How To Bake Fish Whole

After the fish has been properly cleaned and rinsed, wipe dry with a cloth and rub well inside with salt and white pepper. When large enough, stuff the fish with a bread dressing, seasoned to taste. Sew it or wind with a cord to keep it in form, and dredge well with salt, pepper and flour. The fish should be placed on a trivet, or on a large tin plate and set into the baking pan. This keeps it from burning, and it can be more easily dished in perfect form. Plenty of butter or oil should be used to prevent becoming dry and the fish should be frequently basted. After basting, dredge each time with a little salt, pepper, and flour. About 15 minutes to the pound, should bake fish. Serve on hot platter garnished with parsley. Make gravy of drippings in the pan or use egg sauce.

Boiled Fish

A fish kettle is the proper dish in which to boil fish. When this is not at hand, wrap and pin in a cloth (some flour it), lay on a plate or sieve and place in a kettle. When done the fish may be lifted out gently by the cloth and thus removed to the platter. Some simply spread a napkin on the plate under the fish, leaving the four corners outside the kettle with which to lift it out. All large fish (except salmon, which is put on in hot water to preserve its color) should be put on in cold water. Fish should never be allowed to boil hard, but the water should be brought to the boiling point as quickly as possible, when all scum must be taken off, and the fish kept simmering until done. Allow five or ten minutes to the pound, according to thickness, and test by passing a knife along a bone, and if done the fish will separate easily. Remove as soon as done, Or it will become woolly. Salmon and all dark-fleshed fish require longer boiling than white-fleshed fish. A little vinegar and salt added to the water in which fish is boiled, seasons the fish, and prevents the nutriment from being drawn out. Some consider steamed fish superior to boiled. Garnishes for fish are parsley, sliced lemons and sliced eggs.