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.

All white and naturally dry fish should be rolled in flour and besprinkled with butter or very good oil before being placed on the grill to be exposed to the heat of the fire. The flour forms a crust around the fish, which keeps it from drying and gives it that golden colour quite peculiar to objects thus treated.

Salmon, trout, red mullet, mackerel, and herrings, the flesh whereof is fatty, need not be floured, but only besprinkled with melted butter.

Owing to the somewhat fragile texture of most fish, a special double gridiron is used, by means of which they may be turned without fear of damage. This gridiron is placed upon the ordinary grill. I have already given in Part I. of this work the radical principles of grilling (Nos. No. 257, Grills and No. 260, Fish Grills); to this, therefore, the reader is begged to refer.

Grilled fish are served on a very hot dish, without paper or a napkin; they are garnished with fresh parsley and grooved slices of lemon.

Butter à la Maître d’Hôtel, anchovy butter, devilled sauce, Roberts’ sauce Escoffier, and butter à la Ravigote constitute the best adjuncts to grilled fish.