COOKERY OF THE PIKE AND PERCH 277 



1 Gryll Grange,' an unexceptionable authority on 

 gastronomy, places it first in his list of ' presentable ' 

 fishes, and probably not unintentionally. For the 

 Doctor's rectory was on the skirts of the New Forest, 

 and the perch of the Avon and the other Hampshire 

 streams are of the best. Naturally, much depends on 

 the feeding beds, and the perch come to the greatest 

 perfection in swift, limpid water. The heaviest are 

 taken in deep mill pools and sluggish backwater, but 

 they lose in delicacy what they gain in bulk. The 

 Thames appears to be specially suited to them, and 

 in our experience the perch of the Thames is un- 

 surpassed. We have often caught our own dishes 

 of fresh fish when we have dropped into sharp-set 

 shoals between Sunbury and Staines, and our 

 memories of the old Ship Inn at Halliford are fondly 

 associated with perch and eels. With perch in souche, 

 for perch souche is as much a speciality above the 

 locks and the tidal waters as flounder souche at 

 Greenwich or Gravesend. 



For water souche : Clean and cut off the heads, 

 put a pint of water into the stewpan with a salt- 

 spoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of white pepper, 

 a saltspoonful of finely grated horse-radish, three 

 parsley roots cut into shreds ; boil ten minutes ; put 

 in the fish (six or eight small fish) with twelve good 



