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Turbot, Broiled, with Caper Sauce
Take a small fish emptied and washed, make an incision in the back down to the bone; then wipe it quite dry; next lay it in a dish to steep in salt, pepper, and sweet oil; put in very little oil, as it requires only sufficient to prevent it from drying. Half an hour, or even three-quarters of an hour, before dinner-time, broil the fish over a slow fire on both sides, and serve up with caper sauce made as in the preceding recipe.
A plain grilled flatfish that stands or falls on two things: not overcooking it, and having the caper sauce ready at the same moment. The Victorian instruction is mostly about timing the fish to the dinner hour rather than the cooking itself.
- "Half an hour before dinner-time""Half an hour, or even three-quarters of an hour, before dinner-time" -- that is when to begin, not how long to cook. A small turbot of 1.5-2 lb takes roughly 6-8 minutes a side; cook until the flesh is opaque and lifts cleanly from the bone.
- "A small fish"Whole turbot in a domestic kitchen means chicken turbot, about 1.5-3 lb, serving two to four. Anything larger will not cook through on a grill before the outside dries.
- SubstitutionsWild turbot is expensive and often scarce; farmed turbot, brill, halibut steaks or a whole Dover sole all behave the same way under the same treatment. Brill is the closest in texture and a fraction of the price.
- The incision in the backThe original calls for a single cut down to the backbone on the dark side. Scoring lets heat reach the thickest part so the thin edges are not leather by the time the centre is done.
- "Broil over a slow fire"A moderate charcoal fire or a gas grill at medium, with the fish 4-5 inches from the heat. Under a modern overhead broiler, use the second shelf down rather than the top, and turn once. Fierce heat scorches the oiled skin before the middle sets.
- The steepingSalt, pepper and a bare film of oil; the original gives no steeping time, so half an hour to an hour, chilled, is a safe modern choice. The oil is there to stop the flesh drying, not to marinate; more of it only causes flare-ups over coals.
- Drying the fishWipe it genuinely dry before oiling. Surface water steams rather than browns and makes the skin stick to the bars.
- Caper sauceThe preceding recipe is not reproduced here, but the standard Victorian version was melted butter thickened with a little flour, slackened with the caper vinegar and finished with a spoonful of capers, served hot but never boiled hard once the butter is in. A modern beurre blanc or plain browned butter with capers and lemon does the same job.
Turbot was a grand fish of the nineteenth-century British table, often ranked among the finest and cooked whole in a diamond-shaped turbot kettle made for nothing else. Grilling a small one was the economical alternative to boiling a large one, and the caper sauce is the same sauce Victorian cooks poured over boiled mutton: melted butter sharpened with the pickling vinegar. Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery, generally associated with middle-class households running a single cook, is full of these paired entries, one dish leaning on the sauce of the one before it to save space and repetition.