Grilled Herring with Mustard Sauce (1771)
Reader ratingsFresh herring grilled whole and served under a quick sauce of butter, flour, vinegar and fine mustard: a fish-day entrée from Menon’s Paris cookbook of 1771.
- Recipe makes
- 4 herring, 4 servings
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Menon cooks fresh herring on the grill and serves them under a sauce bound over the fire; here the sauce is made while the second side cooks. A herring of about 6 ounces needs about 4 minutes a side on a hot grill pan.
Whole grilled herring under a mustard butter sauce.
The story behind the recipe
Menon’s sauce for fresh herring is a few minutes’ work over the fire: a piece of butter and a little flour, a thread of vinegar and a spoonful of fine mustard, seasoning and a splash of water, all brought together over the fire. He printed it in La Cuisinière bourgeoise in 1771 under “De la Sardine, & du Hareng frais,” sardines and fresh herring dressed the same way, and marked it in the margin as an entrée, a dish for the first course.
What sauce did Johnson’s herring have?
He doesn’t say. Samuel Johnson’s note of the meagre dinner at the English Benedictines in Paris on 31 October 1775 gives only “herrings, eels, both with sauce.” This mustard sauce is the one Menon’s household cookbook put on fresh herring, so it shows what a sauced herring could be on a Paris fish day, without any claim that the monks served it. How Did Paris Eat on a Fish Day in 1775? sets out the rest of that day’s table.
Read more about this recipe
What went with herring in Lent?
Peas, by Menon’s account. In his chapter on dried peas he says a purée of them makes good eating “les jours maigres” and gives body to soups, and that the same purée goes “dessous des harengs dans le Carême,” under herrings in Lent. His herring come fresh, as here, and smoked, as harengs saurets served for an hors d’œuvre.
Making it today
Fresh whole herring can be hard to find outside their season; sardines, which Menon dresses the same way, can take their place. Menon gives no amounts, so the balance of mustard and vinegar here is our choice. Serve it with a plain meagre soup first, such as Celery Soup Maigre (1771), in the order Johnson wrote his dishes down.
L’accommodage en est de même; il faut les écailler, & bien laver, essuyez-les avec un linge, & les faites cuire sur le gril, quand ils sont cuits, servez-les avec la sausse suivante.
Mettez dans une casserole un morceau de beurre, un peu de farine, un filet de vinaigre, une cuillerée de moutarde fine, sel, poivre, un peu d’eau, faites lier la sausse sur le feu, & servez sur les sardines ou harengs frais.
In our translation: “They are dressed the same way; they must be scaled and well washed; wipe them with a cloth and cook them on the grill; when they are cooked, serve them with the following sauce. Put into a casserole a piece of butter, a little flour, a dash of vinegar, a spoonful of fine mustard, salt, pepper, a little water; bind the sauce over the fire, and serve over the sardines or fresh herrings.”
Recipe makes: 4 herring, 4 servings
Ingredients
For 4 herring, 4 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 4 herring, 4 servings.
- Fresh herring, scaled and gutted4
- Neutral oil, for the grill pan1 tsp
- Salt, for the fish1/2 tsp
- Butter4 tbsp
- All-purpose flour1 tsp
- White wine vinegar2 tsp
- Dijon mustard1 tbsp
- Salt, for the sauce1/4 tsp
- Ground black pepper1/4 tsp
- Water3 tbsp
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 4 whole fresh herring, scaled and gutted
- 1 tsp neutral oil, for the grill pan
- ½ tsp salt, for the fish
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp salt, for the sauce
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp water
Equipment
- Ridged cast-iron grill pan or outdoor grill
Small saucepan
Whisk
Instant-read thermometer- Warmed platter
Instructions
Rinse the herring inside and out under cold water and pat them very dry with a cloth or paper towels. Cut shallow slashes across each side so they cook evenly.
Heat the grill pan over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until a drop of water skitters on it. Brush it with the oil for the grill pan and season the fish with the salt for the fish.
Lay the herring on the pan and grill for about 4 minutes, without moving them, until the skin is browned and loosens from the ridges. Turn them carefully and grill the second side for 3 to 4 minutes, until the flesh is opaque at the backbone and an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part reads 145°F (63°C). Move them to the warmed platter.
While the second side cooks, put the butter, flour, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt for the sauce, black pepper and water in the small saucepan. Set it over medium-low heat and whisk constantly until the butter melts and the sauce thickens and turns smooth and glossy, about 2 minutes. Take it off the heat before it boils hard.
Spoon the sauce over the herring and serve at once.
Nutrition
340calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 4 herring, 4 servings
- Servings
- 4
Estimated per serving (4) from USDA FoodData Central values for Atlantic herring (cooked, edible portion about 110 g per fish), butter, flour and Dijon mustard.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Menon gives no number of fish and only rough measures for the sauce; the amounts here are ours, for four fish.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Menon gives no number of fish and no measures; every amount is ours. The oil on the grill pan and the slashes in the skin are our additions, to keep the fish from sticking and help it cook through. Dijon is the closest common mustard to his moutarde fine. Cook fish to 145°F (63°C), the safe minimum for fin fish in the U.S. food-safety chart. Eat the herring the day it is cooked; chill leftovers within 2 hours and use them within 2 days. Herring has fine pin bones that soften with cooking but can be lifted out with the backbone at the table. Contains fish, milk (butter), wheat (flour) and mustard.
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Menon (attributed), La Cuisinière bourgeoise (Paris, 1771), De la Sardine, & du Hareng frais
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Course
- Fish course
- Dish family
- Fish & Seafood
- Region
- French
- Era
- 18th century
- Source decade
- 1770s
- Event
- Paris fish day, 1775
- Main ingredient
- Fish
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Lent