Sea Cookery

FISH.— Fish must always be cooked as fresh as possible. If it is stale the eyes will be dull, the gills a dirty yellow tint, and the flesh flabby, and when pressed, a dent will be left where the pressure is applied. On the other hand, if the fish is fresh, the eyes will be bright, the gills red, the scales bright, and the flesh when pressed will feel firm and no dent will remain. As parts of some kinds of fish are poisonous, even when fresh, it is best when cooking one which you feel doubtful about, to have it boiled, and put into the water in which the fish is being boiled a silver coin, or a piece of silver of any kind. If the silver turns black the fish is poisonous. It is always advisable to take this precaution with fish obtained in foreign ports. 23 A good way to boil fish when it is too large for the fish kettle, or when you want to serve it out in equal proportions, is the following. After cleansing the fish, cut it into portions of the required size, have ready the pan half filled with boiling water in which salt has been added in the proportion of two ounces to the gallon. Put the portions of fish into this, bring the water up to boiling point again, then draw the pan aside to prevent it boiling any further and allow the fish to remain for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then remove the fish and serve. You may think that by cooking fish in this way a lot of the nourishment will be lost in the water, but this is not so. Fish contains among other things, a large amount of albumen. The heat causes coagulation of this albumen in the same way as it does in eggs. Therefore, when the fish is put into boiling water the albumen on its surface forms a casing through which the juices cannot escape into the water. The salt which has been added to the water assists in hardening this casing. If the water is allowed to boil, the bubbling will cause the fish to break into flakes or become ‘ woolly,’ but if it is brought to boiling point as directed and no more, the heat will be quite sufficient to ■cook the fish. When frying fish, take care to have enough fat smoking hot to completely cover the fish. The reasons for this are given in the directions for frying. Baked fish is one of the simplest ways of cooking, but not often practiced. A number of recipes are given in this book in which the fish is baked in the oven. This way of cook- ing fish will commend itself upon trial. All fish, whether baked, broiled, fried, or boiled, should be sprinkled with lemon juice before cooking. This has the effect of flavouring and bleaching the fish. FRYING. — To fry anything properly, and to the greatest advantage in flavour, economy, and appearance, you must have sufficient smoking hot fat to completely cover the article which is to be fried. This may appear on the face of it to be wrong, owing to the amount of dripping or lard it will require to cover the article, but it is not so.