Baked Carp,-Mariniere

Served with quenelles of whiting, blanched olives and mushrooms, baked carp mariniere is a succulent French supper.

Take a carp weighing from ten to twelve pounds, scale, draw it, and cut a little off the fins and fill the inside with forcemeat. Remove a little of the skin from the back, leaving the flesh exposed, and lard this with fat bacon; then truss the head; place the fish on a drainer in a long fishkettle, season it and fill the kettle to about half the height of the fish with court bouillon and white wine in the proportion of one quart of the former to one-half pint of the latter. . Place the kettle on the fire and let the liquid boil for five minutes; then remove the carp and put it in a moderate oven to bake for about an hour and a half, basting it often. When done, take it out, drain, and pour its stock through a sieve, putting the fish back into the kettle again to keep hot. Prepare a little brown sauce with the stock, and when clarified and strained, put it into a flat stewpan with a handful of mushroom trimmings; pour in a wineglassful of white wine and reduce; then pass it through a sieve, adding a quarter of a pound of good butter. Place the carp on an oval dish and garnish it on both sides with a bunch of quenelles of whitings, one of mushrooms and one of blanched olives; glaze the larding with a paste-brush and pour a little sauce over the other parts of the fish and a little at the bottom of the dish. Put the soft roes into the balance of the sauce and serve in a sauceboat.