Cassell's dictionary of cookery

lard a pike according to the directions already given. Stuff it or not, and skewer it with its tail in its mouth. Butter a baking-dish, lay the fish in it, season with salt and cayenne, and pour in haK a pint or more of fliour and water. Lay little pieces of butter here and there upon the fish, and bake in a moderate oven. When it is half done strew highly seasoned bread-crumbs over it, baste occasionally, and bake until it is lightly browned. When it is done enough, lift it carefully on a hot dish, squeeze a little lemon- juice over it, and send piquante, Dutch, or caper sauce to table in a tureen. Time to bake, thirty to forty minutes for a moderate-sized fish. Sufficient for six or seven persons. Pike, Larded and Roasted. — Scale and cleanse a moderate-sized pike. Remove the gills, empty the fish, and lard it thickly over with strips of fresh bacon. Fill it with a good veal forcemeat, and sew the body up securely with soft cotton. Butter a paper thickly, cover it with sweet herbs and a little pepper and salt. Wrap the fish in this, lay it in a cradle-spit, and baste with butter. Serve on a hot dish, and send piquante or caper sauce to table in a tureen. If preferred, the pike may be roasted in this way without being larded. Time to roast, twenty-five to thirty-five minutes. Probable cost, uncertain. Sufficient for five or six persons. Pike, Matelote Sauce for.— Put a teaspoonful of sugar into a stewpan, and place it over a quick fire. When it has dissolved, and is beginning to colour, put with it two ounces of fresh butter and a quarter of a hundred of small 1)utton-onions. Shake these over the fire until they are brown, then add a dessert-spoonful of flour, a glass of claret, and, gradually, a pint of water or stock. Stir the sauce till it boils, then put with it a bunch of sweet herbs, a tea-spoonful of salt, half a tea-spoonful of pepper, and a lump of sugar. Simmer gently, and skim carefully until the sauce is thick and smooth, and the flavour is drawn out of the herbs ; then stir into it a table-spoonful of essence of anchovj^ half a tea-spoonful of Liebig's Extract of Meat, and two or three drops of browning if the sauce is not sufficiently coloured. A few oysters or mushrooms will improve this sauce. Time to simmer, half an hour. Probable cost, exclusive of the wine, 8d. Sufficient for a large pike. Pike, Potted. — Cleanse and scale the fish, cut ofl; the head and tail, split it open aU the way down, and take out the bones. Wipe it dry, sprinkle bay salt and cayenne over the inside, and roll it tightly. Put it into a jar, and lay little pieces of butter here and there upon it. Lay a buttered paper over it in the oven, and bake in a moderate oven until it is done enough. Take it up, drain it, and when it is cold put it into a pot just large enough to contain it, and cover with clarified butter. Time to bake, according to the size : thirty to forty minutes for a moderate-sized fish ; one hour or more for a large one. Probable cost, uncertain.