48 COLD FISH.
slice of hard-boiled egg (cut transversely, not lengthways) in each tomato, pile on this some of the caviar, curl a halved prawn round the top, setting an olive farced with anchovy butter on each, and serve. Any fish may be served in this way with the caviar, and makes a pretty variety.
The above will show that there is plenty of variety in serving cold boiled fish, but what few cooks appear to realise is the use of cold fried fish for this purpose. Cold fried smelts may be boned and filleted, and served with broken up lettuce, tossed in tomato mayonnaise, and garnished with anchovy fillets, hard-boiled and quartered egg (plover's or otherwise), chopped aspic, etc., according to taste and the material available.
Cold whitebait again is a thing one seldom sees, yet few salads are more dainty than a pile of delicately-fried cold whitebait, lightly sprinkled with oil, lemon juice or white tarragon vinegar, and coralline pepper, surrounded by the hearts of young cabbage lettuce (and, for those who like it, a sprinkling of minced chives or very tiny “thread” or spring onions), very small round radishes, etc., and some white mayonnaise handed in a boat. Fish fillets also, if baked or poached, seasoned with a little lemon juice, salt, and coralline pepper, and pressed till cold between two plates, after which they are trimmed, decorated with hard-boiled egg, truffle, etc., and masked with aspic jelly, make a very pretty border for salad of any kind, especially for the Sunday supper above referred to; the salad (which may be fresh, or a macédoine of cold cooked vegetables, or, at a pinch, the contents of a can of macédoine) being mixed with vinaigrette or mayonnaise as you please, and finally set by pouring into the basin as much just liquid aspic as it will hold; leaving it till