Small White or Oily-Fleshed Fish

This category included many fish, all of which could have been described as “panfish” because their small size allowed them conveniently to fit into a frying pan. Small and tinker (juvenile) mackerel, perch, herring, flounder, alewife, sole, smelt, and several freshwater fish fit this category of quickly cooked fish, though some were also filleted and are suitable for baking. Usually these fish were too thin or bony for convenient use in soups and stews. Some could be grilled. Some, like alewives, herring, and mackerel, were caught commercially and salted or smoked, which accounts for their appearance inland in cookbooks published in places far from the sea.