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Baked Fresh Codfish with Cheese Sauce
Lay a square or oblong of fish in salt water for half an hour; wipe dry, and rub well with lemon juice and butter.
Put a cupful of strained veal stock, or weak gravy, in the bottom of the baking-pan under the grating. Do not let it touch the fish. Lay the fish on the grating, salt and pepper it, cover, and bake, allowing ten minutes to a pound. Take from the oven; sift dry fine crumbs over it, and place small pieces of butter on these. Return to the oven, uncovered, and let it brown while you strain the gravy from the pan. Thicken the gravy with butter rolled in flour, season with the juice of a lemon, a little onion juice, and 4 tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese. Boil one minute, pour a little over the fish, and the rest into the gravy-boat.
A straightforward baked cod finished with a lemon-and-Parmesan pan sauce. The whole method depends on the fish sitting above the liquid rather than in it, so it roasts in steam without stewing.
- The gratingOld roasting pans came with a removable trivet or perforated insert. A wire cooling rack that fits inside a roasting pan, or a small V-rack, does the same job. The point is that the cupful of stock steams the fish from below and never touches it.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, in the region of 375F, suits a covered pan, and ten minutes per pound at that heat is about right for a thick centre-cut piece. Judge it by the flesh just parting; if you want to be sure of it, standard modern guidance for fish is 145F internal.
- Ten minutes to a poundThis is generous for modern taste on thin fillets, which will overcook well before the clock runs out. Use it only for a thick block or a bone-in section two inches deep, and go by feel with anything thinner.
- The salt-water soakHalf an hour in salt water is a light brine that firms the flesh and seasons it. The recipe gives no proportion; a tablespoon of salt to a quart of cold water is a workable light brine. Wipe dry properly or the butter and lemon will not adhere.
- Veal stockStrained veal stock was a standard pantry item in this period. A light chicken stock, or a fish fumet, stands in without changing the character; avoid anything dark or heavily reduced.
- Onion juiceGrate a piece of onion on a fine rasp and press out the liquid, or press a cut onion against a fine grater. A teaspoon is plenty for this quantity of sauce.
- ThickeningButter rolled in flour is beurre manié: equal weights of soft butter and flour kneaded together, dropped into the simmering gravy in small lumps. Add the Parmesan off the heat or at a bare simmer; the recipe's one-minute boil is the outer limit before the cheese goes grainy.
- CrumbsDry fine crumbs means stale bread crumbs dried in the oven, not fresh soft ones, which will go soggy in the steam. The uncovered return to the oven is only long enough to colour them, four or five minutes.
- YieldA two-pound piece of cod serves four with the sauce passed separately.