Pondering the Papillote Preparation

Pondering the Papillote Preparation

When I was in Boy Scouts, we used to make this thing called, if memory serves, “hobo dinner,” which was basically meat (probably ground beef) and vegetables, enclosed in aluminum foil, and placed near or in a fire.

Years later, traveling with soon-to-be The Wife in New Orleans, we ate a dish more elegant though similarly prepared: legendary pompano en papillote at Antoine’s. The “papillote” style preparation basically required a lightly oiled piece of parchment (or even, as I recall, regular paper bag), into which was placed fish (sometimes chicken), broth and veggies. The whole thing was baked and presented grandly at the table.

In the early 80s, I saw “sole en sac” on several menus in Chicago, but it seems, in the last quarter century or so, that this preparation has disappeared from menus just about everywhere.

About this dish, Julia Child has said, with suave cruelty, “it’s a lot of tomfoolery. The kind of gimmicky dish a little newlywed would serve up for her first dinner party.”

Anyway, I believe this dish is no more, a food fashion come and gone. There is even some controversy as to whether even Antoine’s serves it anymore (it does not here http://www.antoines.com/culinary.html but it does here http://foodfest.neworleans.com/sponsor/culinary.html#fish).

One could probably achieve the Papillote Effect by simply covering a dish tightly when cooking…though getting your dish in a bag, ceremoniously cut by the waiter, steaming in your face, was a little like Xmas. In fact, I may make it next Xmas.

David “Whatever happened to Kayo?!” Hammond

Yes, baking in a paper bag was one of those things housewives did many years ago to impress guests. I suppose, pace Julia, it had the advantage of allowing Miss Newlywed a greater margin of error for cooked fish than if she baked it straight in a dish.

There was a paper bag recipe in the original edition of the much-beloved Sunflower Sampler, but it was removed for later reprints due to the perceived risk of fire.

I dunno ... I see it referred to quite frequently. Molto Mario has several 'in cartoccio' recipes and there was a Good Eats episode specifically devoted to it.

The place I first saw it was from watching Justin Wilson on PBS when I was growing up. He'd use those big baking bags all the time. <hhHHHmmmm>. Perhaps it's not done in restaurants anymore, but he done did it lots and there are many recipes out there still using the technique.

tem wrote:I dunno ... I see it referred to quite frequently. Molto Mario has several 'in cartoccio' recipes and there was a Good Eats episode specifically devoted to it.

The place I first saw it was from watching Justin Wilson on PBS when I was growing up. He'd use those big baking bags all the time. <hhHHHmmmm>. Perhaps it's not done in restaurants anymore, but he done did it lots and there are many recipes out there still using the technique.

Food Network is actually doing a piece on papillote cooking next month.

The Justin Wilson connection is interesting. Some feel papillote is basically more cajun than continental French.

Hammond

When I was in grad skule in S.F. in the mid-60s, a favorite of my Chinese lab assistants was "paper-cooked chicken", which, in fact, was a morsel of chicken white meat ensconsed in what amounted to an aluminum-foil ravioli. I didn't get it, then or now, but it was a VERY big deal, I guarantee you that.

Geo

David Hammond wrote:The Justin Wilson connection is interesting. Some feel papillote is basically more cajun than continental French

And some feel that Justin Wilson's exaggerated caricature of a Cajun was extremely offensive (I have only heard this in Louisiana, and personally do not share that view).

My favorite Justin quote was on one show where he was cooking some kind of stew that involved red wine. He poured some in the stew, "A little wine in the stew" and then took a big pull off the bottle - "A little wine in the chef!"

ChiNOLA wrote:My favorite Justin quote was on one show where he was cooking some kind of stew that involved red wine. He poured some in the stew, "A little wine in the stew" and then took a big pull off the bottle - "A little wine in the chef!"

The Wife's favorite quote (before she became The Wife): "If you want the chef to make the sauce, you've got to sauce the chef."

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:

ChiNOLA wrote:My favorite Justin quote was on one show where he was cooking some kind of stew that involved red wine. He poured some in the stew, "A little wine in the stew" and then took a big pull off the bottle - "A little wine in the chef!"

The Wife's favorite quote (before she became The Wife): "If you want the chef to make the sauce, you've got to sauce the chef."

Conceptually identical, no?

All this Justin Wilson talk motivated me to go & grab my reprint of his first cookbook, from 1965 - the reprint I have was done in 1992 - not sure if it's still in print, but it's worth buying just for the pictures & quotes:

"What did you said? Cook without wine? C'mon now, how you gonna did that, huh?"

The ISBN is 0-88289-019-0

Pompano stuffed with crab en papillote was something I used to make 30 years ago. I still like to stuff different kinds of whole fish with different things, but abandoned the paper wrapper a long time ago. These days I use banana leaves as a wrapper for certain preparations, but the most dramatic presentation is to coat the entire fish with salted, beaten egg whites. Cracking open the merengue at the table is gimmicky, but the fish is juicy and full of flavor, even with mild fish like striped bass.

This method seems related to the old trick of roasting beef encased in rock salt - but I prefer to roast beef other ways.

Bill/SFNM

They're running Justin Wilson's old shows on a newish channel (at least new to DirecTV) called RFD, which is exactly what you'd imagine a niche channel aimed at taciturn old coots on farms with new big screen TVs (from over at the Sam's Club) would be.

I kind of dig the shows about trains, with minute-long shots of trains going by and about four words of narration per half hour. That's a long 'un. Yup.

HI,

I was recently in a restaurant which served fish, I think, en papillote. At the moment, I cannot remember where.

Every Thanksgiving there are plenty of people who roast their turkeys in grocery bags. While it is the jumbo version of en papillote, it certainly exists. Those who do this swear it is THE way to roast a turkey.

There are also lots of chef's who wrap food into plastic wrap, then process it all sorts of ways. Suggesting it is a variant of en papillote, using plastic instead of foil or parchment paper. Certainly the plastic never meets the diner, though it was an important element in the meal's preparation.

Regards,

On the most recent Iron Chef America, none other than Bobby Flay served up barrimundi en papiotte.

One of the foil wrap companies had a big campaign on it a while back, I don't remember the whole jingle, but part of it went "...at 450 - not too long, 15 minutes or so." (thicker fish like salmon takes longer)

I do it a lot, particularly in winter. Wrap up some fish filets with whatever veggies (sliced very finely) and herbs, salt, pepper, maybe a drizzle of flavored oil or wine. I do it in aluminum foil, which doesn't necessarily make for a beautiful preparation, but there's not a bunch of pans to clean up either.

Many moons ago Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman did a recipe for the NYT on fish en papillote that they called "Jiffy Pop for Fish".

Rather than cook it in the oven, they heated up a saute pan with a little oil and made aluminum foil packets of fish, vegetables, herbs / spices and stock / wine. The packets were placed in the hot pan and cooked for 5-6 minutes. The packets (if well sealed) puff up quite nicely - just like Jiffy Pop. This was published pre-sous vide mania and iirc, was used by J-G in his restaurants.

I made a half-hearted search of the NYT archives for a link to the article, without success. The fact that a reprint of said article would cost me $4.95 removed any lingering desire to search more thoroughly.

Food and Wine has a good recipe for fish en papillote that I've made several times. It's made with red snapper fillets, a handful of julienned vegetables and a drizzle of white truffle oil.

I also like the chicken dish at Fernando's that's cooked in parchment paper. It consists of two chicken breast halves with a mushroom tequila sauce. I believe Blue Agave (not sure if it still exists) used to have the same dish.

For those who don't want the fuss of doing their own, Fonda del Mar apparently offers a sea bass en papillote preparation.

JimInLoganSquare wrote:For those who don't want the fuss of doing their own, Fonda del Mar apparently offers a sea bass en papillote preparation.

Yes, but is it real Sea Bass, or Asian Catfish?