Baked Smelts

A historical recipe from I Go A-Marketing, by Henrietta Sowle (1900).

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A historical recipe

I Go A-Marketing, by Henrietta Sowle (1900). Project Gutenberg eBook #55566.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 2 ingredients

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

The next time you are to have smelts try cooking them in this way: After they are cleaned have them wiped till perfectly dry, and lay them in a baking dish;
over them pour a wineglass of white wine, add a sprinkling of salt and pepper, according to your judgment, half a dozen whole fresh mushrooms, and pour over them one-half a pint of Spanish sauce.
Sprinkle ever so lightly with bread-crumbs and a little warmed butter, and bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes.
This is the way you would prepare a dozen or fifteen of the fish;
of course for a larger number the amount of seasoning, etc., would be increased proportionately.
Garnish the smelts before serving with thinly sliced lemon, each slice sprinkled with chopped parsley.