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Canapes of Caviar
Cut three or four slices of bread about one-fourth inch in thickness, and then cut them up into round pieces with a biscuit cutter, of about two inches in diameter. Put these into a pan with a small piece of butter, and fry to a light brown color. When done, spread on the rounds a layer of caviar, and serve them on a dish covered with a napkin or ornamental dish-paper.
A one-page canapé from the Waldorf's service repertoire, and it works exactly as written. The few things worth knowing concern the bread, the fat and the caviar itself.
- YieldThree or four slices of a standard sandwich loaf give roughly 8-12 rounds at 2 inches. Figure three or four canapés per person as a cocktail bite.
- The breadUse a close-crumbed white loaf, day-old rather than fresh, so the rounds stay firm under the caviar. A fresh soft loaf tears under the cutter and goes greasy in the pan.
- Frying, not toastingThe rounds are fried in butter, which is the point: they stay crisp under a wet topping far longer than dry toast, which softens within minutes. Use enough butter to coat the pan and keep the heat moderate so the milk solids do not blacken.
- Cool them completelyOscar does not say it, but the croutons are better cold before the caviar goes on. Warm butter slackens caviar and dulls its flavour.
- Caviar quantityAbout a level teaspoon per round, or roughly 2 oz for a dozen. Spoon it on with a non-metal spoon and do not spread it flat with pressure; lift it into a low mound so the grains stay whole.
- What "caviar" meant hereIn 1896 the Waldorf would have been serving pressed or fresh sturgeon roe, much of it from American rivers. Any modern roe works, but salt levels vary sharply, so taste before you commit a whole tray.
- ServingThe napkin or dish-paper is functional as well as decorative: it absorbs butter and keeps the rounds from sliding. Assemble no more than fifteen minutes before serving.
Oscar Tschirky ran the dining rooms of the Waldorf from its opening in 1893, and this recipe belongs to the period when caviar was still an American product rather than an imported luxury: sturgeon from the Delaware, the Hudson and the Great Lakes supplied so much roe in the late nineteenth century that it was said to be sold cheaply in New York saloons, and much of it, the story goes, was shipped to Europe and sold back as Russian. The canapé form is a fried or toasted bread base carrying a savoury topping, served before a meal or with drinks; the word is generally traced to the same root as "canopy," the bread being read as a couch for what sits on it. That Oscar bothers to specify the biscuit cutter and the ornamental dish-paper says a good deal about what a hotel cookbook of the 1890s was selling: a well-run dining room reproduced at home.