To Boil Halibut
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Halibut is seldom cooked whole; a piece weighing from four to six pounds being generally thought sufficient.
Score deeply the skin of the back, and when you put it into the kettle lay it on the strainer with the back undermost.
Cover it with cold water, and throw in a handful of salt.
Boil
Do not let it come to a boil too fast. Skim it carefully, and when it has boiled hard a few minutes, hang the kettle higher, or diminish the fire under it, so as to let it simmer for about thirty or thirty-five minutes.
Serve
Then drain it, and send it to table, garnished with alternate heaps of grated horseradish and curled parsley, and accompanied by a boat of egg sauce.
What is left of the halibut, you may prepare for the supper-table by mincing it when cold, and seasoning it with a dressing of salt, cayenne, sweet oil, hard-boiled yolk of egg, and a large proportion of vinegar.
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
- Halibut (in the method)
- Is the main cooked fish, whose flesh firms and turns opaque as it simmers.
The step that matters
Keep the water below a hard boil. A rapid boil toughens and breaks up the delicate fish flesh, so holding a gentle simmer keeps it moist and whole.
“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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