Cookery for every household

Cleanse the eels, removing the skin if possible, and cut them in pieces 2 or 3 inches in length. Put these into a saucepan of boiling water, boil 2 or 3 minutes, then strain through a colander and rinse the fish with cold water. Return the pieces of eel to the saucepan, add to them the vinegar, water, wine, bay-leaves, parsley, and onion cut in small pieces. Set the saucepan on the fire and bring the contents slowly to the boil, then draw to one side and simmer slowly until the fish is tender. When ready, lift the pieces out and keep them warm. Strain the liquid left in the saucepan, and use it for making the sauce. To Make the Sauce. — Melt the butter in a clean saucepan, add the flour, and mix the two smoothly together with a wooden spoon. Then pour on the strained liquid — this should measure 3 gills, and any deficiency should be made up with fish or white stock — stir constantly until boiling and simmer 5 minutes. Beat up the yolks of the eggs with the cream and add them slowly to the sauce, not letting it boil again. Add the lemon juice and more seasoning if necessary. Pour the sauce over the pieces of eel, masking them well, and garnish with a little chopped parsley, croutons of bread, or small potato balls. Time to stew, about 20 minutes. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. 365. Timbale of Fish in Aspic (Timbale de Poisson en Aspic) 1 filleted sole or plaice. Aspic jelly. Chopped parsley. Hard-boiled yolk of egg. Coralline pepper. Chervil. Salad. Mixture. Trimmings of fish. Cooked prawns, shrimps, or lobster. 1 table-sp. mayonnaise sauce. 1 table-sp. thick cream. 3 table-sps. liquid aspic. Cook the filleted fish and press it very lightly between two plates until quite cold. Take a plain pint mould and line it very thinly with aspic jelly. Then cut the fish in small rounds with a cutter from 1 to H inches in diameter. Brush over one side of these rounds with liquid aspic, and decorate them prettily with chopped parsley, sieved yolk of egg, and coralline pepper. Allow the decoration to set and then arrange the pieces of fish on the bottom and sides of the mould, fixing them in position with liquid aspic. Small sprigs of chervil or rounds of thinly sliced tomato may be placed between the rounds of fish. When the mould is ready, prepare the mixture for filling it. Take the trimmings of the fish and break them up in small pieces, add to them some cooked prawns, shrimps, or lobster meat also broken small, and bind together with the mayonnaise, cream, and aspic. When the mixture is beginning to set, pour it into the prepared mould, filling it almost full, and let it stand on ice 10 or 12 minutes. Then cover the top with more liquid aspic, and allow it to remain on the ice until quite firm. Turn out when wanted, and garnish round the sides with salad or chopped aspic jelly. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. 366. Gurnets with Lemon 2 or 3 gurnets. Cold water. 1 table-sp. vinegar. 1 carrot. 2 onions. A bunch of herbs. Salt, pepper. Sauce (Grondins au Citron) Sauce. 2 eggs. 1 large lemon. 1 tea -cupful fish liquor. Salt, pepper.