Required: A dozen smelts. For the frying batter: Two ounces of butter. One whole egg and one extra yolk.

One tablespoonful of salad oil. Two tablespoonfuls of milk or cream. A few grains of salt.

First prepare the batter.

Sieve the flour and salt into a basin. Add the oil to the milk and pour these into the middle of the flour, mixing them in smoothly. Add the yolks of the eggs and beat the batter well. Next wash and trim the smelts neatly. (This is done most easily with a pair of scissors, the tails being cut to a neat point). Then dip the fish in flour with a good dust of salt and pepper mixed with it, the flour will dry them. Put the pan of frying-fat on the fire to heat.

Whisk the white of egg to a stiff froth, add it very lightly to the batter. Coat each smelt with batter - this is best done by holding the fish on a skewer in the batter and moving it about until it is completely covered with the mixture - then lift it up, and when a very faint bluish smoke rises from the frying-fat, drop it in and fry a pretty golden brown. Drain the fish on kitchen paper, and arrange them neatly on a hot dish. Garnish with thin slices of lemon and fried parsley.