A Handbook of Fish Cookery: How to buy, dress, cook, and eat fish

own gravy.=--This is a very dainty dish. Take a dozen or more large oysters, open them carefully, and pour the juice from each one into a cup. Take off the beards, dip each oyster into beaten egg thickened with flour. Brown them in a little butter, lift them out, add the gravy from the cup to the butter, thicken with flour, and season with pepper and salt. Let it simmer for two or three minutes, then stir in the browned oysters; let them heat through again, then pour over a slice of toast. =Oysters, au Gratin.=--Butter a bright tin or silver gratin-dish. Stir into a few ounces of breadcrumbs a spoonful of chopped parsley and sweet herbs with seasoning. Sprinkle these thickly over the butter, and moisten with white wine. Then split open two dozen large oysters, take off the beards, and lay each oyster on the bed in the dish, pouring the juice over as well. Cover them with a few more crumbs, place three or four nobs of butter on the top, and bake in a moderate oven for ten minutes. Bring to table in the dish. =Perch.=--The best way of dressing perch is in _water souchy_. Remember always to clean the perch first with a little warm water to take off the slime, then lay them in cold salt water for an hour or so. Pick out the smallest of the fish for the _souchy_, empty them, cut into pieces, boil them slowly with some parsley-root, peppercorns, and salt. Strain the broth (for the ingredients should boil until a strong broth is obtained) through a muslin. The large perch should be crimped, after being cleaned, then placed in the broth and simmered until just tender. Drain them, serve in a deep dish with a ladleful of the broth poured over them, and garnished with green parsley. A little fresh parsley, chopped, may be introduced into the broth if liked. Perch may also be laid in a marinade (after being cleansed) then broiled over the fire. It is well if, after lifting them out of the marinade, they