Always serve a sauce with a boiled fish, such as drawn butter, egg, caper, pickle, shrimp, oyster, _Hollandaise_, or piquante sauce.
Among professional cooks, a favorite way of boiling a fish is in water saturated with vegetables, called _court bouillon_; consequently, a fish cooked in this manner would be called, for instance, “Pike, _au court bouillon_.” It is rather a pity this way of cooking has a French name; however, if one is not unduly scared at that, one can see how simple it is.
_Dubois’s Receipt._--Mince a carrot, an onion, and a small piece of celery; fry them in a little butter, in a stew-pan; add some parsley, some pepper-corns, and three or four cloves. Now pour on two quarts of hot water and a pint of vinegar. Let it boil a quarter of an hour; skim it, salt it, and use it for boiling the fish.
It is improved by using white or red wine instead of vinegar; only use then three parts of wine to one of water. These stocks are easily preserved, and may be used several times.
To boil the fish: Rub the fish with lemon-juice and salt, put it in a kettle, and cover it with _court bouillon_. Let it only simmer, not boil hard, until thoroughly done. Serve the fish on a napkin, surrounded with parsley. Serve a caper, pickle, or any kind of fish sauce, in a sauce-boat.
By frying fish I mean that it is to be _immersed_ in hot lard, beef drippings, or olive-oil. Let there be a little more fat than will cover the fish; otherwise it is liable to stick to the bottom and burn. Do not put in the fish until the fat is tested, and found to be quite hot. If the fat were not hot enough, the fish would absorb some of it, making it greasy and unwholesome. If it is hot enough, the fish will absorb nothing at all.
To prepare fish for frying, dredge them first with flour; then brush them with beaten egg, and roll them in fine or sifted bread, or cracker crumbs. When they are browned on one side, turn them over in the hot fat. When done, let them drain quite dry.
Cutlets of any large fish are particularly nice egged and bread-crumbed, fried, and served with tomato sauce or slices of lemon.
Cut almost any kind of fish in fillets or pieces one-fourth of an inch thick, and one or two inches square; only be careful to have them all of the same shape and size. Sprinkle them with pepper and salt, and roll each one in batter (No. 2, page 98). Fry them in boiling lard. Arrange them tastefully in a circle, one overlapping the other. Garnish with fresh or fried parsley. Potatoes _à la Parisienne_ may be piled in the centre, and _sauce Tartare_ (see page 128) served separately in a sauce-boat.
