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Bluefish, Bombay
Make six light incisions on the skin side of half a fine fresh bluefish of three pounds. Evenly dredge half teaspoon anchovy essence over; place the fish on a cold dish, cover it with another and let infuse for one and a half or two hours in a cool place. Arrange it on a lightly oiled double broiler. Place over a charcoal fire where the fish is to be broiled the shredded meat of a fresh cocoanut; then place the fish right over; cover the fish to prevent the smoke of the cocoanut from escaping and broil for ten minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish. Prepare an anchovy butter and spread it over the fish. Decorate with six pieces lemon and parsley greens and serve.
A grilled bluefish smoked over burning coconut, from the era when "Bombay" on a menu meant an Anglo-Indian flourish rather than an Indian recipe. The coconut smoke is the whole point of the dish, and everything else is straightforward.
- The hinge: contain the smokeThe shredded coconut smoulders in the coals and perfumes the fish; if the smoke escapes, you have plain broiled bluefish. Work on a covered kettle grill with the lid down, or tent the fish closely with foil over an open fire. Fresh coconut meat is oily and moist, and may well have been chosen because it smoulders rather than flames, though the recipe does not say so.
- "Half a fine fresh bluefish of three pounds"A whole 3 lb fish split down the backbone, one side used here: roughly a pound and a half on the bone, appreciably less as boneless flesh. Serves two, or three as part of a larger meal.
- Anchovy essenceA Victorian bottled concentrate of salted anchovy, still sold in Britain. Colatura di alici or a good anchovy paste thinned with a little water stands in; Asian fish sauce is thinner and sharper but works in a smaller quantity. Half a teaspoon over a fillet is a seasoning, not a marinade.
- "Let infuse" between two cold dishesThe period way of saying cover it and keep it cool; the recipe asks for a cool place, not ice. A refrigerator does the job today. An hour is plenty for a fillet; two hours will not hurt it but adds little.
- Double broilerA hinged wire fish grill with two flat faces, which lets you turn a delicate fish without breaking it. Oil it well and preheat it, or the skin will weld to the wires.
- Ten minutes a side is too longTen minutes a side may be too long -- That timing suits a thick split fish on the bone. A 1-inch bluefish fillet is done at 8 to 10 minutes total; take it off when the flesh is just opaque and separates in flakes. Bluefish is oily and forgiving of heat but goes dry and cottony when overcooked.
- Anchovy butterNo quantities are given. Mash 3 tablespoons softened butter with a teaspoon of anchovy paste and a squeeze of lemon, and let it melt over the hot fish rather than spreading it cold.
- Freshness matters more than usualBluefish has a high oil content that turns rank fast. Buy it the day you cook it; older fish is the reason the species has a reputation it does not deserve.
The International Cook Book belongs to the wave of turn-of-the-century American compilations that catalogued dishes by nationality, and "Bombay" here is a style label rather than a provenance: bluefish is an Atlantic fish, not a staple of the Bombay coast, and the Indian element is supplied by two items of the colonial pantry, coconut and a pungent salted-fish essence. Anglo-Indian cookery leaned heavily on Bombay duck, the dried and salted bummalo whose sharp savour flavoured rice and curries, and anchovy essence supplied a comparable salt-fish pungency from the British larder. Coconut husk and shell are used as smoking fuel in parts of coastal South and Southeast Asia, so the method has some grounding beyond the naming, and the recipe survives as a good example of how the international cookbooks of the period worked: a local fish, a colonial seasoning, and a place name attached to the result.