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Four Eggs (Take the meat of the whitings)
Two Whitings. One gill of Cream. Two ounces of Butter. One gill of Fish Stock made from bones of the Whitings. Take the meat of the whitings (half a pound) off the bones and the coral from the lobster, pound these two together in a mortar, then pass through a wire sieve. Make a sauce of one ounce of butter, two ounces of flour, and the gill of fish stock; this must be well cooked. Take the meat of the body of the lobster (half a pound) and pound in a mortar with the whiting and the sauce, adding the eggs one at a time; when well pounded, pass all through a hair-sieve, add a little cayenne pepper and the cream well whipped. Take a plain soufflé mould and well butter it, put a layer of the above mixture in the bottom of the mould, and a few pieces of the meat from the lobster's claws; repeat this till the mould is full. The mould must be evenly filled. Cover with buttered paper, and steam very gently for half an hour. Serve very hot with white sauce, poured over the soufflé. You can use half a pint of cream instead of the sauce if you like to make the soufflé richer.
A steamed lobster-and-whiting mousseline, given here without its ingredient list — the odd title is the tail end of one, and the text itself names the quantities as it goes: half a pound of whiting, half a pound of lobster body meat, the coral, four eggs, a gill of fish stock, an ounce of butter, two ounces of flour, and cream.
- The hinge: gentle heatThis is an egg-and-cream custard bound with fish, not a risen souffle. Steam it at a bare shiver — water barely trembling, mould covered — or the eggs curdle and the mixture weeps. The recipe gives no mould size; thirty minutes suits a mould of roughly a pint and a half, and the centre should feel just set (around 160F/71C if you check it).
- A gillA quarter of an imperial pint, so 5 fl oz (about 150 ml). With one ounce of butter and two of flour that gives a very stiff panade, which is the intention: it is there to carry the eggs, not to pour.
- WhitingStill common in Britain and Ireland; elsewhere, notably in North America, the name "whiting" is applied to silver hake and related fish, so what is sold under it may not be the same species. Any lean white fish that purees cleanly works in its place — haddock, cod, pollock, hake. Avoid oily fish, which will overwhelm the lobster.
- CoralThe dark green roe of a hen lobster, which turns coral-red on cooking. It is what colours and seasons the mixture. Uncooked lobsters will not have set it, and male lobsters do not carry it at all; if there is none, the dish simply comes out paler and milder.
- Mortar and sievesA food processor does the pounding in a minute. The two sievings are not optional decoration — the wire sieve catches bone and shell fragments, the hair (fine mesh) sieve gives the mousseline its texture. Push the purée through with a stiff scraper or the back of a ladle.
- Keep it coldFish mousselines split if they warm up. Chill the purée, the eggs and the cream, and work quickly; the whipped cream goes in last and is folded, not beaten, so the mixture stays light.
- The mouldA plain charlotte or souffle mould, buttered, with a disc of buttered paper on the base if you want a clean turn-out. "Cover with buttered paper" means a lid against condensation — foil or a sheet of parchment tied down does the same job. The recipe asks for a steamer; a roasting tin of hot water will serve the same purpose, kept well below a simmer.
- The richer versionHalf a pint of cream in place of the flour sauce makes a true mousseline with no starch in it. It is more delicate and less forgiving; the gentle steaming matters even more.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no number; on a pound of fish plus eggs and cream it would stretch to about six as a first course, fewer as a light main. Turn it out onto a warm dish and coat with a plain white or velouté sauce made from fish stock; since the souffle is to be served very hot, have the sauce ready before the mould comes out of the steamer.
Fish mousselines like this one belong to the French repertoire that British professional cookery absorbed wholesale in the nineteenth century — pounded flesh, panade, eggs and cream, forced through a sieve and cooked in a buttered mould, the same technique that produces quenelles and the *pain de poisson*. Whiting was the standard choice for the base because it is lean, white and almost flavourless, so it binds without competing; the lobster and its coral supply everything the diner is meant to notice. There is real drudgery here — pounding in a mortar, then pushing the result through first a wire and then a hair sieve. The recipe also offers an alternative ending, half a pint of cream instead of the flour sauce.