BOILED WHITE FISH.

Taken from Mrs. A. W. Ferry’s Cook Book, Mackinac, 1824.

The most delicate mode of cooking white fish.  Prepare the fish as for broiling, laying it open; put it into a dripping pan with the back down; nearly cover with water; to one fish two tablespoonfuls of salt; cover tightly and simmer (not boil) one-half hour.  Dress with gravy, a little butter and pepper, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs.

BAKED WHITE FISH. (Bordeaux Sauce.)

Clean and stuff the fish.  Put it in a baking pan and add a liberal quantity of butter, previously rolled in flour, to the fish.  Put in the pan half a pint of claret, and bake for an hour and a quarter.  Remove the fish and strain the gravy; add to the latter a gill more of claret, a teaspoonful of brown flour and a pinch of cayenne, and serve with the fish.

Plankington House, Milwaukee.

BAKED SALMON TROUT.

This deliciously flavored game-fish is baked precisely as shad or white fish, but should be accompanied with cream gravy to make it perfect.  It should be baked slowly, basting often with butter and water.  When done have ready in a saucepan a cup of cream, diluted with a few spoonfuls of hot water, for fear it might clot in heating, in which have been stirred cautiously two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a scant tablespoonful of flour, and a little chopped parsley.  Heat this in a vessel set within another of boiling water, add the gravy from the dripping-pan, boil up once to thicken, and when the trout is laid on a suitable hot dish, pour this sauce around it.  Garnish with sprigs of parsley.

This same fish boiled, served with the same cream gravy (with the exception of the fish gravy), is the proper way to cook it.

TO BAKE SMELTS.

Wash and dry them thoroughly in a cloth, and arrange them nicely in a flat baking-dish; the pan should be buttered, also the fish; season with salt and pepper, and cover with bread or cracker crumbs.  Place a piece of butter over each.  Bake for fifteen or twenty minutes.  Garnish with fried parsley and cut lemon.

BROILED SPANISH MACKEREL.

Split the fish down the back, take out the backbone, wash it in cold water, dry it with a clean, dry cloth, sprinkle it lightly with salt and lay it on a buttered gridiron, over a clear fire, with the flesh side downward, until it begins to brown; then turn the other side.  Have ready a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of butter melted, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of salt, some pepper.  Dish up the fish hot from the gridiron on a hot dish, turn over the mixture and serve it while hot.

Broiled Spanish mackerel is excellent with other fish sauces.  Boiled Spanish mackerel is also very fine with most of the fish sauces, more especially “Matre d’Hotel Sauce.”