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Haddock, Dried (Should be gradually warmed)
Dried haddock should be gradually warmed through either before or ove, a nice clear fire. Rub a little piece of butter over, just before sending it to table.
HADDOCK, DRIED.
A single-line breakfast instruction that has come through the scanner badly: the Hesperus quotation is a stray epigraph from the top of the page, and "and sew up the slit" belongs to a different entry (a stuffed fish or bird) further down the column. What survives is the whole method — warm dried haddock slowly, butter it, serve it.
- What "dried haddock" means hereNot a hard, board-stiff stockfish but the lightly salted and smoked haddock sold as finnan haddie, Arbroath smokie or simply smoked haddock. Buy undyed if you can; the bright yellow fillets are coloured, not more smoked.
- Gradual warming is the hingeThe whole point of the title. Cured haddock driven hard at a fierce heat contracts, weeps and turns stringy. Keep it well back from the heat and give it eight to twelve minutes, turning once.
- "Before or over a clear fire"Before the fire means propped facing the embers on a hook or toaster; over means on a gridiron. A grill set low, about 6 inches from the element, or a 325F oven does the same job.
- Cook it through, not just warmCold-smoked haddock is cured, not cooked. Take it to the point where the flesh is opaque and separates cleanly into flakes rather than stopping at "warmed".
- SaltVictorian cures were generally heavier than today's. If the fish tastes strongly salt raw at the thin edge, steep it in cold water or milk for 20-30 minutes and pat dry before it goes near the heat.
- The butterAdded at the very end, off the heat, so it melts rather than browns. About half an ounce for a good-sized fillet, with pepper; no salt.
- Yield and servingReckon 6 oz of fillet a head. Breakfast fare, with toast, a poached egg, or bread and butter.
Dried and smoked haddock was one of the staple breakfast fishes of nineteenth-century Britain, cheap, keepable and available far inland once the railways reached the east-coast ports. The most famous version takes its name from Findon in Aberdeenshire — Finnan haddie — traditionally said to have been cold-smoked over peat and hardwood; Arbroath, Grimsby and Yarmouth all had their own cures and their own reputations. The entry treats it as a thing everyone already knows how to buy, so it is only a note on handling: the fish arrives ready, and the cook's single duty is not to ruin it with too much heat. The Hesperus line stranded at the head of this entry is a printer's epigraph, and has nothing to do with haddock.