The home cook book

Use a four-pound fish; any nice firm-meated fish, such as bluefish, redfish, whitefish, or red snapper, may be used. Fry one minced onion in a tablespoon of butter, add one teacup of cracker-crumbs, one teaspoon of salt, one minced garlic clove, one tablespoon of tomato- juice, a pinch of red pepper, and half a teaspoon of thyme. Brown and mix well. Add two dozen drained and chopped oysters. Brown until quite dry. With this stuff the body and head of the fish, sewing the sides of the fish together to keep the dressing in. Dust with flour and lay in the baking-pan. Lay some slices of fresh tomatoes over the fish, also four thin slices of bacon. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over, and also sprinkle over a little salt and cayenne pepper. Bake half an hour in a medium heat, basting with tomato- juice. Serve with crisp, white lettuce and mayonnaise or French dressing. TO BOIL FISH In getting a fish ready to cook, scale it, draw it, and souse it quickly in cold water. Have ready a kettle holding enough boiling water to cover the fish. Tie the fish in a square of cheesecloth to keep it from dropping apart, and slip into the boiling water. Allow twenty minutes of boiling for each pound when it is a cut from a large fish of the cod or halibut kind ; when the fish is small, or long and whole, allow about ten minutes. When the fish is nearly done add salt. Take it from the pot, slip it from the cheesecloth on a hot platter, and serve with some one of the fish sauces found on pages 141 to 147. In washing the cheesecloth in which the fish was cooked, do not use soap. Wash first in cool water and then in hot till perfectly clean. Dry, fold, and lay aside for next using. SAUCE FOR BOILED FISH Make a drawn butter of two heaping tablespoons of butter and two heaping tablespoons of flour, blended together. Put this in a small saucepan. Pour over it hot water to dissolve, add more warm water until you have one pint. Salt to taste. Set this in another saucepan with a small quantity of hot water in it. Stir constantly as the water underneath boils, and let it boil slowly. Raise it from the under saucepan now and then, and stir hard to prevent lumping. Return it to the water. Do this until the sauce is thick enough to pour easily. It must be perfectly smooth. Take it from the fire, and add gradually the yolks of two beaten eggs, the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoon of onion- juice, and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Serve hot. TO BROIL FISH Have your bluefish, trout, mackerel, shad, or whatever fish you have chosen well cleaned of scales, drawn and split down the back. Souse it for a second in clear cold water, have ready a hot broiler, rub the broiler with suet, and lay on the fish. Present first to the fire the flesh, or inside, of the fish, and when that is seared crisp so the juices will stay in, turn and sear the skin side. Now turn the fish from side to side frequently, and continue the broiling till done. Have ready a hot platter, salt the fish just before taking from the broiler, lay on the hot platter, spread on the fish a few pieces of butter, add thin slices of lemon and serve. PLANKED FISH