20 to 30 minutes; longer if very large.
TO FRY HADDOCKS
Follow the directions given for fillets of whitings; or, should a more simple method be preferred, clean and dry the fish well, cut off the heads and tails, take out the backbones, cut each fish in three, egg and crumb them, fry them in boiling lard a fine golden brown, and serve them, well drained and dried, with the same sauces as boiled haddocks.
TO DRESS FINNAN HADDOCKS.
These are slightly salted and dried. They are excellent eating, if gently heated through upon the gridiron without being hardened; and are served usually at the breakfast or supper table; a feather dipped in oil may be passed over them before they are laid to the fire.
TO BOIL GURNARDS.
(With directions for dressing them in other ways.)
Gurnard.
It is more usual to fill gurnards with forcemeat, and to bake them, or to have the flesh raised from the bones and dressed in fillets, than to serve them simply boiled; they may, however, be cooked in any of the modes directed for mackerel,[[48]] rather more time being allowed for them, as they are much firmer-fleshed, thicker in the bodies, and generally of larger size altogether. Cut off all the fins, take out the gills, and empty and cleanse them like other fish, washing the insides well; put them into hot water ready salted and skimmed, and boil them gently from twenty minutes to half an hour; serve them with anchovy sauce, or with parsley and butter rendered acid with chili vinegar, lemon-juice, or caper-pickle.