No. 1169

Halibut a la Richmond

Fletan a la Richmond

Butter the inside of a dish that can be placed in the oven, lay on it the halibut fillets after suppressing the skin, but leaving the fillets whole; season with salt, pepper and onions and place small pieces of butter on top; let cook in the oven for twenty to thirty minutes, basting frequently, then drain off the liquid and reduce with an equal quantity of veloute sauce (No. 415), thickening it at the last moment with lobster butter (No. 580); garnish around the fish with shelled shrimp tails and cover over with half of the sauce, serving the remainder in a separate sauce-boat. Range neatly on top sliced truffles warmed in Madeira wine and fish glaze (No. 399).

← No. 1168 Halibut a la Coligny Cod, Haddock & Halibut No. 1170 Halibut Kadgiori →

For the Modern Kitchen

A late-nineteenth-century restaurant preparation that leans on three sub-recipes from elsewhere in the book. Once you have a fish velouté and a lobster butter on hand, the dish itself is a fifteen-minute affair.

The hinge: lobster butter goes in off the heatThe compound butter is an emulsion thickener, not a cooking fat. Pull the reduced sauce from the burner and whisk the cold butter in a piece at a time; if it boils it will break into oily specks and grainy sauce.
Oven heatThe recipe gives no temperature. A moderate oven, around 350F, is a reasonable modern default. Butter the dish generously and cover nothing — the frequent basting is what keeps the exposed surface from drying.
TimingTwenty to thirty minutes will overcook modern portion-cut halibut, which is lean and turns chalky fast. Figure 10-14 minutes for fillets an inch thick; pulling them at 130-135F internal gives restaurant doneness, though standard food-safety guidance for fish is 145F.
"Suppressing the skin"A direct translation of the French — simply skin the fillets. The recipe asks that they be left whole rather than portioned; it gives no reason.
"Season with onions"The recipe does not say how the onions are cut. Finely minced onion or shallot scattered over the fish works well; it cooks in the butter and its liquor becomes part of the pan juices you later reduce.
VeloutéThe book's No. 415 is a white roux moistened with stock; for fish use a fish velouté — blond roux with fish fumet, simmered until it coats a spoon. Equal parts pan juices and velouté, reduced together, is what the recipe asks for.
Fish glazeNo. 399 is fish stock reduced to a syrup that sets to jelly when cold. A tablespoon of reduced fumet does the same job; here it mainly glosses the truffle slices, along with the Madeira.
Truffles and shrimpCanned or jarred black truffle warmed briefly in Madeira is the practical substitute, added at the last second so it does not go flat. Shrimp should be cooked and peeled and merely warmed through in the sauce.
YieldThe recipe specifies no quantities; about 2 lb of fillets, sauced as described, would serve four as a main course. Serve half the sauce over the fish and the rest in a boat, as written.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and this is a characteristic entry: a plain American fish dressed in the full apparatus of French service — velouté, a shellfish compound butter, glaze, truffles in Madeira. Names like "à la Richmond" were the currency of nineteenth-century restaurant menus, a way of distinguishing a hundred near-identical fish garnishes from one another; Ranhofer gives no explanation for this one, and no reliable attribution survives. What matters more is the structure. Whatever the standing of halibut in the market of the day, the value added at Delmonico's lay in the sauce work, which is why the recipe reads as a set of cross-references rather than a set of instructions. The lobster butter in particular — shells pounded with butter, then strained — was the standard way a professional kitchen turned waste into colour and depth, and it is the technique, not the fish, that makes this dish worth reading.