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Halibut Timbale
I 1/2 lbs. fresh halibut 5 egg whites 1 teaspoonful salt 1 tablespoonful chopped pars- A few grains red pepper ley 1 gill (1/2 cup) whipping cream Put the fish through a meat-chopper, add to it the parsley, salt, red pepper, whipped cream, and the whites of eggs stiffly beaten.
Mix carefully and turn into a well-buttered earthenware mold, cover, and steam steadily for half an hour. Serve with egg sauce.
I lobster
A classic steamed fish mousseline, lightened with beaten egg whites rather than bound with panade. It stands or falls on keeping everything cold and not overcooking it.
- Ingredients as listed1 1/2 lb fresh halibut, 5 egg whites, 1 teaspoon salt, a few grains red pepper (cayenne), 1 tablespoon chopped parsley, and 1 gill of whipping cream. A gill is half a cup.
- Keep it coldThe hinge of the dish. Chill the fish, bowl and cream thoroughly; a warm mixture will weep liquid in the mold and set coarse. Modern practice is to grind the fish, then fold in the whipped cream and the stiffly beaten whites at the last moment and steam immediately.
- Meat-chopperA hand-cranked grinder. A food processor does the work in short pulses, but stop as soon as the fish is a smooth paste — over-processing warms it and breaks the emulsion.
- The moldA buttered earthenware or ceramic dish, covered with a lid or buttered parchment and foil to keep condensation off the surface. Fill it no more than three-quarters full; the whites give noticeable lift.
- Steaming and donenessHalf an hour suits a mold of about 1 quart set over gently simmering water. Judge by feel rather than clock: the center should be just set and springy, and an instant-read thermometer should show about 145F. Pushed further, the mixture turns dry and grainy.
- Red pepperCayenne, used as seasoning rather than heat. A few grains means a pinch — perhaps 1/8 teaspoon.
- Egg sauceA white sauce with chopped hard-boiled egg stirred through, the standard nineteenth-century accompaniment to boiled and steamed fish. A hollandaise or a lemon-butter sauce serves the same purpose.
- YieldProbably four to six as a first course, or four as a light main with the sauce and a vegetable. The five leftover yolks can go into mayonnaise or custard.
Timbales take their name from the French timbale, a drum-shaped mold, and by the late nineteenth century the word covered any forcemeat or mousseline steamed in such a vessel. Fish timbales were a fixture of genteel American and English cooking of the period, prized because they were considered light and digestible, and party cookery overlapped a good deal in these books. Halibut suited the job well: firm, lean, and white. A covered earthenware mold set in a steamer let a household turn out a delicate dish without a professional bain-marie or a great deal of attention.