Boiled Salmon

The principles which govern the cooking of meat when immersed in liquid should be applied to large fish, - it should boil for just time enough to harden the outer edges and thus prevent the escape of the juices and consequent loss of flavour and nourishment. Salmon should be cooked either in liquor in which fish has been boiled, or in stock well salted, and the addition of a small piece of saltpetre helps to preserve the colour.

Put the fish into boiling liquid, and let it boil sharply for less than a minute, then keep it simmering until the flesh will come easily from the bone. Should it be necessary to keep the fish hot for a short time after it is done, lift it out of the water and let it stand on the drainer over the steam, covered with a thick cloth. The time fish will take to cook depends on the thickness of it and the mode of boiling; if slowly done, a piece of a large fish weighing five to six pounds will take from three-quarters of an hour to an hour.

Cod fish, Turbot, Brill, etc., should be boiled in the same manner as salmon, and in the case of turbot it is desirable to add vinegar or white wine to the liquor in which it is boiled.

Salmon Steaks

Fishmongers generally cut these too thick; they should not be more than half an inch thick. Dip the steak in dissolved butter, lightly sprinkle with pepper and salt, and wrap it up in greased writing paper, carefully folded so that the butter cannot run out. Place it on the gridiron, over a moderate fire; it will take from fifteen to twenty minutes, and must often be turned. Put a little dissolved butter on a hot dish, and place the fish on it and serve.

Salmon steaks are less dry if, when prepared as above, they are laid in a stewpan with a little butter and very slowly cooked, or they may be very slowly fried in butter in the frying-pan.

When salmon is dear a comparatively inexpensive little dish may be made by filleting the tail end, a piece of which weighing a pound will be sufficient for four or five persons. Carefully remove the flesh from the backbone in one piece, divide it down the middle again into two or three pieces. Melt an ounce of butter in a stew-pan, place the fillets in it skin downwards, pepper and salt the upper side. Put the pan, closely covered, on the range, or over a very slow fire, and let the fish cook very gently for ten minutes, turn it carefully on the other side until done. Serve with the butter in which it was cooked poured over the salmon. The excellence of this dish depends on the cooking being very slowly done, and salmon is thus rendered more digestible than by any other method.

If preferred a piquant or plain sauce can be served with or poured over the salmon, and a few sliced gherkins can be used by way of garnish.

Kippered Salmon

Cook the salmon exactly as directed for kippered herrings, allowing fifteen or twenty minutes, according to the thickness of the fish.