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Lobster Salad
PICK the meat from a boiled lobster and cut it into small pieces; sift over it the coral; mix with it also the liver, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar or three of lemon juice, one-third a cup of butter and one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of cayenne and made mustard; heat in the blazer until thoroughly hot. Serve on cup-shaped leaves of lettuce with a quarter of a hard-boiled egg on the top of each portion.
Lobster à la Newburgh.
INGREDIENTS.
Meat of 2 medium sized 2 tablespoonfuls, each, of lobsters. 4 tablespoonfuls of butter. 1/2 a teaspoonful of salt. ¼ a teaspoonful of pepper. 2 tablespoonfuls, each, of sherry wine and brandy.
Grating of nutmeg.
Yolks of 4 eggs.
1 cup of cream.
Method. Remove the meat from the shells and cut it into delicate slices. Put the butter in the blazer, and, when it melts, put the lobster into it
A chafing-dish preparation of already-cooked lobster, dressed hot and served cold-plated on lettuce. The whole thing takes about five minutes once the lobster is picked.
- The blazerThe blazer is the upper pan of a chafing dish, set directly over the flame; the hot-water bath below it is the bain-marie. A small heavy skillet or a saucepan over low heat does the same job.
- Heat, do not cookThe lobster is already cooked. Bring it just to steaming in the butter and acid, no more than two or three minutes. Held over real heat it tightens and turns cottony, and the butter breaks.
- Coral and liverThe coral is the roe of a female lobster, dark green raw and coral-red when cooked; sifting means pressing it through a sieve so it dusts evenly. The liver is the tomalley, the soft green mass in the body cavity. Food-safety agencies now advise against eating tomalley, since it concentrates contaminants and marine biotoxins, and it can simply be left out.
- Made mustard"Made" mustard is prepared mustard from the jar, not dry mustard powder. Use a plain hot English or Dijon style.
- Butter quantityOne-third cup is about 5 tablespoons, generous for one lobster. With a single small lobster, start with half and add to taste.
- CayenneA quarter teaspoon of cayenne in a one-lobster portion is assertive by modern palates. It can be scaled back without altering the character of the dish.
- Yield and servingOne boiled lobster of about 1 1/4 lb yields roughly a cup of meat, enough for two lettuce cups as a first course. Have the lettuce and hard-boiled eggs ready before you begin, since the mixture should reach the table hot.
Chafing-dish cookery had a long vogue in American households between about 1890 and the First World War, when the spirit lamp let a hostess cook at the table without a servant and without a kitchen. Cookbooks of the period devote whole sections to it, and lobster figures prominently in them: it could often be bought already boiled, needed only reheating, and carried enough prestige to justify the performance. The pairing here of hot dressed lobster with a cool lettuce cup and a quarter of hard-boiled egg fits the era's taste for combining a chafing-dish preparation with salad service on the same plate.