To Boil Salmon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scale, empty, and wash the salmon thoroughly, ensuring all blood is removed.
In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and stir in ½ cup of coarse sea salt.
Once boiling, remove any scum from the surface.
Cook and serve
Add the salmon to the pot and boil moderately fast for 30 minutes for small fish or 1 hour for larger fish.
Check that the salmon is fully cooked before serving; do not leave it in the water after cooking.
Serve the salmon on a hot napkin with dressed cucumber, and anchovy, shrimp, or lobster sauce, along with melted butter.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Salmon
- Is the main protein, which turns firm and flaky as its proteins set during boiling.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the poaching water so the fish is flavoured as it cooks.
The step that matters
Check that the salmon is fully cooked before serving. Salmon turns from translucent to opaque and flakes easily once its proteins set. Undercooked fish is raw in the centre, while leaving it in hot water keeps cooking it until dry and tough.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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