Recipe no. 62 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 41.
Ingredients
- sea bream
- water
- onion
- carrot
- thyme
- bay leaf
- pepper
- salt
- lemons
Preparation
- Cooking in waterPrepare the sea bream without incisions, place it in a fish kettle; add liquid, covering it, with cold water; add an onion and a carrot cut into slices, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, peppercorns, the necessary salt and the juice of 2 lemons; bring the heat up briskly. As soon as it begins to boil, move it to the side of the heat, so the liquid only shivers, the fish kettle covered; leave it thus for a time proportioned to its size, a quarter of an hour per kilo from the moment it starts boiling. The fish keeps its juices better cooked in a small amount of liquid.
- Test for donenessTo make sure a large fish is cooked, plunge a small trussing needle into the thickest part, leave it just 30 seconds, withdraw it quickly and place the part of the needle that seems to correspond to the centre of the tested spot against the back of your hand; if the heat is scalding, the fish is cooked.
Reboul's text
Prepare the sea bream without incisions, place it in a fish kettle; add liquid, covering it, with cold water; add an onion and a carrot cut into slices, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, peppercorns, the necessary salt and the juice of 2 lemons; bring the heat up briskly. As soon as it begins to boil, move it to the side of the heat, so the liquid only shivers, the fish kettle covered; leave it thus for a time proportioned to its size, a quarter of an hour per kilo from the moment it starts boiling. The fish keeps its juices better cooked in a small amount of liquid.
To make sure a large fish is cooked, plunge a small trussing needle into the thickest part, leave it just 30 seconds, withdraw it quickly and place the part of the needle that seems to correspond to the centre of the tested spot against the back of your hand; if the heat is scalding, the fish is cooked.
This observation applies to all sorts of large fish, boiled or grilled, as well as to large cuts of butcher's meat about which one might have doubts. Experience later makes recourse to this method unnecessary.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| muia | add liquid |
| boui | boiling |
| fresi | to shiver |
| suc | juice |
| aguïo | trussing needle |
| boulit | boiled |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 62, page 41. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.