1. For a mould capable of holding one quart, fold twelve small fillets

of sole and poach them in butter and lemon juice, taking care to keep them very white. This done, set them to cool under a light weight. Pour a few tablespoonfuls of melted fish jelly into the mould, which should be lying amidst broken ice. As soon as the jelly begins to set, decorate it tastefully with pieces (lozenges, crescents, &c.) of very black truffle and the poached white of an egg. Capers, tarragon leaves, thin roundels of small radishes, &c., may also be used for the purpose of decoration. When this part of the procedure has been satisfactorily effected, sprinkle a few drops of the same jelly over the decorating particles, in order to fix them and prevent their shifting during the subsequent stages of the process. Now add enough melted jelly to cover the bottom of the mould with a layer one inch thick, and leave this to set. On this set jelly, arrange the six fillets of sole; let their tail-ends overlap, and cover them with jelly. Continue adding coat upon coat of jelly until the thickness covering the fillets measures about one-half inch. Now arrange the remaining fillets in the reverse order, and fill up the mould with cold, melted jelly. Leave to cool for one hour. When about to serve, quickly dip the mould in a saucepan of hot water; wipe it, and turn out the aspic upon a folded napkin lying on a dish. 916—Another Method of Preparing ASPICS DE FILETS DE SOLES Coat ten fine fillets of sole with a thin layer of truffled fish forcemeat finished with crayfish butter, and roll them round a little rod of truffle, twice as thick as an ordinary penholder. Tie these _paupiettes_, once or twice round, with cotton; poach them very gently in fish _fumet_ and cool them on ice. Take a border-mould, even if possible; pour therein a few tablespoonfuls of melted fish jelly, and then rock it about on broken ice, with the object of evenly coating it with a thin layer of the jelly. This operation is technically called “clothing the mould.” Decorate the bottom of the mould as explained above; fix the decorating particles, and cover them with a layer one-half inch thick of fish jelly. After having properly trimmed the ends of the _paupiettes_, cut them into roundels one-half inch thick; set these upright against the sides of the mould, keeping them close together; add a few drops of melted jelly to fix the roundels, and as soon as this has set, add a further quantity, sufficient to completely cover them. As soon as this jelly sets, repeat the operation with the _paupiette_ roundels and the jelly, and do so again and again until the mould is filled. For turning out the aspic, proceed as directed above. 917—BORDURE DE FILETS DE SOLES A L’ITALIENNE Line a border-mould with jelly; _i.e._, coat its bottom and sides with a thin layer of fish jelly, rocking it upon ice as already explained. Now fill it, two-thirds full, with a garnish consisting of a _julienne_ of cold, poached fillets of sole, a _julienne_ of truffles (two oz. per two filleted soles), and a _julienne_ of capsicum (one and one-half oz. per two filleted soles). Fill up the mould with melted fish jelly, and leave the latter to set. When about to serve, turn out the mould upon a little, low cushion of rice, lying on a dish, and set an Italian salad in the centre. Serve a Mayonnaise sauce with this dish. 918—FILETS DE SOLES CALYPSO Flatten the fillets, and roll them into _paupiettes_ around little rods of wood two-thirds inch thick. Lay the _paupiettes_ in a buttered sautépan, with their joined sides undermost, and poach them in very clear fish _fumet_ and lemon juice, taking care to keep them very white. Let them cool, and remove the pieces of wood, whereupon they will have the appearance of rings. Take as many small tomatoes as there are _paupiettes_; cut them in two at a point two-thirds of their height below their stem-end; empty, and peel them. Set a _paupiette_, upright, in each tomato; fill the centre with crayfish _mousse_ combined with crayfishes’ tails in dice; lay a round piece of milt (stamped out with a cutter, poached, and cold) on each, and, finally, the shelled tail of a crayfish on each roundel of milt. Arrange the tomatoes in a circle round a dish; surround them with little triangles of white fish jelly, and garnish the centre of the dish with the same fish jelly, chopped. 919—FILETS DE SOLES CHARLOTTE Fold the fillets; poach them in fish _fumet_, and let them cool. Trim them; coat them with pink chaud-froid sauce; decorate each fillet by means of a rosette of chervil leaves, in the centre of which rests a bit of lobster coral, and glaze them with fish jelly. Set them, tail end uppermost, against a _mousse_ of milt with horse-radish, moulded in a narrow dome-mould, which should have been coated with fish jelly and besprinkled with chopped coral. Surround with a border of regularly-cut jelly dice. 920—FILETS DE SOLES A LA MOSCOVITE Prepare (1) some _paupiettes_ of filleted sole, in rings, as explained under “Filets de Soles à la Calypso” (No. 918); (2) as many round, fluted cases made from hollowed cucumber as there are _paupiettes_. The cucumber cases should be well _blanched_ and _marinaded_ inside. Set each paupiette in a cucumber case; garnish their centre with caviare, and arrange them in a circle on a dish. Send a sauce Russe to the table, separately, at the same time as the dish. 921—DOMINOS DE FILETS DE SOLES Select some fine, fleshy fillets; slightly flatten them; poach them in a little of the cooking-liquor of mushrooms, some lemon juice and butter, and set them to cool under a light weight. When the fillets are cold, trim them and cut them into regular rectangles the size of dominoes. Coat the rectangles with a maigre, white, chaud-froid sauce; decorate them in imitation of dominoes, with little spots of truffle; glaze them with cold, melted fish jelly, and put them aside. Pound the trimmings of the fish together with their weight of caviare, and rub the whole through a fine sieve. Add to this preparation half its weight of highly-coloured jelly, and leave it to set in a somewhat deep and moderately-oiled tray, the thickness of the preparation on the tray being not greater than that of a fillet of sole. When the jelly is set, cut it into rectangles exactly the same size as the prepared dominoes, and then, by means of a little melted, cold jelly, fix the dominoes of sole to the rectangles just prepared. Put some chopped jelly in the centre of the dish, and on this lay the dominoes in a muddled heap. 922—FILETS DE SOLES FROIDS DRESSÉS SUR MOUSSES What I pointed out above, I repeat here for the reader’s guidance—namely, that fillets of sole may be prepared after all the recipes given for trout (No. 813). As the fillets of sole in this dish remain very conspicuous, it is advisable to keep them very white in the poaching. Set them to cool under a light weight, and decorate them in a way that will be in keeping with the _mousse_ on which they are dished. This _mousse_ is set on a special dish, as already explained, and the decorated fillets are laid upon it and covered with melted jelly. For the variation of _mousses_, see the table given under No. 815. 923—TURBOT Turbot is generally served boiled, accompanied by freshly cooked, floury potatoes, and the cases are exceptional when, cooked in this way, it is dished with any other garnish. All fish sauces may be served with turbot. When, for the sake of variety, or in pursuance of the consumer’s wishes, turbot has to be braised or garnished, it is best to select a medium-sized fish, _i.e._, one weighing from eight to twelve lbs., thick, very fleshy, and white. Unless expressly ordered, it is best to avoid surrounding the piece with its garnish. Preferably, send the latter to the table in a separate dish, as also the sauce. By this means the service is expedited, and, more important still, the fish is quite hot when it reaches the table. It is granted that the sight of a dish containing a fine, richly garnished and tastefully arranged piece is flattering to the host, but it would be a pity that the quality of the fish should thereby suffer, more particularly as the gourmet is not satisfied with sightliness alone. I explained at the beginning of this chapter, under “Boiled Fish” (No. 776 and 779), the details relating to this method of cooking, especially with regard to its application to turbot. For the braising and garnishing of turbot, the reader is begged to refer to the recipes concerned with chicken-turbot. These recipes may be applied to turbot, provided the difference in the size of the fish be taken into account in reference to the time allowed for braising and the quantities of the garnishing ingredients. 924—COLD TURBOT Whether whole or sliced, cold turbot makes an excellent dish, if the fish have not been cooked too long beforehand. It will be found that turbot, especially when sliced, tends to harden, crumple, and lose its flavour while cooling. It is therefore of the greatest importance that the fish should have just cooled after cooking, and that the cooking-liquor should have barely time to set; otherwise the evil effects of cooling, mentioned above, will surely ensue. When served, just cooled, with one of the cold sauces suited to fish, turbot can vie in delicacy even with such fish as salmon or trout, which are usually served cold. 925—TURBOTINS (CHICKEN-TURBOTS) Turbotins (chicken-turbots) may rank among the most delicate and nicest of fish. Their varying sizes allow of their being served either for three, four, or ten, or twelve people; they are, moreover, tender and white, and they lend themselves to quite a vast number of culinary preparations. They may be served boiled, like the turbot; grilled; à la Meunière; fried; _au gratin_, like the soles; or braised, like the salmon and the trout. They are most often served whole, garnished and with sauce; but, in order to simplify the process, they may be filleted, the fillets being poached and dished with a garnish and the selected sauce. Whatever be the method of preparing the chicken-turbot, whether it be boiled, poached, or braised, the spine should always be cut in one or two places. The gash should be just in the middle of the back where the flesh is thickest, and the fillets on either side of the gash should be partly separated from the bone. The object of this measure is to prevent deformation during the cooking process and, also, to precipitate the latter. 926—TURBOTIN A L’AMIRAL Gash the back of the fish, and partly separate the under fillets from the bones. Lay it on a grill, and moisten, sufficiently to cover it, with previously-cooked _court-bouillon_ with Sauterne wine. As soon as the _court-bouillon_ boils, allow the fish to cook ten or twelve minutes for every two lbs. of its weight. This done, drain it; dish it, and coat it twice with melted, red butter. Now surround it with the following garnish, which should be in proportion to the size of the fish, viz., little heaps of large mussels and oysters, prepared à la Villeroy, and fried at the time of dishing; small patties of crayfish tails; large mushroom-heads grooved and cooked, and slices of truffle. Serve, separately, (1) a timbale of potatoes _à l’anglaise_; (2) Normande sauce, combined with one-sixth pint of reduced _court-bouillon_ per quart of sauce, finished with crayfish butter and seasoned with cayenne. 927—TURBOTIN A L’ANDALOUSE Cut it in the region of the back; season it, and lay it in a deep earthenware dish of convenient size, liberally buttered. In the case of a chicken-turbot weighing two and one-half lbs., moisten with one-third pint of white wine and one-quarter pint of fish _fumet_. Finely mince two medium-sized onions, and toss them in butter until they have acquired a yellow colour. Peel, press and mince three tomatoes, and add thereto three large, raw, sliced mushrooms. Cut two mild capsicums into strips. Spread the onion on the chicken-turbot; put the tomatoes and the sliced mushrooms on top, and upon these arrange the grilled strips of mild capsicum. Besprinkle moderately with raspings; lay one oz. of butter, cut into small pieces, on the top, and set to cook gently in the oven. Allow thirty minutes for the cooking. By reducing the moistening-liquor, which has perforce absorbed some of the gelatinous properties of the fish, the leason forms of itself. 928—TURBOTIN BONNE FEMME For a chicken-turbot weighing from two to two and one-half lbs. sprinkle on the bottom of a buttered tray one dessertspoonful of chopped shallots, one pinch of _concassed_ parsley, and three oz. of minced mushrooms. Cut the chicken-turbot in the back, and partly separate the fillets from the bone; lay it on the tray, and moisten with one-third pint of white wine and one-third pint of fish _fumet_. Cook gently in the oven, and baste frequently the while. When the chicken-turbot is cooked, dish it and keep it hot. Pour the cooking-liquor into a sautépan; reduce it to half, and add three tablespoonfuls of fish velouté and three oz. of butter. Cover the fish with this sauce and the garnish, and glaze quickly. 929—TURBOTIN COMMODORE Poach the chicken-turbot in salted water. Prepare the following garnish per one person:—Three potato balls cut to the size of hazel-nuts and cooked _à l’anglaise_; one medium-sized, trussed crayfish; one quenelle of fish; one small lobster _croquette_; and one oyster prepared à la Villeroy. All these products should be treated according to their nature, and just in time to be ready for the dishing up. A few moments before serving, drain the turbot; dish it, and surround it with the garnish detailed above, arranged in alternate heaps. Serve a Normande sauce, finished with anchovy butter, separately. 930—TURBOTIN DAUMONT Proceed exactly as directed under “Sole Daumont” (No. 823), taking into account the size of the fish, and increasing the sauce and the garnishing ingredients accordingly. 931—TURBOTIN FERMIÈRE Sprinkle on the bottom of a buttered tray two minced shallots, a few roundels of carrot and onion, some parsley stalks, thyme, and bay. Lay the chicken-turbot on these aromatics, and season moderately. For a fish weighing two lbs. moisten with two-thirds pint of excellent red wine; add one-half oz. of butter, cut into small pieces, and poach gently, taking care to baste frequently. Meantime toss three oz. of minced mushrooms in three oz. of butter. When the turbot is ready, drain it; dish it; surround it with the tossed mushrooms, and keep it hot. Strain the cooking-liquor into a vegetable-pan, and reduce it to half. Thicken it with a piece of _manied_ butter the size of a walnut; add three oz. of butter; pour this sauce over the chicken-turbot and its garnish, and set to glaze quickly. 932—TURBOTIN A LA MODE DE HOLLANDE Poach the chicken-turbot in salted water. Drain it, dish it, and upon it lay a lobster cooked in _court-bouillon_. The shell of the lobster should have been opened along the top of the tail, and the meat of the tail should have been quickly sliced and returned to its place. Send to the table at the same time (1) a timbale of floury potatoes, freshly cooked _à l’anglaise_; (2) a sauceboat containing egg sauce with melted butter (No. 117). 933—TURBOTIN MIRABEAU Poach the fish in _court-bouillon_ with Sauterne wine, as directed under “Turbotin à l’Amiral” (No. 926). Drain it; dish it, and coat it in alternate bands with white wine and Genevoise sauces. Along the lines formed by the meeting of the sauces lay thin strips of anchovy fillets placed end to end. Decorate the bands of white sauce with slices of truffle, and the bands of brown sauce with blanched tarragon leaves. 934—TURBOTIN PARISIENNE Poach the fish in _court-bouillon_ with Sauterne wine. Drain it, dish it, and round it arrange a border composed of alternate slices of truffles and mushrooms. Coat the fish with white-wine sauce, and surround it with trussed crayfish cooked in _court-bouillon_. N.B.—For fish à la Parisienne, the garnish of sliced truffles and mushrooms may be set on the dish, either conspicuously or the reverse; _i.e._, it may be laid round the fish and covered by the sauce, or arranged in the form of an oval on the fish after the latter has been sauced. In either case the slices of truffles and mushrooms should be laid alternately. 935—TURBOTIN RÉGENCE Poach the chicken-turbot in a sufficient quantity of previously-prepared _court-bouillon_ with Chablis wine. For a fish weighing three lbs. (enough for ten people), prepare the following garnish:—Twenty small spoon-moulded quenelles of whiting forcemeat with crayfish butter; ten poached oysters (cleared of their beards); ten small mushroom-heads (very white); ten truffles in the shape of olives, and ten poached slices of milt. Drain the chicken-turbot just before dishing it, and slip it on to a dish. Surround it with the garnish detailed above, arranged in alternate heaps, and serve a Normande sauce, finished with two tablespoonfuls of truffle essence per pint, separately. 936—TURBOTIN SOUFFLÉ A LA REYNIÈRE Lay the chicken-turbot on its belly, and make two gashes in its back, on either side of the spine, from the head to the tail. Completely separate the fillets from the bones; cut the spine at both ends; carefully raise it from the underlying, ventral fillets, and entirely remove it. Season the inside of the fish, and garnish it with enough fish _mousseline_ forcemeat to give it a rounded appearance. Close in the forcemeat by drawing the two separated fillets over it; turn the piece over, and lay it on a well-buttered, deep, oval dish, the size of which should be in proportion to that of the chicken-turbot. Poach it gently, almost dry, with lid on, in fish _fumet_ and the cooking-liquor of mushrooms mixed, _i.e._, two-thirds pint of the one and one-third pint of the other. This done, dish it carefully, and lay a row of grooved and white mushroom-heads down the centre of it. On either side put some very white, poached milt, alternating the latter with whole anchovy fillets, in such wise as to form an oval enframing the row of mushrooms. Send to the table, separately, a sauce composed of Soubise cullis and white-wine sauce, in the proportion of one-third and two-thirds respectively, combined with the reduced cooking-liquor of the chicken-turbot. 937—TURBOTIN FEUILLANTINE Stuff the chicken-turbot after the method described in the preceding recipe, but substitute lobster _mousseline_ forcemeat for that mentioned above. Poach as directed above, and dish. Coat the fish with lobster butter, made as red as possible, from the carcass of the lobster whose meat has been used for the forcemeat. From head to tail and down the centre of the fish lay a row of fine slices of truffle, letting them overlap each other slightly. Frame the row of truffle with two lines of very white, poached oysters, so placed as to form a regular oval. Send to the table, separately, a fine Béchamel sauce seasoned with cayenne. 938—COLD CHICKEN-TURBOT My remarks relative to cold turbot apply here with even greater force, for chicken-turbots are particularly well suited to cold dishing. The chicken-turbots to be served cold should not be too small; the best for the purpose would be those weighing four lbs. or more. In dismissing the subject I can but recommend cold chicken-turbot as a dish admitting of the most tasteful arrangement and decoration. LOBSTER (HOMARD) Whereas the ordinary lobster is a very favourite dish with English gourmets, the spiny kind has scarcely any vogue. This is no doubt accounted for by the fact that the former is not only very plentiful, but also of excellent quality, while the latter is comparatively scarce. 939—HOMARD A L’AMÉRICAINE The first essential condition is that the lobster should be alive. Sever and slightly crush the claws, with the view of withdrawing their meat after cooking; cut the tail into sections; split the carapace in two lengthwise, and remove the queen (a little bag near the head containing some gravel). Put aside, on a plate, the intestines and the coral, which will be used in the finishing of the sauce, and season the pieces of lobster with salt and pepper. Put these pieces into a sautépan containing one-sixth pint of oil and one oz. of butter, both very hot. Fry them over an open fire until the meat has stiffened well and the carapace is of a fine red colour. Then remove all grease by tilting the sautépan on its side with its lid on; sprinkle the pieces of lobster with two chopped shallots and one crushed clove of garlic; add one-third pint of white wine, one-quarter pint of fish _fumet_, a small glassful of burnt brandy, one tablespoonful of melted meat-glaze, three small, fresh, pressed, and chopped tomatoes (or, failing fresh tomatoes, two tablespoonfuls of tomato purée), a pinch of _concassed_ parsley, and a very little cayenne. Cover the sautépan, and set to cook in the oven for eighteen or twenty minutes. This done, transfer the pieces of lobster to a dish; withdraw the meat from the section of the tail and the claws, and put them in a timbale; set upright thereon the two halves of the carapace, and let them lie against each other. Keep the whole hot. Now reduce the cooking-sauce of the lobster to one-third pint; add thereto the intestines and the chopped coral, together with a piece of butter the size of a walnut; set to cook for a moment, and pass through a strainer. Put this cullis into a vegetable-pan; heat it without letting it boil, and add, away from the fire, three oz. of butter cut into small pieces. Pour this sauce over the pieces of lobster which have been kept hot, and sprinkle the whole with a pinch of _concassed_ and scalded parsley. 940—HOMARD A LA BORDELAISE Section the live lobster as directed above. Stiffen the meat and colour the carapace in a sautépan with two oz. of clarified butter. When the meat is quite stiff and the carapace is red, pour away two-thirds of the butter. Then add two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots, a crushed piece of garlic the size of a pea, one-sixth pint of white wine, three tablespoonfuls of burnt brandy, and reduce the whole to half. Complete with one-half pint of fish _fumet_, one-third pint of maigre Espagnole, one-quarter pint of tomato sauce, one small faggot, one pinch of salt, and a very little cayenne. Put the lid on, and set to cook for one-quarter hour. Take the meat from the sections of the tail and the claws, as in the case of the preparation à l’américaine; put these into a small sautépan, and keep them hot. Add the intestines and the chopped coral, reduce the sauce to one-third pint; pass it through a strainer, and pour it over the pieces of lobster. Heat the whole without boiling; add a few drops of lemon juice, two and one-half oz. of butter cut into small pieces, and one-half tablespoonful of chopped chervil and tarragon, and stir over the stove with the view of thoroughly mixing the whole. Dish as directed in the preceding recipe. 941—HOMARD BOUILLI A LA HOLLANDAISE Cook the lobster in a _court-bouillon_ (No. 163), allowing twenty minutes for a specimen weighing two lbs. As soon as the lobster is cooked, drain it; split it in two lengthwise without completely severing the two halves; lay it on a long dish covered with a napkin, and surround it with very green, curled-leaf parsley. Serve with it, at the same time, a timbale of floury potatoes freshly cooked _à l’anglaise_, and a sauceboat of melted butter. 942—HOMARD A LA BROCHE Select a lobster that seems full of life, and, after killing it, fix it on the spit. Put into the dripping-pan six oz. of butter, one-half bottle of champagne, salt, and peppercorns. In order to cook it to perfection, frequently baste it with this mixture, and allow one hour before a red fire for a specimen weighing three lbs. It may be dished with two accompaniments:—