Lobster Salad

A composed salad rather than a tossed one, and the method still works exactly as written. Most of what needs translating is vocabulary.

• A pint of lobster meatMeasured by volume, not weight: about 2 cups of picked meat, roughly 10-12 oz. That is the yield of two 1 1/4-lb lobsters, or three if they are small. Buying picked claw-and-knuckle meat is simpler but leaves you without shells for garnish.
• French dressing meant vinaigretteIn 1900s American cookbooks this is oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, whisked or shaken, in the neighbourhood of three parts oil to one of vinegar. It is not the sweet, orange, tomato-based bottled dressing that took the name later in the century.
• The hinge: dress it early, sauce it lateThe vinaigrette goes on while the meat chills, so it seasons through; the mayonnaise goes on only at service, half stirred through and half spooned on top, as the recipe directs. Mayonnaise added early tends to loosen against the moisture in the lobster.
• Coral and clawsCoral is the roe of a female lobster, black-green when raw and turning bright scarlet when cooked. It is sieved or crumbled over the top for colour. The recipe does not say whether 'claws' means the small claws with meat in them or cleaned shells used purely as decoration.
• MayonnaiseA period mayonnaise is raw yolk, oil, vinegar or lemon, and salt. If you make your own and are serving anyone pregnant, elderly or immune-compromised, use pasteurised eggs; otherwise a good jarred mayonnaise thinned with lemon juice is a fair substitute.
• Keeping it cold"Keep on ice" meant ice or the icebox, so refrigerate. Cooked shellfish held in a dressing should not sit out at room temperature for long; assemble the nests just before they go to the table.
• YieldA heaped tablespoon per nest is a first-course portion. A pint of meat is about 32 level tablespoons, so figure roughly 16 to 20 nests as an appetiser, or six generous plates if you build them larger for a lunch.