Pickled Salmon

Clean a fine fresh salmon, and remove the bones. Cut off the head, fins, and tail. Fish, to be pickled, should (instead of washing) be wiped, and rubbed with a clean dry cloth. Cut it into steaks or cutlets. Put it into a stone-ware jar with a close cover. A broad low jar will be best. Sprinkle it with salt, and cayenne. Add some grains of whole black pepper, and some blades of mace, seasoning it highly to make it keep well. Fill up the jar with the best cider vinegar, set it in a moderate oven, and bake it till thoroughly done; adding more vinegar, if it seems too dry. Then cover the jar very closely, with the lid - if there is the smallest crack, pasta all round a fillet of strong, white paper. Whenever you open the jar to take out some of the salmon for use, add some fresh vinegar. Keep the jar in a dry cool place. If properly done, and well seasoned, it will keep several months.

Broiled Fresh Mackerel

Mackerel cannot be eaten too fresh, as no fish spoils so soon; for which reason in England mackerel is permitted to be sold on Sundays. We have heard in London the fishwomen crying it about the streets on Sunday morning before church time. And even then it is far inferior to mackerel taken immediately out of the sea, at the places on the coast. It is generally broiled, as no other cooking seems to suit it, and draw forth its true flavor. Split your mackerel, remove the bone, and cut off the heads and tails. Dredge them on both sides with flour, and sprinkle the inside with black pepper and a little salt. Have your gridiron very hot, over a clear fire, and grease the bars with lard, or chalk them to prevent the fish from sticking-. Broil them well on both sides, and when they are done, and very hot, lay some bits of fresh butter upon them. Cover to keep them warm, and send them to table as soon as possible. They are a fine breakfast fish, and good at a plain dinner. For sauce, cold butter is all that is necessary, but you may mix with it, chopped parsley, or minced fennel. At the best English tables, stewed gooseberries, pulped through a sieve and sweetened, is the fashionable sauce for broiled mackerel, or lemon-juice is squeezed profusely over the fish. To this the lovers of fruit with every thing, will not object.

If a mackerel is fresh, the eyes will be full and lively, the gills very red, and the stripes or bars on the back a very dark color, (nearly black,) and strongly marked; and the body thick. If thin and flat below the shoulders, the eyes sunk, the gills pale, and the dark stripes dull and indistinct, the fish is unfit to eat.

Fried Mackekel

For frying, take small mackerel, as fresh as possible. Wash them, dry them in a clean cloth, and score them deeply in the back, making several deep cuts. Season them with a little salt and pepper. Go over them with beaten egg1 and then cover them thickly with grated bread-crumbs; which, for this purpose, are superior to indian meal or pounded crackers. Fry them in boiling lard, and dish them hot. Send them to table with a dish of potatos sliced and tried in butter.

Any fish may be fried in this manner. If large, cut it into pieces.