"Fish, under skilful hands, offers," says Brillat Savarin, "inexhaustible resources of gustatory enjoyment; whether served up entire, in pieces, or sliced; done in water, in oil, or in wine; hot or cold; in all cases it receives a hearty welcome." We, who live at Madras, on a coast which yields a perennial supply of good fish, (to borrow a well-known figure of speech) should surely lay these words to heart.

With a market as fairly well supplied as ours, we ought never to be at a loss for variety, or for scope to exercise our cook's ingenuity. The fair hostess should always be able to soothe herself with the reflection that with the fish, at all events, her guests will be well satisfied. Now, do we avail ourselves, as we ought to do, of the many opportunities we undoubtedly possess of turning Madras fish to a good account? I certainly think not: indeed I fear that only a few of us appreciate the true value of this most excellent article of our daily food.

At the ordinary Madras dinner party, you may rely almost for certain on having boiled seer fish, with a sauce, and a few slices of cucumber and beetroot, or a spoonful of salad ! on the side of your plate. Or the fish may be pomfret, similarly served. "Tartare" "a parody of hollan-daise" and melted butter with essence of anchovy, compose apparently the whole repertoire of sauces within the reach of the local chef.

N.B. - I have never been able by the way to trace the origin of the Madras custom of serving a portion of salad with a thick eggy dressing on the same plate as the slice of hot fish. To put salad on a hot plate is to begin with an unpardonable offence, while the association of salad with hot fish is incongruous in the extreme. The same remark applies to the service of cold cucumber and beetroot with hot fish. Delicately stewed cucumber, hot, little orlys of oysters, or petits bouchees of prawn or lobster, may accompany the fish, if you like; otherwise it should be presented with its sauce alone. The proper time for serving the salad is with "the roast" when it should be sent round on separate plates, and as cold as possible.

Now, without wishing for one moment to question the sterling merits of plain-boiled fish, I confess that for a dinner party I strongly advocate dishes of a more artistic nature. There are so many easy recipes for cooking fish nicely, that an effort to produce a little novelty in this feature of the menu can scarcely result in failure. In England where you have many varieties of fishes, and some of the best of them only to be seen in the market during their especial seasons, a little sameness in the style of cooking may not perhaps strike you. You may boil and fry plainly every day in the week, if each day you are able to present a different fish. Not so with us in Madras. Our supply is good enough, but it lacks diversity; and it is on this account particularly that I am anxious to direct the attention of my readers to a few easy ways of relieving the monotony which I have pointed out.

It may be urged that your fish is brought home from market too late in the evening for the successful accom-plishment of studied effects, and perhaps your butler will take pains to thrust that fact before you. Regard such an excuse, please, as a mere evasion, for, in point of fact, fish takes so short a time to dress thoroughly, that an hour should suffice for the most elaborate recipe. I always bear in mind the time that is necessary for the production of the dishes I select for my menus.

Again, many people hesitate to offer their guests a dish of dressed fish, fearing that it may be considered too rich. This is absurd, for there are plain, as well as rich methods of varying this branch of cookery; and, in composing your menu, you should select one in harmony with the soup which precedes, and entree which is to follow it. Thus : if your soup be of a thick creamy kind, and your first entree (say) a vol-au-vent, let the fish be served in aspic iced, and with sauce ravigote or tartare. But if you give a clear consomme delicately flavoured, and order an iced entree to succeed the fish, you can indulge in a "matelote aux champignons" or seer "a, la creme de crevettes." A thick soup, fish with lobster sauce, followed by an entree with cream in its composition, would form, for instance, a combination of good things obviously inartistic in design, and one which few could enjoy with impunity. As I observed in an early chapter of my "jottings," the charm of a dinner according to the new regime consists in the harmony of its lights and shadows.

N.B. - If you follow the new style of menu, and present the releve after the fish, you need have no apprehension. With regard to the service of dressed fish, especially if it be preceded by a clear soup.

Fish, we all know, I hope, may be boiled, fried, baked, roasted, stewed, or grilled; and by every method can tasty dishes be prepared. I will begin with the principles to be observed in boiling fish, and take the other styles of cookery in the order I have named.

After having thoroughly cleansed, and wiped the fish, rub it over with a little vinegar, and place it on the drainer of the fish-kettle, so that when done it may be lifted out without risk of breaking up. Put plenty of salt, and a dessert-spoonful of vinegar, into the water in which the fish is to be boiled. Let the water be cold, and in sufficient quantity to cover the fish. Place the kettle on a brisk fire, and boil the fish as fast as possible. Skim off all scum that rises, and take care to suspend operations, the moment the fish is done. Overboiled fish is nasty to eat, and ugly to look upon: underdone fish is unfit for human food. The cookery books allow ten minutes per pound as a fair average of the time required for this operation; but so much depends upon the thickness of the fish to be boiled, that the cook should test it now and then with the point of a skewer, and as soon as the flesh parts easily from the bone, let him decide that it is ready.