Scrape free from all scales, make a short opening down the belly and take out the insides; wash well inside and out and immediately wipe dry with a clean towel. Rub it well with salt. Make a dressing of one cup of stale bread crumbs, one tablespoonful of melted butter, one tablespoon-ful of chopped parsley, a half teaspoonful of salt and a little black pepper; mix well and stuff the body of the fish and sew it up with soft yarn. Now score one side of the fish with a sharp knife, making the scores about an inch apart, and put a strip of salt pork in each gash. Grease a tin sheet, if you have one, place it in the bottom of a baking-pan, put the fish on it, dredge thickly with salt, pepper and flour; cover the bottom of the pan with boiling water and put into a hot oven. Bake fifteen minutes to every pound of fish, basting each ten minutes with the gravy in the pan. As the water evaporates add more to again cover the bottom of the pan. When done, lift the tin sheet from the pan and slide the fish carefully into the centre of the dish on which it is to be served; garnish with slices of lemon, fried potato balls and parsley; serve with sauce Hollandaise or roe sauce. If you have no tin sheet, place the fish in the bottom of a baking-pan and when done loosen it carefully and slide it into the dish. Rock fish may be baked in exactly the same manner.

Planked Shad

This is the very best way of cooking shad: -

The plank should be three inches thick, two feet long, one and a half feet wide and of well-seasoned hickory or oak. Pine or soft wood gives the fish a woody taste. Take a fine shad just from the water, scale, split it down the back, clean it, wash well and immediately wipe dry. Dredge it with salt and pepper. Place the plank before a clear fire to get very hot. Then spread the shad open and nail it, skin side next to the hot plank, with four large-headed tacks. Put it before the fire with the large end down; in a few minutes turn the board so that the other end will be down, and do this every few minutes until the fish is done. To tell when it is done pierce it with a fork; if the flesh be flaky it is done. Spread with butter and serve on the plank or draw the tacks carefully and slide the shad on to a hot dish.

The whitefish caught in the lakes are excellent when cooked in this manner.