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GREA T BRIT A IN. 1 39 



feeding on crabs. " Lhen Cod," in the Isle of Man, is a 

 local variety much prized by epicures, supposed to come 

 from a superior feeding locality near the point of Ayre. 



Modes of cooking. Rutty observed that in his time 

 (1772) the Fitzgallian fishermen made a broth at sea from 

 the cod and haddock, which they thickened with the liver 

 of the cod, bruised to a paste, and incorporated with the 

 broth. When fresh, the head and shoulders are boiled and 



rved with oyster sauce and melted butter ; or the body 

 may be similarly treated, or it may be stewed. Slices of 

 the fish may be fried, and are improved by some curried 

 gravy being added. Salt fish may likewise be boiled ; 

 Iso salted cod's sound, while the last are sometimes fried 

 in butter. 



Cod can be preserved in salt, and remain good for eating 

 a much longer period than any other form of the family. 

 For curing, as observed by Bertram, the fish should be 

 used as soon as possible after capture ; they are split 

 along their entire length, and well washed until all the 

 blood is removed. A part of the backbone having been 

 cut away, they are drained, and then laid in long vats 

 covered with salt, and weighted down, in order to keep 

 them well under the pickle. After a time they are re- 

 moved, drained, washed, and brushed, to prevent the col- 

 lection of impurities. Then they are bleached, by being 

 individually spread out in the open air. This accom- 

 plished, they are collected into heaps, termed steeples. 

 When the bloom, or whitish appearance, shows itself, the 

 process is complete, and they are ready for market. In 

 the trade the salted cod-fish, brought from Norway and 

 elsewhere, are roughly divided mtojlat or klip, and rund or 

 stock-fish, the first form being salted and subsequently dried, 

 and the second simply dried without the use of salt. 



