Saumon Froid, ou Darne de Saumon Froid au Chambertin

Saumon Froid, ou Darne de Saumon Froid au Chambertin (cold salmon, or a cold cross-cut salmon steak with Chambertin aspic), teaches one severe and useful principle: the poaching liquor must be treated as the finished sauce from the first minute. It cooks the fish, cools it, and becomes the aspic, so a cloudy boil or careless seasoning follows you all the way to the table. Keep it at a bare tremble and season it slightly more boldly than seems polite while warm, because cold mutes both salt and wine.

The original entry assumed a stockpot of clear fish fumet never off the fire, a saucier to turn the court-bouillon into flawless aspic, a whole salmon or service-size darne, and a crystal receptacle carried on carved ice. Here, four individual darnes poach in a snug pan; egg whites perform the saucier's clarification; a shallow glass dish and the refrigerator replace crystal and the cold room; crushed ice supports only the final service. The carved block and brigade scale are scaffolding, so they go. Equal parts fumet and Chambertin, cooling the salmon in that liquor, and glazing it with aspic drawn from the same liquid are the dish, so they stay.

The one step to guard is the clarification. Once the egg-white raft forms, stop stirring and never press it through the cloth; disturb it and the aspic dulls. If it clouds, ça se rattrape: cool it, clarify it once more with a fresh white, then build the glaze in thin coats. One cook, one stove, one evening.