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Boiled Halibut
Put about two pounds of halibut into a saucepan and cover it with fresh water, add one sliced onion, half a sliced carrot and a garnished bouquet, season with one handful of salt and pour over two tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Place the lid on and cook gently for about five minutes after coming to the boiling point, then remove the fish, drain well, dress it on a hot dish and serve with anchovy butter spread all over.
A plain court-bouillon poach, of the kind that ran constantly on a hotel range. Two details in the original need translating before it works at home.
- Never let it boil"Cook gently" is the hinge. The liquid should sit at a bare tremble, around 175-180F; a rolling boil shreds halibut's large flakes and squeezes out moisture. Note that the original starts the fish in the cold seasoned water and times it from the moment it comes to the boil, so pull the heat back to a shiver as soon as it boils.
- Garnished bouquetThis is bouquet garni: parsley stems, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string, sometimes with a leek leaf wrapped round. Tie it so you can lift it out whole.
- That handful of saltA cook's handful is perhaps a quarter to a third of a cup, which sounds alarming, though heavily salted poaching liquid was not unusual and the fish is in it for minutes, not hours, so it absorbs little. If you are nervous, use about 1 tablespoon per quart of water, which seasons the flesh without turning it into brine.
- The five minutesCorrect for a thin cut, short for the thick center steaks usually sold now. Count on 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness at a bare simmer, and check with a thermometer: many cooks pull halibut at 130-135F at the center, when the flesh just parts from the bone, though food-safety guidance for fish is 145F, which is the figure to use if you are cooking for anyone vulnerable.
- The vinegarTwo tablespoons in a saucepan of water firms the surface protein and keeps the flesh white. Plain white wine vinegar or cider vinegar; the acidity is not meant to be tasted in the finished dish.
- Anchovy butterNot a product you will find easily. Mash 4-6 oil-packed anchovy fillets into 4 oz softened unsalted butter with a squeeze of lemon, then chill. It should be spread on the hot fish at the table so it melts rather than being cooked.
- DrainingLift the fish on a skimmer or a plate, not with a fork, and let it drain a full minute on a folded towel. Water pooling under it will thin the butter into a puddle.
- YieldTwo pounds of halibut serves four as a main course, three generously. Boiled potatoes are a natural accompaniment.
Anchovy butter was a fixture of Anglo-American hotel cookery of the period, prized because it added salt and color to pale boiled fish without the labor of a mounted sauce. The preparation is of the neutral, repeatable kind that suited a large hotel kitchen: fish poached in a salted, acidulated vegetable broth and then dressed with a compound butter, so that one pot of court bouillon could serve many different orders. The unmeasured "handful of salt" suggests a text set down by a professional for readers assumed to measure by hand.