Standard Paper-Bag Cookery

FISH and the paper bag method of cooking, go hand and glove. The thing that every housewife hates most, particularly in a small apartment, or in the Winter when it is difficult to get the house thoroughly aired, is the pervasive odor that announces to every one in the house or block just what you are going to have for dinner. Bagged, the odor is so minimized as to be entirely inoffensive. Ten minutes airing after the bag is opened will be quite sufficient to dissipate every particle of odor. Furthermore, the fish itself is much more delicate and digestible with all the flavor of fish and seasoning held in and united in a harmonious whole. Of course, this presupposes a fresh fish to start with, or one just out of cold storage, before it has had a chance to thaw and develope ptomaines. In buying fish, look at the eyes and flesh. Fish should be firm to the touch. If pressed by the finger the flesh should rise instantly. There should be no impression left. If fish is fresh the eyes are bright and the gills red and the scales not easily rubbed off. Never lay fish directly on artificial ice, say the fishermen, as the ammonia used in the freezing affects them injuriously. Shell fish are not so apt to spoil as the other fish. The wood cookery dishes will be found of great value in cooking all kinds of fish in paper bags. In many cases the flavor of the fish is improved and the fish can always be taken from the bag with ease and served whole if desired. Clam Pies.— Line little tins or moulds with paste and put in a layer of raw clams with a seasoning of butter and pepper. Dredge with flour, add a spoonful or two of clam juice, cover with the paste, cut a hole in the top, brush with beaten egg, slip into the bag, fasten and bake twenty minutes. Roast Clams. — Scrub the shells clean and slip in the bag. As soon as the shells open, remove carefully and pour off the extra liquor in as may small cups as you have persons to serve. Put a cup of the juice to which a bit of butter and dusting of pepper has been added, in the center of a soup dish, and arrange the clams around it. With an oyster fork, the clams may then be removed from the shell, dipped into the liquor and eaten. Serve very hot with quarters of lemon. Crabs, Soft and Hard.— While soft shell crabs are too expensive for the purse of moderate depth, the hard shell crustacean is always in order and greatly to be desired. Crabs, like all other shell fish, are best when fresh from their native waters, and the individual who can do his own crabbing and then eat the fruits of his labor with the flavor of the sea still with them, has nothing more to be desired from a gastronomic standpoint. In most markets crabs may be found both alive and boiled. If alive, keep them in cold water until ready to cook. If already boiled, use them as soon as possible as they do not keep well for more than twenty-four hours. When ready to cook live crabs, take up on a skimmer, handling gingerly so as to avoid a pinch, and drop into a large kettle of boiling salted water. Cook