n, cut them once in two, and stew them in a
little milk. Just before they are taken up, stir in butter, and a little
flour.

79. _Halibut._

Is nice cut in slices, salted and peppered, and broiled or fried. The
fins and thick part is good boiled.

80. _Striped and Sea Bass._

Bass are good fried, boiled, broiled, or made into a chowder.

81. _Black Fish._

Are the best boiled or fried--they will do to broil, but are not so good
as cooked in any other way.

82. _Shad._

Fresh shad are good baked or boiled, but better broiled. For broiling,
they should have a good deal of salt and pepper sprinkled on the inside
of them, and remain several hours before broiling. The spawn and liver
are good boiled or fried. Salt shad and mackerel, for broiling, should
be soaked ten or twelve hours in cold water. Salt shad, for boiling,
need not be soaked only long enough to get off the scales, without you
like them quite fresh--if so, turn boiling water on them, and let them
soak in it an hour--then put them into fresh boiling water, and boil
them twenty minutes. To pickle shad, mix one pound of sugar, a peck of
rock salt, two quarts of blown salt, and a quarter of a pound of
salt-petre. Allow this quantity to every twenty-five shad. Put a layer
of the mixture at the bottom of the keg, then a layer of cleaned shad,
with the skin side down. Sprinkle on another layer of salt, sugar, and
salt-petre, and so on till you get in all the shad. Lay a heavy weight
on the shad, to keep it under the brine. If the juice of the shad does
not run out so as to form brine sufficient to cover them, in the course
of a week, make a little brine, and turn on to them.

83. _Sturgeons._

Sturgeons are good boiled or baked, but better fried. Before baking it,
boil it about fifteen minutes, to extract the strong oily taste, and
when baked, to eight or ten pounds of it put a quart of water into the
pan, and bake it till tender. (See directions for baking fish, No. 76.)
The part next to the tail is the best for baking or frying. Sturgeons
are very nice, cooked in the following manner. Cut it in slices nearly
an inch thick--fry a few slices of pork--when brown, take them up, and
put in the sturgeon. When a good brown color, take them up, and stir in
a little flour and water, mixed smoothly together. Season the gravy with
salt, pepper, and catsup--stir in a little butter, and wine if you like,
then put back the sturgeon, and let it stew a few mi