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Lobster Mayonnaise
Take the flesh from some lobsters and cut them to a small size. Have a border mould, and pour into it a layer of slightly melted pale-colored aspic jelly. When the jelly begins to set, place around and over some of the pieces of lobster and a few tarragon leaves, filling up with jelly. Put the mould in a cold place, and when the jelly is set turn the mould out onto a dish; fill the center with lettuce cut into shreds and mixed with the remainder of the lobster seasoned with pepper, salt, tarragon, vinegar and oil. Heap the lettuce and lobster high, and cover it with mayonnaise sauce. Garnish the heap of salad and the top of the mould with capers, stoned olives, tarragon, shervil, slices of hard-boiled eggs, slices of truffles, and the coral of the lobster.
A cold buffet centerpiece: a ring of aspic-set lobster turned out around a mound of dressed salad. Nearly all the difficulty is in the jelly, and in the timing of when you add the lobster to it.
- The hinge: work at setting pointAspic poured too warm will let every piece of lobster slide to the bottom, and can dull the color; poured too cold it sets in lumps and the layers will not fuse. Bring the jelly to the point where it thickens on the back of a spoon but still flows, then build in thin layers, chilling each until just set before adding the next.
- Aspic jellyA commercial "pale-colored aspic" is not on shelves now. Use a clear, well-flavored fish or light chicken stock set with powdered gelatin — rather more than the standard 1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp) per 2 cups used for a table jelly, since it has to hold its shape unmoulded. Clarify it if it is cloudy, or the whole effect is lost.
- Border mouldA ring mould, plain or fluted, roughly 1 to 1.5 quarts. Any modern ring or bundt-style pan works if it is metal, which unmolds far more easily than silicone or ceramic. Dip in warm water for a slow count of ten, then invert.
- QuantityThe original says only "some lobsters." Two 1 1/2 lb lobsters yield roughly 3/4 lb of picked meat, enough for the mould and the heaped center; that serves 4 to 6 as a first course.
- CoralThe dark green roe of a hen lobster, which turns coral red when cooked. It is used here purely as a red garnish, crumbled over the top. Most supermarket lobster is sold cooked and picked, with the coral gone; if you want it, buy live hen lobsters and cook them yourself.
- ShervilA period spelling of chervil, the delicate anise-scented herb. Its flavor fades quickly once cut, so scatter it at the last moment. Flat-leaf parsley with a few extra tarragon leaves is a common substitute.
- TrufflesIn a hotel kitchen of this period these were an expensive but familiar garnish, sliced thin, and the effect here is largely visual rather than aromatic. Blanched black olive slices give a similar visual effect at a fraction of the cost; truffle oil does not, and does not belong here.
- Mayonnaise and the eggsBoth the sauce and the sliced garnish involve eggs that never reach a cooked temperature in the mayonnaise's case. Use pasteurized eggs for the sauce if serving anyone elderly, pregnant, or immune-compromised, and keep the finished dish refrigerated until the moment it goes to the table.
- Holding timeAssemble the mould a day ahead if you like, but dress the lettuce and sauce the salad only just before serving. Shredded lettuce collapses quickly under oil and vinegar, and the whole point of the center is that it stands high.
Oscar Tschirky ran the Waldorf's dining rooms at the moment when the elaborate cold buffet was the most conspicuous thing an American hotel could put on a table, and this dish is a straightforward piece of that repertoire — aspic work of the kind often associated with the French chaud-froid and bordered-salad presentations that had passed into the hotel kitchens of the later nineteenth century. The border mould exists for a reason that has nothing to do with flavor: a ring of clear jelly with lobster suspended in it reads across a crowded room, and the heaped salad in the middle lets one dish serve a group from a sideboard. Lobster, said by tradition to have been cheap and lightly regarded along the New England coast in the early 1800s, had by the 1890s been thoroughly reinvented as a luxury by the railroads and the hotels that could get it inland alive. Recipes like this one are part of how that reinvention was accomplished.