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Creamed Lobster
1 small lobster 4 tablespoons shortening 2 tablespoons flour 1/8 teaspoon cayenne 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 cup boiling water Cut the meat into dice, pound the coral with one tablespoon of shortening; cook together the flour mixed with seasonings and the remainder of the shortening; add the water slowly and the pounded coral, and simmer five minutes. Strain over the lobster meat, boil up once and serve. Serves 4.
A cream sauce in name only — there is no cream here at all. The body and colour come from a flour roux enriched with lobster coral, which is where nearly all the flavour of this dish lives.
- Coral is the hingeThe coral is the roe of a female lobster, dark green when raw and turning coral-red when cooked. Pounded with fat and worked into the sauce it supplies both colour and the deep lobster flavour that carries the dish. Many lobsters as sold carry no coral at all; if yours has none, expect a pale, flat sauce and consider whisking in a spoon of tomato paste and a splash of cream for depth.
- ShorteningIn a book of this period "shortening" may mean lard, vegetable shortening, or butter. Butter is the right choice for lobster; four tablespoons is a half stick, one of which is reserved for pounding the coral. Two tablespoons of flour to a cup of liquid is the usual medium-sauce proportion, though the fat here runs well ahead of the flour, giving a rich sauce.
- One small lobsterA "small" lobster probably means something in the region of a 1 to 1 1/4 lb hard-shell, yielding perhaps 4 to 5 oz of picked meat, which suits four as a course on toast or in patty shells, not as a main plate. The lobster must be cooked and picked before you start; the recipe assumes it.
- CayenneAn eighth of a teaspoon in a cup of sauce is assertive but not fierce. Cayenne is the only seasoning named, though the method speaks of "seasonings" in the plural, so salt is presumably intended; season the roux before the liquid goes in.
- StrainingStraining removes the fibrous shreds of coral membrane and any flour lumps, so the sauce coats the diced meat smoothly. Press the solids in the sieve to get the colour through.
- Boil up once, and stopThe lobster meat is already cooked. Bringing the sauce back to a bubble just to heat it through is the whole of it — any real simmering and the meat goes fibrous and squeaky.
- ServingPortions of this kind were served small: in ramekins, on buttered toast points, or spooned into pastry shells.