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WHITING (aux Fines Herbes)
Clean and skin the fish, and fasten it with its tail in its mouth. Place it on a dish, season with pepper and salt, and sprinkle over it a tea-spoonful of mixed sweet herbs in powder. Lay little pieces of butter here and there thickly upon it, cover with another dish, and bake in a moderately-heated oven till done enough. Turn it once or twice that it may be equally cooked, and serve with the sauce poured over it. Time to bake the fish, twenty to thirty minutes. Probable cost, 4d. to 8d. each. Sufficient, one whiting for each person.
A plain baked fish that depends almost entirely on not overcooking it. The Victorian timing is the one thing to disregard.
- TimingTwenty to thirty minutes will reduce a whole whiting to cotton wool. A fish of about 8-10 oz needs 12-15 minutes, and it is done when the flesh parts cleanly from the backbone at the thickest point.
- Moderately-heated ovenRead this as 350-375F. The two dishes clamped together act as a covered baker, so the fish steams in its own juices as much as it bakes; a lidded gratin dish or a dish sealed with foil does the same job.
- Tail in the mouthThe whiting is curled and the tail tucked through the jaws, or skewered in place with a cocktail stick. It is presentation rather than technique, and the fish cooks perfectly well laid straight.
- SkinningWhiting skin is thin and comes away readily once nicked at the tail, but a fishmonger will gut, skin and curl the fish on request. The skin can equally be left on for baking, which helps hold the flesh together.
- Mixed sweet herbs in powderA dried blend along the lines of parsley, thyme, marjoram and a little savoury, ground fine. Any dried mixed herbs will serve; a teaspoon is on the generous side for one small fish, so use a scant one.
- The sauceThe recipe names no sauce, though its wording ('the sauce') suggests one given elsewhere in the book. The buttered juices from the covered dish will serve: tip them into a small pan, add a squeeze of lemon and a knob of cold butter, and swirl off the heat before pouring over.
- If whiting is scarceIt is now uncommon on many fish counters. Small hake, pollock, haddock fillet or a pair of lemon sole fillets take the same treatment, though a thick fillet will want a couple of minutes more.
- YieldOne fish per person, as the original says. The cost note of 4d. to 8d. dates the book rather than the dish.
Whiting was an everyday cheap white fish of the Victorian table, landed in quantity around the British coast and priced accordingly, which is why Cassell's can quote it at a few pence a head and treat it as a dish for any night of the week. The curled presentation, tail fixed in the mouth, was a familiar nineteenth-century way of serving whiting, most often the fried version, which is known in French cookery as merlan en colère, the angry whiting, from the way the arched fish appears to be biting itself. Aux fines herbes here signals only the sprinkling of powdered sweet herbs and butter rather than the classic French chopped-herb mixture, an example of how English cookery books of the period borrowed French dish names loosely to lend a plain preparation a little polish.