of the time, as when they have been
gathered the usual time those are that are brought to public markets.

FOOTNOTES:

[84-*] Pearlash is a sub-carbonate, and will answer the purpose. It is a
common article in the kitchen of the American housekeeper. A.

[85-*] "CAULIFLOWERS and other vegetables are often boiled only crisp to
preserve their beauty. For the look alone they had better not be boiled
at all, and almost as well for the use, as in this crude state they are
scarcely digestible by the strongest stomach. On the other hand, when
over-boiled, they become vapid, and in a state similar to decay, in
which they afford no sweet purifying juices to the body, but load it
with a mass of mere feculent matter."--_Domestic Management_, 12mo.
1813, p. 69.

CHAPTER VI.

FISH.

This department of the business of the kitchen requires considerable
experience, and depends more upon practice than any other. A very few
moments, more or less, will thoroughly spoil fish;[86-*] which, to be
eaten in perfection, must never be put on the table till the soup is
taken off.

So many circumstances operate on this occasion, that it is almost
impossible to write general rules.

There are decidedly different opinions, whether fish should be put into
cold, tepid, or boiling water.

We believe, for some of the fame the Dutch cooks have acquired, they are
a little indebted to their situation affording them a plentiful supply
of fresh fish for little more than the trouble of catching it; and that
the superior excellence of the fish in Holland, is because none are
used, unless they are brought alive into the kitchen (mackerel excepted,
which die the moment they are taken out of the water). The Dutch are as
nice about this as Seneca says the Romans[86-+] were; who, complaining
of the luxury of the times, says, "They are come to that daintiness,
that they will not eat a fish, unless upon the same day that it is
taken, that it may taste of the sea, as they express it."

On the Dutch flat coast, the fish are taken with nets: on our rocky
coast, they are mostly caught by bait and hook, which instantly kills
them. Fish are brought alive by land to the Dutch markets, in water
casks with air-holes in the top. Salmon, and other fish, are thus
preserved in rivers, in a well-hole in the fishing-boat.

All kinds of fish are best some time before they begin to spawn; and are
unfit for food for some time after they have spawned.

Fish, l