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Bass a La Biere
Procure a nice fresh bass of three and a half pounds, trim off the fins, scale and wipe well. Finely slice two medium, white, peeled onions, place in a braising pan with half ounce butter, place on the fire and cook for three minutes; lay the bass over the onions, add one teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, half teaspoon each chopped chervil and chives, and season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika. Moisten with three-quarters pint light beer, cover the fish with a lightly buttered paper, boil for five minutes, then set in the oven for thirty minutes. Remove, lift up the paper, arrange the bass on a large dish, place the pan on the fire and let boil for three minutes. Knead in a bowl a half ounce butter with half ounce flour and add little by little to the boiling sauce, continually mixing meanwhile; boil for two minutes more, remove, pour sauce over the fish and serve with six heart-shaped bread croutons around the fish.
A Flemish-style braise that reads as vaguer than it is: the method is sound, but three of the measurements mean something different now than they did in 1906.
- "Light beer" is not light beerThe original means a pale, low-bitterness beer — a lager, a Belgian blond, a mild pale ale. A modern reduced-calorie light beer will give the sauce nothing, and a hoppy IPA risks turning bitter as the sauce boils down.
- Convert the awkward amountsThree-quarters of a pint is 1 1/2 cups. Half an ounce of butter is 1 tablespoon; half an ounce of flour is a scant 2 tablespoons. The kneaded butter and flour is a beurre manie; the recipe has it added little by little to the boiling sauce, in small pieces and mixing continually so it does not clump.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no setting at all, only "set in the oven." A moderate oven, around 350F, is a reasonable modern reading.
- Thirty minutes is too longThirty minutes may be too long -- A 3 1/2 lb whole bass, already boiled five minutes on the stovetop, is likely done well before the full half hour at 350F; check from about 20 minutes, or when the flesh parts cleanly from the bone.
- The buttered paperCut a round of parchment, butter one side, and lay it directly on the fish. It is a cartouche, not a lid — it keeps the exposed top from drying while letting the braising liquid concentrate. Do not substitute a tight foil cover.
- Buying the fishStriped bass or black sea bass both work. Have the fishmonger scale and gut it and remove the gills; "trim off the fins" means the dorsal and pectoral fins, and the tail can stay on for presentation.
- Chervil and chivesChervil is still hard to find fresh. Flat-leaf parsley with a pinch of tarragon approximates its faint anise note; skipping it entirely is better than using dried.
- YieldA 3 1/2 lb whole fish will stretch to four or so as a main course, though the six croutons suggest the original portioned it for six. The croutons are hearts of white bread, set around the platter.
Cooking freshwater and estuary fish in beer rather than wine is a northern European habit, strongest in Flanders, the Rhineland and northern France, where beer was the everyday drink and wine the imported luxury — the same logic that produced carbonnade. Filippini's The International Cook Book (1906) gathered regional dishes from many countries for American hotel and household kitchens; Filippini had cooked at Delmonico's in New York, and the recipe's shape shows it, with the fish lifted to a platter and the braising liquid finished separately into a sauce in the professional manner. Heart-shaped croutons are a common garnish of the era, appearing around braised fish and other dishes alike.