No. 1260 — French-Style Boiled and Baked Zander
English historical translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 1260 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original methods and measures.
Salt cleaned zander, whole or halved, for an hour. Cover with a little boiling stock made from roots and spices and cook for about fifteen minutes.
Remove the skin while hot. Once cool, remove bones, divide into small portions and arrange on a metal serving dish with layers of fresh stewed or pickled morels, saffron milk-cap mushrooms, 'amorettes', and crayfish tails and claws.
For sauce mix one spoonful of fresh butter with one of flour, thin with fish stock, add lemon juice and a teaspoon of sugar, boil well, beat in two yolks and strain.
Pour over the fish, scatter with grated bread, drizzle with freshly browned butter and bake in a hot oven for about fifteen minutes.
Serve as soon as the sauce begins to rise; the author warns that further heating may curdle the eggs.
To provide
3 Russian pounds of zander and 1 parsley root 1 leek, 1 carrot and 2 onions 5–10 allspice berries 1–2 bay leaves and herbs 6–8 morels and 3–4 spoonfuls of butter | 6–8 saffron milk-cap or pickled amorette mushrooms 18 crayfish, 1 spoonful of flour and 2–3 yolks ½ glass of grated bread and 1 lump of sugar |