No. 1284

Spotted Fish, Mussel Sauce-Whole

Spotted Fish Entier Sauce aux Moules

Spotted fish weighing from three to five pounds are usually excellent. Empty, scale and tie down the heads; cooks them in a plain court bouillon (No. 38), and at the first boil, remove the kettle on one side to allow the liquid to bubble only for thirty to forty-five minutes. Drain out the fish, dress it on a napkin, surround with parsley, also balls of boiled potatoes three-quarter inch in diameter and Villeroi mussels (No. 698), also a sauce-boat of normande sauce (No. 509). The fish can also be cut in pieces, simply cooked in a wine court bouillon (No. 39) and served the same as above.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have the rest of The Epicurean at your elbow, since almost every element here is a cross-reference. Here is what those numbers mean and where modern practice differs.

The fish"Spotted fish" in Ranhofer most likely means the spotted weakfish or spotted sea trout of the Atlantic coast, a soft-fleshed member of the drum family. Striped bass, red snapper, branzino or any firm whole white fish of three to five pounds works the same way.
Cooking time is the thing to ignoreCooking time is the thing to watch -- Ranhofer's thirty to forty-five minutes is aimed at the whole three-to-five-pound range, and a fish at the small end will be overcooked long before the top of that window. Hold the liquid at 160-170F, well below a simmer, and reckon roughly 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest part; a whole three-pounder is usually done in 20-25 minutes. Cook to 145F internal.
Plain court bouillon (No. 38)Not reproduced on this page; a plain court bouillon of the period is broadly water, sliced carrot and onion, parsley stems, thyme, bay, a few peppercorns and salt, often with vinegar, simmered together before the fish goes in. No. 39, the wine court bouillon, substitutes wine for a good part of the water, which is the better choice if you cut the fish into pieces.
"Tie down the heads"This means binding the head and gill covers so they do not gape and the fish keeps its shape. Wrapping the whole fish loosely in cheesecloth with a long tail of cloth at each end does the same job and gives you a way to lift it out unbroken.
Villeroi mussels (No. 698)Mussels steamed open, threaded on skewers or left loose, coated in a thick, cold, well-reduced Villeroi sauce, then breaded and fried. Buy live mussels, scrub and debeard them, and discard any that stay shut after steaming. The coating must be chilled solid or it slides off in the fat.
Normande sauce (No. 509)A fish velouté finished with cream and egg yolks and flavoured with mussel or oyster liquor and mushroom cooking liquid. Add the yolk-and-cream liaison off the heat and do not let it boil afterwards, or it will curdle.
Dressing on a napkinA folded linen napkin on the platter absorbs the poaching liquid that drains from the fish so the sauce is not thinned at table. It is still the neatest solution; a folded cloth napkin under the fish costs nothing.
Potato ballsThree-quarter-inch balls cut with a parisienne scoop from peeled raw potatoes, boiled just to tender. Cut them ahead and hold in cold water so they do not discolour.
YieldA whole fish of this size serves four to six as a main course, with the fried mussels and potatoes counted as the garnish rather than a separate side.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is a working record of that restaurant's repertoire rather than a domestic cookbook, which is why a single fish gets several numbered treatments in a row. The construction here is pure grand-service French: a whole poached fish on a napkin, a hot emulsified sauce sent separately in a boat, and a garnish that carries a second, contrasting technique in the fried Villeroi mussels. Both sauce normande and the Villeroi coating are generally traced to early nineteenth-century French professional cooking, the first named for Normandy's cream, cider country and shellfish, the second traditionally said to honour the Villeroy family. If the fish itself is an American Atlantic weakfish rather than a European sole, as seems likely, it shows what Delmonico's actually did: local catch, dressed in the full vocabulary of the Paris kitchen.