Morue à la Bénédictine

Morue à la Bénédictine (salt cod pounded hot with potato, oil, and milk) teaches the warm emulsion: fish and potato must meet while both are hot, then oil and boiled milk must enter by degrees. Let either base cool and you will fight a stiff, greasy mass. Keep it warm and the paste turns pale, mellow, and spoonable, with the salt cod rounded rather than hidden.

The entry assumed a heavy mortar, a cook free to pound without pause, and a salamander fierce enough to colour a gratin in moments. At home, a potato ricer and warmed mixing bowl replace the mortar, while a very hot broiler supplies the colour. Those tools were brigade scaffolding and can go; the half-weight of dry potato, the gradual oil and boiled milk, and the warm working are the dish and must stay. The book's quantity is already compact enough for four generous servings, so no ratio has been changed. One cook, one stove, one evening, once the morue has soaked.

The finished paste must be more mellow than stiff. It should fall from the spoon in a slow, heavy fold, not stand in peaks like firm mashed potato. Work quickly while the cod and potato are hot, because that warmth decides the dish before the first drop of oil goes in.