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Mullet, Stewed
Make a sauce as follows. Put together in a stewpan three glassfuls of hock and sherry wine mixed, the former to be two-thirds of the quantity given. Slice thinly a small carrot and turnip, also half a small lemon; add a bay-leaf, a blade of mace, and a bunch of thyme and parsley. Lay in the fish, and stew gently over a slow fire. Strain the gravy, thicken with butter rolled in flour, season with salt and pepper, and serve the fish on a hot dish, with the sauce poured over. Time, twenty to thirty minutes to stew. Probable cost, 1s. to 2s. each. Sufficient, three fish for this sauce.
A wine court-bouillon that becomes the sauce, in the classic Victorian manner. The whole thing hinges on keeping the liquid at a bare shiver rather than a boil.
- Which mulletAt this price point in a British book of the period, this is almost certainly red mullet — small, firm and sold whole. Grey mullet works but is softer and coarser; either way use whole fish or thick fillets, since thin fillets will fall apart in the wine.
- "Three glassfuls"Genuinely ambiguous: a Victorian wineglassful is usually reckoned at 2 fl oz but is sometimes given as a quarter pint. That puts the total anywhere from about 6 to 15 fl oz. Judge by the pan instead — you want the liquid to come about halfway up the fish.
- HockHock is Rhine white wine, so a dry or off-dry Riesling is the direct substitute. Two-thirds hock to one-third sherry; use a dry amontillado or fino rather than a sweet cream sherry.
- A slow fireKeep the pan at 180–190F, with barely a tremble on the surface. A rolling boil drives off the wine's aromatics and toughens the flesh, and the vegetables never get the chance to give up their flavour.
- TimingTwenty to thirty minutes suits whole fish of half a pound or more, turned or basted once. Smaller mullet or fillets are done in 8 to 12 minutes — the flesh should just part from the bone at about 130–135F at the thickest point.
- Blade of maceA blade of mace is the dried outer casing of the nutmeg, sold whole in strips. If you only have ground, use a scant pinch and add it to the finished sauce, not the stewing liquid.
- The lemonHalf a lemon sliced with the pith on will turn bitter over a long simmer. Slice thin, and lift the slices out with the vegetables before you reduce and thicken.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié: equal weights of soft butter and flour worked to a paste, then whisked into the strained, simmering gravy in small pieces. Start with about a tablespoon of each for a pint of liquid and let it cook a minute or two so the flour loses its rawness.
- YieldThe recipe says the sauce is sufficient for three fish, which in practice means about three servings if each diner takes a whole fish.
Hock — the English name for Rhine wine, generally traced to the town of Hochheim am Main — was a fixture of the Victorian cellar, and a bottle open at table found its way into the kitchen as readily as into the glass. Red mullet had a particular standing in nineteenth-century English cookery: it was expensive, it kept its shape when cooked, and it was often prepared with the liver left in, which earned it the occasional nickname of the woodcock of the sea. Stewing a whole fish in wine with root vegetables, bay, mace and herbs, then straining the liquor and binding it with kneaded butter, is a straight domestic reading of French practice — the fish poaches in what will become its own sauce, so nothing is thrown away. Cassell's price note of one to two shillings a fish is a reminder that this was a dish for a household with a cook, not a thrifty supper.