Harper's cook book encyclopædia

yolks of two raw eggs, half a tablespoonful of fresh butter, half a teaspoonful of lemon-juice. Have care that the sauce does not boil any more. Mix well. Dress the fillets on a large, warm platter, lengthwise and lapping over one another. Pour the hot sauce over ; add a small bunch of fresh parsley at each end and also a few lemon slices around. This excellent sauce may be used for any cold fish left over or for any white meat. When you use the meat, it must be placed in the sauce only long enough to warm ; do not let it boil. Heat for two minutes only, and before putting in the eggs, butter, and lemon. Sole, Fillet of. — In this country, where the real English sole can be obtained with difficulty, if at all, an excellent substitute is found in flounders. To be entirely satisfactory these should be quite large. In most cases the fishmonger will fillet them for the customer, but it is a simple matter for her to do it for herself. The head should be removed and an incision made down the length of the back with a sharp knife. The cut should reach to the bone all the way. With the knife then loosen the fish from the bone on each side of the cut, working towards the fins. When this is done, turn the fish over and repeat the process on the other side, and the whole bone can be removed from the fish. Cut away the fins and there will remain four long fillets. Remove the skin by laying each piece of fish flesh upward on a board, holding the fillet firmly with the thumb and finger while you work the skin loose with a downward pressure of the knife. The process is more involved in the telling than in the doing. Sole au Gratin. — Make a forcemeat of fine bread-crumbs, a very little minced onion, a teaspoonful of shredded parsley, pepper and salt to taste, and moisten with butter. A few mushrooms, also minced as finely as possible, are an excellent addition. Butter generously the bottom of an oval pudding-dish that will stand the fire ; spread it with half your force-meat and lay the fish on this ; cover it with the rest of the forcemeat ; pour over it a wineglassful of Sauternes, or some other French white wine, and an equal quantity of veal or chicken stock. Over all put a thin layer of fine bread-crumbs and dot with bits of butter. Bake fifteen or twenty minutes in a good oven, watching that it does not burn. If it seems to dry out too much, add a little more stock. Serve in the dish in which it was cooked. Properly prepared, it is delicious, Sole in Turbans, Fillets of. — Put the bones and fins cut from fillets of sole in a pint of water and let them cook slowly for half an hour or so. Strain them out, return the liquid to the stove with a salt-spoonful of salt, and when it is boiling put in the fillets, each rolled into a turban and pinned with a fine toothpick. Let them boil until white and firm — about eight or ten minutes — take them out, and keep them hot while making a bechamel sauce by cooking together a table-spoonful of butter and one of flour, and pouring on them a gill of the fish liquor and a gill of milk. Season with white pepper. Stand the fillets on end in a dish, pour the white sauce over them, and sprinkle with very finely minced parsley. Spanish Mackerel, Barbecued. —