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White Perch Saute, Meuniere
Trim off fins and thoroughly wipe six fresh, fat white perch. Make three slight incisions on both sides of fish. Season with half teaspoon salt and two saltspoons pepper, lightly baste with cold milk, then roll in flour. Heat one and a half tablespoons melted butter in a black frying pan, place in perch, one beside another, and fry for six minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a dish, sprinkle a little freshly chopped parsley over and squeeze juice of half a lemon on them. Place an ounce butter in the frying pan and toss on fire until a light brown colour, pour over the fish and serve.
A straightforward pan-fry finished with browned butter. The only technical demand is the final beurre noisette, which turns from nut-brown to burnt in seconds.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is roughly 1/4 teaspoon, so two saltspoons of pepper is about 1/2 teaspoon for six fish. Adjust to taste; the original seasoning is on the assertive side by modern standards.
- Black frying panThis means a well-seasoned cast-iron or heavy carbon-steel skillet, prized then for even heat and a dark, non-stick surface. Cast iron or carbon steel still does this best; nonstick will not brown the flour coating properly.
- Fat for fryingA tablespoon and a half of butter is scant for six fish and will scorch before they cook. Use a larger pan or two batches, and add a neutral oil to raise the smoke point, keeping butter for the finishing sauce.
- TimingSix minutes a side suits modest whole perch over moderate heat; the recipe gives no size beyond "fat." Smaller fish or fillets need less; the flesh should just release from the backbone.
- The incisionsThe three shallow slashes on each side are not decoration. They let heat into the thickest part so the flesh by the spine cooks in step with the belly, and they keep the skin from curling.
- Beurre noisetteThe finish is the hinge. Melt the ounce of butter in the pan off the heat of the fish and swirl until the milk solids turn hazelnut brown and smell of toasted nuts, then pour it over at once. A few seconds more and it is acrid.
- Milk then flourThe milk baste is what makes the flour adhere and gives the crust its colour. Flour just before the fish goes into the pan; if it sits, the coating turns pasty.
- YieldSix whole perch serve three to six, depending on size. Serve immediately with boiled potatoes, the classic accompaniment.
Meuniere means "miller's wife" in French, a name generally traced to the flour dredging that defines the method: fish floured, fried in butter, finished with lemon, parsley and browned butter. It is one of the French fish preparations that crossed into American cooking, and its appearance in an international collection of this vintage reflects how thoroughly professional kitchens of the period worked from a French vocabulary. The choice of white perch rather than the sole of Paris is an American adaptation: a plentiful Atlantic coast and freshwater panfish, sold small and cooked whole. The call for a "black" pan reflects the fact that seasoned iron was in wide use at the time.