No. 2428

Striped Bass or Sea Bass a la Manhattan

Bass Raye ou Bass de Mer a la Manhattan

Raise the fillets from a striped bass; remove the skin and bones, pare each one into an oval two inches by three inches, and lay them in a buttered sautoir; season with salt, pepper, and very finely chopped onion; moisten with white wine, and cook smothered in the oven; now lay them under the pressure of a light weight, pare once more, and when exceedingly cold cover entirely with jellied mayonnaise (No. 613), and return them to the ice-box. Prepare a pound of very fresh, boneless and skinless bass, put in a sautoir two tablespoonfuls of onions, and six ounces of clarified butter; first fry the onion lightly, then add the well-drained fish; season with salt, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper, and cook in a moderate oven; drain and let get cold; now suppress all the small bones from its meat and pound it well, slowly adding the stock mingled with a few spoonfuls of bechamel sauce (No. 409) reduced with mushroom essence (No. 392) until it becomes quite thick. Rub the forcemeat through a sieve, and place it in a vessel on ice to beat up well, incorporating into it a gill of jelly (No. 103); try a small part to discover whether sufficiently firm, and then add a little dissolved isinglass; thicken on ice and put in the value of a pint of unsweetened and well-drained whipped cream. Coat some No. 2 mousseline molds (Fig. 138) with jelly, dredge over chopped lobster coral, and fill with the preparation; keep them on ice, and when very hard unmold and dress in a circle one beside the other on a round or oval dish into the bottom of which a little jelly has been poured and allowed to harden; in the center dress the escalops of bass; surround with chopped jelly and croutons; brush the fish over with almost cold jelly, and keep the dish very cold until ready to serve, sending it to the table accompanied by a fine herb mayonnaise sauce (No. 612).

← No. 2427 Ballotines of Squabs a la Madison The Cold Service No. 2429 Bastion a l'Americaine →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-part cold buffet piece from Ranhofer's cold service: poached bass escalops glazed in jellied mayonnaise, ringed by small fish mousses set in aspic. Nothing here is difficult, but the whole thing depends on a working aspic, so make that first and test its set before anything else.

The hinge: test the jellyRanhofer says to "try a small part to discover whether sufficiently firm" before adding more setting agent, and that is the instruction that decides the dish. Chill a teaspoonful of the finished mousse mixture on a cold saucer for a few minutes; if it does not hold a soft shape, add more dissolved gelatine before folding in the cream, not after.
Isinglass and jellyIsinglass is fish-bladder gelatine, still sold but rarely; powdered or leaf gelatine does the same job. "No. 103 jelly" is one of Ranhofer's clarified aspic jellies; a strong fish or chicken stock set with gelatine and clarified will serve.
Archaic measuresA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz). "The value of a pint" of whipped cream most likely means about a pint's worth once whipped, which would be roughly a cup of liquid cream, though the phrase could equally be read as a pint of cream before whipping. Six ounces of clarified butter for a pound of fish is generous by modern taste and much of it is drained off.
VesselsA sautoir is a straight-sided saute pan; here it goes straight into the oven, so use an ovenproof one. "Mousseline molds No. 2" refers to Ranhofer's own mold sizing (Fig. 138) -- small molds of the dariole or timbale type, though the exact capacity is not given; any small metal molds will unmold cleanly if dipped a second in warm water.
Oven heat and fish timing"A moderate oven" is conventionally taken as somewhere around 350F. But the fillets are covered and cooked only until just set through, a matter of minutes for pieces this size; bass held long enough to look thoroughly done will be dry and grainy once cold, which is when it is eaten.
Pressing the filletsThe light weight while cooling compacts the flakes so the escalops can be pared to a clean oval and will not fall apart under the mayonnaise glaze. A plate with a can on it is enough; heavy pressure squeezes out the juices.
Lobster coralThe coral is the roe of a hen lobster, dark green raw and coral red once cooked; it is dried and rubbed to a powder for dusting. If unavailable, the molds can simply be lined with jelly, or with a fine dice of cooked lobster or a little paprika-tinted butter for colour.
Serving and yieldThe pound of mousse forcemeat plus cream will fill something on the order of eight to ten small molds, depending on their size, with escalops from a bass of a few pounds for the centre; the recipe gives no yield. Hold everything under 40F until it goes to the table, since the aspic softens quickly in a warm room.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for most of the second half of the nineteenth century, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertoire written out at length. The cold service section is where the ambition shows: buffet centrepieces built from aspic, mousses set in molds, and glazed escalops arranged in rings, all designed to be assembled hours ahead and carried out whole. The Manhattan name is one of a long string of house dishes Ranhofer titled for New York places and patrons, alongside the Madison squabs immediately before it and a good many à la New-Yorkaise and à l'Américaine preparations; it signals the restaurant rather than any regional cooking. Striped bass was the prestige local fish of the period, taken in quantity from the waters around the city, and its firm white flesh suited exactly this kind of pressed, pared, cold-glazed treatment.