Fish may be boiled, braised, baked, broiled, or fried, according to individual fancy, but a certain way is more suitable for some varieties than it is for another. Red-blooded fish, as salmon, blue-fish, and mackerel, in which the fat is distributed throughout the fish, being rich and moist, should be cooked by other methods than sautéing and frying. Any white-blooded fish, as cod, haddock, and halibut, in which the fat is concentrated in the liver, will bear cooking by these latter methods.

Salmon, which possesses a higher nutritive value than meat, chiefly on account of the large proportion of fat in composition, may be cooked in boiling water, which, as a general rule, unless the water be used as stock, is a wasteful way of cooking fish. When the white varieties are cooked in water they need be supplemented by rich sauces; and when baked they must be basted often, or they will be dry and tasteless. All fish, like veal and pork, must be thoroughly cooked, lest they be worse than unpalatable - that is, positively inimical to health. If cooked too long, however, fish loses flavor and is "woolly."

Stuffing Fish

A baked fish is usually stuffed; after the body is filled with the stuffing, but not too full, as the material will swell, sew up the opening with a trussing needle. Usually gashes are cut in the sides of the fish into which strips of fat pork are laid.