No. 1033

Lobster a la Gambetta

Homard a la Gambetta

Cut about four pounds of raw lobster tails into transversal pieces three-eights of an inch thick. Fry in four ounces of butter, two ounces of leeks, the same quantity of onions, the same of carrots, and the same of celery, a branch of parsley, thyme and bay leaf, add the remaining part of the lobsters and moisten with half a bottleful of white wine and a quart of fish stock (No. 195); let all cook for half an hour, then strain the stock through a sieve, add to it some veloute sauce (No. 415), and reduce all together, pass through a tammy into a saucepan previously rubbed with a little garlic. Saute the slices of lobster tails in some clarified butter over a brisk fire, add a teaspoonful of shallots, salt and red pepper, then moisten with white wine; reduce quickly and pour in the reduced veloute, and a little tomato sauce (No. 549); thicken with four egg-yolks, butter and cream; dress the whole into a dish and garnish around with croutons fried in oil and croquettes of rice cooked and seasoned with hazelnut butter (No. 567), salt, saffron and cayenne pepper; when cold make this into small balls three-quarters of an inch in size, dip them in eggs, then in bread-crumbs and fry to a fine color. On top lay some trussed crawfish.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stocks and mother sauces already standing; the dish is really three preparations — a lobster-shell sauce, sautéed medallions, and saffron rice croquettes — assembled at the last minute. Read it backwards and start the croquettes first, since they must cool before rolling.

The hinge: the egg-yolk liaisonOnce the four yolks with butter and cream go in, the sauce must not boil or it will curdle and break. Pull the pan to the side of the heat, temper the yolks with a ladle of hot sauce, and finish below a simmer.
Raw lobster, and how to get it"Raw lobster tails" means uncooked lobster, cut through the shell into rounds about 3/8 inch (1 cm) thick. Note the ambiguity: if the four pounds is tails rather than whole lobster, it will take considerably more than three 1 1/4-1 1/2 lb lobsters. Kill live lobsters by driving a heavy knife through the head behind the eyes before sectioning. Frozen raw tails work if live is impractical, though you lose the bodies and roe that flavour the sauce.
"The remaining part of the lobsters"The heads, legs and shells go into the pan with the vegetables — that is where the sauce gets its colour and depth. Crush them before adding, and press hard when straining.
Velouté and tomato sauceVeloute and tomato sauce -- No. 415 is Ranhofer's veloute: a white sauce thickened with a blond roux and simmered until it coats. The page does not specify a fish version, though the stock here is fish stock (No. 195). No quantity is given -- use enough to bind the reduced stock. The tomato sauce is a seasoning, not a base -- a couple of spoonfuls, enough to tint the sauce.
TammyA tammy is a fine woollen straining cloth, twisted between two people to force sauce through. A chinois lined with muslin, or a fine conical strainer worked with a ladle, does the same job.
Half a bottleful of white wineAbout 12 fl oz (350 ml) for the stock, plus a splash more for deglazing the sautéed medallions. Use something dry and unoaked.
Cooking timesThe shell stock takes its full half hour, but the medallions themselves need only three or four minutes in clarified butter over high heat — until the shells turn red and the flesh is just set. They finish warming in the sauce, and overcooked lobster turns cottony.
The rice croquettesCook the rice until sticky, season with saffron, cayenne, salt and the hazelnut butter, spread to cool, then roll into 3/4-inch balls, bread them and fry until golden -- the recipe says only "fry to a fine color" and gives no temperature. Hazelnut butter (No. 567) is a cross-reference not printed here; in French usage the name can mean either a butter pounded with hazelnuts or browned butter, so check the numbered entry.
Crawfish garnish"Trussed" crawfish are cooked whole with the tail curled back and hooked onto the head or through the claws, then stood around the dish. Purely decorative; use cooked crayfish or omit.
YieldFour pounds of lobster with the garnishes will serve at least six as a main course, more in a longer menu of the kind Ranhofer was writing for.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its habit of naming dishes after public figures is a Second Empire French reflex he carried with him. Léon Gambetta, the republican statesman who proclaimed the Third Republic in 1870 and escaped besieged Paris by balloon, was one of the most conspicuous names in French public life during Ranhofer's American career, and dishes à la Gambetta appear in several kitchens of the period; the attachment of the name to a particular preparation is convention rather than anything the man himself is known to have eaten. The method underneath the name is standard high-kitchen practice: build a shell-based fumet, mount it with velouté, finish it with an egg-and-cream liaison, and surround the whole with fried garnishes for height and contrast — the same architecture as the better-known lobster américaine and Newburg, the latter of which Ranhofer also claimed for Delmonico's.