Herring au Gratin.—Soak and filet the herring. Butter a bag and strew the bottom with the bread crumbs well-buttered, a layer of grated cheese and a little minced chives or parsley. Sprinkle with pepper and lay in the filets of herring, plain or alternately with sliced tomato. Cover with more crumbs, parsley, cheese and butter, close the bag, and bake fifteen minutes until a good brown.
Herrings With Herbs.—Take four dried herrings, bone them, fill the cavities with a little (about half a teaspoonful to each fish) finely minced shallot or chives, and parsley. Add a few fresh breadcrumbs and tiny bits of butter. If liked, a tiny grate of nutmeg may be added as well as a good dust of pepper. Put into a well-greased bag and bake in the oven for ten minutes. Dish up and serve as hot as possible. Other dried fish are excellent prepared in the same way.
Kedgeree.—Mix one cup of shredded fish with one cupful of boiled rice, tender and well drained. Put into a well-buttered wooden baking dish, while you prepare the sauce. Put into a saucepan one tablespoonful each of butter and flour and as soon as melted and "bubbly," add one cup of hot milk. Stir until smooth and thick, season with salt and pepper, take from the fire, add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, that have been rubbed through a sieve, pour over the rice and fish. Put the dish in a well-buttered bag and set in the oven until thoroughly hot and delicately browned.
Kippered Mackerel With Fine Herbs.—Cut salt mackerel into filets, lay them in a deep earthen dish and cover with boiling water. Leave in water half a minute. Take out, wipe dry, dust with coarse black pepper and put on top of each filet half a teaspoonful of minced parsley and chives or onion and a bit of butter the size of a small walnut. Grease a bag well, put in the filets; seal and cook for twenty minutes in a hot oven. Serve hot, with brown bread and butter.
Salmon Loaf.—Mince one can of salmon, removing all bits of bone. Add to it a cupful fine, stale bread crumbs, two beaten eggs, a half cupful milk and salt, pepper, parsley and lemon juice to season. Put in a wooden mould in a buttered bag and bake or steam for half an hour. Turn out and serve hot with a white or Hollandaise sauce.
Scalloped Salmon.—Put a layer of soft grated bread crumbs in the bottom of a wooden baking dish that has been well-buttered. Sprinkle the bread crumbs with salt, pepper and bits of butter. Cover with a layer of flaked salmon, seasoning with salt and pepper and pouring in some of the oil and liquor from the can. Over this spread another layer of the seasoned crumbs, then more salmon and so on until the dish is filled. Let the last layer be of buttered crumbs moistening slightly with a little milk. Spread a little soft butter over the surface and bake in a buttered bag for half an hour in a hot oven to a rich brown.
Salmon Soufflé.—Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan and melt without browning. Add one tablespoonful of flour, stir until blended, then pour in one cup of warm milk. When thickened and smooth, add the yolk of one egg, one cup of salmon flaked, a tablespoonful of cream and a tiny bit of essence of anchovy and pepper to season. Mix carefully and well, fold in the white of one egg beaten until stiff and dry; then fill ramekins or wooden dish three-quarters full. Put in a bag and brown in a quick oven. Serve very hot. Chopped parsley may be added if desired.
Baked Shad.—In dressing the fish, cut as small an opening as possible. Wash well, dry and fill with a dressing made in this way. Pour over one cupful dry bread crumbs enough cold water or milk to moisten. Add a teaspoonful melted butter, and a teaspoonful minced parsley. Mix thoroughly and fill the fish, sewing or skewering the opening together. Use a wood cookery dish and put into a buttered bag two or three slices of wafer-thin salt pork and having salted and peppered the outside of the fish lay carefully on top the sliced pork. Lay as many more thin slices on top of the fish, or wipe over with olive oil. Seal, set in the oven and bake three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Serve with sauce tartare or a good brown sauce enriched with a small glass of Madeira.
Shad Roe.—As soon as the fish comes from the water or market, plunge the roe into boiling salted water to which a tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar has been added. Cook gently about ten minutes, lift out with a skimmer and slip into a bowl of ice water to become firm. When ready to cook, split lengthwise if plump and full, brush over with olive oil, melted butter or refined cotton seed oil, and tuck at once into the well-greased bag. Some cooks prefer to dust the roe with fine bread crumbs, lay into beaten egg, then dust once more with sifted crumbs before "bagging". Serve simply with lemon and cress, with sauce tartare or mayonnaise, or with a sauce prepared as follows: Put into a saucepan two tablespoonfuls butter or olive oil, one tablespoonful lemon juice, and chopped parsley, and a teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce. Heat to the boiling point and pour over the roe.