No. 1123

Bouillabaisse Marengo

Bouillabaisse a la Marengo

Procure several fishes of medium size, and firm meats, such as sheepshead, blackfish and bass, and two small live lobsters; all these fish must be of the very freshest. Cut off the fins and projecting bones from the fish, suppress the heads and thin tail ends, then cut them into pieces about two inches in size; break off the lobster tails after killing them in boiling water, then place all these pieces of fish in a tureen to salt, laying a piece of ice on top. Finish cooking the two lobster bodies in the same water, drain and split open; remove all the creamy parts, rub them through a sieve, and chop up the remaining parts of the bodies. Have a sauce-pan containing a little oil, fry in it a mirepoix (No. 419), and minced onions, add two cloves of garlic, a bunch of parsley, aromatic herbs, peelings of fresh mushrooms, the two chopped bodies, the heads and trimmings of all the fish, also a few cut up small bony fishes. Moisten to their heighth with hot fish broth (No. 195); cook for fifteen to twenty minutes on a good fire, letting the liquid reduce to one third; strain and remove the fat. Line the bottom of a deep sautoir with two cut up seedless tomatoes, onions, and shallots; range the pieces of fish and lobster on top, one beside the other, and moisten to their heighth with the prepared stock; it should just be sufficient to cover, otherwise reduce it. Cook the fish in this for fifteen to eighteen minutes over a brisk fire, then remove the pan on one side, and strain a part of the liquid into another saucepan; thicken this with a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce (No. 549), and when succulent and thick, take it off, pour in some burnt brandy, and the creamy parts of lobster, adding a dash of cayenne pepper; finish it with butter. Dress the pieces of fish in a pyramid form, surround this with a crown of thin crusts of kitchen bread browned nicely in butter, and cover the fish and crusts with some of the sauce, serving the surplus in a bowl.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stock already made and a numbered index to lean on, so the work here is mostly translation and restraint. The hinge is the fish: it goes in cold, whole-piece, and comes out the moment it flakes.

The cross-referencesMirepoix (No. 419) is diced carrot, onion, celery and a little lean ham or bacon sweated in fat; fish broth (No. 195) is a light fish stock built on bones and aromatics; tomato sauce (No. 549) is a reduced, sieved tomato sauce, not a jarred pasta sauce. Any competent version of each will carry the dish.
Substituting the fishSheepshead and blackfish (tautog) are firm, lean, sweet-fleshed Atlantic fish that rarely reach a modern counter. Snapper, striped bass, grouper, monkfish or hake all hold their shape the same way; avoid anything oily or flaky, and buy a pound or so of small bony fish or extra frames for the broth.
"Place in a tureen to salt"This is a brief seasoning and chilling step, not a cure. Salt the cut pieces lightly, set them in a bowl with ice on top, and hold them cold for no more than an hour before cooking.
The lobsterThe tails are broken off after the lobsters are killed in boiling water and finish cooking in the pot with the fish. The "creamy parts" are the tomalley and any coral, sieved and stirred into the finished sauce off the heat as an enrichment — do not let it boil after that or it will curdle and turn grainy.
Vessels and phrasingA sautoir is a wide straight-sided sauté pan; any broad shallow pan that holds the fish in one layer will do. "Moisten to their heighth" means add liquid just level with the food, no more.
TimingsFifteen to eighteen minutes over a brisk fire suits two-inch chunks of very firm fish in a shallow bath, but most modern fillet pieces are done in six to nine minutes. Cook until the flesh just parts and pull the pan off; the sauce is finished separately, so there is no reason to hold the fish over heat.
Oven and stovetop heatStovetop heat -- "A good fire" and "a brisk fire" here mean a strong simmer to a bare boil, not a rolling one. The broth reduction to one third wants an uncovered, high heat; the fish stage wants the liquid trembling.
Burnt brandyWarm two to three tablespoons of brandy, light it, and let the flame die before it goes into the sauce. The point is to burn off the raw spirit edge; adding it unlit leaves the sauce tasting harsh.
Yield and servingAs written this probably feeds six to eight. The fish is mounded, ringed with thin crusts of kitchen bread fried in butter, and napped with sauce, with the rest passed at the table.

A Little History

Bouillabaisse belongs to Marseille, where it began as a fishermen's pot of the unsellable rockfish left in the net, built on olive oil, garlic and saffron and served with the broth over bread; tomato came into the pot later. What Ranhofer sets down in The Epicurean (1894) is a restaurant version of the dish: fumet, mirepoix, a mounted butter sauce, flamed brandy, lobster tomalley, and expensive firm fish cut to even size rather than whatever the boat brought in. The "à la Marengo" tag borrows from chicken Marengo, the tomato-garlic-brandy formula generally traced to Napoleon's campaign in Italy, and by the late nineteenth century it functioned as shorthand on a menu for that combination rather than any fixed recipe. The sheepshead and blackfish are the American note -- Ranhofer was cooking at Delmonico's for the New York market, where both were common market fish then in a way they are not now.