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Fried Lobster
Take the meat out of the tails and claws of a lobster and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dip a paste-brush in beaten egg, and brush the meat with it, then roll it in breadcrumbs, and after they have dried on it repeat the operation. Place it in a frying basket, plunge it in boiling fat and fry until it is brown. Drain and place the lobster on a hot dish and serve with a sauceboat of tartar sauce.
A short entry that assumes a great deal of unstated technique, as most Waldorf kitchen notes do. Two things carry the dish: the lobster must already be cooked, and the fat must be hot enough to brown the crumbs before the meat inside overcooks.
- The lobster is already boiledMeat does not come cleanly out of tails and claws raw, so the recipe presumes a lobster boiled or steamed and cooled first. A 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb lobster boiled 8-10 minutes, then chilled, will shell easily and give firm pieces that hold a coating.
- Fat temperatureThe recipe gives no temperature; "boiling fat" was judged by eye or by how fast a crumb of bread browned. A modern equivalent is deep fat at roughly 360-375F. Below that the double crumb crust absorbs grease; much above it and the crumbs darken before the lobster is heated through.
- Frying timeBecause the meat is cooked already, this is a browning operation only: 2 to 3 minutes, until the crust is deep gold. Longer and lobster turns dense and stringy, the same failure as overboiling it.
- Why the coating is applied twiceThe instruction to let the crumbs dry before repeating matters. A rested first layer gives the second egg wash something to grip, producing a shell less likely to split and leak in the fat. Ten minutes of air-drying, or a spell in the refrigerator, is enough.
- BreadcrumbsThe recipe specifies only "breadcrumbs"; dry fine crumbs from stale white bread suit the double coating better than coarse panko or seasoned crumbs.
- Frying basketA wire basket lowered into a deep pot of fat. A spider or slotted spoon works, but keep the pieces from resting on the bottom of the pan, where the crust scorches.
- YieldOne 1 1/2 lb lobster serves one as a main course or two as a first course. Fry in small batches so the fat does not drop below temperature.
- Tartar sauceThe period version is broadly mayonnaise with chopped capers, gherkins, onion or shallot and parsley. Serve it cold and separately, as directed, so the crust stays crisp.
Oscar Tschirky's book records the cooking of the Waldorf and Waldorf-Astoria around the turn of the twentieth century, when lobster was a fixture of American hotel and restaurant menus. Frying cooked shellfish in a basket, egg-and-crumbed in the manner of a coating à l'anglaise, is straightforwardly French service technique applied to an American ingredient, and the accompanying sauceboat of tartar sauce reflects the same borrowing. The extreme brevity is typical of the book, which was compiled out of a professional kitchen's working knowledge and assumes the reader already knows how to boil a lobster and how hot to keep a fat kettle.