No. 1029

Lobster a la Creole

Homard a la Creole

Take two medium lobsters each one weighing about two pounds; cut them up into twelve pieces and saute them over a quick fire with half as much butter as oil; add two ounces of onions and one ounce of chopped shallot, salt, pepper, and a garnished bunch of parsley, then moisten with four gills of consomme (No. 189), and one gill of Madeira wine, add four medium, peeled, pressed and halved tomatoes, one green pepper, cut into small bits, and a little curry. Let this simmer for fifteen minutes, add fine herbs and serve. Boil some rice in water with salt and butter, drain, set it into a buttered mold, and leave it in the oven for ten minutes, then unmold and serve the rice separately but at the same time as the lobsters.

← No. 1028 Lobster a la Camille Lobster No. 1030 Deviled, Roasted Lobster →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a professional kitchen with stock on hand and a cook who can break down a live lobster. Two things need attention before anything else: the volume of the liquid and the length of the simmer.

Gills and quantitiesFour gills of consommé is two cups; one gill of Madeira is half a cup. Two ounces of onion is roughly half a small onion, and one ounce of shallot about one medium one.
The fifteen-minute simmerLobster meat is cooked through in a few minutes and turns fibrous and cottony past that. The instruction makes sense as a way of reducing the sauce with the shells in it; lift the tail and claw pieces out once they are firm and opaque, let the sauce finish, then return them to warm through.
Cutting up the lobsterThe recipe reads as twelve pieces from the two lobsters together, six each: claws, knuckles, tail split into segments, and the body halved — all in the shell, which is where the flavor of the sauce comes from. Reserve the tomalley and any coral to stir in at the end; do not discard the head shells until the sauce is done.
Consommé No. 189Ranhofer's cross-reference points to one of his clarified consommés (check the number in the book for which). A light unsalted chicken stock or a quick stock made from the lobster shells works; avoid anything heavily salted, since the sauce reduces.
"A little curry"In 1894 this most likely means a commercial curry powder, though a kitchen-made blend is equally possible; in French kitchens it served as a background seasoning rather than a dominant flavor. Half a teaspoon for the whole dish is in the spirit of it.
Tomatoes, peeled and pressed"Pressed" means squeezed to expel seeds and watery pulp. Four medium tomatoes in season; out of season, a cup of drained canned tomatoes gives a better result.
Garnished bunch of parsley and fine herbsThe bunch is a bouquet garni — parsley stems with thyme and bay, tied and removed before serving. "Fine herbs" at the end means chopped fresh parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives, added off the heat.
The molded ricePlain boiled rice, buttered, packed into a mold and held in the oven for ten minutes to set and dry the surface before unmolding. Ranhofer gives no temperature, so a moderate oven is a reasonable modern reading. A ring mold or small individual timbales both work.
YieldTwo two-pound lobsters serve four generously as a main course, or six as one course of a longer meal.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium he assembled after some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. The "à la Creole" tag in his book signals tomato, onion, sweet pepper and a touch of spice — a shorthand for the Franco-Caribbean and New Orleans manner rather than any single regional recipe, and it is applied across his eggs, chicken and fish. The curry powder is a reminder of how loosely the term was used. Serving the rice molded and separate, rather than under the lobster, means the dish arrives as two components on the table at once, so the rice stays dry and the sauce is not absorbed before the guest sees it.