Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Filleting Fish requires nicety, and a lesson or two will be found valuable. However, a neat-fingered person will soon manage the fillets skilfully. Flat fish are generally filleted in four, other fish in two ; that is, the flesh is taken from the bones in four strips, or in two. A sharp filleting knife must be kept solely for this work. To fillet a flat fish, we will say a Brill, first cut off the outside fin close to the body. Then with the knife make a deep cut quite into the bone all along the line, which marks the middle of each side of the fish. Work the point of the knife backwards and forwards close to the bone till you have raised the flesh on either side and can get the fillet off whole, leaving the bone clear. Take the other two fillets off in the same way. For fish which swim back uppermost, and from which you can only get two fillets, make one long cut down the middle of the back, and work the strips of flesh off downwards over the ribs. Anchovies and Sardines are preserved in oil, and it often happens that this oil is not properly removed before the fish are served. Merely wiping them is not enough. The fish should be laid one by one on a dish in a row. Tip the dish up slightly and pour a little hot water gently over the row of fish. This will make the fishy oil drain away to the bottom of the sloped dish. Now wipe the fish thoroughly with a soft cloth, and either scale them or carefully scrape off the skin. The Anchovies or Sardines can then be filleted, either in four strips or in two, as required. Fresh Haddocks, or Codling’s, Toasted Whitby Fashion. — ( Family Recipe. 1830.) — Clean and skin the fish. Put it into a very clean dripping-pan free from all grease. Sprinkle a little flour over the fish, and leave it in the pan till done, turning it over and over very often. (In these days a baking-tin and Dutch oven might be used.) Fresh Brill, Smoked. — Wyvern recommends a Brill for this excellent dish, as a Brill resembles the Indian fish Pomfret. But any flat fish, or slices of fish, can be cooked in this fashion. Choose a fish of about a pound and a half or two pounds. Fillet it, and dry the four fillets in a cloth. Now prepare a fire of Treloar’s Cocoanut Fibre, damp it, and it will make a great volume of smoke. Put the gridiron over the fire, but well in FRESH BRILL, SMOKED the smoke, butter the fish fillets on both sides, lay them side by side on the gridiron, covering them, as they are cooking in the vapour, with the lid of a tin fish-kettle, to concentrate the smoke. In about ten minutes the fish will turn a rich warm brown on the side nearer the fire ; then turn it, and smoke the other side, which will take about five minutes. The fillets can now be served with any plain sharp sauce. The process can be managed in an ordinary fire grate if the kitchen range is a closed one, and in smoke produced from damp clean straw, or shavings laid on a wood fire. [ Wyvern .]