Home › The Principles of Cookery › Haddock, Fillets Of
Haddock, Fillets Of
Divide the flesh from the bone by running the edge of the knife along the side of the spine, and take off the skin. Dip the fillets in beaten egg, roll them in bread-crumbs, and then fry them in hot lard or dripping. When browned on both sides drain from the fat, and serve them on a hot dish. Take a table-spoonful of mushrooms, chopped small, a like quantity of finely-minced shallots, and also of chopped parsley. Put these into a stewpan with a quarter of a pint of good brown sauce. Simmer for a quarter of an hour, and serve in a tureen. Time, ten minutes to fry the fillets. Probable cost of haddocks, 6d. each and upwards. Sufficient, one moderate-sized haddock for three persons.
A straightforward crumbed fish fillet with a mushroom-shallot sauce served separately. The instructions are sound; the units and the frying medium need translating.
- Quarter of a pintThat is 5 fl oz in imperial measure, so a scant 2/3 cup of brown sauce. Enough for one haddock's worth of fillets, served in a small jug or gravy boat rather than poured over the crumb.
- Good brown sauceIn Cassell's this means espagnole or a reduced meat-based sauce built on stock and browned roux, not bottled brown sauce or HP. A well-reduced beef or veal stock thickened lightly will stand in.
- Lard or drippingBoth fry well and give a better crust than butter, which burns at this heat. Any neutral oil at 350-375F does the same job; use enough to come halfway up the fillets and turn once.
- Ten minutes to fryThat is the whole frying time for both sides. A modern fillet of about an inch will be done in 3-4 minutes a side; press the thickest part and stop when it flakes rather than resists.
- The sauce simmerA quarter of an hour is right here and not a misprint. The raw shallot needs the time to lose its edge, and the mushrooms give up liquid that has to reduce back into the sauce.
- FilletingRun the knife along one side of the backbone from head to tail, keeping the blade flat against the bones, then repeat on the other side. A fishmonger will do it, and the frame is worth keeping for fish stock.
- YieldOne moderate haddock is given as three portions, which by modern standards is two generous ones. Two fish will feed four with the same quantity of sauce doubled.
Haddock was an everyday white fish of British kitchens through the nineteenth century, landed in quantity at ports such as Aberdeen, Grimsby and Hull and moved inland by rail cheaply enough that Cassell's could quote sixpence a fish. The treatment here leans French in construction: egg-and-crumbed fillets with a garnish of mushroom, shallot and parsley bound in brown sauce is close to a duxelles-flavoured sauce, and serving it apart in a tureen rather than over the fish has the practical effect of keeping the crust crisp. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, aimed at middle-class households, habitually gives the probable cost and the number of persons served, a reminder that these books were bought as much for budgeting as for technique.