Snowballs
Beat white of one egg, add one cup of whipped cream, season with salt and a few drops of lemon juice, take up with two dessert spoons, forming a ball. The coral and tomatoes will color the soup, and the remainder of the lobster mav be used in the salad course.
This is not a soup but a garnish: cold sweetened-with-nothing whipped cream and egg white shaped into floating white ovals for a lobster bisque. The surrounding text about coral and tomatoes belongs to the soup recipe this entry was printed alongside, so read it as the last step of a lobster bisque rather than a standalone dish.
- Fold, do not beatWhip the cream to firm peaks and the egg white to soft peaks separately, then fold the white into the cream. Beating them together gives a slack foam that dissolves the moment it touches hot soup.
- Dessert spoonsA Victorian dessert spoon holds about 2 teaspoons, midway between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. Two of them are used as a mould in the classic quenelle fashion: scoop with one, sweep the other under and over to round the ball off, and drop it straight onto the soup.
- Seasoning amountsThe original gives no quantities, only 'salt' and 'a few drops of lemon juice.' A pinch of salt and three or four drops per cup of cream is the right order of magnitude; much more lemon risks slackening the foam.
- YieldThe recipe states no yield. One egg white and a cup of whipped cream should make roughly a dozen balls, depending on how large you shape them.
- TimingShape the balls close to serving and float them as the soup goes to the table; on hot soup they will slump fairly quickly, so they are best not prepared far ahead.
- Raw egg whiteNothing here is cooked. Use pasteurised egg white if you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised.
- CoralThe coral is the roe of a hen lobster, dark green raw and brick red cooked. It is what the recipe is relying on for colour, and most lobster sold today is sold without regard to sex, so ask specifically for a hen if you want it.