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Lobster a La Newburg
2 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon flour 1 boiled lobster or 1 can of lobster 1 pint milk 3 egg yolks Salt Cayenne Place the butter in the blazer and stir it as it foams. Rub the flour into the butter, add the salt and pepper, then one-half of the milk, stirring all of the time and being careful that the flame is not too hot. Beat the yolks of the eggs until frothy, add the remainder of the milk and stir into the roux. When the mass is of the consistency of cream, add the lobster, cut up coarsely, and, when thoroughly heated, serve. Just before adding the lobster, rub the coral and the fat together and stir in. Other dishes that lend themselves to this form of entertaining, as well as to the family breakfast or supper, are:
Creamed Dishes-Creamed Chicken, Creamed Oysters, Chicken a la King, Tunafish with Caper Sauce, Oysters with Mushrooms, Creamed Sweetbreads, Creamed Mushrooms, Curried Dishes.
Hot Sandwiches-Grilled Cheese, Grilled Tongue and Egg, Club, Savory, Sardine and Toast.
Toast-Cinnamon, French.
Quick Breads-Griddle Cakes, Pancakes, Waffles.
Egg Dishes-Omelet (with any desired variation), Scrambled Eggs, Poached Eggs, Cuban Eggs, Spanish Eggs, Egg Fricassee.
Cheese Dishes-Welsh Rarebit, Cheese Fondue (on toast), Luncheon Cheese and Eggs.
Panned and Grilled Dishes-Panned Oysters, Little Pigs in Blankets, Rice Fan Tan, Fried Tomatoes, Hashed Brown Potatoes, Spanish Potatoes. Candies-Fudge (in any variation), Butterscotch, Maple Scotch, Peanut Brittle.
A chafing-dish sauce built at the table, so everything depends on gentle heat and constant motion. A few of the quantities need thought before you light the burner.
- The blazerThe blazer is the upper pan of a chafing dish. It can be set directly over the flame, or over the hot-water pan for gentler heat. Any wide, heavy saucepan works, but keep the heat very low, or use a double boiler for insurance.
- The hinge: eggs off the boilThree yolks in a pint of milk is a thin custard, and it will scramble if it simmers. Bring the sauce only to the point where it coats a spoon, then add the lobster and pull it from the heat.
- One teaspoon of flourThat is barely any thickening for a pint of milk; the sauce relies on the yolks. If you want a sauce that holds on toast rather than pooling, a tablespoon of flour is closer to modern expectations, though the texture will be less delicate.
- Coral and fatThe coral is the roe, found only in hen lobsters, and the green tomalley is the liver. A whole boiled hen lobster will have both; a male will have the tomalley but no coral, and canned meat generally has neither, in which case you simply skip that step and lose some colour.
- Canned lobsterThe recipe allows one boiled lobster or one can. A boiled 1 1/2 to 2 lb lobster yields roughly half a pound of picked meat, which is what a pint of sauce is built around; check the weight of whatever can you buy against that.
- No sherryNewburg is usually finished with a spoonful or two of sherry or Madeira added off the heat. This version omits it, which is worth knowing if the result tastes flatter than expected.
- Salt, cayenne and pepperThe ingredient list calls for cayenne while the method says pepper. Cayenne is the traditional seasoning, used sparingly " a scant pinch for a pint.
- Yield and servingServes four over toast points or in patty shells, or six as a first course.
Lobster à la Newburg is generally traced to Delmonico's in New York in the 1870s, where it is said to have been introduced by a sea captain named Wenberg and renamed after a falling-out with the restaurant — an anecdote repeated so often that it has hardened into fact without ever being firmly documented. What is certain is that by the time this book appeared the dish had become the standard showpiece of chafing-dish cookery, which is exactly why it opens a section on cooking at the table. The chafing dish let a hostess make something rich and slightly precarious in front of guests, after the servants had gone or in a household that had none, and lobster in a yolk-thickened cream sauce was the most impressive thing that could be managed over a spirit flame in ten minutes.