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Boiled Salmon
Take a piece of the tail of a fresh salmon, put it into a fishkettle with some salt, fennel and spices in moderate quantities, one-half teacupful of vinegar, and sufficient boiling water to cover. Boil the fish until tender. Prepare a sauce with one pint of the cooking liquor of the fish, one wineglassful of white wine, two finely minced anchovies, and boil it until somewhat reduced; then mix with the sauce one ounce of the butter broken up into small pieces. Lay the salmon on a hot dish that has been covered with a folded napkin or napkins, garnish with sprigs of parsley, and serve with the sauce in a sauceboat.
A plain poached salmon with an anchovy butter sauce built from the poaching liquor. Two things carry it: keeping the water below a true boil, and finishing the sauce off the heat so the butter does not break.
- Do not actually boil itDespite the title, salmon boiled hard goes dry, curdles white albumin onto the surface and falls apart. Bring the liquid to a bare shiver, around 160-170F, and hold it there; a thick tail piece needs roughly 8 to 10 minutes per inch of thickness, and is done at 125-130F at the bone.
- Fish kettleA long lidded pan with a perforated lift-out rack, so the fish can be raised without breaking. A roasting pan works, with the salmon on a sling of doubled cheesecloth or parchment.
- The poaching liquidThis is a plain court bouillon. "Spices in moderate quantities" means a few peppercorns, a bay leaf, perhaps a clove or two and a little onion; the vinegar firms the flesh and lightly bleaches the surface.
- Teacupful and wineglassfulA teacup in this period is usually reckoned at somewhere between 4 and 6 fl oz, so half a teacupful is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup of vinegar. A wineglassful is about 2 fl oz, or 1/4 cup of white wine.
- FennelMost likely the green tops or fronds rather than the bulb; the seed is possible but less usual in a court bouillon. Dill is the common substitute.
- AnchoviesProbably salt-packed anchovies, which are considerably stronger and firmer than modern oil-packed fillets. Rinse salted ones and bone them; if using oil-packed, two fillets will nearly dissolve into the reducing sauce.
- Mounting the butterReduce the pint of liquor and wine by roughly half, then pull the pan off the heat entirely before whisking in the cold butter a piece at a time. Any further boiling splits the sauce. One ounce is two tablespoons, which gives a thin sauce; three or four tablespoons makes it glossier without changing its character.
- The napkinThe folded napkin under the fish absorbs draining poaching liquid so the platter does not flood. Purely practical, and still the neatest way to serve a whole poached piece.
- YieldA tail piece of 2 to 2 1/2 lb serves four, with about a cup of finished sauce.
Poached salmon with an anchovy-sharpened butter sauce is a nineteenth-century restaurant standard rather than an Oscar invention: the method descends from the French saumon au court-bouillon, and the anchovy note is an older English habit, essence of anchovy having been a stock seasoning for fish sauces since at least the eighteenth century. The tail is specified for good reason -- it is the leanest and firmest section, and it holds its shape in liquid.