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Mock Scallops
1½ pounds halibut steak or cod or haddock sliced 1/2 inch thick Dry mustard Salt and pepper Mazola Fine, dry bread crumbs Remove any skin and bones from the fish. Cut in pieces the size of scallops. Dip in Mazola, dust sparingly with the mustard, salt and pepper and put in a baking dish oiled with Mazola. Cover with the crumbs, pour in a little Mazola, using that in which the fish was dipped, and bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven, 375 degrees F. Serve with sliced lemon, a plain vegetable salad and French Fried or Shoe String Potatoes.
A straightforward baked fish dish that depends entirely on cutting and timing. Two details in the original need translating: the brand-name fat and the oven description that does not match the number given.
- MazolaMazola is corn oil, then and now. Any neutral oil works; the repeated brand name suggests the recipe comes from a cookbook sponsored by the maker.
- "A hot oven, 375 degrees"By modern convention 375F is moderately hot rather than hot; period "hot oven" guidance more often fell somewhere around 400-450F. Follow the number, not the adjective, or the crumbs will color before the fish is through.
- Size of the piecesCut the half-inch slices into rough 1 to 1 1/4 inch squares so they cook at the same rate. Uneven pieces are the main reason this dish comes out both dry and underdone in the same dish.
- Fifteen minutes is the outside limitLean white fish in pieces this small is done when it just flakes and turns opaque, often at 10 to 12 minutes. Halibut in particular goes dry and cottony past that point; check the largest piece early.
- Choice of fishHalibut holds its shape best and is the closest to scallop texture. Cod and haddock flake more readily, so handle them gently when turning them in the oil and crumbs.
- Dry mustard"Sparingly" is worth taking literally: dry mustard's bite develops once it meets moisture, and a heavy hand leaves the coating harsh. A very small amount over the whole batch is plenty.
- CrumbsFine dry crumbs, not fresh, and not panko: the point is a thin browned crust that sets in a short bake. Pouring the leftover dipping oil over the top is what browns them, so do not skip it.
- YieldA pound and a half of fish serves about four; the accompaniments the recipe names — lemon, a plain vegetable salad, shoestring potatoes — fill out the meal.
"Mock" dishes run all through American cookery of this period — mock turtle, mock duck, mock cherry pie — and they work by borrowing a shape and a treatment rather than a flavor. Here the borrowing is literal: firm white fish cut into scallop-sized cubes, breaded and baked, arriving at the table looking like the far costlier shellfish. Scallops were seasonal, perishable and mostly a coastal luxury before reliable refrigerated shipping, while cod and haddock were among the cheapest protein on the fish counter. The book itself belongs to a familiar genre: the cookbook issued by a manufacturer, in which every recipe calls for the sponsor's product by name. That is why Mazola appears four times in the recipe, doing the work that butter or lard would have done in a household manuscript, and why the whole dish is built around oil rather than a pan of drippings.