Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/464

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Ingredients.—Plaice, flounders or perch, parsley and parsley-roots, salt.

Method.—Wash and trim the fish, put the trimmings and 2 or 3 fish into a stewpan with 1 quart of water, a little salt, parsley, and a few parsley-roots. Simmer until all is quite tender, then pass through a sieve and return to the stewpan. Cook the remaining fish slowly in the liquor, and when done, lift out carefully into a deep dish, add 1 teaspoonful of finely-chopped parsley, strain the liquor over, then serve.

Ingredients.—Whitebait, ice, flour, cayenne, salt, frying fat.

Method.—The frying of whitebait is a most difficult task for cooks with little experience. The following is a well-tried method which, if carefully followed, never fails to produce satisfactory results: Put the whitebait with a piece of ice in a basin, which must be kept on the ice. When required for cooking, spread the fish on a cloth to drain, then sprinkle a clean cloth with flour, put a small quantity of whitebait on this, sprinkle over some more flour, fold the cloth and shake it well, holding the ends of the cloth with both hands. Turn the contents into a wire drying basket, and shake it so as to get rid of the superfluous flour. Plunge the basket into a pan of clean, very hot lard, and fry rapidly over a bright fire for 3 or 4 minutes. Keep moving the basket all the time the frying goes on. Take up the basket, shake it so as to strain off the fat, and turn the fish on to a cloth or paper. Repeat this until all the whitebait are fried. Season with cayenne or black pepper, and fine salt. Dish up on a folded napkin or lace paper, and send the fish to table accompanied with quarters of lemon and thin slices of brown bread and butter.

Time.—From 3 to 4 minutes. Average Cost, 1s. 6d. per quart. Seasonable from January to September.

(See Sole au Gratin, No. 653, use skimmed whiting, and proceed in the same manner.)

(See Sole with Fine Herbs, No. 654.)