After having emptied and well cleaned the fish, make an incision in the back as directed for turbot ; lay them into cold spring water ; add salt and salt- petre in the same proportion as for cod fish, and let them just simmer for four or five minutes after the water first begins to boil, or longer should their size require it, but guard against their being broken. Serve them with plain melted butter. 4 to 5 minutes ; longer if needful. TO FRY PLAICE OR FLOUNDERS. Sprinkle them with salt, and let them lie for two or three hours before they are dressed. Wash and clean them thoroughly, wipe them very dry, flour them well, and wipe them again with a clean Plaice. Sea Cream. 76 MODERN COOKERY. [chap. II. cloth ; dip them into egg, and fine bread-crumbs, and fry them in plenty of lard. If the fish be large, raise the flesh in handsome fillets from the bones, and finish them as directed for fillets of soles. Obs. — Plaice is said to be rendered less watery by beating it gently with a paste-roller before it is cooked. It is very sweet and pleasant in flavour while it is in the best season, which is from the end of May to about September. TO ROAST, BAKE, OR BROIL RED MULLET. In best season through the summer : may be had all the year. First wash and then dry the fish thoroughly in a cloth, but neither scale nor open it, but take out the gills gently and carefully with the small intestine which will adhere to them; wrap it closely in a sheet of thickly buttered paper, tie this se- curely at the ends, and over the mullet with packthread, and roast it in a Dutch oven, or broil it over a clear and gentle fire, or bake it in a moderate oven : from twenty to twenty-five minutes will be suffi- cient generally to dress it in either way. For sauce, put into a little good melted butter the liquor which has flowed from the fish, a small dessertspoonful of essence of anchovies, some cayenne, a glass of port wine, or claret, and a little lemon-juice. Remove the packthread, and send the mullet to table in the paper case. This is the usual mode of serving it, but it is dished without the paper for dinners of taste. The plain red mullet, shown at the commencement of this receipt, is scarcely ever found upon our coast. That which abounds here during the summer months is the striped red mullet, or surmullet , which, from its excellence, is always in request, and is therefore sel- dom cheap. It rarely exceeds twelve, or at the utmost fourteen, inches in length. 20 to 30 minutes. TO BOIL GREY MULLET✪ To Boil Grey Mullet. This fish varies so much in size and quality, that it is difficult to give exact directions for the time of cook- ing it. When quite young and small, it may be boiled by the receipt for Grey Mullet. whitings, haddocks, and other fish of about their size ; but at its finest growth it must be laid into cold water, and managed like larger fish. We have ourselves partaken of one which was caught upon our eastern coast, that weighed ten pounds, of which the flesh was quite equal to that of salmon, but its weight was, we believe, an unusual one. Anchovy, or caper fish sauce, with melted butter, may be sent to table with grey mullet Chap, ii.] FISH* 77 THE GAR-FISH. This is a fish of very singu- lar appearance, elongated in form, and with a mouth which resembles the bill of the snipe, from which circumstance it is often called the snipe-fish.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

After having emptied and well cleaned the fish, make an incision in the back as directed for turbot ; lay them into cold spring water ; add salt and saltpetre in the same proportion as for cod fish, and let them just simmer for four or five minutes after the water first begins to boil, or longer should their size require it, but guard against their being broken. Serve them with plain melted butter. 4 to 5 minutes ; longer if needful. TO FRY PLAICE OR FLOUNDERS. Sprinkle them with salt, and let them lie for two or three hours before they are dressed. Wash and clean them thoroughly, wipe them very dry, flour them well, and wipe them again with a clean Plaice. Sea Cream. [chap. II. cloth ; dip them into egg, and fine bread-crumbs, and fry them in plenty of lard. If the fish be large, raise the flesh in handsome fillets from the bones, and finish them as directed for fillets of soles. Obs. — Plaice is said to be rendered less watery by beating it gently with a paste-roller before it is cooked. It is very sweet and pleasant in flavour while it is in the best season, which is from the end of May to about September. TO ROAST, BAKE, OR BROIL RED MULLET. In best season through the summer : may be had all the year. First wash and then dry the fish thoroughly in a cloth, but neither scale nor open it, but take out the gills gently and carefully with the small intestine which will adhere to them; wrap it closely in a sheet of thickly buttered paper, tie this securely at the ends, and over the mullet with packthread, and roast it in a Dutch oven, or broil it over a clear and gentle fire, or bake it in a moderate oven : from twenty to twenty-five minutes will be sufficient generally to dress it in either way. For sauce, put into a little good melted butter the liquor which has flowed from the fish, a small dessertspoonful of essence of anchovies, some cayenne, a glass of port wine, or claret, and a little lemon-juice. Remove the packthread, and send the mullet to table in the paper case. This is the usual mode of serving it, but it is dished without the paper for dinners of taste. The plain red mullet, shown at the commencement of this receipt, is scarcely ever found upon our coast. That which abounds here during the summer months is the striped red mullet, or surmullet , which, from its excellence, is always in request, and is therefore seldom cheap. It rarely exceeds twelve, or at the utmost fourteen, inches in length. 20 to 30 minutes. TO BOIL GREY MULLET. This fish varies so much in size and quality, that it is difficult to give exact directions for the time of cooking it. When quite young and small, it may be boiled by the receipt for Grey Mullet. whitings, haddocks, and other fish of about their size ; but at its finest growth it must be laid into cold water, and managed like larger fish. We have ourselves partaken of one which was caught upon our eastern coast, that weighed ten pounds, of which the flesh was quite equal to that of salmon, but its weight was, we believe, an unusual one. Anchovy, or caper fish sauce, with melted butter, may be sent to table with grey mullet Chap, ii.] THE GAR-FISH. This is a fish of very singular appearance, elongated in form, and with a mouth which resembles the bill of the snipe, from which circumstance it is often called the snipe-fish.

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To Boil Grey Mullet

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