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Whiting, with Herbs
Take off the heads and tails, and lay the fish in a stewpan rubbed well with butter, with a handful of mixed herbs chopped fine. Sprinkle with melted butter and a glassful of white wine. When half-boiled, turn the fish; when done enough, take them out. Add to the sauce a piece of butter rolled in flour, let it thicken, and serve the fish upon it with the juice of a lemon.
A shallow butter-and-wine braise for a fish that cooks faster than most people expect. The whole thing is a matter of minutes on the stovetop.
- Stewpan means the hob, not the ovenA Victorian stewpan is a wide, shallow, lidded saucepan used over direct heat. A saute pan or shallow flameproof casserole with a lid does the same job.
- A glassful of wineA wineglass in this period is reckoned at about 2 fl oz (a quarter of a cup), not a modern 6 oz pour. With that little liquid the fish is half-braised, half-steamed, which is the point.
- Timing is the hingeWhiting fillets are done in 3 to 4 minutes, small whole fish in 6 to 8. "Half-boiled" means turning once, halfway; the flesh should just separate from the bone and still look moist. Held longer it collapses into cotton wool.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manie: equal weights of soft butter and flour kneaded together, dropped into the simmering pan liquid in small pieces and swirled until it thickens. Roughly 2 teaspoons of each is enough for the pan juices from four fish.
- Mixed herbsIn this period "mixed herbs" for fish usually centred on fresh parsley, with some combination of thyme, marjoram, savory, and in more French-influenced kitchens chervil, tarragon or a little green onion; the mix was not fixed. "Chopped fine" points to fresh herbs rather than a dried blend, which is a coarser thing here.
- If you cannot get whitingNorth Sea whiting is scarce at many counters. Hake, small pollock or haddock fillets behave the same way; anything thicker than about an inch changes the timing.
- Lemon at the endAdd the juice off the heat, after the sauce has thickened, which is where the recipe puts it. Held over the flame, acid can slacken a flour-thickened butter sauce a little and make it look less glossy.
- YieldAllow one whole whiting or one good fillet per person as a light main course, or two each if the fish are small. The recipe's plural ('turn the fish ... take them out') implies several fish to a pan but does not say what size.
Whiting was through much of the nineteenth century one of the cheaper and more plentiful fish on British slabs, and was often recommended for invalids and children because its flesh is soft, lean and mild. Cooks who found it bland dressed it accordingly: butter, chopped green herbs, a splash of white wine and a final thickening with flour-worked butter is an English kitchen version of French practice, of the kind Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery carried to middle-class households, and the beurre manie finish is still taught in the same form. Whiting were also often sold and cooked "curled", skinned with the tail fixed through the eye socket; here the heads and tails simply come off, which suggests the plainer fishmonger's preparation rather than the fancy one.