No. 388

Fish Essence

Essence de Poisson

Cut in slices two pounds of bass, porgies or any other bony, and very fresh fish; put them into a saucepan and season with salt, whole peppers and half a pint of white wine. Fry lightly in butter without attaining a color, three ounces of minced onions, three ounces of carrots, a bunch of parsley garnished with two bay leaves and the same of thyme, two cloves and two shallots; add all these to the fish with one quart of water, and cook slowly for forty minutes, then strain through a fine sieve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A classic fish fumet under an older name. It is a short, concentrated stock meant to be used as a cooking liquid or the base of a white fish sauce, not drunk as broth.

The hinge: keep it below a simmerFish frames release their flavor fast and their bones give up bitterness and glue slowly. Hold the pot at a bare shiver with only occasional bubbles; a rolling boil emulsifies fat and albumin and turns the essence cloudy and gluey.
Forty minutes is too longModern practice caps a fish stock at 20 to 30 minutes. Beyond that the bones contribute bitterness and a chalky, glue-like body, and the delicate aromatics flatten. Take it off at 25 minutes and strain.
Half a pint of wineOne cup. Use a dry, unoaked white — Muscadet, Sauvignon Blanc, dry vermouth. The quart of water is four cups, so the finished yield is roughly a quart after straining and evaporation.
Porgies and "bony" fishThe recipe asks only for bony, very fresh fish and names bass and porgy (scup). Lean, white-fleshed frames suit the purpose best: bass, porgy, snapper, halibut, sole and cod all work. Avoid oily fish — salmon, mackerel, bluefish, sardine — which make a heavy stock that turns quickly. Gills and any trace of viscera must be removed or the result is bitter.
Fry without colorThis is sweating, not browning. Butter over low heat, lid on if it helps, until the onion is translucent and the carrot soft. Any browning gives a beige stock and a caramelized note that fights the fish.
The parsley bunchA bouquet garni: tie the parsley stems around two bay leaves and two thyme sprigs with string, so it lifts out whole. "Two of thyme" means two sprigs, not two of anything measured.
Salt lightly, or not at allAn essence is almost always reduced further or used to mount a sauce. Season the finished dish rather than the stock; whole peppercorns are fine, as they are strained out.
Straining and keepingLadle rather than pour, and do not press the solids — pressing forces fine particles through and clouds the liquid. A fine sieve lined with damp cheesecloth is better than a sieve alone. Refrigerate up to two days, or freeze; it loses its freshness quickly.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of the kitchen he ran at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and its opening chapters are a working catalogue of the stocks and "essences" on which the rest of the book depends. In the French system an essence is a stock made short and strong — cooked with less water and more aromatics than an ordinary fond — so that a spoonful will lift a sauce without watering it down; the fish version is what most kitchens now call a fumet. The choice of bass and porgies is a New York detail rather than a Parisian one: scup and striped bass came off the Atlantic coast cheaply and in quantity, and a hotel kitchen worked with what the local market supplied. That Ranhofer specifies "very fresh" is not filler — fish spoils quickly, and a stale piece cannot be rescued by long cooking.