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Salmon Forcemeat for Garnishing, Etc
Lift the flesh from the backbone of a cooked salmon, and take half a pound of it, free from skin and bone; tear it into flakes, and rub the fish through a sieve. Put the pulp into a mortar, and pound it with five ounces of butter and five ounces of panada, season with pepper and salt, and moisten with a raw egg and a little rich white sauce. Make the forcemeat into cakes, and poach one of these in boiling water to ascertain whether or not it is of the proper consistency. If too stiff, add a little more sauce or cream. Keep the forcemeat in a cool place till wanted.
A classic French-style fish quenelle mixture, used here as a garnish rather than a dish in itself. The test-poach is the whole point of the method and should not be skipped.
- PanadaA thick binding paste, in Victorian kitchens usually breadcrumbs simmered in milk or stock and dried out over the heat until it leaves the side of the pan, or a flour-and-butter paste cooked like choux. Five ounces is about 140 g, and it must be completely cold before pounding or the butter will melt and the mixture will split.
- ProportionsEqual weights of butter and panada against half a pound (225 g) of cooked salmon flesh gives a rich, soft forcemeat. That is deliberate: it is meant to be piped or shaped as a garnish, not eaten as a fish cake.
- Mortar and sieveA food processor does the pounding in under a minute. Sieving the flaked salmon first still matters, since it catches pin bones and skin fragments that a processor will simply chop into the mixture.
- The test poachPoach one small cake in barely simmering water, not a rolling boil, which will break it up. Taste it as well as testing the texture; seasoning is much harder to judge in the raw paste.
- Adjusting consistencyToo stiff, and the book is right to say more sauce or cream. Too slack, and the remedy is more panada, not more fish. Chilling the mixture for half an hour before shaping makes it far easier to handle.
- Raw eggThe egg goes in raw and is cooked in the poaching, so there is no issue for most people. Anyone cooking for the very young, elderly or immune-compromised should use pasteurised egg.
- Cooked salmonLeftover poached or baked salmon is what the recipe assumes. Hot-smoked salmon works but brings salt with it, so hold back on the seasoning until after the test cake.
- Yield and keepingAround 600 g of forcemeat once the egg and sauce are added. "A cool place" means the refrigerator; use it within a day, since it contains cooked fish, cream and raw egg.
Forcemeats occupy a great deal of space in Victorian cookery books because a dressed dish was expected to arrive at table decorated with something made from the same principal ingredient. A salmon served whole would be bordered with poached ovals of this mixture, or with it piped into shells and moulds, so that nothing on the platter contradicted the fish. The technique is French in origin and closely related to the quenelle, in which pounded flesh, butter and panada are lightened and poached. The instruction to poach a single trial cake is the most reliable piece of advice in the entry, and professional kitchens still do exactly that.