Fifty dinners

fish in two long fillets, remove the skin from them and set them aside. Chop up the head, bones, and skin, and add them to the fish “ cuttings,” which should also be chopped up. Put this into a stewpan, moisten with four gills of milk and four of water, and put with it a teaspoonful of salt ; bring slowly to the boil ; then, after skimming, put in four ounces each of minced onion, carrot, and turnip, one of celery, one of parsley-root, and a tablespoonful of horseradish shavings. Boil, and then simmer for forty-five minutes. Now strain off the broth into a basin. Take a sauté-pan with an upright rim, put enough of the fish broth into it to yield a bath for the fillets one inch deep, boil, put in the fillets and a sherry-glass of chablis or sauternc, then simmer the fish till it is very SMELTS STUFFED AND FRIED. soft. Drain oflf the broth now, and return it to the bowl with the rest. Pound the whiting in a mortar with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg and half an ounce of butter ; pass this through a wire sieve. Take a stewpan, melt half an ounce of butter in it, stir in half an ounce of flour, keeping the fire low, mix for three minutes, and then begin to moisten with the fish broth, passing in the puree by degrees till all is expended ; boil up once, and simmer for ten minutes ; then pass all through the hair sieve. Next heat up gently when required, bring almost to the boil, take off the fire, stir in a tablespoonful of cream and two tablespoonfuls of coarsely cut well blanched parsley. Serve with croutons of fried bread. This is a good soup for the Lenten season. Choose large smelts for this dish, and, handling them carefully, remove the flesh from the bones of each fish in two long fillets. Take out the roes, pound them with a fillet of anchovy and Smelts the yolk of a hard-boiled egg to a paste, season with salt and white pepper, brush over each fillet of each smelt with a beaten egg, spread a thin layer of the paste on one of them, sprinkle over it a fine dressing of minced chervil, lay the other fillet over it sandwich-wise, and do the same with the rest. Let them rest awhile to set, then brush them over with egg, breadcrumb with finely sifted crumbs ; let this dry, egg and crumb again, and then fry in plenty of boiling fat ; drain, dry, and serve on a hot napkin with lemon and parsley garnish. Butter melted, sharpened with lemon-juice, should be the only sauce. Brown bread and butter may also be circulated. By this process you get rid of the only drawback that some complain of in a smelt — the bones. For this a nice slice of veal from the leg should be got — say a pound and a quarter, and not less than an inch thick. Lay this upon a board and 3. Tour- ^ , L . , nedos of veal Cut out of it SIX or eight nice pieces — three Therise inches long and one and three-quarters across if oval, or two and a half inches in diameter if round. Lard these through — Ic., pass the needle straight through them, snipping off the ends of the lardoons with scissors. Alternate the lardoons with strips of cooked tongue, and put the prepared tonrnedos aside. Now take a sauté-pan with an upright rimm, and melt an ounce and a half of butter in it over a low fire, spread over this three ounces each of chopped-up onions, carrots, and turnips, one of celery, and a sprig of parsley ;