Soyer's standard cookery

Take two filleted haddocks. Rub them over gently with butter with a silver fish knife. Dip them in flour and then squeeze a little lemon juice over each, and dust lightly with pepper and salt. Place them carefully in a well-greased bag. Add to them half a wineglassful each of sherry, and Worcester sauce and water. Fold and seal in a bag, and cook in a moderately hot oven (300° Fahr.) from fifteen to eighteen or twenty minutes according to the thickness of the fillets. Dish up on a hot dish, pour the liquor in which they were cooked over them, and serve as hot as possible. Hake. Slice three pounds of fish, season with salt and pepper, add a small chopped onion and a few sweet herbs. Mix one ounce of butter or dripping with a large tablespoonful of flour, add three parts of a glass of milk and stir to a smooth paste. Place all these ingredients with the fish in a well-buttered paper bag and cook for twenty minutes (300° Fahr.). Any sauce can be added as flavoring if desired, Hake or Cod a la Valeska. Take a cutlet of either; spread each side well with butter, dip into seasoned flour, then sprinkle very thickly with finely grated cheese. A mixture of Parmesan and Gruyere is the best, but any kind, even Dutch, will do; grease a bag well with butter. Put in the fish and add to it a gill of either good fish stock or flavored milk (i.e., milk in which a slice each of onion, turnip and carrot and a bit of celery have simmered for fifteen minutes), and cook for from twenty to thirty minutes, according to the thickness of the cutlet, in a moderately hot oven (300° Fahr.). Turn out gently on to a hot dish. Pour the sauce over, sprinkle picked shrimps on top and serve. The shrimps should be made hot, not cooked, in a little roll of well-greased Soyer paper separately. Halibut a la Minute. Season a slice of halibut about an inch in thickness with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Slice two tomatoes, lay them on the fish, squeeze lemon juice over, dot with small pieces of butter, and place in a thoroughly buttered paper bag. Seal up and cook for fifteen minutes in a very hot oven (350° Fahr.). Herrings a la Rnsse. Take four very fresh soft-roed herrings. Get the fishmonger to bone them for you. In the center of each place a big teaspoonful of French mustard and a bit of butter. Dust lightly with black pepper, and place in a well-buttered bag. Add to them half a wineglassful of hock or sherry and half a wine- glassful of either shallot or tarragon vinegar as preferred. Cook for fifteen to eighteen minutes, according to the thickness of the fish, in a moderately hot oven (300° Fahr.). Dish up on a hot dish and serve with a beetroot salad. This is a most appetizing way of cooking herrings, but it must be done in the Soyer bag if it is to be done to perfection. For the dressing for the sliced beetroot allow two tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar to one of oil, and pepper and salt to taste. Fresh Herring. Slit the fish on each side in a horizontal direction. Place on it a little mace, bay leaves, parsley, a small piece of onion, and some salt and pepper. Add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Place in the paper-bag, seal up, put on the grid in a moderate oven for twenty minutes (300° Fahr,.). Kippers and Bloaters.