No. 237. Ray with Caper Sauce.—Put the fish in kettle with one sliced carrot, one sliced onion, three cloves of garlic, six bay leaves, six cloves, six branches thyme, four parsley roots, and cover the fish with half a bottle white wine and one quart consomme ([No. 14],) when it comes to a boil remove the fish to baking pan and cook slowly for one hour, basting freely with the liquor in which it was boiled. Serve with a sauce made from the gravy, adding capers, thickening and seasoning to taste. Striped bass, deep sea flounders and other coarse-meated fish may be cooked by the recipes given for cooking the ray.
No. 238. Salmon Cutlets, Herb Sauce.—Cut the salmon in slices an inch thick and about three inches square, or of a diamond shape. Chop fine half a dozen button onions, a little parsley and thyme, add pepper, salt and a dash of mace or nutmeg. Put these ingredients in saucepan with a little water and a glass of wine; heat for about five minutes. Put all in a suitable dish for baking, on top put the cutlets, cover and bake half an hour, basting freely from time to time with the liquid. When done, arrange the fish on a hot platter, add another glass of wine to the gravy, with the juice of a lemon and pour all over the fish and serve. Half a dozen mushrooms chopped and put in with the herbs will be found an improvement.
No. 239. Trout Baked, Herb Sauce.—Clean, wash and dry six trout of about one quarter pound each. Place them on a buttered dish, adding half a glass of white wine and one finely chopped shallot. Cook ten minutes, then put the gravy in a saucepan with tablespoon of cooked herbs, moistening with half a pint of sauce allemande ([No. 34].) Reduce gravy one half and pour it over the trout with the juice of half a lemon and serve.
No. 240. Baked Salmon Trout with Cream Gravy.—Wipe dry and lay in pan with just enough water to keep from scorching. If large, score the back, but not the sides, bake slowly from three quarters to one hour, basting with butter and water. Into a cup of rich cream stir three or four tablespoons boiling water (or cream will clot when heated,) into this stir gently two tablespoons melted butter and a little chopped parsley. Put this into milk boiler or farina kettle, or any vessel you can set into another, half filled with boiling water to prevent sauce from burning; add the cream and butter to the gravy from the dripping pan in which fish was baked; lay the trout on a hot platter and let the gravy boil up once, then pour over the fish; garnish with sprigs of parsley. Use no spiced sauces and very little salt. This creamed gravy may be used for various kinds of boiled and baked fish.
No. 241. Baked Shad.—Stuff with dressing ([No. 84],) rub the fish well with flour, lay in pan with a very few thin slices of pork on top. Bake a medium size fish forty minutes, add a little hot water, butter, pepper and salt to the gravy; boil up and serve in gravy tureen. Garnish the fish with sprigs of parsley. A tablespoon of anchovy sauce, or a glass of wine, is a decided improvement in making the gravy.
No. 242. Fillets of Shad with Mushrooms.—Prepare the fillets in the usual way, cutting in equal size and shape; put them on a plate, skin side down, and sprinkle each with a little salt, pepper, lemon juice and chopped parsley; let them remain in this condition fifteen minutes, then put them into a saucepan with a glass of white wine and an oz. of butter. Have ready a few stewed mushrooms, and when the fish are done remove them to a hot platter; put the mushrooms into the fish gravy, add another glass of wine and a wineglass of cream, simmer a minute and pour over the fish. If this doesn’t go to the right spot there is something the matter with the fish, the mushrooms, or the one who partakes of it.
No. 243. Baked Tautog, or Black Fish.—The tautog is a very nice fish. It is in best condition in the fall, but it is good at all times. In New York markets it is best known as the black fish. About Buzzard’s Bay and Vineyard Sound, where it is very plenty, it is generally called tautog. It is a difficult fish to scale, but the operation is made easier by pouring boiling water over it, but it must not soak in the hot water for an instant. It may be skinned for baking, in which case it is better to cover it with a buttered paper while baking, removing the paper in time to brown the fish before taking from the oven. The fish should be scored before baking and narrow strips of fat pork inserted in the gashes made. In May and June always save the roe to this fish—it may be baked with the fish, or fried separately—it is too good to be wasted. Make a dressing as for any fish, and prepare the gravy in the usual way.
No. 244. Salmon.—The ordinary cook book is full pf recipes for cooking this king of fishes, hence we have given it less attention than those varieties neglected by these books. There is no better way to cook this delicious fish than to boil, and it should be served with a simple sauce. Some of the recipes for turbot, trout or sole may be used for cooking salmon. That for salmon trout ([No. 240]) will be found just the thing for the land locked salmon.
No. 245. Sheepshead a la Creole.—The sheepshead is one of the best of our saltwater fishes; it is not so plenty as formerly, but some seasons it is quite plenty in our markets. To cook, put one chopped onion and one chopped green pepper (seed extracted) in a stewpan, and brown in half a gill of oil for five minutes; add one tomato sliced, four sliced mushrooms, a good bouquet of herbs and a clove of garlic; season with salt and pepper and moisten with half a pint of sauce allemande. Cut three pounds of fish into slices, lay them flat in the stewpan with three tablespoons of mushroom liquor, and cook for one hour on a slow fire. When ready to serve, sprinkle over with a tablespoon of chopped parsley and decorate with six heart-shaped croutons.
No. 246. Trout a la Chambord.—Make a forcemeat with one pound of firm, fresh fish, remove the skin and bones, pound well in a mortar, adding the whites of three eggs, a little at a time; when well pounded add half a pint of cream, half a teaspoon of salt and a little white pepper and nutmeg; mix well and use a portion of it for stuffing three trout of half a pound each; butter well a deep baking dish and lay in the trout, add half a glass of white wine, a bouquet of herbs, salt and pepper; bake fifteen minutes, basting often; take up the fish and put them on a dish to keep hot, remove the gravy to a saucepan, add one truffle and four mushrooms, sliced, (take out the bouquet) also a glass of wine; heat hot and pour over the fish, decorate with six quenelles made from the remaining forcemeat.