Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Finnan Haddock for Breakfast. — {Family Recipe.) — Soak the Haddock in cold water for one hour. Take it out, dry it, skin it, and put it into a buttered saute-pan. Pour over it, according to the size of the fish, a tablespoonful or two tablespoonfuls of thin cream. Put the pan on the fire, let it come to the boil, and then let it simmer with the lid on till the Haddock is cooked. This will probably be in half an hour. Take out the fish, lay it on a hot dish, reduce the sauce till you have to scrape it out of the pan. Put it on the Haddock ; it gives just a browning look and a nice flavour. Add no seasoning of any kind. Serve the fish very hot. Or, having soaked the Haddock, broil it ou the gridiron. FINNAN HADDOCK FOR BREAKFAST Then remove the skin and bones, break up the flesh with two forks, lay it on a fire-proof dish, and add an equal quantity of sifted breadcrumbs. Take an ounce of buttei’, put some among the fish and the crumbs, and the rest in little bits on the top. Dust with cayenne, and set the dish in the oven to get slightly brown. Or the Finnan Haddock can be laid on a buttered dish, and cooked in the Dutch oven. Or it can be plainly toasted on a toasting-fork before a clear fire, and served in a hot, well-buttered dish. For these recipes do not skin the fish. (See also chapter on Savouries.) Whiting. — The Whiting, “that chicken of the ocean,” as Lord Beaconsfield called it, is a very favourite and a very delicate fish. It can always be had, but is best from May to January. Whitings are abundant in our seas, and vary in weight from half a pound to two pounds. This fish suffers more than any other at the hands of the fishmonger, for he has a time-honoured custom of skinning it and curling it round with its tail in its mouth. This custom no doubt originated with unscrupulous fishmongers, for haddocks, a cheap fish, can easily be mistaken for the more expensive Whitings when the latter are skinned. The fishmonger should be induced to send Whitings in just as they are, merely cleaning them if wished. The Whitings can then be filleted and plainly fried, or fried in batter D’Orly. Or they can be cooked as in Paris ; that is, laid flat in a deep dish, strewed with minced parsley, set in the oven — -or, better, the Dutch oven — for eight or ten minutes, and well basted with either butter or fish broth till they are done. Squeeze a lemon over the Whitings before serving, and hand brown bread and butter. Another way is to score the Whitings down one side, each cut being an inch and a half from the next, then sprinkle a buttered fire-proof dish with two tablespoonfuls of rasped and pounded crust of bread (the chapelure of French cooks), and lay the Whitings on it, with the scored side uppermost. Moisten the fish with butter or fish broth, sprinkle over them two more tablespoonfuls of raspings, with a little minced parsley and minced mushrooms, bake in the oven for from ten to twelve minutes, and serve in the same dish. This way may be varied, according to Wyvern, by