Fish when fresh are hard when pressed by the finger - the gills red - the eyes full. If the flesh is flabby and the eyes sunken, the fish are stale. They should be thoroughly cleaned, washed, and sprinkled with salt.

Before broiling fish, rub the gridiron with a piece of fat, to prevent its sticking. Lay the skin side down first.

The earthy taste often found in fresh-water fish can be removed by soaking in salt and water.Most kinds of salt fish should be soaked in cold water for twenty-four hours -the fleshy side turned down in the water.

Baked Fish

Stuff it with plain dressing put in a pan with a little water, salt, pepper, and butter. Baste while baking. A fish weighing four pounds will bake in an hour. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs and parsley, and serve with drawn butter or egg sauce.

To Boil Fish

Sew them in a cloth, and put in cold water, with plenty of salt. Most fish will boil in thirty minutes.

Boiled Fish

For four or five pounds of fish, nearly cover with water, and add two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt. Boil thirty minutes, and serve with drawn butter.

Pickling Fish

Spice the vinegar as for cucumbers, put your fish in and let them boil slowly for a few minutes, until done, without breaking; then set them away for several weeks, and the bones will be entirely destroyed.

Baked Black Fish

Rub a handful of salt over the surface, to remove the slime peculiar to the fish. For the stuffing, two ounces of beef drippings, two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, and one ounce of salt pork; put in a saucepan and fry brown; then add a teaspoonful of chopped capers, half a saltspoonful of white pepper, one-half teaspoonful of salt, five ounces of bread, and on© gill of broth; then stir until scalding hot; place inside the fish; cut a quarter of a pound of pork in thin slices and lay on either side of the fish, holding in place by twine wound around it - a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper completing it for the baking-pan. Bake in a hot oven one-half hour, and serve on slices of fried bread with a sauce made of stock seasoned with one table-spoonful each of walnut and Worcestershire sauce, one tablespoonful of chopped capers, and one tablespoonful of parsley.

Brook Trout

If small, fry them with salt pork; if large, boil, and serve with drawn butter.

Codfish On Toast

Take a bowl full of shredded codfish, put this in cold water in a skillet. Let it come to a boil, then turn into a colander to drain. Turn into the skillet again with a little cold milk; season with butter and pepper; stir smooth a tablespoonful of flour with a little cold milk; add, and let it boil for a moment; turn this on to buttered toast on a platter.

Codfish Balls

Pick fine one quart bowl of codfish; let it simmer on the back of the stove a little while; then boil six good-sized potatoes,mash fine, and mix while hot with the fish thoroughly; season with pepper, salt, and butter; add three eggs, well beaten, and drop in hot lard; serve in a napkin. Lay the napkin on a platter, and the balls on the napkin, to absorb the grease.

Baked Codfish

Soak the fish over night; clean thoroughly, then put it into a stone crock and cover with water; simmer until tender, then pick over and mash fine. Take two-thirds mashed potatoes, seasoned, and one-third fish; mix well together, and bake until brown; then make a sauce of drawn butter, into which cut up two hard-boiled eggs.

Fried Halibut

Place in your spider half a dozen slices of fat pork; fry to a brown and place in a deep dish; add to the fat three tablespoon-fuls of fresh lard; when boiling hot put in the halibut, which should be cut in pieces about three inches square and dipped in sifted meal; sprinkle with salt, and fry a good brown. After the fish is all fried put it into the dish with the pork, pour over it the boiling fat, add one tablespoonful of hot water, cover tightly and stand in the oven twenty minutes.

Boiled Salmon

A piece of six pounds should be nibbed with salt, tied carefully in a cloth, and boiled slowly for three-quarters of an hour. It should be eaten with egg or caper sauce. If any remains after dinner, it may be placed in a deep dish, a little salt sprinkled over, and a teacup of boiling vinegar poured upon it. Cover it closely, and it will make a nice breakfast dish.

To Broil Salmon

The steaks from the center of the fish are best. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, spread on a little butter, and broil over a clear but slow fire.

Pickled Salmon

Soak salt salmon twenty-four hours, changing the water frequently; afterwards pour boiling water around it, and let it stand fifteen minutes; drain off and then pour on boiling vinegar with cloves and mace added.

To Fry Shad

Clean, wash, wipe dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in flour, and fry in hot lard.

To Fry Smelts

Wash, cut off the fins, and dry with a cloth; melt a spoonful of butter and into it stir the beaten yolks of two eggs; salt and flour the smelts a little, dip into the egg and butter, roll in grated bread-crumbs, and plunge into boiling fat: fry until a bright yellow-brown. Serve upon a napkin, garnished with fried parsley.

Cream Baked Trout

Clean the trout, put in pepper and salt, and close them. Place the fish in the: pan, with just cream enough to cover the fins, and bake fifteen minutes.

Turbot A La Creme

Boil a nice fresh fish, pick out the bones and season with pepper and salt; mix one-quarter pound of flour with one quart of milk, put in four small onions, small bunch of paisley and a sprig or two of thyme, salt, and one-half teaspoonful white pepper. Put over the fire and stir until it forms a paste; take off and add one-half pound butter and yolks of two eggs, Mix thoroughly and pass through a sieve: pour some of the sauce into a baking dish and add a layer of fish and sauce alternately until it is all used. Have sauce on the top, to which add bread' crumbs and grated cheese. Bake half an hour.

Baked White Fish

Prepare a stuffing of fine bread crumbs, a little salt pork chopped very fine; season with sage, parsley, pepper, and salt. Fill the fish with the stuffing, sew it up, sprinkle the outside with salt, pepper, and bits of butter; dredge with flour, and bake one hour. Baste often. Serve with egg sauce or parsley sauce.