[CHAPTER VII.]
FISH.
Put fish into cold water to boil.
Remove any mud taste by soaking in strong salt and water.
It is cooked enough when it easily cleaves from the bone, and is injured by cooking longer.
Put a napkin under, to absorb dampness, when boiled fish is laid on the dish.
To fry, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and use lard, not butter. Garnish with parsley.
Halibut is best cut in slices, and fried, or broiled. Bass are good every way. Black fish are best broiled or fried. Shad are best broiled, and sprinkle them with salt some hours before broiling. Salt shad and mackerel must be soaked over night for broiling. Sturgeons are best fried; the part near the tail is best for this.
Directions for making Chowder.
The best fish for chowder are haddock and striped bass. Cut the fish in pieces of an inch thick, and two inches square. Take six or eight good-sized slices of salt pork, and put in the bottom of an iron pot, and fry them in the pot till crisped. Take out the pork, leaving the fat. Chop the pork fine. Put in the pot a layer of fish, a layer of split crackers, some of the chopped pork, black and red pepper, and chopped onion, then another layer of fish, split crackers, and seasoning. This do till you have used your fish. Then just cover the fish with water, and stew slowly till the fish is perfectly tender. Take out the fish, and put it in the dish in which you mean to serve it; set it to keep warm. Thicken the gravy with pounded cracker; add, if you like, mushroom catsup and Port wine. Boil the gravy up once, and pour over the fish; squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and garnish with slices of lemon.