Paper-bag cookery

Filleted or whole fish can be used for this dish. Chop a small shallot, add a teaspoonful of anchovy paste or sauce, a squeeze of lemon juice, 1 oz. of butter, a little chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and a little cayenne. Place in a thoroughly buttered bag, dredge with flour, pour a tablespoonful of melted butter on top of the fish, seal up and cook. For 2 lbs. of whole fish, 30 minutes, and 8 minutes for the same weight filleted. Sole Bourguigone. — Thoroughly butter a bag, place inside a well-trimmed sole or flounder, add three small peeled, uncut onions, a bouquet garni, and a glass of claret. Mix a large teaspoonful of flour with an ounce of butter, place this mixture on the sole, seal up the bag, and cook for 20 minutes in a hot oven. Sole or Flounder or Cod a la Comtesse. — Grease a bag thickly. Take 6 or 8 fillets of soles. Dust them lightly with salt and white pepper and squeeze a little lemon juice over each fillet. Put them in the bag and add to them an ounce of finely minced mushrooms, half a heaped large teaspoonful of finely minced shallot or chives, a heaped large teaspoonful of minced parsley and a heaped dessertspoonful of freshly fried breadcrumbs, all mixed together. Add also half a wineglassful of sherry mixed with the same amount of either good fish or ordinary stock. Close the bag and cook in a moderately hot oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Dish up. Pour the liquor and herbs, etc., over the fish and send to table at once. To make the fish stock put the bones and trimmings from the fish in a clean small stewpan with a gill of water and a bit of turnip, carrot, onion and celery, all first well washed and sliced, and simmer for 75 minutes. Strain off and use. Whitebait. — Clean and dry 1 lb. of whitebait, and roll them in flour. Melt 1 oz. of butter, season with a little cayenne pepper, add a finely-chopped shallot, and a tablespoon-, ful of vinegar. Sprinkle this mixture over the fish and place them in a well-buttered bag. Seal up and cook for 5 minutes in a very hot oven. Smelts Milanaise. — Clean a dozen smelts, roll them in flour. Put 1 oz. of butter on a very hot dish and let it melt, roll the fish in this butter, sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper and a little grated Parmesan, and place them side by side in a well-buttered paperbag. Cover lightly with breadcrumbs, and pour a little tomato sauce over each smelt. Seal up and cook for 8 minutes in a very hot oven. Serve with slices of lemon. Salmon can be cooked with any kind of seasoning to taste. A whole slice will take 20 minutes in a hot oven; a 7 lb. sliced salmon will take 45 minutes. Mushroom, tomato, salt and pepper, lemon juice, can be added as desired, and cooked in the paper-bag with the fish. For broiling or baking, dredge with a little flour and a little butter, and put in a very hot oven. Scallops. — Wash and drain half-a-dozen scallops, chop finely, and replace in the deep shell. Mince four mushrooms, add a chopped shallot, a little parsley, one chopped tomato, one teaspoonful of flour, season to taste, and mix with lemon juice. Cover the scallops with the mixture, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, a few breadcrumbs, and dot over with small pieces of butter. Place in a bag, seal, and cook for 10 minutes in a very hot oven.