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April 16
Menu: a; Potatoes; Oyster Bisque; Mackerel, a la Claudine Radishes; Corn Peas; Lettuce and Pepper Grass Salad; Cheese Balls Princess Pudding; Coffee Mackerel, a la Claudine-Take a nice large fresh mackerel, split it down back and remove bone, season fish with melted Crisco, chopped fresh mushrooms, salt, pepper, and finely chopped shallot; put on to a grill iron and cook in front or over brisk fire for about 15 minutes, then take up and serve on hot dish with the following sauce: Take 1 cup brown sauce, 2 tablespoons capers, pinch chopped parsley, four anchovies rubbed through sieve, 1 teaspoon glaze, and 1 chopped shallot, 3 or 4 shredded button mushrooms; boil up and simmer for 10 minutes, rub through sieve, then add juice of 1 lemon and 4 chopped olives, reboil and serve.
A split grilled mackerel with a sharp, anchovy-and-caper brown sauce. The fish is straightforward; the sauce is a small classical exercise that wants a stock base you probably need to plan for.
- Brown sauceThis means espagnole or a decent reduced brown stock sauce, not gravy from a jar. A cup of well-reduced veal or beef stock thickened lightly with a brown roux will stand in; anything thin will not carry the sieving and reboiling.
- Glaze"Glaze" is glace de viande, brown stock reduced to a syrup. A teaspoon of commercial demi-glace concentrate or a cube of frozen reduced stock does the same job of adding depth and body.
- SaltFour sieved anchovies, capers, olives and meat glaze bring a great deal of salt. Season the fish itself lightly and taste the finished sauce before adding any more.
- Grill iron and brisk fireA hinged fish grill over hot coals is what is meant. Under a domestic broiler set high, or on a well-oiled grill grate, a split mackerel of a pound and a half or so will likely be done in less than the stated fifteen minutes -- perhaps 8 to 10 minutes total, skin side taking the most of it. Go by flesh that has just turned opaque at the thickest point.
- Splitting the fishAsk the fishmonger to butterfly it, spine out, head off, pin bones pulled. Mackerel is an oily fish and notably perishable, so buy it the day you cook it and look for firm flesh and clear eyes.
- CriscoMelted shortening was the book's whole point in 1913. Olive oil or melted butter is the obvious substitute here and suits the fish better.
- Sieving the saucePushing it through a sieve after the ten-minute simmer is what makes it smooth; the lemon juice and chopped olives go in afterward. The recipe calls for a reboil at that stage, though a brief one will keep the lemon brighter.
- YieldOne large mackerel handled this way serves two, or three as part of a longer menu. The sauce quantity is generous for that.
- Stray linesThe "Coffee" in the heading and the "April 17 Potato Soup, Breaded Lamb Chops, Tomato Sauce" at the end are fragments of neighbouring menus in the dinner calendar, not part of this dish.
The Story of Crisco (1913), compiled by Marion Harris Neil, was Procter & Gamble's promotional cookbook for the hydrogenated cottonseed shortening they had introduced two years earlier, and it worked hard to prove the new fat could do anything butter, lard or oil could. Its Calendar of Dinners section runs a full year of menus, and the recipes in it borrow the vocabulary of the professional French kitchen: espagnole, glace de viande, a garnish sieved smooth and finished with lemon. The name "a la Claudine" has no documented dish behind it that survives in the classical repertoire. What is genuinely traditional is the pairing itself. Mackerel is oily and assertive, and cooks have answered it with acid and salt for centuries, from the English gooseberry sauce to the caper, anchovy and olive combination used here.