Clean a four-pound pike and put into a buttered baking-pan with enough hot water to keep from burning. Score the upper side deeply, cover with chopped salt pork, sprinkle with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Bake for half an hour, basting as required. Serve with any preferred sauce.
BAKED PIKE—II
Put the cleaned fish into a buttered baking-dish with two onions sliced, two bay-leaves, pepper and salt to season, and one cupful of sour cream. Rub the fish with butter, sprinkle thickly with bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, and bake until brown. Pour the liquid remaining in the pan around the fish and serve.
BAKED PIKE À LA FRANÇAISE
Marinate the prepared fish for two hours in oil and lemon-juice, seasoning with salt, pepper, chopped onion, and minced parsley. Put into the oven in the marinade, adding one cupful of stock and a wineglassful of white wine. Bake slowly, basting as required. Take up the fish, strain the sauce, thicken with a tablespoonful each of butter and flour cooked together, season with anchovy essence, add two tablespoonfuls of butter and two tablespoonfuls of capers. Pour over the fish and serve.
STUFFED AND BAKED PIKE
Clean and draw the fish, stuff with seasoned crumbs, sew up and put into a buttered baking-dish in the form of a circle. Score the fish deeply, sprinkle with pepper and salt, minced parsley, chopped onion, and chopped mushrooms. Add a cupful of Sherry and a cupful of beef stock, cover, and bake, basting frequently with the liquid. Take up the fish carefully, and add to the liquid enough stock to make the required quantity of sauce. Thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour cooked brown in butter, add two tablespoonfuls of butter, lemon-juice, red pepper, and anchovy essence to season. Pour over the fish, and serve.
PIKE BAKED IN SOUR CREAM.
Clean a four-pound pike, cut into steaks, and free from skin and bone. Put into a buttered baking-dish with two small onions chopped and two bay-leaves. Season with salt and cayenne, add one cupful of sour cream and bake. Put on a serving-dish, cover with crumbs and dots of butter and brown in the oven. Add enough stock to the liquid to make the required quantity of sauce, thicken with butter and flour, season, add a dash of lemon-juice, pour around the fish, sprinkle with minced parsley and serve.