A guide to modern cookery

Crimped fish is served like the boiled kind, and all the sauces suited to the latter likewise obtain with the former. Besides the selected sauce, send a sauceboat to the table containing some of the cooking-liquor of the fish. SALMON (SAUMON) Salmon caught on the Rhine, or Dutch salmon, is generally considered the most delicate that may be had, though, in my opinion, that obtained from certain English rivers, such, for instance, as the Severn, is by no means inferior to the foregoing. Here in England this excellent fish is held in the high esteem it deserves, and the quantity consumed in this country is considerable. It is served as plainly as possible, either boiled, cold or hot, grilled, or 4 la Meuniére; but whatever be the method of preparation, it is always accompanied by cucumber salad. The slices of salmon, however, thick or thin, large or small, take the name of “‘ Darnes.”’ 784—BOILED SALMON Boiled salmon, whether whole or sliced, should be cooked in court-bouillon in accordance with directions given at the beginning of the chapter (No. 776). All fish sauces are suited to it, but more especially the following, viz. :—Hollandaise sauce, Mousseline sauce, Melted butter, Shrimp sauce, Nantua sauce, Cardinal sauce, &c. Crimped salmon admits of precisely the same sauces. 785—BROILED SALMON Cut the salmon to be grilled in slices from one inch to one and one-half inches thick. Season with table-salt, sprinkle with melted butter or oil, and grill it for the first part on a rather brisk fire, taking care to moderate the latter towards the close of the operation. Allow about twenty-five minutes for the grilling of a slice of salmon one and one-half inches thick. Butter à la Maître d'Hôtel, anchovy butter, and devilled sauce Escoffier are the most usual adjuncts to grilled salmon. 786—SAUMON A LA MEUNIERE Having cut the salmon into moderately thick slices, season these, dredge them slightly, and cook them in the frying-pan with very hot clarified butter. It is important that the salmon be set and that the cooking be rapid. Serve it in either of the two ways indicated above (No. 778). VARIOUS WAYS OF PREPARING SALMON In addition to the three methods of serving salmon described above, and those cold preparations with which I shall deal later, the fish in question lends itself to a whole host of dressings which are of the greatest utility in the varying of menus. The principles of these dressings I shall now give. 787—CADGEREE OF SALMON Prepare one lb. of cooked salmon, cleared of bones and skin, and cut into small pieces; four hard-boiled eggs cut into dice; one lb. of well-cooked pilaff rice; and three-quarters pint of Béchamel flavoured with curry. Dish in a hot timbale, alternating the various products, and finish with a coating of sauce. 788—COTELETTES DE SAUMON Prepare some mousseline forcemeat for salmon, the quantity whereof will be in accordance with the number of cutlets to be made, and rub it through a coarse sieve. Line the bottom and sides of some buttered tin moulds, shaped like cutlets, with a coating one-half inch thick of the prepared forcemeat. Fill the moulds to within one-third inch of their brims with a cold salpicon of mushrooms and truffles, thickened by means of reduced Allemande sauce, and cover this with the forcemeat. Set the cutlets to poach, turn out the moulds; treat the cutlets a l’anglaise, and cook them with clarified butter. Arrange in a circle round a dish, put a frill on a piece of fried bread counterfeiting the bone of the cutlet, garnish with fried parsley, and send to the table, separately, a ‘‘ Dieppoise ”’ sauce, Shrimp sauce, or a purée of fresh vegetables, such as peas, carrots, &c. In the latter case, serve at the same time a sauce in keeping with the garnish. 789—COULIBIAC DE SAUMON