Red Mullets a la Ravigote

Ingredients

• a quarter of a pound of fresh butter
• a tablespoonful of chopped tarragon
• one ditto of chopped chervil
• one ditto of lemon-juice
• ten tablespoonfuls of white sauce
• a little pepper
• a little salt
• a little sugar

Method

1. 1

   Put the mullets in boxes.

2. 2

   Mix butter, tarragon, chervil, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and sugar.

3. 3

   Boil white sauce, add the mixture, stir until smooth, and pour over the mullets in the boxes.

4. 4

   If too thick, add a little milk.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The thorough good cook (1895) by George Augustus Sala, page 101. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a little shallot, nut- meg, the juice of half a lemon, and a little Hour ; stir these ingredients together over a slow fire for a few minutes ; pour the sauce over the mullets, and serve very hot. 62. Red Mullets a la Ravigote. Put the mullets in boxes and make the sauce thus: — Place a quarter of a pound of fresh butter on a plate with a tablespoonful of chopped tarragon, one ditto of chopped chervil, one ditto of lemon-juice, and a little pepper, salt, and sugar. Mix all well together ; have ten tablespoonfuls of white sauce boiling in a stCAV-pan, and throw the other ingredients into it, stir it over the fire till quite smooth. 168 TEE THOBOUGE GOOD COOK. and pour it over your mullets in the paper boxes. If too thick, add a little milk. 63. Brill. __This is a very delicate and very luscious eating fish, for which caper sauce is suitable. It is cooked like turbot, and is almost as good. When very fresh, you may use it for fillets (see No. 23). 64. Dublin Bay Haddock, Baked. Fill the belly of the fish with stuffing, sew it up with pack-thread, and truss it Avith its tail in its mouth ; rub a quarter of a pound of butter over it, set it on a baking- sheet, put it in a warmish oven and bake it three-quarters of an hour ; when done, dress it on a dish without a napkin, and pour a sharp sauce round it. 65. Haddock Fudding. Take a haddock weighing four pounds, one quart of milk, two tablespoonfuls of flour, one of butter, one small slice of onion, two sprigs of parsley, salt, and pepper. Put the fish on in boiling water — enough to cover, and containing one tablespoonful of salt. Cook gently twenty minutes, then lift out of the water, but let it remain on the tray. Now carefully remove the top skin and the head, then turn the fish over into the dish in which it is to be served (it should be stone china), and scrape off the skin from the other side. Pick out all the small bones. You will find them the whole length of the back, and a few in the FISH. 169 lower part of the fish, near the tail. They are in rows like pins in a paper, and if you start all right it will take but a few minutes to remove them. Then take out the backbone, starting at the head and working gently down towards the tail. Great care must be taken that the fish may keep its shape. Cover with the cream (for which a recipe is given below), and bake about ten minutes, just to brown it a little. Garnish with parsley or little puff paste cakes, or you can cover it with the Avhites of three egg^, beaten to a stiff froth, and then slightly browned. This is a most excellent dish ; and haddock is cheap. It would be more esteemed if it were dearer. 66. To Prepare Cream for Haddock Pudding. Put the milk, parsley, and onion on to boil, reserving half a cupful of milk to mix with the flour. When it boils, stir in the flour, w^hich has been mixed smoothly with the milk. Cook eight minutes. Season highly with salt and pepper ; add the butter, strain on the fish, and proceed as directed. 67. Herrings with Mustard Sauce. Having gutted and wiped your herrings quite clean, melt some butter and add to it chopped parsley, shallots, green onions, pepper, and salt. Dip the herrings in this, and roll them in bread-crumbs. Then broil them and serve them with a sauce made of melted butter, flour, broth, a little vinegar, pepper, and salt. When done, put to them as much mustard as you think projDer. This is a thoroughly English dish, for the reason that English nuistard is the very best procurable. All foreign 170 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. mustards are feeble, and have to be fortified with other condiments. 68. Flounders Water-Soiichet (or Zootje). _A Dutch dainty, for which we are indebted to Wilham III. You rarely get it good, save at Greenwich. Why, I cannot sa}^ Eead the following recipe, and you will find that it is by no means difficult to make : — Put a pint of water into a deep saute-pan, with half a tablespoonful of salt and a little jDopper, and forty small sprigs of parsley ; when nearly boiling, have ready six small flounders (cut in halves in a slanting direction), and put them into the saute-pan ; let them simmer for about twelve minutes ; take them up and dress them on a dish without a napkin ; then add a little sugar

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.