Norwegian Fish Pudding

A frugal second-day dish built on already-cooked fish, and the sort of recipe that assumes you have both leftover fish and the liquid it was poached in. A few of its silences need filling in.

• The hinge: textureNorwegian fiskepudding is judged on being smooth and springy rather than grainy. Chopping by hand as directed gives a coarse, flaky pudding; working the fish with the eggs and cream in a food processor gives a much finer, closer crumb, though starting from cooked fish it will never set as springy as the classic version, which is pounded from raw fish. Keep everything cold while you work so the mixture does not break.
• Breadcrumbs, unmeasuredThe original gives no quantity. For a pound of cooked fish, start with about half a cup of fine dry crumbs and add more only if the mixture will not hold a soft shape on a spoon. Too much and the pudding turns bready and dense.
• Which fishCod, haddock, pollock or hake all work; the classic Norwegian version uses cod or pollock. Oily fish such as mackerel or salmon make a heavier, strongly flavoured pudding that fights the parsley-and-onion sauce.
• The moldA plain one-quart pudding basin, charlotte mold or loaf tin. Butter it heavily and line the base with parchment, or the pudding will not turn out cleanly. Cover the top tightly with buttered foil or parchment tied down, so condensation does not water the mixture.
• Steaming setupSet the covered mold on a rack in a deep pot, add boiling water to come halfway up the sides, cover, and keep at a bare simmer. Top up with boiling water as it evaporates.
• An hour is about right, but checkSixty minutes suits a quart mold. The pudding is done when it is firm to the touch, has pulled slightly from the sides, and reads 160F at the centre. A shallower mold will be done in 35-45 minutes.
• "The sauce in which the fish was cooked"This means the poaching liquid or court bouillon, not a sauce. Reduce it by about half to concentrate it before whisking in the butter and adding the parsley and onion; unreduced, it will be thin and salty rather than rich. Softening the onion in the butter first removes its raw bite.
• Paprika"Paprica" is a period spelling variant. Sweet paprika is the sensible reading here; smoked paprika, unlikely to have been the intent in a book of this vintage, will overwhelm the dish.
• YieldThe original says only "a large cooked fish". Taking roughly a pound of cooked fish, built into a quart mold, it serves four as a main course with boiled potatoes, or six as a starter; a genuinely large fish will yield more and needs the eggs and cream scaled up.