The Cook Book, by "Oscar" of the Waldorf

Prepare a little brown sauce with the stock, and when clarified and strained, put it into a flat stewpan with a handful of mushroom trimmings ; pour in a wineglassful of white wine and reduce ; then pass it through a sieve, adding a quarter of a pound of good butter. Place the carp on an oval dish and garnish it on both sides with a bunch of quenelles of whitings, one of mushrooms and one of blanched olives ; glaze the larding with a paste-brush and pour a little sauce over the other parts of the fish and a little at the bottom of the dish. Put the soft roes into the balance of the sauce and serve in a sauceboat. Boiled Carp. Clean and wash one or two carp, place them in a saucepan, pour over sufficient rich beef gravy to cover, and add a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion, four cloves, and salt to the taste. Place the saucepan on a moderate fire and cook gently for an hour or until the fish is done. Pour into a saucepan a pint of strong beef gravy, with two wineglassfuls of white wine; allow this to get hot, and add the strained juice of half a lemon. Place the carp on a dish, pour over the hot lemon-flavored liquor and serve promptly. Pickled Carp. After cleaning a carp make as small an opening as possible, tie up the head, put the fish in a fish kettle, pour over boiling vinegar, and after a few minutes add a tumblerful of red wine, and a seasoning of two carrots and three onions cut into slices, and a small quantity each of sage, thyme, laurel leaves, parsley, cloves and garlic, and then set the kettle on the fire and allow it to simmer gently for an hour. Let the fish remain in this until it is quite cold, when it will be ready to serve. FISH. SI Stewed Carp. Take a large carp, cut out the gills, but do not remove the tongue; then make as small an opening in the under edge as possible in order to open it, and wash it out thoroughly. Boil one-half pint of vinegar, and when it is boiling pour it over the fish that the scales may drop off easily. Wrap the carp in a cloth and stew it in a court bouillon. When done drain it and serve with capers and anchovy sauce, or without sauce after soup. Catfish Stewed with Tomatoes. Slice the fish, each weighing about two ounces, and fry these with a very little butter or dripping. When they are partly browned and about half cooked, add one breakfast cupful of water, one or two minced green onions, and a pod of red pepper. Strain a can of tomatoes over a colander on to the fish, and cook together for half an hour. Serve with pieces of dry toast Baked Codfish. Take a fresh cod and prepare it by tying up the head with string and filling the inside with maitre d'hotel butter, put the fish belly downward on a buttered drainer in a fish kettle, and pour over it a mixture made as follows : Melt two pounds of butter in a saucepan, add three quarts of chopped mushrooms, two blanched and chopped shallots, four tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, the juice of two lemons, a crushed clove of garlic, and season to taste ; all of these being partly cooked before used. Pour over the fish a pint and a half of white wine, and bring it quickly to a boil, then let cook gently for an hour and a half, basting the fish every ten minutes with the liquor. When the flesh is firm put the fish on a dish and pour over it half the fish stock, putting the rest in a sauce-boat. Any fish sauce may accompany it. Baked Codfish with Cream. Take the tail of a cod, clean it, and boil in salted water with a little parsley. When it is done wipe and open down the back, remove the bones and break the meat into pieces. Place these pieces in layers, and between each one a little bechamel sauce slightly reduced with cream, also a piece of butter and nutmeg. Sprinkle a few breadcrumbs on top and brown it. Codfish Balls.