[174-++] The French do not flay them, but split them, dip them in flour, and fry them in hot dripping.
[175-*] One of my culinary counsellors says, the heading of this receipt should be, "_How to dress a good dish of fish while the cloth is laying_." If the articles are ready, twelve minutes will do it, with very little trouble or expense. For richer stewed fish, see No. 164.
[176-*] Our experience goes to substantiate the same point. A.
[179-*] The perch of New-York are a small fresh-water fish, and seldom boiled, being better calculated for frying or broiling, as a relish at breakfast. A.
[180-*] SALMON. The earliest that comes in season to the London market is brought from the Severn, and begins to come into season the beginning of November, but very few so early, perhaps not above one in fifty, as many of them will not shoot their spawn till January, or after, and then continue in season till October, when they begin to get very thin and poor. The principal supply of salmon is from different parts of Scotland, packed in ice, and brought by water: if the vessels have a fair wind, they will be in London in three days; but it frequently happens that they are at sea perhaps a fortnight, when the greater part of the fish is perished, and has, for a year or two past, sold as low as twopence per pound, and up to as much as eighteen pence per pound at the same time, owing to its different degrees of goodness. This accounts for the very low prices at which the itinerant fishmongers cry their "_delicate_ salmon," "_dainty fresh_ salmon," and "_live_ cod," "_new_ mackerel," &c. &c.
"Salmon gwilts, or salmon peel, are the small salmon which run from about five or six pounds to ten pounds, are very good fish, and make handsome dishes of fish, sent to table crooked in the form of an S.
"Berwick trout are a distinct fish from the gwilts, and are caught in the river Tweed, and dressed in the same manner as the gwilt.
"Calvered salmon is the salmon caught in the Thames, and cut into slices alive; and some few salmon are brought from Oxford to London alive, and cut. A few slices make a handsome, genteel dish, but it is generally very expensive; sometimes 15_s._ per pound."
[Fresh salmon comes to the New-York market from the eastern states, and mostly from Maine. It is also occasionally brought from the lakes and rivers of the northern part of New-York in winter. A.]