Practical household cookery

Prepare a nice-sized eel as in No. 466, cut it into pieces of three inches long, and place them in a saut^-pan with two ounces of butter, the half of an onion chopped fine, and half a tablespoon ful of chopped parsley. Season with salt, pepper, a little nutmeg, one clove of garlic, and two bay-leaves; set these on the fire to brown a little; after which, sprinkle a tablespoonful of flour; fry for two minutes longer, stirring the while with a wooden spoon ; then moisten with half a bottle of red wine (claret. Burgundy, or Italian) and half a pint of stock; let it simmer for twenty-five minutes, and put the pieces of eel on a dish in a circular order, so that each piece rests on the other, viz., a slice of crouton and a piece of eel, and so on. Then pass the sauce thiough a tammy into a stewpan, add a little anchovy butter, together with the juice of a lemon ; stir this on the fire till it boils, fill up the centre of the dish with two dozen button onions (No. 287), previously stewed and glazed for that purpose, pour the sauce over the lot, and serre. 468. EEL MILANAISE. Skin, bone, and cleanse two eels as previously described ; cut them in pieces about two inches long and brown them nicely in butter, properly seasoned with salt and pepper, for eight minutes ; after which, take them out, squeeze the juice of two lemons over them, sprinkle each with some fine herbs and mace, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in clarified butter. When properly done dish up the pieces on a napkin and serve very hot, with a sharp sauce to taste, apart. 469. nLLET OF EEL, FRIED. TARTARE SAUCE. Fillet two eels of about one and a half pound each in the usual way. Steep these in boiling water for four minutes, then rub the outside of the fillets well with a cloth, in oixler to remove the second oily skin ; cut them in pieces three inches long, put them in a stewpan with enough water to cover the lot, add a glass of vinegar, a sliced onion and carrot, a "bouquet garni/' salt, and a dozen pepper-corns. Simmer for twenty minutes; after which, let the eels cool for half an hour in the liquor ; then drain, and place them on a cold dish. Mix in a basin two eggs with a tablespoonful each of oil and water, beat this with a fork as for an omelet, then dip each piece of eel in it; bread-crumb them afterwards, and fry in hot fat, previously heated for that purpose, till of a nice brown colour; then dish them up on a napkin garnished with fried parsley, and serve with Tartare sauce (No. 221) in a sauce-boat apart. 470. COLLARED EEL (COLD). Skin, bone, and cleanse as described two eels of about two pounds each ; lay each half flat on the table, the inside up; sprinkle these with salt, pepper, nutmeg, fine herbs, and ground mace. Roll them up tightly, fold each roll in white kitchen paper, and tie them round with string; place in a saucepan with a quart of ordinary stock, a sliced onion and carrot, one stick of celery, a "bouquet garni,'' salt and pepper to taste, two glasses of sherry, and a quarter of a pound of, calf's gelatine. Boil this for half an hour, then strain the liquor through a tammy into a babiu; take the packets of eel out and let them cool, as well as the liquor, which will turn into a jelly. When cold untie and remove the paper from each eel; lay on a dish, and decorate with the jelly aforesaid and a few sprigs of parsley well washed and dried. This is a delicious and not expensive mode of preparing eels ; they will keep several days in cold water. Hemarks ok Smelts. Smelts are great favourites in dinner memiSy and are also often used by cooks as a garnish to other fi.sb, although I do not advocate their employment as such. Smelts ait) in season from September to May. 471. SMELTS, FRIED.