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Lobster and Oyster Ragout
1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup flour 3/4 cup oyster liquor 3/4 cup cream 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper Few grains cayenne Few drops onion juice. 1 pint oysters parboiled 3/4 cup lobster dice 1 1/2 tablespoons Sauterne 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley Make a sauce of first eight ingredients. Add oysters, lobster dice, wine, and parsley.
A white-sauce ragout of the sort served in patty shells or on toast points around 1900. The whole dish stands or falls on how briefly the shellfish meets the heat.
- Parboil means seconds, not minutesParboil briefly -- Drop the shucked oysters into their own liquor and lift them out the moment the edges ruffle, a minute or two at most. Held longer they shrink and turn rubbery, and the lobster only needs warming through.
- Oyster liquorThe strained juice from the shucked oysters. A pint of oysters usually yields close to the 3/4 cup called for; if it falls short, top up with bottled clam juice or fish stock rather than water.
- Lobster diceCooked lobster meat cut in roughly half-inch cubes; 3/4 cup is about 4 oz, or the tail and claw meat of one small lobster. Frozen cooked lobster or good crab works in its place.
- Onion juicePeriod cooks grated an onion and used the liquid pressed from the pulp. A quarter teaspoon of finely grated onion, or a small pinch of onion powder, gives the same background without visible pieces.
- SauterneIn American books and on American labels of this date the word was used loosely for white wine generally, not for the sweet Sauternes of Barsac; such wines ranged from dry to off-dry. A dry white is the safer choice here; a markedly sweet wine will throw the sauce off balance.
- Building the sauceMelt the butter, cook the flour in it a minute without colouring, then add the oyster liquor and cream and cook until it thickens. Keep it below a hard boil once the cream is in and add the wine off the heat so it does not curdle or turn thin.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no yield; the quantities suggest roughly four servings as a first course. Serve in puff-pastry shells, over toast, or in ramekins with a few buttered crumbs browned on top.