No. 1114

Blackfish a la Orly

Lift the fillets from a blackfish; remove the skin by laying the black side on a very level table or board; press down on the fish with the left hand, while with the right pass a knife between the skin and flesh. Divide the fillets into thin, lengthwise slices; marinate them in salt, sweet oil with minced onions, lemon juice, and tarragon leaves; two hours later drain them on a cloth, flour over, and dip in a good frying batter (No. 133); plunge them into hot fat, and cook slowly till a fine color, then drain, salt, and dress them on napkins with sliced lemon around; serve a tomato sauce (No. 549) separately.

← No. 1113 Striped Bass with White Wine—Baked Bass, Blackfish & Bluefish No. 1115 Blackfish a la Sanford →

For the Modern Kitchen

A straightforward marinate-batter-fry preparation, written for a cook who already has the book's batter and tomato sauce to hand. Two details in the original need translating: the oil and the frying temperature.

The hinge: dry the fishAfter two hours in oil and lemon juice the slices are slick, and batter will slide off them in the fat. The instruction to drain them on a cloth means blot them genuinely dry, then flour, then batter.
Sweet oilNineteenth-century American usage for edible olive oil, as opposed to lamp or machine oil. Use a plain olive oil rather than a strongly peppery finishing one, since it is only a marinade base.
"Cook slowly"This means do not let the fat run so hot that the batter colors before the fish is done, not that you should fry cool. The original gives no temperature; a moderate frying heat, around 350F, is a reasonable modern reading -- a drop of batter should sizzle and rise at once. Thin slices need only a few minutes.
BlackfishThe Atlantic tautog, still caught on the Northeast coast, mostly by recreational anglers, and not widely seen in general markets. Any firm, lean white fillet substitutes cleanly here -- striped bass, black sea bass, cod loin, halibut.
SkinningThe dark skin of a tautog is tough and clings. The described method u2014 pressing the fillet flat and running the knife between skin and flesh u2014 works best with the tail end toward you and a knife you have just sharpened.
The batterNo. 133 in The Epicurean is the book's frying batter, of the usual classical type: flour slackened with liquid and finished with whipped egg white. A modern tempura-style or beer batter behaves the same way; keep it thin enough to coat without hanging in ropes.
NapkinsFried fish was dressed on a folded linen napkin laid on the platter, to absorb fat and stop the pieces sitting in it. A wire rack or paper does the same job, but the napkin is period-correct and works.
YieldThe original gives none. One blackfish of 3-4 lb yields roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb of fillet, or three to four servings as a course with the sauce passed separately.

A Little History

c0 l'Orly (also written Orly or Orley) is one of the standard classical treatments for fish in the nineteenth-century French repertoire: fillets marinated in oil, lemon and herbs, floured, dipped in frying batter, deep-fried and sent out with tomato sauce apart. The name's origin is disputed u2014 it is often said to derive from a cook or a place-name rather than a person, and no documented eponym survives. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, wrote The Epicurean (1894) as a working reference of several thousand numbered items, which is why this entry cross-refers to a batter and a sauce instead of repeating them. Its appearance in a chapter of bass, blackfish and bluefish recipes reflects how thoroughly Delmonico's kitchen worked the local Atlantic catch through French technique: the tautog was a common market fish in New York then, cheap and firm-fleshed, and the Orly method suited it precisely because batter protects a lean fillet cut into thin slices.