Page:Meier - The Art of German Cooking and Baking.djvu/134



Every fish has a season when it is most savory. During the breeding or spawning season, no fish is good. When you buy a dead fish, observe carefully the following:


 * 1) The meat of the fish must be firm and must not show any form of decay, neither in smell nor taste.
 * 2) The skin must be tight on the fish.
 * 3) Both eyes must be clear, not milky or sunken.
 * 4) The gills must be red and slimy. Fish frozen very hard are not especially good.

The meat of middle sized fish is more savory than that of large ones.

When you buy live fish, take the lively ones, not those that swim on their side or back. The bought fish are best killed in the market. The quickest way of killing a fish is to stun it with a blow on the head or neck, then cutting, its throat and its tail.

You scale the fish by taking hold of its tail and with a sharp knife or fish scaler scraping off the scales from there towards the head.

To retain the nourishing qualities of the fish, it is not soaked in water, only washed and boiled immediately. Whole fish are put on the fire with cold or hot water. Pieces of fish are put on with boiling water or prepared in hot butter or lard to retain the nutriment in the fish, since the hot water or fat contracts the cells at the cuts. The skin of a whole fish retains the nutriment, therefore it may be put on the fire in cold water.

Fish must not be covered up while cooking or frying so that the temperature will not get too high. Frozen fish must be thawed completely before using; if this is not done, the inside of the fish is mostly rare when serving it. No dish will