Prepare a good bath of fat at least three inches deep, set this over a brisk fire, and when hot enough — z.e., when a crumb of bread cast into it fizzes freely — plunge the wire frying-basket into it. Pass the white- bait into it with a slice, only putting in as many as you can thoroughly immerse at a time. Maintain the heat. Leave them alone for three minutes motionless, then slightly stir them ; in half a minute more give them another stir : four minutes, or at most five, should be enough if the fat is properly hot. They must not be allowed to turn brown. Lift up the basket, drain them over the fat, shake them, dust some salt over them, turn them out upon blotting paper or a hot dry cloth to dry thoroughly, and repeat the same process till all the whitebait are done. If at all flabby, owing to the fat not having been hot enough, they may be plunged when cold again into very hot fat for a minute, when they will be crisp. Indeed it is by no means a bad plan to give them a 3 i8 FIFTY DINNERS. preliminary fry two hours before they are wanted (say of two or three minutes), and when they are wanted to finish with a second plunge into boiling fat for a minute or two. Clarified beef suet is the best frying medium. Boil the fowl as carefully as possible, putting in with the bird — six ounces of onion, four each of carrot and turnip, and an ounce of celery. The broth 3. Fowl with produced (/« cuisson), thickened and way. enriched with the yolks of two eggs, should be used to mask the fowl, some of it being served in a hot sauce-boat to accompany it. As for the rice, carry out the boiling of six ounces of the best Patna in the manner explained in the next para- graph, but, on returning it to the hot vessel after the draining, stir in a couple of ounces of the best fresh butter, using a two-pronged steel fork — a -wooden spoon makes the rice sticky — work this into the rice, and then dilute with half a pint of freshly made tomato pur'ce.! finishing with two ounces of grated Gruyere or Parmesan. Stir well together, keeping the mixture in the hot pan till the fowls are dished and masked, then arrange the tomato-tinted rice in a circle round them, and serve as quickly as possible. Grated cheese should accompany the sauce in circu- lation. Boiling Rick. — Always choose a large vessel for this work : two gallons of water should be allowed for six ounces of rice, a dessert-spoonful of salt and the juice of a lemon should be put into it. Do not wet the rice by washing beforehand : the best Patna is ASPARAGUS WITH CREAM. 19 ✪ Boiled Rice

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Prepare a good bath of fat at least three inches deep, set this over a brisk fire, and when hot enough — z.e., when a crumb of bread cast into it fizzes freely — plunge the wire frying-basket into it. Pass the whitebait into it with a slice, only putting in as many as you can thoroughly immerse at a time. Maintain the heat. Leave them alone for three minutes motionless, then slightly stir them ; in half a minute more give them another stir : four minutes, or at most five, should be enough if the fat is properly hot. They must not be allowed to turn brown. Lift up the basket, drain them over the fat, shake them, dust some salt over them, turn them out upon blotting paper or a hot dry cloth to dry thoroughly, and repeat the same process till all the whitebait are done. If at all flabby, owing to the fat not having been hot enough, they may be plunged when cold again into very hot fat for a minute, when they will be crisp. Indeed it is by no means a bad plan to give them a preliminary fry two hours before they are wanted (say of two or three minutes), and when they are wanted to finish with a second plunge into boiling fat for a minute or two. Clarified beef suet is the best frying medium. Boil the fowl as carefully as possible, putting in with the bird — six ounces of onion, four each of carrot and turnip, and an ounce of celery. The broth 3. Fowl with produced (/« cuisson), thickened and way. enriched with the yolks of two eggs, should be used to mask the fowl, some of it being served in a hot sauce-boat to accompany it. As for the rice, carry out the boiling of six ounces of the best Patna in the manner explained in the next paragraph, but, on returning it to the hot vessel after the draining, stir in a couple of ounces of the best fresh butter, using a two-pronged steel fork — a -wooden spoon makes the rice sticky — work this into the rice, and then dilute with half a pint of freshly made tomato purée, finishing with two ounces of grated Gruyere or Parmesan. Stir well together, keeping the mixture in the hot pan till the fowls are dished and masked, then arrange the tomato-tinted rice in a circle round them, and serve as quickly as possible. Grated cheese should accompany the sauce in circulation. Boiling Rick. — Always choose a large vessel for this work : two gallons of water should be allowed for six ounces of rice, a dessert-spoonful of salt and the juice of a lemon should be put into it. Do not wet the rice by washing beforehand : the best Patna is ASPARAGUS WITH CREAM.

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