Skate
To do him honour at table, there should be music with the skate, for he loves it. One way of catching him used to be by playing on a fiddle. His love of melody was such that he came to the boat and was en- Smelts shared. It is well, therefore, to honour him with pleasant music when he is devoured. He comes in two distinct tribes to the English market-thornbacks and tinkers-the former much the better. He is generally sold at the fishmonger's crimped that is, cut in strips and rolled round. He is eaten in England plain boiled, with ordinary butter sauce, to which mustard is sometimes added, or else capers; in France with black butter. And he ought always to be served with some of his liver, which, if this organ be the seat of the affections in fish, cannot but be good in the skate the most affectionate fish in the world, a good father, a good mother, and fond of family life.
For triumphant occasions, take the following receipt :- Boil the skate with a tumblerful of milk, a little butter, two pinches of flour, two cloves, two shalots, a bayleaf, thyme, salt, and pepper. Take him out of this, and strain the liquor. Put him next into a pie-dish, the bottom of which has been covered with grated Gruyère cheese. Intermix cunningly a dozen little onions, which have been already cooked. Surround the dish with fried crusts. Then pour upon the skate the strained sauce in which he has been cooked; cover him with more grated cheese, send him to the oven till he takes a fine colour, and rejoice over him. Improve the occasion, too, by meditating on the domesticity of the thornback, and the goodness which has been the result of it.
SMELTS (in French éperlans, in Scotch sperlings).- The most delicate and spirituel of all the fish that come to our tables. Brillat-Savarin has named it the becafico of the sea, as the turbot is the pheasant, and the red mullet the woodcock. Happily we have not to enjoy the smelts, as we do the becafico, by deputy. It is best to fry them lightly in suet, dipping them first in flour, then in beaten egg, lastly in fine breadcrumbs. Serve them on a napkin, with a garnishing of fried parsley, the bitter of which is Snipe in pleasant contrast with this little exquisite of the ocean.
For a change, bake them as follows:- Pour some clarified butter into the dish in which they are to be served; also a glass of white wine, a few drops of anchovy sauce, and the juice of half a lemon. Arrange them prettily in the dish; sprinkle them with salt, mace, and cayenne; cover them with fine breadcrumbs; and moisten the whole with more clarified butter. Put the dish into the oven, and in ten or fifteen minutes it ought to be readythe crumbs light brown. Everybody knows that smelts, if fresh, ought to smell like cucumber. I do not so well understand what Beauvilliers means by saying that they smell like cucumbers or violets. They are in season from October till May.