Recipe no. 67 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 43.
Ingredients
- mackerel
- butter
- salt
- pepper
- white wine
- ravigote sauce
Preparation
- FilletingFor this the largest mackerel you can find are used; first remove the head, lay them on the table, place your left hand on top, the head end turning to the right and the tail to the left. Holding the knife in your right hand, following the backbone, starting from the head, split the mackerel in two. Turn over the part that keeps the bone, so that it is underneath, and proceed as before so the bone comes away cleanly. This operation takes a little practice; the best theory cannot replace it.
- Cooking and ravigote sauceOnce your fillets are well cleaned, lay them on the bottom of a wide, shallow saucepan that you have buttered; season with salt and pepper, add liquid with a glass of white wine and let it cook covered in the oven. When ready to serve, arrange them on the dish and pour over a hot ravigote sauce, having worked into it the cooking liquid of the fillets.
Reboul's text
For this the largest mackerel you can find are used; first remove the head, lay them on the table, place your left hand on top, the head end turning to the right and the tail to the left. Holding the knife in your right hand, following the backbone, starting from the head, split the mackerel in two. Turn over the part that keeps the bone, so that it is underneath, and proceed as before so the bone comes away cleanly. This operation takes a little practice; the best theory cannot replace it.
Once your fillets are well cleaned, lay them on the bottom of a wide, shallow saucepan that you have buttered; season with salt and pepper, add liquid with a glass of white wine and let it cook covered in the oven. When ready to serve, arrange them on the dish and pour over a hot ravigote sauce, having worked into it the cooking liquid of the fillets.
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 |
|---|---|
| aresto | fish bone |
| muia | add liquid |
| couiesoun | cooking |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 67, page 43. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.