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Salmon Fried in Slices
Cut four or five thin slices of salmon, cleanse and dry them well, then season, flour, and dip them in egg beaten up and bread-crumbs. Plunge them into hot frying fat. Fry for ten minutes or so; when of a nice colour, drain the slices, and sprinkle salt over them. Dish on a folded napkin, and send them to table surrounded with halves of lemon.
A straightforward crumbed deep-fry, but the timing belongs to an era of thicker cuts and cooler, less predictable fat. Salmon is the one thing here that will not forgive ten minutes.
- Cut thickness"Thin slices" here most likely means steaks or cutlets cut across the fish rather than fillets, probably no more than about half an inch. Cut them evenly or the thin edges will be dry before the centre sets.
- Frying timeTen minutes at frying heat will turn a half-inch crumbed slice chalky and force out the fat that makes salmon worth eating. Half-inch slices need about three to four minutes total at 350-375F, until the crumb is deep gold; the flesh should still be moist and just opaque at the centre.
- Fat temperatureThe original says only "hot frying fat." Aim for 350-375F, deep enough to float the slices. Below that the crumb absorbs fat; above it the coating browns before the fish is warm through.
- Breading orderSeason and flour thoroughly, shake off the excess, then egg and crumb. Damp patches on the surface are where the coating will lift away in the fat, so the instruction to dry the slices well is not decorative.
- CrumbsNineteenth-century "bread-crumbs" for frying were dried and sieved stale bread, closer to fine dry crumbs than to fresh or panko. Fine dry crumbs give the smooth even colour the recipe is after.
- Draining and the napkinDrain on a rack or paper first; the folded napkin at table would have taken up any remaining fat and keeps the crumb from steaming. Salt the moment it leaves the fat, while the surface is still hot.
- YieldFour or five slices serve two to three as a main course, or four as a fish course in the longer Victorian menu this recipe assumes.
Cassell's placed fried salmon among the plainest treatments of a fish that, by the 1880s, had gone from a cheap river commodity to an expensive one. Egg-and-crumb frying was the standard drill of the period for any fish served dry rather than in sauce, and the presentation is the era's fish-course convention rendered exactly: no sauce on the dish, a folded napkin to take the fat, and cut lemon around the edge so each diner acidulates their own. Sending the halves of lemon to table rather than squeezing in the kitchen was standard fish-course service.