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Broiled Salt Salmon or Other Salt Fish
Soak in tepid water twenty-four hours, changing water several times. At the hour wanted, broil; season to taste, covering with butter. This recipe answers for all kinds of salt fish.
A three-line recipe that assumes you already own a slab of hard-salted fish and know what it should taste like. The whole dish turns on the soak, so judge it by taste rather than by the clock.
- Know your salt fishNineteenth-century salt salmon and salt cod were dry-cured to the point of stiffness, which is why they need a full day of soaking. Modern lightly salted or brine-packed fillets are far milder and may need only 4 to 12 hours; taste a raw sliver of the thickest part before committing to another day.
- Soak cold, not tepidTepid water draws the salt out faster, which is presumably why the book calls for it, but a full day at room temperature is not something to repeat now. Soak in the refrigerator instead, changing the water several times; you get the same salt extraction without holding the fish in the bacterial danger zone for 24 hours.
- Broiling then and nowBroiling in the book's day often meant a hinged wire broiler over a live coal fire, turned to cook both sides, though gas broilers were also in use by then. Under a modern overhead broiler, set the rack about 4 inches from the element, skin side down, and give it 6 to 10 minutes depending on thickness.
- Dry the surfaceFish out of a 24-hour soak is waterlogged and will steam rather than brown. Pat it thoroughly dry and let it sit uncovered in the refrigerator for an hour if you have the time.
- "Season to taste"This means pepper and possibly lemon, not salt. Even well-soaked fish carries plenty of its own; taste before adding any.
- Covering with butterThe wording leaves it open whether the butter goes on during or after broiling; either way it is standing in for a sauce. Figure a generous tablespoon per portion, softened so it melts into the hot flakes.
- Other salt fishThe instruction covers salt cod, salt mackerel and salt herring equally, but thickness varies enormously. Thick cod loins want the longer soak and a lower rack; split mackerel and herring cook in a few minutes and burn easily.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. Allow about 5 to 6 oz of soaked fish per person as a main course.
Salt fish was the ordinary protein of the North Atlantic world long before it was a delicacy: cod split and dried on Newfoundland and New England flakes, salmon barrelled in brine along the Pacific and Scottish coasts, both keeping for months without ice and travelling anywhere a barrel could go. The Butterick Cook Book appeared in the early twentieth century, when household refrigeration was still uneven and a cellar barrel of salt fish remained a reasonable thing for a family to own. The line "this recipe answers for all kinds of salt fish" is a small piece of period logic: the soak, not the species, was understood to be the recipe.