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Sheepshead, Mousseline
Procure a small fresh sheepshead of three pounds, scale, trim off the fins and thoroughly wipe, place in an oval braising pan with a sliced carrot, sliced onion, two branches parsley, half a sliced lemon, sprig of thyme, bay leaf, one clove, twelve whole spices and teaspoon whole black pepper. Moisten with two tablespoons vinegar, half gill white wine and enough water to just cover the fish, season with level tablespoon salt, cover the pan on the fire, let slowly come to a boil, then let continually simmer for forty minutes. Remove to a table and lift up the fish with skimmer, dress on hot dish with folded napkin, decorate with a little parsley greens and send to table with mousseline sauce (211) separately.
A plain court-bouillon poach with a rich sauce served alongside. The 1906 cooking time is the one thing worth ignoring.
- The forty minutesA 3 lb whole fish is done in roughly 20 minutes at a bare simmer, or about 10 minutes per inch of thickness at the shoulder. Forty minutes will leave the flesh cottony and shrunken away from the bone. Test at the backbone: the flesh should just release with gentle pressure.
- Bare simmer, not a boilThe instruction to "continually simmer" means the surface barely trembles, around 180F. A rolling boil splits the skin and clouds the liquid.
- Half a gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill of white wine is 1/4 cup. The two tablespoons of vinegar are in addition, not instead.
- Twelve whole spicesMost likely whole allspice berries, though the book does not spell the term out. Twelve is generous for the volume of liquid; eight is plenty if you do not want the court-bouillon to dominate.
- A level tablespoon of saltCorrect for a pan holding two to three quarts of liquid. Scale it to your pan rather than to the fish; the point is to salt the poaching water, not the flesh directly.
- Sourcing the fishAtlantic sheepshead is a Gulf and southeastern species and rarely reaches counters elsewhere. Black sea bass, porgy, snapper or striped bass of the same weight poach identically. Ask for it scaled and gutted with head and tail on, which keeps the shape.
- Mousseline sauceHollandaise lightened with whipped cream folded in at the last moment. It does not hold or reheat well, so make it while the fish rests and serve at once.
- The folded napkinNot decoration alone. A cloth on the hot platter absorbs the liquid draining from the fish so it does not thin the sauce on the plate. A folded tea towel does the same job.
- YieldA 3 lb whole fish serves three to four as a main course once head, bones and skin are accounted for.
Sheepshead takes its name from its blunt human-looking incisors and broad molars, which it uses to crush oysters and barnacles on pilings and reefs; it was one of the most sought-after market fish on the American Atlantic and Gulf coasts through the nineteenth century, common enough in New York that Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn is generally said to be named for it. Alexander Filippini, long of Delmonico's, compiled The International Cook Book in 1906. The treatment here is straight French technique applied to an American fish: a court-bouillon of aromatics, acid and wine, the whole fish presented on a napkin, and the sauce sent separately. Mousseline was among the sauces associated with poached fish in that period.