Turbot

A turbot of a middling size is preferable to any other. When very large, the meat is tough and thready. It is customary in France, and the same must be done in every country, to empty the fish, and to wash out all the blood.

Some gentlemen are much mistaken with regard to the freshness of the turbot: I have ascertained by many years observation, that a turbot kept two or three days is much better eating than a very fresh one: it certainly depends much on the quality of the fish, but if it is boiled with care and attention, its having been kept is a great improvement to it. If you are obliged to wait after it is done, it is better not to leave the fish in the water; keep the water boiling, but put the fish over the steam, covered with a damp cloth. When the dinner is called for, dip the fish again into the water; by this means it never loses its quality. (See Turbot, No. 1, page 80.)

Vol Au Vent D' Escalopes De Turbot, Au Bon Beurre

This is an excellent entree of desserte. Be particular in cleaning the fillets of the turbot when returned from table, as directed No. 3. Cut them in scollops, and put them into a stew-pan, well covered, to prevent their getting dry. With regard to the sauce, take six spoonfuls of sauce tour-nee, which reduce with two spoonfuls of consomme. When the sauce is reduced, thicken it with the yolks of two eggs, and refine your sauce with at least a quarter of a pound of the best butter. If you should have any thick cream, put in a little, as it will make the sauce mellower; lastly, season well, put the scollops with the sauce, keep them hot, and send up the whole to table in a vol au vent. (See vol au vent.)

Turbotin Broiled With Caper Sauce

After having emptied and washed the fish clean, make an incision in the back, down to the bone; then wipe it quite dry ; next lay it in a dish to marinade in salt, pepper, and sweet oil; put in very little oil, as it requires only sufficient to prevent it from drying. Half an hour, or even three-quarters of an hour before dinner-time, broil the fish over a slow fire. It is requisite to lay some straws on the gridiron, to prevent its making black streaks on the turbot, which broil on both sides, and serve up with caper sauce.

* Timballe is the pastry made in the dariole mould.

Petites Timballes Of Fillets Of Turbot A La Venitienne

This is an entree of desserte, held in high estimation. It requires but very little flesh of the fish to make it. Cut whatever is left of the turbot into dice, as small as possible. For the sauce, take three spoonfuls of hot bechamelle, to which add a good lump of butter, salt, white fine pepper, a little parsley chopped very fine, and well squeezed in a towel, that it may not give a green colour to the sauce. Then put a little cavice; that of Mackay's, which is the best, is the composition which agrees the most with all fish sauces, particularly when kept many years. Keep stirring your sauce, which is generally called working it. We call it vanner, taking up the sauce in a ladle, and pouring it perpendicularly into the stew-pan, repeating the operation frequently, and very quick, to make the sauce transparent. When it is mellow, and of a good taste, throw in the small dice of turbot, keep them hot, and when ready to send up to table, garnish the little timballes* with the turbot. Let them lay for a moment in the oven, and serve them up hot. If you have no bechamelle, you must make use of the sauce a la crime. (See No. 3, page 259.)

Gratin Of Fillets Of Turbot Au Veloute

This is another entree of desserte. Proceed as above, No. 3. Cut a few slices of bread, one inch broad and a quarter of an inch thick. Dip them into an omelette of one single egg. Stick them on the border of a dish, which lay on the corner of a little stove. As you stick on the bread, turn the dish; when you have completed the circle, put a spoonful or two of veloute, and let it gratine in the centre of the dish. Next take more of the same veloute, to which you add a quarter of a pound of butter, and mix this on the stove without boiling. Keep this sauce thick; pour into it a little thick cream; season it well; put your scollops into the sauce, and the whole into the dish in which you have gratine the veloute. Now level with your knife, and strew crumbs of bread over them equally; Heat a bored ladle, put a lump of butter into it, and baste the scollops with it; let them have another coat of crumbs of bread, baste them again, and let them get a good colour with the salamander: When the gratin has got a good colour, take off the slices of bread that you had previously stuck round the dish, to make room for others that have been fried in butter of a fine colour. If you have a deep dish, the first border will not be wanted, only the second, which makes the dish look better; if you trim and fry your bread nicely, it makes a beautiful entree.

* I call entree of desserte, what is left from the preceding day.