Gone fishing

Excerpts about bait, 1594; preserving fish, 1732; To cure tainted Fish, 1819; and cooking.
Over thirty taped talks on fishing, Herring Girls of Scotland, smokehouses, ice factory, shad, oysters, shrimp, river restoration by removing weirs and old mill dams, fish migrations, Garum and more.
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Divers good baites to catch fish with, 1594
Fill a sheepes gut with small unsleakt limestones, and tie the same well at both endes, that no water get therein, and if any pike devoure it (as they are ravening fish and verie likelie to doe) she dieth in a short time, you may fasten it to a string if you please, and so let it flote upon the water. Also the liver of every fish is a good baite to catch any fish of the same kind. Past made of wheate flower, a little saffron and some suger, and tempered with water, is a good baite...
Plat, Hugh. The Jewel House. London: 1594

Helps towards the Preservation of Fish, 1732
If you would keep Fish long, kill them as soon as they are out of the Water, and take out their Gills; then fill their Heads as much as may be, with Pepper, and wipe them very dry, and pack them in dry Wheat-Straw.
Bradley, Richard. The Country Lady’s Director. Part II. London: 1732.

To cure tainted Fish, 1819
Tainted fish may be much restored to its proper flavour by mixing a quantity of vinegar and salt in the water in which the fish is to be boiled.
New Family Receipt Book. New Haven: 1819

Broiling fresh Fish (foolscap paper in ashes), 1872 Take a fresh fish; cut out the entrails, and without removing the scales, wash it clean; dry it with a cloth; put inside a seasoning of butter, pepper, and salt; wrap it in a wet sheet of foolscap paper, or several if necessary; cover it up in hot ashes.  When the fish is done--strip the skin off and it is ready for the table.  Send drawn butter to the table in a boat, to which add caviare, or any kind of catsup preferred, or serve with lemon juice stirred into drawn butter.  The dish upon which the fish is placed should be hot.
Mrs. Hill's Southern Practical Cookery and Receipt Book.  1872

Fishmonger’s stall by Balthzar Nebot (1730-1762) 1737 at Yale Center for British Art HERE

Past posts on HUGH fish smoker in 1779, shad, crabs, planked fish, 1833 book of cartoons and descriptions of the hazards of fishing... HERE

TAPED TALKS (2020- June 2021). Fishing, Herring Girls of Scotland, smokehouses, ice factory, shad, oysters, shrimp, river restoration by removing weirs and old mill dams, fish migrations, Garum and more. HERE


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