No. 1130

Carp Breaded and Broiled, Maitre d'Hotel

Carpe Panee et Grillee, Maitre d'Hotel

After the carp is prepared and split in two lengthwise, remove the spinal bone, season with salt and dip the fish first in melted butter, then in bread-crumbs and broil it over a slow fire; when finished bring the two halves together; dress it as if it were whole. Surround with potato balls sauted in butter, seasoned with salt, fine herbs and lemon juice well stirred in.

← No. 1129 Carp a la Chambord—Common Carp Eels, Pike, Carp & Sturgeon No. 1131 Carp Fried, Garnished with Parsley →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain broiled fish from Ranhofer's carp sequence, notable mainly for the trick of splitting the fish, cooking it flat, and reassembling it on the platter. Two things decide whether it works: the condition of the carp and the heat of the fire.

Sourcing and soakingCarp from warm, still water can carry a muddy, earthy flavor from the fat just under the skin. Buy from cold, running water if possible, and it is traditional to soak the cleaned fish an hour in salted water or acidulated water with a little vinegar. Scale it thoroughly; the scales are large and stubborn.
"Prepared and split in two lengthwise"Scale, gut, and remove the gills, then butterfly the fish along the backbone and lift out the spine. Ranhofer does not say what becomes of the head; leaving it on and splitting with it is one way to let the two halves be closed back up into a whole fish on the platter.
The bones Ranhofer does not mentionRemoving the spinal bone leaves the intramuscular Y-bones that run through the upper flank of any carp. Score the thick part of each fillet crosswise at quarter-inch intervals before breading, which shortens them, or warn whoever is eating.
"A slow fire"Moderate coals, or a broiler set well back from the element; Ranhofer gives no temperature. Bread crumbs over butter will blacken in seconds under a hot broiler while the flesh is still raw. Figure roughly 8-10 minutes a side for a 3 lb fish, until the flesh flakes at the thickest point; 145F is the usual modern doneness figure.
BreadingMelted, not clarified, butter is what the text calls for. The text specifies only "bread-crumbs"; fresh white crumbs will cling better than dry commercial ones. Press the crumbs on and let the fish sit a few minutes before it goes on the grill so the coating sets and does not slide off the skin.
Maitre d'hotelThe name in the title refers to maitre d'hotel butter: softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Ranhofer's text folds that flavoring into the potatoes instead, though a pat melting over the fish at the table is in keeping with the name.
Potato ballsCut with a parisienne scoop from raw peeled potatoes, then sauteed in butter until browned and tender, 12-15 minutes in a wide pan. "Fine herbs" here means fines herbes -- parsley, chervil, chives, tarragon -- chopped and stirred in off the heat with the lemon juice.
YieldRanhofer gives no quantities. As a working estimate, a 3 to 4 lb carp will serve about four, with roughly 1 1/2 lb of potatoes cut into balls. Scraps from the potato trimmings are worth saving for soup.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full record of that repertoire; the numbered carp entries around this one -- Chambord, fried with parsley, breaded and broiled -- work through a single fish in the systematic French manner he was trained in. Carp had a particular currency in America at the time: the U.S. Fish Commission distributed common carp widely to ponds and rivers in the 1880s as a cheap, fast-growing food fish, and it also had a long-standing place on German, Central European and Jewish tables in the city. The name of the dish points to maitre d'hotel butter, parsley and lemon worked into softened butter, named for the household steward and by Ranhofer's day a common garnish for plainly grilled dishes. The instruction to close the two halves and "dress it as if it were whole" belongs to a style of service in which a fish reached the dining room looking intact before being portioned -- a habit associated as much with the older service a la francaise as with service a la russe, under which carving was generally done by servants at a sideboard.