Fish, and its value as food - The various constituents of flesh, of wheaten bread, and of fish compared - Analytic table, showing the same - Fish is desirable food for many persons - Ought to be less costly than it is - Varieties of fish, and their distinctive characters as food - Some contain large proportion of fat - The conger and the sturgeon - Preparation of fish for the table - Value of head, bones, and fins for sauce making - Fish sauces - Salmon in perfection - Crimping of ditto - Mode of cooking it - Baking of fish - Roasting and broiling - Boiling and steaming - Fish soups and stews, excellent - Receipts - Bouillabaisse - A working man's stew.

Before dealing practically with the cookery of fish, it is desirable to compare its value as a nutritive material with that which is supplied by other important types of food.

First, let us take as a starting-point a fact relating to the structure of the human body, the adequate nourishment of which is the chief aim to be accomplished by the digestion of the varied matters which we eat and drink. Many persons are surprised to learn that from two-thirds to three-quarters of the body, judging by weight, consist of water; and this proportion is the same, or nearly so, in all the land animals which are consumed by man for his own support.

Amount of water to solids in human body, Food Value of Fish.

Thus, in every hundred pounds' weight of healthy flesh, not artificially fattened, whether beef, mutton, or poultry, and from which the bone has been removed, about seventy-five to seventy-eight pounds of water are present, and are separated as such from the solid matter of the meat in the process of cooking and digestion. Twenty-five pounds, or a little less, that is to say, not quite a fourth of the whole, alone are solid, and alone contain nutritive material. Speaking roughly, these twenty-five pounds are constituted as follows: About sixteen or seventeen pounds consist of the essential elements of the flesh or muscle, and of the solid part of the blood, which afford the important nitrogenous constituents of food, the "proteids," or "flesh-formers," but not including another nitrogenous compound known as "gelatine," which forms the principle of a less important group (see p. 22).

Of this gelatine, with some allied compounds, about one to two pounds are present; but although nitrogenous compounds, they are distinct from the preceding class of flesh - formers, and possess less nutritive value as food.

Of fatty matters, about two to four pounds may be reckoned.

The remainder consists of what are known as and in butcher's meat and poultry.

Solids composed of albuminoids, gelatine, fat.

"extractives," and of various saline and even metallic matters, all of which are essential parts of the animal body. It is necessary to observe that when meat is unduly fattened, as very often happens, the above proportions are greatly altered. When the meat is fat pork, for example, reared for bacon making, etc., or beef which is fed in order to secure a prize for size and weight, the products are very different, containing largely fat, with less albumen and fibrin, and much less water; and the pig owes his existence in great measure to the facility with which he produces fat meat for human food, such fat being of special value to use in combination with other foods, the potato, for example, which contain almost none of it.

We will next examine another great food staple, a typical example from the vegetable kingdom, because familiar to all and extensively used, viz. fresh wheaten bread. In one hundred parts of this, about thirty-five to forty are water, fifty are starch, about eight consist of the nitrogenous principle corresponding to the proteids or flesh-forming elements in flesh, and there is but a fraction of fatty matter, the remainder being salts, etc. See p. 44 for the exact analysis.

Now let us compare with these the constituent elements of fish. There is a closer resemblance, at first sight, perhaps, than many would expect to find. Notwithstanding that the fish is an inhabitant of water, and cannot live out of it, the proportion of that element in the animal's structure exceeds only by a small amount the proportion which is present in land animals. In other words, the solid constituents of fish as a class, and there are important exceptions here and there, are but little less in weight than those of land animals already described.

Extractives and salts.

Meats with superfluous fat.

Water and solids in bread.

In one hundred pounds of fish without bone, from seventy-five to eighty-five are water, or rather more than three-quarters of the whole; leaving, say, about twenty pounds of solids as a mean estimate. Of these, about twelve to eighteen pounds are nitrogenous compounds. The most important, or flesh-forming principle, is less in quantity than in meat, and there is a rather larger proportion of gelatine. The proportion of fat varies greatly. The saline matters are pretty constant, and moderate in quantity.

The comparison can be more easily made by means of the following table: Analysis in General Terms of the Composition of the Flesh of a Healthy Land Animal not Artificially Fattened, and (Omitting the Bones.

In ioo parts. About . . 75 to 78 are water. Leaving. . 22 „ 25 of solids. Of these solids -

Remainder - "Extractives" and salts.

Water and solids in fish.

Table of compositions already described.

Analysis of Wheaten Bread.

In ioo parts.

About . . 35 to 40 are water.

„ 50 „ carbo-hydrates, starch.

„ • 8 „ proteids.

Remainder-A trace of fat with salts.

Analysis of White Fish without Bone (Soles, Whiting, Turbot, etc.).

About . . 75 to 85 are water. „ 20 „ solids.

Of these solids-