CHAPTER X 



The Value of Fish and Shell-Fish as Food 



FISH, mollusks, and crustaceans have consti- 

 tuted an important article in the food of man 

 since remote antiquity. In prehistoric days, 

 when agriculture was practised but little, sea-foods 

 were relatively more important than they are to-day. 

 But even now no dinner is entirely complete without 

 fish or shell-fish in some form. The cookery of fish 

 and other sea-foods is an art about which many 

 books have been written. There are many, many ways 

 of cooking every fish and shell-fish. Cooks of each 

 nationality prepare sea-food for the table in their 

 own distinctive ways. 



Some sea-food s^uch as cod, herring, h alibut, 

 flounder, and salmon, are staple articles of the diet 

 of many^ classes" of people in several countries, 

 whereas others are considered'as delicacies by con- 

 noisseurs of fine foods. Lobsters, craBs, anchovies, 

 tuna, caviar, green turtles, terrapin, shrimp, and 

 scallops fall in the latter class. As oysters and clams 

 get scarcer, they are coming to be considered 

 luxuries. 



Because of the abstinence of Catholics from eat- 

 ing meat on Friday, this day has come to be a fish 

 day in nearly all civilized countries. This has worked 



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