280 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
excellent, if you are camping out far afield: “ Take some nice 
clean clay, and work it up a little; then, without either scaling, 
or dressing, plaster your fish (fresh from the water) all ever with 
the clay, about an inch thick, and put him right into the hot 
ashes. When ’tis done, the clay, and scales will all peel off, 
and you'll have a dish that would bring to life any starved man 
if he hadn’t been dead more than a week! That’s the ordinary 
way, but if you want an extra touch, cut a hole in the fish, and 
stick in a piece of salt pork, and a few beech-nuts, or meat of 
walnuts, or butternuts, and you'll think you are eating a water- 
angel.” Many sorts of fish will break if suddenly immersed, 
for cooking, in water under agitation by boiling, which mis- 
fortune may be prevented by not allowing the water to actually 
boil at all from beginning to end of the cooking. Otherwise, 
not only does the breaking disfigure the fish, but it further opens 
outlets by which the juices escape, and thereby depreciates 
the flavour, besides sacrificing some of the nutritious albumin. 
Izaak Walton advised that “lying long in water, and washing 
the blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates much of 
their sweetness. You will find, for example, the Chub being 
dressed in the blood, and quickly, to be such meat as will recom- 
pense your labour, and disabuse your opinion of him; yet the 
French esteem him so mean as to call him ‘ Un villain. ” 
Respecting the Pike, it is observed by Gesner that “ the jaw- 
bones, and hearts, and galls of Pikes are very medicinable for 
several diseases, or to stop blood, to abate fevers, to cure agues, 
and to be many ways medicinable, and useful for the good of 
mankind.” The practice obtains generally with doctors to advise 
convalescent patients that they should first resume animal diet 
after a severe illness by taking a Sole, lightly and plainly cooked. 
This fish has a very delicate flavour, and is easily digested by an 
invalid. To stew the same in milk, carefully lift the fillets from 
a very fresh Sole, then roll each piece of fish, and fasten with 
white tape; lay the fillets in a perfectly clean stewpan, and 
cover them with new milk; season with a little salt, and simmer 
very gently until tender. The salts of potash, and phosphate of 
lime thus supplied, are highly nutritious mineral constituents, 
whilst the comparatively small quantity of proteids is an 
advantage. An easy way to test the freshness of such fish is 
to press a finger on the flesh, when, if fresh, it will be firm, and 
elastic, but if it be stale, then an indented impression is made 
