Cut into slices two pounds of skinned eels ( No. 57), having it well cleaned, suppressing the head and thin parts; cut the remainder into three-inch pieces, and be careful to abstract all the blood; wash, wipe dry. then bone the pieces and separate the meats: lard each one with thin slices of truffle; lay the fish in a tureen, season and pour over a few spoonfuls of brandy or Madeira wine; let macerate for a couple of hours. Fry in a sautoir with some butter a few spoonfuls of shallots and mushrooms; lay in the eel fillets and let them simply harden while turning them over, then add the Madeira marinade and two spoonfuls cf brown sauce (No. 414); at the first boil remove the sautoir from the fire and bestrew the fish with chopped parsley. Prepare a fish forcemeat (No. 90), finishing it with four spoonfuls of chopped truffles. Cover the bottom of a small baking sheet with a round sheet of heavy paper; on it set a buttered hot pie mold with hinges (Fig. 153); cover the bottom and sides with foundation paste (No. 135). and cover the paste with a layer of the fish forcemeat, then fill up the empty center with the eel fillets and fine herbs, alternating them with layers of forcemeat: fill till dome-shaped on top above the edge of the mold, then smooth it neatly and lay over another flat of the same paste, attaching it to the sides of the mold; fasten it to the projecting borders of the inside paste previously dampened with a brush; cut it away evenly, press it down and pinch it tastefully through its thickness.

Make a small aperture on the summit of the dome; moisten the -surface and decorate with imitation paste leaves, or any other fanciful design of the same, then brush over the entire top and border with egg; set the pie into a moderate oven to cook for an hour and a half, being careful to cover with a sheet of paper as soon as the paste is well dried. After taking the pie from the oven, lay it on a dish, unmold and pour into the inside through the aperture on top, a few spoonfuls of good half-glaze sauce (No. 413) reduced with Madeira wine.

Fig. 426.