(2580). Salmon A La Destaing (Saumon A La Destaing)

Have a very fresh twelve to sixteen-pound salmon; dress, that is. scrape off the scales, suppress the gills, and empty it by making an incision in the belly; wash it very clean, pare off the fins, and lay the salmon on a fish-kettle grate, on its side, the head resting toward the left; cover with cold white wine court-bouillon (No. 39) and stand the kettle on a hot tire; remove it at the first boil, and keep the liquid at boiling heat, without allowing it to boil up. for one hour for a twelve-pound salmon, and one hour and a half for a sixteen-pound one. Let it cool off in its own stock, then drain well for two hours. Remove the skin and sanguineous parts in the center so that the meat itself is entirely exposed, then slide it on a board of its own dimensions. Place a small bread crouton, shaped like the tail (a slightly lengthened triangle), at the extreme end of the tail, it being shaved down to almost nothing; till the empty part of the fish with butter. Work some butter in a bowl and when very white, smooth and frothy, use it to cover the entire fish; have a strong straight band of paper, one inch in width, pass it over the butter several times until smooth, following the outlines of the salmon, and let get thoroughly cold; now cover it with a sufficiently thick and smooth layer of half-set red jelly, decorate this with truffles, pistachios, hard egg-white, and the red part of lobster meat; imitate the eye. mouth and gills, covering it over with more jelly.

Dress it either on a socle or large dish, and surround with small shrimp aspics molded in timbale molds (No. 2. Fig. 137), decorated with eggs and truffles, filling them with a salpicon of shrimp mingled with jellied mayonnaise (No. 613), and fillets of sole, pared round. Cover with jellied mayonnaise, to which add chopped tarragon and chervil, then mask this over with jelly. Serve some mayonnaise sauce (No. 606) separately.

(2581). Salmon A La Earragut (Saumon A La Earragut)

Prepare and cook the fish as a la Destaing (No. 2580); cover with creamy white butter and let it get thoroughly cold; on the central part lay a thin band of crawfish butter ( No. 573), an eighth of an inch thick by ten inches wide, so as to entirely cover this part of the fish. Decorate the top with fanciful bits of truffles, crawfish tails, anchovies and tarragon leaves; when the fish is very cold, cover it over with light red half-set jelly, and place it on its socle or dish: garnish around with sixteen small crawfish tartlets prepared as follows: Make some tartlets with fine foundation paste (No. 135), and when cold till them either with crawfish tails or oysters, clams, etc., that have been laid in a marinade, and then cover with half-set jelly. Between these tartlets place sixteen white onions about one and three-eighths inches in diameter, from which cut off about an eighth of the stalk end, and as much from the root end; blanch for five minutes in plenty of water, then refresh and cook slightly firm in white wine court-bouillon (No. 39); drain, empty, and fill them up with Cambridge butter (No. 570). or else marinate them for two hours in oil, vinegar, -all and pepper. Place these onions on round pieces of beetroot one inch in diameter, and empty them with a half inch tube.

Cut eight more onions in three even parts across and use only the two end pieces; blanch them in salted water and vinegar, drain and fill with jellied ravigote mayonnaise, made by mixing ravigote sauce (No, 623) with jellied mayonaise (No. 613); place them over the others, and arrange small sprigs of green water cress on top. A printaniere mayonnaise sauce (No. 612) is to be served separately.