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Aspic of Crayfish with Salad
Incrust a plain border mould in ice, and have prepared sufficient warm aspic jelly to fill it. Cut some truffles in halves and dip them in the jelly, also an equal number of crayfish tails, and as each one is dipped stick them round the interior of the mould alternately. Chop up the meat from the claws and stir it into the jelly, pouring it immediately into the border mould. When cold, turn the border out onto a dish, after having dipped the mould for an instant in hot water. Fill the center of the border with shredded lettuce mixed with a thick mayonnaise, and pile this up so that the crayfish tails may be arranged around and also cover it in rows. The dish may be garnished with coarsely-chopped aspic and a few pieces placed on the top.
A cold buffet centerpiece from the Waldorf's kitchen, built in a ring mould and dependent almost entirely on the setting strength and clarity of the aspic. Everything else is assembly.
- The hinge: aspic temperatureThe jelly used for dipping the truffles and tails must be cool and syrupy, not "warm" in any literal sense, or nothing will cling and the decorations slide to the bottom. Set the bowl of aspic over ice water and stir until it thickens to the consistency of raw egg white, then dip and place each piece and let it firm before adding the next.
- Incrusting the mould in ice'Incrust' means setting the mould into a bed of crushed ice so the jelly grips the sides on contact; salt was commonly added to the ice to drive the temperature lower. A refrigerator does the same job more slowly; chill the mould thoroughly first and give each dipped layer several minutes to set before pouring the body of the jelly.
- Border mouldA plain ring mould; something around 1 to 1.5 quarts suits the quantities implied here. In a much larger mould the same amount of jelly will give a border too shallow to hold its shape when turned out.
- Making the aspicThe original assumes a clarified veal or fish stock that gels on its own. With modern stock, count on about 1 tablespoon of powdered gelatin per 2 cups of liquid for a border firm enough to unmould and slice; a softer set will slump on the platter. Clarify with egg white and shell if you want the truffles visible through it.
- Crayfish quantityNo amount is given. For a 1.5-quart border you want roughly 40 to 50 tails; depending on the size of the crayfish that is somewhere in the region of 3 to 5 pounds live, boiled and picked. Cooked crayfish tail meat sold frozen works for the filling but the whole curled tails are what carry the look.
- TrufflesFresh black truffle at the volume implied here is now a luxury far beyond what the dish repays. Preserved truffle in brine, sliced and dipped, gives the same dark contrast against the shellfish, and the dish reads perfectly well with black olive or a dark mushroom cap in their place.
- UnmouldingAn instant is the right word. Two or three seconds in hot water, wiped dry, then invert onto a chilled platter. Longer and the outer surface of the jelly melts and clouds.
- Chopped aspic garnishPour a thin layer of spare aspic into a shallow pan, let it set hard, then chop it on a cold board with a large knife. Chop it just before serving; it weeps quickly.
- Serving and holdingSix to eight as a first course. Aspic and mayonnaise with cooked shellfish should not sit out on a buffet for long; assemble late, keep the platter cold, and clear it within about two hours.
Oscar Tschirky's book records the Waldorf kitchen at the turn of the twentieth century, when a chilled aspic border was standard equipment in any hotel that fed people at large evening functions. Crayfish held an unusually high place in that repertoire: French cooking treated the écrevisse as a delicacy in its own right, and American rivers and lakes supplied them cheaply enough that a New York hotel could put out dozens of tails at a time. The construction here is pure garde-manger logic — the good-looking parts of the animal are set into the jelly where they can be seen, the ragged claw meat is chopped and hidden inside it, and nothing is wasted. It is tempting to think that dishes like this went out of fashion less because tastes changed than because the brigade that assembled them did; a decorated border mould can occupy a cold-kitchen cook for a good part of a day, and few kitchens now keep someone standing at that station.