If a family is small, and it should not be advisable to buy a large middle cut of salmon, it would be preferable to buy, for instance, two slices. Boil them very slowly in acidulated salted water, or in the court bouillon with wine. Serve them with parsley between, and a napkin underneath. Serve a sauce Hollandaise in the sauce-boat.
Canned Salmon.
The California canned salmon is undoubtedly one of the greatest successes in canning. By keeping a few cans in the house, one is always ready in any emergency to produce a fine dish of salmon in a few minutes. It is particularly nice for a breakfast-dish, heated, seasoned with pepper and salt, placed on thin slices of buttered toast, with a cream dressing poured over all, i. e., milk thickened on the fire, by stirring it into a roux ([see page 51]) of butter and flour, and seasoned with pepper, salt, and a few pieces of fresh butter just before serving. For dinner it is excellent served with any of the fish sauces. Salmon is also nice served in shells, as for trout ([see page 109]).
SHAD.
This delicious fish is undoubtedly best broiled, with a maître-d’hôtel sauce; but it is good also cut in slices, and sautéd.
TROUT.
If large, they may be broiled, boiled, or baked. If boiled or broiled, serve the sauce Hollandaise with them. Professional cooks generally boil it in the court bouillon. Smaller trout are better egged, rolled in salted corn-meal, and thrown into boiling lard.
The trout is a very nice fish for an au gratin, or stewed, called then en matelote.
Trout in Cases or in Shells (en Coquilles).
Parboil little trout; cut the fish into pieces about an inch long, or into dice; place them in paper cases (which have been buttered or oiled, and placed in the oven a few moments to harden the paper so as to enable it to hold the sauce). After partly filling the cases with the pieces of fish, pour over them some fine herb sauce ([see page 128]), and sprinkle over bread-crumbs; put them into the oven twenty minutes before dinner to bake.