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Red Snapper En Fricandeau
Procure a three-pound piece fresh red snapper, remove bone and skin it well. Cut from a piece of salt pork fifteen thin one-inch strips, then with aid of a small larding needle lard surface of fish with strips. Place a mirepoix in braising pan, lay fish over, season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Pour in a half gill white wine and one and a half gills broth, cover fish with a buttered paper, place lid on pan and set in oven for forty-five minutes. Remove, carefully lift up fish with two skimmers and place on a hot dish over a bed of sorrel. Pour a half gill demi-glace in the fish gravy, let reduce on open fire to one gill, then strain it over fish and serve.
A braised fish dish built on veal technique: larded, set on aromatics, cooked under paper in a covered pan. The measurements are in gills and the oven temperature is left to the cook, so both need translating.
- Gills to cupsA gill is 1/2 cup (4 fl oz). So half a gill of white wine is 1/4 cup, one and a half gills of broth is 3/4 cup, half a gill of demi-glace is 1/4 cup, and the sauce reduces down to 1/2 cup total.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A covered braise of this kind wants a moderate oven, around 350F.
- The forty-five minutes is too longThis is the one figure to ignore. A boned, skinned three-pound piece of snapper is cooked through in roughly 20 to 25 minutes at 350F, or when the thickest part reaches 140-145F. Held for three quarters of an hour it will be dry and cottony no matter how good the sauce is.
- MirepoixHere this means the aromatic bed: diced carrot, onion and celery, often with a little diced salt pork or ham, a bay leaf and thyme. Cut it small and spread it in a single layer so the fish sits clear of the liquid.
- Larding the fishFifteen one-inch strips of salt pork pushed through the flesh with a larding needle is there to keep lean fish moist. Chill the pork strips firm first or they tear rather than draw through. A modern substitute is to lay thin sheets of pork fat or blanched bacon over the top instead; less elegant, same effect, and it does not damage the fillet.
- Buttered paperA cartouche, a round of parchment buttered on the underside and laid directly on the fish. It stops the surface drying and keeps the steam close. Parchment does the job; foil is worse here because it holds no butter.
- Demi-glaceReduced brown veal or beef stock, sold in tubs and concentrate pots. A tablespoon of good concentrate loosened with water gives roughly the right body. Skip it entirely and the sauce will taste thin, since the braising liquid is only wine and broth.
- SorrelThe sour green leaf that goes with fish everywhere in French cooking. Wilt it in butter for a minute; it collapses to almost nothing and turns khaki, which is normal. If none is to be found, spinach with a squeeze of lemon reads closest.
- YieldA three-pound piece, once boned and skinned, serves four to six as a main course.
Fricandeau properly belongs to veal: a larded, braised cushion of the leg, glazed and served with sorrel or spinach, a set piece of French cookery for well over two centuries. Applying the name and the method to a fish is the sort of translation exercise that fills a book called The International Cook Book, published under the name of Alexander Filippini, long a chef at Delmonico's in New York, where French technique was routinely fitted to American ingredients. Red snapper suits it: the Gulf fishery is said to have supplied East Coast hotels in quantity by rail and ice, and the flesh is firm and lean enough to take a larding needle and hold together through a braise, which few soft-fleshed fish will do. The sorrel bed and the demi-glace finish are unaltered veal-fricandeau practice, carried over whole.