No. 1217

Pike Perch or Wall-Eyed Pike, Russian Style

Sandre a la Russe

Fry in butter some minced carrots, small onions and a garnished bunch of parsley, add to these some fish steaks each one weighing a quarter of a pound and previously marinated in salt for two hours; moisten with white wine court bouillon (No. 39), and as soon as the fish is cooked, drain and dress it. Garnish with the small onions, strain the broth through a sieve, reduce, skin and add to it some butter kneaded with flour, strain again through a tammy, put in a few capers, pour the sauce over the fish and garnish around with sippets of bread fried in butter.

← No. 1216 Pike Perch or Wall Eyed Pike a la Royal Eels, Pike, Carp & Sturgeon No. 1218 Pike Perch or Wall-Eyed Pike Continental Sty →

For the Modern Kitchen

Charles Ranhofer writes for a brigade that already has stock, court bouillon and fried bread on hand, so the instructions read as a sketch. The hinge is the poaching liquid: it becomes the sauce, so keep it seasoned lightly and never let the fish boil.

The fishWalleye (Ranhofer's "sandre") cut into cross-section steaks of about 4 oz each, roughly 1 inch thick. Two steaks per person is generous; six steaks will serve four to six as a course. Any firm freshwater fish of similar thickness behaves the same way.
The two-hour saltingRead this as a short dry cure rather than a brine: salt the steaks, refrigerate two hours, then pat dry (a rinse does no harm). It firms the flesh so the steaks hold together in the liquid. A shorter salting of 30-45 minutes has much the same effect.
Court bouillon No. 39His white wine court bouillon is a wine-and-water bath with aromatic vegetables, herbs and salt, simmered to draw out the flavourings before the fish goes in. Use only enough to barely cover; a flood of liquid means a weak sauce.
Poaching timeBring the liquid to a bare quiver at about 180F and hold it there. Steaks of this size are done in 8-10 minutes, when the flesh parts from the bone. A rolling boil shreds the fish and clouds the broth.
"Small onions" and the parsley bunchPearl or small boiling onions, peeled; blanching them a minute makes peeling quick. The "garnished bunch of parsley" is a bouquet garni tied with string so it lifts out whole.
"Skin" the brothRead this as skim. After reducing the strained liquid by about half, lift the foam and fat from the surface before thickening.
Butter kneaded with flourBeurre manié is butter and flour worked cold, roughly equal weights, whisked into the simmering reduction in small pieces. About 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour thickens a cup of liquid to a coating sauce; simmer a minute or two so it loses the raw flour taste.
TammyA tammy is a fine worsted straining cloth, wrung by two people in a professional kitchen. A fine chinois, or a sieve lined with damp muslin, does the same job. Add the capers after straining, not before.
SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of crustless bread fried in clarified butter until golden. Fry them last and drain them well, or they soften against the sauce.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its fish chapters show how thoroughly the French repertoire had absorbed regional labels. Sandre is the European zander, a pike-perch closely related to the American walleye, and Ranhofer gives the fish an English-language double name for his American readers. The a la russe tag here does not refer to service at table; in this dish it amounts to a garnish of small onions with the sharp accent of capers, and Russian-styled labels were common on nineteenth-century menus. The method itself is classical practice: poach in court bouillon, reduce the liquid, bind it with beurre manie, and edge the platter with fried bread, so the poaching liquid becomes the sauce rather than a fresh stock being opened.