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To Dress a Cod's Head and Shoulders

A method of preparing a cod's head and shoulders by boiling, frying, and garnishing with lemon, horseradish, barberries, fish, oysters, roe, liver, and lobster.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph (1762–1828) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: butter, flour, breadcrumbs, bread, fish, lobster, oyster

Directions

Prepare

  1. Take out the gills and the blood from the bone.

  2. Wash the head very clean.

  3. Rub over it a little salt.

  4. Lay it on your fish plate.

Poach

  1. Throw in the water a good handful of salt, with a glass of vinegar.

  2. Put the fish in the water and let it boil gently for half an hour.

  3. If it is a large one, boil for three quarters.

  4. Take it up very carefully.

  5. Strip the skin nicely off.

Brown and crust

  1. Set it before a brisk fire.

  2. Dredge it all over with flour.

  3. Baste it well with butter.

  4. When the froth begins to rise, throw over it some very fine white bread crumbs.

  5. Keep basting it all the time to make it froth well.

  6. When it is a fine light brown, dish it up.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish it with a lemon cut in slices, scraped horseradish, barberries, a few small fish fried and laid around it, or fried oysters.

  2. Cut the roe and liver in slices, and lay over it a little of the lobster out of the sauce in lumps.

  3. Serve it up.

By Mary Randolph (1762–1828). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Flour (in the method)
Coats the skin so it can brown and form a crisp, golden crust.
Butter (in the method)
Basting fat helps the crust brown evenly and keeps the surface from drying out.
Fine white bread crumbs (in the method)
Sprinkled on during basting to build a light, crisp, golden topping.

The step that matters

Keep basting until the crust is a fine light brown. Butter and flour brown through the Maillard reaction, which needs steady heat and a dry surface. Regular basting keeps the coating moist enough to color evenly without burning, so dishing up too early leaves it pale and underdeveloped.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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