Crimped Fish
Soak slices of any firm white fresh fish in very strong salted water. Then put them into boiling salted water enough to cover, to which has been added two tablespoons of vinegar, boil ten minutes. Drain, arrange on a platter; remove the skin and bones. Serve hot with any good sauce, or cold with mayonnaise dressing or tartar sauce.
Crimping is a nineteenth-century technique for firming the flesh of very fresh fish before poaching. The method works, but the timings assume thick steaks cut from a large fish rather than thin fillets.
- What "crimped" meansThe brine soak draws water from the surface of the flesh and firms it, so the slices hold their shape and take on a slightly springy texture. It only does anything worthwhile on very fresh, thick-cut fish; a thin supermarket fillet will simply cure and turn salty.
- The brine, quantified"Very strong salted water" suggests a saturated or near-saturated brine, on the order of 1 cup of salt per quart of cold water. The original gives no soaking time; twenty to thirty minutes should be ample for steaks an inch or more thick, and a long soak risks oversalting.
- Cut the boiling timeTen minutes at a rolling boil overcooks most fish and shakes the slices apart. Bring the water to the boil, slide the fish in, and drop it to a bare shiver at around 180F; thick steaks are done in six to eight minutes, thinner ones in three or four, when the flesh flakes at the bone.
- Salt the poaching water lightlyThe fish has already absorbed salt in the brine, so use a modest hand in the cooking water rather than matching the strength of the soak.
- The vinegarTwo tablespoons of cider or white wine vinegar in the poaching liquid helps the proteins set and keeps the flesh white. Malt vinegar works but colours the surface.
- Choosing the fish"Any firm white fresh fish" would cover the usual steaking fish such as cod, haddock or halibut, cut across the bone. Halibut and cod steaks still suit the method; skip flounder, sole and other thin flatfish.
- Skin and bonesRemoving them while the fish is hot is far easier than after it cools, but let the slices sit a minute so they firm enough to handle without collapsing.
- YieldFigure one 6 to 8 oz steak per person. Serve hot with drawn butter, egg sauce or hollandaise; cold, the firmed texture is the point, and mayonnaise or tartare is the traditional partner.
Crimping was a fishmonger's trade practice before it was a cook's: in British ports, fish such as cod and salmon were scored deeply to the bone and plunged into cold water, which contracted the flesh into the firm, curdy texture prized at market. Beeton and other nineteenth-century writers describe the practice, and it was understood to depend on very fresh fish. Here the trade skill has been reduced to a domestic shortcut — a brine soak instead of the scoring knife — and the instruction to serve the fish cold with mayonnaise points toward the cold supper table rather than the fishmonger's slab.