No. 2223

Skewers of Lampreys, Marinade Sauce

Brochettes de Lamproies, Sauce Marinade

Skin a fine lamprey, clean well and cut off the head, also the thin tail end, then divide it into quarter-inch pieces; lay these in a tureen with sliced onions, parsley, a clove of garlic, truffle peelings, aromatic herbs, allspice, salt and a little brandy, and let macerate for a few hours in a cool place, tossing them about at short intervals; when sufficiently steeped drain them off and wipe dry; run an iron skewer (Fig. 176) through, alternating each slice with one of fresh, fat salt pork. Set these brochettes on a baking sheet, pour a little butter over and cook them in the oven, basting frequently with more melted butter. Add to the marinade two gills of brown sauce (No. 414), as well as half a pint of stock (No. 194a); remove all scum rising for a quarter of an hour while standing it on the side of the range; remove all its fat and afterward strain the sauce, pour into it half a glassful of Marsala wine, reduce again for ten minutes, keeping it in a bain-marie (Fig. 122). When the pieces of fish are cooked, take them from the oven, sprinkle them liberally with salt and dress on a dish, surrounding them with cut-up lemons, and serve the sauce separately.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional brigade, a stocked sauce station and a fishmonger who will hand over a live lamprey. The sauce, not the skewers, is where the work sits.

The hinge: dry the fishAfter maceration the pieces must be drained and wiped genuinely dry. Wet lamprey steams rather than browns on the skewer, and the marinade liquid is wanted intact for the sauce.
Sourcing a lampreySea and river lampreys are managed or protected in much of Europe and are treated as an invasive nuisance in the Great Lakes; supply is regional and seasonal. Where none is available, conger or common eel behaves similarly on a skewer, being equally rich and firm.
CleaningLamprey is coated in slime and is usually scalded and scrubbed before it is skinned and cleaned; like eel, its raw blood is reported to be irritant. Thorough cooking, as here, deals with the rest; nothing about this dish should be eaten underdone.
Gills and glassfulsA gill is half a cup, so two gills of brown sauce is one cup; half a pint of stock is another cup. "Half a glassful" of Marsala is not a fixed measure in this book — roughly 2 fl oz is consistent with the reduction described.
The sauce referencesNo. 414 is Ranhofer's brown sauce, a long-simmered espagnole; a good demi-glace stands in. No. 194 a is one of his stocks. The skimming for a quarter hour on the side of the range means a bare simmer at the cool edge of the heat, not a boil.
Oven heatNo temperature is given. Brochettes of this size want a brisk heat, around 425F, so the salt pork renders and colours before the fish dries; basting with melted butter is not optional at that temperature.
Salt pork'Fresh, fat salt pork' probably indicates mild, sweet-cured fat pork rather than today's heavily salted product. Blanch modern salt pork briefly, or use unsmoked pancetta or fatback, and cut it the same quarter-inch thickness as the fish so the two cook in step.
Truffle peelingsA byproduct of a kitchen turning out truffled dishes daily. A teaspoon of chopped preserved truffle, or the liquid from a jar, gives the same aromatic register in the marinade.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; how many skewers a lamprey fills depends entirely on its size. The sauce goes in a boat, kept warm over the bain-marie so it does not break, and the lemon is meant to be squeezed over the rich fish.

A Little History

Lamprey has been prized in Europe far longer than it has been fashionable: its dense, fatty flesh eats more like meat than fish, which made it a prestige food for medieval fast days, and Henry I of England is traditionally said to have died of a surfeit of them. Gloucester's lamprey pies sent to the English court are a matter of long record, and in the southwest of France and northern Portugal lamprey stewed in its own blood and red wine remains a regional set piece. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's, put this recipe in The Epicurean (1894) among the miscellaneous entrées, where brochettes of chicken livers on one side and lobster on the other show the form for what it was: small skewered morsels barded with pork fat, roasted hard, and sent out with a reduced brown sauce built from the marinade. The technique is thoroughly French, but the ingredient marks the book's ambition — a New York restaurant kitchen that expected to be able to get a lamprey at all.