Clean the fish and remove the heads. Put into a buttered china baking-dish. Add enough fish or veal stock to cover, and chopped onions, capers, parsley, thyme, pepper and salt, and white wine to season. Bring to the boil, pour over the fish and bake for ten or fifteen minutes. Serve in the same dish.
SMELTS WITH FINE HERBS
Chop together chives and parsley, and sprinkle a buttered baking-dish. Season with salt and pepper, lay prepared smelts upon it, sprinkle with chopped onions and seasoning, add half a cupful of white wine, cover with buttered paper and bake for ten minutes. Take up carefully, thicken the liquid with butter and flour cooked together, and serve with the fish.
SMELT CROQUETTES
Clean and split smelts and remove the backbone. Pound fine a pound of cooked halibut, seasoning with salt, white pepper, and Sherry. Add enough very thick Cream Sauce to make a stiff paste, and cool. Shape into croquettes and roll a smelt around each one, fastening it by sticking the tail through the head. Dip in egg and crumbs and fry in hot lard to cover. Serve with Tartar Sauce.
SMELTS IN MATELOTE
Chop together an onion, a sprig of parsley, three mushrooms, and a bean of garlic. Fry in oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the cleaned smelts into the pan, add enough white wine to cover, and simmer until done. Strain the liquid, thicken it with butter and flour cooked together, pour over the fish, and serve with a garnish of lemon and parsley.
FIFTY-FIVE WAYS TO COOK SOLES
NOTE:—If the imported sole is not readily obtainable, flounder or pompano makes a very acceptable substitute.