The Chemistry of Cookery

exposing considerable surface. I find that Sir Henry Thompson, in a lecture delivered at the Fisheries Exhibition, and now reprinted, has invaded my subject, and has done this so well that I shall retaliate by annexing his suggestion, which is that fish should be _roasted_. He says that this mode of cooking fish should be general, since it is applicable to all varieties. I fully agree with him, but go a little further in the same direction by including, not only roasting in a Dutch or American oven _before_ the fire, but also in the side-ovens of kitcheners and in gas-ovens, which, when used as I have explained, are roasters—_i.e._ they cook by radiation, without any of the drying anticipated by Sir Henry. The practical housewife will probably say this is not new, seeing that people who know what is good have long been in the habit of enjoying mackerel and haddocks (especially Dublin Bay haddocks) stuffed and baked, and cods’ heads similarly treated. The Jews do something of the kind with halibut’s head, which they prize as the greatest of all piscine delicacies. The John Dory is commonly stuffed and cooked in an oven by those who understand his merits. The excellence of Sir Henry Thompson’s idea consists in its breadth as applicable to _all fish_, on the basis of that fundamental principle of scientific cookery on which I have so continually and variously insisted, viz. the retention and concentration of the natural juices of the viands. He recommends the placing of the fish entire, if of moderate size, in a tin or plated copper dish adapted to the form and size of the fish, but a little deeper than its thickness, so as to retain all the juices, which on exposure to the heat will flow out; the surface to be lightly spread with butter with a morsel or two added, and the dish placed before the fire in a Dutch or American oven, or the special apparatus made by Burton of Oxford Street, which was exhibited at the lecture. To this I may add, that if a