Soak bread in cold water till soft—drain off the water, mash the bread fine, mix it with a table spoonful of melted butter, a little pepper and salt—a couple of raw eggs makes the dressing cut smoother—add spices if you like. Fill the fish, with the dressing, sew it up, put a tea cup of water in your bake pan, and a small piece of butter—lay in the fish, bake it from forty to fifty minutes. Fresh cod, bass, and shad, are suitable fish for baking.
Fresh cod is good boiled, fried, or made into a chowder. It is too dry a fish to broil. Salt cod should be soaked in lukewarm water till the skin will come off easily—then take up the fish, scrape off the skin, and put it in fresh water, and set it on a very moderate fire, where it will keep warm without boiling, as it hardens by boiling. It takes between three and four hours to cook it soft—serve it up with drawn butter. Cold salt codfish is nice minced fine, and mixed with mashed potatoes, and warmed up, with just water enough to moisten it, and considerable butter. It makes a nice dish for breakfast, prepared in the following manner. Pull the fish into small pieces, soak it an hour in warm water, then drain off the water, put a little milk and butter to it, stew it a few minutes, and serve it up with soft boiled eggs.
Soak them four or five hours in lukewarm water—then take them out of the water, scrape off the skin, cut them once in two, and stew them in a little milk. Just before they are taken up, stir in butter, and a little flour.
Is nice cut in slices, salted and peppered, and broiled or fried. The fins and thick part is good boiled.
Bass are good fried, boiled, broiled, or made into a chowder.