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Fish Sandwiches
Pound the coral of a lobster. Mash the hard-boiled yolks of 3 or 4 eggs. Skin and bone 2 salted anchovies; mash these, and mix all together. Season with a spoonful of lemon juice, one half teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Cut thin slices of Boston brown bread; spread with the fish mixture; cover with a crisp leaf of lettuce, then with another slice of bread. Cut in halves or quarters.
Any cold fish may be substituted for the lobster.
A late-Victorian sandwich filling built on lobster coral, the roe of a female lobster, bound with egg yolk and salted anchovy. The whole thing depends on ingredients that need a little sourcing today.
- Coral means cooked roeThe coral is the roe of a hen lobster, black-green when raw and brilliant red once cooked. The recipe assumes you are working from a boiled lobster, and cooked coral is what gives the colour and the firm paste wanted here. One lobster yields only a tablespoon or two, so the anchovy and yolk are doing most of the bulk.
- Salted anchoviesThese are whole fish packed in salt, sold in tins at Italian grocers. Rinse them under cold water, then split and lift the backbone out with your thumb. Two oil-packed fillets from a tin are a fair substitute for one salted anchovy; drain and blot them, and hold back on the added salt.
- Boston brown breadA steamed loaf of rye, cornmeal and wheat sweetened with molasses, traditionally cooked in a cylindrical mould so it slices into rounds. It is sold in cans in New England supermarkets. The sweetness against salted fish is the point of the pairing, so a plain wheat bread changes the sandwich considerably.
- Butter the breadThe period recipe omits it, but a thin film of butter on each slice helps keep the moisture of the filling out of a soft steamed bread, which will otherwise soften quickly.
- TexturePound or process the coral, yolks and anchovy to a smooth paste before the liquid seasonings go in. Adding lemon juice to a lumpy mix gives you a wet, grainy spread rather than a bindable one.
- Substituting cold fishThe closing line is the practical version of the recipe. Flaked cold salmon, halibut or leftover poached white fish all work, but they carry none of the coral's colour or richness, so taste and increase the anchovy.
- Yield and keepingOne lobster's coral with three or four yolks makes something like a third to a half cup of filling, enough for a handful of small sandwiches cut into quarters. Make the filling a few hours ahead if you like, but keep it covered and cold and assemble the sandwiches shortly before serving.