No. 1117

Bluefish a la Barnave

Select very small bluefish weighing half a pound; clean, wash, and wipe them dry. Fill the insides with a pike quenelle forcemeat (No. 90), into which has been mixed a quarter of the same quantity of cooked fine herbs (No. 385). Range the fish on a buttered baking dish, sprinkle over some butter and cook in a moderate oven; when done dress them on a mushroom puree (No. 722), and serve a separate barnave sauce (No. 431), at the same time as the fish.

← No. 1116 Blackfish a la Villaret Bass, Blackfish & Bluefish No. 1118 Bluefish, Havanese Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade: four of the six components are cross-references to other numbered recipes. Assemble those first and the dish itself takes twenty minutes.

What you actually have to makeA pike quenelle forcemeat (No. 90), cooked fines herbes (No. 385), a mushroom puree (No. 722) and barnave sauce (No. 431). Only the stuffing and baking are described here; without the four referenced preparations there is no dish. Read them through before starting.
"Very small bluefish"Half-pound whole fish are what the East Coast calls snapper blues, the summer juveniles. A fishmonger can gut and scale them; the fish are stuffed and dressed whole, so you may want the heads left on for presentation, though Ranhofer does not say either way. If only large bluefish are available the recipe does not scale honestly, since the dish is built around one stuffed fish.
Bluefish must be very freshIt is an oily, fast-spoiling fish with a strong dark lateral strip. Buy it the day you cook it, and trim the dark line if you want the flavour Ranhofer's diners would have accepted as delicate.
Moderate ovenConventionally read today as roughly 325-350F, though Ranhofer gives no temperature. Small stuffed fish need roughly 15 to 20 minutes; the flesh should just flake at the backbone and a thermometer in the forcemeat should read at least 145F, since the quenelle mixture contains raw fish and egg.
The forcemeat proportion"A quarter of the same quantity" of fines herbes means one part cooked herbs to four parts quenelle, measured against the forcemeat and not against the weight of the fish; Ranhofer does not say whether by weight or volume. Mixed any heavier the stuffing loses the binding that lets it set.
Cooked fine herbsRanhofer's fines herbes here are cooked, not raw chopped herbs: a shallot-parsley-mushroom mixture sweated in butter and reduced dry, close to a loose duxelles. Check No. 385 for his exact proportions. Any moisture left in them will slacken the quenelle.
Making quenelle forcemeat nowThe original assumes a mortar and a tammy sieve. A food processor does the same work in a minute, but keep the fish, cream and bowl cold throughout or the emulsion breaks and the stuffing turns grainy.
If you cannot source pikePike is the classic quenelle fish for its gelatinous flesh. Whiting, hake or pollock bind acceptably; salmon or another oily fish will fight the bluefish.
YieldThe mushroom puree goes beneath the fish and the sauce is passed separately, exactly as written; one fish per person is the obvious serving, though Ranhofer does not state it.

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 is typical of its method: a plain American market fish handled by strict French technique and given a French personal name. Garnishes and sauces "a la" a historical figure were a nineteenth-century restaurant habit, though Ranhofer never explains his dedications. The choice of fish is the local detail. Snapper blues ran in enormous numbers in New York harbour and Long Island waters through the late summer, cheap and abundant, and Ranhofer's book is full of ways to bring that kind of everyday catch up to Delmonico's standard, here by stuffing it with a pike quenelle, setting it on mushroom puree and sending a made sauce alongside in its own boat.