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Spanish Mackerel, Reick
Trim fins, cut head off and neatly wipe a nice, very fresh Spanish mackerel of three and a half pounds; split in two through back and cut into six even pieces. Heat a tablespoon good butter in a round earthen cocotte dish, add six very small green onions and gently brown five minutes, then add a half pint picked, tender, fresh peas, three-quarters of a pint broth, and briskly boil ten minutes. Add a tablespoon currant jelly, mix well, lay the mackerel on top of the peas, season with half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons paprika and half teaspoon anchovy essence. Place in a bowl a teaspoon flour, a tablespoon melted butter, one finely chopped red Spanish sweet pepper, half teaspoon finely chopped parsley and the leaves of a branch chervil. Thoroughly mix with spoon, then divide in little bits over the fish. Squeeze juice of half a sound lemon over all. Tightly cover the cocotte, set in a slow oven forty minutes, remove and send to table without uncovering.
RACK OF MUTTON, PUREE OF WHITE BEANS Trim off spinal bone from a tender rack of mutton, trim off skin and a little of fat from top, shorten end ribs one inch. Season all around with teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Place a mirepoix at the bottom of a roasting pan, lay the rack over, lightly baste with a little melted butter, pour two tablespoons of water in the pan, then set in oven forty-five minutes, turning and basting once in a while. Remove, dress on a dish. Prepare and dress a puree of beans on one side of the mutton, skim fat from gravy, add one gill demi-glace, boil five minutes, then strain gravy through a Chinese strainer over the rack and serve.
Two dishes have run together on this page: a covered braise of Spanish mackerel with peas, and a roast rack of mutton. Both are written for a cook who already knows the house methods, so the oven temperatures and several of the measures need filling in.
- The forty minutes is the problemForty minutes is a long time for portions cut from a 3½ lb fish. Covered, in a slow oven, thick pieces of an oily but delicate fish like Spanish mackerel may well be done before the time is up, and overcooked fish dries and shreds. Begin checking early and take the pot out when the flesh just parts at the bone.
- Slow ovenRoughly 250 to 325F; 300F is a fair working figure. For the mutton the original gives no temperature at all; forty-five minutes to a rosy centre suggests a fairly brisk oven, and an internal temperature of 130-135F is a safer guide than the clock.
- Old measuresA gill is half a cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so "two saltspoons paprika" is half a teaspoon. Half a pint of shelled peas is one cup; three-quarters of a pint of broth is one and a half cups.
- CocotteHere it means a round lidded earthenware casserole, not a ramekin. A small enamelled Dutch oven does the same job. The seal matters more than the material: the dish goes to the table covered because the point is the trapped steam and aroma.
- Anchovy essence and currant jellyAnchovy essence was a thin bottled extract; anchovy paste loosened with a little water or broth stands in at about half a teaspoon. The currant jelly is not a mistake or a sweetener for its own sake, it balances the salt of the anchovy and the broth against the oily fish.
- Red Spanish sweet pepperA pimiento, sold jarred and already roasted and peeled. Drain and chop it. A fresh red bell pepper is sweeter and firmer, and should be roasted and skinned first if you use it.
- Mirepoix, demi-glace, Chinese strainerThe mirepoix is the usual diced carrot, onion and celery bed under the roast, there to keep the meat off the pan and flavour the drippings. Demi-glace is a reduced brown sauce; good reduced veal or beef stock will serve. A Chinese strainer is a chinois, a fine conical sieve.
- YieldThe mackerel, cut in six, serves four generously or six modestly. A trimmed rack of mutton, ribs shortened, serves three to four; lamb is the practical substitute, since true mutton needs ordering ahead from a butcher and carries a much stronger flavour.
Naming a dish for a customer was the standing practice in the American hotel and club kitchens this book records, and "Reick" is one of dozens of surnames scattered through it with no explanation offered, on the assumption that the person needed none at the time. The fish itself is thoroughly Atlantic-American: Spanish mackerel ran heavily off the East Coast in season and was prized as the finest of the mackerel tribe, sweet enough to be treated like a luxury fish rather than salted down as its common cousin usually was. The treatment here is French in method — a covered cocotte, a bed of peas and green onions, a compound butter dotted over the top, a whisper of anchovy and currant jelly for depth.