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Caviare, Croutons Of
Stamp out some neat rounds of bread, fry them a nice brown in a little butter, then let them get cold. Work together with a wooden spoon two ounces of caviare, a tea-spoonful of lemon-juice, and a little cayenne. Lay a little heap of the mixture on each round of bread. If a forcing bag is in the establishment, put a little fresh butter into it, and force it out prettily round the edges of the caviare; if not, put a ring of parsley round. Probable cost, 2s.
A late-Victorian savoury, served at the end of dinner or as part of a cold buffet. The only real technique here is temperature control: everything must be cold before the caviare goes anywhere near it.
- Cool the croutons completelyWarm bread will slacken the butter piping and dull the caviare, and heat makes the eggs weep and turn oily. Fry the rounds well ahead and let them come fully to room temperature.
- Size of the roundsThe recipe does not specify a size; something in the region of 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches across, roughly a shot-glass rim, makes a one-bite portion and gives the butter border somewhere to sit.
- Two ounces of caviareAbout 4 tablespoons, enough for 10 to 12 small croutons. Cassell's assumes pressed or salted sturgeon roe; salmon roe, lumpfish or trout roe all behave the same way here, though heavily salted supermarket lumpfish will not need extra seasoning.
- Work it gently"Work together with a wooden spoon" reads more vigorously than it should. Fold the lemon juice and cayenne through with a rubber spatula so the eggs stay whole; crushed roe turns the heap into a grey paste.
- CayenneA pinch, not a spoonful. Its job is to cut the fat and salt, and the original leaves the quantity open.
- The forcing bagA piping bag, and "if a forcing bag is in the establishment" is a reminder that these books were written for households of varying staffing. Use a small star tube and butter at cool room temperature; if it softens, chill the bag for ten minutes rather than pressing harder.
- Probable costTwo shillings for the dish, a substantial sum in the later nineteenth century for a plate of canapes, and it tells you the caviare, not the bread, was the expense.
- ServingAssemble within an hour of serving and keep refrigerated until the last moment. Fried bread goes soft under a wet topping, so do not dress them the night before.
Croutons in the Victorian kitchen meant simply fried or toasted shapes of bread, used as a base or garnish far more often than as a soup sprinkle, and a small savoury built on one was a standard close to a formal English dinner, taken after the sweet and before dessert. Caviare reached British tables through the Russian trade and was by the later nineteenth century a marker of fashionable cold entertaining, though English cooks had known salted sturgeon roe since at least the seventeenth century; sturgeon were also caught in British rivers, where they were legally a royal fish. The recipe's aside about whether a forcing bag is "in the establishment" is characteristic of Cassell's, which addressed both the large staffed house and the smaller household making do, and the stated cost of two shillings shows this was pitched as an occasional extravagance rather than everyday cooking.