Home › The Principles of Cookery › SALMON SMOKED (a breakfast relish)
SALMON SMOKED (a breakfast relish)
Cut some thin slices off a smoked salmon. Wrap these in oiled paper, and broil them on a gridiron over a gentle fire. When they are heated on one side turn them upon the other. Let them get cold, pour a little Lucca oil over them, and serve. Time to broil the slices, two minutes.
A two-minute Victorian breakfast savoury that depends entirely on the kind of salmon you start with. Modern cold-smoked salmon is far milder and far wetter than what Cassell's had in mind.
- The salmon is not the same productVictorian "smoked salmon" was generally saltier and more firmly smoked than the silky cold-smoked sides sold today, though cures varied. The warming step may well have been meant to soften the fibre and release the fat. Modern cold-smoked salmon needs no such treatment, and a hot-smoked fillet needs none either.
- If you use a hard-cured or salt-heavy fishSalt-heavy cures were commonly soaked in cold water or milk before cooking. The recipe gives no such instruction, but a very salty artisan cure will be unpleasant broiled straight.
- Oiled paperBaking parchment brushed with oil does the job. Its purpose is to keep the thin slices from sticking to the bars and shredding, and to shield them from direct flame.
- Gridiron and gentle fireA ridged grill pan or a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, or a broiler set low with the rack well down. The aim is to warm the slices through, not to colour them.
- Two minutes means two minutesRoughly a minute a side. Smoked salmon is already cured and will turn dry, curled and chalky if it goes further, because the fat renders out and the salted protein tightens fast.
- Lucca oilOlive oil from Lucca in Tuscany, known in Britain of the period as a high-grade table oil. Any good mild extra-virgin olive oil is the equivalent.
- Serving cold is deliberateThe slices are warmed, then cooled, then dressed; the recipe is explicit that they should get cold before the oil goes on. Do not skip the resting step and expect the same dish.
- YieldReckon on 2 to 3 oz (60-85 g) of salmon per person as one item on a breakfast or supper table, alongside eggs, kidneys or a cold joint.
This belongs to the Victorian breakfast sideboard, where a household of any pretension set out several small savoury dishes to be eaten cold or barely warm: potted meats, devilled bones, dried haddock, and cured fish of this kind. "Relish" in that context meant a sharp or salty item served in small quantity to sharpen the appetite, not a condiment in the modern sense. The specification of Lucca oil is a period marker in itself, Lucca having a long-standing reputation as the source of the finest table oil. Smoked salmon at this date was handled by fishmongers as a keeping fish, and the recipe calls for brief warming before it is served.