114 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



New England they generally skin the tautog, as an easier 

 process than scaling, and consider it a culinary delicacy when 

 properly cooked, of which there are three methods, i. e., broil- 

 ing, frying, and stewing. Before frying the fish, score him 

 across each side an inch apart, as you would any breakfast 

 pan-fish. Fry some salt pork to a crisp ; take out the pork, 

 and, while the fat is so hot as to be next to blazing, roll your 

 fish in a mixture of rye and corn meal, and place it in the 

 sparkling hot fat, and let it brown. Turn it twice, and dredge 

 it each time with flour, so that its crust will become an eighth 

 of an inch thick. After broiling, and while piping hot, baist 

 it with butter, salt it, and give it a simple dash of red pep- 

 per, which stimulates without inflaming the stomach, and the 

 slightest dash of black as a bouquet, though it does inflame 

 the stomach without stimulating or assisting digestion. 



The following receipt by an editor ofquelque chose de gottt 

 is worth remembering : 



"Now, fair ruler of the destinies of dinner (for if thoubeest 

 a man I have no sympathies toward thee), smoke-compelling 

 Betty, or Mary, or whatever else may be the happy appella- 

 tive in which not only thou, but all of us rejoice, thou hast 

 before thee one of the most delicately absorbent substances 

 in nature, imbibing flavor from every thing which surrounds 

 it, whether of adverse or of propitious tendency ; subject, as 

 Warren Hastings said of the tenure of the British possessions 

 in India, alike ' to the touch of chance or the breath of opin- 

 ion.' 



" Thou hast it, my choice Mary ! The small, deep stew- 

 pan with its thin cullender or strainer, on which the fish is 

 to be lowered to the bottom, that it may, when stewed into 

 soft delight, be gently raised again without injuring its integ- 

 rity of form glows with brightness in front of thee ! Thy 

 vigorous arm of mottled red, thy round wrist, and small, com- 

 pact fingers, grasp the sharp-pointed knife with which to sat- 

 isfy thyself that not one scale remains around the head, the 

 fins, the tail. 



