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Shrimp Butter, for Sauces, Etc
The shells of shrimps which are to be potted, or served in any other way, may be utilised for flavouring butter to be used for making fish sauce, and for garnishing dishes. The butter will not keep good more than a few hours. Put the shells of about two hundred and fifty shrimps in a mortar, pound them as finely as possible, and mix with them two ounces of butter. Put the mixture into a jar, set this in a pan of hot water, and let it remain for an hour. Press the butter through a cloth, and put it into cold water. Lift it from the liquor, drain it, and press it through a silk sieve; work a slice of fresh butter in with it, and it will be ready for use.
A classic shellfish butter, made from the debris of potted shrimps. The method is sound; only the equipment and the keeping advice need translating.
- The hinge: gentle heat, not meltingThe hinge: gentle heat, not frying -- The jar sits in hot water for an hour so the butter draws colour and flavour out of the shells. The recipe specifies only "hot water" and no temperature; keep it well below a simmer. If the butter gets hot enough to sizzle or brown, the delicate shrimp aroma turns flat and toasty.
- Two hundred and fifty shrimpsA large quantity of debris: the peelings from perhaps a pound or so of small shrimps, though the recipe gives no weight and shrimp sizes vary too much to convert reliably. The recipe calls for the shells only.
- Two ounces of butterHalf a stick, 57 g, plus the unspecified "slice of fresh butter" worked in at the end - reckon another half ounce to an ounce. Unsalted is better here, since you are seasoning a sauce base.
- Mortar to processorA food processor will break the shells down faster than pounding, though not as finely; pulse the shells alone first, then add the butter. Whatever the machine, the shells never dissolve - they are only a flavouring vehicle, and everything is strained out later.
- The cold-water stepPressing the hot mixture through cloth into cold water sets the butter instantly and lets shell grit and watery juices sink. Lift the solidified butter off, blot it, then push it through a fine mesh sieve (the "silk sieve") to catch any last splinters. Skipping the sieve leaves shell fragments that are unpleasant in a sauce.
- KeepingThe warning is a real one: pounded shells carry moisture and bacteria into the fat. Refrigerate and use within a day, or roll it in film and freeze it, where it holds a month or two.
- Yield and useSomething under 3 oz of butter, once losses in straining are allowed for. Whisk it in cold, off the heat, at the end of a fish sauce or veloute; boiling it will split the emulsion and dull the colour.
Shellfish butters were a standard economy of nineteenth-century kitchens: the shells of shrimps, prawns, lobster and crayfish were pounded into fat to be held for sauces. The French repertoire codified them as beurres composes - beurre de crevettes for shrimp, beurre de homard for lobster - and Escoffier's listings describe essentially this technique of pounding, warming, straining and setting in cold water. The reference to shrimps "which are to be potted" points to potted shrimps, long associated with Morecambe Bay and the small brown shrimp, whose peeling leaves exactly the heap of shells this recipe exists to use up.