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Boiled Skate, Brown Butter
Procure a three-pound piece of fresh skate, pare and cut off the fins and cut into six equal square pieces. Wash and thoroughly wipe. Place in a saucepan one sliced carrot, one sliced onion, two branches parsley, one clove, one bay leaf, half gill good vinegar and one quart water. Season with a teaspoon salt. Boil on the range for five minutes, add the fish and let slowly boil for fifteen minutes. Lift up with a skimmer, lay on a cloth and remove the skin. Dress on a hot dish; pour two tablespoons capers over and sprinkle with a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley. Place an ounce butter in a frying pan, toss till a light colour, pour it over the fish and serve.
A plain court-bouillon poach finished with browned butter and capers. Two things need attention: the freshness of the fish and the poaching time, which is generous for wings of ordinary thickness.
- Buy it fresh, and smell itSkate holds urea in its flesh, which converts to ammonia as it ages. A faint ammonia smell means it is past its best; a strong one means do not cook it. A short soak in acidulated water or milk is the traditional remedy, and the vinegar in this poaching liquid does some of the same work.
- What to ask for"A three-pound piece of skate" most likely means wings, though the instruction to pare and cut off the fins suggests a larger untrimmed piece than a modern fishmonger would supply. Skate is boneless in the usual sense: the flesh sits in ridges on either side of soft cartilage, which is not eaten but is easy to lift away at the table.
- Half a gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill of vinegar is 2 fluid ounces, a quarter cup or 4 tablespoons. Cider or white wine vinegar suits better than harsh distilled vinegar.
- TimingFifteen minutes was written for thick wings from a large fish. A wing an inch at the thickest ridge is done in 8 to 10 minutes; thin tail portions in 5. The flesh should separate from the cartilage when pressed. Overcooked skate turns stringy and watery.
- Keep it below a boil"Let slowly boil" should be read as a bare simmer, with the surface barely moving. Skate flesh is fragile and a rolling boil shreds the ridges apart before the centre is set.
- SkinningSkinning is far easier hot than cold. Lift the pieces out onto a towel and scrape the grey skin away with the back of a knife while they steam; the layer of gelatinous flesh directly beneath is good eating and should be left on.
- The butterAn ounce is 2 tablespoons, and "toss till a light colour" means beurre noisette: the foam subsides, the milk solids turn hazelnut brown, and the smell shifts from dairy to nutty. From there to burnt is a matter of seconds, so pour it over the fish immediately.
- Capers and yieldDrain and, if they are salt-packed, rinse the capers before scattering them. Six pieces from a three-pound cut serve four generously or six as part of a larger meal.
Skate with brown butter and capers is one of the enduring plain dishes of the French repertoire, raie au beurre noir, and its presence in an American "international" collection reflects the influence of French-trained cooks on professional kitchens in the United States. The poaching liquid here is a standard court-bouillon: aromatic vegetables, herbs, a clove, and vinegar, the acid both firming the flesh and countering the ammoniac note skate develops as it ages. Skate was long a cheap fish in Europe, sold when better-regarded species were scarce, and the pairing with browned butter and the sharpness of capers is the sort of treatment a strong-flavoured, inexpensive fish tends to attract. One difference from a modern market: this recipe has the cook pare the fins, where a fishmonger today will hand over trimmed wings ready to poach.