If this fish is prepared as it should be, it is very fine eating, although few people know it. Procure five or six pounds from the thick part of the fish, put it on to boil with plenty of water and two tablespoons of salt. As it boils, skim off all the fat; it will require two hours or more, and should be simmered slowly or it will break. When you can run a straw through it, remove it from the water and drain it. When this has been done, place it in a stone pot or tureen, season it very highly with cayenne pepper and salt, throw over it a dozen cloves and three blades of mace; mix together vinegar and water in the proportion of a bowl of water to every two of vinegar, stir into this three tablespoons of sifted sugar, cover the fish with this, set it away for twenty-four hours, keeping it closely covered, and it is ready for use. Cut off as much as you wish to go on the table, and serve in a flat dish with some of the liquor round it.

Roast Sturgeon

Parboil the sturgeon until it begins to be a little tender, remove it from the water. Whilst it is draining and cooling, prepare the following dressing: Grate a pint of bread crumbs, season with pepper, salt, a small onion chopped, a teaspoon of sweet marjoram, the same of sweet basil, and a quarter of a pound of butter melted and poured over, mix all well together, make deep incisions through the fish, fill with the dressing, season the outside of the fish with pepper and salt, dust with a little flour, baste with butter and hot water, and bake three quarters of an hour in a hot oven.

Fricasseed Sturgeon

Procure a slice of sturgeon nearly an inch in thickness, put ii in a stew-pan with boiling water sufficient to cover it, and simmer until tender; then drain it and cut it in small pieces; melt in a sauce-pan butter the size of an egg, stir in it a teaspoonful of flour; add half a pint of cream, a heaping teaspoon of chopped parsley, pepper and salt; boil up and pour over the fish.