No. 1246

Salmon—Quarter—Genevoise Sauce

Quart de Saumon a la Sauce Genevoise

The illustration (Fig. 299), represents this remove of salmon as it should be dressed.

Choose a fresh salmon weighing from twelve to sixteen pounds, suppress the head and about eight inches of meat from the thin tail end; divide the remainder into two equal parts cutting it through the thickness in the center, split each part in two lengthwise pieces leaving half of the large bone adhering to each part; it is one of these half slices that is shown in the illustration. Tie these four halves together to give them their primitive shape; lay the fish on a grater of a small fish kettle with an abundance of salt, let macerate for one hour, then cover with cold water and two gills of vinegar, add simply a large bunch of parsley, then heat the liquid while skimming, and at the first boil remove the kettle to the side of the fire so that the liquid quivers only for thirty to forty minutes. A quarter of an hour before serving, drain off the fish on the grater and with the tip of a knife cut a slit in the middle of each quarter of the width of three inches on the whole length of the skin, in a straight line, so as to remove all the central part, suppress also the sanguineous crust covering the flesh, leaving them bare. Wash the fish in its own broth, then rub the surfaces with a piece of fresh butter or red butter (No. 580). Slide the fish on a long dish, the bottom being supplied with a perforated board, and covered over with a folded napkin. Send to the table with a dishful of three-quarter inch potato balls boiled in salted water and a sauce-boat of genevoise sauce (No. 469).

← No. 1245 Salmon Marinade Sauce Salmon & Trout No. 1247 Salmon Salted, a la Bedlow →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer is describing a banquet centerpiece: a whole large salmon butchered into four bone-in quarters, poached gently, then trimmed at the table-ready stage. The technique scales down to a single center-cut piece without much loss.

The hinge: the liquid must never boilBring the court bouillon to one boil, then move it to the side of the fire so it only quivers — about 160-175F. Salmon held at a rolling boil sheds albumin, splits along the flakes and turns dry and chalky.
Rethink the 30-40 minutesThat timing belongs to a bone-in quarter of a 12-16 lb fish. Judge by temperature instead: pull the fish at 125-130F at the thickest point, which for a 2-inch center-cut section is roughly 12-18 minutes at a quiver. Carryover finishes it while it drains.
Gills and vinegarA gill is half a cup, so two gills is one cup of vinegar. That is for a fish-kettle's worth of water — several quarts — not a small pan; scale it to about 1/4 cup vinegar per quart.
"A grater"This is the perforated rack or drainer plate that sits in the bottom of a fish kettle; "grater" here almost certainly renders the French grille. A wire cooling rack or a length of cheesecloth slung under the fish does the same job: it lets you lift the fish out intact.
The salt macerationOne hour under "an abundance of salt" firms the flesh and seasons the surface. Ranhofer does not say to rinse, but knock or rinse the loose salt off before the fish goes into the water, or the broth and the surface will be too salty.
"This remove"A remove is a dish served in place of another in formal 19th-century service; here the fish course itself is the remove, following and replacing the soup. It signals a dish meant to be carried in whole and carved for the room, not plated in the kitchen.
The cross-referencesNo. 580 red butter is butter worked with lobster coral or roe for color; plain fresh butter is the stated alternative. No. 469 genevoise sauce is a red-wine fish sauce built on mirepoix and fish stock, finished with butter and often with anchovy.
Potato ballsThree-quarter inch balls cut with a large parisienne scoop — close to what a modern kitchen calls pommes noisettes when browned, though the sizes attached to those names vary; here they are simply boiled in salted water.
YieldA 12-16 lb salmon dressed this way would have served roughly twenty to thirty as one course of a long dinner; the recipe itself states no yield. A single 2 to 3 lb center-cut section, poached and trimmed the same way, feeds six to eight.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry shows the logic of that kitchen: a fish large enough to feed a dining room is broken into four identical bone-in quarters, tied back into its original shape for poaching, then stripped of skin and the dark "sanguineous crust" along the lateral line so that what reaches the table is a clean pink surface, glossed with butter. Genevoise sauce is a red-wine fish sauce usually associated with Geneva and the cookery of the lake and the Rhone, though the name's origin is disputed: French kitchen literature has long confused genevoise with génoise, and older books use the two almost interchangeably. Salmon of twelve to sixteen pounds were then wild Atlantic fish; the runs had already collapsed in much of New England by the time Ranhofer wrote, and a fish a cook buys today at that weight will usually be farmed.