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Plaice, Broiled
Next to frying this is the best way to treat plaice. Should the fish be inconveniently large, divide it, and broil the pieces by twos and threes. The fish can be cut up into squares by division along the backbone, and then transversed.
Cassell's gives the method in outline only, assuming the cook already knows how a flatfish behaves under direct heat. The gaps worth filling are the fat, the heat and the timing.
- "Broiled" means grilledIn a British book of this date broiling is cooking over or under direct radiant heat — originally a gridiron over coals, today the overhead grill or a ridged pan. It is not the American oven-broil-only sense, though a hot grill element does the same job.
- Fat is assumed, not statedPlaice is very lean and will stick and tear without help. Brush both sides with melted butter or oil and season before it goes near the heat, and oil the grid or rack as well.
- Heat and timeA fierce heat, close to the fish: a fillet needs about 3 minutes a side, a small whole plaice 4-5 minutes a side. Cook until the flesh parts from the backbone and is opaque throughout; further time only dries it.
- Handle it oncePlaice flesh is soft and breaks easily. Turn with a wide fish slice, once, and lift onto the dish rather than sliding it.
- The cutting instructionDividing along the backbone and then across gives squares of fairly even depth, which will cook at a similar rate. The recipe itself, however, gives the reason as the fish being inconveniently large.
- Skin on, dark side firstThe recipe says nothing about skin; leaving it on will help hold the fish together. It is usual to start with the dark side to the heat so the paler side finishes uppermost on the dish.
- ServingOne small whole plaice or two fillets per person. Anchovy butter, maître d'hôtel butter or simply lemon and browned butter are the period-appropriate accompaniments, and all of them suit the mildness of the fish.
Plaice was one of the cheapest flatfish landed on the English coast through the nineteenth century, which is why Cassell's treats it briskly rather than reverently: it appears here as everyday household fish, ranked second to frying. Broiling on a gridiron over coals was the older domestic method for fish; the recipe has the pieces broiled in batches of two or three. The advice to divide along the backbone and then across is the standard flatfish butchery still taught today, and the preference for frying over grilling is a fair judgement on a fish whose low fat content punishes dry heat.