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Broiled Salmon, Bearnaise Sauce
Procure three three-quarter-pound slices fresh salmon and place on a plate with a tablespoon each oil and lemon juice, a sliced onion, a branch parsley, teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper. Repeatedly turn slices in seasoning, then let infuse for one hour, being careful to turn once in a while. Remove from seasoning, arrange on a broiler, broil for six minutes on each side, dress on a hot dish, decorate with a little parsley greens and serve with a Bearnaise sauce separately.
A straightforward marinated salmon steak, written for a coal-fired broiler where the fish sits between hinged wires over live heat. Two things need translating: the size of the slices and the doneness.
- The slicesThree-quarter-pound salmon steaks cut across the bone are substantial, likely something over an inch thick depending on the size of the fish, and thicker than the steaks a fish counter is likely to cut unasked. Ask for them cut to thickness, or substitute thick centre-cut fillet portions of the same weight.
- Six minutes a sideThat timing assumes a hinged wire broiler turned over a hot fire. Under a modern overhead broiler at full heat, a thick steak wants roughly 5 to 7 minutes on the first side and 3 to 5 on the second; on a grill, similar. Go by the fish, not the clock — pull it at 120–125°F at the thickest point for a moist centre, or 130°F if you want it firm throughout.
- Oil the wires, not just the fishSalmon skin welds itself to hot metal. Brush the broiler rack or grill grate with oil before the fish goes on, and turn once only, with a wide spatula rather than tongs.
- The marinadeOne hour with onion, parsley, oil and lemon is a seasoning infusion, not a cure. Wipe the slices reasonably dry before broiling — surface lemon juice and onion scorch and steam rather than brown. Discard the marinade.
- Salt and pepperA teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper season three steaks generously by modern habit. If your Béarnaise is well seasoned, scale the pepper back.
- Béarnaise separatelyThe sauce is served in a boat, which matters: Béarnaise is an egg-yolk emulsion and will curdle or separate if it gets hot — it should be held warm rather than hot, well under about 145°F — so it cannot sit on hot fish under a warmer. Make it last, hold it in a bowl over barely warm water, and whisk in a spoonful of warm water if it begins to tighten.
- YieldThree steaks of this size serve three as a main course, or six as a fish course in the multi-course pattern this book assumes.
Béarnaise is generally traced to the kitchen of the Pavillon Henri IV at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the 1830s or 1840s, and the name is usually explained as a nod to Henri IV, a native of Béarn, whose statue stood nearby — a tidy story that is traditional rather than documented. What is certain is that by the time this book was compiled the sauce had become a standard of the international restaurant repertoire, an egg-and-butter emulsion sharpened with a tarragon-and-shallot vinegar reduction, and the obvious partner for a fatty broiled fish. Pairing it with salmon steaks reflects the hotel-dining logic of the period: a plainly cooked piece of fish, a compound sauce sent to the table apart, and the cook's skill demonstrated in the sauce rather than in the fish.