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Salmon Steaks, Anchovy Butter
Procure three pieces fresh salmon of three-quarters of a pound each. Mix on a plate a tablespoon of oil, teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika; repeatedly turn steaks in seasoning. Arrange on a broiler and broil six minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish. Spread an anchovy butter over. Decorate with a little parsley greens and six quarters of lemon and serve.
A plain grilled salmon with a compound butter, written for a coal-fired broiler and a cook who already knew how to make anchovy butter. Two things need attention: the cooking time and the butter the recipe never explains.
- Twelve minutes is too longSix minutes a side made sense over a coal fire with thick, cold steaks and a period preference for fully set fish. Modern farmed salmon steaks an inch thick are done in about 4 to 5 minutes a side, pulled at 125-130F at the bone; beyond that the fat renders out and the flesh turns dry and chalky.
- "A broiler"At this date this is the gridiron — a hinged wire rack set over live coals or in front of an open fire. Under a modern overhead broiler, set the rack 4 inches from the element and preheat it fully; on a gas or charcoal grill, oil the grates hard or the skin will weld to them.
- Anchovy butterThe book assumes you know it. Standard proportion is about 4 oz softened unsalted butter mashed with 1 to 1.5 tablespoons anchovy paste or 4-6 fillets pounded smooth, plus a squeeze of lemon. Add no salt — the anchovies and the seasoning on the fish carry it.
- Cut the salt backA full teaspoon of salt for a little over two pounds of fish is reasonable on its own, but with anchovy butter going over the top it becomes heavy. Half a teaspoon is enough here.
- PaprikaPeriod paprika in an English-language book usually means sweet Hungarian, used as much for colour as for flavour. Smoked paprika will dominate the anchovy; use sweet.
- Steaks, not filletsThree-quarters of a pound each means cross-cut steaks on the bone, roughly 1 to 1.25 inches thick. Skin-on centre-cut fillets of the same weight work, but cook faster — start checking at 3 minutes a side.
- YieldThree steaks of 12 oz each serve three generously, or six if each is split at the bone after cooking. The recipe calls for six lemon quarters without saying how they are to be divided.
Anchovy butter belongs to the nineteenth-century French repertoire of beurres composés — butters worked with a single strong flavouring and set over hot grilled meat or fish, where they melt into an instant sauce. It was the practical answer for a kitchen that had no time to build a fish sauce to order, and salmon, oily and assertive, takes the salt of the anchovy without being overwhelmed. That this recipe gives the butter no formula at all is telling: The International Cook Book was compiled by a professional chef for readers presumed to have the basics in hand, and compound butters were basic. The lemon quarters and the sprig of parsley are a conventional grill garnish of the era.