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Half a Lemon (Pinch of Cayenne)
A pinch of Cayenne.
Four stoned Olives.
Sixteen small Prawns.
Two large Gherkins.
Parsley. Bread for Croûtes.
Clarified Butter for frying.
Cut some slices of stale bread a quarter of an inch thick, stamp out with a plain cutter eight rounds about an inch and a half in diameter, fry these in butter a bright golden colour, drain on paper or a cloth, and put them to cool.
Put the caviare in a basin, add a few drops of lemon juice and the chopped shalot. Season with cayenne, and stir gently with a wooden spoon or fork. Cut eight thin slices of lemon, place one on each of the bread croûtes, put about a teaspoonful of caviare on each of them, place half a stoned olive in the centre, and arrange two picked prawns on each of the croûtes, put a tiny sprig of parsley in the centre of each olive. Dish up on a round glass dish (in a circle), shred the gherkins and put in the centre, ornament with a few prawns' heads, and serve.
A cold canapé from the savoury course, assembled rather than cooked. The ingredient list as printed is incomplete — the caviare, shalot and lemon called for in the method are missing from it, a sign that the list ran across a page break in the original book.
- Missing quantitiesNo amount is given for the caviare or the shalot. For eight croûtes at a teaspoonful each you need only about 1½ oz (40-45 g) of caviare or a soft roe substitute; a small shalot, very finely chopped, will be more than enough.
- Croûtes, not croutonsThese are fried bread bases: quarter-inch slices of stale, close-textured white bread, stamped into 1½-inch rounds. Stale bread is specified because it absorbs less fat and stays crisp under a wet topping.
- Clarified butterWhole butter burns before the bread colours. Clarify it, or use ghee, and fry over moderate heat to a bright golden colour.
- "Sixteen small prawns"Two per croûte, so small cooked cold-water prawns — the North Atlantic or brown shrimp sold ready-peeled today. Buy them cooked; the recipe never cooks them. The prawns' heads used as garnish will only be available if you buy them whole.
- Handle the caviare gentlyThe wooden spoon and the instruction to stir gently are the hinge of the dish. Metal is traditionally avoided with caviare, and vigorous mixing bursts the eggs into paste. Fold the lemon juice and shalot through in a few strokes.
- Assemble lateThe lemon slice sits directly on the fried bread, and citrus juice will soften it within the hour. Fry and cool the croûtes ahead, then top them no more than fifteen or twenty minutes before serving.
- Shred the gherkinsCut lengthwise into fine julienne strips rather than rounds — they are piled in the centre of the dish as a nest, not eaten on the croûtes.
- YieldEight croûtes, one or two per person: enough for four to eight as a savoury or a pre-dinner bite.
The savoury was a fixed part of the late-Victorian and Edwardian formal dinner in Britain, a small sharp mouthful served after the sweet and before dessert fruit, and it was where professional cooks put anything salty, hot with cayenne, or expensively imported. Caviare belonged to that second category: Russian sturgeon roe is generally thought to have reached London tables by the later nineteenth century, and it was an obvious luxury flourish for a book aimed at cooks in large households. The construction here u, olive, prawn, parsley u of the modern canap his class printed ingredients as a bare list at the head of each recipe so a cook could assemble everything before starting, which is why a dropped line, as appears to have happened with this page, leaves the caviare itself unlisted.