Cookery for every household

The remains of any cold cooked fish may be used for making fish cakes. A mixture of fish scraps is very good, such as smoked fish and fresh fish combined. Free the fish from all skin and bone, then weigh it. Chop it finely, being most careful to remove any small bones, which might be most dangerous if left in. Sieve the potatoes, or put them through a vegetable presser, and chop the parsley very finely. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add to it the fish, potatoes, parsley, yolk of egg, and seasonings, and mix well together over the fire. Turn out on to a pi ate, smooth over with a knife, and set aside to cool. When the mixture feels firm, divide it into ten or twelve small pieces. Flour the hands, take one piece at a time, and roll it into a ball, laying them as they are formed on a slightly floured board. Then with a knife, also floured, flatten them slightly, and shape them into neat round cakes. Egg and bread-crumb them (see p. 249), and fry in boiling fat (see French Frying, p. 248) to a nice brown colour. Drain well. Fish Cakes and serve them neatly on a hot dish with a dish paper under them, and garnish with parsley. Notes. — If a little good fish sauce is available, the butter and yolk of egg may be omitted from the above list of ingredients and the sauce used in their place. A chopped hard-boiled egg may be added to the mixture if wished, and 1 or 2 sardines will help to give flavour. Sufficient for 10 or 12 cakes. 336, Fish Cakes, 2 Make in the same way as last recipe, using wellboiled and very dry rice instead of the potatoes. The rice should equal the fish in bulk and not in weight ; \ lb. before cooking will be sufficient. 337. Baked Fish Cake (Pain de Poisson) Use the same mixture as for the smaller fish cakes (see above), but make it rather moist by adding more milk ora little fish sauce. Well grease a plain round soufflo tin, or even a basin, and coat the inside with browned bread-crumbs. Fill up with the fish-cake mixture, and shake the contents well down into the mould. Cover with a piece of greased paper, and bake in a moderate oven from | to j- hour, according to size. When ready, turn out on a hot dish and serve with or without sauce poured round. Time to bake, J to § hour. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons. 338. Fish Cream (Creme de Poisson) | lb. uncooked fish. 1 oz. butter. 2 oz. bread-crumbs. 1 gill of milk. 1 gill double cream. 2 whites of egg. A pinch of nutmeg. A squeeze of lemon juice. Pepper and salt. Free the fish from skin and bone, weigh it and shred it down finely with a knife. Put it into a mortar, and pound it well. Rinse out a small saucepan with cold water, to prevent the mixture sticking to it. Put into it the butter and the milk, and bring them to the boil over the fire. Then add the bread-crumbs, and stir with a wooden spoon over the fire until the bread-crumbs swell