SAUTÉD OYSTERS

Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a sautÉ-pan; when it is hot add as many drained oysters as will make two cupfuls. Add a little salt and pepper and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Shake them in the pan until the gills are curled, then add a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine. Turn them upon slices of toasted bread on a hot platter.

FRIED OYSTERS WITH COLD SLAW

Use box oysters. These are large in size and cost two cents each.

Lay the oysters on a cloth to dry them. Roll them in cracker dust, then in egg diluted with a little milk and seasoned with pepper and salt, then again cover them with cracker dust. Lay them in a frying-basket and fry them in smoking-hot fat just long enough to give them a light-brown color. Oysters toughen if cooked too long. Prepare only four at a time, as more lower the temperature of the fat too much, and if they are rolled before the moment of frying they moisten the cracker dust. Place them on a paper on the hot shelf until all are done.

Fold a small napkin and place it in the center of a cold platter. Pile the oysters on the napkin and make a wreath around them of cold slaw.

COLD SLAW

Cut cabbage into fine shreds. Put in a saucepan a half cupful of weak vinegar, the yolks of three eggs, a half teaspoonful of English mustard, a dash of pepper, a teaspoonful of salt and of sugar. Beat them together, then place them on the fire and stir until the mixture is thickened. Pour it, while hot, over the cabbage and set it away to cool.

OYSTERS À LA NEWBURG

Place twenty-five large oysters in a saucepan with one and one half tablespoonfuls of butter, half a cupful of white wine or a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and a little pepper and salt. Cook until the oysters are plump, then add half a cupful of mushrooms cut into quarters, and a chopped truffle, if convenient. Beat the yolks of four eggs into a cupful of cream, turn it into the oyster mixture, and let it get hot and a little thickened, without boiling. Turn it into a hot dish and garnish with croutons.

Oysters toughen if cooked too long, and cream curdles easily when added to a mixture which has acid in it, so it is necessary to prepare this dish quickly and to serve it at once.

SCALLOPS

Scallops are the adductor muscle of a large pecten, a mollusk commonly known as scallop.

FRIED SCALLOPS

Marinate the scallops in a mixture of oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Roll them in cracker dust, then in egg, and again in cracker dust or white bread crumbs. Fry them in smoking-hot fat to a golden color.

Prepare but a few at a time so the covering will not be dampened, serve on a napkin with quarters of lemon, and sprinkle over them parsley chopped very fine.

Discard the black ring. Cut the scallops into quarters. Place them in the scallop shells. Dredge them with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley, then cover them with a layer of chopped fresh, or canned, mushrooms, some bits of butter, a teaspoonful of white wine or of lemon juice, for each shell, and lastly with bread crumbs moistened with butter. Place them in a hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes.

CREAMED LOBSTER

Cut the meat of boiled lobster into inch dice. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan with a teaspoonful of grated onion, let them cook a minute, then add a tablespoonful of flour. Stir for a few minutes to cook the flour, and then add slowly a cupful of stock and a tablespoonful of lemon juice, or a quarter of a cupful of white wine. When all this thickens add the lobster meat, turning it carefully so as not to break it. When the meat is heated remove it from the fire and mix in a quarter of a cupful of cream which has the yolk of an egg beaten in it. Replace it on the fire for just a minute.

Serve in fontage cups or as in illustration No. 39.

For Lobster Newburg and other lobster dishes, see “Century Cook Book,” page 136.

BROILED LOBSTER

Parboil a lobster. As soon as it begins to turn red take it out. Split it in two down the back. Remove and discard the stomach and intestine. Remove the green and the coral.

Broil it fifteen to twenty minutes with the shell side to the fire, but turn the flesh side to the coals for a minute before removing it, then at once season it with butter, pepper, and salt.

Mix the green, which is the liver, and the coral with melted butter and use it as a sauce.

BROILED SMELTS

Select large smelts of equal size. Have them split down the back, the head and tail left on. Dip them in melted butter and broil them until they are tender. Lay them evenly on a hot dish and spread them with maÎtre d’hÔtel butter (see page 103).

If convenient, arrange a wreath of watercress around the dish.

BROILED SHAD ROE

Wash and dry the roes, then broil them very slowly and keep them moistened with butter to prevent the skin from breaking. They may also be cooked by sautÉing them in butter; or they may be baked in the oven with a little stock or water in the pan to baste them with. Cook them brown. Cover the top with butter, pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley. Garnish with lemon and watercress and serve some of the watercress with each portion. Serve them with maÎtre d’hÔtel butter.

SHAD ROE CROQUETTES

Boil shad roes in salted, acidulated water for fifteen minutes, letting the water simmer only, so that the skin will not break. When they are cold cut them, using a sharp knife, into slices one and one half inches thick. Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Roll them first in egg, then in bread crumbs or cracker dust, and fry them in smoking-hot fat to a light brown color. Garnish with watercress and serve them with maÎtre d’hÔtel butter.

Fillets of fish are the flesh of the fish freed from the skin and bones. (See “Century Cook Book,” page 112.) The fillets of flounder are used to imitate sole, a variety of fish much esteemed in France and England. Sheepshead and other smaller fish also make good fillets.

FRIED FILLETS OF FISH

Marinate the fillets by letting them lie in a mixture of oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. Take the fillets from the marinade, roll them first in flour, then in egg, and then in white bread crumbs grated from the loaf. Fry them to a lemon color in smoking-hot fat. They must not be cooked too long or they will become dry. They may also be cooked by sautÉing, using half butter and half lard. Prepare one fillet at a time, for the covering of flour and crumbs will become damp if it stands long, and then will not crisp. If the fillets are small, serve them piled in crossed layers on a napkin and garnish with quarters of lemon. If they are large, serve with maÎtre d’hÔtel butter or with tartare sauce and garnish with watercress.

ROLLED FILLETS OF FLOUNDER

Sprinkle each fillet with salt and pepper. Spread it with a mixture made of butter, lemon juice, and parsley cut in pieces, not chopped fine. Fold the fillet over, roll it, and fasten it with a wooden toothpick or small skewer. Stand the rolled fillets on end in a baking-pan, put a piece of butter on the top of each one, and pour over the whole a half cupful of white cooking wine (California sauterne). Bake them in a moderate oven for twenty minutes, or until tender, and baste them frequently. Arrange the fillets symmetrically on a platter. Put a piece of parsley in the top of each one, and place in the center of the dish a lemon cut into the shape of a basket. Sprinkle the exposed pulp of the lemon with chopped parsley.

Make a sauce to serve with the fish as follows: Add to the drippings, in the pan in which the fish was cooked, a tablespoonful of flour, stir constantly until the flour is cooked, then add enough stock to make a creamy sauce. Add pepper and salt if necessary.

BAKED FILLETS OF FISH WITH SAUCE

Arrange evenly on a baking-platter fillets of flounder or of sheepshead, or slices of halibut or codfish cut one quarter of an inch thick. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Make a sauce as follows: Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, add to it a half teaspoonful of onion juice, cook until the butter has browned, then add a tablespoonful of flour and stir until the flour has browned. Take it off the fire and add very slowly one and a half cupfuls of soup stock, stirring constantly to keep the mixture smooth. Add a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of salt, one half teaspoonful of pepper, and, if convenient, a teaspoonful of mushroom catsup, or a half cupful of liquor from a can of mushrooms, or a half cupful of juice strained from a can of tomatoes. Pour the sauce over the fish, lifting the fillets a little to let the sauce run under them. Place the dish in the oven and cook for thirty minutes, or until the fish is tender. If the sauce dries away too much, baste the fish with stock. The cooked sauce should have the consistency of cream.

When taken from the oven sprinkle the top with bread crumbs browned in butter and ornament with mashed potato pressed through a pastry-bag and star tube, making a design that will cover the edges of the platter where the sauce has stained it. Set the hot platter on a second platter to serve.

Creamed hashed fish can be served in the same manner. After the fish has been mixed with the sauce spread it smoothly on the baking-platter, cover the top with buttered bread crumbs, and set it in the oven to brown.

FILLETS OF FISH WITH MUSHROOMS

Take fillets of flounder, season them with pepper and salt. Take half a can or more of mushrooms, a slice of onion, and a sprig of parsley, and chop them all fine; add a cupful of stock and a tablespoonful of sherry. Spread a part of this mixture on the bottom of a platter that can be used in the oven. Lay the fillets of fish on the mixture. Cover them with the rest of the mixture, then with bread crumbs and with small pieces of butter. Bake forty minutes or until the fillets are tender. Heat the rest of the mushrooms in a little stock. Place them around the edges of the dish and pour the stock over the whole if the fillets are at all dry. This dish should be very moist.

CREAMED FISH GARNISHED WITH POTATOES

Make a good white sauce, or any other sauce preferred. Cut cold boiled fish in pieces one or two inches across and heat them in the sauce without breaking them. Use a plentiful amount of the sauce. Turn the fish mixture on to a platter and sprinkle over the top a little parsley chopped very fine.

Season some mashed potato with salt, butter, and milk, and beat it until it is light and white. Press it through a pastry-bag with star tube into rosettes, forming a wreath around the creamed fish.

FISH À LA JAPONNAISE

Make a creamed mince of any kind of fish, or use a fish forcemeat. Canned salmon is very good for the purpose.

Place the creamed fish on a piece of stiff paper and mold it into the form of a fish. Roll some pie paste very thin. Lay a piece of the paste on one end of the mince and shape it into the form of a fish’s tail. Cut the paste into circles of half an inch diameter, using a pastry-tube if a small vegetable-cutter is not at hand. Beginning at the tail, cover the molded fish with little rounds of paste, placing them in even overlapping layers to imitate scales, and mold a piece of pastry to imitate a head and fins. Use half a cranberry or a turned vegetable to imitate an eye. Brush the paste over lightly with yolk of egg and place it in the oven to brown. Slip it carefully off the baking-sheet on to the serving platter. Trim off the paper that projects and garnish.

Illustration No. 46 shows a fish ready to bake and the manner in which it may be garnished.