Baked Bluefish
Clean and scrape the fish, split down the back, and remove the backbone, which can be done with a boning knife. Score the skin without cutting into the flesh, making five or six incisions. Run the sharp point of the knife under the skin sufficiently to insert a thin slice of sweet salt pork. Make a stuffing of 1 cup bread crumbs, 2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter or finely chopped salt pork, a teaspoonful of chopped onion, the same of chopped parsley, a saltspoonful of salt, a dash of cayenne and a half teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, and a spoonful of tomato catsup. Mix well and, if too dry, add a tablespoonful of hot water. Fill the fish and sew up the opening. If a richer and more moist dressing is desired, add a well-beaten egg without any water.
Lay 2 or 3 slices of pork under the fish to prevent its sticking to the pan, and baste several times with the fat while baking. When cooked and well-browned lift, without breaking, to the hot platter, and garnish with sliced lemon and watercress.
A whole boned and stuffed bluefish, in the style common in American fish cookery around 1900. The original gives neither oven temperature nor baking time, so both need supplying.
- Oven and timingThe recipe gives neither, so both are modern suggestions: bake at 400F, and expect roughly 30-40 minutes for a 3-4 lb split fish. Measure at the thickest stuffed part and pull it at 135-140F, when the flesh just flakes. Bluefish is an oily fish and goes dry and cottony if held longer.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. Period spoon measures were not standardised, so the tablespoonfuls here may not correspond exactly to a modern 15 ml spoon.
- Kitchen bouquetA dark browning-and-seasoning liquid, still sold under that name. It contributes colour and a vegetable-caramel savour; a teaspoon of soy sauce or a dash of Worcestershire stands in acceptably.
- Sweet salt pork'Sweet' here most likely means fresh-tasting, not rancid, rather than sugared. Salt pork varies a good deal in saltiness, so taste it; rinse and pat it dry if it is very salty, and consider holding back part of the added salt in the stuffing.
- Boning the fishAsk the fishmonger to split it down the back and remove the backbone, leaving the belly intact so it forms a pocket. The recipe scores the skin and then separately runs the knife point under it to admit the pork slices.
- Stuffing quantityOne cup of crumbs suits a fish of about 3 lb. Dry crumbs handle better than soft fresh bread, which can pack into paste; the recipe offers the egg version for a richer and moister dressing, and it will also help the stuffing hold together when you lift the fish.
- Sewing and liftingKitchen twine and a trussing needle work, but two or three skewers laced with twine are quicker to remove. Slide two long spatulas under the fish to move it, or bake it on parchment with overhanging edges and use those as slings.
- YieldA 3-4 lb bluefish prepared this way serves four.