No. 2577

Salmon Sliced and Decorated

Tranches de Saumon Historiees

Take two two-inch slices from the middle of a large salmon; after cleaning them nicely lay them in salt for one hour; place them on the grate of a fish-kettle and cover profusely with cold water, adding to it a large sprig of parsley and a gill of vinegar; set the kettle on the fire, skim the liquid and at the first boil withdraw it to one side so as to have it quiver only for forty to forty-five minutes; let cool in the stock, then remove the fish with the grate and let drain for half an hour. Trim the slices, lift off the skin, wipe neatly, lay them on a baking sheet and cover the sides with a layer of Montpellier butter (No. 582); smooth it nicely and set aside on ice to cool. Decorate the sides and tops of these slices of fish with fanciful cuts of truffles, gherkins and hard-boiled egg-whites, being careful to dip each piece into half-set jelly before applying it. Dress the two slices on a thin wooden double support covered with white paper, and in the center of the dish on both sides arrange a cluster of macedoine salad (No. 2650) dressed with mayonnaise (No. 606); on the salad lay a large cooked crawfish and surround the slices with halved hard-boiled eggs, having the yolks hidden under a round piece of truffle. On both ends of the support fasten two tasteful hatelets of red prawns, slanting them outward. Serve with the fish a separate mayonnaise sauce (No. 606).

← No. 2576 Salmon Darne, Decorated Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2578 Slice of Salmon with Jelly →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet showpiece from Delmonico's kitchen, built on a poached salmon steak that is then treated as a canvas. Most of the work is assembly; the one thing that will make or break it is the poaching.

Ignore the poaching timeForty to forty-five minutes at a quiver will badly overcook a two-inch salmon steak. Held at a bare quiver, a steak that thick is done in roughly 12 to 15 minutes, or when the center reads 125-130F. The long timing probably reflects a period preference for fish cooked through and firm enough to be handled, sliced and decorated without collapsing.
A gill of vinegarHalf a cup. It is there to firm the flesh and brighten the color, not to flavor the fish; a plain white wine vinegar is closer to the intent than anything sharply flavored.
The hour in saltThis is a short dry cure. Ordinary salt sprinkled over both faces, rinsed off before poaching, seasons the interior and tightens the flesh so the slices trim cleanly. Thirty minutes is enough if you want a lighter cure.
Fish-kettle and grateThe grate is the perforated rack that lifts the fish out in one piece. A deep roasting pan with a cake rack and two cloth slings does the same job. Cooling the fish in its own liquid is not optional here — it is what keeps the steaks moist after the long chill.
Montpellier butterRecipe No. 582: butter pounded with blanched herbs (parsley, chervil, tarragon, chives, watercress), anchovy, capers, gherkin, garlic and hard-boiled yolk, sieved smooth and tinted green. It is a spreading medium as much as a seasoning, and it must be cold and firm before you attempt to smooth it.
Half-set jellyAn aspic at the point where it has begun to thicken but still coats. Each truffle or egg-white cutout is dipped so it glues down and takes a glaze. Work over ice, in small batches, and re-warm the jelly gently when it sets too far.
Macedoine and hateletsMacedoine (No. 2650) is a dice of cooked vegetables -- carrot, turnip, green beans and peas among them -- bound at the last moment with mayonnaise so it does not weep. Hatelets are ornamental skewers, often silver-topped; a wooden or metal skewer threaded with prawns and set slanting at each end gives the same effect.
Raw-egg mayonnaiseThe accompanying sauce (No. 606) is uncooked. Since the whole dish sits out cold on a buffet, use pasteurized eggs or a commercial mayonnaise as the base, and keep the platter below 40F until service.
YieldTwo two-inch steaks from a large salmon will serve eight to ten as part of a cold table. The garnish is scaled for display, not for appetite.

A Little History

This is No. 2577 in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. The garde-manger chapters, of which this is one, describe a kind of cooking that barely survives outside competition work: cold fish and poultry masked in herb butter or chaud-froid, inlaid with cut truffle and egg white, glazed in aspic and mounted on a paper-covered wooden support so the piece stands above the table. The vocabulary is Carême's, carried into America intact, down to the "storied" slices of the title.