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Canape Caviare
Have freshly made, crisp buttered toast, cut diamond-shape; spread it with 1/8 inch layer of Russian caviare (to be bought in tins or kegs). Squeeze over it juice of quarter of a lemon. Take a hard-boiled egg; mince the yolk and white separately; garnish the side of the toast with the white and yolk alternately, making a half-inch border. Serve in a crisp lettuce-leaf; on the side a tablespoonful of finely minced white onion. Anchovies, boned and treated in this way, make a good substitute for caviare.
A straightforward cold canapé that depends entirely on the quality of the caviar and the crispness of the toast. Assemble at the last minute.
- Toast first, cool itWarm toast weeps butter into the caviar and softens the eggs slightly. Toast, butter, then let the diamonds cool to room temperature before spreading.
- An eighth of an inch is generousOn a small diamond that layer works out to something close to a teaspoon per canapé. Modern sturgeon caviar is dear enough that a thinner film is usual now; when this was written, pressed caviar in tins and kegs was comparatively cheap.
- "Russian caviare" todayWild Caspian sturgeon roe is restricted under international trade rules. Farmed osetra or sevruga, or paddlefish and hackleback roe from American producers, fill the same role. Avoid dyed lumpfish roe, which bleeds black onto the toast and egg.
- Lemon, sparinglyA quarter lemon squeezed over a single small canapé will drown it. Squeeze the lemon into a spoon and dot a few drops on each, or pass wedges at the table so the acid does not sit on the roe.
- Handle the caviar gentlyUse a bone, horn or plastic spoon and spread with minimal pressure. Metal can give fine roe a tinny edge, and crushing the eggs turns the layer to paste.
- The egg garnishSieve or finely chop yolk and white separately and keep them dry; damp egg clumps and will not form a clean half-inch border. A small offset spatula or the back of a knife makes the alternating band easier.
- Minced onionA tablespoon of raw white onion per serving is a lot by current taste. Mince it very fine, rinse briefly in cold water and pat dry to take off the harshness, and treat it as a condiment on the side rather than a topping.
- Yield and servingFigure two to three diamonds per person as a first course or with drinks. Anchovy fillets, as the note suggests, want to be rinsed of excess salt and patted dry before use, and need no extra salt.
Canapés built on toast with a garnish of sieved egg, onion and lemon are a common late-Victorian and Edwardian treatment of caviar in English and American cookbooks, and the arrangement here — roe in the centre, a ring of chopped yolk and white, onion alongside — is close to the service still used for caviar today. Grouping such a recipe with anchovy and sardine preparations reflects how caviar was then understood: as a salted fish product for whetting the appetite, not the luxury signifier it became later in the twentieth century. Tinned and kegged pressed caviar shipped from Russia was sold in American cities in this period, and domestic sturgeon and paddlefish roe from the Great Lakes and the Delaware and Ohio rivers was cheap enough that much of it was exported to Europe; it is often said that some of it returned to American tables labelled Russian. The casual suggestion that anchovies will do instead suggests the dish was valued for its salt and its brine as much as for its provenance.