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Lobster Salad-No. 2
Cut 2 boiled lobsters into rather large pieces. Chop fine the yolks of 3 hard-boiled eggs, add 1 teaspoonful of minced onion, and 1 of minced parsley, 1 teaspoonful each of tarragon vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Arrange the lobster meat on crisp lettuce leaves, cover with the egg mixture, and pour on some French dressing. Garnish with chopped olives and the whites of the eggs.
A cold assembly rather than a cooked dish, so the whole thing rests on the quality of the lobster and the dressing. A few of the assumptions behind the 1900s wording are worth spelling out.
- How much lobsterTwo boiled lobsters of the period would have been roughly 1 to 1 1/2 lb each, giving perhaps 8 to 12 oz of picked meat in total. That serves four as a first course, or two as a lunch. Cooked lobster meat sold by weight works equally well.
- "Rather large pieces"The instruction is deliberate: claw and tail meat cut into bold chunks keeps its texture against the dressing, while finely diced lobster turns pasty and loses the point of the expense. Leave the claws as nearly whole as you can for the top.
- French dressing, 1900 senseNot the sweet orange bottled dressing. It means a plain vinaigrette of about three parts oil to one part vinegar with salt and pepper, whisked and poured on unemulsified. Perhaps 1/4 cup total is enough here.
- Tarragon vinegarStill sold, and worth having, but you can steep a few sprigs of fresh tarragon in white wine vinegar for a day. Cider or plain white vinegar will not give the same anise note the recipe is after.
- The egg yolk mixtureSieving the hard-boiled yolks rather than chopping them gives a finer, more even blanket over the lobster. Mix in the onion, parsley, vinegar and Worcestershire just before serving; the yolks dry out and stiffen if they sit.
- OnionA teaspoon of minced onion is assertive raw. Shallot or the white of a spring onion is closer to what a modern palate expects alongside shellfish.
- Dress at the tableThe lettuce goes limp within minutes of the vinaigrette hitting it. Arrange the leaves and lobster ahead, then add the egg mixture, dressing, olives and chopped whites immediately before the plate goes out.
- Keeping it coldPicked lobster meat should stay refrigerated until assembly and the finished salad should not sit out. Chill the plates if the room is warm.