In cooking, fish may be boiled, steamed, broiled, fried, baked. or combined with other materials in some made dish. When boiled, it is stated that the loss in weight ranges from 5 to 30 per cent., a loss that consists largely of water—that is, the cooked fish is less moist than the raw. Little fat or protein is lost. So far as known, experi ments have not been made which show the losses by other methods of cooking. It is, however, probable that there would be usually a very con siderable loss of water.
In view of statements of a popular nature which bare been made on the dangers from eat ing poisonous fish or from ptomaines contained in fish, a few words summarizing the actual knowledge on these topics seem desirable. There are several species of fish which are actually poisonous. Few of them, however, are found in the United States, and the chances of their being offered for sale are very small. Such fish are mostly confined to tropical waters. Fish may contain parasites, some of which are in jurious to man. These are, however, destroyed by the thorough cooking to which fish is usually subjected. Occasionally cases of ptomaine poison ing have been traced to eating fish or fish products. Fish which has been frozen and, after thawing, kept for a time before it is cooked is especially likely to contain injurious ptomaines.
Canned fish should never be allowed to remain long in the can after opening. but should be used at once. There is some possibility of danger from the combined action of the can contents and oxygen of the air upon the lead of the solder or the can itself. Furthermore, canned fish seems peculiarly suited to the growth of micro organisms when exposed to the air. Finally, fish offered for sale should be handled in a cleanly manner and stored and exposed for sale under hygienic conditions. Oysters when `floated' or 'fattened' should never be placed in water contaminated by sewage. Severe illness and death have resulted in a number of eases from eating raw oysters contaminated with sew• age eontaining typhoid-fever germs.
For further information, consult the authori ties referred to under Fool); also :\twater, "The Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of American Food Fishes and Invertebrates." Re port of rommissianer of Fish and Fisheries, 1.'5'3 ( Wash ingt on, 1885 ) ; United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin 28 ( revised ) ; La ngwort by, "Dish as Food,'' in id., Partners' Bulletin 81 (Washington, 1899).