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Fresh Salmon, Boiled
Take several pounds of salmon, wash carefully, rub the inside with salt, tie it up in a cloth, and boil forty minutes very gently; when about half done turn it over.
Serve with egg-sauce.
A whole-piece poaching method from the era of the fish kettle. The technique is sound; the timing belongs to a period when fish was cooked until it flaked apart.
- The forty minutes is the problemForty minutes of even gentle boiling will take salmon well past dry. Modern practice is to poach at a bare shiver, 160-180F, roughly 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness, pulling the fish at 125-130F at the thickest point. A 3 lb centre cut needs about 20 minutes, not forty.
- "Boil ... very gently" means poachA rolling boil tears the flesh and squeezes out albumin, the white curd you see on overcooked salmon. Keep the water just trembling, with no more than an occasional bubble breaking.
- The clothWrapping in cheesecloth or muslin was a standard way to lift a whole fish out intact. Leave long tails of cloth over the pan rim, or improvise with a double sling of foil. It also lets you turn the piece halfway through, as directed, without breaking it.
- Season the water tooThe original salts only the cavity. A court bouillon - water with salt, a splash of white wine or vinegar, a sliced onion, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns - seasons the flesh and keeps it firm. Start the fish in cool liquid and bring it up slowly for even cooking.
- Egg-sauceUnexplained here because every cook of the period knew it: a plain white sauce (roux of 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp flour, 1 cup milk) with two chopped hard-boiled eggs stirred in, seasoned with salt, pepper and often a little lemon. It is the standard Victorian and Edwardian accompaniment to boiled fish.
- "Rub the inside"This assumes a whole gutted fish. If you are using a fillet or a centre cut, salt both surfaces lightly and reduce the time further - a thick fillet may need only 8-12 minutes.
- YieldReckon about 1/2 lb of whole fish per person. "Several pounds" is vague; a 3-4 lb piece will serve roughly six to eight.
- ServingPoached salmon is as good cold as hot. If serving cold, let it cool in its liquid, which keeps it moist, and offer a mayonnaise or cucumber sauce instead of the egg sauce.
Boiled salmon with egg sauce was so entrenched in British and American cooking that a book like this could name the sauce without explaining it. The pairing is generally said to be an old one, and in Britain it was traditionally the dish for midsummer, when salmon runs coincided with the first new potatoes and peas. American cookbooks of the period attached it instead to the Fourth of July, particularly in New England, where poached salmon, egg sauce, new potatoes and green peas made a standard holiday dinner. The brevity of this entry reflects a period when fresh salmon was still a seasonal, regional luxury in most of the country - abundant in the Northwest, shipped on ice elsewhere - and when the cook was assumed to own a long fish kettle and know what to do with it.