Baked Fish
Nearly all varieties of fish may be baked, although those weighing from one to three pounds are more often chosen for this method of cooking. The fish should be scaled and cleaned, the head and tail may be left on, if desired, the fins should be removed, and the fish should be stuffed rather sparingly, as otherwise the dressing will swell and break it open. The skin along the back should be gashed, so it will not break open in cooking. The fish should then be placed upon a strip of cloth, laid in the bottom of a baking-pan, and is used to facilitate the removal of the fish. Brush the latter well with Snowdrift, dust it with salt and pepper, and bake in a hot oven, 375 degrees F., allowing fifteen minutes to the pound. When the fish has browned slightly, pour a little hot water into the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking. Serve plain, or with Tomato, Hollandaise, Horseradish Hollandaise, Russian Hollandaise, Savory Egg, or Cream or White Sauce No. 2.
Small fish, like Brook Trout or Smelts, may be baked, if desired. In this case, not more than ten minutes should be allowed for the cookery.
A general method rather than a fixed formula, written to sell a brand of shortening. The technique is sound; the timing is the part that has been overturned.
- SnowdriftA cottonseed-oil shortening sold by the Southern Cotton Oil Company, the sponsor of this book. Any neutral fat works for brushing the fish — a plain vegetable shortening, melted butter or olive oil.
- Cook to temperature, not to the poundFifteen minutes per pound will dry out most fish. Modern practice is roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest point, or until the flesh reaches 145F and just flakes from the bone. A 2 lb whole fish is usually done in 25-30 minutes.
- The ovenThe book helpfully gives a number, 375F, which is on the low side of "hot" by period standards and still a reasonable roasting temperature for a whole fish. 400F gives better browning on the skin.
- The cloth slingA strip of cheesecloth or muslin under the fish is how you lift a cooked whole fish out intact. Parchment with overhanging ends, or a double layer of foil, does the same job and is easier to grease.
- Gashing the backThe book directs shallow cuts through the skin along the back; they let the flesh expand without splitting the fish open in the oven.
- Stuffing sparinglySound counsel then and now: bread dressing swells. It also slows the cooking of the fish around it, so check the temperature in the flesh beside the cavity, not just at the shoulder.
- Small fishTen minutes is about right for smelts or a small trout at this temperature. Note that brook trout and smelts have small pin bones throughout, so serve them as they are and let diners work around them.
- YieldA whole fish of 1-3 lb, head on, serves roughly two to six depending on size; the usual allowance is 8-12 oz of whole fish per person, before head and bone are discounted.
A New Snowdrift Cook Book belongs to a large family of early twentieth-century American cookbooks published by manufacturers to promote a single product — in this case Snowdrift, the cottonseed-oil shortening made by the Southern Cotton Oil Company. Cottonseed oil, once a waste product of the cotton gin, became a major American cooking fat in the decades around 1900, and the companies selling it had to teach cooks accustomed to lard and butter what to do with it; hence the instruction to brush the fish with Snowdrift where an older book would say butter. The baking method itself is much older and quite conservative: a whole scaled fish, lightly stuffed, roasted and sent to table with one of a rotating cast of sauces. The list of sauces at the end — Hollandaise in three variations, Savory Egg, White Sauce No. 2 — is a tell that this is a book written in the shadow of Fannie Farmer and the Boston Cooking School, where numbered, cross-referenced sauces and level measurements were the new mark of a scientific kitchen.