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Broiled Halibut
Broil just as you would other fish, upon a gridiron; season with pepper and salt. Put on a hot dish and butter freely, serving in a covered dish.
A skeleton recipe that assumes you already know how to broil fish over coals. The translation to a modern kitchen is mostly about heat source and thickness.
- Gridiron to broilerA gridiron is a hinged or flat grate set over live coals, so the heat comes from below. A gas or charcoal grill is the closer equivalent; under an oven broiler, put the steaks 3-4 inches from the element and do not turn them.
- Cut and thicknessHalibut was commonly sold cut across the fish into bone-in steaks. A steak of an inch or so is what makes the method work; a thin fillet will dry out before it colours.
- The instruction that mattersHalibut is lean and unforgiving. Pull it at 125-130F at the centre, when the flesh has just turned opaque and separates into flakes under gentle pressure. Anything past that is dry regardless of how much butter follows.
- TimingAbout 3-5 minutes a side for a 1-inch steak over strong heat. The original gives no time; a cook working over coals would have judged by eye.
- Oil the grateThe recipe omits it, but halibut sticks badly. Brush the fish and the hot grate with oil or clarified butter before the steak goes on.
- "Butter freely"This means a generous knob of plain butter melting on the hot fish. Two tablespoons for four steaks is ample; a squeeze of lemon is not in the original but is not out of period either.
- The covered dishServing covered kept the fish hot on its way to the table. It also steams the surface slightly, so if you want the broiled exterior to stay firm, serve uncovered and warm the plates instead.
- YieldFigure 6-8 oz of bone-in steak per person.
Halibut was one of the great commercial fish of the North Atlantic in the nineteenth century, and Boston and Gloucester schooners were landing it in quantity, packed in ice, for inland markets reachable by rail. That is likely why a general-purpose household book can print such a bare instruction: broiled halibut steak was ordinary weekday food, not a special occasion, and the compiler seems to have taken it for granted that readers had broiled fish on a gridiron before. The brevity is often said to reflect a house style of the era's cookbooks, which are generally described as treating recipes as memory aids for cooks already trained rather than as complete procedures. Heavy fishing pressure on the stock, with New England grounds reportedly thinning as early as the mid-to-late 1800s, made Atlantic halibut far scarcer than this casual tone suggests; most halibut sold now is Pacific.