Harper's cook book encyclopædia

good sauce to be served with it. The best carp are those of a medium size. They are better if kept a day before they are used. The head is considered the best part. Owing to their habit of burying themselves in mud, the flesh of these fish has often a disagreeable, muddy taste; in cleaning them, therefore, care should be taken to remove the gills, as they are always muddy, to rub a little salt down the backbone, and to lay them in strong salt and water for a couple of hours ; then wash them in fresh cold water. A good plan also is to put a piece of the crumb of bread with the fish, and remove it before it is served. Catfish. — Cut it in pieces two inches in length and one inch in thickness ; beat three eggs very light, adding salt, pepper, and enough Worcestershire sauce to flavor them ; dip the fish in this batter, and then roll in corn meal or in cracker- crumbs ; fry in plenty of lard until it is a dark brown ; garnish with lemon, sliced, or celery tops, parsley, or lettuce leaves. Caviare is served with toast. The taste for caviare is supposed to be acquired, but the relish is considered a great delicacy by many epicures. The can containing the paste would better be opened several hours before it is needed. Turn the contents into a china bowl, and, when ready to spread it on narrow strips of toast, beat into it a teaspoonful of lemonjuice and enough olive oil to make the mixture into a very soft paste. Spread on the strips of hot, buttered toast, and set in the oven for a minute. Caviare is also served cold, on thin slices of buttered bread. Chowder. — Fry % lb. of pickled pork, which has been cut into dice, and a small minced onion in hot butter or lard till they are a deep brown. Put half of this at the bottom of a saucepan, place over it a soupplateful of mashed potatoes, and over that some thick slices of uncooked sea -bass or turbot, about 4 lbs. in weight, the remainder of the pork and onions, and on the top a second layer of potatoes. Season with half a nutmeg, grated, a teaspoonful of powdered mace, five or six cloves, a table-spoonful of savory herbs — of which one-third should be thyme, one-third parsley, and one-third marjoram— a teaspoonful of salt, and four or five white peppercorns. Pour over all half a bottle of claret, half a bottle of catsup, and sufficient water to cover it. Let it simmer gently until the fish is cooked. Cod a la Bechamel. — Remove the flesh from the bones, and break it into convenient pieces. Put a cupful of white stock, nicely seasoned, and a cupful of new milk into a saucepan ; thicken it with a little flour and butter, put the pieces of fish into it, and let them remain until quite hot, but the sauce must not be allowed to boil. Serve with the sauce and fish in the middle of a hot dish, and place a border of mashed potatoes round it. Time, twenty minutes.