Cookery for every household

Clean and wash the fish, cutting off the heads and fins. Score them across two or three times on each side with a knife, season them with pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice, and let them lie half an hour. Meanwhile prepare the potatoes, parboil them about 10 minutes, and then cut them in quarters. Then take a baking dish or tin and lay in it a few slices of fat bacon. Coat the fish lightly with flour, lay them on the top and put a small piece of fat bacon on the top of each. Put the potatoes round the fish, cover all with greased paper, and bake in a good oven until both are ready. The pieces of potato should be turned over once during the cooking. When ready, lift the fish carefully on to a hot dish, arrange the potatoes round them, and sprinkle with the chopped parsley. Time to bake, 20 to 30 minutes. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. 202. Fillets of Gurnet au Gratin (Filets de Grondin au Gratin) 3 or 4 gurnets. 1 oz. butter. Pepper and salt. 6 or 8 small mushrooms. 1 gill brown sauce. Lemon juice. 2 tablesps. bread-crumbs. 1 table-sp. grated cheese. Skin and fillet the fish (see p. 78), season the fillets with pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice. Fold them in two, and arrange them neatly in a greased fireproof dish. If fresh mushrooms are used, prepare and trim them as directed in Recipe 513, and place a head on the top of each fillet of fish; if preserved mushrooms, simply drain them from their liquor, and if small use a larger number. Warm about a gill of brown sauce and pour it over the fish. Then sprinkle the top with the bread-crumbs and grated cheese mixed together. Lay the butter in small pieces on the top, and bake in a moderate oven until the fish is cooked and the surface nicely browned. Serve hot, garnished with a little parsley. Note. — Other kinds of fish may be prepared in the same way. Time to cook, 20 to 30 minutes. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. Haddock (Aigrefln or Eglefln) This is one of our most useful fish, as it is obtainable all the year round at a moderate price. The flesh is white and firm, with a delicate flavour, and is capable of treatment in a variety of ways. On each side of the body, just below the gills, there is a dark mark which superstition calls the finger and thumb mark of St. Peter. A medium-sized haddock is best, the flesh is inclined to be coarse when the fish grows to a large size. 203. Haddock, To Boil or Steam Clean the fish and truss it with a skewer in the shape of the letter S. Then cook it according to directions given for boiling or steaming fish (pp. 79-80). Or, it may be boiled in a mixture of milk and water, the liquid afterwards being used to make the sauce. This latter method is an excellent one when cooking the fish for an invalid. When sufficiently cooked, drain the fish well, slide it on to a hot dish on which a doyley or dish paper has been placed, and remove the skewer. Garnish with parsley and cut lemon ; melted butter, or any suitable fish sauce should be served separately. Time to cook, 20 to 30 minutes for a large haddock. 204. Haddocks, To Fry (Egleflns Frits) Small haddocks. I A little milk. Flour. Lemon juice. | Pepper and salt.