Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

Organs tak- ing Part in Mkchanical Action. f.ll r- HI 1=1 PI 111 if 11 1:1 II 69 ^1 1 o 1^ 3 o o ll a 200 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY Section 5. Fish and Shell-fish Fruit of the wave ! 0 dainty and delicious ! — W. A. Croffut. 327. In fish we have a food similar in general char- acter to meat, yet different from it in some ways. These points of unlikeness in the fiesh of the two classes of animals correspond to differences in the natures of the animals themselves. 328. Fish proper are distinguished from shell-fish by being vertebrate. A Study of the Structure of a Fish A. How does a fish breathe ? Find the gills, — red fringes back of the head. As the water taken into the fish's mouth passes out through the gills, the air dissolved in it gives oxygen to the blood. B. What covering has the fish ? Are the scales attached at their rear or their front ends? Is there a reason for this? Over the scales lies a thin skin, often containing coloring matter. Mackerel, butterfish, and a few others have no scales. C. An air bladder under the spine keeps the fish afloat. 329. How to know a fresh fish. — Fish may be tested for proteid, as meat is. In a fresh fish the gills are a bright red, the flesh along the back-bone firm and elastic, the eyes bulging and bright. 330. How to clean fish. — Wash the fish inside and out with a cloth wet in cold salt water, and dry with a clean towel kept for this purpose. If the fish is to be broiled or fried, cut off head and tail and split it down the back; if to be boiled, cut off the head only; if to be baked, leave whole. THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 201 331. Fish suitable for baking whole. — Cod, haddock, cusk, bluefisli, small salmon, bass, shad, whitefish. Recipe for Stuffing for Baked Fish Stale bread crumbs, 1 cupful. Pepper, a few grains. Melted butter, 1 tablespoon ful. Onion juice, a few drops. Salt, Yz teaspoonful. Parsley cut fine, 1 tablespoonful. Mix the ingredients in the order given. This recipe makes stuffing for a four-pound fish. Directions for baking a Fish Whole Time. — Forty-five to sixty minutes. Fill the cavity with stuffing, allowing it room to swell slightly. Sew the slit over and over with strong thread, taking stitches deep enough not to tear out. If the fish is a dry one (§ 345), cut gashes crosswise, and put in them strips of fat salt pork about one inch long, or insert the strips with a larding-needle. Skewer and tie the fish into the shape of the letter S, and set it upright, surrounded by bits of salt fat pork, on a greased fish sheet on a baking-pan. Bake until brown, basting often. Serve with Drawn Butter or HoUandaise Sauce. If you have no fish sheet, lay two strips of cloth across the pan, and lift the fish, when done, by these. 332. Fish suitable for broiling. Sflit. — Mackerel, young cod, bluefish, whitefish, shad, trout, etc. Sliced. — Chicken halibut and salmon. Whole. — Smelts, perch, and other small fish. 202 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY Directions for broiling Fish Time. — For small fish, five to ten minutes ; for large fish, fifteen to twenty minutes. Use a close-barred double wire broiler. Grease it when hot with salt- j)ork rind. See that the fish is wiped dry ; sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and, if not oily, rub it with melted butter.