The application of strong vinegar, or of acetic acid (which may be purchased at the chemists’), will effect this when the taint is but slight. The vinegar should be used pure; and one wineglassful of the acid should be mixed with two of water. Pour either of these over the fish, and rub it on the parts which require it; then leave it untouched for a few minutes, and wash it afterwards well, changing the water two or three times. When the fish is in a worse state the chloride of soda, from its powerful anti-putrescent properties, will have more effect: it may be diluted, and applied in the same manner as the acid.
Obs.—We have retained here the substance of the directions which we had given in former editions of this book for rendering eatable fish (and meat) tainted by being closely packed or overkept; and it is true that they may be deprived of their offensive flavour and odour by the application of strong acids and other disinfecting agents,—Beaufoy’s chloride of soda more especially—but we are very doubtful whether they can by any process be converted into unquestionably wholesome food, unless from some accidental circumstance the mere surface should be affected, or some small portion of them, which could be entirely cut away. We cannot, therefore, conscientiously recommend the false economy of endangering health in preference to rejecting them for the table altogether.
THE MODE OF COOKING BEST ADAPTED TO DIFFERENT KINDS OF FISH.
It is not possible, the reader will easily believe, to insert in a work of the size of the present volume, all the modes of dressing the many varieties of fish which are suited to our tables; we give, therefore, only the more essential receipts in detail, and add to them such general information as may, we trust, enable even a moderately intelligent cook to serve all that may usually be required, without difficulty.
There is no better way of dressing a good turbot, brill, John Dory, or cod’s head and shoulders, than plain but careful boiling. Salmon is excellent in almost every mode in which it can be cooked or used. Boiled entire or in crimped slices; roasted in a cradle-spit or Dutch oven; baked; fried in small collops; collared; potted; dried and smoked; pickled or soused (this is the coarsest and least to be recommended process for it, of any); made into a raised or common pie, or a potato-pasty; served cold in or with savoury jelly, or with a Mayonnaise sauce; or laid on potatoes and baked, as in Ireland, it will be found Good.
Soles may be either boiled, or baked, or fried entire, or in fillets; curried; stewed in cream; or prepared by any of the directions given for them in the body of this chapter.
Plaice, unless when in full season and very fresh, is apt to be watery and insipid; but taken in its perfection and carefully cooked, it is very sweet and delicate in flavour. If large, it may be boiled with advantage either whole or in fillets; but to many tastes it is very superior when filleted, dipped into egg and bread-crumbs, and fried. The flesh may also be curried; or the plaice may be converted into water-souchy, or soupe-maigre: when small it is often fried whole.
Red mullet should always be baked, broiled, or roasted: it should on no occasion be boiled.
Mackerel, for which many receipts will be found in this chapter, when broiled quite whole, as we have directed, or freed from the bones, divided, egged, crumbed, and fried, is infinitely superior to the same fish cooked in the ordinary manner.
The whiting, when very fresh and in season, is always delicate and good; and of all fish is considered the best suited to invalids. Perhaps quite the most wholesome mode of preparing it for them, is to open it as little as possible when it is cleansed, to leave the skin on, to dry the fish well, and to broil it gently. It should be sent very hot to table, and will require no sauce: twenty minutes will usually be required to cook it, if of moderate size.