344 FISHES AND FISHING. 



It is useless to catch fish, unless they can be cooked 

 properly, so as to make them palatable and wholesome 

 food ; therefore, as cookery is only domestic chemistry, 

 I shall not feel it derogatory, to give a few directions 

 for the proper preparation of several kinds of fish for 

 the table, probably some of them different from 

 methods before known. 



All fish should be killed the moment they are taken 

 out of the water, not only on account of the inhu- 

 manity of allowing them to linger in an element un- 

 congenial to their nature, but also allowing them to 

 die by slow degrees, renders them less valuable, nou- 

 rishing, and conducive to health as food. E. Jesse, 

 Esq., in his work, ** Anglers* Eambles," says he 

 always has a large knife, with a hammer at the end to 

 kill fish as soon as they are taken. He was so polite, at 

 my request, as to refer me to the cutler who made it . 

 but the knife was large, consequently heavy, and the 

 price high. I have had one made very neat, and 

 lighter, at less than a quarter the price, and the blow 

 of the hammer on the skull of the fish kills it in- 

 stantly. Eels, I am informed, can be instantly killed 

 by a longitudinal division of the spine, at the back of 

 the head ; my knife will perform that, yet I think a 

 blow of the hammer on the middle of the head, as 

 with other fish, would accelerate the object. 



Pike are said to be best flavoured when from eight 



