Lay the piece of fish in cold salt and water for an hour to draw out the fish-oil flavor so unpleasant to most palates. Wipe dry, score the skin on top, and put into your baking-pan. Pour a cupful of boiling water over it, cover and bake twelve minutes to the pound, basting four times, and generously, with melted butter and lemon-juice into which you have squeezed a teaspoonful of onion-juice.

Transfer the fish, when done, to a hot dish, cover and set over boiling water while you stir into the liquor it has left in the pan a teaspoonful of catsup, and two tablespoonfuls of brown roux, adding hot water should it be too thick, finally, a glass of claret. Strain a few spoonfuls over the fish, the rest into a gravy-boat.