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Scalloped Lobster
Select a nice fresh hen lobster and pick out all the flesh; place the spawn in a mortar with two ounces of butter and pound until smooth, then pass it through a fine hair sieve. Mince the flesh of the lobster, and season with pepper, salt and a moderate quantity of spice and a little cayenne pepper. Put the mince into a stewpan with one-half tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, the strained juice of a lemon, a small lump of butter and two or three tablespoonfuls of thick cream. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon over the fire until very hot, then stir in the pounded spawn. Fill some scallop shells with the mixture, levelling it smoothly over the top, sprinkle over plenty of grated breadcrumbs and put a few small pieces of butter on them. Place the scalloped lobster in the oven and bake until nicely browned. Serve on a folded napkin.
An Edwardian chafing-dish preparation dressed up for the dining room: cooked lobster meat bound with cream and enriched with coral butter, then browned in shells. Two things in the original need spelling out — the lobster must be boiled before you can pick it, and the "spawn" is the coral, which is not always available.
- Cook the lobster firstThe recipe reads as though you pick a live lobster, but period kitchens took boiling as understood. Boil or steam a 1 1/2 to 2 lb hen lobster (about 10-12 minutes), cool it, then pick the tail, claws and knuckles.
- "Spawn" means the coralThe dark green roe of a female lobster, which turns coral red on cooking and gives the dish its color and body. If you want it, ask the fishmonger for a hen. Without coral the filling is pale but still good; some modern cooks substitute a spoonful of tomato paste for color, not for flavor.
- Coral butter, without the mortarPounding the coral with 2 oz (4 tablespoons) butter and forcing it through a hair sieve gives a smooth, lump-free paste. A small food processor or a fork and a fine-mesh strainer does the same work.
- "A moderate quantity of spice"In recipes of this kind "spice" usually meant mace or nutmeg, sometimes with a trace of clove. A pinch or two of mace suits it; the cayenne is separate and should stay small.
- Stewpan means saucepanA shallow, straight-sided pan over gentle heat. Heat the mince through only — a minute or two — and add the coral butter off the boil so it emulsifies rather than curdles. Reheated lobster toughens quickly.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives none; "bake until nicely browned" asks only that the crumbs color. A hot oven, around 425F for 8-10 minutes, or 2-3 minutes under the broiler, will do it, since the filling is already cooked.
- Shells and substitutesScallop shells were commonly kept for serving dishes of this kind; oven-safe ramekins or gratin dishes of about 1/2 cup hold the same amount. Butter them lightly.
- YieldOne 2 lb lobster gives roughly 1 1/2 cups of picked meat and fills four shells — a first course for four, or lunch for two.
- The napkinA folded napkin under the shells was decorative, and is often said to have kept hot shells from sliding on the plate. A paper doily or a fold of linen still does it.
Scalloped anything meant, in the nineteenth century, a mixture baked in shells or shell-shaped dishes under buttered crumbs -- the shell gave the dish its name before the baking dish took it over. Lobster in this style appears in nineteenth-century English and American cookery books. The insistence on a hen lobster is the professional detail: the coral was prized for the color and body it gave to sauces, and pounding it with butter to make what French kitchens call beurre de homard was familiar restaurant practice. Hotel dining rooms of the period served lobster freely; improved fisheries and rail transport had helped turn it from a cheap coastal food into a dining-room luxury.