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Baked Halibut with Lobster Sauce
Take a thick cut of halibut, let it lie in salted water for half an hour, then drain and dry it, and put it in the baking-pan with 2 slices of carrot, a slice of onion, and 1/2 a bay leaf. Pour over it a cupful of boiling water in which have been melted 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Bake for an hour, basting frequently. A piece of buttered writing paper laid in the bottom of the pan will prevent the fish from sticking and breaking in transferring it to the hot platter. By running a knife or spatula under the paper it can be raised and slid off from the pan, and the paper can then be withdrawn and the skin removed, leaving the fish in shape.
A straightforward oven-braise, written when halibut came to the kitchen in thick steaks cut across the whole fish. The one thing to change is the timing.
- An hour is far too longAn hour is longer than most modern cooks would want -- halibut is lean and dries out fast. A thick steak or centre-cut piece needs roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness at 400F. The long time in the original suits a very thick cut and an oven whose heat could not be regulated.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives no temperature, as was usual before regulated ovens. Bake at 375-400F; the water and butter in the pan keep the surface moist while the flesh sets.
- Buttered writing paperPlain paper served the purpose that baking parchment does now. Use baking parchment cut to the pan, buttered as directed. The lift-and-slide manoeuvre described at the end follows the original exactly.
- The salted-water soakHalf an hour in cold salted water is a light brine that firms the flesh and draws out blood near the bone. Use about 2 tablespoons salt to a quart of water, and dry the fish thoroughly afterwards or it will steam rather than colour.
- Basting liquidA cupful is 8 fl oz, with 2 tablespoons butter melted into it. Keep the pan liquid shallow so the fish roasts rather than poaches, and baste two or three times, not constantly, or the oven never recovers its heat.
- The lobster sauceThe recipe as printed stops at the fish. Period lobster sauces were typically a butter-and-flour roux loosened with milk or the strained pan liquid, seasoned with cayenne and lemon, with diced cooked lobster meat stirred in at the end and warmed through only.
- YieldA thick cut of about 2 lb serves four; buy it in one piece rather than as separate steaks so it holds its shape for the platter.