The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical Every-Day Cookery

its nutritive value it deserves to rank as high as our favorite New England beans. For two quarts of lentil soup half a pint of yellow lentils should be well washed, and put to boil in three pints of cold water, with a small carrot, an onion, two sprigs of parsley, and two bay leaves, and boiled gently until the lentils are soft enough to break easily between the fingers; every half hour one gill of cold water should be added, and the lentils again raised to the boiling point, until they are done; they should then be drained in a colander, and passed through a sieve with a wooden spoon, using enough of the liquor to make them pass easy, and mixed with the rest of the soup; it is then ready to simmer for half an hour, and serve hot; with dice of fried bread half an inch square, like those used for pea soup. These dice of fried bread are called _Conde_ crusts. CHAPTER III. FISH. When fish is rather deficient in flavor, a little vinegar rubbed over the skin; and a few sweet herbs boiled with it will greatly improve it. For boiling, large fish should be placed on the fire in cold water, and small ones in hot water; both are done when the fins pull out easily. Fish soup is the most economical of all fish dishes; baked fish the second best; broiled fish retains nearly all its nourishment; and boiled fish is the poorest of all. The following technical terms are used to denote different methods of cooking fish: to dress fish _a la Hollandaise_ is to boil it in sea water; _a l'eau de sel_, in salt and water; _au court bouillon_, with cold water, white wine or vinegar, sweet herbs, soup vegetables, lemon, and whole spices; _a la bonne eau_, with sweet herbs and cold water; _au bleu_, in equal quantities of red wine and cold water, highly flavored with spices and aromatic herbs. 13. =Boiled Cod with Oyster Sauce.=--Lay two pounds of cod in enough cold water to cover it,