Fish are good when the gills are red, eyes are full, and the body of the fish is firm and stiff. After washing them well, they should be allowed to remain for a short time in salt water sufficient to cover them. Before cooking, wipe them dry, dredge lightly with flour, and season with salt and pepper. Salmon-trout and other small fish are usually fried or broiled; all large fish should be put in a cloth, tied closely with twine, and placed in cold water, when they may be put over the fire to boil. When fish are baked, prepare them the same as for boiling, and put in the oven on a wire gridiron, over a dripping-pan.

Boiled White Fish

Lay the fish open, put it in a dripping-pan with the back down, nearly cover with water. To one fish add 2 table-spoonfuls of salt, cover tightly and simmer (not boil) one-half hour, dress with gravy, butter, and pepper, garnish with sliced eggs. For sauce, use a piece of butter the size of an egg, 1 table-spoonful of flour, one-half pt. of boiling water; boil a few minutes, and add 3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced.

Sauce For Boiled Fish

To 1 tea-cupful of milk add 1 tea-cupful of water, put it on the fire to scald, and when hot stir in 1 table-spoonful of flour, previously wet with cold water; add 2 or 3 eggs, season with salt and pepper, a little celery, vinegar, and 3 table-spoonfuls of butter. Boil 4 or 5 eggs hard, take off" the shells, and cut in slices, and lay over the dish. Then pour over the sauce and serve.

Baked Black Bass

8 good-sized onions chopped fine, half that quantity of bread crumbs, butter size of hen's egg, plenty of pepper and salt, mix thoroughly with anchovy sauce until quite red. Stuff your fish with this compound and pour the rest over it, previously sprinkling it with a little red pepper. Shad, pickerel, and trout are good, cooked in the same way. Tomatoes can be used instead of anchovies, and are more economical. If using them, take pork in place of butter and chop fine.

Broiled White Fish

Wash and drain the fish, sprinkle with pepper and lay with the inside down upon the gridiron, and broil over fresh bright coals. When a nice brown, turn for a moment on the other side, then take up and spread with butter. This is a very nice way of broiling all kinds of fish, fresh or salted. A little smoke under the fish adds to its flavor. This may be made by putting two or three cobs under the gridiron.

Eels

Skin and parboil them, cleanse the back bone of all coagulations, cut them in pieces about 3 inches in length, dip in flour, and cook in pork fat; brown.

Salt Mackerel

Soak the fish for a few hours in lukewarm water, changing the water several times; then put into cold water, loosely tied in cloths, and let the fish come to a boil, turning off the water once, and pouring over the fish hot water from the tea-kettle; let this just come to a boil, then take them out and drain them, lay them on a platter, butter and pepper them, and place them for a few moments in the oven. Serve with sliced lemons, or with any nice fish sauce.

Baked Halibut Or Salmon

Let the fish remain in cold water, slightly salted, for an hour before it is time to cook it, place the gridiron on a dripping-pan with a little hot water in it, and bake in a hot oven; just before it is done, butter it well on the top, and brown it nicely. The time of baking depends upon the size of the fish. A small fish will bake in about half an hour, and a large one in an hour. They are very nice when cooked as above and served with a sauce which is made from the gravy in the dripping-pan, to which is added a table-spoonful of catsup and another of some pungent sauce and the juice of a lemon. Thicken with brown flour moistened with a little cold water. Garnish handsomely with sprigs of parsley and current jelly.

Stewed Tripe

Select 2 lbs. of double tripe well cleaned and'blanched, cut in pieces of rather less than a quarter of a pound each, put in a clean stew-pan with 1 pt. of milk, and one of water, 2 tea-spoonfuls of salt, 1 tea-spoonful of pepper, 8 middle-sized onions carefully peeled; set it on to boil, which it should do at first rather fast, then simmer till done, which will be in rather more than half an hour. Put it into a deep dish or tureen, and serve with the milk and onions.