On Fish as Food 



179 



fat fish is more easily digested than lean. If by lean fish is 

 meant stringy cod, it may be a fact ; bat if it is meant to con- 

 trast salmon and eels with sole and whiting, the statement 

 approaches absurdity. Even with salmon there is, however, 

 much difference as to the precise part from which the slice 

 is taken. Many stomachs which can deal with lean flesh 

 from the back of the fish would encounter certain disturbance 

 if helped to the thin and fat portions. It is the latter which 

 are the delight of the gourmet. 



Neither cod, haddock, whiting, red mullet, nor mackerel 

 are in season in August. The season for salmon and trout 

 ends with the month. Herrings, plaice, smelt, turbot, soles, 

 grey mullet, hake, flounder, and brill are in full season in 

 September. 



Cockles and periwinkles are quite safe food if taken from 

 clean waters. They disagree with no one. Respecting the 

 despised periwinkle, the naturalist Buckland, who was also a 

 judge of foods, bears, incidentally, a genial testimony. He 

 was invited to an American dinner, and ate, for the first time, 

 Transatlantic oysters, of which he records that they had a 

 different taste to the English, and were somewhat like " a 

 very good periwinkle." 



Those who can eat the Crustaceans, crab, lobster, &c, with 

 impunity may be congratulated, and at the same time advised 

 to indulge with caution. They may also be informed that, as 

 is the case with the poisonous forms of mushrooms, the 

 addition of vinegar tends definitely to diminish the risks. 



If you can get oysters in good condition and with clean 

 shells, whether English or American, eat them thankfully, 

 but be very careful to remove every portion of their beards. 

 A little vinegar not only improves them, but probably makes 

 them safer and more wholesome. 



It has been calculated that it takes fourteen oysters to 

 equal the nourishment contained in a single egg, and two 

 hundred and twenty-three to equal a pound of lean beef. 

 Thus the chemists are, for once, at one with paterfamilias in 

 not regarding oysters as an economical form of food. 



