Cookery for every household

To Serve the Food. — Place a hot plate or dish a little way under the bag, and draw the bag on to it with the fingers, or a fish slice may be used to slide it on. Then slit open the bag along two PAPER-BAG COOKERY sides with a knife or pair of scissors, and draw the bag carefully away, leaving the food on the dish. Some Advantages of the System Cleanliness and freedom from smell are among the first. The food is placed in a perfectly clean bag, which cannot be said of all saucepans even under the most ideal conditions ; and the odour of cooking, so often objectionable in small houses or fiats, is done away with altogether. Various kinds of food can be cooked at the same time without any fear of the flavours mingling or of one contaminating another. There is economy, too, in this method of cooking ; meat and fish lose little or nothing as far as weight is concerned, and their flavour and nutritive properties are retained. It also means a saving of time and labour, as food requires little attention when cooked in this way, and there will be no saucepans to wash up, even the oven should be left perfectly clean, if the cooking has been properly done. As far as efficiency is concerned, this simple method of cooking leaves little to be desired in point of tenderness, nutritiveness, and natural flavour, and when properly carried out the results are most savoury and appetising. RECIPES 3030. Cod or Halibut Steaks Cut slices of fish about one inch in thickness, dip them in flour, season them with pepper and salt, and place them in a well-greased bag. Squeeze over them a little lemon juice, lay on a few small pieces of butter, close up securely, and cook in a good oven about 15 minutes. One or two thinly-sliced tomatoes, a few chopped mushrooms, a little finely-chopped shallot and parsley, or 2 or 3 table-spoonfuls of good fish sauce may be added as desired, and cooked along with the fish. 3031. Smoked Haddock Trim a smoked haddock weighing from 1£ to 2 lbs., and season it with pepper to taste. Place it in a well-greased paper bag, and add 2 or 3 table-spoonfuls of milk and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Seal up and bake in a hot oven from 15 to 20 minutes. White sauce may be used instead of the milk and butter, and a few small tomatoes or a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese may be added. Or again, a short time before the fish is ready, a hole may be cut in the bag with a pair of scissors, and one or two fresh eggs dropped in, then returned to the oven until sufficiently cooked. 3032. Stuffed Haddock Prepare the fish as directed in Recipe 207, using butter rather than suet in the stuffing. After it is sewed up and trussed, brush it over with beaten egg, and sprinkle with browned bread-crumbs. Place in a well-greased bag, seal up, and bake in a good oven from 20 to 40 minutes according to size. Serve with anchovy or parsley sauce poured round. 3033. Mackerel