Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book: A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping

dish and cover with a mixture of butter, lemon juice and very finely-minced parsley, rubbed to a cream. Cover and set over hot water for five minutes before serving. Pass Parisienne potatoes with it. Boiled black bass with cream gravy Put in a pot enough slightly salted water to cover the fish, add a gill of vinegar, an onion, eight whole peppers and a blade of mace. Sew up the fish in a piece of thin cheese-cloth fitted snugly to it. Lay in the water; bring very slowly to the simmering point, and then boil steadily, allowing twelve minutes to each pound of the fish. When done remove the cloth, lay the fish on a platter garnished with sliced lemon, and serve with the cream gravy given below. Cream gravy for black bass Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when blended strain slowly upon them a cupful of the water in which the bass was boiled, and stir until smooth and thick. Season to taste with celery salt and white pepper, and stir in a gill of cream to which a pinch of baking-soda has been added. Make very hot, but do not boil, and as soon as hot remove from the fire. Baked sea bass with shrimp sauce Clean, wipe and anoint abundantly, inside and out, with a mixture of salad oil and vinegar. Set on ice for an hour to let the “marinade” mellow the fish. Have ready half a pound of rindless fat pork, cut as thin as shavings. Lay half upon the bottom of your covered bakepan, put the fish upon them, and spread the upper side with the rest. Pour a little hot water in the pan to generate steam; cover and bake one hour, if the fish be large, basting three times with butter and water. Transfer to a hot dish, and set over hot water while you make the sauce. Shrimp sauce for baked bass Strain the gravy left in the pan, and stir in a brown roux made by heating a great spoonful of butter in a frying-pan