Salmon Loaf
1 cup flaked cooked salmon 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup stale bread crumbs 1 teaspoon lemon juice soaked in 1 cup 1 tablespoon butter 2 egg whites stiffly teaspoon onion juice beaten scalded milk 2 egg yolks, beaten Combine ingredients in order given, folding in the stiffly-beaten whites last. Place mixture into a well-greased and crumbed pan and bake last. Place mixture into a well-greased and crumbed pan and bake in a moderately hot oven or steam the mixture. Serve with white sauce ( page 29), or the following:
A plain steamed or baked fish pudding of the sort that turned a single can of salmon into supper for four. The whipped whites are what keep it light, so treat them as the point of the dish rather than a garnish.
- What the ingredients actually areReading the two columns together: 1 cup flaked cooked salmon, 1 cup stale bread crumbs soaked in 1 cup scalded milk, 1 tablespoon butter, 2 beaten egg yolks, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, onion juice, and 2 egg whites beaten stiff. The quantity of onion juice has dropped out of the text; a half teaspoon is in keeping with the rest of the seasoning.
- SalmonThe recipe specifies only cooked salmon; canned is the likely intent but is not stated. A small can (about 7-8 oz), drained and flaked, gives roughly the cup called for; a larger 14-15 oz can gives about twice that. Leftover poached or roasted salmon works equally well.
- Oven temperature"Moderately hot" in period cookery is generally taken as somewhere around 375-400F, though the ranges given in old oven tables vary. Bake 35-45 minutes in a loaf pan, until the centre is set and a knife comes out clean.
- Cool the milk mixture firstThe crumbs are soaked in scalded milk, and the yolks go in next. Let the mixture drop to warm before adding them, or the yolks curdle and the loaf turns grainy.
- Folding the whitesBeat the whites to soft-firm peaks, not dry, and fold in three additions with a spatula. Overworking them at this stage is the difference between a light pudding and a dense fish brick.
- The steaming optionSteamed, it wants a greased mould covered with foil or a cloth, set on a rack in a covered pot of simmering water, for about 45-60 minutes. Steaming gives a softer, paler loaf; baking gives you a browned crust.
- "Greased and crumbed pan"Butter the pan, then dust it with dry bread crumbs. The crumbs give the loaf something to release from and a light crust; parchment is a modern substitute but loses the crust.
- Yield and servingMakes about four servings. It is meant to be turned out and sliced hot, masked with white sauce; an egg or caper sauce suits it as well, and it slices cleanly cold the next day.
Salmon loaf belongs to the era when canned Pacific salmon was one of the cheapest sources of protein in an American pantry, and promotional cookbooks pushed it hard for exactly that reason. The technique is older than the can, and the loaf bears a family resemblance to the French pain de poisson, a panade of bread and milk bound with eggs and lightened with whipped whites. The instruction to serve it with white sauce from another page is often said to be characteristic of these books, which are generally described as teaching a small set of basic sauces early and then referring back to them for the rest of the volume.