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Salmon, Broiled
Take one or more slices of salmon, not more than half an inch thick. Rub them over with oil, and sprinkle a little pepper and salt over them. Rub a clean gridiron with fat, make it hot, and place the slices of salmon upon it over a clear fire. Turn the fish every five minutes till it is done enough, basting it occasionally with oil or butter. When the flesh leaves the bone easily on slight pressure the salmon is done enough. Place it on a dish, and send lobster, shrimp, or caper sauce to table with it. Time to broil, a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, salmon, 1s. to 1s. 4d. per pound when plentiful. Sufficient, one pound and a quarter for three persons.
A straightforward grilled salmon steak, with one timing that modern practice has firmly overturned.
- The timingA quarter of an hour for a half-inch slice will give dry, chalky fish. Half-inch steaks over a hot grill need roughly 2-3 minutes per side; pull them at 120-125F at the thickest point and let them rest.
- "Flesh leaves the bone easily"This doneness test is reliable but late — by the time the flesh slides freely off the bone the centre is fully set. Aim for flakes that just separate under a fork while the middle is still slightly translucent.
- Turning every five minutesThat interval belongs to a thicker cut over an uneven coal fire. Turn once, or twice at most, and do not move the fish until it releases from the bars on its own.
- The gridironA gridiron is a hinged or flat grate set over coals. A ridged cast-iron grill pan or a barbecue grate does the same job; oil the bars and get them properly hot before the fish touches them, or the skin will weld on.
- "A clear fire"Coals burned down past the flames, with no smoke or flare. On gas, medium-high with the lid up; the point is steady radiant heat rather than licking flame, since dripping oil on open flame will scorch the surface before the centre cooks.
- BastingBasting with oil or butter still helps, but butter over direct coals blackens quickly. Oil on the grill, butter brushed on at the end off the heat.
- Costs and quantityThe shillings-per-pound price is Victorian and of historical interest only. A pound and a quarter for three works out at roughly 6.5 oz a head, a little above the 5-6 oz usually reckoned a portion today, though these are bone-in slices and the edible weight is lower.
- The saucesLobster, shrimp and caper sauces are all butter- or cream-based sauces of the period; caper is the easiest to reproduce and the sharpest match for oily salmon.
Broiling over a gridiron was a standard treatment for a salmon steak in nineteenth-century British kitchens, and this recipe asks the cook to read a clear fire and test the bone rather than follow a formula. The price note is a reminder of how salmon has moved: wild salmon reached London in bulk during the summer run, and the phrase "when plentiful" marks a seasonal glut that farmed fish has since flattened into year-round supply. The rich butter sauces -- lobster, shrimp, caper -- were the conventional accompaniments, and the pairing of salmon with a shellfish sauce is a long-standing fixture of English cookery, appearing in printed collections before Cassell's compiled this one.