No. 1288

Sturgeon Fricandeau, with Sorrel or with Green Peas

Fricandeau d'Esturgeon a l'oseille ou aux Petits Pois

Cut a fillet of sturgeon from the middle part of the fish; remove the skin, pare, and if too thick, split it in two without detaching the parts; flatten down the meat and lard it the same as for a veal fricandeau, then season. Line a flat saucepan with fragments of fat pork, minced roots and onions, lay the fricandeau on top, and moisten to half its height with some veal blond stock (No. 423); set the saucepan on a moderate fire and let the liquid fall very slowly to a glaze, then moisten it once more, and again reduce it to a glaze, and finish the cooking by adding a very little broth at a time, while basting it constantly; finally glaze the fricandeau in the oven. Drain, dress it on a dish, pour its own stock over after straining and skimming it. Serve a separate garnishing of either sorrel or green peas.

← No. 1287 Spotted Fish, with Court Bouillon, Calcutta Eels, Pike, Carp & Sturgeon No. 1289 Sturgeon or Sterlet with Quenelles and Olive →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a veal technique applied to fish: sturgeon is dense and meaty enough to be larded and braised down to a glaze without falling apart. The method rewards patience more than precision.

The hinge: glaze, moisten, glaze againMuch of the flavour comes from reducing the stock to a syrupy film against the fish, then rebuilding it. Ranhofer says a moderate fire and that the liquid should fall very slowly; let each addition go nearly dry before adding more. If the liquid boils away fast the pork and vegetables can scorch and the glaze turn bitter.
Sourcing the fishWild sturgeon is protected and its trade restricted; buy farmed sturgeon (widely available in the US and Europe) or substitute a thick centre-cut piece of swordfish or halibut. Ranhofer specifies only a fillet cut from the middle of the fish, to be split if too thick; he gives no weight or thickness.
LardingLarding means threading strips of chilled pork fatback through the flesh with a larding needle. If you have no needle, bard instead: cover the top of the fillet with thin sheets of fatback or unsmoked bacon and tie them on.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer cooked at Delmonico's in New York, and sturgeon appears throughout The Epicurean (1894) because it was then a genuinely common American fish: Hudson River sturgeon was so cheap and so plentiful in the nineteenth century that it was nicknamed "Albany beef," and smoked sturgeon and American caviar were exported to Europe. The treatment here is pure classical French borrowing, a fricandeau being properly a larded, braised, glazed cushion of veal, and sturgeon was firm and pale enough to stand in for it convincingly. The sorrel garnish is the same acid counterweight French cooking gives to shad and to rich veal. Overfishing and dam-building collapsed the Atlantic sturgeon runs within a few decades of this book's publication, which is why a dish that once read as thrifty now reads as luxury.