To improve.—Clean the fish as for baking, etc., and lay it in a crockery vessel with the following seasonings under and upon it: parsley and onions chopped fine, salt, pepper, thyme, bay-leaves, and vinegar or oil; turn it over occasionally, and leave thus for two or three hours.
To bone.—Slit the fish on one side of the backbone and fins, from head to tail; then run the knife between the bones and the flesh so as to detach the whole side from the rest; do the same for the other side.
For a flounder, or any other flat fish, slit right in the middle of both sides of the fish so as to make four instead of two pieces.
The head, bones, and fins are not used at all, and are left in one piece.
To serve, when boiled.—The fish is placed on a napkin and on a dish or platter, surrounded with parsley, and the sauce served in a saucer.
To skin.—Take hold of the piece of fish by the smaller end, and with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand; run the knife between the flesh and skin, moving the knife to and fro as if you were sawing. Throw away the skin, and the fish is ready for cooking.
If the skin were breaking, as it happens sometimes, take hold of it again, and proceed as before.
To decorate.—Fish may be decorated with jelly, but it is easier and more sightly with craw-fish. The skewers are stuck in the fish as they are in a fillet of beef.
The craw-fish when boiled are red like the lobster, and, besides using them with skewers, some may be placed all around the fish; it is delicate eating as well as sightly. Skewers are never used with fish in vinaigrette, or when the fish is cut in pieces. The craw-fish has only to be boiled before using it for decorating fish.
Shrimps and prawns are used the same as craw-fish.