Boiled Salmon
Clean the salmon and scrape the skin, wipe dry, and put it in the kettle with sufficient boiling water to cover it. Keep the kettle where it will boil gently. When done, drain well, remove carefully to a hot platter, and serve garnished with slices of lemon and hard-boiled eggs. Piquant or Hollandaise sauce is one of the best accompaniments to salmon.
A border of Parisienne potatoes piled around the platter, or heaped in mounds alternated with the slices of lemon, makes a pretty dish. The potato balls should be fried in a frying basket in deep, hot fat until they are a nice brown.
Striped bass is excellent boiled in the same way as salmon and served with Hollandaise sauce. Remove the head and tail of any fish that is to be cooked whole. They are most unappetizing and unsightly.
A plain poaching method with no time or seasoning given, which is where most of the modern work lies. Salmon is at its best well under the boil.
- Do not let it boilDo not let it boil hard -- instructions like "boil gently" were generally taken to mean a slow simmer, and salmon is better still held below that, at 160-175F; a rolling boil shreds the flakes apart and squeezes out white albumen.
- The kettleA fish kettle is a long covered pan with a perforated lift-out rack, which is how a whole fish comes out intact. Without one, use a roasting pan and lower the fish on a double sling of cheesecloth.
- Season the waterThe original poaches in plain water. Salt it well (about 1 tablespoon per quart) and add a splash of vinegar or white wine, a bay leaf, a few peppercorns and a sliced onion; unsalted water leaches flavour out of the fish.
- TimingReckon roughly 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest point for a whole fish or thick piece. Test at the backbone: the flesh should part cleanly. Many cooks pull salmon at 125-130F for a moist result, though the FDA recommendation is 145F; 140F gives fully firm flesh.
- Parisienne potatoesBalls cut from raw potato with a melon baller, fried in deep fat at 350-375F until golden, about 5-6 minutes. Rinse and dry them thoroughly first or they will spit and stick together.
- Striped bassStill an excellent poaching fish, though wild stocks are regulated and sizes vary by state. Farmed hybrid striped bass, or any firm white fish of similar thickness, poaches on the same schedule.
- Head and tailThat instruction is a matter of period taste, not technique. Leaving the head on helps hold a whole fish together and adds gelatine to the liquid; remove it at the table if the look bothers you.
- YieldThe original gives no yield. Allowing 6 oz of trimmed fillet per person, a whole fish of about 4 lb will serve four to six with the potatoes and sauce.