No. 1167

Halibut, Admiral

Fletan ou Holibut a l'Amiral

Trim a chicken halibut weighing about six pounds, split the fish through the dark side, detach the fillets and season the inside; lay it on a buttered baking pan, the white side uppermost; moisten with court bouillon stock with white wine (No. 39), and cover over with several sheets of buttered paper; cook the fish in a slow oven, drain the stock and reduce it to a half-glaze adding double its quantity of reduced veloute sauce (No. 415); just when ready to serve incorporate lobster butter (No. 580) into this sauce. Dress the halibut and garnish around with crawfish tails, mushroom heads and fanciful cuts of gherkins; cover over all with a third part of the sauce and arrange another garnishing around the border of the dish either of mussels or oysters a la villeroi (No. 698). Serve the remainder of the sauce in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1166 Finnan Haddies, Broiled Maitre d'Hotel and B Cod, Haddock & Halibut No. 1168 Halibut a la Coligny →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stockpot already going; the dish is really a poached halibut plus four sub-recipes referenced by number. Read the cross-references first and decide which you will actually make.

"Chicken halibut"A market term for a young fish, generally under about 10 lb, not a fish cooked with chicken. A 6 lb whole halibut is unusual at retail today; two thick fillets or a centre-cut section of the same total weight behave the same way in the pan.
Slow ovenRoughly 250-325F; 300F is a reasonable working figure. The fish is being oven-poached in a shallow bath of court bouillon, not roasted, and the low heat is the point.
The hinge: do not overcookHalibut is very lean and turns dry and cottony within a few degrees of doneness. Pull it at 130-135F at the thickest point; timing depends entirely on the thickness of the fish, so start checking early.
Buttered paperA cartouche. Cut parchment to the size of the pan, butter one side, lay it directly on the fish. Foil works but traps more steam.
The sauce, in plain termsStrain the poaching liquid, boil it down to a syrupy half-glaze, add twice that volume of reduced veloute (No. 415), then whisk in lobster butter (No. 580) off the heat. Once the lobster butter is in, the sauce must not boil or it will break and lose its colour.
Court bouillon No. 39A white-wine court bouillon; consult the cross-reference for its ingredients and method, and strain it before use so the aromatics do not end up in the reduction.
Crawfish tailsRanhofer means freshwater crayfish, peeled and cooked. Cooked crayfish tails are sold frozen; small shrimp are the usual substitute and no one will object.
A la VilleroiMussels or oysters coated in a thick reduced sauce, chilled until set, then breaded and deep-fried. It is a separate undertaking in its own right and can be dropped entirely without harming the dish.
YieldSix pounds of whole halibut serves eight to ten as a main course. Ranhofer intended it as one course among many.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium written after some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is a good specimen of the book's method: a short paragraph of instruction propped up by numbered cross-references to stocks, sauces and compound butters set out elsewhere. A l'amiral is one of the classical French garnish names attached to fish, and in the nineteenth-century repertoire it generally signalled shellfish in some form -- crayfish or lobster, mussels or oysters -- with a sauce enriched by lobster butter. Halibut appears in this section alongside cod and haddock because it was a staple of the North Atlantic fleets landing at Boston and New York, and Ranhofer's usual project was to take such a plain fish and dress it in the full apparatus of Parisian haute cuisine for a New York dining room.