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Crab, Supreme of, with Tomatoes
Extract from a crab of goodly size the flesh of the claws, etc., and the rich parts of the body, taking care to eliminate the (grey) lungs and every portion of the shell. To each pound of crab-meat add the following ingredients. One-third of a pound of stale and well-shredded bread-crumbs, free from every particle of crust; one-third of a pint (about an ordinary sauce bottle) of English tomato sauce, or, that not being readily obtainable, a similar quantity of French "conserve tomate"; the juice of half a lemon, the peel of same (cut to a thickness not greater than that of a sheet of heavy notepaper) in very small fragments, and ten or a dozen thin slices of lemon; salt and pepper to taste; cayenne pepper is often used, but sparingly, as some object to it, or it may be omitted altogether, and added at table by those liking it; one wineglass of Chablis or dry sherry. Simmer for a quarter of an hour, stirring frequently, and adding more wine if there is any tendency to burn. This depends on the dryness of the crab, which is variable (the best crabs are heavy, and rather dry; poor crabs are watery). Then bring once to a boil, immediately thereafter turning out the ragout into a deep dish, ornamented at the edges with alternate triangular sippets of dry toast and half slices of lemon. The result is a beautiful pink, creamy-looking plat, the slices of cool yellow lemon contrasting with the warmer tints. Probable cost, 2s. 6d.
A hot crab ragout rather than anything delicate, and the quantities are given per pound of picked meat, so it scales cleanly. Two things decide the result: how thoroughly you pick the crab, and how gently you treat it once the pan is on.
- The grey lungsThese are the feathery gills, sometimes called dead man's fingers, sitting either side of the body cavity. They are not poisonous but they are bitter and fibrous, and along with the stomach sac they should be discarded. Pick over the meat twice for shell fragments; a bowl of water helps, as shell sinks.
- How much crabA pound of picked meat means a large crab of roughly 3 to 4 lb, or two smaller ones. Mixing the brown body meat with the white claw meat is what gives the dish its creaminess, so do not use white meat alone.
- English tomato sauceNot passata. This was a bottled spiced tomato condiment of the period, thin and sharp and often sweetened, nearer to a light ketchup than a purée. One-third of an imperial pint is about 6 to 7 fl oz, or about three-quarters of a cup.
- If you use conserve tomateFrench conserve tomate is concentrated tomato paste, and the recipe asks for the same volume, which would be overwhelming and would scorch. Read it as a much smaller quantity of paste let down with water or stock to make up the one-third of a pint.
- A wineglassIn Victorian recipes a wineglass is about 2 fl oz, roughly a quarter cup. More is added during cooking only if the pan threatens to catch.
- The lemon peelThe instruction about notepaper thickness is the point of it: pared peel with no white pith, cut small. Pith simmered for fifteen minutes turns the whole dish bitter.
- Fifteen minutes is a long timeThe crab is already cooked, so the simmer is only to marry the sauce and swell the crumbs. Keep it barely bubbling and stir often, and expect some of the white meat to break down into threads.
- SippetsTriangles of dry toast, cut small and set point-outward round the rim. Toast them well so they stay crisp against the wet ragout, and add them only as it goes to table.
- YieldA pound of crab meat with the crumbs feeds four generously as a hot first course, or three as a light supper dish.
"Supreme" here is menu French, borrowed from suprême, a term properly attached to the choicest part of a bird or a rich white sauce, and applied loosely by late-Victorian writers to any dish presented as a refined mixture. The recipe's period marker is its casual assumption that a bottle of English tomato sauce sits in the cupboard: commercial bottled tomato condiments, thin and vinegary, became increasingly common in British households in the later nineteenth century, and the alternative offered is imported French tomato conserve rather than fresh fruit, which in Britain was still a short-season luxury. Dishes like this one, stretched with breadcrumbs and lifted with lemon and a glass of wine, were one way of sending shellfish to table in a deep dish with toast points round the edge.