How to Cook Fish | Page 2

or, possibly, at your
place, but at another time. The guide can never understand what is
wrong. Five days ago, he himself caught more bass than he could carry
home, at that identical rocky point. A man from La Porte, Indiana,
whom he took out the week before, landed a thirty-eight pound
"muskie" in trolling through that same narrow channel. In the forty
years that the guide has lived in the place, man and boy, he has never
known the fishing to be as poor as it is now. Why, even "ol' Pop
Somers" has ceased to fish!
But the real angler continues, regardless of the local sage. He who has
heard the line sing suddenly out of his reel, and, after a hard-fought
hour, scooped a six-pound black bass into the landing net, weary, but
still "game," is not dismayed by bad luck. He who can cast a fly a
hundred feet or more finds pleasure in that, if not in fishing. Whoever
has taken in a muskellunge of any size will ever after troll patiently,
even through masses of weed. [Page 4]
Whoever has leaned over the
side of a sailboat, peering down into the green, crystalline waters of the
Gulf, and seen, twenty feet down, the shimmering sides of a
fifteen-pound red grouper, firmly hooked and coming, will never turn
over sleepily, for a last nap, when his door is almost broken in at 5
A.M.

And, fish or no fish, there are compensations. Into a day of
heart-breaking and soul-sickening toil, when all the world goes wrong,
must sometimes come the vision of a wooded shore, with tiny dark
wavelets singing softly on the rocks and a robin piping cheerily on the
topmost bough of a maple. Tired eyes look past the musty ledger and
the letter files to a tiny sapphire lake, set in hills, with the late afternoon
light streaming in glory from the far mountains beyond.
It may be cold up North, but down in the Gulf they are
fishing--scudding among the Florida Keys in a little white sailboat,
landing for lunch on a strand as snowy as the northern streets, where
the shimmering distances of white sand are paved with shell and pearl,
and the tide thrums out its old song under the palms. And fish?
Two-hundred and fifty pounds is the average day's catch for a small
sailboat cruising among the Florida Keys.
Yet, when all is said and done, the catching of fish is a matter of luck--a
gambler's chance,
[Page 5]
if you will have it so. The cooking, in
unskilled hands, is also a lottery, but, by following the appended
recipes, becomes an art to which scientific principles have been
faithfully applied.
Having caught your fish, you may cook him in a thousand ways, but it
is doubtful whether, even with the finest sauce, a pompano will taste
half as good as the infantile muskellunge, several pounds under the
legal weight, fried unskilfully in pork fat by a horny-handed woodsman,
kneeling before an open fire, eighteen minutes after you had given up
all hope of having fish for dinner, and had resigned yourself to the
dubious prospect of salt pork, eggs, and coffee which any
self-respecting coffee-mill would fail to recognize.
All of which is respectfully submitted by
O.G.
[Page 6]
FISH IN SEASON
Bass--All the year.
Blackfish--April 1 to November 1.


Bluefish--May 1 to November 1.
Butterfish--October 1 to May 1.

Carp--July 15 to November 1.
Codfish--All the year.
Eels--All the
year.
Flounder--All the year.
Haddock--All the year.
Halibut--All
the year.
Herring--October 1 to May 1.
Kingfish--May 1 to
November 1.
Mackerel--April 1 to October 1.
Mullet--June 1 to
November 1.
Perch--September 1 to June 1.
Pickerel--June 1 to
January 1.
Pike--June 1 to January 1.
Pompano--May 1 to August 1
and November 15 to January 1.
Red Snapper--October 1 to April 1.

Salmon--All the year.
Salmon Trout--October 1 to April 1.

Shad--January 1 to June 1.
Sheepshead--June 15 to November 15.

[Page 7]
Skate--September 1 to July 1.
Smelts--August 15 to April
15.
Sole--November 1 to May 1.
Sturgeon--June 1 to October 15.

Trout--April 1 to September 1.
Turbot--January 1 to July 15.

Weakfish--May 15 to October 15.
Whitebait--May 1 to April 1.

Whitefish--November 1 to March 1.
Salt, smoked, and canned fish are never out of season.
[Page 8]
ELEVEN COURT BOUILLONS
I
Put into the bottom of the fish-kettle a thick layer of sliced carrots and
onion, and a sliced lemon. Season with parsley, thyme, a bay-leaf, half
a dozen whole peppers, and three or four whole cloves. Lay the fish on
top of this and cover with equal parts of cold water and white wine, or
with water and a little lemon-juice or vinegar. Put the kettle over the
fire and let it heat slowly. The fish must always be put into it while cold
and after boiling allowed to cool in the water.
II
Cut fine a stalk of celery, a carrot, an onion, and a small sweet pepper.
Fry