Shrimps with Peas

A single-sentence recipe that assumes you already know how to make cream sauce and run a chafing dish. The measurements are by volume, as was usual for picked shellfish.

• A pint of shrimpsShrimp of this period were generally bought already cooked and picked (or canned), and measured by the pint rather than weighed. A pint of small peeled cooked shrimp is roughly 12 oz to 1 lb; if starting from raw shell-on shrimp, allow about 1 1/2 lb or more.
• Cream sauceA cream sauce of this period is a white roux thinned with milk or cream; roughly 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 1/2 cups milk or thin cream, seasoned with salt and pepper, will give the cup and a half called for. Make it before anything goes in the pan.
• The hinge is heatBoth shrimp and peas are already cooked. They want to be warmed through in the finished sauce over the chafing dish flame for two or three minutes, no more. Held longer, the shrimp tighten and turn cottony.
• The peasA cup of shelled green peas, canned or freshly boiled in 1899. Frozen peas thawed under warm water work perfectly and hold their colour better than either.
• Chafing dish equivalentThe blazer pan over its hot-water bath is essentially a double boiler. A wide saucepan over low heat does the same job; if the sauce is likely to sit while people arrive, use an actual double boiler so it cannot catch.
• ServingDainties like this were spooned over buttered toast points, in patty shells or on rice. As written it serves four as a supper dish, two as a main course.
• SeasoningNeither salt nor acid is mentioned. A little lemon juice and cayenne stirred in at the end keeps the cream from tasting flat; both turn up often in period recipes for shellfish in white sauce.