A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House

mullets. (Remove the head if desired; never split them open.) Have a deep enamelled frying pan ready. Put into it three ounces of butter, four or five wafer-thin slices of onion, two tablespoonfuls of bottled tomato sauce or catsup. Bring to a boil and lay the fish gently in the hot pan. Keep the butter boiling lightly round the fish. Baste frequently with a large spoon; then carefully turn the fish, taking care not to tear the skin (thus spoiling the appearance). Generally it will take from thirty to forty minutes to cook the fish through. This can be easily ascertained by passing the blade of a fine knife gently through the fish by the side of the bone. Have a little more butter and tomato catsup melted together in a basin. Place the fish on a hot dish and pour the melted butter and tomato sauce you have ready over the fish and serve very hot. It should never be allowed to brown, so as to retain its pretty red colour. FOWLS AND GAME BIRDS _Roasting and Between Boiling_ _General Remarks_ In roasting birds the great point is to avoid dryness. Butter should be put _into_ the bird as well as outside. The fowl should never be washed with water after being trussed but wiped with a damp cloth. On no account should a fowl intended for roasting be floured on the outside. It is an abominable practice, causing the skin to become leathery and thick. Fowls or any birds already plucked and trussed cannot be kept for more than two days. But before trussing they may be kept _hanging_ for three or four days providing the weather is not thundery or hot. _121. Roast Goose_ Have a goose of seven or eight pounds trussed for roasting. Stuff with sage and onion stuffing (rec: 40), butter the breast well and cook in a quick but not fierce oven for three and a half hours. Garnish with sausages. _122. Roast Duck_ If not stuffed put a piece of butter inside and butter the breast liberally. Cook in a quick oven