DELICACIES WITHOUT OLIVE OIL. 99 



headed hooks, like those for taking large bass. As its scales 

 are very tenacious, some cooks recommend skinning it as the 

 New Englanders do tautog and yellow perch. It is an excel- 

 lent fish when stuffed and baked, but it is rather adipose for 

 boiling. 



Apropos of scaling fish : First, lave them in vinegar, and 

 the most tenacious scales will be easily removed. 



THE GRUNTER. 



This is a silver-sided fish with gray back and white belly. 

 The fish is very plump, round, and fat, without any foreign 

 taste. It usually weighs from two to five pounds, and is 

 juicy enough to fry without butter. It is one of the best 

 breakfast fishes of the shores and estuaries, and usually shoals 

 with the squeteague, and utters several grunts after being 

 landed. It is angled for the same as the squeteague. Its 

 fins are all soft-rayed, and it is leather-mouthed; medium 

 sized scales cover the body. In speaking of a frying fish, I 

 believe in the epicurean theory of never frying a fish which 

 weighs over half a pound ; and that boiling, broiling, baking, 

 and chowdering are the only true ways to cook fish, except 

 the primitive ones of rolling them in buttered paper and roast- 

 ing them in hot embers, or threading them on a birch toast- 

 ing-fork, with a slice of pork, and roasting them before a 

 camp-fire. The grunter is a great delicacy, and very good 

 game for the sportsman with rod and reel. 



THE GKUNTEK. 



