Fish, fried in the English fashion, is generally egged and bread-crumbed. The Italians, who are perhaps the best ' frysters' in the world, either flour their fish, or dip it in batter. Both methods are, to my mind, vastly supe- rior to the bread-crumbing process. If, however, you must use crumbs, see that they are stale, and well sifted ; not the pithy lumps, both great and small, too often set before you, because Ramasamy will not look ahead, and rarely, if ever keeps a bottled supply of stale, well rasped bread in hand. To obtain a satisfactory result, proceed as follows : — Having crumbled some stale bread as small as you can in REGARDING OUR FISH. 57 a napkin, pass the crumbs througli a stiff wire sieve ; then place the plate containing them into the oven to dry thoroughly. To apply them properly, beat up two eggs with a dessert-spoonful of salad oil, and the same of water. This mixture should be brushed over the fish like varnish, and the fish should then be turned over in a napkin, con- taining the dry crumbs. For flouring : — dip the fish in milk, and then turn it over in a napkin containing some flour. A recipe for fry- ing batter will be found in the chapter reserved for the discussion of that process of cookery. Under the head of baking we come to that very excellent method of treating fish which is familiar to most of you as " au gratin." The cook can, in this way, produce very pleasant results, with very little toil. You can commence as plainly as possible, and go on to the most elaborate and fanciful dishes, the principles in all being similar. The fish, to begin with, should either be whole, in fillets, or slices. The pie-dish should be well buttered ; tomatoes, maccaroni, mushrooms, trufiles of course, finely-minced parsley, shallot, lime peel, and such, fines Jierhes as you can command, should be used for the more elaborate composi- tions ; whilst parsley, shallot, and butter alone with fine bread-crumbs will suffice for the plainer dish for ordinary occasions. A gravy made from the bones and trimmings, with a few pepper corns, a minced shallot and a glass of any light white wine, like chablis, hock, or sauterne, may be gently poured round your dish when it is packed ready for the oven : but the liquid ought never to come up to the level, quite, of the top layer of the fish in the pie-dish, - In connection with maccaroni and tomatoes, you should try a dusting of grated parmesan. Rolled anchovies, and prawns, form, with truffles and mushrooms, the most appropriate garnish for an artistic 58 CULINARY JOTTINGS FOR MADRAS. " au gratin" and cream is often judiciously introduced to enrich tlie combination. Fishes carefully stuffed, and baked Tvhole, are generally nice : it is a method very well suited to fresh water fish, and a delicious way of cooking a Madi'as mullet, or a dish of whitings. The best dish of stewed fish is the " matelote' which, strictly speaking, should be composed of eels, but may, I think, be equally well followed in dressing any firm-fleshed fish. As I shall speak of this dish in my menus, I need only say en passant that it is rich, vinous, spicy, and con- sequently generally appreciated by the muscular Christian.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Fish, fried in the English fashion, is generally egged and bread-crumbed. The Italians, who are perhaps the best ' frysters' in the world, either flour their fish, or dip it in batter. Both methods are, to my mind, vastly superior to the bread-crumbing process. If, however, you must use crumbs, see that they are stale, and well sifted ; not the pithy lumps, both great and small, too often set before you, because Ramasamy will not look ahead, and rarely, if ever keeps a bottled supply of stale, well rasped bread in hand. To obtain a satisfactory result, proceed as follows : — Having crumbled some stale bread as small as you can in a napkin, pass the crumbs through a stiff wire sieve ; then place the plate containing them into the oven to dry thoroughly. To apply them properly, beat up two eggs with a dessert-spoonful of salad oil, and the same of water. This mixture should be brushed over the fish like varnish, and the fish should then be turned over in a napkin, containing the dry crumbs. For flouring : — dip the fish in milk, and then turn it over in a napkin containing some flour. A recipe for frying batter will be found in the chapter reserved for the discussion of that process of cookery. Under the head of baking we come to that very excellent method of treating fish which is familiar to most of you as " au gratin." The cook can, in this way, produce very pleasant results, with very little toil. You can commence as plainly as possible, and go on to the most elaborate and fanciful dishes, the principles in all being similar. The fish, to begin with, should either be whole, in fillets, or slices. The pie-dish should be well buttered ; tomatoes, maccaroni, mushrooms, trufiles of course, finely-minced parsley, shallot, lime peel, and such, fines herbes as you can command, should be used for the more elaborate compositions ; whilst parsley, shallot, and butter alone with fine bread-crumbs will suffice for the plainer dish for ordinary occasions. A gravy made from the bones and trimmings, with a few pepper corns, a minced shallot and a glass of any light white wine, like chablis, hock, or sauterne, may be gently poured round your dish when it is packed ready for the oven : but the liquid ought never to come up to the level, quite, of the top layer of the fish in the pie-dish, - In connection with maccaroni and tomatoes, you should try a dusting of grated parmesan. Rolled anchovies, and prawns, form, with truffles and mushrooms, the most appropriate garnish for an artistic " au gratin" and cream is often judiciously introduced to enrich the combination. Fishes carefully stuffed, and baked whole, are generally nice : it is a method very well suited to fresh water fish, and a delicious way of cooking a Madras mullet, or a dish of whitings. The best dish of stewed fish is the " matelote' which, strictly speaking, should be composed of eels, but may, I think, be equally well followed in dressing any firm-fleshed fish. As I shall speak of this dish in my menus, I need only say en passant that it is rich, vinous, spicy, and consequently generally appreciated by the muscular Christian.

Culinary jottings