The encyclopaedia of practical cookery

(5) Remove the gills from four or five Mullets, do not draw them, scale lightly, chop off the fins, and wash and wipe them well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour sweet-oil over them, and rub frequently for thirty minutes or so. Oil some sheets of paper on both sides, wrap the fish up in them, and broil over a slow fire for fifteen minutes. Remove the paper, put on fresh, and cook for fifteen minutes longer. Place them, when done, on a dish, mask with fish glaze, pour round maitre-d’hotel sauce, and serve with more sauce in a sauceboat. (6) Stuffed.— Trim oft' the gills of the Mullets, boil without removing any of the inside, make an incision from the throat half-way down the belly of each fish, and prepare the following stuffing : Finely crumble some stale bread, mix with it a quarter of its quantity each of finely-minced shallots and mushrooms that have been fried in butter, season to taste with salt, pepper, and finely-chopped thyme and parsley in moderate quantities, work in a small lump of butter, and bind the mixture with beaten yolk of egg. Stuff the Mullets with this mixture, sew up the incisions, wrap each one separately in a sheet of buttered paper, lay them on a gridiron, and broil over a clear fire, turning when done on one side. When the fish are 'cooked, lay them on a dish over which has been spread a folded napkin or an ornamental dish-paper, garnish with fried parsley, and serve. Broiled Red Mullets with Italian Sauce. — Wipe the fish dry, dredge them over with salt and pepper, and squeeze over a few drops of lemon-juice. Oil with salad-oil as many sheets of note-paper as there are fish, and wrap one of the Mullets up in each sheet. Lay them on a gridiron, and broil over a clear fire, turning when done on one side. Finely chop three shallots, put them in a stewpan with a small quantity of salad-oil, and fry ; next put in a few minced mushrooms, 1 wineglassful of sherry, and a sufficient quantity of vegetable stock to make the sauce. Add 1 table-spoonful of chopped parsley and the strained juice of half a lemon, and let it simmer gently at the side of the lire for fifteen minutes. When cooked, take the fish out of the paper, and lay them on a hot dish. Skim the sauce, pour it over them, and serve with a plate of cut lemons. Fried Red Mullets. — Clean some Red Mullets, dry them well, dip them into beaten egg, then into breadcrumbs seasoned with chopped sweet herbs, plunge them into a frying-pan of boiling fat, and fry. Put the livers into a saucepan with sufficient water to make the sauce, boil them well, stir in a lump of butter, and the sauce is ready. Set the fish on a hot dish, and serve the sauce in a sauceboat. Ragout of Fillets of Red Mullet in a Paper Case.— Put some fillets of Red Mullet in a saute-pan with oil, and sautii them ; when cooked, drain the fillets, and put them in reduced veloute sauce, with chopped cooked fine herbs. Fill a paper case with a block of bread cut to fit it, then turn it over on to a dish ; procure a double plaited case, and stand it on the other. Whip the whites of some eggs in very hot, but not boiling, bechamel sauce till firm. Put a layer of the prepared ragout in the case, next a layer of cooked soft roes, then a layer of oysters, and For details respecting Culinary Processes , Utensils , Sauces , &c.t rejerred to , see under their special heads.