No. 831

Marinated Tunny Fish, Sardines, Gurnet and Accola

Thon Marine, Sardines, Grondins et Accola

Red gurnet and accola are smaller than the tunny fish, the meat being very white and delicate. Tunny fish comes already prepared in boxes the same as sardines; open them, drain them from the oil, either one or the other, but from the sardines wipe off their skin. Lay them on side dishes, sprinkling over some fresh oil, and garnish around with chopped parsley, capers, sliced lemon or Seville oranges; serve slices of buttered bread at the same time.

For Gurnet or Accola.—Cut it in slices, season, cover with oil and broil the pieces; when cold dress them crown-shaped or lengthwise, sprinkle over some more oil, and garnish around with parsley, chopped eggs and slices of lemon.

← No. 830 Truffles Cold Side Dishes No. 832 Turbot or Red Snapper Marinated →

For the Modern Kitchen

Two dishes in one entry: an assembly of tinned fish dressed with oil, and a broil-and-chill treatment for fresh fish served cold. Neither is difficult, but the names and the oil both need translating.

Tunny is tuna"Thon" tinned in oil is exactly what a good jar or tin of oil-packed tuna is today. Ranhofer wants it drained of its packing oil and re-dressed with fresh oil, which is the whole point: the packing oil is tired and the finishing oil is not.
Gurnet and accolaGurnet is gurnard, a firm, sweet-fleshed bottom fish common in European markets. Accola is generally identified as amberjack (Seriola). Any firm white or pale fish steak of similar density will behave the same way.
"Marine" does not mean pickledDespite the title, there is no vinegar cure here. Marine in this context means dressed and held in oil. Nothing is preserved by the process, so treat the finished dish as a same-day cold plate and refrigerate it.
Fresh oilUse a good olive oil with some character. It is the dominant flavour of both preparations, since there is no acid apart from the lemon on the rim of the dish.
Broiling the slicesCut steaks about three quarters of an inch thick, season, oil well and broil under high heat, roughly 4 to 5 minutes a side depending on thickness. Overcooking is the risk: cooled fish that was dry when hot becomes cottony.
Seville orangesThe bitter Seville is a winter fruit with a short season, roughly December to March, and hard to find outside it. Lemon is the substitution the recipe itself already offers.
Chopped eggsHard-boiled and chopped, whites and yolks together, or sieved separately if you want the two-tone effect. Cook them until just set through rather than chalky.
ServingThis is an hors d'oeuvre portion, not a main course. Figure one small tin or two or three ounces of fish per person, with thin buttered bread alongside as directed.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium he assembled from three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it sits in a run of cold side dishes that functioned as the American equivalent of the French hors d'oeuvre service. That such a book leans on tinned fish is worth noticing: canning of sardines in oil was a well-established Breton industry by mid-century, and tinned tuna followed it into the trade, so a New York kitchen could put Mediterranean fish on a plate in January without apology. Gurnard and amberjack, by contrast, had to be fresh, which is why they get their own method. The pairing of the two in a single entry shows how the course was really conceived: not as a set of fixed dishes but as a family of oil-dressed fish arranged on a platter with the same handful of garnishes, chosen by what the market or the storeroom offered that morning.