Set to cook on a brisk fire, and take care that the cooking-liquor be reduced and sufficiently thickened when the fish are cooked.
Serve in a timbale or on a dish, and send some slices of bread and butter to the table at the same time.
[352]
]CHAPTER XV
RELEVÉS AND ENTRÉES
The difference between Relevés and Entrées needs only to be examined very superficially in order for it to be seen how entirely the classification hangs on the question of bulk. Indeed, with very few exceptions, the same alimentary products—butcher’s meat, fish, poultry, and game—may be used with perfect propriety in the preparation of either Relevés or Entrées. And if the mode of preparation and the nature of the garnishing ingredients are sometimes dissimilar, it is owing to that difference in bulk referred to above, on account of which the Relevés, being more voluminous, are usually braised, [poëled], poached, or roasted; while the Entrées, consisting of smaller pieces, are chiefly [sautéd], poached, or grilled.
In the menus of old-fashioned dinners à la Française, the line of demarcation between Relevés and Entrées was far more clearly defined, the latter being generally twice, if not thrice, as numerous as the former. The first service of a dinner for twenty people, for instance, comprised eight or twelve Entrées and four soups, all of which were set on the dining-table before the admission of the diners. As soon as the soups were served, the Relevés, to the number of four, two of which consisted of fish, took the place of the soups on the table; they relieved the soups; hence their name, which now, of course, is quite meaningless.
The Russian method of serving greatly simplified the practice just described. Nowadays a dinner rarely consists of more than two soups, two Relevés (one of which is fish), and two or three Entrées for the first service. Very often the fish Relevé, instead of being a large piece of fish, only consists of fillets of sole, of chicken-turbots, &c., or timbales, which are real entrées; while the Relevés (consisting of large pieces of butcher’s meat or game), instead of being served as common sense would dictate, i.e., after the fish Relevé, when the diner’s appetite is still keen, are placed, according to English custom, after the Entrées.
[353]
]Thus, as the two above examples show, the parts played by the Relevés and Entrées respectively are very far from being clearly defined; and I therefore resolved to treat of them both in the same chapter, and to append a few grills (usually accompanied by various sauces and garnishes), which are really only luncheon-roasts. The indications given concerning the class to which the recipes belong will suffice to avoid confusion.