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herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted (if the Pike be more than a yard [10 m] long, then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will suffice): these, being thus mixed, with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the Pike’s belly, and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly if it be possible; if not, then as much of it as you possible can. But take not off the scales.

Then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth, out at his tail. And then take four or five or six split sticks, or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting; these laths are to be tied round about the Pike’s body, from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very leisurely, and often basted with claret wine, and anchovies and butter mixed together, and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly; and by this means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete.

Then, to the sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four oranges. Lastly, you may either put into the Pike, with the oysters, two cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the Pike is cut off the spit; or, to give the sauce a hogo [haut goût or good flavour] let the dish into which you let the Pike fall be rubbed with it: the using or not using of this garlick is left to your discretion.

The garlic is a good idea. Bake the fish at first in a hot oven, gas 6–7, 200–220°C (400–425 °F), then after about 15 minutes, lower the heat down to gas 2, 150°C (300°F) until the pike is cooked. Baste every 10 minutes, using about half a bottle of claret and reduce the liquid at the end, beating in butter and the juice.

If you have an oven problem, cut off the pike’s head. And if none of your dishes is long enough, make a nest of doubled foil.

DOS DE BROCHET AU MEURSAULT

The best dish of pike I have ever eaten was at Saulieu in Burgundy. It was brought to the table in neat pieces, dressed with a delicious sauce and surrounded with crescents of freshwater crayfish in puff pastry, and small quenelles of pike, containing truffles. See p. 275.

One cannot hope to emulate Monsieur Minot, who was chef-patron of the Côte d’Or at Saulieu at the time, but I asked him for the recipe, and assure you that even a simplified version is worth attempting.

A pike weighing 1½ kg (3 lb) is first skinned and filleted, then larded. For six hours, the long strips of fish lie in a bath of brandy and old Madeira, with a seasoning of salt and pepper. The fish is drained and turned in seasoned flour before being fried gently in butter.

When the fish is cooked – here is one secret – divide the fillets into 5-cm (2-inch) slices and remove the bones which pop up automatically from between the flakes as the knife goes through. Keep the fish warm, while you pour 2 glasses of Meursault into the cooking pan. Reduce it to almost nothing, then quickly stir in plenty of double cream. Correct the seasoning and boil down to the right consistency.

Up to this point, the recipe is not too difficult for any enthusiastic cook. It tastes very good without the final touches that are only within the resources of a first-class French restaurant. Finish the sauce with a spoonful or two of hollandaise* and sauce Nantua (p. 465) to taste; garnish with crayfish tails in puff pastry, and the quenelles already mentioned.

PIKE BAKED IN THE LOIR STYLE I

Turn to Trout and other river fish baked in the Loir style, p. 421, and add fish stock almost to cover the pike. After the pike is done, boil down the liquid for the sauce.

PIKE IN THE LOIR STYLE II

Serves 6

1 pike weighing 1½ kg (3 lb)

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