Aspic And Salad Of Fillets Of Soles, With Butter Of Montpelier. Butter Of Montpelier

Take a handful of chervil, tarragon, burnet, and green onions; wash them very clean, and blanch them in boiling water, with a handful of salt to keep them as green as possible. When they have boiled six minutes, take them out, and put them into cold water till quite cold: you must have ready some hard-boiled eggs; drain the herbs, and squeeze all the water out; put them into the mortar, and pound them very fine; add the yolks of eight eggs, ten or twelve anchovies, cleaned and boned, two spoonfuls of fine capers, a very little garlick, some salt, a little Cayenne, and a little nutmeg; pound all this till very fine, then add half a pound of very fresh butter, a spoonful of sweet oil, and a spoonful of elder or tarragon vinegar; taste if the seasoning is very palatable. Rub it all through a sieve, and to make it of a greener colour, add some green of spinach; you must be particular in observing that none of the different herbs should predominate: put this butter into ice, and you may use it for borders of salads of fish, etc. etc. When you want to make this butter red, you must infuse all the herbs in a little boiled vinegar, and use lobster spawn to colour it, instead of the green of spinach.

It is occasionally requisite to dress soles on purpose, to make either aspics, or salad; in this case it is better to fry them with the skin, rather than take up the fillets and sautez them. When they are fried, the fillets come off neater, and without any scum. If, however, you have sent up to table an entree, or a dish of fillets of soles, that has been returned untouched, you may make a salad with them. Pare them nicely. Endeavour always to procure some green salad, of any sort, to dish them with. Nature will always supply you with agreeable colours, without painting what is intended to be eaten. I like to see a bed of fresh salad, or of mustard seed, on a dish. Then dish the fillets en miroton; ornament them with beet-root, nasturtium, small white onions stewed, chervil, pickled cucumbers, and red turnip-radishes; but above all things, take care not to lose time in ornamenting the salad, and do not pour the sauce over the decoration. (The sauce for a salad is to be found underneath.) The aspic of fillets of soles, is hardly admissible except at balls, when the multiplicity of dishes may require their being introduced; but in general it is a very indifferent article. Salad is always preferable. First brush the mould all over with a little oil put a little aspiq into it, to acquire a substance, and when it is chilled, do with it whatever your skill and ingenuity may suggest. This work is only a theoretical treatise, in which it is impossible to detail what relates to taste alone. Use a little liquid jelly to stick on the decorations. When you have com-pleted this, put it into ice. When it has acquired solidity, put a little aspic, which let get into jelly. Then place the fillets; stick them together before you fill the mould; when they are quite solid, fill the mould, and when the contents are also become solid, at dinner-time rub the outside of the mould with a towel dipped in hot water, that it may empty and turn out neater, without mixing the decoration.

Salad Sauce

Take the yolks of four eggs, boiled hard, put them into the mortar with a spoonful of mustard; pound this very fine; add to it salt and pepper, two spoon-fuls of vinegar, and three of sweet oil; you may put also a spoonful of tarragon or elder vinegar. If you have in your larder a good jelly of meat, you may occasionally put some to it, but do not put any cream, as some do, for it is very unwholesome; you may put some chopped herbs, as chervil, tarragon, burnet, etc. if approved of.

Croquettes Of Fillets Of Soles

Several books mention croquettes of salmon, and cro-quettes of cod, which are certainly not eatable. Sturgeon and soles are the only two fishes which have a sufficient firmness to allow of their being made into croquettes. The oftener a fish is presented to the fire, the more unpalatable it becomes. With regard to the croquettes of soles, reduce the sauce, cut the soles into small dice, and throw them into it, season them well, and put the whole preparation into ice. When cold, cut them into equal parts on a dish. Roll them either round, or oral, but never into pears; dip them into an omelette of three eggs, two whites of which you have laid aside; put a little salt, and then dip them into crumbs of bread, fry them of a good colour, and serve them up with crisp fried green parsley in the middle.