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Cheese Wafers
Sprinkle zephyrettes with grated cheese mixed with a few grains of cayenne. Put on a sheet and bake until the cheese melts.
Canapés Canapés are made by cutting bread in slices one-fourth inch thick, and cutting slices in strips four inches long by one and one-half inches wide, or in circular pieces. Then bread is toasted, fried in deep fat, or buttered and browned in the oven, and covered with a seasoned mixture of eggs, cheese, fish, or meat, separately or in combination. Canapés are served hot or cold, and used in place of oysters at a dinner or luncheon. At a gentleman's dinner they are served with a glass of Sherry before entering the diningroom. Cheese Canapés I Toast circular pieces of bread, sprinkle with a thick layer of grated cheese seasoned with salt and cayenne. Place on a tin sheet and bake until cheese is melted. Serve at once.
Cheese Canapés II Spread circular pieces of toasted bread with French Mustard, then proceed as for Cheese Canapés I.
Sardine Canapés Spread circular pieces of toasted bread with sardines (from which bones have been removed) rubbed to a paste, with a small quantity of creamed butter and seasoned with Worcestershire Sauce and a few grains cayenne. Place in the centre of each a stuffed olive, made by removing stone and filling cavity with sardine mixture. Around each arrange a border of the finely chopped whites of "hardboiled" eggs. Lobster Canapés Finely chop lobster meat and add an equal quantity of yolks of "hard-boiled" eggs forced through a sieve. Moisten with melted butter and heavy cream, using equal parts, and season highly with salt, cayenne, German mustard and beef extract. Spread on sautéd circular slices of bread and garnish with rings cut from whites of "hard-boiled" eggs, yolks of "hard-boiled " eggs, and lobster coral forced through a sieve.
Canapés Martha Beat yolk one egg, add one and one-half tablespoons cream, one-fourth teaspoon salt, one-eighth teaspoon paprika, one-fourth teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce, and a few grains cayenne; then add one-fourth pound cheese cut in small pieces, and cook until smooth, stirring constantly. Spread on sautéd slices of bread, cut in fancy shapes, and cover with finely chopped lobster meat held together with a thick sauce made of Chicken Stock or cream, garnish with rings of whites of "hard-boiled" eggs, yolks of "hardboiled" eggs, and lobster coral forced through a strainer, and rings of olives.
Anchovy Canapés Spread circular pieces of toasted bread with Anchovy Butter. Chop separately yolks and whites of " hard-boiled " LOBSTER CANAPE. - Page 554.
CANAPÉ MARTHA. - Paдe 554.
JELLY BAG AND OTHER NECESSARY UTENSILS FOR JELLY MAKING. Page 573. 0
A cluster of short savoury recipes built on one idea: a crisp base, a highly seasoned topping, and immediate service. Most of the work is in the toppings; the bases are unforgiving if made ahead.
- ZephyrettesA very thin, lightly salted plain wafer cracker sold commercially around the turn of the century, closer to a water biscuit than a saltine. Any thin, plain, crisp cracker stands in; avoid anything heavily seasoned, since the cheese and cayenne are the flavour.
- "Bake until the cheese melts"No temperature is given. What is wanted is a hot oven for a very short time: hot enough to melt fast, brief enough that the wafer does not scorch. Watch them rather than timing them.
- The grated cheeseIn cookbooks of this period unqualified "cheese" generally meant a firm American factory cheddar. A sharp cheddar grated fine melts evenly on a thin base; pre-shredded cheese with anti-caking starch tends to sit in dry threads instead of flowing.
- "A few grains of cayenne"A recurring measure throughout the chapter, meaning a scant pinch, well under an eighth teaspoon. It is meant as heat in the background, not a detectable chilli flavour.
- Circular pieces of breadCut with a biscuit or cookie cutter from quarter-inch slices of a close-crumbed white loaf. Modern sandwich bread is softer and more open; toast or fry the rounds until genuinely crisp through, or the topping will soak them within minutes.
- French and German mustard"French Mustard" is capitalised here as a cross-reference to the book's own made mustard; a smooth prepared mustard of the Dijon type is the nearest modern stand-in. German mustard is the milder, slightly sweet brown kind. Both are prepared condiments, not dry mustard powder.
- Beef extractThe lobster mixture is seasoned with concentrated meat extract of the Liebig or Bovril type. A quarter-teaspoon of a modern beef bouillon concentrate does the same job, and it is salty enough that the added salt should be cut back.
- Lobster coralThe roe of a female lobster, which turns bright red on cooking and is pressed through a sieve purely as a garnish. It is not sold separately; if your lobster has none, the dish loses only its colour.
- Yield and timingReckon on two to three canapés per person as a pre-dinner bite. Everything toasted or fried must be assembled at the last moment, though the toppings themselves can be mixed hours ahead and kept cold.
Canapé for settee, with the bread often said to be the seat and the savoury mixture the person sitting on it, and the word is generally traced to English cookery in the later nineteenth century along with the rest of the formal service vocabulary. What is striking in this passage is the social instruction attached: canapés stand in for oysters at a dinner or luncheon, and at a gentleman's dinner they arrive with a glass of sherry before the company goes through to the dining room. That places them squarely in the ritual of the late-Victorian and Edwardian multi-course meal, where the opening course was expected to be small, salty and sharp enough to wake the palate. The heavy reliance on cayenne, Worcestershire, anchovy, mustard and beef extract is characteristic of the period's savouries, an English fashion the Boston Cooking-School drew on; so is the elaborate garnishing with sieved hard-boiled egg, which gave a cook a way to make a plate of toast look like a considered course.