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Lobster Butter
1/4 cup butter Lobster coral Clean, wipe, and force coral through a fine sieve. Put in a mortar with butter, and pound until well blended. This butter is used in Lobster Soup and Sauces to give color and richness.
Hollandaise Sauce I 1/2 cup butter Yolks 2 eggs 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon salt Few grains cayenne 1/3 cup boiling water Put butter in a bowl, cover with cold water, and wash, using a spoon. Divide in three pieces; put one piece in a saucepan with yolks of eggs and lemon juice, place saucepan in a larger one containing boiling water, and stir constantly with a wire whisk until butter is melted; then add second piece of butter, and, as it thickens, third piece. Add water, cook one minute, and season with salt and cayenne. If mixture curdles, add two tablespoons heavy cream.
A compound butter for coloring and enriching lobster soups and sauces. The whole point is the coral, so the work is in getting it smooth.
- What coral isCoral is the roe of a female lobster, dark green when raw and bright red once cooked. Only hen lobsters carry it, so ask a fishmonger for a female or take it from lobsters you have already boiled for another dish.
- Cook the coral firstThe recipe does not say, but coral is usually lifted from a lobster that has already been boiled, which is what turns it red and gives the butter its colour. Raw coral will still be greenish when pounded in.
- ProportionsA quarter cup is 4 tablespoons, about 2 oz or 55 g of butter. The recipe gives no measure for the coral; more coral gives deeper colour and a stronger flavour.
- Sieve then blendForcing the coral through a fine sieve breaks up the granular membrane so the butter is smooth rather than gritty. A mortar is still the best tool, but a small food processor or a stiff rubber spatula on a plate will do it.
- Butter temperatureWork with butter at cool room temperature. Melted butter will not hold the coral in suspension and the mixture separates as it sets.
- Yield and keepingAbout a third of a cup of finished butter. Roll it in parchment and refrigerate up to three days, or freeze in a log and cut off coins as needed.
- How to use itWhisk it in off the heat at the end of a bisque or a sauce. Boiling it dulls the color and can make the sauce look curdled.