TO BAKE SMELTS.
318. INGREDIENTS.—12 smelts, bread crumbs, 1/4 lb. of fresh butter, 2 blades of pounded mace; salt and cayenne to taste.
Mode.—Wash, and dry the fish thoroughly in a cloth, and arrange them nicely in a flat baking-dish. Cover them with fine bread crumbs, and place little pieces of butter all over them. Season and bake for 15 minutes. Just before serving, add a squeeze of lemon-juice, and garnish with fried parsley and cut lemon.
Time.—1/4 hour. Average cost, 2s. per dozen.
Seasonable from October to May.
Sufficient for 6 persons.
TO CHOOSE SMELTS.—When good, this fish is of a fine silvery appearance, and when alive, their backs are of a dark brown shade, which, after death, fades to a light fawn. They ought to have a refreshing fragrance, resembling that of a cucumber.
THE ODOUR OF THE SMELT.—This peculiarity in the smelt has been compared, by some, to the fragrance of a cucumber, and by others, to that of a violet. It is a very elegant fish, and formerly abounded in the Thames. The Atharine, or sand smelt, is sometimes sold for the true one; but it is an inferior fish, being drier in the quality of its flesh. On the south coast of England, where the true smelt is rare, it is plentiful.
TO FRY SMELTS.
319. INGREDIENTS.—Egg and bread crumbs, a little flour; boiling lard.