No. 1102

Striped Bass a la Conti

Bass Raye a la Conti

Lift the fillets of bass; suppress the skin and trim them into half inch thick slices, paring them into half-hearts, two inches by two and a half; season. Cut also from the fish small strips three inches long, and three-quarters of an inch wide, sloping the ends down to points; make five or six bias incisions through half their thickness and fill each one with a slice of very green pickled gherkin; lay these strips on the largest end of the fillet, shaping them like a horseshoe, and place the fillets in a buttered sautoir; moisten with a good white wine court-bouillon (No. 39), and cover over with a sheet of strong buttered paper; bring the liquid to a boil and finish cooking in a slow oven for ten to fifteen minutes. Dress and garnish with three-quarters of an inch ball-shaped potato croquettes (No. 2782), strain the broth and reduce it to the consistency of a glaze, finishing the sauce with a good sized piece of butter, stirring it in with a wire whisk, also the juice of a lemon and chopped parsley.

← No. 1101 Striped or Rock Bass a la Bercy Bass, Blackfish & Bluefish No. 1103 Striped Bass a la Laguipierre →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with numbered sub-recipes on hand, so the two cross-references do most of the hidden work. Read them as: a white-wine poaching liquid, and small fried potato balls.

The hinge: gentle heat, not a boilThe liquid is brought to a boil on the stove and then the fish finishes in the oven under buttered paper, which holds it at a bare simmer. Bass fillets half an inch thick are done at 130-135F internal; a rolling boil will squeeze them dry and split the decorative strips apart.
Slow oven"Slow oven" in this period is usually read as somewhere around 300-325F. Ten to fifteen minutes at that heat for half-inch slices is plausible, but check at eight minutes.
Court-bouillon No. 39A white-wine court-bouillon; the details sit in the cross-reference, but such a preparation typically runs to white wine and water with sliced onion, carrot, parsley stems, thyme, bay, a few peppercorns and salt, simmered and strained before use. "Moisten" suggests enough to come partway up the fish rather than submerge it, since the liquid becomes the sauce.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan. Any wide ovenproof skillet or sauteuse works. The buttered paper is a cartouche cut to the pan's diameter, butter side down on the fish.
Potato croquettes No. 2782Croquette potato of this period is generally dry riced potato bound with egg yolk and butter, here rolled into three-quarter-inch balls, breaded and deep fried. Small bought croquettes are a fair substitute; plain boiled potato balls are not, as the contrast of crisp against poached fish is the point.
The gherkin stripsUse firm, sharp cornichons rather than sweet pickles, sliced thin so they sit flush in the incisions. "Very green" presumably matters because faded gherkins lose the colour contrast the construction depends on.
Finishing the sauceReduce the strained broth to a syrupy glaze, then pull it off the heat before whisking in cold butter in pieces. If it goes above a simmer after the butter the emulsion breaks. Lemon and parsley go in last.
YieldUnstated, as usual in this book. Two half-heart slices plus one decorated strip per person makes a plated course; how many portions a 3 lb striped bass gives depends heavily on the trimming waste, which is considerable here.
Buying the fishWild striped bass is under size and season limits in most US states and is not always in markets. Farmed hybrid striped bass, black sea bass or any firm white fillet takes the treatment equally well.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the house style at its most decorative: a fillet pared into a half-heart, a second strip slashed and inlaid with green gherkin, then bent into a horseshoe and set on the plate. In classical French nomenclature the garnish names commemorate patrons and princes, and a la Conti is generally traced to the Princes de Conti, though the label was applied loosely enough by the nineteenth century that it signals little more than a particular kitchen's set piece. Striped bass gets a long run of consecutive numbers here because it was the great local fish of the New York market, taken in quantity from the Hudson and the Long Island shore. The inlaid pickle is a survival of an older ornamental tradition, closer to the carved and studded showpieces of Careme's generation than to anything a restaurant would send out today.