

Prepare:—(1) A rather deep timbale crust, and decorate it with noodle paste. (2) Cook, as for bisque, twenty-four small langoustines; wrench off their tails; cut them into two lengthwise, and keep them hot in butter. (3) Finely pound the langoustines’ carapaces, and add thereto one-third pint of fine Béchamel. Rub through a fine sieve first, and then through tammy. Put the resulting cullis into a saucepan, and heat without boiling it; intensify the seasoning; add a few tablespoonfuls of cream, little by little; put the prepared tails in the cullis, and keep the latter in the bain-marie. (4) Cut four oz. of blanched and somewhat stiff macaroni into pieces, and add thereto one-sixth pint of cream and three oz. of sliced truffle. Heat until the macaroni has completely absorbed the cream; thicken with one-sixth pint of Béchamel sauce finished with fish fumet; add one and one-half oz. of butter cut into small lumps, and keep hot. (5) Coat sixteen fillets of sole with truffled fish forcemeat; roll the fillets into scroll-form, and, at the last minute, poach them in fish fumet.

To garnish the timbale, spread a layer of macaroni on the bottom thereof, lay half of the rolled fillets upon the macaroni, and cover these with half of the langoustines’ tails in the cullis.

Repeat the procedure, in the same order, with what is left of the garnishes, and finish the timbale with a layer of the langoustines’ tails.

Set the timbale on a folded napkin lying on a dish, and serve immediately.

912 — Timbale de Filets de Soles Carême

Flatten the fillets of three medium-sized soles, and trim them neatly.

Liberally butter a pound-cake mould, and line it with the fillets, placing them side by side with their tails lying round the centre of the bottom of the mould, and their opposite ends projecting above the brim. Press them well, that they may take the shape of the mould.

Completely coat the fillets with a layer, one-half inch thick, of fish forcemeat.

Put the mould in the front of the oven for a few minutes in order to poach the forcemeat, which, in adhering to the fillets, gives the required firmness to the timbale.

When the forcemeat has been poached and is stiff, withdraw the timbale from the oven, and cut off the pieces of fillet that project above the edges of the mould. Fill the timbale to within one-third inch of its brim with a garnish of shrimps and poached oysters and mussels, small button-mushrooms, and slices of truffle, all of which should be cohered with a thick and highly-seasoned Béchamel sauce. Cover this garnish with the projecting pieces of fillets, already cut off, and close the timbale by means of a thin layer of that forcemeat which served in coating the fillets. Poach for thirty minutes in a bain-marie and in a moderate oven. After taking the timbale out of the bain-marie, let it stand for a few minutes; overturn it on a round dish; take off the mould; deck it on top with a garland consisting of six little paupiettes of salmon, each stuffed with a crayfish tail, and surmounted by an encrusted crayfish carapace.

Serve a Nantua sauce separately.

913 — Timbale de Filets de Soles Marquise

For a timbale large enough for ten people, prepare:—

1. An even or fluted timbale crust.

2. A garnish consisting of twelve rolled or folded fillets of sole poached in fish fumet, twelve poached oysters (cleared of their beards), twenty-four small quenelles of salmon, and twenty slices of truffle.

Heat this garnish after having added a few drops of fish fumet to it, and then thicken it with one-half pint of white-wine sauce prepared with paprika.

Put the above garnish into the timbale, which should be very hot; set the latter on a folded napkin, and serve at once.

914 — The Preparation of Paupiettes of Fillets of Sole Salmon, &c.

The paupiettes (or fillets rolled after the manner of a scroll) are served either as entrées like fillets of sole, of which they are but a special kind, or as a garnish. For the second purpose, not only should they be smaller than for the first, but very small fillets are generally selected for the preparation of the paupiettes.

In order to make paupiettes, first remove the nervous film from the outside surfaces of the fillets, and then slightly flatten the latter with the blade of a large knife; trim them on both sides, and coat them on their flayed side with a thin layer of fish forcemeat, truffled or not, in accordance with the requirements.

Stand them upright in a buttered sautépan to poach, and take care to place them snugly together lest they lose their shape while the operation is in progress. Moisten them with sufficient fish fumet (No. 11) to cover them; poach them in a moderate oven, and remember, as in the case of fillets of sole, not to let the poaching-liquor boil.

All the garnishes and sauces suited to fillets of sole likewise obtain with paupiettes, provided the difference in their shape be taken into account when dishing up.

For salmon paupiettes, cut slices two-thirds inch wide, one-half inch thick, and the length of a fillet of sole, from a skinned fillet of salmon. In view of the unusual fragility of salmon’s flesh, the slices of fillets should be carefully flattened in order to give them the width and thickness of a fillet of sole. This done, spread forcemeat on them, and roll them as explained above.

Soles and Fillets of Sole (Cold)

915 — Aspic de Filets de Soles

An essential point in the making of an aspic is the clearness of the fish jelly. For a sole aspic, take some white fish aspic, which is at once succulent, limpid, and just sufficiently viscous to allow of its being turned out of a mould without breaking.

For the purpose under consideration, moulds with plain or decorated borders are generally used, and there are two modes of procedure:—

1. For a mould capable of holding one quart, fold twelve small fillets of sole and poach them in butter and lemon juice, taking care to keep them very white. This done, set them to cool under a light weight.

Pour a few tablespoonfuls of melted fish jelly into the mould, which should be lying amidst broken ice. As soon as the jelly begins to set, decorate it tastefully with pieces (lozenges, crescents, &c.) of very black truffle and the poached white of an egg. Capers, tarragon leaves, thin roundels of small radishes, &c., may also be used for the purpose of decoration.

When this part of the procedure has been satisfactorily effected, sprinkle a few drops of the same jelly over the decorating particles, in order to fix them and prevent their shifting during the subsequent stages of the process. Now add enough melted jelly to cover the bottom of the mould with a layer one inch thick, and leave this to set.

Now arrange the remaining fillets in the reverse order, and fill up the mould with cold, melted jelly. Leave to cool for one hour.

When about to serve, quickly dip the mould in a saucepan of hot water; wipe it, and turn out the aspic upon a folded napkin lying on a dish.

916 — Another Method of Preparing Aspics de Filets de Soles

Coat ten fine fillets of sole with a thin layer of truffled fish forcemeat finished with crayfish butter, and roll them round a little rod of truffle, twice as thick as an ordinary penholder. Tie these paupiettes, once or twice round, with cotton; poach them very gently in fish fumet and cool them on ice. Take a border-mould, even if possible; pour therein a few tablespoonfuls of melted fish jelly, and then rock it about on broken ice, with the object of evenly coating it with a thin layer of the jelly.

This operation is technically called “clothing the mould.”

Decorate the bottom of the mould as explained above; fix the decorating particles, and cover them with a layer one-half inch thick of fish jelly.

After having properly trimmed the ends of the paupiettes, cut them into roundels one-half inch thick; set these upright against the sides of the mould, keeping them close together; add a few drops of melted jelly to fix the roundels, and as soon as this has set, add a further quantity, sufficient to completely cover them.

As soon as this jelly sets, repeat the operation with the paupiette roundels and the jelly, and do so again and again until the mould is filled. For turning out the aspic, proceed as directed above.

917 — Bordure de Filets de Soles à l’Italienne

Line a border-mould with jelly; i.e., coat its bottom and sides with a thin layer of fish jelly, rocking it upon ice as already explained.

Now fill it, two-thirds full, with a garnish consisting of a julienne of cold, poached fillets of sole, a julienne of truffles (two oz. per two filleted soles), and a julienne of capsicum (one and one-half oz. per two filleted soles). Fill up the mould with melted fish jelly, and leave the latter to set.

Serve a Mayonnaise sauce with this dish.

918 — Filets de Soles Calypso

Flatten the fillets, and roll them into paupiettes around little rods of wood two-thirds inch thick. Lay the paupiettes in a buttered sautépan, with their joined sides undermost, and poach them in very clear fish fumet and lemon juice, taking care to keep them very white.

Let them cool, and remove the pieces of wood, whereupon they will have the appearance of rings.

Take as many small tomatoes as there are paupiettes; cut them in two at a point two-thirds of their height below their stem-end; empty, and peel them. Set a paupiette, upright, in each tomato; fill the centre with crayfish mousse combined with crayfishes’ tails in dice; lay a round piece of milt (stamped out with a cutter, poached, and cold) on each, and, finally, the shelled tail of a crayfish on each roundel of milt.

Arrange the tomatoes in a circle round a dish; surround them with little triangles of white fish jelly, and garnish the centre of the dish with the same fish jelly, chopped.

919 — Filets de Soles Charlotte

Fold the fillets; poach them in fish fumet, and let them cool.

Trim them; coat them with pink chaud-froid sauce; decorate each fillet by means of a rosette of chervil leaves, in the centre of which rests a bit of lobster coral, and glaze them with fish jelly.

Set them, tail end uppermost, against a mousse of milt with horse-radish, moulded in a narrow dome-mould, which should have been coated with fish jelly and besprinkled with chopped coral.

Surround with a border of regularly-cut jelly dice.

920 — Filets de Soles à la Moscovite

Prepare (1) some paupiettes of filleted sole, in rings, as explained under “Filets de Soles à la Calypso” (No. 918); (2) as many round, fluted cases made from hollowed cucumber as there are paupiettes. The cucumber cases should be well blanched and marinaded inside. Set each paupiette in a cucumber case; garnish their centre with caviare, and arrange them in a circle on a dish.

Send a sauce Russe to the table, separately, at the same time as the dish.

921 — Dominos de Filets de Soles

Select some fine, fleshy fillets; slightly flatten them; poach them in a little of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, some lemon juice and butter, and set them to cool under a light weight. When the fillets are cold, trim them and cut them into regular rectangles the size of dominoes.

Coat the rectangles with a maigre, white, chaud-froid sauce; decorate them in imitation of dominoes, with little spots of truffle; glaze them with cold, melted fish jelly, and put them aside.

Pound the trimmings of the fish together with their weight of caviare, and rub the whole through a fine sieve. Add to this preparation half its weight of highly-coloured jelly, and leave it to set in a somewhat deep and moderately-oiled tray, the thickness of the preparation on the tray being not greater than that of a fillet of sole.

When the jelly is set, cut it into rectangles exactly the same size as the prepared dominoes, and then, by means of a little melted, cold jelly, fix the dominoes of sole to the rectangles just prepared.

Put some chopped jelly in the centre of the dish, and on this lay the dominoes in a muddled heap.

922 — Filets de Soles Froids Dressés Sur Mousses

What I pointed out above, I repeat here for the reader’s guidance—namely, that fillets of sole may be prepared after all the recipes given for trout (No. 813).

As the fillets of sole in this dish remain very conspicuous, it is advisable to keep them very white in the poaching. Set them to cool under a light weight, and decorate them in a way that will be in keeping with the mousse on which they are dished. This mousse is set on a special dish, as already explained, and the decorated fillets are laid upon it and covered with melted jelly.

For the variation of mousses, see the table given under No. 815.

923 — Turbot

Turbot is generally served boiled, accompanied by freshly cooked, floury potatoes, and the cases are exceptional when, cooked in this way, it is dished with any other garnish.

All fish sauces may be served with turbot. When, for the sake of variety, or in pursuance of the consumer’s wishes, turbot has to be braised or garnished, it is best to select a medium-sized fish, i.e., one weighing from eight to twelve lbs., thick, very fleshy, and white.

Unless expressly ordered, it is best to avoid surrounding the piece with its garnish. Preferably, send the latter to the table in a separate dish, as also the sauce. By this means the service is expedited, and, more important still, the fish is quite hot when it reaches the table. It is granted that the sight of a dish containing a fine, richly garnished and tastefully arranged piece is flattering to the host, but it would be a pity that the quality of the fish should thereby suffer, more particularly as the gourmet is not satisfied with sightliness alone.

I explained at the beginning of this chapter, under “Boiled Fish” (No. 776 and 779), the details relating to this method of cooking, especially with regard to its application to turbot. For the braising and garnishing of turbot, the reader is begged to refer to the recipes concerned with chicken-turbot. These recipes may be applied to turbot, provided the difference in the size of the fish be taken into account in reference to the time allowed for braising and the quantities of the garnishing ingredients.

924 — Cold Turbot

Whether whole or sliced, cold turbot makes an excellent dish, if the fish have not been cooked too long beforehand. It will be found that turbot, especially when sliced, tends to harden, crumple, and lose its flavour while cooling. It is therefore of the greatest importance that the fish should have just cooled after cooking, and that the cooking-liquor should have barely time to set; otherwise the evil effects of cooling, mentioned above, will surely ensue. When served, just cooled, with one of the cold sauces suited to fish, turbot can vie in delicacy even with such fish as salmon or trout, which are usually served cold.

925 — Turbotins (Chicken-Turbots)

Turbotins (chicken-turbots) may rank among the most delicate and nicest of fish. Their varying sizes allow of their being served either for three, four, or ten, or twelve people; they are, moreover, tender and white, and they lend themselves to quite a vast number of culinary preparations.

They may be served boiled, like the turbot; grilled; à la Meunière; fried; au gratin, like the soles; or braised, like the salmon and the trout. They are most often served whole, garnished and with sauce; but, in order to simplify the process, they may be filleted, the fillets being poached and dished with a garnish and the selected sauce.

926 — Turbotin à l’Amiral

Gash the back of the fish, and partly separate the under fillets from the bones. Lay it on a grill, and moisten, sufficiently to cover it, with previously-cooked court-bouillon with Sauterne wine. As soon as the court-bouillon boils, allow the fish to cook ten or twelve minutes for every two lbs. of its weight.

This done, drain it; dish it, and coat it twice with melted, red butter.

Now surround it with the following garnish, which should be in proportion to the size of the fish, viz., little heaps of large mussels and oysters, prepared à la Villeroy, and fried at the time of dishing; small patties of crayfish tails; large mushroom-heads grooved and cooked, and slices of truffle.

Serve, separately, (1) a timbale of potatoes à l’anglaise; (2) Normande sauce, combined with one-sixth pint of reduced court-bouillon per quart of sauce, finished with crayfish butter and seasoned with cayenne.

927 — Turbotin à l’Andalouse

Cut it in the region of the back; season it, and lay it in a deep earthenware dish of convenient size, liberally buttered. In the case of a chicken-turbot weighing two and one-half lbs., moisten with one-third pint of white wine and one-quarter pint of fish fumet.

Finely mince two medium-sized onions, and toss them in butter until they have acquired a yellow colour.

Peel, press and mince three tomatoes, and add thereto three large, raw, sliced mushrooms. Cut two mild capsicums into strips.

Spread the onion on the chicken-turbot; put the tomatoes and the sliced mushrooms on top, and upon these arrange the grilled strips of mild capsicum. Besprinkle moderately with raspings; lay one oz. of butter, cut into small pieces, on the top, and set to cook gently in the oven.

928 — Turbotin Bonne Femme

For a chicken-turbot weighing from two to two and one-half lbs. sprinkle on the bottom of a buttered tray one dessertspoonful of chopped shallots, one pinch of concassed parsley, and three oz. of minced mushrooms.

Cut the chicken-turbot in the back, and partly separate the fillets from the bone; lay it on the tray, and moisten with one-third pint of white wine and one-third pint of fish fumet. Cook gently in the oven, and baste frequently the while.

When the chicken-turbot is cooked, dish it and keep it hot. Pour the cooking-liquor into a sautépan; reduce it to half, and add three tablespoonfuls of fish velouté and three oz. of butter.

Cover the fish with this sauce and the garnish, and glaze quickly.

929 — Turbotin Commodore

Poach the chicken-turbot in salted water.

Prepare the following garnish per one person:—Three potato balls cut to the size of hazel-nuts and cooked à l’anglaise; one medium-sized, trussed crayfish; one quenelle of fish; one small lobster croquette; and one oyster prepared à la Villeroy.

All these products should be treated according to their nature, and just in time to be ready for the dishing up. A few moments before serving, drain the turbot; dish it, and surround it with the garnish detailed above, arranged in alternate heaps.

Serve a Normande sauce, finished with anchovy butter, separately.

930 — Turbotin Daumont

Proceed exactly as directed under “Sole Daumont” (No. 823), taking into account the size of the fish, and increasing the sauce and the garnishing ingredients accordingly.

931 — Turbotin Fermière

Sprinkle on the bottom of a buttered tray two minced shallots, a few roundels of carrot and onion, some parsley stalks, thyme, and bay.

Lay the chicken-turbot on these aromatics, and season moderately. For a fish weighing two lbs. moisten with two-thirds pint of excellent red wine; add one-half oz. of butter, cut into small pieces, and poach gently, taking care to baste frequently.

Strain the cooking-liquor into a vegetable-pan, and reduce it to half. Thicken it with a piece of manied butter the size of a walnut; add three oz. of butter; pour this sauce over the chicken-turbot and its garnish, and set to glaze quickly.

932 — Turbotin à la Mode de Hollande

Poach the chicken-turbot in salted water. Drain it, dish it, and upon it lay a lobster cooked in court-bouillon. The shell of the lobster should have been opened along the top of the tail, and the meat of the tail should have been quickly sliced and returned to its place.

Send to the table at the same time (1) a timbale of floury potatoes, freshly cooked à l’anglaise; (2) a sauceboat containing egg sauce with melted butter (No. 117).

933 — Turbotin Mirabeau

Poach the fish in court-bouillon with Sauterne wine, as directed under “Turbotin à l’Amiral” (No. 926).

Drain it; dish it, and coat it in alternate bands with white wine and Genevoise sauces. Along the lines formed by the meeting of the sauces lay thin strips of anchovy fillets placed end to end. Decorate the bands of white sauce with slices of truffle, and the bands of brown sauce with blanched tarragon leaves.

934 — Turbotin Parisienne

Poach the fish in court-bouillon with Sauterne wine. Drain it, dish it, and round it arrange a border composed of alternate slices of truffles and mushrooms. Coat the fish with white-wine sauce, and surround it with trussed crayfish cooked in court-bouillon.

N.B.—For fish à la Parisienne, the garnish of sliced truffles and mushrooms may be set on the dish, either conspicuously or the reverse; i.e., it may be laid round the fish and covered by the sauce, or arranged in the form of an oval on the fish after the latter has been sauced. In either case the slices of truffles and mushrooms should be laid alternately.

935 — Turbotin Régence

Poach the chicken-turbot in a sufficient quantity of previously-prepared court-bouillon with Chablis wine.

For a fish weighing three lbs. (enough for ten people), prepare the following garnish:—Twenty small spoon-moulded quenelles of whiting forcemeat with crayfish butter; ten poached oysters (cleared of their beards); ten small mushroom-heads (very white); ten truffles in the shape of olives, and ten poached slices of milt.

Drain the chicken-turbot just before dishing it, and slip it on to a dish. Surround it with the garnish detailed above, arranged in alternate heaps, and serve a Normande sauce, finished with two tablespoonfuls of truffle essence per pint, separately.

936 — Turbotin Soufflé à la Reynière

Lay the chicken-turbot on its belly, and make two gashes in its back, on either side of the spine, from the head to the tail. Completely separate the fillets from the bones; cut the spine at both ends; carefully raise it from the underlying, ventral fillets, and entirely remove it.

Season the inside of the fish, and garnish it with enough fish mousseline forcemeat to give it a rounded appearance. Close in the forcemeat by drawing the two separated fillets over it; turn the piece over, and lay it on a well-buttered, deep, oval dish, the size of which should be in proportion to that of the chicken-turbot.

Poach it gently, almost dry, with lid on, in fish fumet and the cooking-liquor of mushrooms mixed, i.e., two-thirds pint of the one and one-third pint of the other. This done, dish it carefully, and lay a row of grooved and white mushroom-heads down the centre of it. On either side put some very white, poached milt, alternating the latter with whole anchovy fillets, in such wise as to form an oval enframing the row of mushrooms.

Send to the table, separately, a sauce composed of Soubise cullis and white-wine sauce, in the proportion of one-third and two-thirds respectively, combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the chicken-turbot.

937 — Turbotin Feuillantine

Stuff the chicken-turbot after the method described in the preceding recipe, but substitute lobster mousseline forcemeat for that mentioned above.

Poach as directed above, and dish.

Coat the fish with lobster butter, made as red as possible, from the carcass of the lobster whose meat has been used for the forcemeat.

From head to tail and down the centre of the fish lay a row of fine slices of truffle, letting them overlap each other slightly. Frame the row of truffle with two lines of very white, poached oysters, so placed as to form a regular oval.

Send to the table, separately, a fine Béchamel sauce seasoned with cayenne.

938 — Cold Chicken-Turbot

My remarks relative to cold turbot apply here with even greater force, for chicken-turbots are particularly well suited to cold dishing.

The chicken-turbots to be served cold should not be too small; the best for the purpose would be those weighing four lbs. or more.

In dismissing the subject I can but recommend cold chicken-turbot as a dish admitting of the most tasteful arrangement and decoration.

Lobster (Homard)

Whereas the ordinary lobster is a very favourite dish with English gourmets, the spiny kind has scarcely any vogue. This is no doubt accounted for by the fact that the former is not only very plentiful, but also of excellent quality, while the latter is comparatively scarce.

939 — Homard à l’Américaine

The first essential condition is that the lobster should be alive. Sever and slightly crush the claws, with the view of withdrawing their meat after cooking; cut the tail into sections; split the carapace in two lengthwise, and remove the queen (a little bag near the head containing some gravel). Put aside, on a plate, the intestines and the coral, which will be used in the finishing of the sauce, and season the pieces of lobster with salt and pepper.

Put these pieces into a sautépan containing one-sixth pint of oil and one oz. of butter, both very hot. Fry them over an open fire until the meat has stiffened well and the carapace is of a fine red colour.

Then remove all grease by tilting the sautépan on its side with its lid on; sprinkle the pieces of lobster with two chopped shallots and one crushed clove of garlic; add one-third pint of white wine, one-quarter pint of fish fumet, a small glassful of burnt brandy, one tablespoonful of melted meat-glaze, three small, fresh, pressed, and chopped tomatoes (or, failing fresh tomatoes, two tablespoonfuls of tomato purée), a pinch of concassed parsley, and a very little cayenne. Cover the sautépan, and set to cook in the oven for eighteen or twenty minutes.

Now reduce the cooking-sauce of the lobster to one-third pint; add thereto the intestines and the chopped coral, together with a piece of butter the size of a walnut; set to cook for a moment, and pass through a strainer.

Put this cullis into a vegetable-pan; heat it without letting it boil, and add, away from the fire, three oz. of butter cut into small pieces.

Pour this sauce over the pieces of lobster which have been kept hot, and sprinkle the whole with a pinch of concassed and scalded parsley.

940 — Homard à la Bordelaise

Section the live lobster as directed above.

Stiffen the meat and colour the carapace in a sautépan with two oz. of clarified butter. When the meat is quite stiff and the carapace is red, pour away two-thirds of the butter. Then add two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots, a crushed piece of garlic the size of a pea, one-sixth pint of white wine, three tablespoonfuls of burnt brandy, and reduce the whole to half. Complete with one-half pint of fish fumet, one-third pint of maigre Espagnole, one-quarter pint of tomato sauce, one small faggot, one pinch of salt, and a very little cayenne.

Put the lid on, and set to cook for one-quarter hour.

Take the meat from the sections of the tail and the claws, as in the case of the preparation à l’américaine; put these into a small sautépan, and keep them hot. Add the intestines and the chopped coral, reduce the sauce to one-third pint; pass it through a strainer, and pour it over the pieces of lobster.

Heat the whole without boiling; add a few drops of lemon juice, two and one-half oz. of butter cut into small pieces, and one-half tablespoonful of chopped chervil and tarragon, and stir over the stove with the view of thoroughly mixing the whole.

Dish as directed in the preceding recipe.

941 — Homard Bouilli à la Hollandaise

Cook the lobster in a court-bouillon (No. 163), allowing twenty minutes for a specimen weighing two lbs.

As soon as the lobster is cooked, drain it; split it in two lengthwise without completely severing the two halves; lay it on a long dish covered with a napkin, and surround it with very green, curled-leaf parsley.

Serve with it, at the same time, a timbale of floury potatoes freshly cooked à l’anglaise, and a sauceboat of melted butter.

942 — Homard à la Broche

Select a lobster that seems full of life, and, after killing it, fix it on the spit. Put into the dripping-pan six oz. of butter, one-half bottle of champagne, salt, and peppercorns. In order to cook it to perfection, frequently baste it with this mixture, and allow one hour before a red fire for a specimen weighing three lbs. It may be dished with two accompaniments:—

1. A hot ravigote sauce combined with the gravy of the lobster, from which all grease has been removed.

2. Strain the contents of the dripping-pan (cleared of all grease) through a fine sieve; reduce it by a quarter over a brisk fire; add three tablespoonfuls of meat-glaze, two tablespoonfuls of Worcestershire sauce, and a little chopped parsley, and finish this sauce with three oz. of butter and a few drops of lemon juice.

943 — Homard Cardinal

Plunge the live lobster into boiling court-bouillon, and cook it after the manner directed under “Homard à la Hollandaise” (No. 941).

The moment it is cooked, cut it in two lengthwise; withdraw the meat from the tail, slice it, and keep it hot in a little Cardinal sauce. Disconnect the claws; open them sideways, and withdraw all their meat without breaking them. Cut the withdrawn meat into dice, as also the creamy parts from the carapace, and add thereto their weight of cooked mushrooms and half that quantity of truffles—both of which products should also be in dice. Thicken this salpicon with a few tablespoonfuls of lobster sauce, and spread it in even layers on the bottom of each half-carapace.

Reserve, however, two tablespoonfuls of it for garnishing the emptied claws.

Upon the salpicon lay the slices of lobster, kept hot, alternating these with fine slices of truffles. Set the two half-carapaces, thus garnished, on a dish, and wedge them upright by means of the two claws.

Coat the slices and the claws with Cardinal sauce; sprinkle with grated cheese and melted butter; set to glaze quickly in a fierce oven or at the salamander, and serve instantly.

944 — Homard Clarence

Cook the lobster in court-bouillon, and drain it as soon as it is done.

When it is only lukewarm, split it open lengthwise; take the meat from the tail; slice it, and keep it hot in a vegetable-pan with a few drops of fish fumet or the cooking-liquor of mushrooms.

Remove the remains of meat and the creamy parts from the carapace; pound the two former together with two tablespoonfuls of cream; strain through a fine sieve, and add to the resulting cullis one-half pint of Béchamel sauce with curry.

Garnish the two half-carapaces, two-thirds full, with rice à l’Indienne; set the slices of lobster on this rice, intercalating them with slices of truffle; coat thinly with the prepared Béchamel sauce, and set the two garnished and sauced half-carapaces on a long, hot dish.

Send to the table, at the same time, a sauceboat containing Béchamel with curry.

945 — Homard à la Crème

Proceed as for “Homard à la New-burg à cru” (No. 948), but swill with brandy only, and add, immediately, four oz. of fresh, peeled truffles cut into slices.

Moisten, almost sufficiently to cover, with very fresh, thin cream; season with salt and cayenne, and cook the lobster. Then take the meat from the carapaces, and put it into a timbale; reduce the cream to one-third pint, and mix therewith three tablespoonfuls of melted, white meat-glaze and a few drops of lemon juice.

Strain this sauce through muslin, and pour it over the pieces of lobster.

946 — Homard Grillé

For this purpose, the lobster may be taken raw, but it is better, first, to have it three-parts cooked in court-bouillon.

Now split it into two lengthwise; sprinkle it with melted butter, and set it on the grill for its cooking to be completed.

Treated thus, the meat of the lobster does not harden as when it is grilled raw. Dish the grilled lobster on a napkin or on a drainer, after having broken the shell of the claws in order to facilitate the withdrawal of the meat, and surround with curled-leaf parsley.

Serve a “Devilled sauce Escoffier,” or any other sauce suited to grilled fish, with the lobster, but remember that the first-named sauce is the fittest that could be found for this particular dish.

947 — Homard à la Mornay, Otherwise au Gratin

Proceed in all points as directed under “Homard Cardinal” (No. 943), but substitute Mornay sauce for Cardinal.

Homard à la New-burg

This dish may be prepared in two ways—with raw lobster and with the latter cooked some time beforehand. The second way is the more correct, but the first, which is less troublesome to prepare, is more suited to the work of large establishments.

948 — Homard A la New-Burg (With Raw Lobster)

Cut up the live lobster, and fry it in oil and butter as explained under “Homard à l’Américaine.” When the pieces of lobster are stiffened and coloured, clear them of all grease; swill the sautépan with one tablespoonful of burnt brandy and one-half pint of Marsala.

Reduce by a third; season, and add two-thirds pint of cream and one-sixth pint of fish fumet. Cover and set to cook for fifteen minutes.

Take out the pieces of lobster; withdraw the meat therefrom, and keep it hot in a covered timbale. Thicken the sauce with the reserved intestines and coral of the lobster, which should be chopped in combination with one oz. of butter.

Set to boil a second time; rub the sauce through tammy, and pour it over the pieces of lobster.

949 — Homard A la New-Burg (With the Lobster Cooked)

Cook the lobster in court-bouillon. Remove the shell from the tail; take the meat therefrom, and cut it into regular slices. Lay these slices in a liberally-buttered sautépan, season strongly, and heat the slices on both sides until the outside membrane acquires a fine red colour.

Moisten with enough Madeira to almost cover the slices, and reduce the moistening almost entirely. When dishing up, pour a leason, composed of one and one-quarter pints of cream and two egg-yolks, over the slices. Stir gently on the side of the fire until the thickening has been effected by the cooking of the egg-yolks, and serve in a lukewarm timbale.

950 — Homard à la Palestine

Cut up the live lobster and toss it in butter with a mirepoix prepared in advance, as for crayfish intended for potage bisque.

Moisten with two-thirds pint of white wine, one pint of fish fumet, and three tablespoonfuls of burnt brandy. Cover and cook for fifteen minutes.

Now detach the sections of the tail and the claws; withdraw the meat from them, and keep them hot in a small covered saucepan with a little butter. Pound the carapace and remains of the lobster in a mortar; fry them in four tablespoonfuls of very hot oil, and add thereto an ordinary mirepoix, cut very fine. Moisten with the cooking-liquor of the lobster, and set to cook for one-quarter hour. Strain through muslin; leave to stand for five minutes, that the oil may rise to the surface, and then completely remove it. Reduce this liquid to one-quarter pint; thicken it with the reserved creamy parts of the lobster, rubbed through tammy, and two tablespoonfuls of fish velouté, and finish this sauce with two and one-half oz. of curry butter.

Arrange a border of pilaff rice (No. 2255) on the dish intended for the lobster; set the pieces of lobster, kept hot, in the centre, and coat these with a few tablespoonfuls of curry sauce.

Serve the remainder of the sauce separately.

951 — Mousselines de Homard

In the matter of crustaceans, the term mousse stands, as a rule, for a cold preparation, whereas the term mousseline is only applied to warm dishes. The special mousselines or quenelles of lobster are made with a mousseline forcemeat, the recipe for which I gave under No. 195. This forcemeat is prepared with the raw meat of the lobster.

As with the other crustaceans, their meat produces forcemeat which is somewhat too flimsy to be spoon-moulded, and it is preferable to poach it in special well-buttered quenelle- or dariole-moulds.

Mousselines are poached under cover in a moderate oven.

All the garnishes and sauces given in respect of salmon mousselines may be applied here. The reader will therefore refer to:—

Mousselines de Saumon Alexandra (No. 798).

Mousselines de Saumon à la Tosca (No. 799).

952 — Soufflés de Homard

For lobster soufflés the same forcemeat is used as for the mousselines; but, unlike the latter, it is poached in the half-carapaces of the lobster, the meat of which has served in its preparation. The procedure is as follows:—First cook the two half-carapaces carefully, that they may not lose their shape in the process.

The object of this measure is to prevent the forcemeat from spilling during the poaching.

Lay the two garnished carapaces on a tray containing just enough boiling water to moisten its whole surface. Put the tray in a moderate oven or in a steamer, and allow from fifteen to twenty minutes for the soufflé to poach.

This done, carefully drain the two carapaces; remove the paper holding in the forcemeat; dish them on a napkin, and surround them with bunches of very green, curled-leaf parsley. Serve separately a sauce in keeping with the preparation; i.e., a Normande, a White-wine, a Diplomate, or a Béchamel finished with lobster butter, &c.

N.B.—The above constitutes the model-recipe of lobster soufflé, and I need scarcely point out that the latter may be varied almost indefinitely in accordance with the fancy of the cook and the taste of the consumer.

Thus the forcemeat may be garnished with truffles in dice, slices of lobster, milt, or poached oysters, &c., which garnishes may also be laid on the soufflé when it is finished. I therefore leave to the operator, who should now see his way quite clearly, the task of imagining the various possible combinations, a description of which would but unnecessarily delay the progress of this work.

953 — Cold Lobster With Various Sauces

Cook the lobster in court-bouillon, and let it cool in the latter. Drain it, sever the claws, and break them open in order to withdraw their meat. Split the lobster into two lengthwise, remove the intestines and the queen, and dish it on a napkin. Lay the claws on either side of it, and surround it either with curled-leaf parsley or with a few hearts of lettuce.

Send to the table separately one of the derivative sauces of the Mayonnaise (Nos. 122 to 132).

954 — Aspic de Homard

Under “Aspic de filets de soles” (No. 915), I pointed out the preparatory principles of an aspic; in this case, therefore, I shall only refer to the various details very cursorily.

Let a thin coating of white fish jelly set on the bottom of an aspic-mould incrusted in ice. The reader is reminded of the great care that must be observed in the preparation of an aspic jelly, that the latter be limpid, succulent, and just sufficiently firm not to break when withdrawn from the mould. Decorate the bottom of the mould with bits of truffle, poached white of egg, lobster coral, capers, and tarragon leaves.

The decorative design cannot be described; it must be left to the taste and fancy of the operator; all I can urge is that it be as regular and symmetrical as possible.

Fix the decoration by means of a few drops of jelly; then cover the whole with a thickness of one inch of the same jelly, and leave the latter to set. Upon this layer of jelly arrange rows of thin slices of lobster meat and slices of truffles placed alternately and slightly overlapping. Now add enough jelly to cover these slices, and continue filling up the mould with varying layers consisting respectively of jelly (one inch thick) and the slices above described.

When about to serve, dip the mould in hot water; dry it, and turn out the aspic upon a dish covered with a napkin.

955 — Côtelettes de Homard Arkangel

Prepare a salpicon of lobster meat in dice combined with its weight of caviare, the whole quantity being in proportion to the number of côtelettes required.

Thicken the salpicon with an equal quantity of lobster mousse (No. 956), and at once garnish some moderately oiled cutlet-moulds with the preparation. As soon as the latter has set, turn out the cutlets; coat them with a fish chaud-froid sauce, finished with lobster butter; and deck each with a fine, grooved slice of truffle. Glaze them with cold melted jelly, and keep them in the cool until required to be served.

Arrange them in a circle on a round dish; garnish the centre with chopped white jelly, and serve a Russian salad separately.

956 — Mousse de Homard

Cook the lobster in a few tablespoonfuls of previously-prepared fine mirepoix, one half-bottle of white wine, and a small glass of burnt brandy. Leave to cool in the cooking-liquor. Now split the lobster in two, with the view of withdrawing its meat. Finely pound the latter while adding thereto, little by little, one-third pint of cold fish velouté per lb. of meat. Rub through a sieve; put the resulting purée in a vegetable-pan lying on ice, and stir for a few minutes. This done, add a little good fish jelly, melted and cold, and one-third pint of barely-whipped cream. Taste; rectify the seasoning, and warm it slightly with cayenne.

957 — Mousse de Homard Moulée

When the mousse is intended for moulding, it is well to decorate and “clothe” the mould with fish jelly some time in advance. I have already explained that to “clothe” a mould with jelly, all that is needed is to pour therein a few tablespoonfuls of melted jelly, and then to rock the utensil on ice. By this means a thin even coating sets on the bottom and sides of the mould, which, when the moulding is turned out, swathes the latter in a transparent film.

This “clothing” of jelly may be made more or less thick, according to the requirements, by simply using more or less jelly, and by proportionately lengthening or shortening the time for rocking the mould.

When the mould is clothed, decorate the sides with large slices of very black truffle dipped in melted jelly, that they may stick.

This done, fill the receptacle with the prepared mousse (see the preceding recipe), and leave to set in the cool.

For the turning out of the mould and the dishing of the moulding, proceed as for the aspic.

958 — Petites Mousses de Homard

For these small mousses, use little cassolettes or silver timbales. First let a thin layer of jelly (one or two tablespoonfuls, according to their size) set on the bottom of each utensil, and then surround the latter with bands of white paper, the ends of which should be stuck together, and should reach one inch above the brims of the cassolettes. The preparation of mousse may now be placed in the cassolettes in a sufficient quantity to overflow the brims, so that, when the paper is removed, their appearance is that of small soufflés.

When the cassolettes have been garnished, put them aside on ice or in a refrigerator until they are served.

959 — Homard à la Grammont

Split the lobster open lengthwise down the middle. Withdraw the meat from the tail; trim it, and cut it into regular collops. Coat the latter again and again with aspic jelly, that they may be well covered with it; decorate each with a slice of truffle, and glaze it with the same aspic.

Also coat with jelly as many very white poached and dried oysters as there are collops.

Now take the creamy parts and the meat of the claws, and pound them finely with one tablespoonful of cold Béchamel sauce; rub through a sieve, and, with the resulting purée combined with melted fish jelly and cream (see lobster mousse No. 956), prepare a mousse “au paprika” of a decided pink colour.

Fill the two half-carapaces to their edges with this mousse, and leave it to set on ice.

When about to serve, lay the collops, glazed with jelly, upon this mousse, and place an oyster between each pair. Dish the two garnished half-carapaces, back to back, upon a napkin, and put the heart of a lettuce in the middle, and a bunch of curled-leaf parsley at either end.

Serve a mayonnaise or other cold sauce separately.

960 — Homard à la Parisienne

Tie a lobster to a little board; stretch out its tail to the fullest extent; cook it in court-bouillon, and leave it to cool in the latter.

When it is quite cold, with the help of scissors, carefully cut a strip of the shell from the back of the head to the tail. The aperture left by the removed strip of shell ought to be sufficiently wide to allow of the meat of the tail being removed without breaking it. Having emptied the tail, refill it with salad leaves, and return the strip of shell (upside down) to its place. Cut the meat of the tail into even collops, and lay on each a roundel of truffle stamped out with the fancy-cutter, and dipped in half-melted jelly. Then coat these slices, which should be on a dish, again and again, with cold melted jelly until they are well covered with it.

Now break the claws and remove their meat, as also that remaining in the carapace, and cut both meats into dice. Take the creamy parts, and rub them through a sieve.

Prepare a small vegetable salad; add thereto the meat dice, and cohere the two with a mayonnaise sauce combined with melted jelly and the creamy parts rubbed through a sieve. When the salad begins to set, owing to the jelly contained in the mayonnaise, garnish twelve small artichoke-bottoms with it, arranging the salad in them in pyramid form. Set a bit of truffle on each pyramid, and sprinkle the salad with melted fish jelly in order to make it glossy.

Dishing.—Dish the lobster on a cushion of buttered bread on which a julienne of lettuce has been stuck, or on one of carved rice. The cushion should have the shape of a wedge, in order that the lobster may lie at an angle of about 45°, with its head raised, when laid upon it. Arrange the slices (slightly overlapping one another) along the back of the lobster, beginning at its head with the smallest of them, and progressing down towards the tail, gradually increasing their size.

Surround the lobster alternately with artichoke-bottoms garnished with salad, and quartered hard-boiled eggs, or halved hard-boiled eggs (set upright with their yolks facing outwards).

Border the dish with very clear jelly in large cubes or triangles, etc.

961 — Homard à la Russe

Proceed exactly as above with regard to the cooking of the lobster, the extraction of the meat, and the cutting of it into slices. Coat the slices with mayonnaise sauce combined with melted jelly; or, better still, with a white fish chaud-froid sauce combined with the lobster’s creamy parts rubbed through a sieve.

Decorate each slice with a bit of coral and two little chervil leaves; coat them again and again with cold melted aspic, and put them aside in the cool. “Clothe” ten dariole-moulds, and decorate the bottom of each with a slice of truffle. Also prepare ten hard-boiled eggs.

Prepare a Salade Russe (without meat); add to this the remains of the lobster meat cut into dice, and thicken with mayonnaise and melted aspic, mixed. With this thickened salad fill the dariole-moulds, and leave to set in the cool.

Dishing.—Set the lobster on a cushion, after the manner of the preceding recipe. Trim the slices, and lay them, as before, on the lobster’s back, taking care to graduate their sizes. Surround the lobster with the small moulded salads, and alternate these with the hard-boiled eggs. The latter should be cut in two at a point one-third of their height above their base; their yolks should be removed, the space filled with caviare moulded to the form of a pyramid, and, this done, the eggs should be set upright.

Border the dish with roundels of very clear fish jelly, stamped out by a fancy-cutter, and lay a bit of truffle upon each.

N.B.—(1) The moulds of salad must, of course, be dipped in hot water before being turned out.

(2) The lobster may also be served “à la Néva,” “à la Moscovite,” “à la Sibérienne,” &c., but these preparations are only minor forms of “Homard à la Russe” under different names.

Changes may be effected in the preparation by altering the constituents of the salad and its dishing. It may, for instance, be made in small cucumber or beetroot barquettes, while the caviare, instead of being laid in hard-boiled eggs, may be served in little pleated cases.

962 — Mayonnaise de Homard

Proceed as for Mayonnaise de Saumon—that is to say, garnish the bottom of a salad-bowl with ciseled lettuce leaves, and season them moderately.

Upon this salad lay the remains of the lobster, and upon the latter place the thin slices of the tail. Cover with mayonnaise sauce, and decorate with strips of anchovy fillets, capers, olives, hard-boiled eggs, roundels of pink radishes, the hearts of lettuce, &c.

N.B.—I have already pointed out the futility of prescribing a decorative design. As a rule, the matter is so intimately connected with the taste and fancy of the individual, and the products used for the purpose lend themselves to such indefinite variation, that I prefer merely to enumerate these products, and to leave the question of their arrangement to the artistic ingenuity of the operator.

963 — Salade de Homard

See “Salade de Saumon” (No. 810). As the preparation and seasoning of the latter are identical with those of the dish under consideration, all that is needed is to replace the salmon of recipe No. 810 by the collops of lobster.

Spiny Lobsters. (Langouste.)

All culinary preparations dealing with lobsters may be adapted to spiny lobsters. There is, therefore, no need to repeat them here. Of the cold recipes, two are much better suited to the spiny than to the ordinary kind, though, as they are used for both specimens, I gave them earlier in the book. The two recipes referred to are:—

964 — Langouste à la Parisienne

see LOBSTER, recipe 960.

965 — Langouste à la Russe

see LOBSTER, recipe 961.

Crayfish. (Écrevisses.)

When crayfish are prepared after one of the recipes most commonly used on the Continent, i.e., whole, they are not much relished in England. This is doubtless accounted for by the fact that ladies, dining in evening dress, find them somewhat difficult to manage.

They are therefore only served in the form of an aspic, a mousse, mousselines, timbales, &c., or as the garnish of some other fish; for in all these cases they are shelled.

Be all this as it may, I give below the various recipes relating to them, and from among these it ought to be possible to choose one which will meet the requirements of any particular case.

966 — Écrevisses à la Bordelaise

N.B.—Whatever be their mode of preparation, crayfish should always be thoroughly cleansed and cleared of their intestines, the extreme end of which is to be found under the middle of the tail. In order to remove the intestines, take the telson or tail-segment between the point of a small knife and the thumb, and pull gently. If this were not done, the intestines, especially in the breeding season, might render the crayfish disagreeably bitter.

As soon as their intestines have been removed, the crayfish should be set to cook, otherwise, i.e., if they be left to wait, their juices escape through the anal wound, and they empty.

For twelve crayfish, after having cleaned and eviscerated them, put them into a vegetable-pan with one tablespoonful of very fine mirepoix, completely cooked beforehand, and two-thirds oz. of butter. Toss them over an open fire until the shells have acquired a fine, red colour. Moisten with three tablespoonfuls of burnt brandy and one-quarter pint of white wine; reduce by a third, and complete with one tablespoonful of Espagnole, two tablespoonfuls of fish fumet, the same quantity of tomato purée, and one spoonful of special mirepoix (No. 229).

Put the lid on, and set to cook for ten minutes.

Dish the crayfish in a timbale; reduce the sauce by a quarter, and finish it with a few drops of meat glaze, one oz. of butter, a very little cayenne, chopped chervil, and tarragon. Pour this over the crayfish, and serve instantly.

967 — Écrevisses à la Marinière

In the case of twelve crayfish, toss them in two-thirds oz. of butter over an open fire, until the shells are of a fine red. Season with salt and pepper; add two finely chopped shallots, a bit of thyme and a bit of bay; moisten with one-third pint of white wine; cover; cook for ten minutes, and dish in a timbale.

Reduce the cooking-liquor to half; thicken with two tablespoonfuls of fish velouté; finish the sauce with one oz. of butter, and pour it over the crayfish.

968 — Écrevisses à la Nage

For twelve crayfish, ten minutes beforehand prepare a court-bouillon of one-half pint of white wine, one-quarter pint of fish fumet, a few roundels of carrot and onion, one stalk of parsley cut into dice, a small pinch of powdered thyme and bay, and a very little salt and cayenne pepper.

Put the crayfish into the boiling court-bouillon; cover, and leave to cook for ten minutes, taking care to toss the crayfish from time to time.

When about to serve, pour the crayfish with the court-bouillon and the aromatics into a timbale.

969 — Écrevisses à la Liégeoise

Cook the crayfish in court-bouillon as explained in the preceding recipe. Dish them in a timbale, and keep them hot. Strain the court-bouillon; reduce it by a quarter; add one oz. of butter, and pour it over the crayfish.

Sprinkle with a pinch of concassed parsley.

970 — Mousselines D’Écrevisses

What I said with reference to “Mousseline de Homard” (No. 951) applies perfectly here, and my remarks relative to the variation of the garnishing ingredients, which are the same as those in No. 951, also hold good.

971 — Timbale de Queues D’Écrevisses à la Nantua

For ten people prepare (1) a shallow timbale crust, and a cover decorated with a design of leaves or some other ornamental treatment; (2) toss sixty crayfish in butter with two tablespoonfuls of very fine mirepoix cooked in butter beforehand. When the crayfish are of a distinct red, moisten with one glass of white wine and three tablespoonfuls of burned brandy; season with salt and cayenne pepper; cover them, and keep them on the side of the fire for ten minutes, taking care to toss them again from time to time; (3) shell the tails and put them into a small saucepan with twenty small quenelles of whiting forcemeat, finished with crayfish butter; fifteen small, grooved mushrooms, cooked and very white, and three oz. of truffles in slices. Add a few drops of the mushroom cooking-liquor to this garnish, and keep it hot; (4) pound the remains and carcasses of the crayfish very finely; add two-thirds pint of cream sauce to the resulting purée; rub it through tammy, and add it to the garnish; (5) when about to serve, pour this garnish into the timbale crust, which should be very hot, and deck the top with a crown of fine slices of very black truffle. Close the timbale with its cover, and dish it on a napkin.

972 — Soufflé D’Écrevisses à la Florentine

Make a preparation of Soufflé au Parmesan (No. 2295a) combined with two tablespoonfuls of crayfish cream per pint. The cream is prepared after the manner of lobster cream (No. 295).

Put this preparation in a buttered timbale in alternate layers separated by litters of sliced truffle and crayfish tails. Cook the soufflé after the manner of an ordinary one.

973 — Soufflé D’Écrevisses Léopold de Rothschild

Prepare a soufflé as above, and add thereto a bare tablespoonful of freshly-cooked asparagus and slices of truffle, and crayfish tails placed between the layers of the soufflé preparation. Cook as above.

974 — Soufflé D’Écrevisses à la Piémontaise

This is identical with No. 972, except that the ordinary truffles are replaced by shavings of Piedmont truffles.

975 — Aspic de Queues D’Écrevisses à la Moderne

Cook twelve fine crayfish in accordance with the directions under No. 966, but substitute champagne for the white wine.

Shell the tails; trim them evenly; cut them in two lengthwise, and keep them in the cool until they are wanted. Remove the creamy parts from the carapaces of the crayfish; add the trimmings of the tails, the meat from the claws, and the mirepoix in which the crayfish have cooked.

Pound the whole very finely in a mortar, and rub it through a sieve. Put the resulting purée in a receptacle; add thereto one-quarter pint of very cold, melted aspic, and three tablespoonfuls of barely beaten cream. Leave this preparation to settle.

Trim the crayfish carapaces; fill them with a little prepared mousse, and decorate each carapace with a small roundel of truffle.

Put the remainder of the mousse in the middle of a little crystal bowl, and mould it to the shape of a cone, narrow towards the base, and as high as possible.

Arrange the garnished crayfish carapaces on their backs in the bowl around the cone of mousse, and set some crayfish tails in superposed rings up the cone. The crayfish tails should be dipped in half-melted jelly, that they may stick fast to the cone. Lay a small, very round truffle on the top of the cone to complete the decoration. This done, coat the whole again and again by means of a spoon with half-melted, succulent, clear fish jelly, and incrust the timbale in a block of ice, or set it amidst the latter broken up.

976 — Mousse D’Écrevisses

For ten people cook thirty crayfish as for potage Bisque. This done, remove the tails, and reserve a dozen fine carapaces. Finely pound the remainder, together with the mirepoix in which the crayfish have cooked, and add thereto one-half oz. of butter, one oz. of red butter (No. 142), one-quarter pint of cold fish velouté, and six tablespoonfuls of melted fish jelly. Rub through tammy, and put the resulting purée in a saucepan; stir it over ice for two or three minutes; add three-quarters pint of half-beaten cream, and the crayfish tails cut into dice or finely sliced.

Before beginning to prepare the mousse, line the bottom and side of a Charlotte-mould with paper, that the mousse may be moulded as soon as ready.

Pour the preparation into the mould, taking care to reserve enough for the twelve carapaces already put aside, and put the mousse on ice or in a refrigerator until dishing it. Fill the twelve trimmed carapaces with the reserved mousse, and decorate each with a round slice of truffle. When about to serve, turn out the mousse on a small, round cushion of semolina or rice, one-half inch thick, lying on a dish. Remove all the paper, and decorate the top of the mousse with a crown of fine slices of truffle dipped in melted jelly, that they may be glossy.

Surround the semolina or rice cushion with a border of chopped jelly, and arrange the garnished carapaces upon this jelly, setting them almost upright.

N.B.—(1) Instead of being served on a cushion, the crayfish mousse may be sent to the table in a deep silver dish with a border of chopped jelly, and surrounded by the garnished carapaces. The utensil is then laid on a flat dish in a bed of broken ice, or it is incrusted direct in a block of carved ice.

(2) For the moulding of crayfish mousse, the mould may be “clothed” with fish jelly and decorated with slices of truffle, as directed under “Mousse de Homard moulée” (No. 957).

A mousse prepared in this way may be either dished on a semolina or rice cushion, or in a deep silver entrée dish, as described above.

976a — Suprêmes D’Écrevisses au Champagne

Select forty medium-sized crayfish that seem full of life; cook them quickly in a highly-seasoned mirepoix, moistened with one half-bottle of dry champagne. This done, shell them; trim their tails, and keep them in the cool in a small bowl. Pound their shells as finely as possible with one-quarter lb. of fresh butter, and put the resulting purée in a saucepan, together with one-half pint of boiling velouté containing four or five leaves of gelatine, and the cooking-liquor of the crayfish passed through a fine strainer.

Set to boil for a few minutes, that the remains may exude all their flavour; rub through tammy over a basin lying on ice, and whisk the preparation in order to accelerate its cooling. As soon as it begins to thicken, add one pint of half-whipped cream to it. Then pour the whole into a silver or porcelain timbale, taking care that the utensil be not more than three-quarters full.

When the mousse has set, decorate the surface with the reserved crayfish tails, to which are added, as a finish, bits of truffle and chervil leaves. Cover the decoration with a thin coating of easily-melting and amber-coloured fish jelly, and put the timbale on ice. When about to serve, incrust it in a block of carved ice, or place it on a silver dish with broken ice all round.

977 — Mousse D’Écrevisses Cardinal

For ten people cook the crayfish as explained in No. 976, but take forty instead of thirty. Shell the tails; trim them and cut them into dice. Prepare the mousse in the same way, but use twice as much red butter. Garnish twelve carapaces after the same manner, and decorate each with a slice of truffle.

Clothe a dome- or Charlotte-mould somewhat thickly with jelly; garnish its bottom and sides with crayfish tails, previously dipped in half-melted jelly, and arranged in superposed rows; and place the crayfish so that the tails of the first row lie to the left, those of the second row to the right, and so on. As often as possible, do this work before preparing the mousse, in order that the latter may be put into the mould as soon as ready.

When about to fill the mould, add twenty fine slices of truffle to the mousse. Dish after one of the two methods directed in the appended note to No. 970, and take care to dip the mould quickly into hot water before attempting to turn out its contents.

978 — Petits Soufflés Froids D’Écrevisses

Prepare the crayfish mousse as directed under No. 976, and replace the fish velouté by cold Béchamel. The addition of sauce is even unnecessary in this case, and the preparation may be all the more delicate for consisting only of the crayfish cullis and two tablespoonfuls of fish jelly.

For the moulding of these small soufflés I can only repeat what I said under “Petites Mousses de Homard” (No. 958). Let a thin coating of jelly set on the bottom of the small cassolettes or timbales used; garnish their insides with a band of white paper, reaching one inch above their brims; stick the end of this band with a little batter.

Now garnish the timbales with mousse, letting it project above their edges to the extent of two-thirds of an inch, and leave it to set in the cool. When about to serve, remove the band of paper, holding in the projecting mousse, and the appearance of the garnished timbales is exactly that of small, hot soufflés. Allow one soufflé for each person.

979 — Shrimps and Prawns (Crevettes Grises et Crevettes Roses)

Prawns are chiefly used for hors-d’œuvres, but they may, nevertheless, be prepared in Aspics; Mousses; small cold Soufflés, &c.

As regards shrimps, their use is entirely limited to garnishes, hors-d’œuvres, and to the preparation of soups, shrimp butters, and creams.

Oysters. (Huîtres.)

Though oysters are nicer raw, there are so many culinary preparations of which they form the leading constituent, and such a number of garnishing uses to which they may be put, that I feel compelled to mention some of these.

980 — Huîtres à la Favorite

Poach the oysters (cleared of their beards) in their own liquor, which should have been carefully collected when opening them. Clean their hollow shells, and place them on a tray covered with a layer of salt one-half inch thick. Garnish them with Béchamel; upon the latter, in each shell, lay an oyster decked with a slice of truffle; cover with the same sauce; besprinkle with grated Parmesan and melted butter, and set to glaze quickly. Serve immediately.

981 — Huîtres au Gratin

Open the oysters; cut them free, and lay them in the hollow halves of their shells, which should be incrusted in a layer of salt covering a tray. On each oyster put a drop of lemon juice, a pinch of fried bread-crumbs, a little melted butter, and a piece of fresh butter the size of a pea.

Set the gratin to form in a fierce oven or at the salamander, and serve immediately.

982 — Huîtres à la Mornay

Poach the oysters, and allow two per shell.

Set the hollow shells, thoroughly cleansed, on a tray covered with salt. Cover the bottom of the shells with Mornay sauce; put two poached oysters into each; cover with the same sauce; sprinkle with grated cheese and melted butter, and set to glaze quickly. Serve instantly.

983 — Huîtres Soufflées

Make a preparation of Soufflé au Parmesan (No. 2295a). Slightly poach the oysters, clean their hollow shells, and set these on a tray covered with kitchen salt. Spread a layer of the preparation on each shell; put an oyster thereon, and cover the latter with the soufflé au Parmesan.

Heat the base of the tray on the stove, and, when the soufflé begins to rise, put the tray in the oven, that the soufflé may cook and colour at the same time. Serve at once.

984 — Huîtres à la Florentine

Poach the oysters. Set their hollow shells on a tray as above; garnish the bottom of each of these with shredded spinach stewed in butter; lay an oyster on the spinach in each shell; cover with Mornay sauce, and set to glaze quickly. Serve immediately.

985 — Huîtres Grillées

Open the oysters, and leave them in their hollow shells; lay them (very straight) on a tray covered with salt, incrusting them in the latter; besprinkle with a drop of lemon juice and a little mignonette pepper and put them in a fierce oven, that their top surfaces may be speedily poached.

Dish them on a napkin; pour a coffeespoonful of “Sauce Diable Escoffier” over each, and serve directly.

986 — Quenelles D’Huîtres à la Reine

With four oz. of chicken fillets and six raw oysters, prepare a mousseline forcemeat in accordance with the directions given under No. 195. Mould this forcemeat, by means of a tablespoon, into large quenelles, in the centre of which lay two cold poached oysters.

Poach these quenelles after the manner of ordinary mousselines. This done, drain them on a piece of linen; arrange them in a circle on a round dish, and cover them with highly-seasoned Suprême sauce. Decorate each quenelle with a fine slice of truffle, and garnish the middle of the dish with some asparagus-tops, cohered with butter.

987 — Bass (Bar)

This excellent fish is very little known, and, consequently, rarely sought after in England.

The large specimens are served, boiled, with the same kind of sauce as for turbot. The smaller ones are chiefly served à la Meunière or fried.

988 — Brill (Barbue)

Served whole, brill may be looked upon as the understudy, as it were, of the chicken-turbot, and all the preparations given for the latter may be adapted to the former.

If it be preferred filleted, it may be treated after the recipes given for fillets of sole. Hence for brill cooked whole refer to chicken-turbot and the recipes Nos. 925 to 938, and for filleted brill see recipes Nos. 865 to 922.

989 — Bloaters

Bloaters, or herrings partially dried in smoke, form one of the nicest breakfast dishes. As a rule, they are simply grilled over a moderate fire. It should be borne in mind that, as these fish are only partially salted and smoked, they will not keep very long.

Cod. (Cabillaud.)

If cod were less common, it would be held in as high esteem as salmon; for, when it is really fresh and of good quality, the delicacy and delicious flavour of its flesh admit of its ranking among the finest of fish.

990 — Cabillaud Bouilli

Fresh cod is mostly served boiled, either whole, in sections, or in darnes, and the directions given under “The Boiling of Fish” (No. 776) apply particularly to this fish.

Boiled fresh cod is always accompanied by its liver, poached in salted water, and very floury potatoes, boiled at the last minute, must always be sent to the table with it.

Served thus with an oyster sauce, a Hollandaise sauce, or melted butter, fresh cod constitutes a Relevé which would satisfy the most exacting of gourmets.

991 — Cabillaud Grillé

Cut the fish into slices one inch or two inches thick. Season these slices; dredge them; sprinkle them copiously with melted butter, and set them to grill, remembering to baste them frequently the while with melted butter.

Serve them on a hot dish; garnish them with slices of lemon, and surround with bunches of parsley.

Send a Maître-d’Hôtel or Anchovy butter, or a grilled-fish sauce to the table with the dish.

992 — Cabillaud Frit

Cut some slices of fresh cod, from one inch to one and one-half inches thick. Season them, treat them à l’anglaise, and fry them sufficiently to allow of their being well cooked all through. Dish them on a napkin with fried parsley and lemon, and send a butter sauce (No. 66), a tartare sauce, or a tomato sauce to the table at the same time as the fish.

993 — Cabillaud Crème Gratin

For ten people take two lbs. of boiled fresh cod divided into small pieces; clear these of all bones and skin, and keep them hot in a little of their cooking-liquor.

Now, with the necessary quantity of Duchesse potatoes (No. 221), and by means of a piping-bag fitted with a grooved pipe, lay a border, one and one-half inches high, round a dish, shaping it in such wise that it is thickest at its base. The dish may be either round or oval. Carefully gild this border with egg-yolks.

This done, pour a few tablespoonfuls of Mornay sauce on the dish; lay thereon the drained pieces of cod, and cover the latter with enough Mornay sauce to reach within one-third of an inch of the brim of the border. If more sauce were used, it would flow over the border during the process of glazing.

Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and melted butter; set to glaze, and see that the border gets evenly coloured.

Serve the moment the dish is withdrawn from the oven.

N.B.—This mode of preparation is not restricted to fresh cod. It may be applied to all other boiled fish—turbot, chicken-turbot, brill, bass, salmon, &c.

994 — Cabillaud à la Flamande

Cut the fresh cod into slices one inch thick; season them with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and put them in a sautépan or a deep, liberally-buttered tray. Moisten with white wine to the height of the slices; add chopped shallots and “fines herbes,” and garnish the fish with roundels of pipped lemon, peeled to the pulp.

Set to boil, and then poach in the oven for twelve minutes. Place the slices on a dish; thicken their cooking-liquor with crushed biscotte; cook it for five minutes; pour it over the slices, and serve.

995 — Cabillaud à la Portugaise

For ten people, cut five slices of fresh cod, each weighing one-half lb., and season them with salt and pepper. Put these slices into a sautépan containing the following garnish, into which they should be pressed:—Three oz. of butter and one-sixth pint of oil; one large onion, chopped and lightly coloured in butter; a bit of crushed garlic the size of a pea; one faggot; two pinches of concassed parsley; eight medium-sized, peeled, pressed, and minced tomatoes, and one-third pint of white wine.

Cover the sautépan, and set to boil on an open fire for five minutes.

Now take the lid off the saucepan, and leave it to cook for twelve minutes on the side of the fire, in order that the liquid may be reduced and the fish cooked at the same moment of time.

Set the slices on a long dish; withdraw the faggot, and pour the garnish and the cooking-liquor over the fish.

996 — Laitances de Carpe (Carp’s Milt)

The milt of a carp makes a very delicate dish. It is served either as a second fish at a dinner; as a garnish to large fish Relevés, after having been poached in salted water; or cut while raw into slices which are generally treated à la Meunière.

997 — Laitances à la Meunière

Prepare them whole or in collops, in pursuance of the directions given under “The Cooking of Fish à la Meunière” (No. 778).

998 — Barquettes de Laitances à la Florentine

Poach the milts in salted water; cut them into small, long slices, and set them in barquette crusts prepared in advance.

Cover the sliced milts with a soufflé au Parmesan (No. 2295a), and shape the latter slightly after the manner of a dome.

Arrange the barquettes on a dish, and put them in a moderate oven, that they may cook and the soufflé be glazed at the same time. When taking them out of the oven, dish them on a napkin and serve immediately.

999 — Caisses de Laitances à la Nantua

Poach the milts in salted water. Drain them, and cut them into small slices thicker than their length.

Place these slices in small pleated porcelain cases with two crayfish tails in each. Fill up the cases with Nantua sauce, and lay a fine slice of truffle over the centre of each case.

1000 — John DORY (St. Pierre)

This fish, which is in the highest degree unsightly, is possessed of flesh whose firmness, whiteness, and delicacy are of the rarest excellence; and, when quite fresh, its fillets are certainly equal in quality to those of the chicken-turbot and the sole.

Albeit the dory is not as popular as it deserves to be, and this is owing either to its unsightliness, which may prejudice the opinion of gourmets against it, to people’s indifference with regard to it, or to a mere trick of fashion.

While I admit its unpopularity, however, I should strongly recommend all lovers of fish to give it a trial. Let them prepare the dory’s fillets after the recipes given under Fillets of Sole and Chicken-turbot, and, provided the directions be properly carried out, I venture to believe that the prevailing aversion to dory will very soon be found to have no warrant in fact.

1001 — Fresh Haddock (Eglefin)

This fish is chiefly eaten smoked, under the name of haddock.

When it is fresh, it may be prepared after the recipes given for cod, to which it is quite equal in the matter of delicacy.

1002 — Smelt (Éperlans)

Owing to their small size, smelts only lend themselves to a very limited number of preparations. They are usually served either on little skewers or dished in a heap on a napkin, with fried parsley and grooved half-lemons; those on skewers are dished flat with the same garnish.

Large smelts may be treated after the recipes immediately following.

1003 — Éperlans à l’Anglaise

Open the smelts down the back and carefully bone, without disfiguring them. Treat them à l’anglaise with fine bread-crumbs, and pat them lightly with the flat of a knife, that the bread-crumbs may adhere well.

1004 — Éperlans au Gratin

Proceed as for “Merlans au Gratin” (No. 1018), but allowing for the difference between the sizes of the two fish, put the smelts in a fiercer oven than the whiting, in order that they may be cooked simultaneously with the formation of the gratin.

1005 — Éperlans Grillés

Open them down the back, and remove the bulk of their spine, leaving a small piece only in the region of the tail, and another small piece at the head. Season, dredge, and sprinkle them with melted butter, and grill them quickly.

Set them on a long, hot dish; surround them with slices of lemon and bunches of fried parsley, and serve separately either some half-melted butter à la Maître-d’Hôtel, or a sauce suited to grilled fish.

1006 — Mousselines D’Éperlans

Proceed exactly as for Mousselines de Saumon (No. 797). To prepare the forcemeat, follow the directions under No. 195; but note the following changes:—Of the whole quantity of the meat of fish, that of the smelt should only measure one-third; the other two-thirds should be supplied by the sole, dory, or whiting.

The object of this disproportion has already been explained under “Velouté d’Éperlans” (No. 680). The flesh of the smelt is of a much too decided flavour to be used alone, and when this flavour dominates, it becomes positively disagreeable; hence the need of a fish whose flesh is almost neutral in so far as taste is concerned. But this addition of a fish foreign to the base of the preparation fulfils a double purpose; for, while it effectually weakens the pungency of the smelt’s flesh, it also enables the whole preparation to absorb a much larger quantity of cream, and this last circumstance can only allow of the mousselines being lighter and mellower.

1007 — Mousse Chaude D’Éperlans à la Royale

Take a Charlotte-mould, of a size in proportion to the number of people to be served, and butter its bottom and sides. Cover the bottom of the mould with a round piece of buttered kitchen paper, and do the same on the sides.

Prepare the required quantity of smelts’ fillets; slightly flatten them in order to break their fibres, and trim them all to the same length and width.

Garnish the sides in the same way, putting a strip of truffle between each; but take care to place the fillets aslant instead of upright. Having thus lined the mould with fillets of smelt and truffle, cover the whole with a layer of mousseline forcemeat, one-half inch thick.

Now fill the mould in the following way:—On the layer of forcemeat covering the fillets at the bottom of the mould set as many slices of truffle as will cover it; spread another layer of forcemeat on the truffle, and over that lay, alternately, a sufficient quantity of fillets of smelt and anchovy. Follow with a fresh layer of forcemeat, slices of truffle, &c., until the mould is full, and finish with a layer of forcemeat.

Poach the mousse (covered) in a moderate oven, and allow fifty minutes for one prepared in a quart-mould. It is very easy, however, to tell when the mousse is done, by simply thrusting a small knife into it; if the blade of the knife withdraws quite clean, the mousse is cooked.

As soon as it is ready, turn the mould upside-down on a dish, and raise it a little in order to allow the liquid, which always accumulates in more or less large quantities, to drain away. Soak up this liquid; gently draw off the mould; take off the paper, and remove the froth which may have formed on the fillets by means of a wet brush.

Lay a fine, grooved mushroom on the top of the mousse; surround it with mousseline sauce (No. 92), finished with crayfish butter, and send a sauceboat of the same mousseline sauce to the table with the dish.

N.B.—This mousse may also be prepared with fillets of sole, of salmon, or of trout, &c.

1008 — Haddock

Sometimes the fish is grilled, but, after having boned it and removed its fins and the greater part of its belly, it is more often cooked in water or milk, either of which moistening is usually short.

It is plunged in slightly salted boiling water, and then it is moved to the side of the fire to poach, with lid on. Allow about fifteen minutes for a fish weighing one and one-half lbs.

Dish it with a few tablespoonfuls of its cooking-liquor, and, subject to the consumer’s taste, serve some fresh or melted butter separately.

Mackerel (Maquereau)

1009 — Maquereau Bouilli, Sauce aux Groseilles

Cut the mackerels into three, crosswise, and poach them in court-bouillon with vinegar (No. 163), seasoned with a pinch of fennel per pint. Drain them on a napkin; skin them, and dish them with curled-leaf parsley all round.

With the mackerels serve a gooseberry sauce prepared as follows:—

Green Gooseberry Sauce proper to Mackerel.—Cook one lb. of green gooseberries in a copper sugar boiler with three oz. of sugar and enough water to cover them, and then rub them through tammy.

1010 — Maquereau Grillé

Cut off the extremity of the mackerels’ mouths; open them down the back, without dividing them into two.

Season them; sprinkle them with melted butter, and grill them gently, taking care to baste them by means of a brush with melted butter while they are cooking.

Set them on a round, hot dish, and sprinkle them with half-melted butter à la Maître-d’Hôtel, after having drawn their halves together, that they may seem natural and untouched.

Or surround them with grooved slices of lemon, and send a “Sauce Diable Escoffier” to the table separately. This sauce constitutes an excellent adjunct to grilled mackerel.

1011 — Filets de Maquereau aux Fines Herbes

Raise some mackerels’ fillets in such wise as to leave the bones quite clean. Arrange the fillets on a buttered dish, and poach them in white wine and the cooking-liquor of mushrooms in equal quantities. Take care to cover them while they are being poached.

This done, drain them; skin them; set them on a long dish, and cover them with a herb sauce (No. 83), combined with their cooking-liquor strained through linen and reduced.

1012 — Filets de Maquereau au Persil

Raise the fillets as before, and poach them in a white-wine court-bouillon with one-half oz. of parsley leaves per pint. Drain them; skin them; set them on a long dish, and cover them with a parsley sauce. This latter is a butter sauce (No. 66) to which some freshly-chopped parsley is added at the last moment.

1013 — Filets de Maquereau à la Vénitienne

Poach the fillets in a court-bouillon with white wine. Drain them; skin them; set them on a long dish, and cover them with a Venetian sauce (No. 107).

Whiting (Merlan)

1014 — Merlan à l’Anglaise

Open the whitings down the back; loosen the spine, and completely remove it. Season them inside, and treat them à l’anglaise with very fresh and fine bread-crumbs.

Cook the whitings very quickly in clarified butter; set them on a long dish, and sprinkle them with half-melted butter à la Maître-d’Hôtel.

N.B.—Whitings à l’anglaise may also be grilled, but it is preferable to cook them in clarified butter.

1015 — Merlan à la Bercy

Slightly open the whitings down the back, with the view of promoting their cooking process. Lay them on a buttered dish sprinkled with finely-chopped shallots, and moisten them with white wine and fish fumet. Add one-half oz. of butter per whiting, and cook in the oven, basting often the while. The moment when the whitings are quite done should be coincident with the almost complete reduction of their cooking-liquor.

Set to glaze at the last moment.

When taking the whitings out of the oven, sprinkle them with a few drops of lemon juice and a little chopped parsley.

1016 — Merlan à la Colbert

Open the whitings down the back, and bone them. Season them; dip them in milk; roll them in flour; and treat them à l’anglaise. Fry them; drain them; set them on a long dish; garnish the openings in their backs with butter à la Maître-d’Hôtel and border the dish with grooved slices of lemon.

1017 — Mousselines de Merlan

For the preparation of the mousseline forcemeat, refer to No. 195. The moulding and poaching of these mousselines are the same as for salmon mousselines, and the preparations suited to the latter may likewise be applied to mousselines de merlans. (See Mousselines de Saumon, Nos. 797 to 799.)

1018 — Filets de Merlan au Gratin

Raise the fillets from some whitings, and leave the bones quite clean. Lay them on a buttered dish besprinkled with chopped shallots, the bottom of which should have been covered with a few tablespoonfuls of gratin sauce. Surround the fillets with slices of raw mushrooms; set two small, cooked mushrooms upon each fillet; pour a few tablespoonfuls of white wine into the dish, and cover the whole with gratin sauce.

Sprinkle with fine raspings and melted butter, and put the dish in a sufficiently fierce oven to (1) reduce the sauce; (2) allow the gratin to form; and (3) cook the fillets at the same moment of time. In respect of this operation, refer to Complete Gratin, No. 269.

When taking the dish from the oven, sprinkle a little chopped parsley and a few drops of lemon juice over it.

N.B.—If the whiting be treated whole, the procedure remains the same.

1019 — Paupiettes de Merlan au Gratin

Raise some fillets of whiting; coat them with a fish forcemeat combined with fine herbs, and roll them into scrolls. Set these rolled fillets on a round, buttered gratin dish sprinkled with chopped shallots, the bottom of which should have been covered with gratin sauce.

Surround them with a border of sliced, raw mushrooms; place a small, cooked mushroom on each fillet, and proceed for the rest of the operation exactly as explained under “Filets de Merlan au Gratin.”

1020 — Merlan en Lorgnette au Gratin

Separate the fillets from the bones, proceeding from the tail to the head, and completely remove the spine near the head. Cover the fillets with fish forcemeat “aux fines herbes,” and roll them into scrolls with their tail-ends inside.

Set them on a round dish sprinkled with chopped shallots and covered with gratin sauce, placing them side by side, all round the dish, with the whitings’ heads in the centre; and proceed for the rest of the operation as explained under No. 1018.

N.B.—Whitings prepared in this way may be treated with white wine, Dieppoise, Bercy, fried, &c.

1021 — Filets de Merlan Orly

Raise the fillets and proceed as for “Filets de Soles Olga,” No. 893.

1022 — Merlan Sur le Plat

Proceed as for “Sole sur le Plat,” No. 837.

1023 — Merlan à la Richelieu

Prepare six “Merlans à l’anglaise,” No. 1014. Lay thereon a few slices of truffle. Or dish them simply on their sides; garnish their top surfaces with the butter prescribed above, and put a row of truffle slices on the butter.

1024 — Morue and Salted Cod (Morue et Cabillaud Salé)

Salted cod bought in England has generally been fished somewhere along the English coast, and is, as a rule, of recent salting. It has not the peculiar flavour of the Icelandic morue, or that of the Newfoundland specimens, and it does not lend itself to such a large variety of preparations as these two.

At the end of each of the following recipes, I indicate the kind of cod to which the procedure may be applied.

Morue, especially the Newfoundland kind, should be set to soak at least twelve hours before being used, and the water during that time should be frequently changed.

When about to cook it, suppress its fins, and cut it up in a way befitting the selected mode of preparation.

Allow four oz. gross of the fish for each person.

1024a — Salted Cod and Morue à l’Anglaise

Put the fish into cold water; set to boil, and as soon as this point is reached, leave the fish to poach on the side of the fire for fifteen minutes.

Drain, skin, dish on a napkin, and serve, separately, a timbale of parsnips and an egg-sauce à l’Écossaise.

Both kinds of cod may be used for this dish.

1025 — Morue à la Bénédictine

Poach one and one-half lbs. of morue as above; drain it and cut into small pieces, cleared of all skin and bone. Pound it quickly while it is still hot, and add to it half its weight of potatoes cooked as for a purée, drained, and dried in the oven for a few minutes. When the whole has been reduced to a fine paste, add one-sixth pint of oil, and one-quarter pint of boiled milk. The oil and the milk should be added little by little, and the paste should be more mellow than stiff.

Icelandic and Newfoundland morue.

1026 — Morue au Beurre Noir Ou au Beurre Noisette

Cut the morue into squares or rectangles; roll these into paupiettes or scrolls, and bind these with a piece of string. Poach them in the usual way; drain them; scrape their skins, and dish them. Sprinkle with concassed parsley; add lemon juice, and cover with brown or lightly-browned butter. Either kind of cod may be used.

1027 — Brandade de Morue

Cut one lb. of morue into pieces, and poach these for eight minutes. The eight minutes should be counted from the time the water begins to boil.

Drain on a sieve, and clear the pieces of all skin and bones. Heat in a sautépan one-sixth pint of oil until the latter smokes; throw the cleaned pieces of morue into the oil; add a piece of crushed garlic the size of a haricot-bean, and stir over a brisk fire with a wooden spoon until the morue is reduced to shreds.

Then take the saucepan off the fire, and, without ceasing to stir the paste, add thereto, little by little, as for a mayonnaise, about one-half pint of oil. When the paste begins to stiffen through the addition of the oil, now and again add a tablespoonful of milk. For the amount of morue used, one-quarter pint of boiling milk should thus be added by degrees.

When the Brandade is finished, it should have the consistence of an ordinary potato purée. When about to serve, taste the preparation, and rectify its seasoning.

Dish the Brandade in a hot timbale, building it up in the shape of a pyramid, and set thereon a crown of bread-crumb triangles fried in butter just before dishing up.

N.B.—The triangles of fried bread may, with advantage, be replaced by lozenges made from puff-paste, which are baked without colouration. For the Brandade use only well-soaked Icelandic or Newfoundland morue.

1028 — Brandade de Morue à la Crème

Follow the directions given above, but instead of oil and milk, use two-thirds pint of cream, which should be added to the morue paste by spoonfuls.

1029 — Morue à la Créole

Finely mince an onion, and cook it gently in butter until it is of a nice golden colour. Spread it on the bottom of a little oval earthenware dish, and set three tomatoes prepared à la Provençale (No. 2268) upon it.

Poach one lb. of morue; drain it as soon as ready, and flake it while clearing it of all skin and bones. Lay this flaked morue on the slices of tomato; cover it with three mild capsicums, split and broiled; sprinkle the whole with a few drops of lemon juice and one oz. of lightly-browned butter, and put the dish in the oven for a few minutes. Serve very hot.

Icelandic or Newfoundland morue may be used.

1030 — Cabillaud Sale, or Morue à la Hollandaise

Proceed exactly as for “Sole à la Hollandaise” (No. 829). Both kinds suit this preparation.

1031 — Cabillaud Sale, or Morue à l’Indienne

Poach one lb. of salted cod or morue, and flake it while clearing it of all skin and bones. Mix this flaked fish with two-thirds pint of Indienne sauce, and dish it in a hot timbale.

Serve some rice à l’Indienne separately.

Both kinds of fish are suited to this dish.

1032 — Morue à la Lyonnaise

Poach one lb. of morue, and flake it as explained above. Finely mince a medium-sized onion, and toss it in butter. Also toss three medium-sized potatoes cut into roundels. Heat one oz. of butter and two tablespoonfuls of oil in a frying-pan; put therein the flaked morue and the potatoes, and toss the whole over a brisk fire for a few minutes.

When about to dish up, add a few drops of vinegar.

Dish in a hot timbale, and sprinkle the morue with a pinch of chopped parsley. Use either the Icelandic or the Newfoundland fish for this preparation.

1033 — Soufflé de Morue

Finely pound one-quarter lb. of freshly poached and flaked morue, and add thereto, little by little, two tablespoonfuls of hot and very thick Béchamel sauce. When the paste is very smooth, season it; put into a saucepan, heat it, and add the yolks of three eggs, and four whites beaten to a stiff froth.

Put the whole into a buttered soufflé-saucepan, and cook after the manner of an ordinary soufflé. Take either Icelandic or Newfoundland morue for this dish.

1034 — CHAR (Ombre-Chevalier)

The char is a fish of the salmon family, which is culinarily treated in exactly the same way as the trout. When it is large, the recipes given for salmon trout may be adapted to it, but it is mostly used small—that is to say, from five inches to ten inches long. The fishing of char is restricted chiefly to lake countries, such as Scotland and Switzerland, and it is only in season during two months of the year. Moreover, as this fish loses much of its quality in transit, its scarcity on the market will be easily understood. The lake of Zug, in Switzerland, supplies the most famous specimens, which are called Rothel by the people of the locality. The delicacy of the fish is remarkable, and in this it may vie even with the best river trout.

The char of the Scotch lakes may be treated after the same recipes as the Swiss specimens, but they are more often used in the preparation of potted char, the recipe for which is as follows:—

1035 — Potted Char

Cook the chars in a fine mirepoix with white wine, exactly after the manner of trout. When the fish are cooked, leave them to cool completely in their cooking-liquor. Drain them; skin them; separate their fillets, and thoroughly bone them. Set the fillets in a special earthenware pot; entirely cover them with clarified butter, and put them in a moderate oven for one quarter of an hour.

Leave them to cool until the next day, and add sufficient clarified butter to cover them with a layer one-third inch thick.

If Potted Char be left in the cool, it will keep for some considerable time.

Red Mullets (Rougets)

Red mullet, especially the Mediterranean rock kind, is one of the greatest fish delicacies known; and the surname “Sea Woodcock,” which gourmets sometimes give it, is quite justified, not only by its quality, but by the fact that, except for its gills, it is generally left whole, and not even emptied.

It is best grilled.

1035a — Grilled Red Mullet

Carefully wipe the mullet; cisel it on either side to a depth in proportion to the thickness of its flesh and at closer intervals the thicker the latter is, in order to facilitate the cooking; season it with salt and pepper; sprinkle it with a little oil and a few drops of lemon juice; spread a few slices of lemon and a few parsley stalks upon and beneath it; and let it marinade for an hour or two, turning it over frequently the while.

Twenty minutes before serving, set the red mullet on a double fish grill, and cook it over a rather fierce fire, sprinkling it often the while with its marinade. Dish and serve it as soon as it is ready, and serve a little half-melted maître-d’hôtel butter separately.

1035b — Rouget à la Bordelaise

Grill or sauté the red mullet. At the same time serve a sauce Bordelaise Bonnefoy (No. 67).

1035c — Rouget au Fenouil

Cisel and marinade the red mullet as directed under No. 1035a, and add a certain quantity of chopped fennel to the aromatics. Twenty minutes before serving, add two oz. of roughly-chopped raw pork fat and a little parsley to the marinade; wrap the red mullets in strong, oiled paper, together with its marinade, grill it gently, and serve it as it stands.

1035d — Rouget à la Niçoise

Grill it as directed above, and serve it with the garnish given under “Sole à la Niçoise.”

1035e — Rouget en Papillote

Grill and wrap it in strong, oiled paper between two layers of somewhat thick Duxelle sauce. When about to serve, put the papillote for five minutes in the oven, that it may be souffléd.

1036 — Whitebait

Thames whitebait, which has many points in common with the “Nonat” of the Mediterranean, is one of the riddles of ichthyology; for, while it is generally admitted that it is the fry of one of the many species of fish, its real parentage is quite unknown.

At dinners in London it usually stands as a second fish-course, and, fried after the customary manner, it constitutes a dish the delicacy of which is incomparable. Whitebait, like the nonat, are extremely fragile, and ought to be cooked as soon as they are caught. They are always served fried, and the frying-medium used in their preparation should be fresh, abundant, and just smoking when the fish are plunged into it. Previous to this operation, however, the whitebait ought to be thoroughly dredged with flour and placed in a special sieve or frying basket, either of which should be well shaken, in order to rid the fish of any superfluous flour.

They are then plunged into the smoking frying-medium, in small quantities at a time, and one minute’s stay therein suffices to render them sufficiently crisp.

Draining is the next operation, effected upon a spread piece of linen, that the fish may be easily seasoned with table-salt and cayenne, mixed. This done, the whitebait are dished upon a napkin and sent to the table with very green, fried parsley.

Various Preparations of Fish

1037 — Matelote au Vin Rouge

The fish used for the Matelote are eel, carp, tench, bream, perch, &c.

It may be prepared from one or many kinds of fish.

Put the fish, cut into sections, into a sautépan. For two lbs. of it, add one minced onion, one faggot, two cloves of garlic, one pint of red wine, a pinch of salt, and another of pepper or four peppercorns.

Set to boil; add three tablespoonfuls of heated and burnt brandy; cover the sautépan, and complete the cooking of the fish.

This done, transfer the pieces to another saucepan; strain the cooking-liquor, reduce it by a third, and thicken it with manied butter (consisting of one and one-half oz. of butter and one tablespoonful of flour), cut into small pieces.

When the leason has been properly effected, pour the resulting sauce over the pieces of fish; heat, and dish in a timbale.

1038 — Matelote au Vin Blanc

Prepare the fish as above, but use white wine instead of red, and burn the brandy as before. When the pieces of fish are cooked, transfer them to another saucepan with small onions, previously cooked in butter, and small, cooked mushrooms. Strain the cooking-liquor, reduce it to a little less than half, thicken it with fish velouté, and finish with one oz. of butter.

Pour this sauce over the fish and the garnish; dish the whole in a timbale or a deep dish, and surround with crayfish, cooked in court-bouillon, and little crusts in the shape of hearts, fried in butter.

1039 — Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise

The fish for Bouillabaisse are rascasse, chapon, dory, whiting, fiélas, boudreuil, spiny lobster, red mullet, gurnet, &c.

Cut the larger fish into slices; leave the smaller ones whole, and with the exception of the whiting and the red mullet, which cook more speedily than the others, put them all into a saucepan.

For two lbs. of fish, add one small onion, the chopped white of one leek, one small, peeled, pressed and chopped tomato, two crushed cloves of garlic, a large pinch of concassed parsley, a pinch of powdered saffron, a bit of bay, a little savory and fennel, and two tablespoonfuls of oil.

Moisten the fish with just enough cold water to cover it, and season with one-third oz. of salt and a pinch of pepper per quart of water.

Set to boil, and cook over a brisk fire. At the end of eight minutes add the pieces of whiting and red mullet, and leave to cook for a further seven minutes.

Pour the liquor of the bouillabaisse over some slices of household bread lying on the bottom of a deep dish; set the fish on another dish with the sections of spiny lobster all round, and serve.

1040 — Quenelles de Brochet à la Lyonnaise

Pound separately one lb. of the meat of pike, cleared of all skin and bones, and one lb. of the fat of kidney of beef, very dry, cleaned, and cut into small pieces. If desired, half of the weight of the fat of kidney of beef may be replaced by one-half lb. of beef marrow.

Put the pounded meat of the pike and the kidney fat on separate plates. Now pound one lb. of frangipan Panada (No. 192) and add thereto, little by little, the white of four little eggs. Put the pike meat and the fat back into the mortar, and finely pound the whole until a fine, smooth paste is obtained. Rub the latter through a sieve; put the resulting purée into a basin, and work it well with a wooden spoon in order to smooth it.

With this forcemeat mould some quenelles with a spoon, and poach them in salted water.

If these quenelles are to be served with an ordinary fish sauce, put them into it as soon as they are poached and drained, and simmer them in it for ten minutes that they may swell.

If the sauce intended for them is to be thickened with egg-yolks, and buttered at the last moment, put them into a saucepan with a few tablespoonfuls of fumet, and simmer them as directed in the case of an ordinary fish sauce, taking care to keep the saucepan well covered that the concentrated steam may assist the swelling of the quenelles. In this case they are added to the sauce at the last moment.

N.B.—Slices of truffle may always be added to the sauce. The quenelles are dished either in a silver timbale, in a shallow timbale-crust, or in a fine vol-au-vent crust, in accordance with the arrangement of the menu.

1041 — Fish Cakes

Fish cakes or balls, which are greatly appreciated in both England and America, are made from any boiled fish. Salted cod, however, is best suited to their preparation, and is therefore used much more often than other kinds of fish.

Flake one lb. of cooked cod, and clear it of all skin and bones; pound it with one-half lb. of freshly-cooked, floury potatoes, two tablespoonfuls of reduced Béchamel sauce, and two whole eggs. Season with salt and pepper. When the paste has been well beaten and is smooth, take it out of the mortar and divide it into portions weighing about two oz. Roll these portions into balls upon a flour-dusted mixing-board, flatten them out to the shape of thick quoits, and treat them à l’anglaise.

Fry them at the last moment in very hot fat, and dish them on a napkin with fried parsley all round.

1042 — Waterzoi

In order to prepare Waterzoi, it is best, when possible, to have live fish at one’s disposal, not only because these are better able to resist the cooking process, but also owing to the fact that they are richer in gelatine in the live state.

The fish more generally used are the eel, the perch, the tench, the carp, the pike, &c.

After having scaled and emptied them, trim them and cut off their heads and tails. Cut the fish into sections; moisten these with just enough cold water to cover them; add a piece of butter, sufficient parsley roots or stalks to produce a decided taste, a few peppercorns, and some salt.

Set to cook on a brisk fire, and take care that the cooking-liquor be reduced and sufficiently thickened when the fish are cooked.

Serve in a timbale or on a dish, and send some slices of bread and butter to the table at the same time.

Notes

Having regard to these considerations, I have omitted from this work, which is really a thesaurus of selected recipes and not a complete formulary, all those fish enumerated below, which are very rarely eaten in England, and the recipes for which could therefore serve no purpose:—

Surround it with grooved sections of cucumber hollowed to represent small timbales, well parboiled, marinaded with a few drops of oil and lemon-juice and filled with a vegetable salad thickened with mayonnaise; indented, halved eggs filled with caviare; and tartlets of vegetable salad cohered with mayonnaise, and garnished, each with a crayfish-shell stuffed with crayfish mousse; alternate these various garnishes, and encircle with a border of jelly dice.

Cut some small slices, one-third inch thick, from a fillet of salmon.

Skin it on one side, starting at a distance of one inch from the head and finishing within two and one-half inches of the root of the tail.

9. Chambertin Mousse with fillets of trout decked like No. 8.

N.B.—Fresh-water trout may also be served fried or grilled, but neither of these methods of preparation suits them so well as “à la Meunière” or “au bleu,” which I have given.

The sole is always laid on the dish with its opened side undermost—that is to say, on its back.

Drain as soon as poached, and surround with potato-balls the size of walnuts, cooked in salted water, and kept whole. Cover the sole with white-wine sauce, and lay a thread of shrimp sauce over the garnish.

They may also be served after the old-fashioned way, as follows:—

Serve the fillets of sole on an earthenware dish, coat them with the above garnish, and set to glaze quickly in a fierce oven or at the salamander.

Put the roundels of egg-plant and the sliced fillets of sole (mixed and tossed together for a moment) in the middle of the dish.

Complete the cooking of the vegetables while reducing the cooking-liquor. Season the fillets of sole, and lay them on a buttered earthenware dish. Pour thereon the garnish of vegetables; put the cover on the dish, and gently poach the fillets.

Send a sauceboat of Béchamel sauce, finished with lobster butter, to the table at the same time as the fish.

Now roll them into scroll-form; smooth the forcemeat that projects from the top end, and the paupiettes are done.

On this set jelly, arrange the six fillets of sole; let their tail-ends overlap, and cover them with jelly. Continue adding coat upon coat of jelly until the thickness covering the fillets measures about one-half inch.

When about to serve, turn out the mould upon a little, low cushion of rice, lying on a dish, and set an Italian salad in the centre.

Whatever be the method of preparing the chicken-turbot, whether it be boiled, poached, or braised, the spine should always be cut in one or two places. The gash should be just in the middle of the back where the flesh is thickest, and the fillets on either side of the gash should be partly separated from the bone. The object of this measure is to prevent deformation during the cooking process and, also, to precipitate the latter.

Allow thirty minutes for the cooking. By reducing the moistening-liquor, which has perforce absorbed some of the gelatinous properties of the fish, the leason forms of itself.

Meantime toss three oz. of minced mushrooms in three oz. of butter. When the turbot is ready, drain it; dish it; surround it with the tossed mushrooms, and keep it hot.

This done, transfer the pieces of lobster to a dish; withdraw the meat from the section of the tail and the claws, and put them in a timbale; set upright thereon the two halves of the carapace, and let them lie against each other. Keep the whole hot.

After having drained and dried them, fill them with mousseline forcemeat and surround them with strong, buttered paper, which should be tied on with string, and should overreach the edges of the carapaces by one inch.

As these preparations, however, are based neither on fixed principles nor on classical rules, I shall refrain from giving them.

Sprinkle with a pinch of chopped parsley, and serve at once.

Cook them in clarified butter; set them on a long hot dish, and besprinkle them with half-melted butter à la Maître-d’Hôtel (No. 150).

Then garnish the bottom of the mould with the fillets of smelt, placing them so that their skin-sides are against the mould. Between each of the fillets set a small strip of truffle, one quarter of the width of the former.

When haddock is served at lunch, send to the table with it an egg-sauce and a timbale of potatoes, freshly cooked à l’anglaise.

Serve in a buttered gratin dish; arrange the preparation in the form of a dome; sprinkle with melted butter, and set to colour in the oven.