No. 1095

Black Bass a la Narragansett

Bass Noir a la Narragansett

Cut the bass through its entire length in two; suppress the fillet skin and remove the back bone; divide each fillet in two lengthwise pieces, then into slices, half an inch thick; have twelve of these paring them all into half-hearts; range them in a well buttered sautoir, one beside the other, moistening to their height with a mirepoix stock (No. 419). Cover over with a sheet of buttered paper, and set this into a slow oven to cook, then transfer the fillets on a dish, and strain the broth over the fillets; when cold remove them entirely from what now should be a jelly; reduce some veloute sauce (No. 415) with this jelly and mushroom essence (No. 392); when reduced quite thick, add chopped mushrooms and fine herbs and set it aside to get partially cold; cover the entire fillets with this, leave them until perfectly cold, then pare nicely and dip in beaten eggs, roll in bread crumbs and fry to a fine color in clarified butter; dress crown shaped on a folded napkin with fried parsley in the center and quartered lemon around. Serve a separate sauce-boat of the following sauce: Chop up one shallot, fry it in butter, add to it twelve small finely minced clams without any liquor, and moisten with a pint of unsalted bechamel (No. 409). Season to taste; when ready to serve thicken with egg-yolks and cream, incorporating a good sized piece of fresh butter, lemon juice and chopped parsley.

← No. 1094 Angel Fish a la Bahama Bass, Blackfish & Bluefish No. 1096 Black Bass Aiguillettes with Oyster Crabs →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a sauce Villeroi treatment under another name: poached bass fillets masked in a stiff reduced velouté, chilled solid, breaded and fried. Nearly all the work is in the chilling, and everything depends on it.

The hinge: chill twice, and chill hardThe coating must be thick enough to set like cold custard and the coated pieces must be refrigerated until completely firm, ideally several hours. If the velouté is even slightly loose, it will blow out of the crumb coating in the pan.
Cross-references you have to supplyMirepoix stock (No. 419) is a stock cooked with diced carrot, onion, celery, ham and herbs; veloute (No. 415) is a blond roux sauce built on white stock; mushroom essence (No. 392) is the strained, reduced liquor from cooking mushrooms; bechamel (No. 409) is the milk-based sauce. Any competent modern versions of these will serve.
Slow ovenThe book gives no temperatures; something in the region of 300F suits. The fillets are being gently poached in shallow liquid under buttered paper, not roasted; they should just set through, only a few minutes for half-inch slices.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan. A wide skillet or small roasting pan works, so long as the twelve pieces sit in a single layer touching one another.
"Suppress the fillet skin"Period cookbook English, a literal rendering of the French supprimer: remove the skin. "Pare into half-hearts" means trim each slice to a rounded wedge; since the dish is dressed crown shaped, the twelve pieces stand evenly in a ring.
The jellyA good fish stock reduced with the poaching liquid gels on chilling from natural gelatine. Modern stocks are often weaker; if yours does not set, reduce it further before beating it into the velouté rather than adding gelatine.
Clarified butterUse it, not whole butter: the milk solids scorch long before the crumb coating colours. Shallow-fry at around 350F, turning once.
The clam sauceTwelve small clams probably means hard-shell littlenecks or similar, minced. Once the egg yolks and cream go in, hold the sauce below a simmer or it will curdle. Keep the bechamel unsalted as directed and season at the end, as the recipe says, bearing in mind what the clams and the finishing lemon contribute.
YieldTwelve pieces, from a bass of unstated size; twelve slices will serve about four as a first course. Fried parsley must be very dry before it meets the fat.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire written out at enormous length, each dish cross-referenced to the stocks and sauces in the earlier chapters. Black bass was a prestige fish on American menus of the period, taken from northern lakes and rivers as well as the coast, and the book gives it in several guises. The Narragansett name points to Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and, plausibly, to the clams in the accompanying sauce. The method itself -- the fillets masked in a stiff sauce, set cold, crumbed and fried -- is the treatment usually called Villeroi, traditionally associated with eighteenth-century French cookery and still taught in the same form today.