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Molded Salmon
Remove skin and bones from one can salmon and separate fish in small pieces. Mix together 1/2 teaspoon each of mustard, and salt, two tablespoons sugar, and yolks of three eggs, 1 cup thin cream and 1/4 cup vinegar. Cook over water until thickened like custard. Remove from fire, and add 1/4 tablespoon granulated gelatine which has been soaked in 1/4 cup cold water, and strain over salmon. Mix thoroughly, turn into mold which has been dipped in cold water, and set away in cold place. Turn mold on bed of lettuce, and serve with cucumber dressing.
A cooked-dressing salmon mousse of the sort that filled American refrigerator menus once mechanical refrigeration reached home kitchens. The hinge is the custard: it carries both the flavour and the set, and it will curdle if it is rushed.
- The custard is the whole dishCook the egg, cream, sugar, vinegar and seasoning in a bowl over barely simmering water, stirring constantly, until it coats a spoon at about 170-180F. Direct heat or a hard boil will scramble the yolks and the acid from the vinegar makes that happen faster than in a plain custard.
- Gelatine quantityA quarter tablespoon is roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon, which is very little for well over a cup of liquid plus the salmon. Expect a soft, barely unmoulding set; a full envelope (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) is what a modern cook would use for this volume if a clean turn-out matters.
- Soaking the gelatineSprinkle it over the cold water and leave it five minutes to swell before stirring it into the hot custard off the heat. Granulated gelatine added dry to hot liquid clumps and never fully dissolves.
- Thin creamPeriod 'thin cream' ran to roughly 16 to 18 percent fat. Modern light cream is the nearest match; half-and-half, at about 10 to 12 percent, is a thinner substitute. Heavy cream will give a noticeably richer, heavier mould.
- The can of salmonThe tall can of the period held a pound; the modern tall can runs about 14 to 15 oz. The soft vertebrae in traditional canned salmon are edible and can be mashed in rather than discarded, though the recipe's instruction to remove them gives a finer texture.
- StrainingStrain the hot custard directly over the fish as directed. It catches any threads of cooked egg and any undissolved gelatine, and pouring it hot lets the mixture coat the salmon evenly before it begins to set.
- Dipping the mouldRinsing the mould in cold water rather than oiling it leaves a film of water that releases the gelatine cleanly without a greasy surface. To unmould, dip the outside in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto the lettuce.
- "Set away in cold place"Refrigerate at 40F or below, four hours minimum and overnight for a firm mould. Keep it chilled until serving and return leftovers promptly; a cream-and-fish mould is not a dish to leave standing on a buffet.
- YieldThe mixture comes to something over three cups, enough for about four to six servings as a salad course.
Molded salmon belongs to the era when a household icebox or an early electric refrigerator made gelatine dishes a more everyday proposition. Granulated gelatine sold in measured packets removed the long labour of boiling calves' feet, and canned salmon, cheap and shelf-stable after the Pacific canneries scaled up in the late nineteenth century, gave cooks a fish they could keep on hand. The dressing here is a boiled or cooked dressing, thickened with egg yolk and sharpened with vinegar, a common American salad sauce before commercial mayonnaise took over the jar shelf; cucumber dressings of the period were variously grated or sliced cucumber with French dressing, whipped cream or mayonnaise.