Baked Fish
Prepare as for "Broiled fish." Brush pan with drippings; place fish, skin side down; dust with salt, pepper and flour; pour over 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1/2 cup milk. Bake in hot oven 20 to 25 minutes or until brown. Remove to hot platter, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.
A bare-bones method that assumes you have already read the broiling entry a few pages back: a whole fish split down the back, or a thick fillet, cleaned and dried. The milk-and-butter bath is the whole point, so do not skip it.
- "Prepare as for broiled fish"The cross-referenced entry is not reproduced here, but a fish prepared for broiling would be a small whole fish split open, or a thick fillet, cleaned and dried. A fish of a pound or so, or thick fillets, would suit the timing given; the recipe itself specifies no size.
- Hot ovenPeriod usage for a "hot oven" runs roughly 400-450F; the recipe gives no figure. At the upper end the milk reduces and browns rather than merely steaming the fish.
- DrippingsUnspecified saved fat from bacon or a roast. Bacon fat is the closest modern match; butter or a neutral oil works, though it browns the pan less.
- TimingTwenty to twenty-five minutes suits a thick split fish. Modern fillets are often 3/4 inch or less and will be done in 10 to 12 minutes -- go by opacity and a flake that separates cleanly, not the clock.
- The flourDusted on top, it thickens the milk into a thin coating sauce as the fish bakes. Use a light, even dusting; a heavy one turns pasty.
- Skin side downKeeps the flesh off the hot metal and lets the skin take the direct heat, which is what stops the fish sticking and tearing when you lift it.
- BastingSpoon the pan liquid over the fish once or twice. Nothing in the original says to, but at this heat the half cup of milk cooks down quickly and the surface can dry out.
- YieldThe recipe states none; a fish of around a pound to a pound and a half would give two or three servings. Pour any remaining pan liquid over the platter before the parsley.
The New Royal Cook Book was published by the Royal Baking Powder Company, one of the great American promotional cookbooks handed out or sold cheaply to sell leavening; the fish chapter is there simply because a general household book was expected to cover the whole week's cooking. The style of the entry -- "prepare as for Broiled fish" -- is characteristic of the period's compressed, chain-referenced recipe writing, where a single preparation is described once and then cross-referenced through later dishes. Baking fish in milk with a dusting of flour was common in American and British kitchens well before this book: the milk and flour reduce to a light sauce, which is why so many nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fish recipes call for it in place of the stock or wine an equivalent French recipe would use.