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Codfish, Biscayenne
Soak two and a half pounds boneless cod during the night, drain, then divide it in pieces. Rub the inside of a baking dish with a bean sound garlic. Parboil codfish for five minutes, drain, then add it to baking dish. Peel and cut in pieces three fresh red tomatoes and sprinkle over codfish. Finely chop six sound shallots, three branches parsley, branch chervil, and sprinkle over tomatoes with a half teaspoon pepper, then dredge over three tablespoons bread crumbs. Thoroughly heat two tablespoons olive oil and pour it over all, set in oven for forty-five minutes, remove and serve.
A plain Basque-style baked salt cod that the book has passed through a French filter. Almost everything depends on the soaking, which the original treats too casually.
- "Boneless cod" means salt codThis is dried salted bacalao, not fresh fillet. Buy a thick centre-cut piece if you can; thin tail ends turn to threads.
- One night is not enoughModern salt cod, particularly the heavily cured Portuguese and Spanish product, wants 24 to 36 hours in the refrigerator with the water changed three or four times. Taste a corner of the raw flesh before you go on: if it is still aggressively salty, keep soaking.
- Skip the parboil, or shorten itFive minutes of boiling on top of 45 minutes in the oven is one cooking too many. Properly soaked cod can go into the dish raw, or take a two-minute bath in barely trembling water to firm it.
- "A bean sound garlic"Read as "a bean of sound garlic": in books of this period a "bean" of garlic means one clove. Halve it and rub it over the inside of the dish.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Bake at 350F. If the top is not browning near the end, run it under the broiler for a minute rather than pushing the heat and drying the fish.
- No added saltThe half teaspoon of pepper is the only seasoning listed apart from the garlic and herbs; no salt is called for anywhere. Salt the dish only at the table, after tasting.
- Chervil and shallotsChervil goes limp and flavourless in a long bake; add half of it at the end if you want to taste it. The six shallots the recipe calls for are generous for two and a half pounds of fish, though that is a matter of taste.
- Oil and crumbsTwo tablespoons of oil over 2.5 lb of fish is lean by modern standards, and the crumbs will scorch dry in patches. Use four tablespoons of good olive oil and pour it evenly rather than in one place.
- YieldServes five or six as a main course with bread and boiled potatoes.
Biscayenne is the French adjectival form relating to Biscay, the Basque province on the Bay of Biscay, and the dish behind it is bacalao a la vizca u00edna u a red sauce.