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MUSSELS (a la Mariniere)
Cleanse thoroughly from grit two quarts of mussels, by scraping and washing them in several waters. Put them in a stewpan with a small sliced onion, a sprig or two of parsley, a salt-spoonful of pepper, and a quarter of a pint of white wine. Cover the pan and shake it over the fire. As the mussels open and are done, take them out one by one, and remove one of the shells from each. Put the fish in a deep dish in the oven to keep warm. Then strain the liquor, and rinse and wipe the stewpan. Melt in it an ounce of butter, add two shallots finely chopped, washed and squeezed in a cloth several times; fry these for three minutes, add one ounce of flour, and mix smoothly; add the liquor of the mussels. Boil for five minutes and skim; add a table-spoonful of finely-chopped parsley. Take the dish of mussels out of the oven, pour the sauce over them, and serve.
A workable moules marini"e8re with a velvet"e9 finish rather than the plain broth most cooks expect today. The instructions are sound; only the units and the shellfish handling need translating.
- Two quarts of musselsMussels were commonly sold by volume rather than by weight. Two quarts is somewhere in the region of 2 to 3 lb in the shell, enough for two as a main course or four as a starter.
- A quarter of a pint of wineIn an English book of this period a pint is 20 fl oz, so this is 5 fl oz "97 a generous half cup of dry white.
- Salt-spoonfulThe salt spoon was the smallest piece in the cruet set: about 1/4 teaspoon. Note that the recipe adds no salt at all, and rightly so "97 the mussel liquor is already saline, so taste the finished sauce before adding any.
- CleaningThe scraping and repeated changes of water matter far less with farmed rope-grown mussels, which arrive nearly grit-free. Pull off any beards, and discard any shell that is cracked or that stays open when tapped.
- The hinge: take them out as they openThis is the instruction to obey. Mussels open at different rates over a few minutes and toughen quickly once done, so lift each one out as it gapes rather than waiting for the last stragglers. Discard any that stay firmly shut after the rest have opened.
- Keeping them warmThe recipe names no temperature. A very low oven is all that is wanted; more heat and the mussels will tighten and weep while you make the sauce.
- Strain the liquor properlyPour it through a fine sieve or muslin, leaving the last spoonful behind "97 that is where any remaining sand settles. Rinsing and wiping the pan, as directed, is not fussiness for its own sake.
- Washing the shallotsChopped shallot squeezed in a cloth several times loses much of its raw bite. Skip it if you like a sharper sauce; it is not structural.
- StewpanAny wide saucepan or lidded saut"e9 pan with room for the mussels to move when shaken.
"c0 la marini"e8re means sailor-fashion, and the name is generally attached to the simplest treatment of mussels along the French and Belgian coasts: steamed open in wine with onion and parsley, eaten with their own liquor. The version given here looks like an anglicised one, in which that liquor is thickened with a butter-and-flour roux into a small white sauce "97 an addition often said to reflect a Victorian preference for dishes that did not arrive at table looking unfinished. Mussels were among the cheapest shellfish in nineteenth-century Britain, gathered from tidal beds and sold by the quart from barrows, which explains both the volume measure and the insistence on washing them through several waters. Their appearance in a dictionary of cookery under a French name reflects the period's habit of dressing humble ingredients in the vocabulary of the grand kitchen.