189. Baked Salmon

If a small fish, turn the tail to the mouth, and skewer it; force meat may be put in the belly, or, if part of a large fish is to be baked, cut it in slices, egg it over, and dip it in the force meat. Stick bits of butter about the salmon (a few oysters laid round are an improvement). It will require occasional basting with the butter. When one side becomes brown, let it be carefully turned, and when the second side is brown, it is done. Take it up carefully, with all that lies about it in the baking dish. For sauce, melted butter, with two table-spoonsful of port wine, one of catsup, and the juice of a lemon, poured over the fish; or anchovy sauce in a boat.

190. Pickled Salmon

Do not scrape off the scales, but clean the fish carefully, and cut into pieces about eight inches long. Make a strong brine of salt and water; to two quarts, put two pounds of salt, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar; in all, make just enough to cover the fish; boil it slowly, and barely as much as you would for eating hot. Drain off all the liquor; and, when cold, lay the pieces in a kit or small tub. Pack it as close as possible, and fill up with equal parts of best vinegar and the liquor in which the fish was boiled. Let it remain so a day or two, then again fill up. Serve with a garnish of fresh fennel. The same method of pickling will apply to sturgeon, mackerel, herrings, and sprats. The three latter are sometimes baked in vinegar, flavoured with allspice and bay leaves, and eat very well; but will not keep more than a few days.

191. Turbot, Halibut, And Brill, Boiled

Score the skin across the thick part of the back, to prevent its breaking on the breast, which it would be liable to do when the fish swells in boiling. Put the fish in the kettle in cold water, with a large handful of salt; as it comes to boil, skim it well, and set it aside to simmer as slowly as possible for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. If it boil fast it will break. It may be garnished with fried smelts or gudgeons, laid all round like spokes of a wheel. Sauce, lobster or shrimp.

192. Soles and Dutch Plaice may be boiled exactly in the same way as turbot, and with the same garnish and sauce, or with parsley, fennel, or chervil sauce. If you have not a turbot kettle, these flat fish boil very well in a large frying pan, provided it admits depth of water to cover them.

194. Soles Or Eels, Stewed

They may be first half fried, so as to give them a little brownness; then carefully drain them from fat; season with pepper and salt, and set them on with as much good beef gravy as will cover them. Let them simmer very gently for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, according to their thickness, but be very careful that they be not overdone. Take up the fish very gently with a slice. Thicken the sauce with flour and butter; flavour with mushroom catsup and port wine; simmer a minute or two, then strain it over the fish. Some people do not like the addition of wine, and instead thereof mix the thickening with a tea-cup full of good cream, seasoned with cayenne and nutmeg, and with or without the addition of a spoonful of catsup.