Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/123

Rh PORK.

FISH.

In purchasing Fish it should be remembered that it is generally best when in full season, and the following list will be found useful in ascertaining when it is best and cheapest. To give a satisfactory table of the prices of fish is a difficult and almost impossible task. Many circumstances conspire to make the variations in price greater than in the case of any other food commodity. The fact that fish is a most perishable article of food and is usually caught while travelling in shoals, results in alternate scarcity and over-supply of a particular kind of fish, whilst the question whether the purchaser resides near or far away from a seaside or big distributing town, affects the situation. All we have been able to do is to record fluctuations in prices over a period of years, from which the housewife must form her own judgment. In conclusion, we would say that in no branch of marketing is personal attention better repaid, both in quality and economy, than in the buying of fish. The lady who markets herself will select the fish that on the day of her visit is plentiful, consequently cheapest and often best.