779—The Poaching of Fish

This method is best suited to sole, chicken-turbots, and brill, as well as to the fillets of various fish.

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.