Home › Chafing-Dish Dainties › Moulded Halibut with Creamed Peas (Two chafing-dishes will be)
Moulded Halibut with Creamed Peas (Two chafing-dishes will be)
Two chafing-dishes will be requisite for preparing this delicious luncheon dish. Have ready one pound of raw halibut chopped very fine; beat the yolk of an egg, add to it one teaspoonful and a fourth of salt, one-fourth a teaspoonful of white pepper and a few grains of cayenne or paprica. Blend a teaspoonful of cornstarch with a little milk; then add milk to make twothirds a cup, stir gradually into the egg and seasonings, and then very slowly into the fish. Lastly, fold into the mixture one-third a cup of thick cream, beaten until stiff. Butter dariole moulds thoroughly, arrange a circle of cooked peas around the bottom of each mould, and fill with the fish preparation two-thirds full. Set into the blazer, surrounded with boiling water; after the water is again boiling, turn down the flame so that the water will barely quiver, and let cook about twenty minutes. Prepare, in the mean time, in the second blazer, creamed peas. Turn the fish from the moulds and surround with the
A fish mousseline set in individual moulds, written for the chafing dish because that was the fashionable luncheon apparatus of the period. Everything about it translates to a saucepan and a low oven or stovetop water bath.
- The hinge: keep the water below a simmerOnce the water returns to a boil the flame is turned down so it "barely quiver[s]" — around 180F. A rolling boil drives the egg and cream mixture past setting into a grainy, weeping curd, and the moulds will not turn out cleanly.
- Blazer and chafing dishThe blazer is the shallow upper pan of a chafing dish, sitting over a spirit flame. Any wide, deep skillet or sauté pan of water on a low burner does the same job, or use a roasting pan of hot water in a 325F oven.
- Dariole mouldsSmall tinned moulds, usually cylindrical and slightly tapered, of roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup capacity. Ramekins, timbale moulds or 4-oz custard cups substitute directly; butter them heavily.
- Chopping the halibut"Chopped very fine" means a paste. A food processor does in thirty seconds what the original cook did by hand — pulse the cold fish alone first, then work in the egg and milk mixture, keeping everything chilled so the cream does not break out.
- DonenessTwenty minutes is right for moulds of this size, but judge by feel: the centre should be just firm and spring back, about 145F. Overcooked fish mousseline turns spongy and squeezes out liquid.
- The peasCooked peas are pressed into the buttered mould before filling, so they show as a ring when turned out. Use small peas, thoroughly drained and patted dry, or the moisture loosens them from the butter.
- Creamed peasNo proportions are given because the book assumes them: a light white sauce of about a tablespoon each of butter and flour to a cup of milk, seasoned, with a cup or so of cooked peas stirred through and kept just hot.
- The truncated endingThe text breaks off mid-sentence; the fish is turned out of the moulds and surrounded with the creamed peas. Serve immediately, as the mousseline stiffens and dulls as it cools.
Chafing-dish cookery had a genuine vogue in American households around 1900: the spirit lamp let a hostess cook at the table without a kitchen or a servant, and whole books were devoted to what could be managed in a blazer. This dish is essentially a French mousseline of fish — raw flesh pounded with egg, bound and lightened with cream, then set gently in a bain-marie in dariole moulds — adapted from the restaurant repertoire to two portable burners. Halibut suits such preparations because it is lean, firm and white, taking a smooth paste without the oiliness of salmon or mackerel.