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Fried Filets of Halibut, Horly
Remove the skin and bones from a two-and-a-half-pound piece of the tail part of a fresh halibut, cut into six equal filets. Place them on a deep dish with half a sliced onion, the juice of a sound lemon, half teaspoon chopped parsley, two tablespoons oil, teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, repeatedly turn the filets in the seasoning and let infuse in a cool place for fifteen minutes. Drain them, then lightly turn them in flour, lightly dip in beaten egg, and lightly roll in bread crumbs. Arrange them in a frying basket and fry in hot, but not boiling, fat for twelve minutes. Lift up, drain well on a coarse towel, sprinkle a little salt over, dress on dish with folded napkin and serve with one gill hot tomato sauce separately.
A classic Orly-style fried fish: brief marinade, three-stage breading, deep fry, tomato sauce alongside. The only figure that needs real rethinking is the frying time.
- Twelve minutes is far too longTwelve minutes looks too long -- filets cut from a 2.5 lb tail piece will not be very thick, and should cook through in roughly 4 to 6 minutes at frying temperature. Halibut is lean and turns dry and cottony fast; many cooks pull it at an internal 130-140F, allowing for carryover.
- "Hot, but not boiling, fat"Fat does not boil at frying temperatures, it smokes, and the phrase is best read as hot enough to seize the crumbs but short of smoking, roughly 350-365F. Below that the breading soaks; above it the crust colors before the center sets.
- A gillHalf a cup, which is a generous sauceboat for six. Any smooth tomato sauce works, served hot and separately so the crust stays crisp.
- The marinadeFifteen minutes is short by design. Lemon juice will in time firm and whiten the surface of the fish, which spoils the texture, so drain and bread promptly rather than letting the filets sit.
- Dry the filets before flouringThe recipe says drain, and it matters. Surface marinade left on the fish makes the flour gluey and the crumb coat slides off in the fat. Blot, then flour, egg, crumbs, pressing lightly.
- The frying basketA basket was used because these were lowered into a deep kettle of fat. Breaded items tend to stick to basket mesh; lower them in loose with a spider or slotted spoon instead, in two batches so the fat temperature holds.
- HalibutAtlantic halibut is heavily depleted and generally best avoided; Pacific halibut is the sound choice, and thick cod, hake or haddock filets take the same treatment.
- Yield and serviceSix filets, six servings. The folded napkin on the platter is period presentation meant to absorb fat and keep the fish from steaming in its own drippings on the way to the table.
The name is a spelling of à l'Orly, one of the fixed formulas of nineteenth-century French restaurant cooking: fish (most often sole) marinated briefly in oil, lemon and herbs, coated à l'anglaise in flour, egg and crumbs, deep-fried, and sent out with tomato sauce apart. The origin of the name is disputed and usually traced, without firm evidence, either to the town of Orly or to a cook of that name; by Escoffier's day it was standard kitchen vocabulary rather than a novelty. Its appearance here with halibut rather than sole is the telling detail. Books of this kind, compiled for American hotel and household kitchens around the turn of the twentieth century, often mapped French service names onto the fish that actually came off the boats, and halibut was landed in quantity, above all in the Pacific fishery. The folded napkin, the separate sauceboat and the exact count of six filets suggest a professional dining room, where a garnish name told the whole brigade what to do without further instruction.