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Broiled Perch
Mix on a plate one tablespoon oil, a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper; mix well. Roll six small perch, well-trimmed and wiped, in the seasoning till it is all absorbed. Arrange on a broiler and broil for five minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish. Spread a tablespoon melted butter over, decorate with six pieces lemon and a little parsley greens and serve.
A plain broiled fish that depends almost entirely on the fish being small, dry and evenly coated. Two details do the work: wiping the perch genuinely dry, and getting the broiler fully hot before the fish goes under.
- Dry the fish first"Wiped" is the hinge. Surface moisture steams the skin rather than browning it, and wet fish sticks to the grid. Blot each perch inside and out with paper towels and let them sit uncovered a few minutes before oiling.
- The broiler meantWhen this was written, broiling generally meant a hinged wire broiler held over coals, or a gridiron in a range's broiling compartment. Under a modern overhead broiler, set the rack about 4 inches from the element and preheat it thoroughly; oil the rack or use a preheated grill pan.
- TimingFive minutes a side suits small whole perch of perhaps 6 to 8 ounces. Smaller pan-sized fish or fillets will be done in two to three minutes a side. The flesh should be opaque to the bone and flake at the thickest point; overshoot and perch turns dry and cottony very quickly.
- "Well-trimmed"Scaled, gutted, gills out, fins clipped with scissors. Perch scales are fine and tenacious, and the dorsal spines are sharp, so trim those before scaling. Score the thickest part of each side once or twice for even cooking.
- The seasoning quantitiesA tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of salt for six fish is on the salty side by modern taste, and the oil is barely enough to coat. Two tablespoons of oil and about three-quarters of a teaspoon of fine salt is a more workable ratio.
- White pepperOften said to be chosen so that dark flecks would not show on pale fish, though the recipe gives no reason. Its flavour differs a little from black, but either works here.
- ServingSix small perch feeds three as a main course or six as a first course. "Dress on a hot dish" means warm the platter, otherwise the melted butter congeals before it reaches the table.
Perch is a freshwater fish of European rivers and lakes and of the North American Great Lakes, and it belongs to the class of small, cheap, bony fish that nineteenth-century cookery books treated as everyday food rather than as a course to be dressed up. The method here is the classic French poisson grill\: oil and season, grill hard and briefly, finish with melted butter, lemon and parsley, and add nothing else. That finishing trio is essentially à la meunière logic applied to the grill instead of the pan.