Whiting — French merlan — is reputed to be a most delicate fish, and very easily digested by a human stomach ; ‘ Merlans manges ne pesent non plus dans I’estomac que pendus a la ceinture.’ Moreover, it is a fish of great practical value, as it is in season all the year on different parts of the coast. The best size for cooking purposes is about nine inches long ; some rare specimens have been known to attain a length of twenty-four inches. Fish less than six inches in length may not lawfully be taken. Their flesh should be firm, and their eyes bright. The trimming of the whiting consists in skinning it, bending it in a circle, and fixing the tail in its mouth with the aid of a wooden peg. French cooks only scrape the whiting, and score or crimp it obliquely ; this scarifying is superfluous. Whiting is mostly fried, rarely boiled; may be broiled, braised, a.nd finished au gratin. The latter requires many additions. Gouffe demands for two fish of a pound in weight each — therefore 1,000 grammes — no less than 900 grammes of mushrooms ! This reminds of the proverbial drowning of the miller. A hundred grammes of mushrooms are sufficient for the gratination. Whiting admits, by its neutrality, of many forms of preparation — it may be baked, fried, filleted, marinaded; presented as boudins, quenelles, or farce. As the flesh basis of farces for stuffing it is particularly valuable. There are some rare and little-used varieties of fish, which we will only name ; Scad, or horse-mackerel ; garfish, horn- fish, or tobacco-qnqye fish ; skipper, or saucy pike ; whiting pollock, or glassen ; black pollock, rate pollock, or coal fish, and their young, called pollards ; the capcling ; the ling, whose name is supposed to be a corruption of long, as it grows up to ton feet in length ; hake, when salt called Poor John; forked hake; bass, also called sea wolf, a species of RARE VARIETIES OF SEA-FISH 549 marine perch ; conger eel, a very bony fish, of which Galen said that it was the hardest and most indigestible of fish ; the murcena, or sealed, of which the Romans had a great opinion — on Cgesar’s return from Gaul, a speculator offered him 6,000 muraenas to be used at his triumphal banquet ; bream, shad, dace, loeaver, sea-barhel, and thornback. CHAPTER XLVIII. PREPARATIONS OF SWEET-WATER FISH. Trout (French truiie, German Forelle) is the finest sweet- water fish. Of two varieties, one has white, the other rose- coloured flesh ; the latter is called salmon trout, and is most esteemed ; the colour of its flesh is supposed to be derived from the spawn and young of the crayfish which the trout eat. Although trout may grow to very large size (Soyer ate of one, taken in the Lake of Killarney, which weighed 26 lb.), they occur in the market only of moderate size. Trout should be boiled in salt water, with a little vinegar and aromatic herbs, and served with boiled potatoes and browned butter✪ Trout Boiled in Salt Water. This is the form to which, after having tried many others, we always prefer to return. Gold boiled troxd is excellent when served in a mayonnaise. When travelling in the Pyrenees we had this dish put before us almost daily. There is a recipe for Trout boiled in Wine, an echo of the faisan Lxicxdhis of Vuillemot, which we advise our readers not to spoil their fish with ; even the ragout of mushrooms, the allemande sauce, and the garnishes could not restore the flavour of the trout drowned in and evaporated

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Whiting — French merlan — is reputed to be a most delicate fish, and very easily digested by a human stomach ;"Merlans mangés ne pèsent non plus dans l'estomac que pendus à la ceinture."’ Moreover, it is a fish of great practical value, as it is in season all the year on different parts of the coast. The best size for cooking purposes is about nine inches long ; some rare specimens have been known to attain a length of twenty-four inches. Fish less than six inches in length may not lawfully be taken. Their flesh should be firm, and their eyes bright. The trimming of the whiting consists in skinning it, bending it in a circle, and fixing the tail in its mouth with the aid of a wooden peg. French cooks only scrape the whiting, and score or crimp it obliquely ; this scarifying is superfluous. Whiting is mostly fried, may be boiled; may be broiled, braised, and finished au gratin. The latter requires many additions. Gouffe demands for two fish of a pound in weight each — therefore 1,000 grammes — no less than 900 grammes of mushrooms ! This reminds of the proverbial drowning of the miller. A hundred grammes of mushrooms are sufficient for the gratination. Whiting admits, by its neutrality, of many forms of preparation — it may be baked, fried, filleted, marinaded; presented as boudins, quenelles, or farce. As the flesh basis of farces for stuffing it is particularly valuable. There are some rare and little-used varieties of fish, which we will only name ; Scad, or horse-mackerel ; garfish, hornfish, or tobacco-pipe fish ; skipper, or saucy pike ; whiting pollock, or glassen ; black pollock, rate pollock, or coal fish, and their young, called pollards ; the capcling ; the ling, whose name is supposed to be a corruption of long, as it grows up to ton feet in length ; hake, when salt called Poor John; forked hake; bass, also called sea wolf, a species of RARE VARIETIES OF SEA-FISH marine perch ; conger eel, a very bony fish, of which Galen said that it was the hardest and most indigestible of fish ; the murcena, or morena, of which the Romans had a great opinion — on Caesar's return from Gaul, a speculator offered him 6,000 muraenas to be used at his triumphal banquet ; bream, shad, dace, loeaver, sea-barhel, and thornback. CHAPTER XLVIII. PREPARATIONS OF SWEET-WATER FISH. Trout (French truiie, German Forelle) is the finest sweetwater fish. Of two varieties, one has white, the other rosecoloured flesh ; the latter is called salmon trout, and is most esteemed ; the colour of its flesh is supposed to be derived from the spawn and young of the crayfish which the trout eat. Although trout may grow to very large size (Soyer ate of one, taken in the Lake of Killarney, which weighed 26 lb.), they occur in the market only of moderate size. Trout should be boiled in salt water, with a little vinegar and aromatic herbs, and served with boiled potatoes and browned butter. This is the form to which, after having tried many others, we always prefer to return. Gold boiled troxd is excellent when served in a mayonnaise. When travelling in the Pyrenees we had this dish put before us almost daily. There is a recipe for Trout boiled in Wine, an echo of the faisan Lxicxdhis of Vuillemot, which we advise our readers not to spoil their fish with ; even the ragout of mushrooms, the allemande sauce, and the garnishes could not restore the flavour of the trout drowned in and evaporated

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