Make a batter of one teacupful of flour mixed carefully with milk till it is quite thin enough to run. Add a pinch of salt. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan a quarter pound of best tub lard boiling. Dip each smelt well into the batter and fry in the hot lard for ten to fifteen minutes.
113. Whitebait
Are treated like smelts but the batter must be only half as thick and the time required for cooking is from seven to ten minutes. Take up the fish from the batter with a slice and scatter into the boiling fat. Do not crowd the pan on any account.
114. Stewed Eels
Two or three freshly skinned eels cut into small pieces about two inches long. Put into a stone saucepan with a little salt and a piece of loaf sugar, one claret glass of white claret or cooking sherry, and about a teacupful of good beef stock. Cover the eels with water and slice a small Spanish onion into it. Stew gently for three-quarters of an hour, thicken with a little flour mixed with water and serve in the stone saucepan. Care must be taken not to break the fish when stirring in the thickening.
115. Salmon or Cod Cutlets
One and a half to two pounds in three or four cutlets, dip into a beaten egg and then roll in crumbs, made preferably of German rusks. Have ready a quarter of a pound of best tub lard in an enamelled frying pan and when hot put the fish in and fry for a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes, turning over once. To ascertain if properly cooked pass the knife down by the side of the bone and if cooked the knife will pass quite easily. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and garnish with parsley and lemon cut in quarters.
116. Sole for an Invalid
Lay a filleted sole in a rather deep meat dish and cover with milk and a little salt and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. This will make the sauce. Cover with another dish (flat) and bake in a quick oven for about half an hour. Serve very hot with the sauce and a little chopped parsley sprinkled over it.