No. 1171

Halibut, with Fine Herbs a la Reynal

Fletan aux Fines Herbes a la Reynal

Dress a halibut by cutting off the fins and scraping the scales from the dark side; split it lengthwise in two on this side, and lay the fish on a small oval baking-pan with raised edges or on oval silver dishes; moisten it to its heighth with wine court bouillon (No. 39), and cover over with buttered paper; let the liquid boil for ten to twelve minutes, then remove from the hot fire and put it in the oven for thirty minutes longer; drain the fish, and let it dry thoroughly; dress it on a dish, keeping it hot, covered over with another plate. Strain and skim the liquid; reduce half of it to a half-glaze. Fry in butter two chopped shallots, and four ounces of mushrooms also chopped, thicken with two spoonfuls of veloute sauce (No. 415); dilute this sauce with the reduced liquid, and let cook for five minutes, then set it on one side to cook slowly, finish with butter, adding chopped parsley, and lemon juice. Wipe off all the humidity from the halibut, and cover it with the sauce; lay on top of the fish a straight row of very white cooked mushrooms.

← No. 1170 Halibut Kadgiori Cod, Haddock & Halibut No. 1172 Chicken Halibut Baked and with Parmesan →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stock pots already going, so two cross-references and one badly outdated cooking time stand between this page and dinner. The sauce is the point; the poaching is just a means of getting flavored liquid.

The timing is the hingeTen to twelve minutes at a boil followed by thirty in the oven will reduce halibut to dry flakes. Halibut is lean and loses its moisture above about 130-135F at the thickest point; a whole small fish poached gently is done in roughly 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness, and thick cut steaks in far less. Cook to temperature, not to the clock given here.
Wine court bouillon (No. 39)Ranhofer's is a white wine and water court bouillon with aromatic vegetables and herbs. Any well-seasoned white wine court bouillon serves.
Veloute (No. 415)A blond roux slackened with white stock -- here fish or veal -- simmered and skimmed until smooth. Two spoonfuls is all that is wanted, so a small batch or a spoonful of thick fish veloute from another dish will do. It is a thickener, not the body of the sauce.
"Moisten to its heighth"Bring the court bouillon level with the top of the fish rather than submerging it, so the exposed surface steams under the paper.
Buttered paperParchment cut to the pan and buttered, laid over the fish. Not a lid, and not foil -- it should let a little steam escape.
Oven heatNo temperature is given; the recipe simply says the oven. Treat it as a moderate oven, around 350F, and expect the liquid to hold at a bare tremble rather than a boil.
"Reduce half of it to a half-glaze"Take half the strained, skimmed poaching liquid and boil it down until it coats a spoon and is distinctly syrupy. This is the flavor of the dish; the shallots and mushrooms are texture.
"Finish with butter"Monter au beurre: cold butter whisked in off the heat, a piece at a time. The sauce must not boil afterward or it will break. Parsley and lemon go in last so both stay bright.
The garnish mushrooms"Very white cooked mushrooms" are turned or whole button caps stewed in butter, water and lemon juice with no browning at all. Sliced brown mushrooms will work but lose the deliberate contrast Ranhofer wanted against the pale sauce.
Yield and sourcingSourcing -- Atlantic halibut stocks have not recovered from nineteenth-century fishing; Pacific halibut is the practical substitute, and thick steaks can be treated the same way in a smaller pan.

A Little History

This is No. 1171 in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium he assembled after some thirty years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and it is typical of the book's method: a recipe that cannot be executed without turning back to numbered entries for the court bouillon and the veloute, because the book was built as a working system rather than a set of standalone dishes. The name "a la Reynal" is one of hundreds of such tags in the volume; no documented Reynal attaches securely to this one, and the label should be read as a house designation rather than a claim of origin. Halibut appears often in American cookbooks of the period; the Gloucester and Boston fleets landed large Atlantic halibut through much of the nineteenth century, and a fish that had once been treated as a coarse by-catch could be dressed in the French manner with duxelles, half-glaze and turned mushrooms and sent out on silver.