Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

For twelve large smelts use three table-spoonfuls of butter, one of lemon juice, one of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, and some flour. Put the butter, salt, pepper, \ and lemon juice in a deep plate, and set on the back part of the stove where the butter will melt slowly. Have about three table-spoonfuls of flour in another plate. Wash and wipe the smelts ; then roll them in the melted butter and seasoning, and lightly in the flour. Lay them in a double-broiler. When all are done, cook over clear coals for seven minutes. Arrange on a warm dish, and serve with remoulade sauce, — the sauce to be in a separate dish. Stuffed Smelts. Clean a dozen and a half large smelts, and season them with salt. Stuff with oyster force-meat, not filling them more than two-thirds. Now roll them in melted butter, and then in fine bread crumbs. Lay them in a shallow pan, and bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes, basting once with soft butter. Serve on a warm dish with Bernaise sauce. Stuffed smelts may be breaded and fried, in which case serve with Tartar sauce. Turbot. In some countries this is thought to be the choicest of flat fish. When not too large, it certainly is very delicate. It has this advantage over most white fish : it improves by being kept a day or two after it is killed. A fish weighing from four to eight pounds is a good size for boiling, baking, or filleting. Turbots are found in the market from two pounds up to twenty. When they weigh more than ten pounds, the flesh generally is tough. In choosing a turbot, take one with yellowish-white flesh. The meat of a bluish-white fish will not be so good. Turbot, like halibut (which is frequently sold for turbot), has a dark upper skin, while the lower skin is white. Sometimes the under skin is marred by red spots. These can be removed by rubbing lemon juice and salt on them. FISH. 19o No matter how this fish is cooked, it always should be soaked for at least half an hour in salted water before being prepared for cooking, in order to remove the slime. The skin becomes thick and gelatinous on cooking, and is thought by epicures to be a choice morsel ; but it is rather indigestible food. The fins, too, are gelatinous, and they are left on the fish when it is boiled. * Boiled Turbot. Wash the fish carefully, and let it stand for one hour in salted cold water, — one table-spoonful of salt to each pint of water. Now rinse the fish in fresh water. With a sharp knife, cut the black skin in a straight line from head to tail. This will prevent the white skin from breaking. Turbots are so broad that if the particular fish about to be cooked be a large one, it will not fit into a common fish-kettle. Few people have a turbot-kettle, and when there is not one at hand, a deep milk-pan will answer very well. Put a round, flat pot-cover in the bottom of the pan, or, better still, have a round piece of tin made 'to fit loosely in the milk-pan.