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Prawn Canapes
Take half a dozen small halfpenny rolls. Cut them into halves, scoop out all the crumb, and let the crusts get thoroughly dry. Meanwhile, fillet half a dozen anchovies, and cut them into neat pieces along with half a pint of picked prawns, two small gherkins, two truffles, and a head of white celery. Put the lot into a basin with a little TARTAR SAUCE, and mix all together, then fill the crusts of the rolls with this preparation. Cover with thin circular pieces of bright aspic jelly, and dish up on a napkin.
A cold savoury from the era when a canapé meant the bread foundation rather than the whole mouthful. Nothing here is cooked, so the work is in getting the crusts dry enough to stay crisp under a wet filling.
- Halfpenny rollsSmall soft dinner rolls, roughly 2 to 2 1/2 inches across — a modern bread roll or a plain bap will do. Six of them halved gives twelve cases.
- Drying the crustsHollow them out and leave them to dry thoroughly; the recipe does not say how, so air-drying in a warm kitchen or a very low oven will both serve. Damp crusts collapse within minutes of being filled, which is the whole failure point of the dish.
- Half a pint of prawnsA volume measure of already-shelled ('picked') prawns; half an imperial pint is 10 fl oz, which comes to somewhere around 6 to 8 oz by weight depending on how loosely they sit. Small cold-water prawns are the likely intention; larger tiger prawns need chopping to the same scale as the gherkin and celery.
- AnchoviesAnchovies of the period commonly came salted and whole, hence the instruction to fillet them. Tinned fillets in oil are already boned, so four or five, patted dry, are plenty for this quantity.
- TrufflesTreat as optional. Preserved black truffle was a standard garnish jar in a well-stocked larder of the period; a modern equivalent is a few slivers of truffle from a jar, not truffle oil, which will dominate everything else.
- A head of white celery'White' means blanched. The recipe's 'head' is the whole bunch, but for a dice this fine use only the pale tender inner stalks, three or four of them; outer green ribs are too stringy at this size.
- Tartar sauceIn Cassell's sense, a mayonnaise worked up with capers, gherkin and herbs, thick enough to bind. Bottled tartare sauce is thinner and sweeter; drain the salad well and add the sauce sparingly so the filling does not run.
- The aspic lidsSet a shallow tray of clarified stock with gelatine, chill until firm, then stamp out rounds with a cutter the diameter of the rolls. Cutting from a set sheet is far easier than trying to glaze the mounded filling.
- Assembly and yieldTwelve canapés, enough for six as a first course or a plateful for a drinks tray. Fill no more than half an hour before serving and keep them cold.
The word canapé is French for a sofa or couch, and in nineteenth-century kitchen French it referred to the thing being sat on: a base of fried or dried bread that carried an anchovy, a cheese cream or, as here, a bound shellfish salad. Cassell's places the recipe among its cold savouries, the small sharp dishes served at the close of a formal English dinner or laid out for a supper table. The specification of "halfpenny rolls" belongs to a time when small rolls were bought by the coin, and a reader would have known what size a halfpenny bought. Picked prawns, sold ready-shelled by the pint, were cheap and abundant along the English coast and in the London markets, which is why they turn up in economical company with gherkins and celery and only a scrap of truffle for show.