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LOBSTER (a la Carlton)
Divide in two parts lengthwise a fine, live lobster, slightly crush the claws, remove the queen (i.e. a little bag near the head containing some gravel), put the spawn aside in a plate, and work it up with the aid of a fork with two ounces of fresh butter, a little cayenne pepper, a tea-spoonful of parsley, chervil, and tarragon chopped together very finely, the juice of a lemon, and two spoonfuls of sauce piquant (see LOBSTER, SAUCE PIQUANT FOR). Broil the divided parts of the lobster, put them on a very hot silver dish, the flesh side upward, cover up with the above mixture, pour a gill of liqueur brandy round, and set alight when entering the room.
A broiled split lobster finished with a compound butter and flamed at the table. Two details in the original will stop a modern cook: the "queen" and the gill of brandy.
- The "queen"This is the stomach sac sitting just behind the eyes, which holds grit and partly digested shell. Lift it out with the point of a knife along with the dark intestinal tract running the length of the tail before the halves go near the heat.
- Dispatching the lobsterSplit lengthwise means through the head first: drive a heavy knife down through the cross-mark behind the eyes, then continue the cut through the tail. Chilling the lobster in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes beforehand makes it sluggish and the job cleaner.
- The spawnThe dark green coral is present only in a hen lobster, so a cock lobster gives you nothing to work into the butter. Raw coral tastes metallic; work it into the softened butter and let the residual heat of the lobster and the dish set it to a bright coral red, or cook it briefly in a spoonful of the butter first.
- "A gill of liqueur brandy"A gill is a quarter of a pint: 5 fl oz in British measure, 4 fl oz in American. Either way that is a great deal of alcohol to ignite in a dining room; 1 to 2 tablespoons warmed in a ladle gives the same flame and does not leave the dish tasting raw. Pour away from the heat source and stand back from the dish as it catches.
- BroilingModern usage: high heat from above, flesh side up, cut surface brushed with butter, about 8 to 12 minutes for a 1 to 1 1/2 lb lobster until the meat is opaque and just firm. Overcooked lobster turns fibrous within a minute or two of being done.
- The herbsParsley, chervil and tarragon are three of the four classic fines herbes. Chervil is hard to find; a little more parsley plus extra tarragon is the usual substitution, though the anise note of the tarragon should stay dominant.
- Sauce piquantThe cross-reference is to a separate entry in the same book, whose composition is not given here; sauce piquante is conventionally a sharp reduction of vinegar, shallot and stock with gherkin and herbs. Two spoonfuls is a seasoning, not a sauce, and a good store-bought sharp brown sauce or a spoonful of reduced wine vinegar with shallot will carry the dish.
- ServingOne lobster of this size serves two as a first course or one as a main. Heat the serving dish thoroughly, since the compound butter is meant to melt into the flesh rather than sit on it.
Dishes tagged "a la Carlton" in English cookery books of this period point to the Carlton Hotel in London's Haymarket, which opened in 1899 with Cesar Ritz managing and Auguste Escoffier in the kitchens; the attribution is conventional rather than documented, and hotel names were attached freely to restaurant-style dishes once they entered print. What marks the recipe as belonging to the grand-hotel repertoire is not the lobster but the staging: the very hot silver dish, the compound butter mounted with coral and fines herbes, and the instruction to set the brandy alight "when entering the room" - the flame is the point, and it belongs to a period when service was carried out in front of the diners.