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Plaice, Stewed
Take two or three moderate-sized plaice, cut them into pieces about as wide as the length of a finger, sprinkle a little salt over them, and wrap them in a cloth for twenty minutes. Slice a moderate-sized onion, and fry it in a little hot fat until it is quite tender. Put it into a stewpan, lay the pieces of plaice on the top of it, and add the juice of five or six lemons, a wine-glassful of water, and a quarter of an ounce of ground ginger. Simmer gently for twenty minutes, and be careful not to let the liquid reach the boiling point. Lift the fish out, and place it on a hot dish. Let the sauce cool, stir gradually into it three well-beaten eggs, and keep stirring over the fire until it begins to thicken, but it must not boil. Pour it over the fish, and serve hot. Garnish with slices of lemon. Time, altogether, about three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, according to the number of the fish, the price of which, when plentiful, would be 6d. or 8d. each. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A flatfish stewed in lemon juice and finished with an egg-lemon sauce. The whole dish turns on heat control: the liquid must never boil, either during the stewing or when the eggs go in.
- The hinge: no boilingThree beaten eggs stirred into hot lemon liquid will curdle the moment it reaches a simmer. Let the cooking liquid cool to warm, whisk it into the eggs a ladleful at a time, then return the mixture to low heat and stir until it coats a spoon at around 175-180F. A bowl over barely simmering water gives you more margin than direct heat.
- Wine-glassfulAbout 2 fl oz, a scant quarter cup. Victorian wine glasses were small.
- Juice of five or six lemonsLemons of the period were probably smaller than today's. Start with about 3/4 cup of juice and taste; the sauce should be sharp but not raw with acid, since there is very little water to soften it.
- A quarter ounce of ground gingerRoughly 7 g, or a rounded tablespoon. That is a great deal of dried ginger for three or four portions and it was meant to be tasted. Two teaspoons reads as assertive to a modern palate; the full amount is authentic but bracing.
- Cooking timeTwenty minutes suits thick pieces cut across the bone, as the recipe intends. Boneless plaice or flounder fillets are done in five to eight minutes at a bare tremble; longer and they fall to threads.
- The fishPlaice is sold whole or filleted; flounder, dab, sole or any thin flatfish works. The recipe cuts the fish across into pieces about as wide as the length of a finger, which leaves bone in each piece; that holds the flesh together in the stew and is worth doing if you do not mind picking at table.
- Salting in a clothThe twenty minutes under salt firms the flesh and draws off surface water, which helps thin fillets hold their shape. Pat dry before it goes into the pan.
- ServingServes three or four with bread or plain potatoes. The sauce sets to a soft, savoury custard as it cools; the recipe directs that it be served hot.
Fish stewed in lemon and thickened with egg belongs to a family of dishes often associated with Anglo-Jewish cookery, said to carry the mark of Sephardi kitchens by way of the Netherlands and Portugal; the pairing of lemon juice with dried ginger, and the habit of serving such fish cold, are sometimes taken as signs of that tradition, and the same egg-and-lemon binding appears in Greek and Turkish cooking as avgolemono. Cassell's does not label it, and sets it down as a plain English recipe. The costing is the giveaway to its place in the book -- plaice at sixpence or eightpence a fish, when plentiful, was among the cheapest of the flatfish, and this is a recipe designed to make a thrifty fish taste like something considered.