Haddock

“ The supply is rarely equal to the demand, for the fish appear to grow scarcer and scarcer, and consequently it is a rarity to obtain a fresh haddock in London at anything like a low price. The best way of dressing a haddock for the dinner-table is to take a fresh plump fish, of not less than three pounds' weight: then stuff with sweet herbs, as I have recommended for Jack: boil the fish carefully, so that it shall not break in the dressing, and serve it up garnished with slices of lemon and oyster or shrimp sauce, though some prefer fennel-sauce to either. ”

“ It is from the roe of the sturgeon that the caviare is composed, though it is sometimes made of the spawn of the grey carp, or the hard roe of the grey mullet.
Haddock.—bears some resemblance to cod, but may be easily distinguished by the black spot on each shoulder. It is a superior fish; the flesh is firm, and of a snow-white colour, with a creamy curd between the flakes. The largest haddocks are in general the best, and the larger size keep better than the smaller ones. ”

“ In French cookery, the haddock is generally dressed and served as cod-fish is dressed. There are worse things than a fillet of haddock à la Royale, or à l’italienne.
There is no more nourishing or easily digested fish than the sole, and it is in season all the year round. The richest and largest sole, called by some the black sole, comes from the Devon coast; and these, as well as the Dover sole, and the black sole of Ireland, are best plain boiled. The smaller and whiter sole found on the coast of Sussex is best fried. Lemery calls the sole, perdrix marina (the partridge of the sea) ”

“ Sand and mud occur on the edges. The eastern part of the ground is resorted to by the haddock fleet during the fall and early winter, and other parts are visited more or less during the entire year for cod, haddock, and pollock by vessels and boats from Cape Ann and by craft of various types from Boston and Portland-line trawlers, gill-netters, and a few of the new type of small otter trawlers, this latter fleet of craft constantly growing in number.
On the ledge cod, haddock, and cusk are taken in the full winter and spring, winter, perhaps, furnishing the best fishing. ”

“ The pyroligneous acid, applied in the same way to beef or mutton, gives the fine smoke flavour, and may be kept for a considerable length of time.
Scotch way of dressing haddocks.—A haddock is quite like a different fish in London and in Edinburgh, which arises [177] chiefly from the manner in which they are treated: a haddock should never appear at table with its head and skin on. For boiling, they are all the better for lying a night in salt; of course they do not take so long to boil without the skin, and require to be well skimmed to preserve the colour. ”

“ The Gravel Bottom. The eastern portion is muddy and has 40 to 60 fathoms. The western has 35 to 40 fathoms. It is a good cod ground in winter and spring. Haddock are present from November to March, inclusive; hake in summer. Fishing is done mainly by trawling by sloops and vessels.
Laisdells Ground. This is a small, rocky spot outside the Brandy Ledges. It is about 1/4 acre in extent and has a sharp rocky bottom with 20 fathoms of water over it. It is the best cod and haddock ground in Isle au Haute Bay. This is chiefly a small boat ground and is also a lobster ground. ”

“ Lemme see now—telephone one of you the Superba’s trip—twenty-five thousand haddock and ten thousand cod. And make a note on a slate of the Colleen Bawn’s trip. She don’t sail for the firm, but I do like to keep track of her. Forty thousand haddock and ten thousand cod—loose she is, and her deck crawly under your feet, and they have to wear rubber boots in her forehold, when Tom O’Donnell starts to drive her, and iron bands around her for’ard to hold her together. But, Lord she was an able vessel once—an able vessel once. ”

“ The Haddock Shoal and the Ooze are really parts of one ground, though they have been given different names by the fishermen. The Haddock Shoal (3 miles S. by B. from the Seal Ledge: breaks in rough weather) is thought to be poor ground and is but little fished, although it is a fall haddock ground. The Ooze falls off gradually, reaching a depth of 50 fathoms on the outer part. It is considered fair fishing ground for cod and haddock in the spring and for cod and hake in the summer and fall. ”

“ These greedy little creatures actually drill holes in the flesh of the cod or haddock and other fish, and eat out the inside of their bodies, so that a haddock has been found with nothing but the skin and skeleton remaining while six fat hags lay comfortably inside. ”

“ The HADDOCK (Gadus aglefinus) is a fish of the cod tribe, which has three fins tip on its back, a small fleshy beard on the under jaw, the upper jaw the longer, and the tail somewhat forked. There is a dark oval spot on each side of the body a little below the gills. These fish seldom exceed the weight of seven or eight pounds. Our markets are principally supplied with haddocks from the coast of Yorkshire and other eastern parts of England. They are best in season betwixt the months of July and January, after which they deposit their eggs or roe, and, for many weeks, are scarcely eatable ”

“ After all, our knowledge of even some of our common food-fishes is very incomplete. "Why should we not be in a position to say, in this nineteenth century, that a fish, say, the Haddock, extends in great numbers from either hemisphere into the Atlantic, and, if so, whether the pigmy belt of the three-mile or even the thirteen-mile limit can have any more influence on this form than on the ever-abundant Herring?" In this able defence of the "trawl," we may realize what a destructive, though not altogether exterminative agent it is ”

“ The species of fish which is found in greatest numbers, and is caught exclusively by the hook, is usually called by the fishermen, "Indian Cod:" it is by no means, however, of the genus Haddock, and very slightly, if at all, resembles the codfish of northern waters, or common stock-fish, but seems to belong to the class of finger fish (cheilo-dactylus-fasciatus) , which is usually classed among the crow fish (sciænæ) . ”

“ Depths average 70 to 100 fathoms over a bottom of yellow clay and gravel. Cod are taken here all the year. Haddock are found in the deep water in the spring: cusk all the year in deep water, together with hake in summer, also on the muddy bottom in deep water. Pollock and other surface-schooling fish are found here in their proper season. ”

“ Ah, the pickerel of Walden! when I see them lying on the ice, or in the well which the fisherman cuts in the ice, making a little hole to admit the water, I am always surprised by their rare beauty, as if they were fabulous fishes, they are so foreign to the streets, even to the woods, foreign as Arabia to our Concord life. They possess a quite dazzling and transcendent beauty which separates them by a wide interval from the cadaverous cod and haddock whose fame is trumpeted in our streets. They are not green like the pines, nor any gray like the stones, nor blue like the sky ”

“ Brother Haddock has a large intellectual development, a warm heart, an eloquent tongue, and an intense spiritual activity. What he does must be done at once, and done thoroughly. He has an ardent hatred of shams, and despises all clap-trap. Both in sermons and debate, he strikes home, and woe be to the luckless pate that has the temerity to dash under his well-aimed strokes. And yet under all this seeming severity, there dwells a spirit as kind and manly as ever throbbed in a human bosom.
During this, the closing year of my term on the District, my labors were very extended. ”

“ The seine was hauled once, but we found only a few fish about the size of a small haddock, though quite different from any we knew. The snout is lengthened, the head armed with some strong spines, the rays of the back-fin long, and very strong, the belly is large, and the body without scales. The only shell-fish are a few limpets and muscles ”

“ Simple Cartesian co-ordinates will not suffice very well to compare the haddock with the plaice, for the deformation undergone by the former in comparison with the latter is more on the lines of that by which we have compared our Antigonia with our Polyprion; that is to say, the expansion is greater towards the middle of the fish’s length, and dwindles away towards either end. ”

“ I didn’t say we came for Haddock’s good.”
“We needed the Haddock, you see, Miss Smellie,” confirmed Lucille.
“How many times am I to remind you that Haddon Berners’ name is Haddon, Lucille,” inquired Miss Smellie. “Why must you always prefer vulgarity? One expects vulgarity from a boy—but a girl should try to appear a Young Lady.” ”

“ Cod and haddock are found here from April to June and pollock in summer. In summer and fall hake are taken by night fishing with hand line about the rocks in 20 to 30 fathoms on the broken ground. Fishing here is by hand-lining in summer and trawling in fall and winter. It is a lobster ground. ”

“ It frequents the same localities, and is caught with long lines baited usually with mussels; the old fish keep close in shore, and are only got with herring bait. In the village of Findhorn, Morayshire, large numbers of haddocks are dried and smoked with the fumes of hard wood and sawdust. Hence the term "Finnan haddies," an article in such request at a Scottish breakfast. The village of Findhorn affords a very small portion of the haddocks sold as such, but the true "Finnans" are supposed to have the finest flavour. ”

“ Ou, haddies is men's lives the day!" which was often true, as haddocks were often caught at the risk of their husbands' lives. After the usual amount of higgling, the haddies were brought down to their proper market price, —sometimes a penny for a good haddock, or, when herrings were rife, a dozen herrings for twopence, crabs for a penny, and lobsters for threepence. For there were no railways then to convey the fish to England, and thus equalise the price for all classes of the community.
Let me mention here a controversy between a fishwife and a buyer called Thomson. ”

“ The cod and the haddock, especially, of the Gulf of Maine are particularly well conditioned fish and are noted for their excellence.
The figures presented in Table 2 show only a fraction of the catch from the Inner Grounds, since they deal entirely with the fares of fishing vessels of 5 net tons and over. There are literally thousands of the so-called "licensed" or "under-tonned" boats, mainly gill-netters, that take millions of pounds from these waters annually, principally cod and haddock. ”

“ Haddock, when dried, smoked, and salted, is known as Finnan Haddie.
Halibut is the largest of the flatfish family (Pleuronectidæ) , 153specimens having been caught weighing from three to four hundred pounds. ”

“ It is generally well stocked with cod, haddock, and flat-fish, which, in the course of time, become very tame; and we regret to say, that for want of proper shelter, most of the animals become blind. The fish have of course to be fed; and they partake greedily, even from the hand of their keeper, of the mess of boiled mussels, limpets, whelks, &c., with which they are fed, and their flavour is really unexceptionable. ”

“ Cyprian told Haddock reproachfully.
"Describe him to me again at our next meeting," said the Colonel, for whom Jellybrand betrayed a pathetically guileless admiration.
"Uncle Ricky has always had a number of the queerest friends," Ferlie whispered. "Generally they are lame dogs who would have perished in some one of the world's ditches but for him. This one, at any rate, seems too nearly an imbecile to take any interest in the obstruse riddles of our existence." ”

“ Very many different species are caught in this way, but haddock, plaice, and cod are by far the most numerous, and make up between them nearly half the total amount of all the fish landed in England and Wales in a year. Much fishing is also done with seine nets, or with drift nets, both of which are long nets, attached to floats of cork or to air-bladders and let down into the sea without regard to the depth, and sometimes at a considerable distance from the shore. Stake nets, fastened to poles fixed in shallow water near the land, are also much used. ”

“ Now, however, many rosy-cheeked boys and girls live on the island. Their fathers are fishermen who have settled there because they have 121 found it is one of the best fishing-grounds in the world. Off the southeast coast stretches a sandbank at least three hundred miles long, and in the waters nearby millions of cod and haddock are found every year. ”

“ On the coasts about Scarborough, where the haddocks, cods, and dog-fish, are in great abundance, the fishermen universally believe that the dog-fish make a line, or semicircle, to encompass a shoal of haddocks and cod, confining them within certain limits near the shore, and eating them as occasion requires. ”

“ IJmuiden, 24 December—Today there were four sloops in the market with 500 [86] to 800 live and 1,500 to 2,100 dead haddock and some—live cod—The live cod brought 71⁄4—the dead——
Bos.
Haven’t you anything else to do?
Kaps.
The dead haddock brought thirteen and a half guilders a basket.
Bos.
[Knocking on the desk.] I know all that! Here, take hold! Take your book—turn to the credit page of the Expectation——
Kaps. ”

“ At sundown, trailed by a wavering banner of screaming gulls who gobbled the “orts” tossed over by the busy crew cleaning their catch, they were docking at the city fish-house.
“Lucky again,” commented Captain Candage, returning from his sharp dicker with the buyer. “The city critters are all hungry for haddock, and that's just what we hit to-day.” He surveyed his gloomy partner with sympathetic concern. “Why don't you take a run uptown?” he suggested. “You're sticking too close to this packet for a young man. ”