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Lobster, Miroton Of
Soak the crumb of a penny roll until it is quite soft in as much cream as will just cover it. Pick all the meat from a medium-sized, freshly-boiled hen lobster, pound it with the spawn thoroughly in a mortar, and mix with it the soaked crumb, and the well-beaten yolks of three fresh eggs. Season with pepper, salt, and pounded mace. Just before boiling the mixture, add a whole egg, which has been well whisked. Line a plain round mould with some thin slices of ham, fat and lean together, pour in the mixture, and boil until it is done enough. Send lobster sauce to table with it. Time to boil, an hour and twenty minutes. Probable cost of lobster, 1s. 6d. and upwards. Sufficient for six or seven persons.
A Victorian moulded lobster custard, steamed in a ham-lined mould and served with lobster sauce. The technique is closer to a quenelle forcemeat than to anything baked, and the timing is the part that needs rethinking.
- The hinge: gentle heat, not a rolling boil"Boil" here is most likely the usual Victorian treatment of a filled mould, set covered in a pan of hot water rather than immersed in boiling liquid; the recipe itself does not specify. Egg yolks and cream set at around 170F, so water kept at a bare shiver gives a smooth custard, while a hard boil curdles it and weeps liquid into the ham.
- The timeAn hour and twenty minutes is longer than a modern cook is likely to need. A 1-quart mould in a covered water bath is generally set in 50 to 60 minutes; test with a skewer or an instant-read thermometer at the centre reading 170-175F, then stop.
- A penny rollA small plain white bread roll of the day, giving roughly 2 oz of crumb, or about a cup of soft fresh breadcrumbs loosely packed. Use the interior only, no crust, and add just enough cream to soak it, perhaps 1/3 cup.
- Hen lobster and spawnThe recipe wants a female lobster for the coral, the dark green roe that turns coral-red on cooking and both colours and thickens the mixture. Roe-bearing hens are seasonal and, in some fisheries, egg-bearing females may not be landed; if you cannot get one, the dish works without it but will be pale, and a little tomato purée or paprika can be used for colour.
- Mortar workA food processor does in seconds what the mortar did by hand over many minutes. Pulse the lobster meat with the coral and soaked crumb to a coarse paste, then add the yolks; over-processing warms the mixture and makes it dense.
- Pounded maceThe lacy aril of the nutmeg, sold ground. Use a scant 1/4 teaspoon for a lobster of this size; it is the standard seasoning for Victorian fish forcemeats and reads as slightly warmer and drier than nutmeg.
- Lining the mouldButter the mould well before laying in the ham so the slices sit flat and release cleanly. Cut them thin enough to overlap, and cover the top with buttered paper and foil so no condensation drips in. Rest five minutes before turning out.
- Yield and servingSix or seven portions as one course in a long Victorian dinner; as a modern main it serves three or four. Lobster sauce means a béchamel enriched with the shell butter and any remaining meat, and it is not optional here, the mould is dry without it.
Miroton in French cookery normally describes slices of cooked meat, usually beef, arranged in an overlapping ring and reheated in an onion sauce, and the word is often said to derive from the ring or dome shape of the dish rather than from any ingredient, though its origin is in fact uncertain. English cookery books of the late nineteenth century borrowed the term loosely for anything built in a mould and turned out whole, which is how a pounded lobster custard lined with ham ends up under the name. Cassell's belongs to the era when a good kitchen was judged partly on its shaped entr ormines pounded in a marble mortar, set with egg and coral, and presented standing free on the dish. Lobster was expensive but not rare in Britain then, and a pounded mould was a way to stretch one medium-sized specimen across seven plates while making it look like the centre of the table.