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Devilled Halibut
Pick either cold cooked halibut or cod into small pieces with a silver fork. Make a forcemeat of bread crumbs, the yolks of 2 eggs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, seasoned with salt, paprika, a teaspoonful of onion juice, and 1 of minced parsley. Mix this with the fish, add enough oyster liquor to make quite moist, and fill scallop-shells with the mixture. Cover with fine crumbs, pepper and salt them, place a small piece of butter on each, and bake until light brown.
A late-Victorian way of using up leftover boiled fish, baked in shells as an individual first course. The original assumes you know how much crumb to add, so judge by feel: the mixture should hold together but stay loose, never pasty.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Bake at 375-400F for 15-20 minutes, until the crumb topping is light brown and the centre is hot through. The fish is already cooked, so you are only heating and browning.
- Crumb quantity is unstatedThe forcemeat has no measured bread crumbs. For about 1 lb of picked fish, start with 3/4 cup of soft crumbs and add more only if the mixture will not hold on a spoon.
- Oyster liquorThe strained liquid from shucked oysters. Bottled clam juice or a light fish stock stands in; use it sparingly, a tablespoon at a time, since salt fish plus salted crumbs can quickly go over.
- Onion juiceGrate a peeled onion on the fine side of a box grater and press the pulp through a sieve. A teaspoon takes roughly a quarter of a medium onion.
- The silver forkSilver is usually explained as a guard against the metallic taint carbon steel of the period could leave on food. Stainless steel does not react in the same way; any fork will do, but flake by hand or fork rather than chopping, or the texture turns to paste.
- Scallop shellsDeep scallop shells were a common serving dish for this sort of thing. Shallow ramekins, small gratin dishes, or ovenproof shells stand in; reckon on roughly 1/2 to 3/4 cup each.
- "Devilled" here is mildThe heat comes only from paprika and pepper. If you want the sharper devil of the period, a teaspoon of made mustard or a few drops of Worcestershire in the forcemeat is in keeping.
- YieldAbout 1 lb of cooked fish fills four to six shells, enough for four as a first course.
Devilling meant seasoning something sharply with mustard, cayenne or pepper, a usage current in English cookery by the early nineteenth century and applied to all manner of reheated food: kidneys, bones, crab, and cold fish. Baking a mixture in scallop shells was a common genteel presentation for such made-over dishes, and shells were sold as kitchen equipment. Recipes like this one earned their place in household compilations because halibut and cod were often bought in large pieces and boiled, leaving substantial cold remains that a cook was expected to bring back to the table looking like a new dish rather than a leftover. The oyster liquor is a period marker as well: oysters were cheap and commonly to hand, and their liquid was often used as a ready fish stock rather than poured away.