i 9 o THE SALMON 



CHAPTER X 



THE COOKERY OF THE SALMON 



By Alex. Innes Shand 



The salmon is the king of fresh-water fishes, though 

 it is run hard by its cousin the sea-trout. Nor are we 

 concerned to settle the question of precedence with 

 the turbot, the prince of the pure fishes of the sea, 

 which Brillat-Savarin has glorified in the memorable 

 anecdote, when he cooked a monster in a washing- 

 house boiler, to the delight of a select gathering of 

 gourmets. It is true that Russians swear by the 

 sterlet, a miniature edition of the mighty sturgeon, the 

 piece de predilection of the Nijni Novgorod restaurants, 

 when the commerce of the East gathers thither for the 

 Fair. We remember how the magnificent Monte 

 Cristo, with the somewhat vulgar ostentation of a 

 nouveau riche, showed his guests the tanks in which 

 his sterlets had travelled from the Volga to the Seine, 

 at the famous banquet at Auteuil, which was the pre- 



