French dishes for American tables

139. Ray, with Caper Sauce. Cook your fish as the foregoing, with the exception of the truffles, and serve with it a white sauce (Art. 84), to which add some capers. 140. Ray, au Beurre Noir. Cut in moderatesized pieces four pounds of ray-fish, which put in a saucepan with an onion cut in slices, three parsleyroots, four cloves, six pepper-corns, half an ounce of salt, and four tablespoonfuls of vinegar. When beginning to boil, put your saucepan at the back of the range for thirty minutes, so as not to boil. Then take off the skin from both sides of your fish, which put in the saucepan with your other ingredients to keep hot. Put in a frying-pan four ounces of butter, and, when colored black, fry a dozen sprigs of parsley for a moment, remove them, and add to your butter two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Strain your fish, which arrange on a dish, garnish with the fried parsley, pour the black butter over the fish, and serve. 141. Fried Smelts. Clean about two dozen smelts, cut off the gills, wash them well in cold water, and dry them thoroughly. Put a pinch of salt and pepper in a little milk, into which dip your smelts, and then roll them in flour. Put in a frying-pan about a pound and a half of lard, in which, when very hot, fry your smelts a light brown. Also fry some parsley, which place around your fish, and serve with a sauce Tartare (Art. 112). 142. Farcied Smelts. Prepare your smelts as the foregoing. Split them in two, taking care to make the opening in the under part of the fish, and, beginning at the tail, make the incision the length of the fish, without disturbing the head. Then take some chicken farce (Art. 11), and add to it half a dozen very finely chopped mushrooms, and a very little chopped parsley. Lay this on one side of your smelts, and cover with the other half. Place them in a buttered pan, cover each one with a very little melted butter, sprinkle some bread-crumbs lightly over them, and send them to the oven for about fifteen minutes. Take half a pint of Spanish sauce (Art. 80), add a sherry-glass of white wine, boil for fifteen minutes, add a little chopped parsley to your sauce, which pour over your fish, and serve. 143. Oysters a la Poulette. Take fifty oysters, which blanch in boiling water, then drain them, preserving part of the liquid in which they were boiled. Take half a pint of bechamel sauce (Art. 83), add a little of the liquid in which your oysters were boiled, a little salt and pepper, a little chopped parsley, and, when your sauce has ceased boiling, the yolks of three eggs well mixed in a little water. Serve your oysters hot in the sauce.