No. 1183

Kingfish a la Montgolfier

Have six fine kingfish weighing half a pound each; lift off the fillets, skin, and from two fillets cut ten long small slices; make five or six incisions crosswise on them, and fill them in with slices of truffles; turn these fillets round into crowns and range them on a buttered baking sheet, cover over with a heavy piece of buttered paper, then moisten with a little court bouillon (No. 38). Pare the other fillets of kingfish into half hearts after having folded them in two across, macerate with salt, pepper and lemon juice for half an hour, drain and lay them in a buttered sautoir garnished with chopped mushrooms, shallots and onions; moisten with white wine and mushroom liquor, then cook slowly in the oven; drain off the liquid, reduce and incorporate into it two gills of veloute sauce (No. 415). Besprinkle the bottom of an oval shaped buttered baking dish with chopped truffles, lay the cooked fillets on top, surround them with medium sized fresh mushrooms heads previously peeled and cooked in a little water, salt, butter and lemon juice; pour the sauce over, bestrew with bread-crumbs, grated parmesan and melted butter and color slightly. Place the small prepared truffled slices in the oven and when done use them to garnish the whole fillets, ranging between each one a trussed crawfish.

← No. 1182 Kingfish a la Figaro Pompano, Snapper & Other Fish No. 1184 Kingfish a la Princelay →

For the Modern Kitchen

A three-part composed dish from Ranhofer's kitchen: truffled fillet crowns baked under paper, a second set of fillets braised and gratinated, and a crayfish garnish. Read it through once and cook the components in parallel, because the crowns and the gratin want to reach the table at the same moment.

The fishKingfish here is the northern kingfish (Menticirrhus saxatilis), a small drum that filled New York markets in the 1890s and is rarely sold now. Whiting, small hake, black sea bass or fluke behave the same way; six fish of half a pound yield twelve small fillets, roughly 1 1/2 lb of flesh once skinned.
Two gillsA gill is half a cup, so two gills of veloute is one cup. That is the quantity of veloute stirred into the reduced braising liquid, so the finished sauce comes out somewhat more than a cup.
Oven heatRanhofer gives no temperatures. "Cook slowly in the oven" means a gentle, moderate heat, covered, until the fillets are barely set; the truffled crowns under buttered paper want the same restraint, and fish this thin cooks in only a few minutes and will chalk if pushed.
Color slightlyA gratin like this would have been colored under a salamander in a kitchen of this kind. A broiler set high, with the dish close to the element for a minute or two, does the same job: the crumbs and parmesan should take color without the sauce breaking or the fish cooking further.
Sautoir and baking sheetA sautoir is a straight-sided sauté pan, not a wok-shaped skillet; the straight walls keep the shallow braising liquid where it belongs. The "buttered paper" is a cartouche of parchment laid directly on the fillets.
Court bouillon and velouteNo. 38 is Ranhofer's court bouillon and No. 415 his veloute sauce; look up the numbered recipes in your edition rather than assuming their composition. Any competent version of either will serve.
TrufflesThe recipe assumes both slices for the incisions and chopped truffle for the dish bottom, an ordinary luxury in a Delmonico's kitchen and a serious expense now. Canned truffle peelings give the chopped layer economically; save whole slices for the crowns, where they are visible.
Mushroom heads and crawfish"Heads" means caps, turned or simply peeled, cooked in water, butter, salt and lemon to keep them white. "Trussed" crayfish are cooked with the tail curled under and pinned so they hold an upright, arched shape for the garnish.
YieldAs written the two preparations give ten truffled crowns and ten gratinated fillets, so ten portions as a fish course: one crown and one fillet per plate, with a crayfish between.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and its fish chapter is a catalogue of what the city's markets actually landed. Kingfish, a small Atlantic drum with firm white flesh, was cheap and abundant along the mid-Atlantic coast and appears here in a number of dressed-up guises, each named for a person or an occasion in the manner of the classical French repertoire Ranhofer had trained in. The name is generally taken as a nod to the Montgolfier brothers and their 1783 balloon ascent; the fillets curled into crowns and set upright on the platter suit that reading. What the recipe really shows is the economic logic of the grand hotel kitchen: an unglamorous market fish, split into two preparations and lifted by truffles and crayfish into something a Delmonico's customer would pay for.