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Halibut, Fried
Cut some fillets from a halibut, dry them thoroughly, then egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in boiling fat for six or seven minutes. Dish up in the form of a circle with crisp parsley in the centre. Garnish with a cut lemon and capsicums, and serve with a piquant sauce. (See PIQUANT SAUCE.)
A plain crumbed fry that lives or dies on the fat being hot enough and the fish not being overcooked. Halibut is lean and turns dry and chalky faster than cod or haddock.
- "Boiling fat"This means deep fat at frying heat, not fat literally boiling; something in the region of 350-375F. Beef dripping or lard would have been common frying media, and a neutral oil behaves the same way.
- TimingSix or seven minutes suits thick fillets cut from a large halibut, an inch or more deep. Thin fillets need three to four minutes, and modern practice pulls halibut at about 130-135F at the centre, when it just flakes and is still faintly translucent.
- Dry them thoroughlyThe instruction is the hinge. Halibut holds surface water, and wet fish sheds its crumb coat into the fat. Pat dry, then dust with seasoned flour before the egg so the coating grips.
- Egg and bread-crumbFine dry white crumbs, not fresh, and not panko unless you want a coarser finish. Press the crumbs on and let the coated fillets rest ten minutes so the coating sets.
- Crisp parsleyFried parsley: dry sprigs dropped into the same fat for a few seconds until they stop hissing, then drained. It scorches quickly, so give it only moments, and do it after the fish.
- CapsicumsIn Victorian British cookery a capsicum garnish of this kind usually means pickled red capsicums or chillies, used whole for colour. Strips of roasted red pepper give the same effect with less heat.
- Piquant saucePiquant sauce of this period is generally a brown sauce sharpened with vinegar, shallot and chopped gherkin or capers. Any sharp brown or caper sauce serves; tartare is the modern default and is not wrong here.
- YieldAllow about 6 oz of fillet per person, less if the fish is one course among several. The recipe gives no quantities.
Halibut was the largest flatfish on the British market and, being sold in thick steaks and fillets cut from fish that could run to a hundredweight, it was treated more like a joint of meat than like sole or plaice. Perhaps because the flesh is inclined to dryness, many recipes for it either wrap it in sauce or, as here, seal it in egg and crumbs before frying. The presentation — a ring of fillets round a mound of fried parsley, lemon and pickled capsicums for colour — when a fish course was often expected to arrive as a composed centrepiece on a platter rather than plated individually in the kitchen.