Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Salmon Trout, Larded. — Have cleaned and drawn a salmon trout from 4^ to 5 lbs. Cut some small strips of larding-pork, lb., about half a finger long ; leave them in ice-water for half an hour before using them. With a small, pointed knife make three rows of deep inci- sions ; put a piece of larding-pork in each hole. Butter thickly a long roasting-pan. Rub the fish all over with one teaspoonful of salt and half a one of pepper, place it in the pan, pour over one glassful of Madeira wine. Butter well on both sides a piece of white paper large enough to cover the fish ; place over and bake in moderate oven forty-five minutes. After thirty minutes remove the paper and baste three times. Serve the fish on a long platter, reserving the gravy for further use ; keep the fish warm in the oven, with the door open, while finishing the shrimp sauce. Salt Fish. — Salt fish requires to be soaked before being dressed, the time being regulated by the hardness and dryness of the fish. The water should be changed two or three times during the process, and the fish should be brushed and washed when it is taken out. For very dry fish thirty-six hours’ soaking will be needed, the water being changed at least four times. In ordinary cases twenty-four hours’ soaking will be sufficient. It should be remembered that the fish should be put in to soak flesh down- ward. 124 Salt Fish a la Maitre d’Hotel FISH Shad-roe Croquettes Salt Fish a la Maitre d’Hotel. — Boil the fish in the usual way, free the flesh from skin and bone, and tear it into flakes. Mix a dessert- spoonful of flour smoothly with 2 or 3 ozs. of good butter. Stir them in a clean saucepan till the butter is dis- solved, then add a pinch of salt and the third of a pint of boiling water. Stir the whole over the fire for a few minutes, and add a table-spoonful of chilli vinegar and a table-spoonful of chopped parsley. Let all boil up once. Put the flaked fish into a saucepan, pour the sauce over it, and stir it over a gentle fire till it is quite hot. Turn it upon a hot dish, and serve. Time, a few minutes to heat the fish in the sauce. Scallops. — Wash them in cold water, dry them, pepper and salt them, place in a dry cloth, spread thin- ly so as to bring as many as possible in contact with the cloth, which will absorb the moisture, and then place them in the ice-box overnight. Next morning change the cloth for a drier one. When about to cook, take some flour, spread it thinly on a plate, and put it in the oven so as to dry all surplus moisture out, but not to brown it. Then dredge it lightly over the scallops. Have the frying-pan half an inch deep in boiling fat, drop the scallops in, and fry until a rich brown. Thin slivers of bacon -well fried may be served or not, as desired. Spanish way : — Slice an onion, place it in a hot pan with butter, brown, and stir in the scallops pre- viously dried, salted, peppered, and covered with cracker - dust. Serve with finger pieces of thin, hot toast. Shad, Baked. — Scrape a medium- sized shad free of scales, make an opening down the side, and take out the entrails ; wash, and wipe dry. Make a dressing of one pint of stale bread-crumbs, one table- spoonful of melted butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of black pepper, one table-spoonful of chopped sweet herbs, five drops of onion-juice, 12