Butter a baking-dish and put into it pieces of prepared skate. Sprinkle with chopped mushrooms, onion, and parsley, season with [Page 365] salt and pepper, add two wineglassfuls of Sherry and half a cupful of stock. Sprinkle with crumbs and bake. Take up the fish carefully and add to the liquid enough brown stock to make the required quantity of sauce. Thicken with butter and flour cooked together, add a tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of anchovy essence, and the juice of half a lemon. Pour around the fish and serve.
Put the prepared fish into a buttered saucepan with a bean of garlic, one bay-leaf, two sprigs of thyme, a tablespoonful of butter, three cloves, and salt and pepper to season. Sprinkle with flour, cover the fish with milk, and simmer gently until done, then drain. Put into a serving-dish, sprinkle with grated cheese, and garnish with boiled button onions and triangles of fried bread. Strain the sauce over and serve.
Parboil small pieces of skate, drain, cool, and marinate in oil and vinegar, seasoning with salt and pepper. Drain, dip in batter, and fry. Serve with any preferred sauce.
[Page 367] THIRTY-FIVE WAYS TO COOK SMELTS
Dip prepared smelts in lemon-juice and seasoned melted butter, then in flour; broil in a double-broiler, and serve with Remoulade Sauce.
Draw and clean large smelts, dip in oil, season with salt and pepper, and broil on a double-broiler. Serve with Maître d'Hôtel Sauce.
Split and bone large smelts, rub with seasoned oil, and broil. Serve with Bearnaise Sauce.
Soak the prepared fish for an hour in seasoned olive-oil, drain, broil carefully, and serve with Maître d'Hôtel Sauce.
Take off the heads, split the fish, remove the back-bone, and broil for five minutes on a buttered broiler. Garnish with lemon and parsley and serve with melted butter, made very hot with red pepper.
Split a dozen good-sized smelts, take out the back-bone, rub with seasoned oil, and broil on a double-broiler. Pour Bearnaise Sauce into the platter, lay the smelts upon it, and serve.
Clean six or seven large smelts, dip in beaten egg, then into seasoned crumbs, and string on skewers by the heads. Broil, basting with melted butter as required. Fry two teaspoonfuls of chopped onion in butter, but do not brown. Take from the fire, add a teaspoonful of vinegar, and an equal quantity of minced parsley. Pour into a bowl and put on ice until cool. When ready to serve, mix a tablespoonful and a half of fresh butter with the sauce and make it into small balls. Serve one ball of the butter with each fish.