Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/532

 is another no less important principle, viz., that the fish itself often furnishes a sauce from its own juices, more appropriate than some of the complicated and not very digestible mixtures prepared by the cook. Thus "melted butter"—which is regarded as essentially an English sauce—when intended to accompany fish, should not be, as it almost invariably is, a carelessly made compound of butter, flour, and water; but in place of the last-named ingredient there should be a concentrated liquor made from the trimmings of the fish itself, with the addition of a few drops of lemon-juice, and strengthened if necessary from other sources, as from shell-fish of some kind. Thus an every-day sauce of wholesome and agreeable quality is easily made; it finds its highest expression in that admirable dish, the sole with sauce au vin blanc of the French, or, as associated with shell-fish, in the sole à la normande. Some fish furnish their own sauce in a still simpler manner, of which an illustration no less striking is at hand in the easiest but best mode of cooking a red mullet, viz., baking it, and securing the gravy of delicious flavor which issues abundantly from the fish, chiefly from the liver, as its only sauce.

Passing rapidly on without naming the ordinary and well-known service of cold meats, fresh and preserved, poultry and game, open or under paste in some form, to be found in profusion on table or sideboard, and in which this country is unrivaled, a hint or two relating to some lighter cold entrées may be suggested. It is scarcely possible to treat these apart from the salad which, admirable by itself, also forms the natural garnish for cold dishes. A simple aspic jelly, little more than the consommé of yesterday flavored with a little lemon-peel and tarragon vinegar, furnishes another form of garnish, or a basis for presenting choice morsels in tempting forms, such as poultry-livers, ox-palates, quenelles, fillets of game, chicken, wild fowl, fish, prawns, etc., associated with a well-made salad. On this system an enterprising cook can furnish many changes of light but excellent nutritious dishes.

On salad so much has been written, that one might suppose, as of many other culinary productions, that to make a good one was the result of some difficult and complicated process, instead of being simple and easy to a degree. The materials must be secured fresh, are not to be too numerous and diverse, must be well cleansed and washed without handling, and all water removed as far as possible. It should be made by the hostess, or by some member of the family, immediately before the meal, and be kept cool until wanted. Very few servants can be trusted to execute the simple details involved in cross-cutting the lettuce, endive, or what not, but two or three times in a roomy salad-bowl; in placing one saltspoonful of salt and half that quantity of pepper in a tablespoon, which is to be filled three times consecutively with the best fresh olive-oil, stirring each briskly until the condiments have been thoroughly mixed, and at the same time