If the thickest part of the flesh separates easily from the back-bone, it is quite ready to serve, and should be withdrawn from the pan without delay, as further cooking would be injurious to it. This test can easily be applied to a fish which has been divided, but when it is entire it should be lifted from the water when the flesh of the tail breaks from the bone, and the eyes loosen from the head.
TO BAKE FISH.
A gentle oven may be used with advantage, for cooking almost every kind of fish, as we have ascertained from our own observation; but it must be subjected to a mild degree of heat only. This penetrates the flesh gradually, and converts it into wholesome succulent food; whereas, a hot oven evaporates all the juices rapidly, and renders the fish hard and dry. When small, they should be wrapped in oiled or buttered paper before they are baked; and when filleted, or left in any other form, and placed in a deep dish with or without any liquid before they are put into the oven, a buttered paper should still be laid closely upon them to keep the surface moist. Large pieces of salmon, conger eel, and other fish of considerable size are sometimes in common cookery baked like meat over potatoes pared and halved.
FAT FOR FRYING FISH.
This, whether it be butter, lard, or oil should always be excellent in quality, for the finest fish will be rendered unfit for eating if it be fried in fat that is rancid. When good, and used in sufficient quantity, it will serve for the same purpose several times, if strained after each frying, and put carefully away in a clean pan, provided always that it has not been smoked nor burned in the using.
Lard renders fish more crisp than butter does; but fresh, pure olive-oil (salad oil, as it is commonly called in England) is the best ingredient which can be used for it, and as it will serve well for the same purpose, many times in succession, if strained and carefully stored as we have already stated, it is not in reality so expensive as might be supposed for this mode of cooking. There should always be an ample quantity of it (or of any other friture[[44]]) in the pan, as the fish should be nearly covered with it, at the least; and it should cease to bubble before either fish or meat is laid into it, or it will be too much absorbed by the flesh, and will impart neither sufficient firmness, nor sufficient colour.
[44]. The French term for fat of all kinds used in frying.
TO KEEP FISH HOT FOR TABLE.
Never leave it in the water after it is done, but if it cannot be sent to table as soon as it is ready to serve, lift it out, lay the fish-plate into a large and a very hot dish, and set it across the fish-kettle; just dip a clean cloth into the boiling water, and spread it upon the fish, place a tin cover over it, and let it remain so until two or three minutes before it is wanted, then remove the cloth, and put the fish back into the kettle for an instant that it may be as hot as possible: drain, dish, and serve it immediately: the water should be kept boiling the whole time.