Boiling

In boiling, if you have no fish kettle, improvise one. Line a wire basket with a cloth, allowing the linen to fall over the edges put in the fish, coiling it slightly if it is large, and drop the basket in the boiling water. This is an easier method for lifting it out whole than if set right in the kettle.

In spite of careful watching, a fish will occasionally break in the boiling. Do not try to patch it together into an unsightly heap of skin, bones, and meat. Flake it quickly and lay in goodsized portions on a large platter. Garnish with mashed potato, and over the fish pour a sauce. This transforms an almost hopeless failure into a most attractive dish.

Broiling

An oily fish, such as mackerel or bluefish, needs no enrichment of fat before broiling a whitefleshed fish does. If it is cut in steaks, saturate it with oil or melted butter and a good seasoning of pepper and salt, then put between the wires of the broiler. Lay the thickest end in the center of the broiler over the hottest part of the fire, skin side up. Let it get perfectly crisp and brown on the flesh side before turning. Broil the skin side very carefully it is apt to burn. Set it in a hot oven for five minutes to thoroughly finish the cooking.

An iron fish sheet, with rings at each end for handles, may be made by any tinsmith for twentyfive cents. Grease it well before setting the fish to cook and lay under it strips of salt pork; then set it in a bakingpan. You will find it very easy to slip a baked fish from this sheet on to a platter.

Planking

The fish which plank to perfection are shad, whitefish, mackerel, bluefish, red snapper, and pompano. There are a number of real advantages to this method of cooking it is so easy, it may be done in any hot oven of a coal or gas stove; the wood imparts a flavor to the fish which can be obtained in no other way. Then there is no difficult task of sliding it from a broiler or bakepan to the platter, because it is the proper thing to send the plank straight to the table laid on a folded towel. If you have to prepare a fish yourself for planking, remember it must be cut down the back instead of down the stomach, the thin portion of the flesh going on the middle of the plank.

Accompanying Dishes

Fish of all sorts require the accompaniment of a starch food to make a wellbalanced meal; it may be bread, rice, potatoes or macaroni.

How To Bake Fish

Free the fish from scales, and draw it from the gills. Wash it in a quick bath in cold water and lay it in an enameled bakingpan. For its stuffing see directions following.

Bread Grater. (Also used for Corn, Cheese, and Cocoanut.).

Pour in enough boiling water to cover the bottom of the bakingpan, dust the fish with pepper, sprinkle with salt, lay on a tablespoon of butter, and bake in a quick oven. Baste often and keep hot water supplied to the bakingpan. For a large fish allow from one to two hours; for small fish, from thirty minutes to an hour. When done push carefully from the pan to a hot platter, garnish with slices of lemon, and serve with drawn butter, white sauce, or some of the sauces found on pages 141 to 147.

Bread Forcemeat For Baked Fish

Moisten breadcrumbs enough to fill and plump out the fish, and season with salt, pepper, butter, and minced onion. Add fat salt port chopped fine in the proportion of a heaping tablespoon of the chopped pork to one cup of breadcrumbs. Mix all together well, fill the inside of the fish, sew or tie the fish together, and bake as under directions for baked fish.

Potato Forcemeat For Baked Fish

Peel and boil a quart of potatoes. When cooked chop coarsely. Add three goodsized onions finely minced and browned in a tablespoon of butter. Add, if you have it, two tablespoons of minced parsley. Season with half a teaspoon of salt and a little pepper. Stir in quarter of a cup of butter when you have all the ingredients well mixed, and put inside your fish. If you have any stuffing left over, lay it in a corner of the pan in which the fish is baked.

Veal Stuffing For Baked Fish

Mix a cup of finely chopped cooked veal and a cup of breadcrumbs, wet with water and squeeze dry. Add half as much finely chopped salt pork as you have veal. Mix all together, add the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper to taste, and stir in a beaten egg. Stuff the fish, sew or tie it together, and bake according to directions for baked fish.

Baked Fish With Oyster Dressing. A Louisiana Receipt

Use a fourpound fish; any nice permeated fish, such as bluefish, reddish, whitefish, or red snapper, may be used. Fry one minced onion in a tablespoon of butter, add one teacup of crackercrumbs, one teaspoon of salt, one minced garlic clove, one tablespoon of tomatojuice, a pinch of red pepper, and half a teaspoon of thyme.

Brown and mix well. Add two dozen drained and chopped oysters. Brown until quite dry. With this stuff the body and head of the fish, sewing the sides of the fish together to keep the dressing in. Dust with flour and lay in the bakingpan. Lay some slices of fresh tomatoes over the fish, also four thin slices of bacon. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over, and also sprinkle over a little salt and cayenne pepper. Bake half an hour in a medium heat, basting with tomatojuice. Serve with crisp, white lettuce and mayonnaise or French dressing.