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Broiled Smelts, Maitre D'Hotel
Thoroughly wipe dry twelve very fresh, good-sized smelts. Have a tablespoon oil on a plate with half teaspoon salt and one saltspoon paprika; mix all well, then gently roll the smelts in the seasoning. Arrange on a double broiler and broil on a brisk fire for five minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish; spread a maitre d'hotel butter, over them, decorate the dish with parsley greens and six pieces of lemon and serve.
A four-ingredient dish whose success rests entirely on heat and timing: smelts are thin, oily and quick, and the difference between succulent and dry is about ninety seconds.
- Cut the timeFive minutes a side will overshoot all but the largest smelts. Under a preheated broiler or over hot coals, good-sized fish (5-6 inches) need roughly 2-3 minutes a side; they are done when the skin blisters and the flesh at the backbone turns opaque.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. The whole seasoning here is a tablespoon of oil, half a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of paprika for twelve fish, which is deliberately light.
- "Double broiler"Not a double boiler. This is a hinged wire fish grill that clamps the fish between two grids so they can be turned as one and do not tear on the bars. A well-oiled grill basket does the same job; failing that, broil on a rack and turn once with a wide spatula.
- Brisk fireHigh, direct heat — a broiler element preheated for a full ten minutes with the rack set 3-4 inches beneath it, or a charcoal fire you can hold a hand over for only two or three seconds.
- Maitre d'hotel butterThe book assumes you know it: soften 4 oz butter and work in a few tablespoons of chopped parsley, the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper. Spread it cold in slices over the hot fish so it melts at the table rather than in the pan.
- Buying and cleaningSmelts are sold whole and are traditionally eaten bones and all; larger ones are usually gutted, small ones need nothing but a rinse. "Thoroughly wipe dry" is the operative instruction — surface moisture steams the fish instead of searing it.
- YieldThe six pieces of lemon suggest the original was portioned for six, two fish apiece; by modern appetites twelve smelts would more likely serve three or four as a main course.
Smelts are small, silvery, faintly cucumber-scented fish that ran in large numbers up the rivers of New England and northern Europe in spring, which made them cheap, seasonal and a fixture of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century restaurant menus. Maitre d'hotel butter — butter worked with parsley and lemon — is the plainest of the classic French compound butters and the default finish for grilled fish and steaks.