Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Lobster Toast
Lobster Toast
Pick all the meat from the shell of a large lobster and chop it fine; work two or three tablespoonfuls of cream into one ounce of butter, then mix with it the chopped lobster, adding a boned, washed and chopped anchovy, and salt and pepper to taste. Work all together with the blade of a knife, then mix in lightly two or three tablespoonfuls of washed and chopped watercress. Cut some slices of bread about one-fourth inch in thickness, trim off all the crusts and toast them; cut them into squares, butter over and spread some of the lobster mixture on each piece. Strew finely grated breadcrumbs over, and place them in a brisk oven for a few minutes. Spread a folded napkin, or an ornamental dish-paper over a hot dish, arrange the pieces of toast nicely on it, garnish with a border of well-washed watercress, and serve.
A hot savoury canapé from the Waldorf's à la carte service. Almost everything hinges on the lobster being already cooked and the oven being hot enough to brown the crumbs before the toast goes leathery.
- The lobster is cooked lobsterThe meat is picked from the shell and chopped, so it must have been boiled or steamed beforehand, though the recipe does not say so. It calls simply for a large lobster and gives no weight or yield. Claw and knuckle meat chops more easily than tail.
- One ounce of butterTwo tablespoons, softened to room temperature. The cream is worked in first to make a loose paste, so the mixture spreads without tearing the toast; cold butter will simply crumble under the knife blade.
- The anchovyPeriod anchovies were salt-packed whole fish, hence "boned, washed and chopped." A modern oil-packed fillet or two is already boned; blot the oil and chop fine. Taste before adding salt, as the anchovy and the lobster both carry plenty.
- Brisk ovenA hot oven; roughly 425-450F in modern terms, though the book gives no temperatures. The toast is already toasted and the lobster already cooked, so the oven's only job is to set the mixture and colour the crumbs -- the recipe says a few minutes, and it wants watching.
- Watercress, twiceChopped into the mixture and again as a garnish. The recipe says to mix it in "lightly"; overworking bruises the leaves.
- Breadcrumbs"Finely grated" means dry crumbs from stale bread, not fresh soft crumbs and not coarse panko. A light dusting only; a thick layer will not brown through in the short time in the oven.
- Yield and servingThe recipe does not say how large the squares should be or how many one lobster will make. The folded napkin or ornamental dish-paper is a presentation convention of the period and also keeps the squares from sliding; a paper doily or a small linen napkin does the same work.
Lobster Toast belongs to the family of hot savouries that filled the last course of a long Victorian and Edwardian dinner. The pairing of lobster with anchovy is older than the hotel: anchovy butter and anchovy essence were a standard English seasoning for shellfish through the nineteenth century, valued for adding salt and depth without announcing itself as fish. Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf's maitre d'hotel, is the name on the 1896 book, and the instructions here read like a station cook's notes -- quantities by the ounce, the butter worked with a knife blade rather than creamed, and a closing sentence devoted entirely to how the plate should look going out the door.