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Hunter's Salmi
Take cold roast game--if underdone so much the better--carve it into neat joints, remove the skin, etc., score the flesh lightly across in two or three places, dredge a little salt and cayenne over, and put them into a saucepan. Squeeze the strained juice of a lemon over them, and add a tea-spoonful of finely-minced lemon-rind, three table-spoonfuls of the best salad-oil, and six of light wine. Let the pieces of meat remain until they are quite hot, and send rusks or grilled crusts to table with them. Time, a few minutes to heat through. Probable cost, 4d., exclusive of the game and wine. Sufficient, one bird for two or three persons.
A cold-game dish that depends on gentle warming rather than cooking. Nothing here should reach a simmer, or the reheated flesh turns dry and stringy.
- The hinge: heat, don't cookThe pan should sit over low heat until the pieces are hot through, no more — the liquid must never bubble. If the joints have already been roasted once, a second cooking is what ruins them; you are only warming them in the oil and wine.
- What a salmi isA salmi (French salmis) is game that has been roasted, then jointed and finished in a sauce. This is the plain hunter's version: no stock, no reduction, no sieved liver — just lemon, oil and wine.
- "Light wine"A dry white or a light red such as Beaujolais. Six tablespoons is about 90 ml, against three tablespoons (45 ml) of oil — the pieces are moistened rather than submerged.
- Salad-oilIn this period that means olive oil, and "best" means the finest grade available. Use a good fruity olive oil; the flavour is not hidden by cooking.
- The gamePheasant, partridge, grouse or wild duck all suit. Leftover roast guinea fowl or a well-flavoured farmed duck will stand in. Removing the skin matters: reheated game skin is flabby, and scoring the flesh lets the lemon and oil penetrate.
- Lemon rindA teaspoonful of finely minced rind is roughly the zest of one lemon, pared thin and chopped — not grated to a paste, which turns bitter in the pan.
- Safe reheatingCold cooked meat should be brought properly hot right through, not merely warmed at the edges — 74C/165F at the centre. "Underdone so much the better" refers to how the bird was originally roasted, not to how far you take it now.
- Rusks and grilled crustsRusks are twice-baked slices of bread; grilled crusts are simply bread toasted hard. Either works to soak up the oil-and-wine liquor. Thick toast cut into fingers does the same job.
- YieldOne small bird serves two, perhaps three at a light meal. The costing of 4d. covers only the lemon, oil and seasoning.
The salmi belongs to the tradition of using yesterday's roast game rather than throwing it out, and the grander versions in nineteenth-century kitchens were elaborate: the carcase pounded and simmered for stock, the sauce reduced with wine and mushrooms, sometimes bound with the mashed liver. This one is called "Hunter's" to signal the opposite ime with with a lemon, a bottle and a pan, which is why the instructions run to a few minutes rather than an afternoon. The preference for underdone game may reflect a taste for wild birds roasted rare, and it is tempting to suppose that a bird destined for reheating was left some margin, though that is inference rather than documented practice. The costing in pence, "exclusive of the game and wine," is a reminder of who the book was written for: households where the birds arrived from an estate or a game dealer and were not counted as a grocery expense.