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Cold Salmon Patty
Cut two pound fresh halibut into small pieces and place in a mortar, thoroughly pound, add two ounces bread panade, an egg, a teaspoon salt, two saltspoons cayenne, a saltspoon each grated nutmeg and mixed ground allspice. Thoroughly pound again, then add one by one the yolks of three eggs, continually pounding meanwhile, remove and press through a wire sieve into a bowl, and keep on the ice until required.
Remove the skin and bones from a two-pound piece of fresh salmon and cut into strips two inches long by a half inch thick. Heat a tablespoon of melted butter in saucepan, add six finely chopped shallots and gently brown for three minutes. Moisten with one and a half gills white wine, add a half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, two saltspoons white pepper and let boil for five minutes; drop in the salmon and again boil for five minutes, remove and let cool off. Prepare two pounds pie paste, and roll out three-quarters of amount on a lightly floured table to a quarter inch thickness. Lightly butter a medium patty mould, place on a pastry tin and line interior with the paste. Spread a quarter of the force at bottom of mould, carefully spread a half teaspoon anchovy essence and sprinkle a very little finely chopped truffles over. Arrange a third of the salmon, another layer of force, a half teaspoon anchovy essence and sprinkle a little more truffles over them, then another layer of salmon, and so on until finished. Neatly smooth the last layer of force to dome shape, arrange a bay leaf in the center on top and spread two ounces of butter over the surface. Roll out the remaining paste to a quarter-inch thick, cover top with it and carefully press the two edges of paste together. With a pastry pincers pinch the edges all around, make a deep incision in the center on top, egg surface, then set in oven for one hour and thirty minutes. Bring it to oven door, strain the salmon broth and pour it through aperture in the center of patty, reset in oven for twenty-five minutes more, remove and let stand for thirty minutes.
Melt three-quarters pint jelly and with it fill up the patty, place in a cool place and let thoroughly cool. Dress on a cold dish with a folded napkin, arrange three ounces chopped jelly around the base of the patty, decorate with a few lettuce leaves and serve.
N.B. If any of the patty is left over, wrap it in a clean cloth with and keep in the ice box.
A cold raised fish pie in the grand hotel manner: a halibut forcemeat and wine-poached salmon baked in pastry, then filled with aspic and served in slices. Nothing here is difficult, but the book assumes a professional kitchen's vocabulary and leaves out the oven temperature entirely.
- Keep the forcemeat coldThe pounded halibut, egg and yolks are an emulsion, and it will break if it warms up. Chill the bowl and the fish, work quickly, and return the mixture to the refrigerator the moment it is sieved, as the recipe directs.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A moderate oven, 350F, suits a pastry case of this size and depth; the total baking is nearly two hours, so cover the top with foil once it has coloured. The pie is done when the centre of the forcemeat reaches 145F.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so one and a half gills of white wine is three-quarters of a cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon: two saltspoons of cayenne is half a teaspoon, which is assertive but deliberate.
- PanadeTwo ounces of bread panade means crustless bread soaked in milk or stock and squeezed nearly dry, not dry crumbs. It is the binder that keeps the forcemeat tender rather than rubbery.
- Mortar and sieveA food processor does the pounding in a fraction of the time, pulsing the fish first, then adding the yolks one at a time with the motor running. Do not skip the sieving; it is what gives the forcemeat its smooth, sliceable texture.
- "Force" and "patty mould"Force is forcemeat, the halibut mixture. A patty mould here is a deep, straight-sided raised-pie or charlotte mould, not a muffin tin; a 7-inch springform lined with pastry is the nearest common substitute.
- Anchovy essence and trufflesAnchovy essence was a bottled, salty, slightly sweet fish extract; anchovy paste thinned with a little water is the closest thing on a modern shelf. The truffle is decorative and can be left out without harming the dish.
- The jellyThree-quarters of a pint of jelly means a clarified fish or light meat aspic, poured warm through the vent hole so it fills the gaps left as the filling shrinks. It must be well seasoned, since it is eaten cold, and the pie needs several hours in the refrigerator to set firm.
- Yield and keepingA pie this size serves eight to ten as a cold course. The closing note about a cloth and the ice box means refrigeration: keep it covered and eat within two or three days, as the aspic and cooked fish will not hold longer.
This belongs to the cold buffet repertoire of the turn-of-the-century restaurant kitchen, where a fish pie was built like a pâté en croûte, with a pale forcemeat standing in for pork farce and aspic poured in afterward to seal the interior against air. Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, compiled The International Cook Book from exactly that world, and the recipe's assumptions show it: a mortar, a wire sieve, truffles by the pinch, bottled anchovy essence, and an oven temperature nobody thought worth writing down because the cook already knew. The name is a small puzzle, since the body of the pie is halibut and only the strips inside are salmon, but "patty" here is simply the older English rendering of pâté, a raised crust with something rich inside, and the salmon is what a diner would see on the cut face.