No. 1286

Spotted Fish, with Green Ravigote Sauce

Spotted Fish a la Sauce Ravigote Verte

Cut from twenty to twenty-four aiguillettes from the spotted fish; put these into a tureen with salt, mignonette, branches of parsley, a bit of thyme, bay leaf, basil, a little tarragon vinegar, a little good oil, six shallots and two cloves of garlic both finely minced, toss them about frequently in their seasoning so that they become thoroughly impregnated. Just when ready to serve, drain and roll them in flour. Have sufficient sweet oil poured into a frying pan to bathe the entire fish, let it get very hot, then plunge into it the slices to let attain a fine color and become quite crusty; drain and dress them in a pyramid form. Serve separately a green ravigote sauce (No. 531).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives no times, temperatures or quantities beyond the count of fish strips, which was normal for a book written for professional cooks. The hinge is the frying: the strips are thin and lightly floured, so the oil must be hot enough to crust them before the interior dries out.

AiguillettesLong, narrow strips cut on a slant from the fillet, roughly the width of a finger. Twenty to twenty-four would come from two or three good-sized fillets.
"Spotted fish"Most likely the spotted weakfish or spotted seatrout of the Atlantic coast, sold today as speckled trout, though the book does not identify it further. Any firm, mild white fillet works the same way: snapper, striped bass, black sea bass.
MignonetteCoarsely cracked white peppercorns, not the shallot-vinegar condiment served with oysters. Crush whole peppercorns under a pan rather than using fine ground pepper.
The marinadeNo duration is given. Thirty to sixty minutes in the refrigerator is enough for strips this thin; the tarragon vinegar will begin to firm and whiten the surface of the fish if it sits much longer, which spoils the fry.
Sweet oilNineteenth-century American usage for edible olive oil, as opposed to lamp oil. A neutral high-smoke-point oil is a reasonable substitute for deep frying, since the olive character is lost at frying heat anyway.
Frying heat"Very hot" is usually taken as about 350-375F for deep frying, though Ranhofer gives no temperature. The strips need to be drained well and floured only at the moment they go in, or the wet marinade will turn the flour to paste and the coating will slide off.
TimingTwo to three minutes at that heat browns and cooks strips of this thickness through. Fry in batches so the oil temperature does not collapse.
Green ravigoteThe sauce is cross-referenced to No. 531 and served separately. Green ravigote is a herb-based sauce; the cold versions are built on vinaigrette or mayonnaise, the hot on velouté, and this page does not say which Ranhofer intended.
Dressing in pyramid formThe strips are stacked in a cone on the platter. Ranhofer does not specify a napkin here, though fried fish was often dressed on one to absorb draining oil; a rack and a warm dish achieve the same end.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is the compiled record of that kitchen: French method applied to whatever the American markets sent up. The "spotted fish" earned its own short run of numbered preparations here, and this one is essentially a friture of marinated strips, a treatment French cooks applied to sole and whiting. Ravigote takes its name from the French ravigoter, to revive or perk up, and the green version owes its color to fresh herbs. The cross-references to numbered sauces are characteristic: Ranhofer assumed a brigade with the sauce repertoire already at hand, so he wrote the fish and pointed to the rest.