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Buttered Lobster
Pick out all the meat of a lobster and mince it finely, mix it with the coral and green inside, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter and one saltspoonful each of cayenne and made mustard; place this in a stewpan with the chopped meat over the fire till thoroughly hot. Cut in quarters some lettuce, arrange them on a dish, pour in the hot lobster, put some quarters of hard boiled eggs on the top and serve at once.
A hot buttered lobster served over cold lettuce quarters — closer to a warm dressing than a stew. The whole thing hinges on keeping the butter from breaking, so hold the pan at a bare simmer and stir constantly.
- Gentle heat, and no boilingA quarter pound of butter with two tablespoons of vinegar is an emulsion, and it will split into greasy butterfat if it boils. Warm it over low heat, stirring, only until the lobster is hot through — two or three minutes. Take it off before it bubbles.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. A quarter teaspoon of cayenne is assertive in this quantity; a quarter teaspoon of made mustard is barely a smear. Both are worth tasting toward rather than dumping in.
- Made mustard"Made" means prepared, wet mustard from the jar rather than dry powder. Any smooth Dijon or English mustard works; the sharper the better against the butter.
- Coral and green insideThe coral is the roe of a female lobster, which turns bright red when cooked; the green is the tomalley, or liver. Both are traditional here and give the mixture its color and depth. Current advisories suggest limiting tomalley intake, since it concentrates contaminants from the water — leave it out if that concerns you and the dish still works.
- How much lobsterThe recipe assumes one lobster but does not state a size. A two-pound boiled lobster yields roughly half a pound of picked meat; two 1¼-lb lobsters give a little more. The lobster must be cooked and cooled first — this is a reheating recipe, not a cooking one.
- The vinegarUse cider or white wine vinegar, not distilled white, which is harsh at this concentration. Two tablespoons against a stick of butter reads as a lot but is what keeps the dish from being merely rich.
- The lettuceIceberg or a firm romaine heart, cut in quarters through the core so it holds its shape and stays cold and crisp under the hot butter. Dress it at the last moment — it wilts within a minute or two of the lobster hitting it.
- YieldServes two generously as a lunch dish, or four as a first course. There is no salt in the original beyond the seasoning; season the lobster before it goes in the pan.
Oscar Tschirky ran the Waldorf's dining rooms from 1893 and published The Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf in 1896, a vast compilation that mixes hotel practice with the standard English and American repertoire of the day. Buttered lobster belongs to the second group: it is a cousin of devilled lobster and lobster Newburg, the latter generally traced to Delmonico's in the 1870s, from a period when lobster is often said to have been cheap enough on the Atlantic coast to be treated casually. Simple reheating and seasoning is all such recipes assume, which is why this one reads so briefly. The cold lettuce beneath is the period's usual answer to a very rich hot mixture, and it does the same work a squeeze of lemon would do now.