Manual for army cooks

Scrape free from all scales, make a short opening down the belly, and take out the insides. Wash well, inside and out, and immediately wipe dry with a clean towel. Rub it well with salt. Make a dressing of one cup of stale bread crumbs, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a half teaspoonful of salt, and a little black pepper. Mix well and stuff the body of the fish and sew it up with soft yarn. Now score one side of the fish with a sharp knife, making the scores about one inch apart, and put a strip of salt pork in each gash. Place it in the bottom of a baking pan and dredge thickly with salt, pepper, and flour; cover bottom of the pan with boiling water and put into a hot oven. Bake fifteen minutes to every pound of fish, basting every ten minutes with the gravy in the pan. As the water evaporates, add more to again cover the bottom of the pan. Garnish with slices of lemon, fried potato balls, and parsley. When done, loosen it carefully and slide it into the dish. BAKED HALIBUT (CREOLE STYLE). Get thick square piece of halibut or other fish if preferred. Wash and lay on baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Chop piece of white garlic size of a bean and strew over fish, then pour on cup of fresh or canned tomatoes. Bake until the flakes separate. Dish without breaking. LITTLE PIGS IN BLANKETS. Season large oysters with salt and pepper. Cut fat bacon in very thin slices, wrap an oyster in each slice, and skewer (toothpicks are the best things). Heat a frying pan and cook just long enough to crisp the bacon — about two minutes. Place on slices of toast, and serve immediately. Do not remove the skewers. The pan must be very hot before the "pigs" are put in, and then great care taken that they do not burn. GRAVY FOR BAKED FISH. After the fish is taken from the pan put the pan on the fire, and stir into it gradually two tablespoonfuls of blended brown flour. Boil up once, season with pepper and salt, remove any black specks, and j^our it over the fish. SAUCES FOR BOILED FISH. Drawn-Butter Sauce. 1 pint boiling water. 2 tablesponfuls sifted flour. 2 tablespoonfuls butter. Pepper and salt. Piit a saucepan on the fire ; put in the butter and fiour ; mix them with a spoon (a wooden one is preferable) into a smooth paste ; pour over very gradually the boiling water, stirring it Avell in. Boil up once, season, and serve. If an acid taste is desired, add a few drops of vinegar. Pickle Sauce. Add to a drawn-butter sauce two or more2 tablespoonfuls of minced pickled cucumbers,Boiled-Egg Sauce. Add to a drawn-butter sauce two minced hardboiled eggs. REMARKS ON MEAT. Good fresh beef presents the following characteristics : The lean, when freshly cut, is of a bright red color, easily compressed and elastic, the grain fine and interspersed with fat. The fat is firm and of a yellowish- white color ; the suet firm and perfectly white. If beef is of inferior quality the lean is coarse, tough, and inelastic, and of a dull