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Being thus dressed, you will find him a much better dish of meat
than
you, or most folk, even than anglers themselves, do imagine: for
this
dries up the fluid watery humour with which all Chubs do abound.
But
take this rule with you, That a Chub newly taken and newly dressed,
is
so much better than a Chub of a day's keeping after he is dead,
that L
can compare him to nothing so fitly as to cherries newly gathered
from
a tree, and others that have been bruised and lain a day or two
in water.
But the Chub being thus used, and dressed presently; and not washed
after he is gutted, for note, that lying long in water, and washing
the
blood out of any fish after they be gutted, abates much of their
sweetness; you will find the Chub, being dressed in the blood, and
quickly, to be such meat as will recompense your labour, and disabuse
your opinion.
Or you may dress the Chavender or Chub thus:
When you have scaled him, and cut off his tail and fins, and
washed
him very clean, then chine or slit him through the middle, as
a salt-fish
is usually cut; then give him three or four cuts or scotches on
the back
with your knife, and broil him on charcoal, or wood coal, that
are free
from smoke; and all the time he is a-broiling, baste him with
the best
sweet butter, and good store of salt mixed with it. And, to this,
add a
little thyme cut exceedingly small, or bruised into the butter.
The
Cheven thus dressed hath the watery taste taken away, for which
so
many except against him. Thus was the Cheven dressed that you
now
liked so well, and commended so much But note again, that if this
Chub that you eat of had been kept till to-morrow, he had not
been
worth a rush. And remember, that his throat be washed very clean,
I say
very clean, and his body not washed after he is gutted, as indeed
no fish
should be.
Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to recover the
lost credit
of the poor despised Chub. And now I will give you some rules
how to
catch him: and I am glad to enter you into the art of fishing
by catching
a Chub, for there is no fish better to enter a young Angler, he
is so
easily caught, but then it must be this particular way:
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