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Halibut, Egyptienne
Procure a three-pound piece fresh halibut, cut in three equal slices, place them in a saucepan with a pint of water, two tablespoons vinegar, one sliced onion, two branches parsley, the juice of half a sound lemon and one teaspoon salt, then let gently boil for twenty minutes. Lift the fish up with a skimmer, place in baking dish, remove the spinal bones. Lightly egg the surface of the fish. Sprinkle a little bit of butter on top, then set in the oven for ten minutes. Remove, decorate with a little parsley greens and serve.
A plain court-bouillon poach followed by a brief glaze in the oven. The one thing worth changing is the timing: twenty minutes of simmering will leave halibut dry and chalky.
- Cut the poaching timeThree one-pound slices of halibut are cooked through in roughly 8 to 10 minutes at a bare shiver, and they continue to firm up in the oven afterward. Halibut is very lean and turns cottony fast; pull it when the flesh is just opaque and separates in large flakes.
- "Let gently boil"Read this as a bare simmer with the surface barely trembling. A true rolling boil breaks the slices apart and drives the fish against the sides of the pan.
- The poaching liquidA pint of water, two tablespoons of vinegar, onion, parsley, lemon and salt is a quick court-bouillon. It is worth simmering it five minutes on its own before the fish goes in, so the onion and parsley have given something up.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Use 400F for the ten-minute finish; the fish is already cooked and the oven is only setting the egg wash and browning the butter.
- "Lightly egg the surface"Brush with beaten whole egg, or egg yolk thinned with a spoonful of the poaching liquid. It sets to a thin golden glaze under the butter rather than forming any kind of coating.
- A "sound" lemonPeriod shorthand for an unblemished, unspoiled fruit.
- SkimmerA perforated lifter. A wide fish slice or slotted spatula is what you want, and you will need to support each slice from below or it will break.
- BonesHalibut steaks are cross-cut, so the "spinal bones" are the central section of backbone in the middle of each slice. They lift out easily once the fish is cooked, which is why the recipe waits until after poaching.
- YieldThree pounds of steaks serves four to six as a main course.
The International Cook Book (1906) was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and it runs to thousands of short numbered recipes of exactly this stamp: a technique stated once, briskly, with a garnish name attached. The name here is doing light work. In classical French menu language a dish a l'egyptienne generally implies rice, onions, tomato and often eggplant, and that garnish is nowhere in this recipe; restaurant kitchens of the period attached such epithets loosely. What the recipe does preserve faithfully is the standard hotel handling of a firm white fish: poach in an acidulated court-bouillon, bone it while warm, glaze, and send it out.