Modern cookery for private families

becoming dry in the oven; lay them singly on a flat dish, and bake them very gently from fourteen to sixteen minutes. Serve them with the same sauce as baked soles. When extremely fresh, as it usually is in the markets of the coast, fish thus simply dressed _au four_ is preferable to that more elaborately prepared by adding various condiments to it after it is placed in a deep dish, and covering it with a thick layer of bread-crumbs, moistened with clarified butter. The appearance of the John Dories is improved by taking off the heads, and cutting away not only the fins but the filaments of the back. TO BOIL A BRILL. A fresh and full-sized brill always ranks high in the list of fish, as it is of good appearance, and the flesh is sweet and delicate. It requires less cooking than the turbot, even when it is of equal size; but otherwise may be dressed and served in a similar manner. It has not the same rich glutinous skin as that fish, nor are the fins esteemed. They must be cut off when the brill is cleaned; and it may be put into nearly boiling water, unless it be very large. Simmer it gently, and drain it well upon the fish-plate when it is lifted out; dish it on a napkin, and send lobster, anchovy, crab, or shrimp sauce to table with it. Lobster coral, rubbed through a sieve, is commonly sprinkled over it for a formal dinner. The most usual garnish for boiled flat fish is curled parsley placed round it in light tufts; how far it is _appropriate_, individual taste must decide. Brill, moderate-sized, about 20 minutes; large, 30 minutes. _Obs._—The _precise_ time which a fish will require to be boiled cannot be given: it must be watched, and not allowed to remain in the water after it begins to crack. TO BOIL SALMON. [In full season from May to August: may be had much earlier, but is scarce and dear.] To preserve the fine colour of this fish, and to _set the curd_