No. 1229

Porgies a la Manhattan

Cut the fish into quarter of a pound slices and boil them in a court-bouillon, moistened with white wine (No. 39); drain and remove the skin carefully, then dress on the center of a hot dish. Dip two ounces of cracker-dust and as much bread-crumbs into a little milk; press out all the liquid and put this paste into a saucepan with fish stock (No. 417) and a little milk, in order to have the sauce not too thick; season with salt, nutmeg and pepper, and rub through a sieve, then finish with fresh butter just when prepared to serve. Shell some fresh green corn by splitting the grains through the center, and pressing on them with the back of a knife to extract all the inside part, chop this up finely, and add to it the sauce, also some hashed lobster coral and chopped parsley; pour the whole over the fish.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have his court-bouillon and fish stock already made and that a hen lobster is sitting somewhere in the kitchen. Strip those assumptions away and this is a poached fish with a bread-thickened corn sauce, which is quicker than it reads.

The fishPorgy (scup) is a small, firm, mild-fleshed Atlantic fish, often sold whole at Italian and Asian markets. Quarter-pound slices means thick cross-cut steaks from a fish of two pounds or more; from smaller porgies use whole gutted fish or fillets and shorten the cooking accordingly.
Do not boil itThe word in the original is "boil," but a rolling boil will shred porgy and squeeze it dry. Bring the court-bouillon to a bare shiver, slide the slices in, and hold them there 6 to 8 minutes until the flesh parts from the bone. This is the hinge of the dish.
Court-bouillon (No. 39)A water-and-white-wine bath with aromatic vegetables and herbs; see No. 39 for Ranhofer's own proportions. Roughly a quart of water to a cup of dry white wine is a workable proportion here.
Fish stock (No. 417)A light stock from fish bones and trimmings, strained. Bottled clam juice cut with water is a workable stand-in; a heavy shellfish stock will bury the corn.
Cracker-dustFinely crushed plain water crackers or unsalted soda crackers, not seasoned crumbs. Two ounces of cracker-dust plus the same weight in fresh breadcrumbs, soaked in milk and wrung out, is the entire thickener here — there is no roux and no flour.
Milking the cornSplit each row of kernels down the center with a knife tip, then scrape the cob with the back of the blade so the pulp and milk come out and the tough hulls stay behind. This is what keeps the sauce smooth after it has been passed through the sieve.
Lobster coralThe dark green roe of a female lobster, which turns coral red on cooking. It is not sold separately and only appears if you cook a hen lobster yourself; a pinch of sweet paprika will give the color but not the flavor, and the dish is perfectly good without it.
FinishingWhisk in the cold butter off the heat immediately before serving. Reheated, the sauce breaks and the corn goes starchy.
YieldThe original gives no yield. As an estimate, two ounces each of cracker-dust and crumbs with an ear or two of corn makes sauce for about four quarter-pound slices.

A Little History

Porgy was the cheap, abundant fish of the nineteenth-century New York market. Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's for over thirty years and the author of The Epicurean (1894), made a habit of dressing such humble local species in French technique and giving them New York names — hence "à la Manhattan" rather than any classical title. The sauce itself is a bread-and-cracker liaison of the sort that predates flour-thickened veloutés in English and American kitchens, here pulled toward the American table by green corn scraped from the cob. The lobster coral is the Delmonico's touch: color and richness.