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Cod à La Garonne
2 slices cod. 1 garlic clove. 1 tablespoonful chopped capers. 3 boned and chopped anchovies. 1 heaping tablespoonful (1 oz.) butter. 4 tablespoonfuls olive oil 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley I heaping tablespoonful (I 1 tablespoonful chopped oz.) butter capers A few bread crumbs 3 boned and chopped an- Salt and paprika to taste chovies Rub a shallow fireproof dish with a cut clove of garlic, then lay in the fish and add the oil.
Bake in the oven, and when three parts cooked take out and sprinkle in the capers, anchovies, parsley, bread crumbs, salt, and paprika; divide the butter into tiny pieces, lay it on the top, and return it to the oven to brown and to finish cooking.
Serve hot in the casserole.
A simple baked cod in the Provençal manner: oil, garlic, capers and anchovy, finished with butter and crumbs. The whole method rests on not overcooking the fish, since it goes into the oven twice.
- Quantity of fishThe original gives no weight for the cod. The seasoning quantities listed suit about 1.5-2 lb of thick cod fillet or steaks, enough for four.
- "Fireproof dish" and "casserole"The recipe uses both terms for the same vessel: an ovenproof dish handsome enough to come to table. A shallow ceramic or cast-iron gratin dish is the modern equivalent.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is specified. Bake at 400F; cod at that heat needs roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness, so the first stage is only 6-8 minutes for a typical fillet.
- "Three parts cooked"Take it out while the centre is still translucent. The second spell in the oven, just long enough to brown the crumbs and butter, will finish it. Cooks aiming for moist cod often pull it at around 130-135F internal, though official food-safety guidance for fish is 145F; well beyond that it goes dry.
- AnchoviesSalt-packed or oil-packed fillets, boned and chopped, dissolve into the oil. Three fillets plus capers bring plenty of salt, so hold back on added salt until you taste.
- Butter measureA heaping tablespoonful reckoned at 1 oz is about 2 tablespoons by modern measure. Cut it into small flecks so it melts over the crumbs rather than pooling.
- The garlicOnly the cut clove rubbed round the dish, not chopped garlic in the sauce. It gives a background note; if you want more, add a crushed clove to the oil instead of increasing the rubbing.
- ServingThe recipe says to serve hot in the casserole, so bring it to the table as it is, with the oil and pan juices spooned over. Boiled potatoes or bread would suit it.
The name points to the Garonne, the river that runs through Bordeaux and joins the Dordogne to form the Gironde estuary, though the treatment -- olive oil, garlic, capers, anchovy, a crumb gratin -- belongs to the broader southwestern and Mediterranean French repertoire rather than to any single documented Bordelais dish. The bread-crumb-and-butter finish is a standard gratine device for keeping a lean white fish from drying while giving it colour.