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Lobster Balls
Pick the meat from a large freshly-boiled hen lobster, mince it very finely, and pound it in a mortar, with a salt-spoonful of white pepper, half a salt-spoonful of salt, three grains of cayenne, the eighth of a nutmeg, grated, and two ounces of clarified butter. Make the mixture up into balls the size of a large egg. Dip these into beaten egg, and then into fine dry bread-crumbs. Let them stand a few minutes, then dip them a second time. Fry them in boiling fat till they are lightly browned all over; drain them from the grease, and serve them on a neatly-folde hot napkin. Garnish with parsley. Time, ten minutes to fry. Probable cost of large lobster, from 2s. to 3s. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A Victorian croquette in all but name, made from cooked lobster bound with nothing but pounded butter. The binding is the whole problem, and it is solved by cold.
- Chill before you shapeClarified butter is the only binder here, so the mixture holds together only while it is firm. Pound it, spread it in a shallow dish, refrigerate until solid, then shape and crumb; chill the coated balls again for 20-30 minutes before frying or they will burst in the fat.
- Saltspoon and grainsA saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon, so this is roughly 1/4 tsp white pepper and 1/8 tsp salt. Three grains of cayenne is a genuinely tiny amount, under a fifth of a gram — a small pinch.
- Hen lobsterA female was most likely specified for the coral (the roe), which pounds into the mixture and tints it pink, though the recipe itself never mentions the coral. Berried hen lobsters may not be landed in many fisheries now; any lobster will do, and a little paprika restores the colour.
- Mortar, or a processorPulse rather than run the machine. Lobster reduced to a paste loses the shreds of texture that make the interior worth eating; you want a coarse, cohesive mince.
- Frying timeThe lobster is already cooked, so all the frying does is brown the crust and warm the centre: 3-4 minutes at 350-375F, in fat deep enough to float them. Ten minutes is longer than that requires.
- Egg-sized is largeBalls the size of a large egg brown before the middle warms through. Walnut-sized is more manageable and gives a better crust-to-filling ratio if you would rather not risk cold centres.
- YieldA large lobster yields perhaps 3/4 to 1 lb of picked meat, which makes six to eight egg-sized balls. "Six or seven persons" suggests a table where this was one dish among several rather than a main course.
- The napkinServing fried food on a folded linen napkin was standard practice for absorbing grease. A rack over a warm oven does the job better and lets the crust stay crisp.
Cassell's groups this with other lobster "balls," croquettes and rissoles that let a cook stretch expensive shellfish across a large table — the recipe's own note that a large lobster cost two to three shillings, then a substantial sum, explains why. British lobster in the late nineteenth century came largely from inshore pots around Scotland, Norfolk and the Channel, with further supply imported, and was often sold already boiled, which may be why the instruction is to pick meat from a "freshly-boiled" one rather than to cook it. The insistence on a hen lobster is presumably about the coral: cooked roe was prized both as a colouring and as a thickener, and Victorian cookery books regularly direct it to be pounded into lobster butter and sauces. The mortar work, the double egg-and-crumb coating and the folded napkin all belong to the French-influenced service Cassell's was teaching to middle-class households.