78 SPORTSMAN'S HAND BOOK. 



infusion. Black tea is the most wholesome, and best 

 for camp. 



PREPARING AND FRYING FISH. 



This is one of the most difficult branches of cookery. 

 Fish of almost any kind, when properly prepared and 

 cooked, are a luxury; but when otherwise, they are just the 

 opposite, rather disgusting. In the first place, fish should 

 be killed when first caught, then put in a basket and kept 

 perfectly clean; what is better, roll them in a towel as they 

 are caught and killed, so there will be a thickness of towel 

 between each fish. No water should be permitted to touch 

 the fish; then the fish, as they come from the water, are per- 

 fectly clean and don't require washing. If fish that require 

 scaling, first wipe them with a dry towel and scrape off the 

 scales with a caseknife; if you want to cook them with the 

 heads on, remove the eyes and gills. For removing the 

 entrails, from small fish, open on the belly; large fish on 

 the back, and cut out the vent. The blood usually settles 

 along the spine, but can easily be scraped off with the end 

 of a caseknife, or the thumb nail; then, with a dry towel, 

 thoroughly wipe them the dryer the fish are the better. 

 If spread out on a board, and a little salt sprinkled over 

 them, and allowed to remain over nighl, all the better. To 

 cook them, warm the proper amount of lard or bacon grease 

 in a frying-pan, then lay the pan nearly full of fish, of a 

 uniform size, salt and pepper to taste and fry over not too 

 hot a fire; if the fish are quite dry they will cook done and 

 will brown in a very short time, when they can be turned 

 over nicely without tearing them all to pieces. To cook 

 fish just from the water without time to dry them, they 

 should be wiped dry and rolled in cornmeal, flour, or pul- 

 verized crackers; even then they will, in cooking, curl up 

 in the pan and tear to pieces in turning them, and will re- 



