Having laid the fish to be poached in a baking-tray or a sautépan, either of which should have been previously buttered, season it moderately with salt and moisten with a little very white fish or mushroom [fumet]; very often the two latter are mixed. Cover the utensil, push it into a moderate oven, and baste from time to time, especially when a large fish is cooking. When the fish is done, drain it carefully, place it on a dish, and, as a rule, reduce the poaching-liquor and add it to the sauce. Poached fish are always served sauced; i.e., covered with the sauce which properly forms their accompaniment. More often than not they are garnished after the manner which will be described later.
I most emphatically urge: (1) the use of very little fish [fumet] for the poaching, but this [fumet] should be perfect and should, above all, not be cooked for longer than the required time; (2) that the fish be not covered with buttered paper as is often done, for nowadays a suitable paper is very rarely found. All papers found on the market are, owing to the chemical products used in their manufacture, liable to impart a more or less pungent smell to the objects they enclose, which in either degree would prove seriously prejudicial to the preparation.
These remarks not only apply to fish, but to all those objects with which paper was formerly used at some stage in their cooking process.
[780—THE BRAISING OF FISH]
This method is generally applied to whole or sliced salmon, to trout, and to chicken-turbot. Sometimes the fish treated in this way is larded on one side with strips of bacon-fat, truffles, gherkins, or carrots. The mode of procedure is exactly the same as that described under the “Braising of White Meats” (No. [248]). Moisten these braisings in the proportion of one-half with white wine or red wine (according as to how the fish is to be served), and for the other half use a light fish [fumet]. Place the fish on the drainer of a fish-kettle just large enough to hold the former, and moisten in such wise that the cooking-liquor at the beginning of the operation does not cover more than three-quarters of the depth of the fish. Unless it be for [266] ]a Lenten dish, the fish may be covered with slices of bacon while cooking. In any case, baste it often. Take care not to close the lid down too tightly, in order that the liquor may be reduced simultaneously with the cooking of the fish.
When the operation is almost completed, take the lid off the fish-kettle with the view of glazing the fish; then take the former off the fire. Now withdraw the drainer with the fish upon it, and lay it athwart the top of the fish-kettle, and let it drain; tilt the fish on to a dish, and cover the latter pending its despatch to the table. Strain the stock remaining in the fish-kettle through a strainer; let it stand for ten minutes, remove all the grease that has formed on its surface, and use it to complete the sauce as I directed above.
Braised fish are generally accompanied by a garnish, the constituents of which I shall give in the particular recipes relating to braising.
[781—THE GRILLING OF FISH]
This method is best suited to small fish, to medium-sized chicken-turbots, and to large-sectioned fish.
Unless they are very small, it is best to gash both sides of fish intended for grilling; the reasons given above for this measure likewise apply here.