Smelts.
The only true way to cook smelts is to fry them, although they are sometimes baked. Open them at the gills. Draw each smelt separately between your finger and thumb, beginning at tail; this will press the insides out. (Some persons never take out the insides, but it should be done as much as to any other fish.) Wash them clean, and let them drain in a cullender; then salt, and roll in a mixture of half flour and half Indian meal. Have about two inches deep of boiling fat in the frying-pan (drippings, if you have them; if not, lard); into this drop the smelts, and fry brown. Do not put so many in that they will be crowded; if you do, they will not be crisp and brown.