Fish
In selecting fish, notice if the flesh is firm and hard, the eyes full and prominent, the scales bright, the fins stiff, and the gills red, as all these indications denote their being fresh. Wash the fish, rub it with salt and pepper, and lay it on a dish, or hang it up till ready to cook. Never keep it lying in water, either in preparing it for cooking, or in trying to keep it till the next day.
In boiling fish, put it in boiling water, and simmer very slowly. It will require an hour to boil a large fish, and about twenty minutes for a small one. Every housekeeper should have a fish-kettle for fish. Be careful to have boiling-hot lard in the frying-pan when you go to fry fish. First rub salt and pepper and flour or meal on the fish, then keep it well covered while frying, as you should do to every thing that is being fried. Doing this will enable you to fry the fish (or other article of food) a pretty amber color, while at the same time it will be perfectly done. Always have a tin sheet for lifting boiled fish and for turning broiled fish. Before broiling, rub with pepper and salt, and then grease with fresh butter. Lay the fish on a gridiron well greased with sweet lard and lay the tin sheet over it. When you wish to turn, take the gridiron from the fire, holding the tin sheet on top the fish. Hold them together, then lay them on a table with the tin sheet down and the gridiron uppermost. Carefully raise the gridiron, leaving the fish lying unbroken on the tin sheet. The cook may now easily slide the fish on the gridiron, put it again on the fire and brown the other side, putting the tin sheet back on top of it. Every thing should be covered while being broiled. When done, lay it on a dish and pour over it melted butter in which has been stirred pepper, salt, and minced parsley. If devilled fish is desired, add to this dressing, one tablespoonful pepper vinegar, one of celery vinegar, one of walnut catsup, one of made mustard, one wine-glassful of acid fruit jelly. In making sauces for fish, never use the water in which the fish has been boiled.
Full directions for stewing fish are to be found in the subsequent pages.