Velouté D’éperlans
A historical recipe from A guide to modern cookery, by Escoffier, A. (Auguste) (1907).
A historical recipe
A guide to modern cookery, by Escoffier, A. (Auguste) (1907). Project Gutenberg eBook #71395.
From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.
France
Known as a French recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.
Ingredients 8 ingredients
- one pint of boiled milk
- two and one-half oz. of crumbled bread
- a pinch of salt
- one oz. of butter
- two tablespoonfuls of chopped onion
- two and one-half oz. of fillets of smelt
- one-half lb. of fillets of sole
- one-half pint of ordinary thin velouté
Cook safely
Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.
- Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
- Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.
Method
Chef Wood
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- Prepare a thin panada with one pint of boiled milk and two and one-half oz.
- of crumbled bread.
- Season with a pinch of salt and a very small quantity of mignonette.
- Also stew gently, in one oz.
- of butter, two tablespoonfuls of chopped onion, two and one-half oz.
- of fillets of smelt, one-half lb.
- of fillets of sole, or the meat of a dory, and the juice of the quarter of a lemon.
- Add the fish, stewed in butter and pounded, to the panada, together with one-half pint of ordinary thin velouté.
- Rub through tammy;
- heat;
- season with a very little cayenne, and finish the whole, when dishing up, with an ordinary leason and one and one-half oz.
- of butter.
- N.B.—1.
- In view of the decided flavour of the smelt, and the really disagreeable taste it imparts to a preparation which contains overmuch of it, its flesh should never exceed the proportion of one-third of the required quantity of fish.
- The remaining two-thirds should be supplied by a fish of neutral flavour, such as the sole or dory, both of which are admirably suited to this purpose.
- 2.
- The velouté d’éperlans should, like almost all fish veloutés, be prepared as quickly as possible, and at the last moment.
- The process should not last longer than thirty minutes, for, if there be any delay, the preparation will turn and lose its flavour.
- 3.
- For this soup I elected to use a panada as the thickening element, instead of a fish velouté, the reason being that, were the latter used, the taste of fish would in the end be too pronounced.
Plating
Cookware for this recipe
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Saucepan
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Chef's knife
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Cutting board