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Salmon Gwilts, or Salmon Peel

These are the small salmon which run from about five or six to ten pounds. They are very good, and make handsome dishes cooked in the same way as salmon trout, and sent to table crooked in the form of the letter S. SALMON, HERRING, SPRATS, MACKEREL, ETC. ETC., PICKLED (Dr. Kitchener's recipe).

Cut the fish into pieces of a suitable size, do not take off the scales; then make a brine strong enough to bear an egg, in which boil the fish; they must be boiled in only just liquor enough to cover them, and do not overboil them. When the fish are boiled, lay them slantingly to drain off all the liquor; when cold, pack them close in the kits, and fill these up with equal parts of the liquor the fish were boiled in (having first well skimmed it) and the best vinegar; let them rest for a day, fill up again, striking the sides of each kit with a cooper's adze until the kit will receive no more; then head them down as close as possible. This is in the finest condition when fresh. Salmon is most plentiful about midsummer; the season for it is from February to September. Some sprigs of fresh-gathered young fennel are the accompaniments. The three indispensable marks of the goodness of pickled salmon are--First, the brightness of the scales, and their sticking fast to the skin; secondly, the firmness of the flesh; and, thirdly, its fine pale red-rose colour--without these it is not fit to eat, and was either stale before it was pickled, or has been kept too long after. The above was given us as the actual practice of those who pickle it for the London market. Pickled salmon warmed by steam, or in its pickle liquor, is a favourite dish at Newcastle.