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Croûtes of Bread (Mince up the fish)
Mince up the fish and the gherkins, put them into a stewpan with the butter, pepper and salt, mix well together. When quite hot put a little heap of this mixture on the croûtes; sprinkle the tops of some with very finely chopped parsley and others with coral rubbed through a sieve, the yolk of egg rubbed through a sieve and the white of egg chopped finely; decorate with these three colours, green, yellow, and coral alternately.
A savoury built on fried or toasted bread, of the sort served at the end of a Victorian dinner. The original assumes the cook already has the fish, the butter and the bread to hand, so quantities have to be judged.
- CroûtesRounds or fingers of stale bread, either fried in clarified butter until crisp or dried out in a low oven. The recipe assumes them already made. They need to be crisp enough to stay so under a hot, buttery mixture; soft toast will go limp.
- What fishProbably cooked leftovers, since the recipe assumes fish already to hand. Anything already cooked and firm will do; oily smoked fish will overpower the gherkin. No quantities are given: about 6 oz of picked fish to 2 oz of gherkins is a workable starting proportion.
- CoralThe roe of a hen lobster, which turns bright red when cooked. It is dried gently, then pressed through a fine sieve to a powder. Lobster roe is rarely sold separately now; sieved cooked crab roe, or paprika-tinted sieved egg yolk, gives the colour if not the flavour.
- Sieved eggHard-boil the eggs fully and cool them, then rub the yolk through a fine sieve and chop the white finely, as the recipe directs — the yolk gives the yellow, the white a fourth tone if you want it. Sieved yolk of this kind is what is often called a mimosa garnish.
- Heating the mixtureWarm the minced fish through in the butter over low heat only. Fish that has already been cooked once will go dry and stringy if it is allowed to bubble, and the mixture should be moist enough to hold its little heap on the bread.
- Assemble at the last momentThe garnishes are dry powders and lose their definition on a hot, damp surface. Pipe or spoon the mixture on, then scatter the three colours in alternating groups across the dish so the tray reads as a pattern.
- Yield and serviceOne or two croûtes per person, handed hot at the close of a meal or with drinks. The recipe gives no quantities, so the yield depends entirely on how much fish is to hand.
This belongs to the savoury, the short course that came after the sweet at a formal British dinner in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — anchovy on toast, devilled kidneys, cheese straws, and small hot bread bases like these. Croûte is simply the French for crust, used for a crisp fried bread foundation. The dish is also a study in thrift dressed as elegance: the fish is cooked leftovers, the gherkin is from the store cupboard, and the whole effect rests on the sieved garnishes. Coral, the roe of a hen lobster, was a standard colouring in Victorian and Edwardian kitchens, dried and sieved or pounded into butter, and its near-disappearance from home cooking reflects how lobster is now bought — picked, portioned and without its roe.