No. 1291

Trout a la Cambaceres

Truites a la Cambaceres

Dress four trout each one weighing three-quarters of a pound, suppressing the gills and entrails put them into a small fish boiler (Fig. 135), moisten just to their heighth with a mirepoix stock with white wine (No. 419) and cover the kettle, let come to a boil, and when cooked drain off the liquid and reduce it to the consistency of a syrup, add to it some espagnole sauce (No. 414), half inch balls of truffles, green olives and small mushroom heads, also Madeira wine, a pinch of cayenne and a little tomato sauce (No. 549) passed through a very fine sieve. At the last moment stir in a piece of fresh butter, dress the trout, surround with the garnishing, cover over with a part of the sauce, serving the remainder separately.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have a stocked professional kitchen and three of his other numbered recipes already made. The dish itself is simple: poach trout in an aromatic wine stock, then build a sauce from the poaching liquid.

The hinge: poach gently, never boilRanhofer says "let come to a boil," which in a fish kettle at scale means the surface barely trembles. Whole three-quarter-pound trout are done in 8-10 minutes at a bare shiver, around 170-180F; a rolling boil splits the skin and dries the flesh.
Mirepoix stock with white wine (No. 419)His mirepoix is a cooked mixture of carrot, onion, celery, ham or bacon trimmings and herbs moistened with wine and stock. A court-bouillon of dry white wine, an equal part light stock or water, sliced carrot, onion, celery, bay, thyme and parsley stems does the same work.
Espagnole (No. 414)A brown veal stock thickened with browned roux and tomato, simmered for hours and strained. Half a cup of good reduced veal or beef stock, lightly thickened, stands in for it here; the sauce is already carrying Madeira, tomato and butter.
Tomato sauce (No. 549)Nineteenth-century tomato sauce was a cooked, sieved purée, closer to passata than to a dressed pasta sauce. Use a tablespoon or two of plain sieved tomato purée, not a seasoned jarred sauce.
"Moisten just to their heighth"Liquid level with the top of the fish, not covering it. The covered kettle steams the exposed side, and the smaller volume reduces to syrup afterward much faster.
Truffle balls and olivesHalf-inch truffle balls, cut with a small round scoop, were a display of luxury. Sliced or coarsely chopped preserved truffle, or omitted entirely, changes nothing structural. Green olives should be pitted and, if very salty, blanched briefly.
The butter finishRanhofer says only to stir in a piece of fresh butter at the last moment; the usual handling is to swirl it in off the heat, in pieces. Avoid boiling the sauce hard once the butter is in.
YieldFour trout, four servings as a fish course. A whole trout per person suits a main course with potatoes.
Fish boilerFig. 135 is a long tinned kettle with a perforated lifting rack. A deep roasting pan works; slide two long strips of folded foil under the fish so they can be lifted out unbroken.

A Little History

Ranhofer named dozens of dishes for statesmen, and Cambacérès is one of the era's standing culinary jokes made respectable: Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, second consul under Napoleon and later Duke of Parma, was famous less for law than for his table, and his name attached itself to rich garnished preparations in French kitchens through the nineteenth century. The pattern here is pure classical service — poach the fish in a wine mirepoix, then turn the poaching liquid into the sauce by reduction and fortification, so nothing of the flavor is thrown away. The Epicurean (1894) records what Ranhofer cooked during his decades at Delmonico's in New York, and the cross-references to numbered stocks and sauces show how the book was meant to be used: as a professional manual where the espagnole and tomato sauce were already standing in the larder, not something a home cook would assemble from scratch for one dinner.