Turbot Fillets
Select a medium-sized turbot with firm, yellowish-white flesh. Wash well in salted water, and soak in strongly salted water for thirty minutes. Wash off again in clear, cold water, and wipe dry. Take off the skin, and cut the fish in two the whole length. Take out the bone, and remove the entrails; wash out the inside, and cut each part into 2 or 3 fillets.
Rub with melted butter, dust with salt and pepper, and saute or broil over hot coals or under a gas flame until a rich brown. Serve with maitre d'hotel or parsley butter, or cucumber sauce. Garnish with cress.
A plain broiled flatfish, written for a cook expected to buy the whole fish and take it apart. The salting step is the part most likely to be misread as optional.
- Buy it whole or don't bother with the soakThe instructions assume an undressed turbot, skin and entrails intact. If you start from ready-cut fillets, skip straight to the butter, seasoning and broiling; the brining step below appears to be aimed at a whole fish rather than at trimmed pieces.
- What the salt soak doesThirty minutes in heavily salted water firms the flesh and whitens it slightly. On modern fillets, more than about 15 minutes in strong brine begins to season the fish through and draw out moisture, so keep it brief or omit it.
- Turbot and its substitutesTrue turbot is a European flatfish, much of it now farmed and expensive; a medium fish here means roughly 3-5 lb. Brill, halibut and large flounder or fluke all behave much the same way under a broiler. The "yellowish-white flesh" is the creamy tint period books looked for when choosing the fish.
- Cutting it in two the whole lengthLay the fish dark side up and cut down the center line to the backbone, then work the knife outward over the ribs to lift each side free. Two sides from a 4 lb fish give four to six portion fillets.
- Heat and timingBroil close to a hot element or over a well-burned-down charcoal fire. Fillets of about 1 inch need roughly 4 minutes a side, less if thinner; the fish is done when it is opaque to the center and the flakes just separate. "Rich brown" is easy to overshoot, and overcooked turbot turns dry and cottony.
- Under a gas flameThis means the broiler of a gas range, with the flame above the fish. A modern broiler on high, with the pan 3-4 inches from the element, is the equivalent.
- The saucesMaitre d'hotel butter is softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, sliced cold onto the hot fish. Parsley butter is often the same thing, sometimes made without the lemon. Cucumber sauce of the period is usually grated, drained cucumber folded into whipped cream or a light white sauce with vinegar.
- CressWatercress or garden cress, laid alongside rather than chopped. Its pepperiness plays against the lemon in the butter.
- YieldA 4 lb whole turbot serves four generously. Allow about 6 oz of trimmed fillet per person.