No. 1228

Pompano Fillets Fried with Tomato Sauce

Filets de Pompano Frits a la Sauce Tomate

Remove the fillets from several fresh fish, also the skins; cut them across diagonally, and lay them on a dish to season; marinate the slices for a quarter of an hour in sweet oil, lemon juice and chopped parsley. Take up the pieces, one by one, dip them into a frying batter (No. 137), and plunge them in hot frying fat; let them slowly attain a good color while cooking, and when done drain and salt. Dress the fillets in a pyramid form on a napkin, and garnish with fried parsley and cut lemons, or else serve with a sauce-boat of tomato sauce (No. 549).

← No. 1227 Pompano a la Toulouse Pompano, Snapper & Other Fish No. 1229 Porgies a la Manhattan →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with numbered sauces and batters on hand; the whole dish is straightforward once you supply the two cross-references and a thermometer.

Sweet oilOlive oil, commonly sold under that name through the nineteenth century, the "sweet" indicating oil fit to eat rather than rancid. Use a mild one; the marinade is fifteen minutes and is not meant to dominate.
Batter No. 137Ranhofer's frying batter is a flour batter thinned with liquid and, in the usual manner of the period, lightened with beaten egg whites; see No. 137 for his proportions. Any thin tempura-style batter answers; mix it just before frying so the whites keep their lift.
Sauce No. 549His tomato sauce is a cooked, strained sauce, reduced and sieved smooth, not a chunky pomodoro; see No. 549 for what goes into it. A modern smooth tomato sauce, thin enough to pour from a sauceboat, is the right substitute.
Fat temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature; "let them slowly attain a good color" points to moderate rather than fierce heat, say around 340-350F rather than a hard 375F. Pompano fillets cut on the diagonal are thin and will be done in two to three minutes; the slower fry is about even coloring, not longer cooking.
Pat dry before batteringThe hinge of the dish. Fish lifted straight out of an oil-and-lemon marinade sheds batter into the fat; blot each piece before dipping or the coating slides off and the oil clouds.
Fried parsleyDry sprigs dropped into hot fat for a few seconds until they stop sputtering and turn brilliant green. Wet parsley in deep fat spits violently, so dry it thoroughly and use a spider and a lid.
The napkinA folded linen napkin on the platter absorbed frying oil and was a common service for fried dishes in this period. A rack or a paper-lined dish does the same job if you would rather not launder it.
Quantity"Several fresh fish" is vague by design. A whole pompano of 1.5-2 lb yields roughly 10-12 oz of skinless fillet, enough for two as a course; figure 5-6 oz per person.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire set down in numbered order, which is why nearly every recipe leans on another by number. Pompano, a Gulf and South Atlantic fish, reached northern markets by rail and ice in the later decades of the century and was prized for its firm, sweet flesh; Ranhofer gives it a run of preparations here, from the classically French a la Toulouse to this plainer fry. Dressing fried pieces "in a pyramid form on a napkin" with fried parsley and cut lemon was a common nineteenth-century presentation for fried fish, and the tomato sauce is offered in a separate boat rather than under the fish.