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French Method of Seasoning Fish
The French method of seasoning a rather insipid fish is by cooking it in flavored water, that which is known on the continent by the name of court bouillon. It is prepared thus: cover the bottom of the fish kettle with a bed of sliced carrots, onions and a sliced lemon. Upon this put green parsley, thyme, bay lansel and a few grains of whole pepper. Place the fish upon this bed and cover with equal parts of white wine and water, or if you do not care to use the wine, use two wine glassfuls of vinegar-not too strong vinegar, added to the water. Set over a moderate fire, and the fish will be perfectly cooked as soon as the liquid boils. This court bouillon must always be cold when the fish is put into it. Reboiled every three days, the bouillon may serve for several times, a little water being added each time to supply the loss of evaporation.
A court bouillon and a poaching method rather than a fixed dish, so quantities are left to the cook. Two instructions carry the whole technique: the fish goes into cold liquid, and it comes out the moment that liquid reaches a boil.
- "Bay lansel"Almost certainly a garbled setting of bay leaf (or bay laurel). One or two leaves is plenty for a kettle of liquid.
- Wine glassfulA wine glass of the period is roughly 2 fl oz, so two glassfuls of vinegar is about half a cup. Use cider or white wine vinegar, not distilled, and taste the liquid before the fish goes in.
- Moderate fireOn a modern burner this is medium-low. The point is a slow climb to the boil so the outside of the fish does not tighten before the centre is warm; rushing it defeats the cold start.
- The cold startA whole fish goes into cold court bouillon so the flesh heats evenly and the skin stays intact. Cut portions are more often lowered into liquid already hot.
- "Cooked as soon as the liquid boils"This holds only for a modest whole fish in a kettle that fits it, and not much else. Judge by the flesh: opaque and just parting from the bone; 145F at the thickest point is the usual recommendation. Once the surface breaks into a real boil, pull the pan off the heat.
- The kettleA fish kettle is a long, lidded pan with a perforated rack for lifting the fish out whole. A roasting pan on the hob works, with two lengths of folded cheesecloth under the fish as slings.
- Do not keep the bouillon for daysReboiling a vegetable-and-fish liquid every three days was a cold-larder economy and has no place in a modern kitchen. Strain it, chill it fast, use it within two days or freeze it; a court bouillon takes twenty minutes to build from scratch.
Court bouillon means, literally, "short broth" -- short because it is built in minutes from aromatics, acid and water rather than simmered for hours from bones, and because it is meant to season the fish rather than become a stock in its own right. The acid, whether white wine or vinegar, does real work: it firms the surface proteins of a delicate fish and brightens flesh that would otherwise poach out flat, which is why the author reaches for it to rescue "a rather insipid fish." American cookbooks were busy importing French vocabulary wholesale, often with the spelling mangled somewhere between the writer and the typesetter, as the "bay lansel" here shows. The instruction to keep and reboil the liquid belongs to a kitchen with a cool larder and no refrigerator, where nothing flavourful was thrown away if a return to the boil might save it.