Fish Cutlets
1 pint of cold cooked fish Yolks of two eggs ½ pint of cream or milk I large tablespoonful of butter 3 large tablespoonfuls of flour 1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley 1 teaspoonful of onion juice Salt and pepper to taste pieces, sprinkle with the 1 teaspoonful of lemon juice Pick the fish into small parsley, lemon and onion juice. Put the milk or cream in a double boiler. Rub the butter and flour to a smooth paste, and stir into the milk when boiling, stirring constantly until very thick. Take from the fire, add the yolks, fish, salt and pepper, mix, and turn out to cool. When cold form into cutlets. Dip first in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs, and fry in sufficient hot fat to cover. on a napkin garnished with cress and small button radishes.
A classic panada-bound fish croquette from the era when leftover boiled fish was a daily fact of life. The text has come through with the ingredient column and the method run together, so read the list first and the instructions second.
- The liquid quantity is suspectThree tablespoons of flour and a tablespoon of butter will not set 1½ pints of cream into anything you can shape. A half pint (1 cup) is the proportion that works for a stiff panada; treat the printed figure as a likely typesetting error rather than a target.
- The hinge: the paste must be genuinely stiffCook the roux-thickened milk until it pulls away from the sides of the pan in a mass. If it is merely thick it will slump on the board and the cutlets will burst in the fat. Chill the mixture thoroughly, at least two hours and preferably overnight.
- Adding the yolksOff the heat, as written. Stir them in briskly so they thicken the paste without scrambling. The cutlets are fried afterwards, so there is no raw-egg concern.
- Onion juiceA period shortcut for onion flavour without texture: grate an onion and press the pulp through a sieve, or use the flat of a knife on a halved onion. A teaspoon is about half a small onion.
- "Pint of cold cooked fish"A volume measure, not a weight: roughly 12 oz of flaked fish, packed loosely. Cod, haddock, hake or salmon all suit; pick out every bone and every scrap of skin while flaking.
- FryingFat deep enough to cover, at 350-375F. Below that the crumb coat soaks; above it the outside colours before the centre warms. Three to four minutes gives a deep gold. Chill the crumbed cutlets again for twenty minutes before they go in.
- The napkinFried food was served on a folded linen napkin to absorb fat. A rack over paper does the same job and keeps the crust crisp underneath.
- YieldAbout eight cutlets, serving four as a light main course with the cress and radishes, or six as a first course.
Fish cutlets belong to the great Victorian and Edwardian family of rechauffe dishes: cooked food, usually yesterday's, bound in a thick white sauce, shaped, crumbed and fried. The binding paste is a panada, and the same formula produced chicken croquettes and lobster cromesquis across many household manuals. Shaping the mixture into a flattened oval to imitate a chop or cutlet, sometimes with a scrap of macaroni stuck in one end to suggest the bone, dressed up leftovers for company.