No. 2254

Cupola of Codfish a la Biscayan

Coupole de Morue a la Biscayenne

Butter a cupola-shaped mold, coat the inside with a layer of butter and dust over with white breadcrumbs, then pour into the mold three well-beaten eggs, shuffle them around so they moisten the entire surface, drain off the surplus egg and bread-crumb the mold once more; with this double breading it will be found easy to cover the mold with a layer of rice prepared as follows: Cook half a pound of rice with just sufficient fish stock (No. 195) to cover, and when dry finish it with butter and grated parmesan; beat it up vigorously and lay it aside to get cold, then use it to spread half an inch thick over the entire interior surface of the mold. Soak two inch-square pieces of salt codfish for eighteen hours, changing the water three times in the meanwhile. Fry four ounces of onions cut into three-sixteenths inch dice in two gills of oil, add to this four crushed and chopped cloves of garlic, a pint of thick tomato puree (No. 730), a pint of broth (No. 194a) and six ounces of capers; cook the codfish in this preparation, and when done and the stock quite consistent let it become cold, afterward using it to fill the cupola, finishing the top with another layer of the rice. Place the mold on a small baking sheet for half an hour in the oven, then detach the rice with the blade of a knife and invert it on a hot dish; surround the cupola with sweet peppers sauted in oil and bestrew the whole with chopped parsley.

← No. 2253 Croustades of Thrushes Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2255 Cutlets of Tenderloin of Beef a la Babanine →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's cupola is a lined mould: a rice shell baked around a salt-cod stew, then turned out whole. Most of the work is in the lining, and everything else can be prepared a day ahead.

The hinge: the rice must be cold and stiffRice spread warm will slump down the sides of the mould and the cupola will collapse when inverted. Cook it until dry, beat in the butter and parmesan while hot so the starch binds, then chill it thoroughly before pressing a half-inch layer against the breaded walls.
The double breading is not optionalButter, crumbs, beaten egg, then crumbs again gives the rice something to grip and, more importantly, gives the finished dome a release layer. Skip it and you will be serving the dish out of the mould with a spoon.
Gills and oilA gill is half a cup, so two gills is one cup of oil for four ounces of onion — generous by modern habit, though the fat carries the tomato and enriches the filling. Half that amount works if the stew is cooked down to the same consistency.
"Two inch-square pieces of salt codfish"Genuinely ambiguous: it may mean two pieces each an inch square, which would be far too little for the quantity of sauce, or salt cod cut into inch squares. The recipe gives no usable weight, so judge by volume — enough cooked fish to fill the mould, which will mean something on the order of a pound or more of dried salt cod before soaking.
SoakingEighteen hours with three changes of water is still correct for hard-dried salt cod, and cold water in the refrigerator is the right place to do it. Taste a shred before cooking; if it is still aggressively salty, give it another change.
The stocksNo. 195 is Ranhofer's fish stock; No. 194a is the broth he cross-references here, which the page does not further describe. Any light fish fumet and a mild unsalted chicken or vegetable stock will do; use unsalted, since the cod and the capers both bring salt.
CapersSix ounces is a lot by modern taste and old-style capers were packed in heavy brine or salt. Rinse and drain them, and consider starting with half, adding the rest at the end once you can taste the finished stew.
OvenThe recipe says only 'in the oven', with no temperature. The mould needs no more than heating through and setting; around 350F for the stated half hour, standing the mould on a sheet as directed, does the job.
Turning out and yieldTurning out -- Run a thin knife around the rim, cover with the hot serving dish and invert in one movement; let it stand a minute before lifting the mould. The recipe gives no mould size or number of servings; half a pound of rice plus the filling makes a dome for a small table.

A Little History

A la biscayenne points to Biscay, the Basque coast on the Bay of Biscay, and behind it stands bacalao a la vizcaína — salt cod stewed with onion, garlic and dried red peppers, one of the defining dishes of the Basque country and of the Atlantic salt-cod trade that ran from Newfoundland to Bilbao. The French kitchen adopted the name and, as here, substituted tomato purée for the pounded dried peppers, keeping only the sautéed sweet peppers around the edge of the dish as a nod to the original. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete working reference, which is why the recipe cross-references numbered stocks and purées rather than repeating them. The moulded, turned-out shape is pure late nineteenth-century restaurant practice: a peasant stew of preserved fish, given architecture and a name, and sent to the table as an entrée.