The "A1" cookery book

To Boil Whiting.— Clean and dry the fish, lay them on a fish-plate, and put them into water at the point of boiling ; throw in some salt, a bay-leaf, and plenty of well-washed parsley tied together ; let the fish just simmer for from five to ten minutes, and watch them closely that they may not be overdone. Large fish take longer. Serve parsley and butter sauce with them. Filleted Whiting. — These are cooked precisely the same as the whole fish except that they are never skinned, and Piquant sauce is usually served with them. To Fry Whiting. — Whiting are generally skinned, but they taste much nicer when the skins are left on. After they are cleaned and dried in a cloth their tails must be fastened in their mouths, dredge with flour, and egg and bread-crumb, then put in a frying basket and fry a clear golden brown in boiling lard. Drain them well and serve. Melted butter is the best sauce for this fish, or anchovy sauce. To Steam Whiting for an Invalid. — Place the fish in a steamer and steam for ten minutes if a small fish, and twenty minutes if a large fish. To Cook Whitebait. — These fish require great care to dress well. Handle as little as possible, and throw them straight into a cloth with three or four handfuls of flour, and shake the cloth well ; then put into a bait sieve to get rid of the superfluous flour. The fish should be fried in a frying basket, and only left in the boiling fat for one or two minutes, as the fish must not be allowed to turn brown. Drain the fish, and serve piled high on a dish. Slices of brown bread and butter and cut lemon are served with whitebait. Bread-crumbs for frying Fish. — A constant supply should be kept to save time when preparing fish for frying. Put into a cool oven some slices of stale bread ; they must be thoroughly dried and lightly crisped. Crush them with a rolling-pin, and pass through a fine wire sieve. Put into a perfectly dry bottle and store for use. General Rules for cooking Meat. — The most important point to be considered in cooking meat is to cook it in such a way that it may retain all its nourishing properties. To do this the meat must be subjected to rather fierce heat for a few minutes to contract the pores of the surface of the meat ; but, that being done, the temperature must immediately be lowered, in boiling by adding cold water to the boiling water, and in roasting by drawing the joint further from the fire, and then the more slowly the meat is cooked the more tender it will taste. See directions for boiling, roasting, etc. To Roast Joints, etc. — To roast a joint properly the cook must devote a good deal of attention to it. It is best to put the screen on which the joint is hung close to a clear bright fire for twenty minutes, and then draw it back a little, so that the rest of the cooking can be done quite slowly. A little dripping should be put into the pan to baste the meat with till there is sufficient of its own fat to use, and it must be basted continually all the time it is •cooking. About twenty minutes is the proper time to allow for every pound of meat, but this will vary with the seasons ; in the hot weather a little shorter time will be sufficient.