Modern cookery for private families

most simple process, would appear, from the manner in which it is performed by many people, to be a very difficult one; indeed it is not unusual for persons of the lower classes, who, from lack of a little skill, find it slow and irksome, to have resource to the dangerous plan of eating the fish entire. It need scarcely be remarked that very serious consequences may accrue from the shells being swallowed with them, particularly when they are taken in large quantities. Unless the fish be stale, when they are apt to break, they will quit the shells easily if the head be held firmly in the right hand and the tail in the other, and the fish be straightened entirely, then the two hands pressed quickly towards each other, and the shell of the tail broken by a slight vibratory motion of the right hand, when it will be drawn of with the head adhering to it: a small portion, only will then remain on at the other end, which can be removed in an instant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV. =Gravies.= INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. [Illustration: Gravy Kettle. ] GRAVIES are not often required either in great variety, or in abundant quantities, when only a moderate table is kept, and a clever cook will manage to supply, at a trifling cost, all that is generally needed for plain family dinners; while an unskilful or extravagant one will render them sources of unbounded expense.[53] But however small the proportions in which they are made, their _quality_ should be particularly attended to, and they should be well adapted in flavour to the dishes they are to accompany. For some, a high degree of savour is desirable, but for fricassees, and other preparations of delicate white meats, this should be avoided, and a soft, smooth sauce of refined flavour should be used in preference to any of more piquant relish. Footnote 53: We know of an instance of a cook who stewed down two or three pounds of beef to make gravy for a single brace of partridges; and who complained of the meanness