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Salmon, Fillets of, with Potatoes
Split and trim a pound or more of salmon into neat fillets, egg and bread-crumb these, and fry in hot fat till they are done enough. Drain them on a sieve before the fire. Slice some potatoes thinly; blanch them in boiling water, drain and fry them in hot fat till they are soft without being browned. Arrange the fillets in a circle on a dish, put the fried potatoes in the centre, and send lobster sauce to table in a tureen. Time to fry the fillets, eight to fifteen minutes, according to thickness.
A straightforward crumbed-and-fried salmon with a ring of soft fried potatoes. Only the frying time needs real intervention: eight to fifteen minutes will leave modern salmon dry and chalky.
- Frying timeSalmon fillets an inch thick need roughly three to four minutes a side in hot fat; many cooks now pull them at an internal 125-130F for moist flesh, though that is below the 145F generally recommended for fish. The book's eight to fifteen minutes suits thicker cuts and a Victorian preference for fish cooked right through; take the fillets out when the crumb is deep gold.
- "Fillets" hereNot the supermarket portion. 'Split and trim' points to a section of salmon opened along the backbone and cut into neat pieces of even thickness rather than into single large portions. Cutting to a uniform thickness is what makes the frying time predictable.
- Fat temperature"Hot fat" for egg-and-crumbed fish is usually taken today as around 350-375F in a shallow pan of clarified butter, lard or a neutral oil, deep enough to come halfway up the fillets. Below that the crumb absorbs fat; above it the coating colours before the centre sets.
- Egg and bread-crumbFlour lightly first, then beaten egg, then dry fine white crumbs, pressing them on and resting the coated fillets ten minutes so the crust adheres in the pan.
- "Drain on a sieve before the fire"A hearthside warming spot. Use a rack over a tray in a 200F oven, uncovered, so the crust stays crisp while the potatoes fry.
- The potatoesSlice about an eighth of an inch thick, blanch a minute or two in boiling salted water, drain and dry thoroughly, then fry gently at around 300F. They should be tender and pale, not crisp chips; wet slices will spit and steam rather than fry.
- Lobster sauceA period lobster sauce is a butter or fish-velouté base finished with chopped lobster meat, the pounded coral for colour, and a little cayenne and lemon. A tureen of hollandaise or a shrimp butter sauce serves the same purpose if lobster is out of reach.
- YieldA pound of salmon plus potatoes serves two generously or three as a light course. Scale the fish, not the sauce, which goes a long way.
Cassell's belongs to the era when salmon was still seasonal in Britain rather than a year-round farmed staple, and cookery writers needed a dozen ways to use up a fish bought whole or in a large piece. The plating instruction is pure late-Victorian service: food arranged in a ring or border with a garnish heaped in the centre, with sauce sent round separately in a tureen instead of masking the food on the dish. Lobster sauce with salmon is a pairing long established in English fish cookery, where shellfish sauces were the conventional partner for any rich boiled or fried fish, and it survives in the traditional lobster sauce still served with poached salmon.