Modern cookery for private families

faggot of parsley, one bay leaf, a roll of lemon-peel, and a little salt: stew the fish _very gently_ from half to three quarters of an hour, or more, should it be unusually fine. Dish the trout, skim the fat from the gravy, and pass it through a hot strainer over the fish, which should be served immediately. A little acid can be added to the sauce at pleasure, and a glass of wine when it is considered an improvement. This receipt is for one large or for two middling-sized fish. We can recommend it as a good one from our own experience. Butter, 3 oz.; flour, 1 tablespoonful; seasoning of mace, cayenne, and nutmeg; trout, 1 large, or 2 moderate-sized; veal stock, 3/4 pint; parsley, _small_ faggot; 1 bay-leaf; roll of lemon-rind; little salt: 1/2 to 3/4 hour. _Obs._—Trout may be stewed in equal parts of strong veal gravy, and of red or white wine, without having been previously browned; the sauce should then be thickened, and agreeably flavoured with lemon-juice, and the usual store-sauces, before it is poured over the fish. They are also good when wrapped in buttered paper, and baked or broiled: if very small, the better mode of cooking them is to fry them whole. They should never be plain boiled, as, though naturally a delicious fish, they are then very insipid. TO BOIL PIKE. [In best season from September to February.] [Illustration: Pike. ] Take out the gills, empty and clean the fish very thoroughly, and soak it for half an hour with a cup of vinegar thrown into as much water as will cover it well, should there be any danger of its having a muddy taste.[49] Wipe the inside dry, and fill it with oyster-forcemeat, or with common veal forcemeat made either with butter or with suet (for which see Chapter VIII.); curl the fish round, and fasten it with the tail in the mouth, lay it on a fish-plate, cover it well with cold water, throw in some salt as soon as it boils, skim it well, and boil the fish