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Red Mullet, Baked
Clean the fish, take out the gills, but leave the inside; fold in oiled paper, and bake them gently; when done take the liquor that flows from the fish, add a thickening of butter and flour; add half a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, one glass of sherry, cayenne and salt to taste; let boil two minutes; serve the sauce in a tureen, and the fish on a dish, after having removed the paper.
A Victorian survival of the classic treatment of red mullet: whole, undrawn, wrapped and baked, with its own juices turned into a sauce at the table. The wrapping and the intact fish are the whole point of the dish, not fussiness.
- The hinge: leave the fish wholeOnly the gills come out. Red mullet is cooked ungutted so the liver melts into the juices and gives the sauce its character, which is why the fish has long been called the woodcock of the sea. This only works with a very fresh fish, bought whole with clear eyes and firm flesh; if the fish is more than a day or two off the boat, gut it and reserve the liver alone.
- Oiled paperBaking parchment, brushed with oil, folded into a sealed parcel — a papillote in all but name. Foil holds the juices just as well but browns nothing and can taste metallic against the wine; parchment is closer to the original. Crimp the edges tightly so the liquor stays inside.
- "Bake gently"The book gives no temperature; a moderate oven, around 325-350F, is a reasonable modern reading. A larger fish at higher heat will burst the paper and dry the flesh before the liver has done its work.
- TimingAn 8-12 oz mullet takes roughly 20 minutes in a moderate oven, but check rather than trust the clock: the flesh should just part from the backbone at the thickest point. Open the parcel over a dish so nothing is lost.
- A glass of sherryA wine glass in this period is roughly 2 fl oz, a quarter cup. Use a dry amontillado or fino; cream sherry will make the sauce cloying.
- Anchovy sauceA bottled anchovy sauce or essence of the kind sold at the time, not a modern Worcestershire-style condiment. Half a teaspoon of anchovy paste, or one mashed salted fillet, gives a similar salty depth. Salt afterwards, not before.
- Thickening of butter and flourEqual parts kneaded cold into a paste, whisked into the simmering liquor bit by bit. The two-minute boil is not optional — it cooks out the raw flour, and the quantity of liquid from one or two fish is small enough that it thickens quickly.
- YieldOne mullet per person, each in its own parcel, with the sauce handed separately as directed.
Red mullet has been prized since antiquity — Roman writers record extravagant prices paid for large specimens, and part of the theatre was watching the fish change colour as it died. The English habit of cooking it undrawn, keeping the liver, is often connected with that older reverence: the liver is intensely flavoured and considered the best part, which is why the recipe insists only on removing the gills. Wrapping in oiled paper is the plain domestic version of en papillote, a technique that reached English cookbooks well before this one and was valued precisely because it trapped the juices that this recipe then turns into sauce. The sherry, cayenne and anchovy are a familiar fish-sauce combination.