A Salmi, or Hash of Wild Fowl

A historical recipe from Modern cookery for private families, by Eliza Acton (1882).

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A historical recipe

Modern cookery for private families, by Eliza Acton (1882). Project Gutenberg eBook #72482.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 1 ingredient

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

Hot oil. Never put water on an oil fire: turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or a damp tea towel. Pat food dry before it goes into hot oil, and lower it in gently, away from you.
Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Carve the birds very neatly, strip off the skin, and proceed as for the salmi of pheasants (page 292), but mix port or claret, instead of white wine, with the gravy, and give it a rather high seasoning of cayenne.
Throw in the juice of half a small lemon before the salmi is served, place fried sippets round the dish, and send it to table as hot as possible.
For a common hash boil the skin and trimmings of the wild-fowl in some good broth, or gravy (with a couple of lightly fried eschalots or not, at choice), until their flavour is imparted to it;
then strain, heat, and thicken it slightly, with a little brown roux, or browned flour;
add a wineglassful of port wine, some lemon-juice, and cayenne;
or sufficient of Christopher North’s sauce to flavour it well;
warm the birds slowly in it, and serve them as soon as they are thoroughly hot, but without allowing them to boil.
[The following receipt having, from inadvertence, been omitted from the chapter to which it properly belongs—as the reader has already been informed—a place is given to it here.]