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Halibut Maitre d'Hotel
Cut 3 lbs. halibut steak into three-inch squares, wipe with damp cloth and dry thoroughly. Dip in flour, egg and sifted bread or cracker crumbs, fry in deep hot fat till rich brown in color. Drain on soft paper, season well, and serve with Maitre d'Hotel Butter.
A straightforward deep-fried halibut with a compound butter. The recipe assumes you know how to make maitre d'hotel butter and how to judge fat temperature by eye; both are worth pinning down.
- Fat temperature"Deep hot fat" for breaded fish means 350-375F. Below that the crumbs absorb oil before they set; above it they brown before three-inch pieces of halibut are cooked through.
- Maitre d'hotel butterNot given here; it was a common enough preparation that many period books assume it: butter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, chilled and sliced onto the hot fish. As a modern working proportion for this quantity, roughly 4 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon parsley and 2 teaspoons lemon juice.
- Drying the fishThe instruction to wipe and dry thoroughly is the hinge. Wet halibut sheds its breading in the fat, and the surface water drops the oil temperature sharply.
- DonenessThree-inch squares of steak will take roughly 4-6 minutes in fat around 365F, depending on thickness. The fish should flake readily; modern guidance is 145F at the center, though many cooks pull lean fish earlier, as halibut turns dry and cottony if held longer.
- Breading orderFlour, then beaten egg, then crumbs. The flour is what the egg grips; skipping it is the usual reason a coating slides off in one sheet.
- CrumbsSifted bread or cracker crumbs means fine and even, not the coarse panko texture now common. Sifting breaks up lumps and holds back the coarse pieces that would scorch in the fat.
- Draining"Soft paper" is paper towel or a brown paper bag. A wire rack keeps the underside from steaming.
- YieldThree pounds of steak serves six generously as a main course. Season the fish immediately out of the fat, while the surface is still absorbent.
Maitre d'hotel butter is one of the French compound butters that passed into American home cooking in the nineteenth century, and by the time this book was compiled it was familiar enough to need no recipe of its own on the page. The name refers to the maitre d'hotel, the steward or head of household staff, and the preparation is simply butter, parsley and lemon that could be cut in coins and dropped on almost anything grilled or fried. Halibut suited the treatment: a firm-fleshed North Atlantic and Pacific fish sold in thick steaks, sturdy enough to survive breading and deep fat without collapsing.