Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book

and scrub the outside with a brush. Put it into a kettle with cold water sufficient to cover it well; and let it boil fast till near dinner time, skimming it well. About half an hour before dinner, pour off this boiling water, and substitute a sufficiency of cold. In this last water give the fish one boil up. Send it to table with egg sauce, made with plenty of butter, and hard-boiled eggs cut in half, and laid closely along the back of the fish, to be helped with it. Accompany the cod with a plate of sliced beets drest with vinegar. Next morning you may take what is left, and having removed all the bone, mince the fish, and mix it with an equal quantity of mashed potatos, adding some butter, pepper, and raw egg. Make the whole into balls or flat cakes, and fry them in drippings or lard. They are good at breakfast. On every one put a small spot of pepper. FRIED SMELTS.--The smelt is a very nice little fish, which has a peculiarly sweet and delicate flavor of its own, that requires, to be tasted in perfection, no other cooking than plain broiling or frying in fresh lard. Do not wash them, but wipe them dry in a clean cloth; having opened and drawn them, (they should be drawn through the gills,) and cut off the heads and tails, dredge them with flour. The frying-pan must be more than two-thirds full of boiling lard; boiling hard when the smelts are put in, so as to float them on the surface. If there is not sufficient lard, or if it is not boiling, the fish will sink and be dark colored, and greasy. About ten minutes are sufficient for the small ones, and fifteen for those of a larger size. When done, drain off the lard and send them to the breakfast table on a hot dish. If you prefer retaining the heads and tails, dish them, alternately, with the heads up and tails down. FRIED CAT-FISH.--The best cat-fish are the small ones. If too