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Fish Cutlets
Cutlets may be cut from almost any white fish; they may be cooked or raw. Put a quantity of chopped herbs, a bit of shallot, and a seasoning of pepper and salt, into a stewpan with two ounces of butter. Stir in a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovies, and as soon as the butter is melted remove from the fire to cool. Lay the seasoning over the cutlets thickly, and powder them well with fine bread-crumbs. They may be cooked before the fire, or in an oven on buttered pans. Have ready some green vegetables stewed in good broth; silver button-onions or anything that is in season may be used. Put the vegetables in the centre of the dish, and arrange the cutlets round. Time to stew vegetables, about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 6d., exclusive of fish.
A Victorian way of dressing fish steaks: a cold herb-and-anchovy butter is pasted on, crumbed, and the pieces cooked dry around a mound of stewed vegetables. Two things decide whether it works — the butter must be cool enough to hold the crumbs, and the fish must not overcook.
- What a cutlet is hereA crosswise steak cut through the bone from a large fish — cod, hake, haddock; halibut, though a flatfish, is cut the same way. Thick fillet portions do the same job. The note that they may be "cooked or raw" indicates already-cooked fish could be used as well as fresh, though the recipe does not say how it was handled.
- Essence of anchoviesA bottled Victorian seasoning of anchovy, vinegar and spice. A teaspoon of anchovy paste is the closest substitute; a mashed oil-packed fillet also works, though it is saltier, so hold back on the salt.
- Get the butter coldMelted butter runs off and the crumbs slide with it. Cool the herb butter until it is thick and spreadable — a few minutes in the fridge — then pat it over the fish and press the crumbs on firmly so they set into it.
- QuantitiesTwo ounces of butter is half a stick, and seasons roughly four to six cutlets. "A quantity of chopped herbs" means a generous handful; parsley with a little thyme or tarragon suits white fish. One small shallot is enough.
- Oven and "before the fire"Cooking before the fire corresponds to a broiler or grill. For the oven the recipe gives no temperature; a moderately hot oven, around 400F, on a buttered tray is a reasonable modern equivalent. Either way allow roughly 10 to 12 minutes for an inch-thick cutlet, until the flesh flakes at the bone — the recipe gives no fish timing at all.
- The vegetablesA quarter of an hour of stewing in broth suits button onions or carrots, but will destroy peas, beans or asparagus; give those two to four minutes in the same broth at the end. Reduce the broth to a few spoonfuls so the mound does not flood the dish.
- Cost and yieldSixpence for the seasoning and vegetables is of no use now beyond telling you this was cheap dressing for expensive fish. Figure one cutlet per person as a main course.
The word cutlet is borrowed straight from the butcher — from the French côtelette, a small rib chop — and its use for fish belongs to a nineteenth-century fashion for making one food behave like another: fish shaped, crumbed, and served in a ring around a mound of vegetables exactly as veal or mutton cutlets would be. That arrangement, the cutlets standing round a garnish in the centre, was a long-established way of sending such dishes to table. Essence of anchovies places the recipe firmly in its period too: it was one of the bottled savoury seasonings that filled Victorian store cupboards, a way of getting depth into plain white fish. Cassell's, published as a household dictionary and generally said to have appeared in parts, was written for cooks working with coal ranges and open fires, which is why the instruction offers a choice between the oven and cooking "before the fire" without preferring either.