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Perch, Stewed in Wine

Like all fish of its kind, the perch, though very good when plainly dressed, is slightly insipid; it is therefore very often cooked, as the great Izaak Walton says, "with trouble and charges." When economy does not require to be studied, the following will be found an excellent dish. Take three medium-sized perch, wash, then scale and empty them, and take out the gills. Lay the fish in a stewpan, and just cover them with equal parts of sherry and stock, or, if preferred, with sherry only. Put with them a sliced onion, a handful of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, a small clove of garlic, and a little pepper and salt, and let them simmer gently until they are sufficiently cooked. Drain them, and keep them hot until the sauce is made. Strain the liquor, put it into a stew-pan, and mix gradually with it an ounce of flour which has been smoothly worked with an ounce of butter; let it boil, then add a large table-spoonful of chopped parsley and half an ounce of cold butter. Stir the sauce until the butter is dissolved. Take the whole of the skin off the perch, pour the sauce over them, and stick the red fins into the middle of the backs; serve as quickly as possible. Time, about a quarter of an hour to stew the perch. It is a fish which is seldom offered for sale. Sufficient for two or three persons.