Put three onions sliced in a stewpan with two ounces of butter, one turnip, one carrot (in slices), a head of celery (cut small), a good handful of parsley, and two bay-leaves; pass the whole ten minutes over a sharp fire, add a pint of vinegar, a blade of mace, and half a dozen peppercorns; let simmer, then add three pints of water; you have cleaned three fine freshwater trout, which put in the above marinade and let them simmer half an hour; let them get cold in the marinade, take them out, drain upon a cloth, and dress them on your dish, the head of the centre one pointing with the tails of the others; sauce over with a very white mayonnaise sauce (No. 1364) into which you have put extra chopped tarragon and chervil and a little whipped cream.
No. 1054. Darne de Saumon marinée.
Cut two good slices from the middle of a fine salmon, four inches in thickness, and dress them in a marinade, as for the trout, first tying them up; stew one hour, and leave them in the marinade to cool; when quite cold drain them on a cloth; dress on your dish, fill the centre with Montpelière butter (No. 1366), garnish with a border of eggs, and sauce round with a very white Tartare sauce (No. 38), and sprinkle a little chopped gherkins over.
No. 1055. Galantine d’Anguille.
Procure two fine eels, skin and bone them, have ready prepared some forcemeat of whiting (No. 124), lay the eel open before you and spread some of the forcemeat down the centre, upon which lay small fillets of truffle, pistachios, cooked tongue, and whiting, cover with more of the forcemeat, and sew the eel up in its original shape, cut it into two equal parts and envelope each in thin slices of fat bacon, tie in a napkin and place them in a stewpan in which you have prepared a marinade as for the trout, but using half a pint of Madeira wine instead of vinegar, stew gently half an hour or until tender, and leave it to get cold in the stock, take out and remove them from the napkin, glaze and place them on your dish side by side upon a stand of Montpellier butter (No. 1366), and a little between them to hold them together; garnish round with craw-fish and croutons of aspic (No. 1360). Six rolls of them, each three inches high, may be dressed into what we term a bastion, that is standing them up on end in a circle, joining them together with Montpellier butter, and placing the half of a hard-boiled egg cut across (to form a cap) upon each, decorated with fillets of anchovies and very green gherkins.
VEGETABLES FOR SECOND COURSE.
Where a dish of vegetables are required for second course, if there should be two flancs contrive to let the vegetables make one of them; but if there should only be four dishes in the second course they may be dressed upon one of them, as also in larger dinners, and especially when there are a great many vegetables in season.
No. 1056. Asparagus
Is one of the most favourite vegetables we have, and is generally served plain; the large grass is preferred, although the smaller is, in my opinion, the fullest flavour for a dish; you require a hundred large ones or a hundred and a half of small, scrape and cut them of equal lengths, (about eight inches,) and tie them in bundles of fifteen; about twenty minutes before ready to serve have a gallon of water, in which you have put two ounces of salt, boiling in a stewpan, put in your grass, let boil quickly, and when tender take it up, dress in pyramid as high as possible upon a piece of toasted bread, and serve melted butter (No. 71) or sauce Hollandaise in a boat.