No. 1249

Sardines Broiled. Anchovies Fried, Silver Fish in Papers

Sardines Grillees. Anchois Frits. Silver Fish en Papillotes

Broiled Sardines.—If the sardines be fresh, empty and scrape on each side, then wipe well. Put them on a plate, pour oil over, and place them on a double hinged broiler; broil, dress and baste with maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581). Serve at the same time some slices of toast. In case there be no fresh sardines then use those in tins; take them out of the box, suppress the skin, and cut off both ends, finish them the same as the fresh ones.

Fried Anchovies.—If no fresh anchovies be handy, then use unsalted ones, splitting them in two and soak in fresh water for three hours. Drain, clean, and put them on a deep plate pouring over vinegar, oil, adding mignonette pepper. Dip them in frying paste, then plunge into very hot oil to fry them to a fine color; drain and dress on a folded napkin in a pyramidical form, arranging a bunch of fried parsley on top. Serve with anchovy sauce (No. 427).

Silver Fish in Papers.—After cleaning the fish, slightly detach the fillets in order to remove the middle bone; salt and coat over with oil, broil them but little. Oil some sheets of paper, cut into heart-shapes; on one side place a little Duxelle (No. 385), over this the fish, and finish with a little more Duxelle, then fold the paper all around to enclose them hermetically; when they are two-thirds folded pour in some Madeira sauce (No. 492), and finish to close. Butter the dish on which they are to be served, put on the papers and set it in the oven. Serve when the papers have swollen and they are of a fine color.

← No. 1248 Salmon-Smoked American Style Shad, Herring & Mackerel No. 1250 Shad Broiled, Ravigote Butter →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three small-fish preparations from Ranhofer's Delmonico kitchen, written for cooks who had the book's numbered sauces already made. The main obstacles today are supply and the cross-references, not technique.

The hinge: cook them barely at allFresh sardines and anchovies are thin, oily and fully cooked in two to three minutes a side over high heat. The silver fish are broiled only "but little" on purpose, because they finish inside the sealed paper. Overshooting here dries the flesh to cotton, and no amount of maitre d'hotel butter recovers it.
Fresh sardines and anchoviesBoth are sold whole at good fishmongers, often frozen. Fresh anchovies are the harder find; Italian and Spanish markets sell them as alici or boquerones. Ranhofer's fallback of "unsalted" anchovies most likely meant fish less heavily cured rather than truly salt-free — he still has you soak them three hours; if you use modern salt-packed anchovies, three hours of soaking with several water changes is about right, but they will still be assertively salty.
Tinned sardinesSkinning and trimming the ends of tinned fish, then broiling and buttering them, dresses a preserved product up to resemble a fresh one. Modern tinned sardines are soft and will fall apart on a broiler rack; a hot pan or a very short pass under a grill on toast serves better.
Mignonette pepperCoarsely cracked white or black peppercorns, from the old French poivre mignonnette. Crush them in a mortar or under a pan rather than using the fine grind.
Frying pasteA plain flour-and-liquid batter of coating thickness, not a puff or choux paste. Frying oil should be around 350-375F; the fish are small enough to color in about ninety seconds.
Fried parsleyDry parsley sprigs thoroughly before they touch hot oil. Wet leaves will throw fat violently. Fifteen to twenty seconds is enough for the classic dark green, brittle garnish.
Silver fishIn American markets of this period "silver fish" most likely meant a small silvery fish such as smelt or silversides, not the modern insect of the same name. Whole smelt of about four to five inches are the closest substitute.
The cross-referenced saucesNo. 581 is maitre d'hotel butter, essentially softened butter with chopped parsley, lemon and seasoning. No. 385 is duxelles, mushrooms and shallots chopped fine and cooked dry. No. 427 is anchovy sauce and No. 492 a Madeira-fortified brown sauce. Substituting a quick pan sauce for the last of these is reasonable; a bought demi-glace loosened with Madeira works.
Papillotes in a modern ovenParchment behaves better than oiled writing paper. Bake at 425F for eight to ten minutes, until the packet is domed and browned at the edges. Serve the papers unopened on the plate so the trapped steam is released at the table.
YieldNone is given, as the book assumed a service kitchen. Reckon four to six whole sardines or anchovies per person as a course, or two small silver fish per papillote.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York. Grouping the three dishes under one number is characteristic: they are all treatments of small oily fish of the kind Mediterranean cooks handled by the basketful. The concession to tinned sardines is the telling detail. Sardine canning in oil had been industrialised in Brittany from the early nineteenth century, and by Ranhofer's day the tins were a reliable pantry staple in American cities while genuinely fresh sardines, which spoil quickly, were not. His instruction to skin them and trim the ends is a chef's cosmetic repair, meant to disguise the preserved fish as fresh. The en papillote method, meanwhile, was already old by 1894 and is usually traced to French practice of enclosing a delicate item with a moist forcemeat or duxelles so it steams in its own aroma, the swelling paper serving as both timer and theatre.