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Whiting, Paupiettes Of
Fillet three or four full-sized whiting. Trim the fillets, season with pepper and salt, and spread upon each a little whiting forcemeat (see WHITING FORCEMEAT). Roll them round, tie securely with twine, and wrap them in strips of oiled paper. Put them in the oven, and bake until done enough. Remove the paper, place the paupiettes upright on a dish, put upon the top of each a turned mushroom or a bunch of parsley, pour a little lobster sauce round them, and serve. Time to bake the paupiettes, about half an hour. Probable cost, 4d. to 8d. each. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A straightforward stuffed-fillet dish that needs only two adjustments: a real oven temperature and a much shorter bake. Half an hour will leave whiting dry and cottony.
- Bake timeRolled whiting fillets with a thin layer of forcemeat are cooked through in 12-18 minutes at 350F, or when the centre of the roll reaches 145F. The book's half hour reflects a coal range whose interior heat could not be measured.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given because the range had none. Treat this as a moderate oven, 350F. Anything hotter will set the outside before the forcemeat heats through.
- WhitingEuropean whiting (Merlangius merlangus) is a small, lean, very delicate cod relative, sold in the US as "whiting" but often meaning hake or silver hake instead. Any mild flatfish or thin white fillet - sole, flounder, hake, haddock - rolls and behaves the same way.
- Oiled paperButtered parchment, cut into strips or rectangles, does exactly the job intended: it holds the roll's shape and keeps the surface from drying. Foil works but browns nothing and can taste metallic against fish.
- TyingKitchen twine, not sewing thread, and one loop is enough. A cocktail stick pushed through the roll is easier and lets the paupiette stand upright on the dish as directed.
- The forcemeatThe cross-reference is to a fish forcemeat, of the kind usually made from pounded whiting bound with breadcrumb, butter and egg. A modern food processor puree of a few ounces of raw white fish with an egg white and a little cream gives the same result; keep it cold and spread it thin, no more than a quarter inch, or the outside overcooks waiting for the centre.
- Turned mushroom"Turned" means a button mushroom cap pared in shallow spiral flutes with a small knife, then cooked white in butter, lemon and water. Purely decorative; a plain sautéed cap or the parsley alternative loses nothing.
- Lobster sauceExpect a white or butter-based sauce enriched with lobster coral or lobster butter and chopped lobster meat; check the book's own entry. A shellfish-stock cream sauce, or a bisque-based one, sits in the same place on the plate.
- Yield and costThree or four whiting yield six to eight fillets, so allow one or two paupiettes a head; the original claims five or six servings. The "probable cost, 4d. to 8d. each" is Victorian pence and useful only as a signal that this counted as an inexpensive entree.
Paupiette is French for a thin slice of meat or fish spread with stuffing and rolled - the same idea as a beef roulade or an Italian involtino. Whiting itself was the cheap, ubiquitous fish of the Victorian coast, landed in enormous quantity by North Sea trawlers and railed inland daily; being lean and bland it took kindly to forcemeat and a rich sauce, which is precisely the logic of this recipe. Cassell's here takes a restaurant form, in this case a garnished entrée that would otherwise call for sole, and rebuilds it on the least expensive white fish at market so that a household with one servant could serve something that looked like a course from a French menu. The upright presentation with a turned mushroom on top belongs to the same borrowed vocabulary.