152 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
open j but do not let them be heated more than neces- 
sary. Clean them nicely^ and then mix them with a 
white sauce. To give a piquant flavour^ add a little 
lemon-juice or vinegar. 
Spanish way of Cooking all kinds of Shellfish. — Chop 
up a good quantity of garlic, onions, parsley, and red 
peppers (which last must be prepared by throwing them 
into boiling water, and rubbing off the skins with a dry 
cloth) ; scald the fish, and pick them out of their shells, 
then put all together in an olla (or round earthen-pot), 
with plenty of oil ; fry them till a deep yellow. They 
mav either be served thus, or when finished add some 
broth, boil it up, and serve it like thick soup. 
The genuine Cadiz lovers of shellfish, however, con- 
sider that scalding the fish spoils it ; they therefore 
prefer the raw fish being put at once into the oil and 
vegetables, and the dish is then sent to table with the 
shells in it. 
Fam. MACTKID^. 
>/AC'ri?A.--TIlOUGH-SHELL. 
Mactra soLiDA, Linnseus. Trough Shell. — Shell 
thick and opaque, of a yellowish-white colour, nearly 
equal-valved, covered at the sides with a brownish or 
drab-coloured epidermis ; nearly triangular in form ; 
ligament short and internal ; beaks small j a V-shaped 
cardinal tooth in one valve, with a long lateral tooth 
on each side, and fitting in the opposite valve into deep 
grooves, with toothlike edges. 
Of the Mactridae, both Mactra solida and Mactra 
stultorum are sometimes eaten in England, but they are 
