Boiling Fish
The get along-without policy of neglecting to provide the kitchen with necessary utensils operates serious y against good cookery in average hotels. There is no question but that in the fitting up of every new hotel some money is wasted in buying useless articles to suit the cranks and notions of the chef that is going to take charge--things like costly copper moulds, bain maries, patent machines, etc., which none of his successors in the same place will ever use, and proprietors having had experience of such follies are apt to take a grim revenge by refusing to buy any uncommon article at all. Now there must be, and it pays to have in the kitchens even of small and unpretentious houses, a fish boiler with its drainer or false bottom and hooked upright at each end to lift it and the fish out by; a stock boiler with its false bottom and faucet; a potato fryer with its suspended drainer; a time-saving large coffee mill, and other things scarcely less important but none of them commonly to be found. It pays because some of the finest fishes are finest flavored when boiled, and if they can not be for want of the proper appliances they have to suffer deterioration by more expensive frying and baking. A fish may be boiled in a stove wash-boiler and fished out with two skimmers, but no company will insure it against breakage. What must be must and in such a case you had better roll up the fish in a clean pudding-cloth, tying the ends and pinning the middle, and carefully roll it cut on to its dish when done.
Any tinner can make a poissoniere or fish boiler. It should be long enough for a good sized Mackinaw trout whole, and wide enough for two or three on the drainer. It has sides straight up and a lid.
To boil a large trout, whitefish, redfish, sheephead or salmon for salad: Scale and clean the fish, clip off the fins but leave the head and tail on, and lay it in a pan of cold water. Draw some clear soupstock into the fish kettle (the stock is already slightly seasoned with vegetables), to one-third fill it. Throw in a basting-spoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of pepper-corns, half a bayleaf, a small onion with six cloves stuck in it and a small piece of horse-radish. Also a cupful of wine if afforded, sherry or claret--keep the cheap sweet angelicas and the like for ices and jellies--if no wine half a cup of vinegar instead. Let this liquor come to a boil, then wipe the fish clean and dry, lay it on the drainer and let come to a boil quickly. Then put on the lid and move the kettle to the side of the range to simmer slowly. Rapid boiling breaks the fish. Too much cooking softens it. Half an hour is the average time it takes to boil a fish just done, but varies according to the size. Redfish and salmon, being solid fleshed, bear longer boiling than lake trout. Cool the fish in the liquor it was boiled in.