1435 | Fillet of Bass à la Chauncey M. Depew.
—Procure a fine, fresh, striped, small bass of about three pounds, scale, remove the entrails, and wash thoroughly. Cut the head off, and split it into half right down the back bone, remove all the bones. Cut out three even fillets from each half, suppress the skin, neatly pare them all around, giving them a heart-shaped form. Evenly season with a tablespoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of pepper, and place on a dish till further action.
Place in a sautoire one finely chopped sound shallot, with half a medium sized sound green pepper, cut into small dice-shaped pieces; place the pan on the hot range, adding a teaspoonful of butter; let slowly simmer for three minutes, without letting get brown. Add now the parings of the fillets, with eight whole mushrooms and one truffle, all chopped very fine, pour in half a glassful of white wine, let reduce to three-quarters. Season with half a teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper, and then leave it on the corner of the range.
Have a saucepan on the range with a tablespoonful of butter and two heaped tablespoonfuls of flour; mix thoroughly together, and let stand on the corner of the range for five minutes without browning; gradually add a cupful of hot milk, continually stirring while adding it, and let slowly simmer for twelve minutes. Add two tablespoonfuls of this sauce to the other preparation to thicken, thoroughly mixing together for two minutes. Take from off the fire, lay on a table.
Lightly butter a baking pan; lay the six fillets over it, seeing that they do not touch one another; then equally divide the preparation over each fillet—well spread; place on top of this a teaspoonful of the white sauce, which is waiting action on the range, gently spreading it with a small knife, so as to completely cover the first layer of each fillet. Arrange four very thin slices of truffles, cut with a tube half an inch in diameter, right in the centre of each fillet, lengthwise, one overlapping the other. Sprinkle a very little clarified butter over all, pour half a glassful of white wine at the bottom of the pan (not over the fillets), then place in a moderate oven for ten minutes. Remove from the oven, gently arrange them on a hot serving dish with a palette knife. Add to the remaining sauce on the fire, half a gill of sweet cream, let it come to a boil; strain it through a fine sieve into a hot bowl, then pour it all around the fillets, but not over them, and send to the table.