Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

then a layer of fish, next a second layer of sauce, afterward the remainder of the fish, and finally put in a layer of sauce. Sprinkle the crumbs over the sauce, and set the dish in a moderately hot oven for twenty minutes. The crumbs may be made very crisp if an extra table-spoonful of butter be melted and sprinkled over them just before the dish is put into the oven. * Here is a simpler rule : Begin by freeing from skin and bones a pint and a half of cold baked or boiled fish. Season it with one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper and a teaspoonful and a half of salt. Next make a sauce with a pint of milk, a generous table-spoonful of butter, and one of flour, and a piece of onion about the size of a quarter of a dollar. Put the milk and onion on to boil. Rub the butter and flour till a cream is formed, and stir this into the milk as soon as it begins to boil. Cook five minutes longer, and season with salt and pepper. After removing the onion, put alternate layers of the sauce and fish into an escalop dish, having three of sauce and two of fish. The last will, of course, be one of the sauce, and upon it should be sprinkled dry breadcrumbs, — three-fourths of a cupful. Bake for about twenty minutes in a moderate oven. *Fish Réchauffé. Free a quantity of cold fish of skin and bones, and for each pint allow half a pint of egg sauce and a quart of mashed potato. If there be not enough sauce, add a sufficient quantity of milk to make up the proper allowance. Put a thin layer of potato in an escalop dish. Season the fish well with salt and pepper, and lay it upon the potato. Pour the sauce into the dish, and cover with the remaining potato. Spread a table-spoonful of melted butter over the potato, and then put the dish into a hot oven for twenty minutes. * Salt Fish in Cream, with Puree of Potatoes. For the purée use six potatoes of medium size, a generous half-cupful of hot milk, one table-spoonful of butter, and a teaspoonful of salt. For the rest of the dish use enough fish to make a pint and a half (about a pound and a quarter) when it is flaked, one pint of milk, two table-spoonfuls of butter, one of flour, the yolk of an egg, and one-third of a teaspoonful of white pepper. Wash the fish, and put it to soak (in one piece) in cold water for eight or ten hours. At the end of that time pour off this water ; then cover with fresh cold water, and place on the fire. When the water reaches the boiling-point, draw the stew-pan back where it will keep hot, without boiling, for one hour. At the end of that time pour off the water and break the fish into flakes, freeing it of skin and bones. Put it in a saucepan with the milk, and cook for twenty minutes without letting it boil. Now beat the butter and flour together, and stir into the dish of fish. Cook for ten minutes longer ; then add the pepper, and some salt if it be needed ; and also add the yolk of the egg, beaten with two table-spoonfuls of water. Stir for half a minute, and then pour into a border of puree of potatoes.