Gateau of Fish
1½ lbs. cooked white fish 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco ½ cupful breadcrumbs ½ cupful milk 2 eggs
A fish loaf built on a breadcrumb-and-milk panade, of the type baked or steamed in a plain mould and turned out. The proportions are the useful part; a few of the terms have shifted since the book was written.
- CriscoThe book's own product: a hydrogenated vegetable shortening, still sold. Any solid vegetable shortening works, and 3 tablespoons of butter gives a better flavour in a fish loaf if you are not bound to the original.
- "Gateau" here means a mould, not a cake"Gateau" here is used of a savoury moulded loaf, not a sweet -- in English cookery books of this period a gateau of fish is flaked fish packed into a buttered mould or plain tin and turned out whole. Nothing sweet is intended.
- Cooked white fishCod, haddock, hake or pollock, poached or left over from a previous meal. Flake it and check carefully for bones and skin before mixing, since neither is detectable once the loaf is bound.
- The binding is the hingeSoak the crumbs in the milk until they collapse, then beat in the eggs. A panade that is still dry gives a crumbly loaf that will not turn out; one that is soupy will not set. It should hold a soft mound on a spoon.
- Oven and vesselThe recipe as printed gives no method, temperature or time. A loaf of this size will bake in a buttered tin in a moderate oven, around 350F, for roughly 45 minutes, until firm at the centre. Set in a pan of hot water for a gentler, more custard-like texture.
- SeasoningNo salt, pepper, lemon or herbs are listed. Cooked white fish and a milk panade need all of them; season the mixture assertively before it goes into the tin. Do not taste the raw mix, which contains uncooked egg; check the seasoning by frying off a small spoonful instead.
- YieldAbout six servings as a main course with a sauce, or eight sliced cold. Anchovy, parsley or egg sauce would be a likely period accompaniment.
The Story of Crisco (1913) was published by Procter & Gamble to teach American cooks what to do with a wholly new fat: cottonseed oil hardened by hydrogenation, sold in a can and neither lard nor butter. The recipe pages that fill out the book are largely conventional household cookery of the day, restated with Crisco in place of the usual shortening, and this fish loaf is a clear example. Moulded loaves of flaked fish bound with crumbs, milk and egg were a standing feature of Anglo-American cooking from the late nineteenth century, valued because they stretched a small amount of fish and used up cold cooked pieces. The French label was a common bit of genteel dressing-up; the dish itself is plainly domestic.