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One Hen Lobster
Ingredients. 14068 Three tablespoonfuls of good Mayonnaise Sauce.
Half a pint of Aspic Jelly.
One gill of Tomato Sauce.
Cut up the meat of the lobster into neat pieces.
Take some Ramequin cases and prepare as for a soufflé, with bands of writing-paper about three inches above the case. Put the Mayonnaise sauce, the tomato sauce, and aspic jelly into a basin, and whisk till it begins to look white; stir in the pieces of lobster, add a little tarragon and chervil; then fill the Ramequin cases. When set, take off the papers carefully. Garnish with coral sprinkled on the top, and serve.
A cold lobster mousse set in paper-collared ramekins, from the era when a savoury course was expected to stand up above its dish. The whole thing depends on temperature: the aspic must be liquid but cool when it goes into the basin, and the mixture must be whisked over ice until it thickens and pales, or the lobster sinks and the mousse sets in layers.
- A hen lobster, and the coralA hen is a female lobster; her roe cooks to the brilliant vermilion "coral" used here as garnish. Note that egg-bearing (berried) females are protected in most US, Canadian and UK fisheries and cannot legally be landed or sold, so a legally purchased female will carry internal roe only. If there is no coral, sieved hard-boiled egg yolk or paprika is a common substitute.
- A gillA quarter of a pint, which in imperial measure is 5 fl oz. Half a pint in a British book of this date is 10 fl oz, not 8.
- Aspic jellyA clear, well-seasoned savoury jelly set with gelatine from veal or fish stock. Modern practice is a strong fish or chicken stock with about 1/2 oz (2 sachets, roughly 14 g) powdered gelatine per pint, or a commercial aspic powder. It must be melted and then cooled to barely warm before whisking in, or it will thin the mayonnaise and refuse to hold air.
- Ramequin casesSmall straight-sided china or paper cases, the size of a modern 4 oz ramekin. The bands of writing paper are collars tied round the outside standing three inches proud, exactly as for a hot souffle, so the mousse can be filled above the rim and peeled bare when set. Baking parchment and tape do the job; oil the inside face of the collar lightly.
- Whisking till it looks whiteThis is the hinge. Set the basin over ice water and whisk steadily; the mixture lightens in colour and thickens to the consistency of softly whipped cream, at which point it will suspend the lobster. Fold the meat in immediately and fill the cases, because once the aspic takes hold you cannot re-whisk it without breaking the set.
- Tomato sauceNot ketchup. A reduced, sieved tomato sauce or thick passata reduced by half, unsweetened, used here mainly for colour and acidity.
- Tarragon and chervilFresh, finely chopped, about a teaspoon of each. Chervil is fleeting and worth sourcing; dried tarragon is coarse in a cold dish and dried chervil is pointless.
- SeasoningThe original gives none, on the assumption that the mayonnaise and aspic are already well seasoned. Taste the whisked base before the lobster goes in, since cold mousses need more salt and lemon than they seem to.
- Yield and serviceFour small ramekins, served as a first or savoury course, thoroughly chilled for at least two hours. Peel the collars at the last moment and keep the assembled cases refrigerated; a gelatine mousse of this softness will not hold its shape long in a warm room.
Cold lobster set in aspic belongs to the high-Victorian and Edwardian buffet, where the ability to make a savoury mixture stand upright without a mould was a mark of a trained kitchen. The paper collar borrowed from hot souffle work lets a cold mixture be filled above the rim so that, unwrapped at the table, it appears to have risen; the same trick appears throughout period books for cold cheese and salmon mousses. Hen lobsters were specified deliberately, not for the flesh but for the coral, one of the few naturally scarlet garnishes available before commercial food colouring became reliable; cooks also pounded it with butter into beurre de homard for colouring sauces. The number standing at the head of the ingredient list is most naturally the recipe's own serial number, a habit of the large numbered professional compendia of the period.