Buckmaster's cookery

Prepare a sauce : 1. Melt two ounces of butter in a stewpan. 2. Add a tablespoonful of flour, and bring it to the consistency of cream with hot milk. 3. Season with salt and pepper and a little grated horse-radish or lemon juice. 4. Take up the fillets with a slice and put them into the sauce, which should just cover them. 5. Simmer for two minutes ; a little chopped parsley may be added. Precautions. — Take care not to boil the fillets after they are in the sauce, the fillets should be so arranged as just to occupy the bottom of the stewpan. PLAIN BOILED SOLE. Ingredients . Sole. Lemon. Parsley. 1. Clean the sole as already directed. 2. Put it into plenty of cold water with salt, say one ounce to a quart of water 3. Bring it gently to the boil. 4. Put it aside to simmer from five to ten minutes according to size. 5. When ready place it in a clean napkin. 6. Garnish with parsley and slices of lemon. 7. Serve with plain melted butter, or other sauce. Precautions. — Rapid boiling is to be avoided. BOILED TURBOT. Ingredients . T urbot. A moderate -sized turbot, six or eight pounds, is to be preferred; large turbots are generally tough and 1 90' Buckmasters Cookery. stringy. 1. Soak the fish in cold salt and water for two hours to remove the slime ; some rub it with a lemon to make it white, but its utility is doubtful. 2. Place the turbot on the strainer, and put it into a clean oval fish-kettle with plenty of cold water and salt ; give it plenty of room. 3. Bring it gradually to the boil. 4. Skim and set aside to simmer gently for half an hour. French cooks use milk and water for cooking a turbot. 5. Dish it on a hot napkin, the white side uppermost. 6. Garnish with parsley and nasturtium flowers. 7. Serve with melted butter or shrimp sauce. Brill is cooked in the same way after soaking and removing the scales. Precautions. — Very careful boiling and a clean strainer and kettle are essentials. . Halibut is often sold for turbot, but its flavour is not so delicate. The halibut is smooth, and covered with oblong scales, which adhere firmly to the body. The turbot has large blunt tubercles like flattened warts. The halibut is more oval in shape than a turbot. FRIED SMELTS. Ingredients. 12 Smelts. Parsley. Egg and Bread Crumb. 1. Take a dozen smelts and clean them with as little washing and handling as possible. 2. Trim off the fins, dry them thoroughly in a cloth. 3. Flour them, or brush over with egg and bread crumb. Six are sometimes fastened together before frying with a skewer run through the eyes, or they may be fried Fish. singly. 4. Fry in hot fat at a temperature of 380° till they are of a rich golden colour and crisp. 5. Put them on some kitchen paper. 6. Sprinkle with salt, and garnish with fried parsley. Precautions. — The smelts must be fresh, well dried, and evenly covered with flour or egg and bread crumb. FRIED WHITING. Ingredients. Whiting. Lemon. Parsley. Egg and Bread Crumb. 1. Clean the fish in salt and water. 2. Dry thoroughly in a clean cloth. 3. Fasten the tail in the mouth. 4. Flour and brush over with egg and bread crumb. 5. Fry in hot fat to a golden colour. 6. Dish on a napkin, and garnish with fried parsley and a lemon cut in two. Precautions. — Unless the fish is quite fresh they have no flavour, and break in frying. WHITEBAIT. Ingredients. Whitebait. Lemon. Cayenne. Hot Fat.