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Lobster Salad
712. Mix with some ordinary salad mixture (par. 718) the boiled eggs of a lobster; then put in a salad-bowl a layer of salad herbs, lettuce being the best; upon these strew pieces of the flesh and interior of the lobster itself, with some of the eggs; then another layer of herbs, upon which place more lobster and eggs, and upon this pour the salad dressing, taking care to run it gradually over the whole; lastly, on the top of all place a few of the best leaves of the salad, shred very fine, and round the edge place some ornamental cuttings of cucumber, radishes, &c. 713. CRABS, PRAWNS, SHRIMPS, SALMON, or any cold fish may be used in the same way as lobster (see 712).
A Victorian layered salad rather than a tossed one: the point is that dressing is poured slowly through the built layers so it seeps down without collapsing them. Nothing here needs modernising except the vocabulary and a few quantities the original leaves unstated.
- "The boiled eggs of a lobster"This means the coral — the roe of a hen lobster, which turns bright red on cooking — not hen's eggs. The recipe directs that it be mixed into the salad mixture, giving colour to the dressing. Lobsters are often sold without the coral intact; a little paprika can stand in for the colour, or simply omit it.
- The dressing is not given hereParagraph 718, the "ordinary salad mixture", is a separate entry: a Victorian salad dressing of that period is typically hard-boiled egg yolk worked with mustard, oil, vinegar and cream. Any good mayonnaise or cream-based vinaigrette serves the same purpose.
- "Interior of the lobster"The soft parts — tomalley and coral — along with the meat from the body cavity and the small legs. Discard the stomach sac behind the eyes and the dark intestinal vein running down the tail.
- Pour gradually, and lateThe instruction to run the dressing over the whole by degrees is the hinge of the dish. Dress shortly before serving; lettuce sitting under a cream dressing softens quickly and the layers slump.
- "Salad herbs"Here this means salad leaves generally, not chopped soft herbs. Lettuce is specified as best; endive, corn salad and watercress are other leaves that would suit.
- Quantity and yieldThe original gives no quantities. A 1 1/2 to 2 lb cooked lobster yields roughly 5-8 oz of picked meat, enough for a bowl serving two to four.
- Chill everythingBoth lobster and leaves should be thoroughly cold before assembly; warm shellfish will thin a cream dressing.
- The substitutions in 713Crab, prawns, shrimps and cold poached salmon all work in the same construction. With flaked salmon, build the layers more loosely so the fish does not compact.
Lobster salad was a fixture of the English cold table through the nineteenth century, appearing at ball suppers, picnics and summer luncheons where dishes had to be built in advance and stand handsomely on a sideboard. Its layered assembly and the ring of cut cucumber and radish around the rim belong to a period when a salad was expected to be composed and looked at rather than tossed. Lobster turns up routinely in mid-Victorian household books, British coastal fisheries and the railway trade in fish having carried it inland. The use of the coral to colour the dressing is characteristic of the era's economy with a shellfish.