No. 1120

Bluefish in Papers

Bluefish en Papillotes

Fry colorless in butter one ounce of shallots and the same quantity of mushrooms and half as many truffles as mushrooms, chopping each one finely and separately; moisten with a half-glaze sauce (No. 413), and some gravy, then reduce this sauce, add to it a little chopped parsley and let get partially cold. Oil some pieces of paper cut heart-shaped; pour some of the sauce on one of their sides, lay the fish on top with more sauce over and fold the paper in such a manner that it thoroughly encloses the fish, and is air tight, range the papers on a serving dish, sprinkle over a little oil, and set it into a hot oven and when they swell and are of a fine color send them to the table at once.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a cook with demi-glace already on hand and a coal oven going hot. Both are solvable; the technique itself is straightforward.

The hinge: the paper must sealThe whole method depends on the parcel trapping steam so it inflates. Fold the heart-shaped paper edge over itself in small overlapping pleats, working around the curve, and twist or crimp the point tightly. A parcel that leaks will neither puff nor color, and the fish will bake dry.
PaperUse parchment rather than the plain oiled paper of the period. Brushing it with oil, as directed, still helps it brown and keeps it from scorching at the folds.
"A hot oven"425-450F. The point is fast, high heat so the parcel balloons within a few minutes; a moderate oven will steam the fish limply without any lift.
Half-glaze sauce (No. 413)Ranhofer's half-glaze is what is now called demi-glace, a reduced brown veal stock sauce. A good commercial demi-glace or a well-reduced brown stock works; the "gravy" that follows is simply more meat juice, used to loosen the reduction before it is cooked back down.
Amounts and ratiosAn ounce each of shallot and mushroom, half an ounce of truffle, plus sauce, is probably enough dressing for about four portions, though Ranhofer states no yield. Chopping each item separately, as specified, matters: the shallot softens far faster than the mushroom.
TrufflesFresh black truffle is costly now, as it was in Ranhofer's day; the difference is that a kitchen like Delmonico's kept it to hand as a matter of course. Preserved truffle or truffle peelings are the honest substitute; truffle oil is not, as it will dominate the demi-glace.
The fishBluefish is oily and strongly flavored, which suits this rich sauce. Use skinless fillets or small boned fillets of about 5-6 oz. Ranhofer gives no time because he judged by the puff: expect 10-14 minutes at that heat for fillets under an inch thick.
ServingThe text has the parcels ranged on a dish and sent to table at once, so send them closed and let them be cut at the table. Once slit they deflate immediately and the aroma is lost.

A Little History

En papillote was a standard item of the French professional repertoire by the time Charles Ranhofer set down The Epicurean (1894) after decades running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and the technique is generally traced to the practice of baking delicate items in oiled or buttered paper to hold their moisture and perfume. What is distinctly American here is the fish: bluefish was cheap, abundant along the Atlantic coast, and oily enough that it did not travel or keep well, so it was largely a local, seasonal dish rather than a market luxury. Ranhofer's habit was to take such a workaday fish and dress it in the full apparatus of the French kitchen, in this case a mushroom-shallot-truffle mixture in the manner of a duxelles bound with demi-glace, which is why the same section of the book treats bluefish, blackfish and bass with the ceremony usually reserved for sole. The recipe also shows how the book is built: preparations routinely cross-reference a foundation sauce elsewhere in the volume, on the assumption that the reader commands a brigade and a stockpot, not a single evening's dinner.