The Cook Book, by "Oscar" of the Waldorf

Take twelve or fourteen good-sized smelts, remove the bones and then close them up again. Put them in a stewpan with one-half wineglassful of white wine and three tablespoonfuls of mushroom liquor; season with one-half pinch of salt and onethird pinch of pepper and cook over a moderate fire for six or eight minutes. Arrange the smelts on a dish; add to the sauce a dozen button mushrooms, two sliced truffles, six fish quenelles, and moisten with one-half pint of allemande sauce. Thicken with one tablespoonful of butter and pour the sauce over the smelts. Neatly dress the garnishing round the dish and serve with sippets of toast or croutons of fried bread. Baked Sole with Wine Sauce. Clean, trim off the gills and dark skin, and scrape the white side of a large sole ; make a deep cut on each side of the backbone, and cut off the fins. Butter well the inside of a grating pan and put in the sole ; season with a little pepper and salt, and pour in one pint of French white wine, and bake in the oven for twenty minutes. Put about one ounce of butter into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir over the fire until well mixed, then add one and one-half breakfast cupfuls of water and a little pepper and salt ; stir the sauce over the fire until boiling. When cooked strain the liquor off the sole into the sauce, boil the whole together, and then move the pan to the side of the fire ; put in one ounce of butter and one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and stir it until the butter has melted. Put the sole on a hot dish, pour the sauce over it, and serve. Broiled Sole. Clean and skin a sole, sprinkle both sides with pepper and salt, and squeeze a small quantity of lemon juice over it ; dip the sole in warmed butter, cover it well with finely grated breadcrumbs, place it on a gridiron, and broil it over a clear fire, turning it when brown on one side and browning the other. Bone an anchovy, put the flesh into a mortar with a small lump of butter, and pound it, then place it in a small saucepan with one wineglassful of white wine, and the strained juice of half a lemon, and stir it over the fire for a few minutes. When cooked, place the sole on a hot dish, pour the sauce over it and serve. Soles, Colbert Style. Skin and trim the soles and boil them. Blanch the hearts of four heads of endive, put them in a saucepan with a lump of butter, and stir over the fire until hot ; then pour over one pint of stock that has been thickened with the yolk of egg beaten with a little cream, and add three or four poached eggs. Place the soles on a hot dish, pour the sauce over them, and serve. Fried Fillets of Sole. Place a sole in a deep dish, season it with chopped sweet herbs, salt and pepper, cover it with white wine, and leave it to soak for half an hour. A few minutes before serving fillet the sole, dip the fillets in milk, dredge them well with flour, and fry them in lard. When nicely browned, place the fillets on a folded napkin laid on a hot dish and serve. Fillets of Soles in Cases. Put one teacupful of finely minced mushrooms into a frying pan with two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots and one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, add a lump of butter and season with pepper and salt. Toss the above ingredients over the fire until cooked, then put them by until cold. Fillet the soles, mask one side of them with the above mixture, roll them up, secure them with a piece of thread, place them between two buttered plates and bake them. Prepare some white sauce. Put each fillet into a small paper case, place a small mushroom on the top of each, fill up the cases with the hot sauce, and serve them at once. Fillets of Soles, Joinville.