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Haddock, Fricasseed
Split a fresh haddock open, bone it, and season the inside with pepper and salt and the juice of a lemon. Put it in a fire-proof baking dish with a few lumps of butter on top of the fish, then cover with a greased paper. Bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes, lay it on a dish; thicken the liquor that flowed from it, then stir in a table-spoonful of essence of anchovies, and pour it over the dish. Garnish with little heaps of picked shrimps and chopped hard-boiled white of egg. Probable cost, from 6d.
A plain baked haddock dressed up with an anchovy sauce; the only real technique is not overcooking the fish and building a quick sauce from what it releases.
- "Fricasseed" here is a misnomerA true fricassee is meat cut up and stewed in a white sauce. Nothing is stewed: the fish bakes, and the sauce is made afterwards from the pan liquor.
- Moderate ovenUsually read today as somewhere around 350F (175C), though the book gives no temperature. Twenty minutes suits a whole split haddock; thinner fillets will be done in 10-12 minutes, by which point the flesh should be just set and still moist.
- Splitting and boningThe fish is opened flat like a kipper, backbone removed, and cooked skin-down in one piece. A fishmonger will do this on request; otherwise two thick fillets laid side by side give the same result.
- Greased paperButtered parchment laid directly on the fish, not a sealed foil tent. It keeps the surface from drying while still letting the liquor concentrate in the dish.
- Essence of anchoviesA Victorian bottled condiment of anchovy, salt and spice, close to modern anchovy paste or Gentleman's Relish. A teaspoon of anchovy paste thinned with a little of the hot liquor is the nearest substitute; add it off the heat and taste before salting, since it is already very salty and the fish was seasoned at the start.
- Thickening the liquorA whole haddock gives only a few tablespoons of liquid. Whisk it into a small roux made from a teaspoon each of butter and flour, or add a splash of cream and reduce it, rather than trying to thicken so little liquid on its own.
- Picked shrimpsBrown shrimps, boiled and peeled, sold potted or frozen. Small cooked cold-water prawns work; they are a garnish and should not be reheated in the sauce.
- Yield and costA split haddock of this kind will serve two to three with potatoes. The "from 6d." marks it as an inexpensive dish.
Haddock was the workhorse of the British fish counter through the nineteenth century, landed in quantity on the North Sea coast and cheap enough that Cassell's could quote a whole dish at from sixpence. The anchovy finish is the giveaway period detail: bottled anchovy essence was a standard store-cupboard item in Victorian kitchens, used much as Worcestershire sauce is now, to give body and savour to bland white fish and pale sauces. Garnishing with picked shrimps and chopped egg white belongs to the same era's taste for making a plain baked fish look like a composed dish, applied to thoroughly English ingredients.