_Time_,--3 or 4 minutes. _Average cost_, 1d. per lb.
TO CHOOSE SPRATS.--Choose these from their silvery appearance, as the brighter they are, so are they the fresher.
330. INGREDIENTS.--2 eggs, flour, bread crumbs; seasoning of salt and pepper to taste.
_Mode_.--Wipe the sprats, and dip them in a batter made of the above ingredients. Fry of a nice brown, serve very hot, and garnish with fried parsley.
Sprats may be baked like herrings. (_See_ No. 268.)
331. Dried sprats should be put into a basin, and boiling water poured over them; they may then be skinned and served, and this will be found a much better way than boiling them.
THE SPRAT.--This migratory fish, is rarely found longer than four or five inches, and visits the shores of Britain after the herring and other kinds of fish have taken their departure from them. On the coasts of Suffolk, Essex, and Kent, they are very abundant, and from 400 to 500 boats are employed in catching them during the winter season. Besides plentifully supplying the London market, they are frequently sold at sixpence a bushel to farmers for manuring purposes. They enter the Thames about the beginning of November, and leave it in March. At Yarmouth and Gravesend they are cured like red herrings.
332. INGREDIENTS.--1 small sturgeon, salt and pepper to taste, 1 small bunch of herbs, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 lb. of butter, 1 pint of white wine.
_Mode_,--Cleanse the fish thoroughly, skin it, and split it along the belly without separating it; have ready a large baking-dish, in which lay the fish, sprinkle over the seasoning and herbs very finely minced, and moisten it with the lemon-juice and wine. Place the butter in small pieces over the whole of the fish, put it in the oven, and baste frequently; brown it nicely, and serve with its own gravy.
_Time_.--Nearly 1 hour. _Average cost_, 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb.
THE STURGEON.--This fish commences the sixth of Linnaean order, and all the species are large, seldom measuring, when full-grown, less than three or four feet in length. Its flesh is reckoned extremely delicious, and, in the time of the emperor Severus, was so highly valued by the ancients, that it was brought to table by servants crowned with coronets, and preceded by a band of music. It is an inhabitant of the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Caspian, and the Black Sea, and of the Danube, the Volga, the Don, and other large rivers. It is abundant in the rivers of North America, and is occasionally taken in the Thames, as well as in the Eske and the Eden. It is one of those fishes considered as royal property. It is from its _roe_ that _caviare_, a favourite food of the Russians, is prepared. Its flesh is delicate, firm, and white, but is rare in the London market, where it sells for 1s. or 1s. 6d. per lb.