With White Sauce.—Pick out the remnants of a boiled turbot free from bones into flakes. Make some plain melted butter, not too thick, using plenty of butter and very little flour; season it with pepper, salt and nutmeg, and simmer in it 12 button mushrooms cut in two. When these are cooked add the turbot, and as soon as this is quite warm stir in, off the fire, the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up with the juice of a lemon and strained. A little minced parsley may be added.
With Wine Sauce.—Lay the turbot on a shallow tin or pan plentifully buttered, with slices of onion, some parsley, a few mushrooms, pepper, salt, 2 bay leaves and a few cloves, and enough white wine and water to come up to, but not over the fish; put a piece of buttered paper over the fish, and place the tin in the oven to bake for about 1½ hour, basting the fish frequently with the liquor. When done strain some of the liquor, thicken it with some of the browned butter and flour, add some grated nutmeg, and stir in, off the fire, the yolks of 2 eggs beaten up with the juice of a lemon, slip the fish on a dish, pour the sauce over, and serve.
Whitebait (Blanchaille). Fried.—The great secret of successful frying depends upon the fat being boiling, scrupulously clean utensils, a clear, bright fire, and plenty of good fat. There must be little time lost in serving any fried fish. Directly it is taken from the fire it should be sent to table, never covered with a dish cover; that renders it tough. It is not to be expected that any one can perfectly succeed in cooking whitebait the first time of trying, but if these directions are carefully carried out, two or three trials will ensure success. Everything must be prepared. Have a stewpan (copper is the best) that is perfectly clean, for if there is anything sticking at the bottom of the pan, it will quickly catch or burn, and so spoil the contents; a wire fish-basket that fits the stewpan, and can easily be moved in or out. Have a clean, fine cloth; some fine white flour (the finer quality is requisite, as it is less heavy). American flour is first-rate, being fine and dry. Place an inverted sieve before the fire on a stand, and on the top of the sieve a double sheet of thick white blotting-paper. For a pint of whitebait have 2 lb. pure lard. Put it in the stewpan and let it melt; when the fat boils and all the little bubbles cease to appear on the surface, and it begins to smoke, it is ready for use. The fat must be very hot (some people test the heat by a frimometer); the heat should be 345° Fahrenheit for ordinary frying, and 400° for whitebait. The little bubbles that rise on the surface show there is still water in the fat; this would at once spoil the fish and make it flabby. When the lard is quite ready it is time to prepare the fish. The whitebait is generally sent from the fishmonger’s in a tin pot full of water. Take it from the pot and throw it into some clean, fresh cold water. Take a handful of the fish and throw it in the clean cloth; shake it lightly so that all the moisture may be absorbed. Have a sheet of clean white paper with a good handful of flour on it. Take the whitebait and sprinkle them into the flour, fingering them as little as possible. Take up the paper and shake the whitebait well in the flour, so that they all get well floured. Turn the whitebait into a wire basket and sift all the loose flour back on to the paper. Turn the whitebait a few at the time into the frying basket, and immerse it at once in the stewpan of hot lard for 1 minute; the fish should be quite crisp. Quickly let the fat drain from the frying basket, and turn the fish out on the blotting-paper on the sieve. Repeat the process until all is done. Have a dish ready with an ornamented paper, and pile up the fish pyramid fashion, and serve as quickly as possible with a plate of thin brown bread and butter and lemon. Place them on a plate with a caster of cayenne pepper in the centre. 2 lb. lard seems extravagant, but, if carefully poured into a clean basin, and when cold the sediment at the bottom taken away, and the lard put again into a clean vessel, it will serve 10-15 times.
Whiting (Merlan). À la Venetienne.—Cut a large whiting into fillets, put them into a deep dish, with some salt, pepper, and the juice of a large lemon; let them marinade for an hour, then drain; flour the fillets well, and fry of a golden brown, serving them with whatever sauce is preferred. A good white sauce, with the squeeze of a lemon added at the last moment, is excellent with this fish.
Au Gratin.—Take a few mushrooms, 2 shallots, and some parsley, all finely minced; mix them together. Butter a tin very plentifully, strew in it some of the above mixture and some fine baked breadcrumbs with a little pepper and salt. On this place the whitings (split open), on them place the remainder of the mushrooms, &c., more pepper and salt, and cover up the whole with a thin layer of baked breadcrumbs. Pour in at the side a glass of white wine and a sufficient quantity of stock to come up to the fish, and soak the breadcrumbs without washing them off. Put the tin in the oven to bake for 20 minutes.
Aux Fines Herbes.—Butter the bottom and sides of a pie-dish, put into it some whitings nicely cleaned, with a sufficient quantity, according to the number of fish, of chopped parsley, thyme, tarragon, and shallot, very finely chopped, moisten them with a small quantity of white wine, and put them into the oven; when the whitings are about half cooked, turn them, and when they are quite done thicken the sauce with a little butter and flour, pepper and salt should of course be added. In serving them let them go to table in the same dish, just adding a squeeze of lemon juice.
Baked.—This fish is very nice baked and served with caper sauce.
Dressed.—Take 4 or 5 whitings, according to size and number of people, 1-2 hours before they are wanted; sprinkle them with a little salt to make them firm, as they are apt to break. About ½ hour before dinner put the fish into a wide enamelled stewpan, so that they may form one layer. This stewpan should be shallow, so that the whitings may be more easily lifted out; pour over them a little stock or gravy (it should reach about half-way up the fish), and put with them one moderate-sized onion, cut into quarters, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Stew the fish 20-25 minutes. Put into a saucepan 2 oz. butter and 1 tablespoonful flour, stir over the fire till the flour is well mixed with the butter. When the fish are done, with a slice lift them out on the dish in which they are to be served, and pour the liquor in which they were cooked into the saucepan with the butter and flour, stir well and boil up, then add the yolks of 2 eggs, a tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup, the same of lemon juice, a little pepper and salt, and serve. Be careful the sauce does not boil after the eggs are in.
Fillets.—Carefully skin and free from bones 3 or 4 small whitings. Put the heads and bones into the stockpot. Dip the fish into a beaten egg. Roll in finely-sifted breadcrumbs, and tie up with cotton before frying. The fish may be rolled up wholly or divided into slices. It may also be fried as fillets without rolling up. Serve up with parsley and slices of lemon.