No. 2581

Salmon a la Farragut

Saumon a la Farragut

Prepare and cook the fish as a la Destaing (No. 2580); cover with creamy white butter and let it get thoroughly cold; on the central part lay a thin band of crawfish butter (No. 573), an eighth of an inch thick by ten inches wide, so as to entirely cover this part of the fish. Decorate the top with fanciful bits of truffles, crawfish tails, anchovies and tarragon leaves; when the fish is very cold, cover it over with light red half-set jelly, and place it on its socle or dish; garnish around with sixteen small crawfish tartlets prepared as follows: Make some tartlets with fine foundation paste (No. 135), and when cold fill them either with crawfish tails or oysters, clams, etc., that have been laid in a marinade, and then cover with half-set jelly. Between these tartlets place sixteen white onions about one and three-eighths inches in diameter, from which cut off about an eighth of the stalk end, and as much from the root end; blanch for five minutes in plenty of water, then refresh and cook slightly firm in white wine court-bouillon (No. 39); drain, empty, and fill them up with Cambridge butter (No. 570), or else marinate them for two hours in oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Place these onions on round pieces of beetroot one inch in diameter, and empty them with a half-inch tube. Cut eight more onions in three even parts across and use only the two end pieces; blanch them in salted water and vinegar, drain and fill with jellied ravigote mayonnaise, made by mixing ravigote sauce (No. 623) with jellied mayonaise (No. 613); place them over the others, and arrange small sprigs of green water cress on top. A printaniere mayonnaise sauce (No. 612) is to be served separately.

← No. 2580 Salmon a la Destaing Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2582 Salmon a la Modern, on Socle →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a cold buffet centerpiece from Delmonico's kitchen, assembled from half a dozen other numbered recipes in the same book. The work is all in the sequencing: nothing goes on the fish until the layer beneath it is fully set and cold.

Start with No. 2580The salmon itself is not described here; "a la Destaing" is a separate numbered recipe you will have to look up. However it is cooked, let the fish cool completely -- a day ahead is safest -- because a warm fish will melt every coating you put on it.
The socleA socle is a decorative pedestal, in Ranhofer's day carved from rice paste, tallow or bread and purely for height. A chilled platter, or a shallow tray set on an inverted dish, gives the same effect without the carving.
Crawfish butter and Cambridge butterNo. 573 is a compound butter based on pounded cooked crayfish shells worked with butter, then warmed and strained; shrimp or lobster shells behave the same way. No. 570, Cambridge butter, is a seasoned butter in the Cambridge-sauce manner -- anchovy and herbs, and in most versions hard-boiled egg yolk; check the numbered recipe. Both must be worked to a spreadable paste but kept cold, or they will not hold a clean eighth-inch band.
"Half-set jelly" is the hingeThis means clarified fish or veal aspic cooled to the point where it coats a spoon and just begins to thicken, a little above its setting point. Warmer and it runs off and dissolves the butter; cooler and it sets in lumps. Apply it in two or three thin coats, chilling the fish between each, rather than one heavy pour.
CrawfishThese are freshwater crayfish, boiled and shelled. Whole crayfish yield very little tail meat -- reckon on well under a fifth of the live weight -- so budget several pounds for the band, the decoration and sixteen tartlets. Cooked crayfish tails or small shrimp are a reasonable stand-in.
The onion workOne and three-eighths inches is a large pearl or small cipollini onion. "Empty them" means hollowing the centre with a column cutter or apple corer so the onion becomes a cup for the butter or the jellied ravigote. Blanching five minutes takes the raw bite out without collapsing the layers.
The marinated shellfish optionThe tartlets may be filled with oysters or clams that have only been marinated, not cooked. Raw shellfish sealed under aspic and held at buffet temperature for an hour or more is a poor idea; use cooked crayfish or shrimp for the filling if the dish will stand.
Yield and holdingA fish of this size with its thirty-two onion cups and sixteen tartlets would serve a dozen or more as one course among several. Assemble it as late as you can, keep it refrigerated until service, and do not leave it out longer than about two hours.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-four years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its cold-dish chapter is essentially a catalogue of banquet architecture: fish glazed, banded, jewelled with truffle and set on carved pedestals for tables where guests were meant to look before they ate. Dishes in that chapter are routinely named for the men being honoured, and Farragut here is almost certainly Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, the Union naval commander at Mobile Bay in 1864, who was feted in New York after the war and who died in 1870 -- Delmonico's kept such names in circulation long after the dinners themselves. The construction tells you what a nineteenth-century grand kitchen had that a modern one does not: a brigade to shell several pounds of crayfish, a reliable supply of clear gelatinous stock made from calves' feet and fish bones, and cold rooms cold enough to keep aspic firm through a long service. The elaborate cross-referencing -- eight numbered recipes folded into one -- is Ranhofer's habit throughout the book, and it assumes a reader who already has butters, pastes and court-bouillons standing ready.