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Canapés aux Olives
Have some croûtes of bread fried in rounds and spread with foie-gras; the olives stoned and stuffed with foie-gras, one olive on each croûte, with a little spray of tarragon or chervil on each olive.
A three-element savoury with no quantities given, which is normal for this style of book: the cook was expected to scale it to the number at table. The only real technique is stuffing the olives neatly.
- CroûtesCut rounds from firm white bread about 1 1/2 inches across and no more than 1/4 inch thick, and fry in clarified butter or a neutral oil until golden on both sides. Drain on paper and cool completely before spreading, or the foie-gras will slide and melt.
- Sizing the roundsMatch the croûte to the olive: a large green queen olive wants a round it can sit on without overhanging. A plain metal pastry cutter gives cleaner edges than a knife.
- Foie-grasSince it is to be spread, the book most likely intends tinned or potted foie-gras, closer in texture to a smooth mousse than to a seared lobe. A good duck liver parfait or mousse is the practical substitute and pipes far better than a slice of whole-lobe terrine.
- Stuffing the olivesUse large green olives, stone them with a cherry pitter or the flat of a knife, and pipe the foie-gras in with a small plain nozzle. Work with the mousse cold and firm; at room temperature it will smear rather than fill.
- SaltBrine-cured olives plus a salted liver mousse can end up aggressively salty. Rinse and dry the olives, and taste one stuffed canapé before finishing the rest.
- The herbFrench tarragon or chervil, picked as a single small sprig or leaf tip — not chopped. Chervil in particular goes limp quickly once cut, so add the herb at the last moment.
- Assembly and timingFry the croûtes ahead, but spread and stuff no more than 30 minutes before serving; fried bread goes soft under a moist filling. Serve cool, not chilled.
- YieldAllow two per person as a savoury course at the end of a meal, or three to four each if they are going out with drinks. A 4 oz tin of mousse will fill and top somewhere between a dozen and a half and two dozen, depending on how thickly it is spread.
Savouries were the small, salty course served after the sweet in late-Victorian and Edwardian dinners, a British habit that kept a generation of cookery writers supplied with recipes for anchovy toasts, devilled things and canapés. This one is a characteristic version of the form: fried bread, tinned foie-gras from Strasbourg or Périgord, and a stuffed olive, all of which arrived in British kitchens through the grocer rather than the garden. A high-class kitchen stoned and filled its own olives, and the recipe offers a choice of tarragon or chervil, two of the fines herbes of the French repertoire. The absence of quantities is itself a period marker: books aimed at professional or upper-servant cooks gave the method and left the arithmetic to the person who knew how many were dining.