Fish Salads

These consist principally of perch, trout, turbot and salmon. For these salads the fish must be boiled or cooked in a court-bouillon (No. 38) beforehand, so that they are cold when needed for use. They can also be made of sauted fillets of fish; in either case the skin and bones must first be removed. Put the fish into a bowl and season it with salt, oil and vinegar; it is generally arranged shaped as a pyramid on a cold dish, alternating and upholding the pieces of fish with a mixed cooked vegetable salad (No. 2650) cut in quarter-inch dice or balls five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. When the salad is dressed, smooth the surface, and cover it with a layer of mayonnaise with jelly (No. 613), then let it get firm for half an hour in a cold place, decorating it afterward with pieces of pickled cucumber and truffles. Surround the base with halved hard-boiled eggs, standing upright one against the other after cutting off a quarter of their length on the round end, so as to enable them to stand erect against the salad. A row of small lettuce hearts cut in four, and simply salted, may be arranged above the eggs, and also fasten a lozenged cut of very red and thin beetroot over the cut end of the egg, on top of the yolks (Fig. 492). Instead of an egg border, one of jelly may be substituted, decorated with shrimp tails, hard boiled eggs, crawfish and stoned olives.