Fried Smelts. — The smelt is a very nice little fish, which has a peculiarly sweet and delicate flavor of its own, that requires, to be tasted in perfection, no other cooking than plain broiling or frying in fresh lard. Do not wash them, but wipe them dry in a clean cloth ; having opened and drawn them, and cut off the heads and tails, dredge them with flour. The frying-pan must be more than two-thirds full of boiling lard ; boiling hard when the smelts are put in, so as to float them on the surface. Cook ten or fifteen minutes✪ Fried Smelts, according to size. Sardines. — Sardines are not only delicious relishes for warm days, just as they are taken from their boxes, with no other sauce save the oil they arc preserved in, but they are susceptible of a number of ways of dressing and serving. They may be " grilled " in the fol- lowing manner: Open a box containing one dozen sardines, remove the skins and place the sardines on a tin plate in the oven till they are heated through. Meanwhile pour the oil from the sardines into a small saucepan, set it on the fire, and when it boils put in an even tablespoonful of flour; stir well ; then add gradually two gills of weak -Stock or water. Boil till it is as thick as rich cream, then add one teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce with salt and plenty of cayenne pepper; beat together the yolk of one egg, one teaspoonful of French 424 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. mustard and one teaspoonful of vinegar✪ Sardines. Pour the sauce boiling" hot on the egg and other ingredients, stir a moment, then pour it over the sardines, which have been previously placed upon slices of toast. Serve at once upon hot plates. Curried sardines are also very fine. They must be prepared as above and put on toast, but a different sauce is poured over them. Put the oil from the sardines in a small saucepan, add a very small onion or clove of garlic. When the oil boils add one tablespoonful of flour and one teaspoonful of curry powder, then add two gills of stock and boil until a good consistency is reached ; then pour it upon the yolk of an egg beaten with a half teaspoonful of lemon juice ; add cayenne pepper and salt✪ Curried Sardines ; pour it ov^er the sardines and serve hot. Another method is to remove the skin and dress them cold, with salt and pepper, and serve them with lettuce or cold-slaw and thin slices of bread and butter before other dishes. OYSTERS. Oyster Soup. — Make your stock of liquor to the quantity of two quarts with any sort of fish the place affords ; put one pint of oysters into a saucepan, strain the liquor, stew them five minutes in their own liquor; then pound the hard parts of the oysters in a mortar with the yolks of three hard eggs ; mix them with some of the soup, then lay them with the remainder of the oysters and liquor in a saucepan, with nutmeg, pepper and salt✪ Oyster Soup. Let them boil a quarter of an hour, when they will be done. Broiled Oysters. — Oysters are nice broiled in their shells or lair' in shells for the purpose ; they must be cooked over a bed of hot coals, and butter and pepper✪ Broiled Oysters added in the shell. Serve hot.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Fried Smelts. — The smelt is a very nice little fish, which has a peculiarly sweet and delicate flavor of its own, that requires, to be tasted in perfection, no other cooking than plain broiling or frying in fresh lard. Do not wash them, but wipe them dry in a clean cloth ; having opened and drawn them, and cut off the heads and tails, dredge them with flour. The frying-pan must be more than two-thirds full of boiling lard ; boiling hard when the smelts are put in, so as to float them on the surface. Cook ten or fifteen minutes, according to size. Sardines. — Sardines are not only delicious relishes for warm days, just as they are taken from their boxes, with no other sauce save the oil they arc preserved in, but they are susceptible of a number of ways of dressing and serving. They may be " grilled " in the following manner: Open a box containing one dozen sardines, remove the skins and place the sardines on a tin plate in the oven till they are heated through. Meanwhile pour the oil from the sardines into a small saucepan, set it on the fire, and when it boils put in an even tablespoonful of flour; stir well ; then add gradually two gills of weak -Stock or water. Boil till it is as thick as rich cream, then add one teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce with salt and plenty of cayenne pepper; beat together the yolk of one egg, one teaspoonful of French 424 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. mustard and one teaspoonful of vinegar. Pour the sauce boiling hot on the egg and other ingredients, stir a moment, then pour it over the sardines, which have been previously placed upon slices of toast. Serve at once upon hot plates. Curried sardines are also very fine. They must be prepared as above and put on toast, but a different sauce is poured over them. Put the oil from the sardines in a small saucepan, add a very small onion or clove of garlic. When the oil boils add one tablespoonful of flour and one teaspoonful of curry powder, then add two gills of stock and boil until a good consistency is reached ; then pour it upon the yolk of an egg beaten with a half teaspoonful of lemon juice ; add cayenne pepper and salt ; pour it over the sardines and serve hot. Another method is to remove the skin and dress them cold, with salt and pepper, and serve them with lettuce or cold-slaw and thin slices of bread and butter before other dishes. OYSTERS. Oyster Soup. — Make your stock of liquor to the quantity of two quarts with any sort of fish the place affords ; put one pint of oysters into a saucepan, strain the liquor, stew them five minutes in their own liquor; then pound the hard parts of the oysters in a mortar with the yolks of three hard eggs ; mix them with some of the soup, then lay them with the remainder of the oysters and liquor in a saucepan, with nutmeg, pepper and salt. Let them boil a quarter of an hour, when they will be done. Broiled Oysters. — Oysters are nice broiled in their shells or laid in shells for the purpose ; they must be cooked over a bed of hot coals, and butter and pepper added in the shell. Serve hot.

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