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Coquilles of Salmon, Siberienne
Place a two-pound piece of salmon in a narrow saucepan with a sliced carrot, a sliced onion, a sprig of thyme, a bay leaf, a clove and two branches parsley. Moisten with half gill white wine, two tablespoons vinegar and sufficient cold water to cover the fish. Season with teaspoon salt, then let slowly come to a boil and let simmer ten minutes. Remove the pan to a cool place and let cool off in its broth.
Lift up the salmon, carefully remove the skin and bones, then divide the meat into small pieces and place them in a bowl. Season with four tablespoons salad dressing. Carefully mix without breaking the pieces. Arrange six large, thoroughly cleaned lettuce leaves in six table shells. Then evenly divide the fish over the lettuce. Prepare and divide a mayonnaise on top of the fish, neatly spreading it over. Have six small (heart) lettuce, arrange half teaspoon caviare over each piece of lettuce, then carefully lay one over each prepared coquille. Sprinkle a very freshly chopped hard-boiled egg over all, then serve.
A cold poached salmon salad served in shells, from the era when a first course was judged as much by its arrangement as its flavour. Most of the work is done a day ahead.
- Half a gill of wineA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 4 tablespoons. The vinegar and wine together are there to firm the flesh and season the broth, not to dominate it.
- The poaching time is the hingeTen minutes at a bare simmer, then off the heat to cool in its own broth. The residual heat in the liquid finishes the fish; a rolling boil or a longer simmer squeezes out albumin and leaves the salmon dry and chalky under the mayonnaise.
- A narrow saucepanThe instruction is deliberate. A tall, close-fitting pan lets a two-pound piece be covered with the least liquid, which keeps the aromatics concentrated rather than diluted across a wide pan.
- "Table shells"Scallop shells or the porcelain coquille dishes sold to imitate them. Small gratin dishes or shallow ramekins do the same job.
- "Salad dressing"In books of this period this usually means a plain oil-and-vinegar dressing, sometimes a cooked boiled dressing, and it is distinct from the mayonnaise called for later. Use a sharp vinaigrette so the fish is seasoned before the richer coating goes on.
- The mayonnaiseHouse mayonnaise here was made with raw yolks and eaten cold. If it will sit out on a buffet, or is being served to anyone pregnant, elderly or immune-compromised, use pasteurised eggs or a commercial mayonnaise.
- CaviareHalf a teaspoon per shell is a garnish, not a filling. Any firm-grained roe works; add it at the last moment, since salt roe weeps and stains the mayonnaise if it sits.
- YieldSix shells, as a cold first course. Two pounds of salmon will give appreciably more than a pound of picked flesh once skin and bones are removed, which is generous for six.
Coquilles took their name from the shell they were served in, and by the late nineteenth century the shell was a common format in restaurant kitchens: anything flaked, bound and browned or masked could be sent out in one, portioned and pretty, with no carving at the table. The suffix Siberienne here appears to signal the caviare rather than any geography -- Russian sturgeon roe was the luxury garnish of the period, and its name was attached freely to dishes carrying even half a teaspoon of it. The method underneath is entirely classical French: a court bouillon of carrot, onion, thyme, bay and clove, the fish cooled in its own broth to keep it moist, then dressed cold and masked with mayonnaise.