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Baked Blue Fish
1 tablespoon green ginger 1 slice onion 1 teaspoon chopped parsley 1 cup bread crumbs 1 tablespoon curry powder 2 green peppers, chopped fine 2 tablespoons melted shortening Dredge large blue fish with salt and pepper. Stuff fish with dressing made from ingredients above and bake in hot oven, allowing 10 minutes to pound, basting frequently with melted shortening and hot water. Serve with garnish of lemon and parsley. Allow 1/2 lb. to each serving.
A whole stuffed bluefish, seasoned in the curry-and-ginger style that ran through American cookbooks between the wars. The dressing is loose and dry as written, and the baking time is generous by current standards.
- Hot ovenRead this as roughly 400-450F. At that heat a whole fish browns before it dries out, which is the point of the frequent basting.
- Ten minutes to the poundFor a 4 lb fish that is about 40 minutes, which will overshoot. Modern practice is roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest point, and the fish is done when the flesh flakes and reaches 145F at the backbone.
- Green gingerFresh ginger root, not ground. A tablespoon means it grated or minced fine; dried ground ginger is not a substitute at that quantity.
- ShorteningIn this period usually vegetable shortening or lard. Butter or a neutral oil works, and butter gives a better basting liquid mixed with the hot water.
- Bread crumbsProbably dry crumbs, though the recipe does not specify. The stuffing has no egg or stock to bind it, so it stays crumbly; a few tablespoons of the basting liquid worked in before stuffing keeps it from turning to sand.
- DredgeHere it simply means sprinkling the fish with salt and pepper, not coating it in flour.
- Stuffing temperatureCavity stuffing lags behind the fish. Pack it loosely and check that the centre of the dressing is hot through, or bake the dressing alongside in a small dish.
- Buying the fishBluefish is oily and turns strong-tasting fast. Buy it very fresh, and trim away the dark red bloodline along the fillet if you dislike the assertive flavour.
- YieldAt the stated half-pound per person, a 3 lb fish serves six with the head and bones counted in. The stuffing quantity suits a fish of about 3 to 4 lb.