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Salmon Force-meat
1/2 cup milk 1 egg 1/2 cup soft stale bread crumbs 2 tablespoons melted butter 1/2 cup cold flaked salmon 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons cream Few grains pepper Cook milk and bread crumbs ten minutes, add salmon chopped and rubbed through a sieve; then add cream, egg slightly beaten, melted butter, salt, and pepper. Chicken Force-meat I 1/2 cup fine stale bread crumbs 2/3 cup breast raw chicken 1/2 cup milk Salt 2 tablespoons butter Few grains cayenne White 1 egg Slight grating nutmeg Cook bread and milk to a paste, add butter, white of egg beaten stiff, and seasonings; then add chicken pounded and forced through puree strainer.
A soup garnish rather than a dish in itself: a bound salmon paste, shaped into small balls or quenelles and poached in the soup or in stock just before serving. The original gives the mixture but stops short of telling you what to do with it.
- The panada is the hingeMilk and crumbs cooked ten minutes should reduce to a stiff paste that pulls away from the pan in one mass. If it stays loose the force-meat will not hold its shape when poached. Stir constantly over low heat; the mixture scorches easily.
- Finishing the mixtureShape into small balls or use two teaspoons to form quenelles, then poach in barely simmering stock or salted water for 5 to 8 minutes until firm and floating. Water at a rolling boil breaks them apart. Test one first and slacken with a little more cream or tighten with crumbs as needed.
- Flaked salmonThe recipe says only 'cold flaked salmon' and does not specify the source. Canned salmon was cheap and widely available by this date and would serve; drained canned salmon works as written. Leftover poached or roast salmon is better still, but pick out skin and pin bones before sieving.
- SievingRubbing cooked salmon through a sieve gives a smoother paste than any chopping. A food processor does the same work in seconds, though it will incorporate more air; pulse rather than run it.
- Soft stale bread crumbsCrumbs torn from the interior of a day-old loaf, not dried and ground crumbs from a can. Dried crumbs absorb far more liquid and will make the paste heavy.
- EggA whole egg, slightly beaten. The recipe does not say to take the pan off the heat, but it is worth letting the panada cool somewhat first: added to a scalding-hot paste, egg scrambles in threads.
- YieldSomething over a cup of mixture, enough to garnish several bowls of clear soup or bisque. It is not meant to be eaten alone.