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Lobster (Cups boiled lobster teaspoon)
2 cups boiled lobster 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon curry powder 1 teaspoon mustard 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 4 tablespoons butter Lettuce Cut the lobster into small pieces; mix thoroughly with the one tablespoon of butter and the seasonings. Melt the rest of the butter; cook the lobster in it and serve on fresh lettuce leaves.
A chafing-dish supper dish, meant to be assembled at the table over a spirit lamp. It is essentially seasoned butter and lobster warmed through, so the only real variable is how long the lobster spends in the pan.
- Butter split, though the list gives one figureThe ingredient list says 4 tablespoons; the method calls for one tablespoon to be worked into the lobster with the seasonings and "the rest" melted for cooking. Use 1 tablespoon for the paste, 3 for the pan.
- The hinge: barely heat itThe lobster is already boiled. Two minutes in the hot butter, turning gently, is enough to warm it and glaze it. Longer and it goes fibrous and squeaks against the teeth.
- Quantity of lobsterTwo cups of picked meat is roughly the yield of two 1 1/4-lb hard-shell lobsters, or about 12 oz by weight. Claw and knuckle meat holds up better here than tail, which shreds.
- Curry powder of the periodCommercial curry powders of this era are generally described as milder and heavily turmeric-based, and tinned powder could sit a long time before use. A modern Madras-style powder is considerably stronger; start with half the teaspoon and taste.
- Mustard"Mustard" here most likely means dry mustard powder rather than prepared mustard from a jar, though the recipe does not specify. If you use prepared, the paste will loosen and the flavor will be sharper and more vinegary.
- Heat control in a chafing dishButter over an open flame browns fast, and browned butter with curry in it turns bitter. Keep the pan just hot enough to foam the butter, and pull it off the flame while you stir.
- Yield and servingServes three or four as a light supper or first course. The lettuce is a cold plate, not a garnish -- serve it crisp and undressed so it cuts the butter, and bring the dish to the table the moment it is done.
Chafing-dish cookery had a genuine vogue in American households between roughly the 1890s and the 1920s. The appeal was social rather than culinary: a spirit-lamp burner and a shallow pan let a hostess cook in front of guests without a servant or a trip to the kitchen, which suited late suppers, club rooms and college lodgings. The repertoire accordingly leaned on things that needed only warming through -- creamed eggs, Welsh rarebit, oysters, and lobster, which was widely available canned or already boiled. Curry powder, Worcestershire and dry mustard were a common combination for giving such dishes a note of the exotic, and recur in period chafing-dish manuals.