Lobster Chops
Two cups of boiled lobster; two eggs (yolks only); one cup of cream or milk; three tablespoons of flour; two tablespoons of butter; salt and pepper to taste. Put the butter in a stewpan, and when it bubbles, stir in the flour. Cook this paste, slowly stirring all the time; then pour in the cream, and add the lobster cut into small dice. Stir until scalding hot, take from the fire, and when slightly cooled, stir in the yolks of the eggs, well beaten, and the salt and pepper. Return to the fire and cook two minutes, stirring all the time. Butter a platter, and on it spread the mixture half an inch deep. When the mass is cold form it in the shape of chops that are pointed at one end, roll the chops in beaten egg and then in bread or cracker crumbs, place them in the frying basket, and plunge them into boiling hot fat until they are of a nice brown color. The frying should not take longer than three minutes. Drain well, and thrust the end of a small claw into each chop to represent the bone. Serve on a napkin, placing the 25 chops so they overlap one another, and garnishing with parsley. Suitable for teas, luncheons, and evening parties.
This is a lobster croquette in fancy dress: a stiff béchamel bound with egg yolk, chilled hard, shaped, breaded and deep-fried. Everything depends on the paste being cold and firm before it is handled.
- Chill it properly"When the mass is cold" means refrigerated until solid, not merely cooled on the counter. Spread it half an inch deep on a buttered platter or sheet, cover, and give it at least four hours or overnight; a warm centre will burst the crust in the fat.
- Frying temperature"Boiling hot fat" corresponds roughly to the 360-375F range used for deep-frying today; the recipe gives no number. Below that the crumbs soak; above it the outside colors before the middle warms through. Three minutes is what the recipe allows for chops of this size, and they should go in cold from the refrigerator.
- Tempering the yolksThe recipe takes the pan off the heat and lets it cool slightly before the beaten yolks go in for good reason. Add them to a scalding sauce and they scramble. Two minutes back on the heat, stirring, is enough to cook them.
- The lobsterTwo cups of picked meat is roughly the yield of two 1 1/4 lb lobsters, which also gives you the small claw shells for the "bone". Cut the dice small, about a quarter inch, or the chops will not hold their shape when sliced and formed.
- Double breadingEgg and crumbs once, as written, will do, but a pass of flour before the egg helps the coating grip a soft, buttery paste. Let the breaded chops rest in the refrigerator fifteen minutes to set before frying.
- The claw "bone"The pointed-chop-with-a-bone conceit was a period standard for croquettes of all kinds. A cleaned, dried tip from a small claw or a leg segment is pushed into the narrow end after frying, not before.
- YieldThe "25 chops" does not follow from this quantity of paste, which makes about eight to ten chops, enough for four as a luncheon dish.
- Serving on a napkinA folded linen napkin on the platter absorbed frying fat and kept the chops from sliding. Paper toweling under a cloth does the same job; drain well first either way.
Croquettes shaped and named after cuts of meat were a fixture of American and Anglo-French cookery from the 1870s through the 1910s — chicken, veal, sweetbread and lobster all got the same panade, the same pointed shape, and the same false bone. The note that the dish is "suitable for teas, luncheons, and evening parties" places it: food to be eaten standing up, off a small plate, with one hand.