Choose a short, thick fish with a small head, a bright eye, and
of twenty pounds weight, although salmon cannot be too large for
splitting, and just fresh from the ice they come packed in. Immediately
it is brought home――in hot weather observe――commence your operations.
Lay the fish on a table with its back towards you, and, beginning at
the nose, draw a sharp knife clean down at one stroke to within two
inches of where the tail begins. This must be accomplished so that the
backbone is left quite bare under the knife; thus one, the under, side
of the fish will be thicker than the upper side. Then take out the roe
and liver, which may be beautifully preserved as by various receipts in
this treatise, and removing the gills and garbage, wipe out the fish
well, and having previously with a pen-knife severed a tissue that runs
along the whole length of the bone, and hides much coagulated blood.
_Pure water_ must not be allowed, but salt and water may be used to
assist in cleaning out the fish――that is, cloths dipped in salt and
water. In the next place we must have the backbone detached, to effect
which “nicely,” you will need a pen-knife with a strong blade, or one
of those used by shoemakers for “paring,” and which are the smallest
used by them. Commencing about eight inches from the root of the tail,
the knife must be run up by the side of the bone to the head, and then
beginning again at the same start, you must pass the knife on the lower
side of the bone, and so meeting with the point of the instrument the
incision made by the first cutting, thus the bone may be got out, and
afterwards the meat so pared down as to appear as though the fish
never had a backbone. The necessity for thus taking out the bone is,
that handsome slices may be cut from the thick side for broiling.
Now, when thus far advanced, make a layer of finely beaten rock salt,
or bay salt, at the bottom of your pickling tub, and on that lay the
salmon, its scaly side downwards, and with a fine bread-grater cover
the whole inside of the fish with finely rendered loaf-sugar, to the
thickness of a crown-piece, and put plenty of bay leaves upon that,
place your flattening boards nicely on the fish, and weigh them down
effectively. These must of course be displaced once a day to supply
more sugar to the fish. On the third morning put fresh bay leaves,
with a pound more salt, and an ounce and a half of sal prunelle, and
replace the boards. Look to it every morning and evening, keeping it
well supplied with fine salt and sal prunelle, but using no more sugar.
On the fourth day sprinkle lightly over it finely ground white pepper,
and renew the leaves. Next day dismiss the boards, bring the thin side
over upon the other, and, scattering salt over it, leave it till the
next day. Then rinse it quickly through salt and water, and hang it up
to drip; wipe it dry, stretch out the sides by pieces of light lath
placed across the back, and suspend it in a free current of dry air;
examine it occasionally, and if the red side begins to feel clammy or
sticky, place it before a fire until the “face” becomes somewhat dry
and hardened, then expose it again to the air current, and when ready
smoke it with
Oak sawdust 2 parts
Beech chips 2 parts
Fern or grass turfs 2 parts
for three days and nights, adding a little peat to your fire the last
twelve hours. It should not be cut for three or four days, and then
with a very sharp knife held across the fish in an oblique direction,
which procures the slices much broader than if the knife were placed
at right angles with the back of the salmon. The slices are usually
broiled, enclosed in writing-paper.