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Lobster Pie
Pick the meat from two medium-sized freshly-boiled lobsters, and cut it into small, neat pieces. Bruise the shells and spawn in a mortar, and put them into a stewpan with a quarter of a pint of water, three spoonfuls of vinegar, half a tea-spoonful of salt and pepper, and a quarter of a tea-spoonful of pounded mace. Simmer gently until the goodness is extracted, then strain the gravy, thicken it with an ounce of butter rolled in flour, and let it boil again. Line the edges of the pie-dish with good puff paste, put in the pieces of lobster, strain the gravy over them, and strew some finely-grated bread-crumbs on them; lay the cover over all, and bake in a moderate oven. When the paste is done, the pie is ready. Serve either hot or cold. Time to bake, about an hour and a quarter. Probable cost of lobsters, 1s. 6d. and upwards. Sufficient for six or eight persons.
A straightforward dish once you notice that the pastry is only a rim and a lid, and that the stated baking time belongs to a Victorian oven rather than to the lobster.
- The hinge: bake for the pastry, not the lobsterThe meat is already cooked, so the oven's only job is the crust. An hour and a quarter will turn boiled lobster stringy; bake at 350F until the puff paste is risen, dry and browned, roughly 25 to 35 minutes, and take it out then, exactly as the recipe's own line "when the paste is done, the pie is ready" implies.
- Moderate oven350F (180C). If the pastry is browning before it has risen, the oven is too hot; if it slumps and goes greasy, too cool.
- A quarter of a pintAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, a little over half a US cup. The "three spoonfuls" of vinegar are unqualified, and since the recipe specifies "tea-spoonful" elsewhere they are most likely tablespoons, which makes the gravy sharper than modern taste expects; two is plenty with a white wine vinegar.
- Shells and spawnThe spawn is the roe of a hen lobster, dark green when raw and coral-red when cooked, and it is what colours and enriches the stock. A mortar is not required: crack the shells with the flat of a heavy pan or pulse them briefly in a processor, then simmer 20 to 30 minutes and strain through a fine sieve lined with muslin to catch shell grit.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié: 1 oz butter kneaded with about the same volume of flour, whisked into the simmering liquid in small pieces and boiled a minute or two to cook out the raw starch. With only 5 fl oz of liquid the result should be a thick sauce, not a pourable gravy.
- Pounded maceBlade mace ground fresh is closer to the intended flavour than the pre-ground jar, which fades quickly. Ground nutmeg used sparingly is the nearest substitute, though it is sweeter.
- Lining the edges onlyThere is no bottom crust. Press a band of puff paste around the moistened rim of the dish, fill, then lay the lid on and seal to that band. Cut a vent or the steam will lift the lid off.
- YieldTwo medium lobsters of about 1 1/2 lb each give roughly 12 to 14 oz of picked meat. The book's six to eight persons assumes this is one dish among several; as a main course it serves four.
Lobster pie belongs to a long English tradition of baking shellfish under pastry, in which expensive fish was stretched with pastry, crumbs and a well-flavoured gravy made from the parts that could not be eaten. The technique here is the interesting part: the shells and roe are pounded and simmered to make what a French kitchen would call a shellfish essence, so nothing of the two lobsters is wasted but the empty carapace. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, first issued in the 1870s and reprinted in enlarged form over following decades, was aimed at middle-class households of the sort that kept one or two servants, which suits its habit of pricing every dish; the note "1s. 6d. and upwards" belongs to a period when the railways had made fish, lobster included, easier to get in inland British towns, and when lobster was less of a luxury than it is now. Serving it "either hot or cold" is a mark of the same practicality — a lidded pie could reappear at the supper table.