Cassell's dictionary of cookery

We are not certainly a nation of cooks like the French, but we are entitled to be justly proud of our fried-fish shops. Tlie smell is not agreeable, but we have no hesitation in saying that a pennyworth of fried fish bought at one of these shops is better cooked and more palatable than the majority of dishes of fried fish met with in ordinary private establishments : the reason being that these places absolutely boil the fish in hot fat, which is the one thing that renders the fish nice and soft. We next come to grilled fish, and there can be no doubt that the grill somehow brings out a flavour that nothing else will. For instance, a fine fresh herring just out of the water cooked on a gridiron, what can compare to it 1 Fish especially requires a clear fire. Take, for instance, filleted soles going to be done d, la MaUre d'hotel : unless the fire be quite clear, the fish will get smoky perhaps or look dirty. First, extra care must be taken to have the gridiron perfectly clean, as the white fish will show marks in a way that a chop or steak of course would not. As an extra precaution, therefore, I would recommend you to rub the gridiron with a piece of mutton fat, and warm it. Then wipe it with a cloth, and see if any black remains. After this, again rub it with the fat, as it helps to prevent the fish from sticking and consequently burning, which it is very apt to do. The filleted pieces of soles are first dipped in a little oil mixed with some chopped parsley and pepper and salt ; the pieces are then placed across the gridiron, and if the fire be bright will look transparent, and directly this transparent appearance changes to an opaque one the fish is done. Underdone fish is extremely nasty, but, as we said, the universal fault is the other way — fish as a rule being as much overcooked as a boiled leg of mutton isis generally undercooked. Another important point to be remembered in grilling fish is generally to keep in the flavour.. For instance, a slice of grilled salmon tastes far nicer if the slice has been wrapped in oiled paper. Of course cooking anything wrapped in oiled paper on a gridiron requires great care, as should there be the slightest flare the paper will catch fire — what is wanted is a fierce heat. When fish has been cooked in paper it should be sent to table just as it is, paper and all. The paper must be proper cooking paper, and not printed. So few fish are ever baked that general directions on the subject are scarcely necessary. There is one case, however, to which we will refer, viz., fish en pa/pillot, or, in other words, fish baked in paper. Take, for instance, the case of rouget en papillot. The very best way of cooking red mullet is to wrap it up in oiled paper with plenty of butter and a little pepper and salt, the one thing to be borne in mind being that it is scarcely possible to have too much butter. Unfortunately, butter is now so expensive that this method of cooking fish is very extravagant : this is true, but if you do cook it this way, either do it properly or try another way altogether. If you place a red mullet or indeed any fish in paper with what is generally called a little dab of butter you simply diy up and spoil the fish altogether.