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Salmon Salad Moulds
Season 2 cupfuls of cold boiled salmon with 1 tablespoonful each of lemon juice and minced parsley and 2 drops of Tabasco sauce. Mix with a boiled salad dressing and 1 tablespoonful of dissolved granulated gelatine. When thoroughly mixed, fill small moulds, and place on ice for several hours. Turn out on lettuce leaves and garnish with stoned olives and 3 gherkins, diced.
A cold moulded fish salad of the sort that filled luncheon menus before the war, built on boiled dressing rather than mayonnaise. Most of the work is in getting the gelatine right.
- The gelatine, and its ambiguity"1 tablespoonful of dissolved granulated gelatine" is unclear: it may mean a tablespoon of dry granules softened and melted, or a tablespoon of the resulting liquid. Read as the former, which is roughly one to one and a half envelopes of modern powdered gelatin; soften it in about 2 tablespoons cold water, melt over hot water, and stir it in while still warm so it does not set in strings.
- Boiled salad dressingA cooked dressing of egg yolk, vinegar, mustard, sugar and milk or cream, thickened in a double boiler. It is tarter and thinner than mayonnaise. Use about half a cup here; commercial "salad dressing" of the sandwich-spread type is the nearest shortcut.
- The salmonCold boiled salmon, that is, poached fish already cooked and chilled; leftovers were the usual source. Two cupfuls is roughly 10 to 12 oz flaked. Canned salmon, well drained with skin and the larger bones removed, will stand in for it, though can sizes vary, so weigh rather than count tins.
- Chilling"Place on ice" means the icebox or a bed of ice; a refrigerator is the modern equivalent. Several hours, say four, should set small moulds firmly; overnight is safer if they are to be turned out cleanly.
- Turning outDip each mould to the rim in warm water for five seconds, dry the outside, and invert onto the lettuce. Oiling the moulds lightly beforehand with a flavourless oil also helps.
- Stoned olivesSimply pitted olives. The recipe does not say which; green ones in brine are the likelier intention.
- YieldEnough for six small individual moulds, or one 3-cup mould as a luncheon dish for four.
- Serve cold and keep it coldA gelatine-set fish salad should go from refrigerator to table and be eaten within a couple of hours; return leftovers to the cold promptly.