Modern cookery for private families

or fried parsley round them. TO FRY EELS. [In season all the year, but not so well-conditioned in April and May as in other months.] First kill, then skin, empty, and wash them as clean as possible; cut them into four-inch lengths, and dry them well in a soft cloth. Season them with fine salt, and white pepper, or cayenne, flour them thickly, and fry them a fine brown in boiling lard; drain and dry them as directed for soles, and send them to table with plain melted butter or anchovy sauce. Eels are sometimes dipped into batter and then fried; or into egg and fine bread-crumbs (mixed with minced parsley or not, at pleasure), and served with plenty of crisped parsley round, and on them. It is an improvement for these modes of dressing the fish to open them entirely; and remove the bones: the smaller parts should be thrown into the pan a minute or two later than the thicker portions of the bodies or they will not be equally done. BOILED EELS. (_German Receipt._) Pare a fine lemon, and strip from it entirely the white inner rind; slice it, and remove the pips with care; put it with a blade of mace, a small half-teaspoonful of white peppercorns, nearly twice as much of salt, and a moderate-sized bunch of parsley, into three pints of cold water, bring them gently to boil, and simmer them for twenty minutes; let them become quite cold; then put in three pounds of eels skinned; and cleaned with great nicety, and cut into lengths of three or four inches; simmer them very softly from ten to fifteen minutes, lift them with a slice into a very hot dish, and serve them with a good Dutch sauce, or with parsley and butter acidulated with lemon-juice, or with chili vinegar. For boiled eels with sage (German Receipt), _see Chapter of Foreign Cookery_. EELS. (_Cornish Receipt._) Skin, empty, and wash as clean as possible, two or three fine eels, cut them into short lengths, and just cover them with cold water; add sufficient salt and