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French and English Mustard
Half a pint of Aspic Jelly.
Roll the paste thinly and line six oval tin dariole moulds. Fill these with raw rice, and bake.
When done, remove the rice and let the pastry cases get cold. Cut the salmon into six thin slices. On each slice put a little chutney, some French and English mustard. Then roll up the slices of salmon, wrap each in greased paper, and bake about ten minutes. Remove the papers and let the fish get cold. Place a roll of salmon in each pastry case. Melt the aspic jelly, and pour sufficient over the fish to cover it. When set, it is ready to serve.
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A cold savoury from the era when a small, sharply seasoned dish closed the meal after the sweet. The printed text begins mid-ingredient-list, so the quantities of pastry, salmon and chutney have to be inferred; everything else is workable.
- The missing ingredientsThe page opens with the tail of a list, so the amounts of pastry and salmon are lost. Figure on about 8 oz shortcrust for six dariole moulds and roughly 12 oz of skinned salmon fillet, cut into six thin escalopes on the slant.
- Half a pint of aspicAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. Commercial aspic powder or a well-clarified fish or chicken stock set with gelatine both work; it should be firm enough to hold a clean edge but not rubbery.
- Dariole mouldsSmall tin moulds of roughly 3 to 4 fl oz, still sold for babas and timbales; the recipe specifies oval ones. Deep muffin tins or metal dariole cups are the nearest substitute; line them with pastry pressed well into the base.
- Baking blind with riceThe raw rice is the period's pie weights. Line each case with a scrap of parchment first, or the rice sticks to the pastry. The original gives no temperature; about 400F for 15 minutes works, then lift out the rice and parchment and give the cases another 5 minutes to dry the base.
- The two mustards'French mustard' in British usage meant a ready-mixed, comparatively mild vinegary mustard, of the Dijon or Bordeaux type. English mustard is Colman's powder mixed fresh with cold water and left ten minutes to develop heat. The pairing sets the French for body against the English for the sting.
- Baking the salmonThe original gives no oven temperature; around 350F for the ten minutes stated suits a thin slice rolled up, and the parcel steams the fish. Take it out while the centre is just set, since it will be served cold and firms further as it chills.
- Assembly and setBoth fish and pastry must be properly cold before the aspic goes on, or the jelly will not set and the case will soften. Pour in two stages, letting the first thin layer set in the refrigerator before topping up.
- Yield and holdingSix, one to a person, as a savoury or a first course. Assembled darioles keep a few hours refrigerated but the pastry goes soggy overnight, so build them the same day.
The savoury course, a small hot or sharply seasoned dish served after the sweet, was a distinctly British institution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and cookery manuals of the period devote whole chapters to it. This one is characteristic on every count: aspic to hold a cold thing in neat shape, a lined dariole mould for individual service, and a hit of chutney alongside two mustards. Chutney had been a fixture of British larders since the East India Company trade, and bottled versions were ordinary grocery stock. The two mustards reflect a real distinction in the shops rather than a flourish of the writer's: vinegar-based French mustard sold ready mixed, and English mustard sold as a dry yellow powder to be mixed at table, its heat generally said to fade quickly. Combining them let a cook set a lasting mild flavour against a brief fierce one in the same mouthful.