The Skilful Cook Part 38

_Ingredients_--2 dozen oysters.

1 oz. of b.u.t.ter.

1 oz. of flour.

pint of milk.

2 tablespoonfuls of cream.

A few drops of lemon juice.

Pepper and salt.

Some bread crumbs.

_Method._--Beard the oysters, and cut them in two.

Strain the oyster liquor through muslin.

Simmer the beards in the milk.

Melt the b.u.t.ter in a small stewpan, and mix in the flour smoothly.

Strain in the milk, add the oyster liquor, stir, and cook well.

Then add the cream, and let it boil in the sauce.

Lastly, add lemon juice, pepper, salt, cayenne, and oysters.

Grease some scallop sh.e.l.ls, and sprinkle them with bread-crumbs.

Fill them with the mixture, and sprinkle some more crumbs over them.

Brown in a quick oven.

Serve on a folded napkin, and garnish with parsley and cut lemon.

Mackerel a la Normande.

_Ingredients_--1 dessertspoonful of bread-crumbs.

2 mackerel.

Half a shalot, chopped finely.

1 teaspoonful of finely-chopped parsley.

teaspoonful dried and powdered herbs.

oz. of b.u.t.ter or dripping.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Split open the mackerel, and remove the back-bones as cleanly as possible.

Grease a baking-tin, and lay one of the mackerel, skin downwards, on it.

Mix the herbs, parsley, shalot, and bread-crumbs together with pepper and salt, and sprinkle them over the fish.

Lay the other mackerel on the top, with the skin uppermost.

Put little bits of b.u.t.ter or dripping about it, and bake from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour.

For serving, sprinkle over a few brown bread-crumbs.

Haddock Stuffed.

_Ingredients_--1 haddock.

3 tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs.

1 dessertspoonful of finely-chopped parsley.

1 teaspoonful of dried and powdered herbs.

Pepper and salt.

Part of an egg, or a little milk, to bind the stuffing.

_Method._--Mix the crumbs, parsley, herbs, pepper and salt, with the egg or milk.

Put the stuffing in the haddock, and fasten it with a small skewer.

Then truss it with string, or two skewers, in the form of the letter S.

Place it on a greased baking-tin; and put a few pieces of b.u.t.ter or dripping on it.

Bake it in a moderate oven for about twenty minutes.

To serve, place it on a dish and remove the skewers.

Garnish with parsley.

Cutlets of Cod.

_Ingredients_--The tail of a cod.

1 egg.

Bread-crumbs.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Cut the tail of a cod into neat cutlets.

Season them with pepper and salt, and cover them with egg and bread-crumbs.

Fry them in a frying-basket in hot fat (_see_ French Frying).

Serve on a folded napkin, and garnish with fried parsley.

Cutlets of Cod a l'Italienne.

_Ingredients_--The tail of a cod.

A little b.u.t.ter.

Lemon juice.