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Perch, Grilled
Split the perch down the back, and remove the bone. Lay the fish in salted water for ten minutes, then dry thoroughly, and grill over a clear fire from eight to ten minutes. Lay it on a hot dish, pepper finely, pour a little oiled butter over, then strew half a dozen chopped and boned anchovies over; close up, and serve very hot. Garnish with fried parsley.
A short, direct grilled-fish recipe that depends almost entirely on the fire and on drying the fish properly. Two of its instructions read oddly to modern eyes but are straightforward once translated.
- "A clear fire" means no flamesCharcoal or wood burned down to glowing embers with no smoke and no flare-up, so the skin colours without tasting of soot. A gas or charcoal grill at high heat, or an oven broiler with the fish 3-4 inches from the element, does the same work.
- "Oiled butter" is melted butterNineteenth-century books use "oiled" for butter melted until it separates and looks clear rather than creamy. Clarified butter is closer still to what is wanted, since the milk solids in plain melted butter will settle on the hot dish.
- "Close up"Having split and boned the perch, you fold the two halves back together over the butter and anchovies so the seasoning steams inside the fish for the minute or two before serving. It is not a garnish laid on top.
- Timing depends on sizeEight to ten minutes suits a butterflied perch of roughly half a pound, turned once. A thin fillet-thickness fish will be done in five or six; go by flesh that has just turned opaque at the thickest part rather than the clock.
- The ten minutes in salted waterA brief brine firms the flesh and seasons it lightly. It is not a substitute for drying: wet skin steams and sticks to the bars, so blot the fish thoroughly, inside and out, before it goes near the heat.
- AnchoviesThe recipe assumes whole salt-packed anchovies, which needed boning and were generally saltier than modern oil-packed fillets. Note that half a dozen whole anchovies corresponds to about twelve modern fillets; six chopped fillets will be enough for one fish. Rinse them if they are very salty, and taste before adding more pepper.
- Handling perchPerch have sharp dorsal spines and tenacious scales. Scale before splitting, or skin the fish entirely, and trim the spiny fin with scissors before it goes on the grill.
- Fried parsleyDry sprigs dropped into hot fat for a few seconds until they stop sputtering and turn brilliant dark green, then drained on paper. Wet parsley will spit violently, so dry it well first.
- YieldThe recipe is written for a single fish and appears to serve one as a course; it scales directly, one fish per person.
Perch was still a common British freshwater catch at the time rather than a fishmonger's rarity, and freshwater fish generally arrived at the kitchen whole and very fresh from a local angler. The treatment is a typical Victorian grill for a small firm-fleshed fish: brine briefly, dry, grill over embers, and dress with melted butter and something salt and savoury. The anchovy is doing the work that a sauce would elsewhere, a habit that runs through nineteenth-century English fish cookery, where anchovy butter, anchovy essence and anchovy sauce were common. Fried parsley was a widespread garnish for grilled and fried fish in the period.