No. 370

Fish Broth with Clams

Bouillon de Poisson aux Lucines Orangees

Heat two ounces of butter in a saucepan, add to it two ounces of minced onions, an ounce of carrots, two ounces of turnips and two leeks. Fry colorless, then put in two pounds of the heads and bones of fish and moisten it to its height with water, adding an ounce of celery, one tomato, a little thyme, bay leaf, parsley and salt. Cover and cook for twenty-five minutes, then strain through a sieve, return it once more to the saucepan adding a quart of clams and their juice; boil, strain again through a fine sieve, taste and serve in cups.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A quick fish fumet finished with clams and their liquor, served in cups rather than bowls. The whole thing takes well under an hour, and the main risks are overcooking and grit.

The hinge: barely boil the clamsOnce the strained fish broth goes back on the heat with the clams, bring it just to a boil and pull it off. Clams held at a boil turn rubbery and their liquor goes cloudy and unpleasantly salty as it reduces.
"Lucines orangées""Lucines orangees" -- the French name Ranhofer uses refers to a hard-shell clam, though which species is not certain. Any hard-shell clam works; buy enough to give the quart of shucked clams and their juice the recipe calls for, which will take several dozen littlenecks.
GritPurge the clams in cold salted water for 20-30 minutes before shucking, and let the clam liquor settle so you can pour it off the sand. The final "fine sieve" is better done as a sieve lined with damp cheesecloth.
Weights and "moisten to its height"Two ounces of butter is 4 tablespoons; two ounces of onion is about half a medium onion. "To its height" means add just enough water to cover the bones, the exact amount depending on the pan.
Which fish bonesUse lean white fish: sole, flounder, halibut, cod, bass. Salmon, mackerel and other oily fish make a heavy, muddy broth. Rinse the frames well and remove gills, which turn the stock bitter.
Twenty-five minutes is correctTwenty-five minutes is about right -- fish bones give most of what they have in 20-30 minutes and can turn bitter past that. Skim the foam as it rises and keep it at a bare simmer for a clear result.
SaltSalt the fish stock only lightly. Clam liquor is very saline and arrives at the end, so the seasoning check Ranhofer calls for after the second straining is the one that counts.
Yield and servingThe finished quantity depends on how far the stock reduces; serve hot in bouillon cups or mugs. The clam meats are strained out, though there is no harm in chopping a few fine and dropping them back in.

A Little History

This is No. 370 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium he assembled after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Its placement matters: it sits in the section of broths and soups for invalids, a standard category in nineteenth-century cookbooks, when clear, strained, easily swallowed liquids were the accepted food for the sick and convalescent, and a well-made broth was regarded as something close to medicine. The technique is straight classical French fumet — sweated aromatics, fish frames, a short cooking, a double straining — with clams supplying the finish. Delmonico's drew heavily on the shellfish of the New York coast, and hard-shell clams were then cheap and everywhere in the city's markets.