No. 1216

Pike Perch or Wall Eyed Pike a la Royal

Sandre a la Royale

Raise the fillets from the fish; season, and fold in two; trim them the size and shape of medium chicken fillets, then range them in a buttered sautoir; besprinkle with butter and white wine, and place it in the oven covered over with buttered paper; when done, reduce some veloute sauce (No. 415), to which has been added the stock; work up with butter, and reserve a third of this; to the other two-thirds add truffles, lobster and mushrooms, all finely shredded; stick a frill favor (No. 10) into the top of each fillet, dress crown-shaped, and pour the garnishing in the center, serve the reserved sauce in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1215 Pike Perch or Wall Eyed Pike a la Geraldin Eels, Pike, Carp & Sturgeon No. 1217 Pike Perch or Wall-Eyed Pike, Russian Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has velouté, fish stock and cooked lobster standing by, so the recipe reads as a set of assembly notes. The hinge is the fish: folded walleye fillets in a buttered pan under paper cook very quickly, and a minute or two too long turns the flesh from flaking to cottony.

Sautoir and buttered paperA sautoir is a shallow straight-sided pan; any wide skillet or shallow flameproof dish works. The buttered paper covers the fish (or the pan) and keeps the surface moist while the wine and butter reduce beneath — parchment does the same job.
Oven temperatureRanhofer gives none. A moderate oven, around 350F, suits this kind of oven-poaching; the fillets are barely covered with liquid and should be cooked through in roughly 8 to 12 minutes depending on thickness.
"Fold in two"The trimmed fillet is presumably folded so the thin tail end doubles back under the thick end, giving an even block that cooks at one rate and roughly the shape of a chicken fillet. Ranhofer does not say whether the fillets are skinned.
Velouté No. 415 and "the stock"No. 415 is Ranhofer's velouté, a sauce of blond roux and white stock; for fish, use fish velouté. "The stock" most likely means the buttery wine liquor left in the sautoir — strain it in, reduce to a coating consistency, then finish off the heat with cold butter so it does not break.
Garnish proportionsTwo-thirds of the sauce is bound with the shredded truffle, cooked lobster meat and mushrooms to make the ragoût that fills the center; the reserved third goes to the sauce-boat unthickened by garnish. Cut the garnish in fine julienne, not dice.
Truffles and lobsterFresh black truffle is a luxury purchase; a small jarred or canned truffle, or a good truffle-studded item, stands in without embarrassment. A single 1 1/4-lb lobster, or 6 oz of picked cooked meat, is plenty for four.
Frill favor No. 10A paper frill of the sort once pushed onto cutlet bones, purely decorative and part of the period's dressed-plate style. Nothing is lost by leaving it out.
Yield and serviceRanhofer gives no yield; two walleye of about 2 lb each would give four folded fillets. "Dress crown-shaped" means standing the fillets in a ring on a round platter with the garnish heaped in the middle.

A Little History

Sandre is the French name for the European zander, Sander lucioperca, a close relative of the North American walleye — which is why Charles Ranhofer, a French-trained chef cooking at Delmonico's in New York, could keep the French heading and simply gloss it for American readers as pike perch or wall-eyed pike. The Epicurean (1894) is organized as a working reference rather than a book of standalone recipes, hence the cross-references to sauce No. 415 and frill No. 10; the reader was assumed to be a professional with a stocked larder. The suffix à la royale is generally taken to have carried no fixed meaning beyond richness and display: here it signals the truffle-lobster-mushroom garnish and the crown arrangement, the sort of dressed presentation that let a freshwater fish appear on a menu alongside imported turbot.