Modern cookery for private families

of it be remarked. If bought alive, lobsters should be chosen by their weight and “liveliness.” The hen lobster is preferred for sauce and soups, on account of the coral; but the flesh of the male is generally considered of finer flavour for eating. The vivacity of their leaps will show when prawns and shrimps are fresh from the sea. Oysters should close forcibly on the knife when they are opened: if the shells are apart ever so little they are losing their condition, and when they remain far open the fish are dead, and fit only to be thrown away. Small plump natives are very preferable to the larger and coarser kinds. TO CLEAN FISH. Let this be always done with the most scrupulous nicety, for nothing can more effectually destroy the appetite, or disgrace the cook, than fish sent to table imperfectly cleaned. Handle it lightly, and never throw it roughly about, so as to bruise it; wash it well, but do not leave it longer in the water than is necessary; for fish, like meat, loses its flavour from being soaked. When the scales are to be removed, lay the fish flat upon its side and hold it firmly with the left hand, while they are scraped off with the right; turn it, and when both sides are done, pour or pump sufficient water to float off all the loose scales; then proceed to empty it; _and do this without opening it more than is absolutely necessary for the purposes of cleanliness_. Be sure that not the slightest particle of offensive matter be left in the inside; wash out the blood entirely, and scrape or brush it away if needful from the back-bone. This may easily be accomplished without opening the fish so much as to render it unsightly when it is sent to table. When the scales are left on, the outside of the fish should be well washed and wiped with a coarse cloth, drawn gently from the head to the tail. Eels to be wholesome should be skinned, but they are sometimes dressed without;