Steamed Halibut
Take a six or seven pound piece (or any amount that is wanted); dredge lightly with flour, dust with salt, wrap in a cloth, and place in a steamer over boiling water. Cover the steamer closely and cook until the fish will flake easily. Three pounds of fish will steam in one hour. Serve on a hot platter in a napkin. Serve with it in a gravy boat, drawn butter or sauce Hollandaise. Any nice, firm, delicate fish may be steamed in place of boiling.
A sound method with one badly outdated number: the steaming time. Everything else translates directly to a modern steamer or a rack set in a covered roasting pan.
- The timing is the hingeAn hour for three pounds will leave halibut dry and cottony. Modern practice is roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest point; a 1.5-inch steak needs about 15 minutes, a thick 3 lb centre-cut piece 25 to 30. Judge by flake and by an instant-read thermometer at 130-140F.
- Halibut is unforgivingIt is very lean, so the window between just-done and chalky is narrow. Pull it when the centre is barely opaque and let carryover heat finish it under a loose foil tent.
- The cloth wrapA floured cloth was there to keep the fish from sticking to the steamer basket and breaking up when lifted. Cheesecloth, parchment, or a lightly oiled perforated plate does the same job with less fuss; the flour dredge is optional and adds nothing to the flavour.
- VesselA stacked bamboo or metal steamer works, but a 6-7 lb piece will not fit most of them. Use a large roasting pan with a rack, an inch of water below the fish, and a tight cover of foil.
- Drawn butterNot simply melted butter. In books of this period it usually means a light butter sauce thickened with a little flour and hot water, sometimes sharpened with lemon. Hollandaise is offered as the richer alternative.
- Serving in a napkinA folded linen napkin on the platter absorbed the water that steamed fish inevitably weeps. Draining the fish briefly on a towel before plating accomplishes the same thing.
- YieldAllow 6-8 oz of boneless fish per person. A 6 lb piece with bone serves ten to twelve.
Steaming was often presented as a refined alternative to boiling in turn-of-the-century American cookery: it kept the flesh from waterlogging and, as the last line concedes, could stand in for boiling with any firm white fish. Halibut appears frequently in books of this era, when the Atlantic and, increasingly, the Pacific fisheries were sending large fish to market packed in ice by rail. The napkin on the platter and the sauce sent separately in a gravy boat belong to the formal service of the period. Halibut stocks were fished heavily through the twentieth century; Pacific halibut is now managed under quota, while Atlantic halibut remains a species to check against a current sustainability guide before buying.