Temperance cook book

great convenience. One of the most essential things in serving fish, is to have everything hot, and quickly dished, so that all may go to the table at once. Serve fresh fish with squash and green pease, salt fish with beets and carrots, salt pork and potatoes with either. In cooking fish, care must be taken not to use the same knives or spoons in the preparation of it and other food, or the latter will be tainted with the fishy flavor. In boiling fish, allow five to ten minutes to the pound, according to thickness, after the water begins to boil. To test, pass a knife along a bone, and if done, the fish will separate easily. Remove the moment it is done, or it will become "woolly" and insipid. Fish is made firmer if a little salt and vinegar is added to the water in which it is boiled. The water should be cold when the fish is put in, except in the case of salmon, when the water should be hot, to preserve the rich color. Garnishes for fish are parsley, sliced beets, fried smelts (for turbot), lobster coral (for boiled fish). WHITEFISH STEAMED. After cleaning the fish, salt it and wrap it in a clean white cloth and steam one hour. Dressing: Take a teacupful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir to a cream. Pour over this one pint of boiling water and let it come to a boil. Stir in two hardboiled eggs chopped fine, pour the dressing over the fish and serve. BAKED FISH. Take a fish weighing five pounds after cleaning; salt it. Make a dressing of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, summer savory, and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Sprinkle with pepper, salt, and add about half a pint of water. Bake one hour and a half. CREAM GRAVY FOR BAKED FISH. Have ready in a sauce-pan a cup of cream, diluted with four tablespoonfuls of hot water— lest it should curdle in heating — in which has been stirred carefully two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and a little chopped parsley; heat this in a vessel, set within another of boiling water; add the gravy from the dripping pan in which it was baked; boil up once to thicken, and pour over the fish. FRIED FISH. Clean thoroughly, cut off the head, and, if large, cut out the backbone, and slice the body crosswise into five or six pieces; dip in Indian meal or wheat flour, or in a beaten egg, and then in bread crumbs (trout and perch should never be dipped in meal), put into a thick bottomed skillet, skin side uppermost, with hot lard or salt pork (never in butter, as it takes out the sweetness and gives a bad color), fry slowly, and turn when a light brown. Fish should not be put in to fry until the fat gets boiling hot. It is necessary to observe this rule. Serve with tomato sauce or slices of lemon. To BOIL FISH. Place in an iron kettle with salt cold water. Add a little vinegar or lemon juice, boil gently so as not to break the fish. Remove from the water as soon as done, and drain thoroughly. A little onion, parsley, carrots or cloves, with other seasoning, adds to flavor and appearance. Serve with drawn butter sauce with hard boiled eggs sliced. FRIED SMELTS.