Home › Salad Dressings › Halibut-and-Cucumber Salad
Halibut-and-Cucumber Salad
INGREDIENTS.
1 pound of cooked halibut. 2 tablespoonfuls of oil.
1 tablespoonful of lemon juice.
A few drops of onion juice.
Salt and pepper. 2 pimentos.
This entry is an ingredient list with no method attached, and the list is incomplete — no cucumber appears in it despite the title. Treat it as a proportion guide for a simple flaked-fish salad rather than a set of instructions.
- The missing cucumberReckon on one medium cucumber to a pound of fish. Peel, seed and dice it, salt it lightly and drain 20 minutes in a colander, or the water it sheds will thin the dressing to nothing.
- Dressing proportionsTwo tablespoons oil to one of lemon juice is a sharp 2:1 vinaigrette, sharper than the usual 3:1. It suits cold fish, but taste before committing and add oil if it bites.
- Onion juiceMade by halving an onion and pressing the cut face against a grater or reamer, then using the liquid only. A few drops is genuinely a few drops; grated onion pulp will dominate the halibut.
- PimentosCanned or jarred sweet red peppers, skinned and roasted — not pimentón or any hot pepper. Drain and cut into strips for garnish, or dice a portion into the salad.
- Cooking the halibutA pound of steaks or thick fillet poached gently in salted water until just opaque at the centre, about 8 to 10 minutes depending on thickness, then cooled and flaked in large pieces. Halibut goes dry and cottony if pushed past done.
- Assembly orderDress the fish while it is barely cool so it takes up the lemon and oil, then fold in the drained cucumber at the last minute. Fold, do not stir, to keep the flakes whole.
- YieldA pound of cooked fish with cucumber serves four as a first course or a light lunch, on lettuce leaves. Chill no more than an hour or two; halibut salad does not improve overnight.
Halibut was a staple white fish in American cookery around 1900, firm-fleshed and commonly sold in steaks. Recipes of this era frequently begin "one pound of cooked halibut," which most likely assumes the reader is using fish already boiled for an earlier meal. Salads of this kind belong to the broader fashion for cold composed dishes on luncheon and supper tables of the period. The pimento is a useful period marker: canned Spanish sweet peppers were being imported into the United States in quantity by the turn of the century, and appear in recipes of the time wherever a cook wanted a note of red against pale fish, potato or chicken.