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LOBSTER, BUTTERED (another way)
Pick the meat from a large freshly-boiled cock lobster. Mince it finely, and put it into a stewpan with an ounce and a half of butter, rolled in flour, half a salt-spoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of white pepper, the eighth of a small nutmeg, grated, a wine-glassful of sherry, the same of rich gravy, and a table-spoonful of lemon-pickle. When quite hot, put the mixture into the shells, and garnish with parsley and small three-cornered pieces of toasted bread. Time to heat, about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost, 3s. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A late-Victorian potted-lobster preparation, closer to a hot savoury than a main course. The one thing to change is the timing: the lobster is already cooked, and a quarter of an hour over heat will turn it to rubber.
- Heat it, do not cook itEverything in the pan is either cooked or ready to melt, so the goal is to bring the sauce together and warm the meat through — three or four minutes, no more. The stated quarter of an hour may reflect slower ranges and smaller pans, though the book gives no reason for it.
- Cock lobsterA male lobster. Cocks were often said to have firmer tail meat, and a hen's coral would colour the pale mixture, though the recipe gives no reason for the preference. Any large boiled lobster, say 1½–2 lb, will do; if it is a hen, set the coral aside for another use.
- Wine-glassfulUsually reckoned at about 2 fl oz (4 tablespoons) in Victorian books, though this one does not define it. So about ¼ cup sherry and ¼ cup gravy, which is a generous amount of liquid for one lobster — reduce it a little if the mixture looks loose.
- Salt-spoonfulAbout ¼ teaspoon. The recipe therefore wants ⅛ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon white pepper; taste at the end, since the gravy and lemon-pickle both carry salt.
- Butter rolled in flourBeurre manié: 1½ oz (3 tablespoons) softened butter worked with about a tablespoon of flour. Whisk it into the warm liquid in pieces so it thickens smoothly rather than dropping in as one lump.
- Rich gravyNot pan drippings but the period's reduced brown stock, thick enough to coat a spoon. A well-reduced veal or chicken stock, or a spoonful of demi-glace loosened with water, gives the same body.
- Lemon-pickleA Georgian and Victorian store condiment of lemons salted and spiced with mace, garlic and horseradish, then strained — long vanished from shops. The nearest substitute is a tablespoon of the brine from preserved lemons, or lemon juice with a scrape of the rind and a pinch of mace.
- ServingSplit and scrub the empty half-shells and warm them before filling. Six to eight portions from one lobster only makes sense as a small hot savoury with toast; as a lunch dish it serves two or three.
Buttered lobster belongs to a family of British "buttered" shellfish dishes — buttered crab, buttered shrimps, buttered oysters — that run from the seventeenth century through to the Edwardian savoury course, all built on the same idea of cooked shellfish reheated in butter with wine, nutmeg and something acid. The inclusion of lemon-pickle dates this version squarely: the condiment was a fixture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century store cupboards, and Elizabeth Raffald gives a recipe for it, and it faded once year-round citrus became cheap. The dish is stated to cost 3s., and one lobster is served to six or eight in its own shells — presentation doing the work that quantity could not.