Home › Fish › Stuffing for Fish
Stuffing for Fish
RACKER STUFFING, No. 1-Mix thoroughly one cup cracker crumbs, a saltspoon of salt, the same of pepper, a teaspoon each of chopped onions, parsley, capers and pickles, and one-fourth of a cup of melted butter. This makes a dry, crumbly stuffing.
CRACKER STUFFING, No. 2-One cup of cracker crumbs; twothirds cup of water or milk; one teaspoon of salt; one-fourth teaspoon of pepper; one teaspoon of chopped parsley; one teaspoon of chopped onion; one tablespoon of capers; two tablespoons of butter; one tablespoon of lemon juice. Rub the butter into the cracker crumbs, add all the seasoning, and then stir in the water or milk.
STALE BREAD STUFFING, No. I-For a moist stuffing use stale bread crumbs, not dried, and moisten them with an egg slightly beaten and sufficient melted butter to make of the proper consistency. STALE BREAD STUFFING, No. 2-One and one-half cup of grated bread crumbs; one-half cup of milk; one tablespoon of chopped onion; one tablespoon of butter; one teaspoon of salt; one-fourth teaspoon of pepper. Add the seasoning and butter to the crumbs, and beat in the milk last.
Four stuffings for a whole baked or planked fish, ranging from dry and crumbly to soft and bound. All are mixed cold and go into the cavity just before the fish goes into the oven.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. Cracker Stuffing No. 1 therefore carries about 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, which is modest for a cup of crumbs; taste and adjust, especially if the crackers are already salted.
- Cracker crumbsThe crackers meant here are most likely plain soda or oyster crackers, rolled fine — not graham, not seasoned. Modern saltines work; taste before adding the full quantity of salt, since the crackers themselves are salted.
- "Grated" bread crumbsStale Bread Stuffing No. 2 calls for grated crumbs, made by rubbing a day-old loaf on a grater: fine, soft, slightly damp. Dried packaged crumbs absorb far more liquid and will give a pasty result; use torn day-old bread pulsed briefly in a food processor.
- Not dried, and whyThe instruction in Stale Bread No. 1 to use stale but not dried bread matters: thoroughly dried crumbs soak up more liquid and firm up, while barely stale ones stay soft in the cavity.
- Quantity and yieldEach of these makes roughly a cup to a cup and a half of stuffing — enough for one medium whole fish. Pack loosely; stuffing that is tamped in will not heat through.
- Capers and picklesBoth come in vinegar brine. Drain and chop them, and hold back the lemon juice in No. 2 until you have tasted, or the stuffing may turn sharp against a delicate fish.
- Cooking the stuffed fishA stuffed whole fish takes noticeably longer than an empty one. Bake at 400F and check that the thickest part of the flesh reads 145F and the stuffing at the center is hot through, not merely warm.
- BindingOnly Stale Bread No. 1 uses egg. If you want the others to hold together for slicing, an egg can be beaten in without changing anything else; without it, expect the stuffing to be served spooned rather than cut.
Stuffings of this kind belonged to the era of the whole baked fish, when a 4 lb bluefish, shad or haddock came to the table intact on a plank or long platter and the stuffing was there as much to hold the shape and stretch the dish as to season it. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns, issued its cook book with four variants here rather than one authoritative recipe. Cracker crumbs were often used in place of bread crumbs, being cheap, shelf-stable and easy to keep on hand, and the capers and chopped pickles suggest a taste for an acid note to cut richness.