No. 1233

Red Snapper a la Crequy

Serve the fillets taken from a fish either whole, or else divided into quarter pound pieces; cook them in a mirepoix (No. 419), moistened with Madeira wine; when cooked reduce this to half, adding its equivalent of espagnole sauce (No. 414). Continue to reduce, incorporating into the sauce some lobster butter (No. 580), a pinch of cayenne, and lemon juice. Prepare a garnishing of gherkins, carrots, quenelles, and truffles, the carrots to be cut in half inch balls blanched and cooked in white broth, the quenelles made with a coffeespoon (No. 155) and poached, and the gherkins cut olive-shaped, and the truffles, cut in the shape of cloves of garlic and heated with a little glaze (No. 402) and Madeira. Dress the fish in the center of a dish, and surround with the garnishings arranged in groups; pour some sauce over, and serve the rest separately.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stocked larder, so this reads as a list of cross-references rather than a recipe. Everything hinges on the sauce: the mirepoix cooking liquid, reduced with espagnole and finished with lobster butter, is the dish, and the fish is only poached-braised in it.

Mirepoix (No. 419)In The Epicurean this is not raw diced vegetables but a cooked aromatic base of carrot, onion, celery, ham or salt pork, bay and thyme, sweated in butter. Spread it in a buttered pan, lay the fillets on it and moisten with Madeira as the recipe directs. No oven, temperature or timing is given; cook gently until the fillets are just set.
Espagnole (No. 414)A brown veal stock thickened with brown roux and long reduced, in some versions with tomato. Very few kitchens keep it. A well-reduced brown veal or chicken stock, lightly thickened, gives the same body; the point is a glossy dark sauce that will carry Madeira and lobster butter without breaking.
Lobster butter (No. 580)Lobster shells and coral pounded with butter, warmed, strained and chilled. It is the flavour of the dish. The recipe has it worked in as the sauce reduces; add it gradually and keep the sauce below a hard boil, or a butter-finished sauce can turn greasy.
Quenelles "made with a coffeespoon"A forcemeat of fish or veal piped or shaped into small ovals with two teaspoons and poached in barely trembling salted water for 4-5 minutes. They are done when they float and feel springy; hard boiling makes them break up.
White brothA plain unbrowned veal or poultry stock, used here so the carrot balls stay pale. Salted water with a knob of butter will do for the carrots without changing the look of the plate.
Cutting the garnishHalf-inch carrot balls mean a parisienne scoop; gherkins "olive-shaped" and truffles "in the shape of cloves of garlic" are each turned to small tapered shapes with a paring knife. The garnish is arranged in separate groups around the fish, not scattered.
Glaze (No. 402)Meat stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A spoonful of commercial demi-glace or heavily reduced stock warmed with Madeira is enough to gloss the truffles.
Portions and yieldQuarter-pound pieces of fillet are one serving each. The recipe gives no yield or sauce quantity; a whole snapper fillets out to somewhat under half its weight, and the sauce is split between what is poured over the fish and what goes to the sauceboat.
Fish substitutionsGulf red snapper is expensive and often mislabelled. Any firm white fillet that holds together in a braise -- grouper, black sea bass, striped bass, halibut -- behaves the same way here.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows how his book works: a long alphabetical run of red snapper preparations, each one a French garniture bolted onto an American Gulf fish. The name points to the Créquy family of the French nobility, one of the many aristocratic labels that classical kitchens attached to a set combination of garnishes -- gherkins, turned truffles, carrot balls and quenelles -- rather than to any documented dish invented for a particular person. Red snapper is generally said to have reached New York in quantity from the Gulf after the Civil War, and it appears on Delmonico's bills of fare alongside the European fish of the classical repertoire; dressing it with lobster butter, Madeira and espagnole was how a French-trained chef made an unfamiliar southern fish legible to diners who expected European cooking.