Lucky dip - Potted - by Elizabeth David

There are restaurateurs and cookery journalists who like to call confections such as haddock and kipper paste by the name of pâté. I find this comical and misleading." Elizabeth David

Apologies for the blank of over a week. I have been very, very, busy and I had no time (or energy and inspiration). And this post was actually begun before I had to do other things. I must have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the jobs I had to catch up on, and so resorted to a lucky dip, but it was actually an interesting one for several reasons. Always interesting to reread a bit of Elizabeth David and this particular bit of Elizabeth David was a gem in so many ways - mostly though because of the personality that shines through and the historical nature of it all. This particular pamphlet was written in 1965 - the year I graduated from university - but it sounds so very dated and schoolmarmy. But then I guess she was of an earlier generation again to me.

The book I picked out was An Omelette and a Glass of Wine which is not strictly a cook book. It's a collection of her writings from here and there. The picture on the left is of the cover of my original paperback version, but I actually picked out the hardback version which my lovely daughter-in-law gave me a few years back. The picture is the same, as is most of the text, although the hardback version lacks the critical review excerpt on the cover. The page I opened it at was part of a very long section on English potted meats and fish - and this was a page on potted salmon. Which was actually appropriate as I was planning on doing something with salmon for my upcoming lunch party and I was tempted by various fish pastes on the next page, though not so much on the potted salmon itself.

Why was this? This is perhaps not super surprising as the recipe dated back to 1769, but it was also surprisingly modern too. I think what put me off was the fact that the skin was kept on the fish. I give it here so that you can see what I mean.

POTTED SALMON

Cut the salmon into thinnish steaks, arrange them in one layer in a well-buttered baking dish, sprinkle them with salt and seasonings (she suggests nutmeg and white pepper), add about 1 oz. of fresh butter, cut in pieces, for every pound of salmon, cover the dish with buttered paper and a lid, and put to cook in the centre of a moderately heated oven. In 45-50 minutes - a little more or less according to the thickness of the steaks - the salmon will be cooked. Lift the steaks, very carefully, on to a wide sieve, colander, or wire grid placed over a dish so that the cooking butter drains away. (I reckon this might be tricky.)

Pack the salmon steaks into a wide dish or pot with the skin side showing. The dish or pot should be filled to capacity with being so crammed that the fish comes higher than the rim of the pot. I make my potted salmon in a shallow round white pot decorated on the outside with coloured fish. It is one of the dishes especially made for potted char, the freshwater fish once a celebrated delicacy of the Cumberland lake district. Cover with a piece of oiled foil or greaseproof paper and a board, or the base of one of the removable base tart or cake tins now to be found in many kitchen utensil shops, to fit exactly inside the dish. Weight the board. Next day pour in clarified butter to cover the salmon and seal it completely. (Remember to remove the board first - she doesn't tell you to do this. Typical!)

Serve potted salmon in its own dish with a cucumber or green salad and perhaps jacket potatoes. A good luncheon or supper dish - and very decorative looking when cut at the table, into the cross-slices of which Elizabeth Raffald (the 1759 author) notes that 'the skin makes them look ribbed.'

Like I said - the skin doesn't appeal, but I guess you could make it without the skin. It's all somewhat quaint - 'kitchen utensil shop', potted char, the fact that she mentions that springform pans are now to be found. And maybe all a bit bland. But this recipe was immediately followed by much simpler and more appetising recipes for potted crab and lobster, salmon, kipper and smoked haddock pastes and sardine and smoked salmon butters. I might try some of these some time.

"Any woman who has salmon-fishing relations or friends will appreciate the point of this dish" Elizabeth David

Now how delightfully upper crust, other worldly and British is that statement? Though I do remember my mother once being presented with a whole salmon by my father - it must have been a present from someone or from the P&O. They are large and it was a massive challenge to know what to do with it in an ordinary suburban kitchen without the appropriate kitchen utensils such as a fish kettle. I honestly cannot remember what she did with it. Maybe she potted some and put it in her larder.

I also noted Elizabeth David's description of the pot she used. For a while she had a 'kitchen utensil shop' herself in Kensington or Chelsea or somewhere equally expensive and classy but it was not a great success. Nevertheless I'm sure she started an interest in rustic, 'authentic' kind of pots. She thought it was important.

"Apart from the dimensions and shape of the pot, an important point to remember is that whatever the colour or decoration on the outside of the pots or jars used for potted meats, the inside should be of apple colour and preferably white, so that the delicate creams and pinks of the contents with their layer of yellow butter look fresh and appetising against their background."

And they do say that food looks best on white crockery do they not? Certainly food stylists these days pay an enormous amount of attention to what you serve food in and on. As witness the picture below of potted salmon on toast. (Without skin I note.)

But I digress. Potted - this is what Elizabeth David is writing about after all. And potted, she (and others) seem to say is a peculiarly English thing. Which I don't think is quite true.

"For centuries in this country there has been a great tradition of potting meat, fish, game and even cheese, and the results could hold their own among any collection of Continental pâtés and terrines." Delia Smith

Although I read somewhere that potted food is cooked whereas pâté is not, I'm not quite sure that is true either. Or maybe I've got it wrong and it's the other way around. And certainly Felicity Cloake, in her article on the perfect potted shrimps seems to be saying the less cooking of the shrimps the better. What about terrines? And rillettes. Anyway one thing is certainly clear - excuse the pun - clarified butter is essential. Clarified butter is butter that you have gently heated until just before it goes brown, and strained through muslin to separate out the milk solids. I think ghee is essentially clarified butter. For clarified butter is what you put on top of your potted fish or meat. Clarified butter was used because it does not go off like butter would over time. And in the days before fridges it was a reliable seal on the goodies beneath it. So nowadays you don't need to do this - we have fridges - but it looks good. Mind you I think some potted meats are most probably covered with lard rather than clarified butter.

"not all the recipes I try specify clarified butter, presumably thanks to the fact that most people nowadays pot things for effect rather than because they plan to keep them in the larder for some time." Felicity Cloake

And actually although Elizabeth David dedicates most space to potted salmon, actually the really English thing is potted shrimps. You can still find them today in gastro pubs and increasingly in posh restaurants. And why not? They suit a certain kind of modern cooking - simple and based on very high quality and mostly pricey ingredients.

"It was not until ten yeats later that we began to see that in fact those very English store-cupboard provisions, so far from being suited to the cheese-paring methods necessitated by desperate shortages, demand first-class basic ingredients and a liberal hand with butter." Elizabeth David

Here in Australia you could have a really good go with our local prawns, salmon and crab - for potted crab is another staple. Maybe potted yabbies. I can just see it as part of a high class entrée platter in one of those vineyard restaurants. Felicity Cloake didn't seem to think that extra flavourings like lemon juice or cayenne were necessary, although she did mention a dash of anchovy essence. So simple it is.

Give it a go.

I'll do fish pastes another day.