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Fish, Baked in Milk
Take some fillets of sole or plaice, or a slice of cod, halibut, brill, etc., or a whiting or small fresh haddock. Clean and dry the fish, lay it in a buttered baking-tin or pie-dish, pour over it as much milk as will moisten it, and season to taste. Cover the dish with a sheet of white buttered paper, and bake in a moderate oven till done. Add more milk after a few minutes' baking, sufficient wherewith to make a little sauce to accompany the fish.
A plain baked-fish method that works as well now as it did then, provided the oven is hot enough and the fish comes out the moment it flakes.
- Oven temperature"A moderate oven" in a book of this vintage means about 350F (180C). For thin fillets, 375-400F is better: it sets the flesh before the milk has time to draw the juices out.
- TimingThe original's "till done" is the weak point. Sole or plaice fillets need roughly 8-12 minutes; a thick cod or halibut steak 15-20. The fish is done when it is opaque throughout and the flakes just separate under a fork; cooks who prefer fish at the just-set stage take it out around 130-140F at the centre, though 145F is the usual food-safety recommendation. Anything longer and it turns dry and cottony.
- The buttered paperThe recipe says to cover the dish with a sheet of buttered paper; some cooks instead lay the paper directly on the fish, as with a cartouche. Buttered parchment does the same job; foil works but conducts heat faster, so check earlier. The point is to stop the surface drying while allowing gentle steam.
- Milk quantity"As much as will moisten it" means a shallow film in the dish, not a bath -- a few tablespoons for two fillets. The second addition after a few minutes should be no more than is needed for a little sauce to spoon over, as the recipe says.
- Whole fishA whiting or small haddock cooked on the bone needs 20-25 minutes and should be slashed twice on each side. Test at the thickest part behind the head; the flesh should lift clean from the backbone.
- Seasoning"Season to taste" here means at least salt and pepper. A scrape of nutmeg or a blade of mace in the milk is a common period addition, as is a bay leaf and a few peppercorns, which turn the pan milk into something worth pouring.
- Making the sauceThe pan liquid will be thin. Pour it off, reduce it briefly and whisk in a knob of butter, or thicken with a teaspoon of beurre manié.
- YieldFour fillets or two thick steaks serve two as a main course, three or four as part of a longer meal.
Baking fish in milk under buttered paper belongs to the late-Victorian and Edwardian idea of "plain cookery" -- invalid and nursery food raised to family status, valued because it used no fat beyond a smear of butter and produced its own mild sauce. The recipe reads as a template rather than a fixed dish: the list of fish at the top is an invitation to use whatever the fishmonger had, from cheap whiting to more expensive brill. Milk was popularly believed to sweeten fish that was no longer strictly fresh, an idea still repeated about soaking, and it does mask a faint tang, though it will not rescue anything genuinely off. The method survives almost unchanged in British kitchens as poached smoked haddock in milk, and in milk-poached cod.