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Hake and Potatoes
Hake, which is not one of the most delicate fish, can be made excellent if stewed in the following sauce: A quart of milk to which you have added a dessertspoonful of any of the good English sauces; thicken it with a knob of butter rolled in flour, which stir in till all is smooth. When it boils take off the fire, and put in your pieces of hake, set it back by the side of the fire to keep very hot, without boiling, for twenty-five minutes. Meanwhile mash some potatoes, and put it as a puree round a dish, pour the fish in the center, sprinkle on it chopped parsley. The liquor ought to be much reduced.
A plain milk-poached fish supper written for a coal range, where a pan set at the side of the fire holds steady heat for a long time. On a modern hob the method needs a little translation, and the sauce needs building before the fish goes in.
- The hinge: heat without boilingThe milk must never return to a boil once the hake is in, or the flakes tighten and the sauce curdles. Hold it at a bare 160-180F on the lowest burner or in a 200F oven, covered.
- Twenty-five minutes is a range-side timingThick hake steaks in liquid held at that temperature are done in 8-12 minutes, at 145F in the thickest part. The original assumes heat that falls away steadily; a modern pan does not, so check early rather than trusting the clock.
- "Good English sauces"Bottled table sauces of the period: Worcestershire, Harvey's sauce, mushroom ketchup, anchovy essence. Worcestershire or anchovy essence is the closest thing on a current shelf. A dessertspoonful is two teaspoons.
- A knob of butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié. For a quart of milk, about 3 tablespoons butter kneaded with 3 tablespoons flour, whisked in bit by bit, will give a sauce that coats; "a knob" is undefined and may well give something thinner.
- "The liquor ought to be much reduced"It will not reduce while the fish sits below a simmer. Reduce the milk sauce first, before the hake goes in, or lift the cooked fish out at the end and boil the sauce down on its own.
- Quantities and yieldNo weight of fish is given. A quart of sauce suits about 2 lb of hake, serving four, with 2 lb of potatoes for the purée piped or spooned round the dish.
- The fish itselfThe recipe opens by calling hake "not one of the most delicate" fish, without saying why; it is softer and wetter in texture than cod. Cut it into thick portions rather than thin fillets so it holds together in the milk, and skin it after cooking if you prefer.
The Belgian Cook Book was compiled in Britain in 1915 from recipes collected among Belgian refugees who had fled the German invasion, and its proceeds went to relief work. Something of that double setting may show here: fish stewed in milk with mashed potato banked round the dish, but seasoned from a bottle of one of the "good English sauces" the recipe calls for. Hake was a cheap fish in British kitchens of the period, and the recipe's opening admission that it is "not one of the most delicate" suits the book's frugal, wartime tone: make the plain fish good rather than buy a better one.