from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
The Atlantic Salmon
Saumon – Salmon. Saumon Atlantique – Atlantic Salmon
The only salmon that calls Europe its
real home is the Atlantic Salmon, and it is France's best-selling fish, just
ahead of cod. It will be on the menu
marinated, fried, poached, grilled, and smoked. Salmon is also number two in
the fish restaurant popularity stakes just after fresh cod.
The Atlantic Salmon's French names
include: Saumon; Saumon Atlantique; Tacon Atlantique; Saumon Baltic; Saumon Écossais;
Saumon Norvégien or Saumon Sauvage. The English names for the Atlantic Salmon
include Salmon, Atlantic Salmon, Black Salmon, Baltic
Salmon, Sea Salmon, Silver salmon, Irish
Salmon, Scotch Salmon, Norwegian Salmon, and Wild Salmon.
All these names and more indicate the Atlantic Salmon, the only salmon found in Europe.
All these names and more indicate the Atlantic Salmon, the only salmon found in Europe.
Atlantic Salmon on French menus:
Carpaccio de Saumon, (Huile d'Olive, Toasts) – Salmon Carpaccio
flavored with olive
oil and served with toast on the side.
Carpaccio de Saumon
www.flickr.com/photos/manoelpetry/5264945056/
Dos de Saumon en Croute d'Herbes, Sauce Paloise - A thick cut from the back of a salmon,
baked in a crust of herbs, and served with a Sauce Paloise, a
granddaughter, or perhaps a grandson of one of France’s mother sauces, Sauce
Hollandaise. (Sauce Paloise is a minty version of Sauce Bearnaise, itself developed from Sauce Hollandaise).
Grilled salmon with
teriyaki sauce.
Hure de Saumon –
Translated without any good reason as salmon head cheese, or the nearly as
bad, salmon pate since
this dish is neither. Hure de saumon is a fillet of salmon and parsley;
steamed or braised and then prepared for display with a gelatin coating,
nothing to do with a salmon’s head, any type of cheese or pate. A hure de
saumon will be served cold with fresh
mayonnaise and is often part of a buffet offering.
Millefeuille
de Saumon Fumé,
Sorbet
Citron
Vert – Layers
of smoked
salmon interleaved with a vegetable, and served with lime
sorbet.
With salmon, in season, the vegetable
that most often makes the millefeuille
in this dish will be thin slices of avocado.
(N.B.
Smoking, both hot and cold, is an important tool in French cuisines).
Pavé de Saumon Norvégien à la Provençale – A thick cut of Norwegian farm-raised Atlantic
salmon prepared with a traditional Provençale recipe. The dish will include
lots of tomatoes, and the Provençale flavor will be coming from the herb group
called the Herbes
de Provence, along with shallots and
a small amount of garlic, local black olives and parsley. Additions
such as cream or crème
fraiche and white wine are at the chef’s discretion; however, they
were not part of the traditional recipe. (This menu listing highlights
Norwegian Salmon, but Norwegian Salmon is the same Atlantic Salmon farmed elsewhere in Europe).
Dos de Saumon Sauce à l'Aneth
A thick cut of
salmon with a dill sauce.
www.flickr.com/photos/marsupilami92/6927644262/
Saumoneau de Fontaine Sauce Suprème aux Cèpes - Young salmon (smolt) from the river served with a sauce supreme
and cepes,
the French porcini mushrooms. Sauce Supreme is a white sauce made with
veal or chicken stock, butter and crème
fraiche; here the stock may be a fumet, a fish stock.
Saumon Ecossaise
Label Rouge
Certain Scottish farms hold the French Label Rouge, red label, for their salmons' consistent quality and canimal husbandry.
Label Rouge – The red
label of quality
RSPCA label of
Freedom food
Scottish farmed salmon was the first
non-French product to be awarded the French Label Rouge, the red label for high-quality food products. The
Scottish Label Rouge salmon also comes with the British RSPCA label of Freedom
food. The RSPCA, Freedom Food Rating is the highest standard for farmed fish in the world. The RSPCA inspects cleanliness, type of food, and overcrowding, as well as ensuring the absolute minimum of discomfort when the
fish are brought in.
This Scottish salmon is so flavorful and
is farmed under such uniquely clean and controlled conditions that only four companies, Marine Harvest, Loch Duart, Scottish Seafarms and Sea Products of Scotland have been awarded the French Red Label of
excellence.
Filet de Saumon Écossais Label Rouge à l'Unilatérale, Pommes
Sautées au Persil – A filet of Scottish label rouge salmon
lightly fried through from the skin side of the filet, and served with boiled
potatoes flavored with parsley.
Cooking fish à l'unilatérale is considered the best way to fry a filet of fish;
by cooking only on the skin side of the filet, the flavor of the fish is not
affected by the cooking oil as it would be if cooked on both sides.
Blanquette de Saumon Écossais Label Rouge aux Girolles,
Marrons
et Graines de Moutarde - A stew of red label Scottish salmon served with girolle
chanterelle mushrooms, chestnuts and
flavored with mustard
grains. The recipes for blanquette stews almost always include
mushrooms and a cream sauce; many recipes include white wine. France has many
chestnut forests, and the recipes that include chestnuts are endless.
Salade de jambon cru et saumon Francaise fumé
Two different tastes and textures that go so well together
Saumon Fumé – Smoked Salmon.
Many French chefs smoke their own salmon.
When you see, on a French menu, Fumé Maison, home-smoked, then the chef is in
charge of the smoking; that will be smoked salmon made with love; it will
not have come from a commercial smoker.
Salade d’Asperges Vertes,
Saumon Fumé et Son Œuf Poché – A salad of green
asparagus served with smoked salmon and a poached egg.
Saumon Fumé Maison et Ses Toasts – Home smoked salmon served with warm toast.
Saumon Cru or Saumon
Mariné
Marinated salmon or
cured salmon.
Saumon Cru or Saumon Mariné is sometimes mistranslated
as raw salmon. Sashimi is raw salmon, saumon cru is not, it will have been marinated. I have
had fabulous meals that included marinated salmon; twice, once in Paris, and
once in Lyon, I enjoyed the nearest thing to the “absolute” saumon mariné.
Saumon Mariné à l'Aneth – Salmon marinated in dill. Dill is
the most popular herb, in France, for use in marinating salmon, and it is applied with
a light touch. The result maybe some of the best-marinated salmon you will ever
encounter. When saumon mariné à l'aneth is on the menu, do not pass it by.
Marinated salmon
www.flickr.com/photos/birdies-perch/1794151133/
Saumon Mariné au Citron
Vert et Aneth - Salmon marinated in lime
juice and dill. When
thinly sliced I think that French marinated salmon is the only salmon that comes
close to the texture of the very best and thinly sliced smoked salmon.
Saumon Gravlax,
Gravadlax or Gravad Lax
Gravlax is a dish of Scandinavian origin;
it is the Scandinavian take on marinated salmon, and it preceded the French
recipe. Gravlax has a different texture and taste; it is made with whole filets
of salmon, cured in a nearly, but not quite, freezing, mixture of salt, sugar,
pepper, and dill. The diner will be served thin slices, though not as thin as
the French marinated salmon.
Gravlax
www.flickr.com/photos/ethorson/3148591844/
During a visit to Sweden, I was told
that the name gravlax comes from the Swedish be-grava meaning “to bury” and the
word lax, means “salmon.” The name indicates that the recipe
preceded refrigerators when it would have been wild, not farmed salmon that was
buried and marinated under the snow for two or three days during the long
winter. With snow expected nine months a year in many parts of Sweden
that was probably close to the home, almost certainly close to the kitchen
door.
Saumon Sauvage de l'Adour Mariné Façon Gravlax, Tomates Confites, Câpres
et Fleur
d'Ail - Wild salmon from the Adour River, prepared as Gravlax and served
with a
thick jam, a confit, of tomatoes and
flavored with capers and garlic
flowers. The Adour is one of France’s shorter rivers; it rises in the
Pyrenees and flows in an arc for nearly 330 km before reaching the sea below
the city of Bayonne. Despite the Ardour's short length, it is famous for its
wild salmon; the difference in texture and taste to
farmed salmon will be evident.
Tartare – The Tatars are the tribes who,
under Genghis Khan overran much of Asia and parts of Europe. In the French
kitchen, the Tartars are now best remembered for the beef dish created by a
French chef in their memory: Steak Tartare, Steak Tartar. Following that
success, another French chef begat Tartare de Saumon, salmon Tartar; that was
followed by another chef who begat Tartare de Tomates, tomato Tartar.
From then on, like the real Tartars, there was no stopping them; one after
another chefs begat and begot numerous new creations all named after the Tartars.
Tartare de
Saumon - Salmon
tartar. Diced, marinated, fresh uncooked salmon prepared together with diced onions,
chives, eggs, capers, parsley, olive
oil, pepper,
and lemon juice. The spiciness the French chef will have added will come from Tobasco or horseradish
or Worcester Sauce. Tartare de Saumon will be served as an entrée, the French
first course.
Tartare de Saumon Pamplemousse
Salmon and
grapefruit Tatar.
Tartare de Saumon Baltic Fumé à l'Aneth et
au Citron
Vert – Baltic salmon, smoked with dill and
flavored with lime.
The usage of the name Baltic salmon is just menuise (the language of menus) as
the Baltic salmon is the same fish as the Atlantic Salmon. The fish offered
here came from a Baltic Sea salmon farm, and so they will not be too different
to Norwegian-farmed salmon as they will be fed the same food. Despite my
caveat, there are the wild salmon that inhabit the Baltic Sea, as well as rivers, and
fiords of the countries around the sea. The brackish water of the Baltic
provides different food supplies for the wild salmon who live there, and that
certainly provides a different taste. The Baltic Sea does connect to the North
Sea and so from there into the Atlantic. Look at a map of the Baltic Sea and you will see that it is
virtually surrounded by Sweden, Finland, the Danish Islands, Germany, Poland,
Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Russia.
Over 98% of fresh or chilled salmon on sale in French fish markets and on restaurant menus will be the Atlantic salmon; it will have
been farm-raised in Norway, Ireland, Scotland and a few other European
countries. The other 2% of Atlantic Salmon will be saumon sauvage, wild
Atlantic salmon, from the Atlantic or the North Sea, Scottish rivers or
France’s own rivers. A small amount of wild salmon, mostly saumon rouge,
sockeye salmon, also called red salmon, is imported, frozen, from North
America. I have heard that some wild saumon rose, humpback salmon, may
come from Russia or the North of Sweden where it has migrated. If these humpback salmon migrate any further south, we may see a new member of the salmon
family claiming a European Union passport
Lunchtime
www.flickr.com/photos/35363841@N04/4935996595/
The Atlantic Salmon in the languages of France’s neighbors:(Dutch – zalm), (German – Atlantischer lachs, lachs), (Italian –salmone atlantico), (Spanish – salmón), (Latin - salmo salar).
Below are the French names for other
salmon species; many countries have excellent French restaurants and excellent
French chefs, and they may be serving a salmon other than Atlantic
salmon.
The other salmon
Rarely, if ever on a European menu.
Saumon Argenté or
Saumon Coho - Coho salmon.
(Latin -
oncorhynchus kisutch).
Saumon Chinook or
Saumon Royale – Chinook or King salmon.
(Latin -
oncorhynchus tshawytscha).
Saumon Keta or
Saumon du Pacifique - Chum Salmon or Keta salmon.
(Latin - oncorhynchus keta)
Saumon Rose or
Saumon Rose à Bosse – Pink salmon or Humpback salmon.
(Latin - oncorhynchus
gorbuscha).
Saumon Rouge -
Sockeye salmon or Red salmon.
(Latin -
oncorhynchus nerka).
Saumon de Fontaine – This is not a salmon; rather this
is the
brook trout, a tasty member of the trout/salmon family. They are
freshwater fish and an excellent menu choice; however, they are not salmon.
Brook Trout
------------------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Copyright 2010,
2013, 2019, 2023
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
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