Salmon
There is a myth that salmon was once so common that in the indentures of apprenticeship in Newcastle, Perth, and other towns, it was wont to insert a stipulation that the apprentice should not be obliged to eat of this fish for dinner more than thrice a week. Now the said apprentice never sees it at table; and to prevent the utter extermination of the king of fresh-water fish, it has been found necessary to establish a close time during the spawning season, when he and his queen shall not be hunted to death. Nevertheless, salmon is to be had in London during a considerable portion of the closed season-but they are salmon from the Rhine. The best salmon known in England (and best chiefly because the freshest) is that caught in the Severn and in the Scotch rivers. The sooner a salmon can be cooked after it has been killed, the better; and there is no comparison in flavour between a salmon cooked on the day it has been caught, and one cooked in London three or four days afterwards. It is quite possible to get on a London dinner-table in the evening salmon which has been disporting in a Scotch river early in the morning. Apply at Groves', or any first-rate fishmonger's. The salmon will be killed in the Tweed at three or four in the morning; it will be instantly crimped and parboiled, and it will be in Bond Street by five or six in the evening. Boiled Salmon. - Whether whole, in parts, or in slices, the salmon is to be boiled like other fish, beginning with cold water and salt. It must be thoroughly well done, thoroughly well drained, and served on a napkin. It is common enough in England to take lobster sauce with itbut this is much too heavy for so rich a fish. Better take Salmon shrimp sauce, Dutch sauce, caper sauce, or Béarnaise. Garnish of sliced cucumbers.
Crimped Salmon-The best boiled salmon is crimped, with the object of keeping perfect what is called the cream or curd of the fish lying between the flakes. The process is described as follows, by Sir Humphrey Davy, in his book on salmon fishing: -"We must now prepare him for the pot. Give him a stunning blow on the head to deprive him of sensation, and then give him a transverse cut just below the gills, and crimp him by cutting to the bone on each side, so as almost to divide him into slices, and now hold him by the tail that he may bleed. There is a small spring, I see, close under that bank, which, I daresay, has the mean temperature of the atmosphere in this climate, and is much under 50°. Place him there, and let him remain for ten minutes, and then carry him to the pot, and let the water and salt boil furiously before you put in a slice, and give time to the water to recover its heat before you throw in another, and so with the whole fish, and leave the head out, and throw in the thickest pieces first." The process, it will be observed, consists of three stages: first, transverse cutting to the bone; second, plunging into very cold water; third, plunging into boiling water. Without this process being performed soon after the fish is killed, the cream turns to oil.
Salmon Waterzootje. - This is but boiled pieces of salmon served after a particular method: which see.
Grilled Salmon. Rubbed slightly with salad oil, sprinkled with pepper and salt, and served either with a piece of maître d'hôtel butter or with Tartar sauce. Salmon à la Genevoise is either plain boiled or it is stewed in a Mirepoix of white wine, and served with Genevese sauce.
Salmon Pie. Flakes of salmon laid in a pie-dish in alternate layers, with forcemeat of whiting (see Quenelle), Salpicon seasoned with spiced salt, moistened with fish broth, covered with a paste, sent to the oven, and eaten cold.
Salmon Omelet. - Hot flakes of salmon mixed with Allemande sauce, and put into the omelet before folding it up.
Aspic of Salmon.-Flakes of salmon mixed with liquid aspic, and left to get cold and stiff.
Kippered Salmon. -The kippering of salmon is a mystery which must be left to experts. The kipper which comes to London is so well kippered that few can afford to eat more than a very thin slice of it grilled with exceeding swiftness. There are few dainties for breakfast, however, more delicious and more harmless than salmon which is but slightly kippered-that is, salmon which, being perfectly fresh, has undergone the kippering for not more than two or three days. Rub it with a little butter, and grill it in any quantity. This is one of the glories of a Highland breakfast, and it is to the stomach of a Scotch baillie what turtle is to a London alderman.
Pickled or Soused Salmon.-Boil a salmon and split it. Take a quart of the liquor in which it has boiled; add to it half an ounce of peppercorns and pimento whole, half a pint of vinegar, a teaspoonful of salt, a couple of bayleaves, and a sprig of lemon-thyme; and boil them together. When cold, pour it over the salmon and cover it up. The fish will keep good in this for several days. To strengthen the pickle, boil it afresh with more vinegar and spice.
An omnibus entry rather than a single recipe: a page of salmon methods, several of them only sketched, all assuming a fish that reached the kitchen within hours of being killed. A few of the instructions run directly against current practice.
- "Thoroughly well done" is the one thing to ignoreSalmon cooked until it flakes stiffly is dry salmon; the fat and the "curd" the author prizes are exactly what long cooking drives out. Poach at 160–170F (water barely trembling) and pull the fish at 125–130F internal for a moist centre, or 140F if you want it fully opaque.
- Crimping is not a home techniqueIt requires a fish killed minutes earlier, scored to the bone while still bleeding, then chilled in running water under 50F. Nothing sold at a modern fish counter can be crimped, and there is no point trying. Buy the freshest thick-cut fillets or steaks you can and poach them gently.
- Starting in cold waterSound for a whole fish, which needs to heat evenly, but for steaks or fillets it means the outside is overcooked before the middle warms. For portions, bring the salted water or court-bouillon up to a bare simmer first, then slide the fish in.
- The sauces, translated"Dutch sauce" is hollandaise. Genevese (Genevoise) sauce is a red-wine and fish-stock reduction finished with butter and anchovy. Allemande is a velouté enriched with egg yolk and cream — for the omelet, a thick béchamel with a yolk beaten in is a fair substitute.
- Salmon pieThe whiting forcemeat is a quenelle mixture (see the book's own entry): raw white fish pounded with panada, egg white and cream. Bake covered with shortcrust at 350F for about 45 minutes for a deep dish, and note that this pie is meant to be eaten cold, so the pastry will soften.
- Pickle quantitiesA quart is 2 pints, half a pint is 1 cup (the imperial pint of the original is 20 fl oz, so slightly more than the US measure). Half an ounce of whole peppercorns and pimento together is roughly 2 tablespoons; pimento here means allspice berries, not sweet pepper.
- Keeping the soused salmon"Will keep good for several days" assumed a cold larder and an acid strong enough to matter. Refrigerate it in a covered non-reactive dish and eat within three days; do not rely on reboiling the pickle to extend the life of fish already in it.
- Kippered salmonThe author is right that this is a job for specialists. Cold-smoking cured fish at low temperature without measured salt, nitrite and temperature control is a botulism and listeria risk, and the recipe gives none of those figures. Buy cured salmon and grill it briefly with a little butter as described.
- YieldNone is given anywhere. Reckon 6–8 oz of salmon on the bone or 5–6 oz of fillet per person as a main course; the omelet and aspic will absorb the remains of a poached side.
Kettner's Book of the Table (1877) was published anonymously and is attributed to the journalist E. S. Dallas, borrowing the name of Auguste Kettner, the Soho restaurateur, and it reads like a dictionary compiled by a man who dined out constantly. The apprentice story it opens with — indentures forbidding salmon more than three times a week — was already a stock anecdote in Victorian food writing, attached to various salmon towns, and Dallas is notable for flagging it as a myth. What is not myth is the collapse behind it: netting, weirs and river pollution had made salmon a luxury by mid-century, close seasons were being imposed by statute, and the trade filled the gap with imported Rhine fish, a run that would itself be effectively destroyed within decades. The crimping instructions are quoted from Sir Humphry Davy's Salmonia (1828), an angling dialogue in the Waltonian manner written by the chemist late in life; the passage is a reminder that in the age before ice and rail, freshness was a matter of geography, and Dallas's boast about a Tweed fish reaching Bond Street by evening is really a boast about the railway.