No. 2486 — Fried or Baked Fish

Take 3 pounds of a large fish such as pike-perch, pike, whitefish, bream, tench, carp, vimba, white salmon or sturgeon. Clean and wash, split lengthwise, remove the bones and cut into even pieces. Salt for 1 hour, wipe completely dry and coat with flour or rusks.

Heat a frying pan, add ¼–½ glass of poppy-seed, sunflower, Provençal, mustard or walnut oil, and when it is hot put in the fish. Fry on both sides, adding more crumbs and testing with a fork. Make several cuts in thick parts so that the fish cooks through, and serve at once. Add the whole quantity of oil at the beginning; the original warns that adding it little by little prevents proper browning and risks burning. Arrange on a dish and scatter over green parsley.

For baking, clean, wash, salt and dry a whole large fish, brush it thoroughly with oil and bake on a tray. When it begins to brown, sprinkle generously with crumbs and baste frequently with its juices until done. Only large fish are recommended for this method. Smaller fish such as navaga, smelt, vendace, crucian carp, grayling and perch should be fried whole on the stove, after making three cuts across their backs. Arrange the small fish in a criss-cross or well-like pattern and sprinkle with parsley.

Serve fried potatoes with fried or baked fish, together with (1) salted cucumbers; (2) lettuce salad No. 1346; (3) beet salad No. 1356; (4) pickled beetroot No. 1358; (5) chicory salad No. 1350; (6) fresh cucumber salad No. 1353; (7) apple, cherry, plum or apricot compote, Part II; (8) potato salad No. 1364; (9) potato-and-beet salad No. 1356; or (10) shredded cabbage No. 1343. Alternatively, pour over (11) cherry sauce No. 2422, (12) walnut sauce No. 2414, (14) strong sauce No. 392, (15) red sauce No. 2406 or (16) sweet-and-sour sauce No. 2412.