No. 2414

Aspic of Lobster

Aspic de Homard

Prepare a wooden foundation about two inches thick and furnished with a slightly raised border on the outer edge so as to uphold the entree when dressed. The aspic mold should be chosen slightly narrower than the bottom of the dish, which is to be covered with paper. Suppress the shells from the tails and claws of two or three small cooked lobsters; cut the tails lengthways in two and also split the claw-meat in two, then put them into a vessel and season. Prepare a garnishing of carrots cut into balls with a small vegetable spoon, blanch and lay them in the vessel and with them mix gherkin balls cut the same size, small cooked Brussels sprouts, small blanched olives stuffed with anchovies, and a seasoning of salt, oil and vinegar. Incrust on ice a dome-shaped mold wider than its height, decorate the sides and bottom with designs of hard-boiled egg white, truffles and gherkins; coat the mold rather thickly with jelly; fill the inside with the halved lobster tail and claws, pressing the red side of the meat against the jelly; fill up the hollow space with the prepared carrot balls seasoned as for a salad and finished with mayonnaise sauce with jelly (No. 613). Let the aspic harden on ice for one hour at least. Incrust also on ice twelve small timbale molds (No. 2, Fig. 137); decorate the bottoms with rounds of truffles, the sides with small round pieces of white of egg and coat them over lightly with jelly; as soon as this is hard fill them up with lobster cream, the same as for No. 2470, and keep them for twenty-five minutes on ice. Just when ready to serve dip the dome mold into hot water, wipe it off quickly and invert the aspic on the raised-edge foundation; on top of it fasten a small lobster cream "pain" molded in a channeled mold, and against the edge of the bottom of the dish unmold the lobster cream timbales, after dipping the molds into hot water. This is to be served with a separate mayonnaise sauce (No. 606).

← No. 2413 Terrine of Foies-Gras in Aspic—Whole The Cold Service No. 2415 Aspic of Oysters →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A full Ranhofer set piece: a domed lobster aspic on a raised wooden stand, ringed with small timbales of lobster cream. It is assembly work rather than cooking, and nearly all of it depends on keeping the jelly at the right consistency.

The hinge: work cold and in thin layers"Incrust on ice" means bedding the mold in crushed ice and coarse salt until it is thoroughly chilled, then swirling in barely-fluid jelly so it sets on contact as a clear lining. Jelly that is too warm will melt the decorations off the sides; jelly that is already setting will go cloudy and streaked. Keep the bowl of aspic over tepid water and test a spoonful on the cold mold before committing.
The wooden foundationA socle — a plinth that lifts the centerpiece above the platter and gives the timbales a rim to sit against. The recipe has it covered in paper. A chilled cake stand or an inverted shallow dish of the right diameter does the same job.
Aspic jellyThe book's jellies are clarified stocks set with calf's foot and/or gelatine and cleared with egg white; for a lobster piece a fish stock is the obvious base. In modern terms, a well-flavored, thoroughly clarified fish stock with enough powdered gelatine to unmold cleanly — on the order of 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons per quart, more for a large dome that must stand on its own.
Mayonnaise with jelly, and lobster creamNo. 613 is the mayonnaise slackened with melted aspic so that it sets — mayonnaise coll"lobster cream" of No. 2470 is a lobster preparation lightened and bound so it holds a mold; whatever the exact formula, it must be filled into the timbales while still pourable.

Lobsters and yield"Two or three small cooked lobsters" points to the smallest market size, cooked and cooled. The twelve timbales suggest a service of about twelve as a cold entr"e, though the recipe does not say so.

Blanched olivesThe recipe calls for the olives blanched, which suggests they came from a brine salty enough to need drawing. Modern jarred olives need only rinsing; blanching them will mostly just soften them.

UnmoldingDip briefly in hot water, wipe the mold dry at once and invert, as the recipe directs. Left in longer, the decorated lining slumps. If it resists, wrap the mold in a cloth wrung out in hot water rather than dipping again.

Holding timeThe recipe times everything by the ice, which was the refrigeration of the day. Assemble in a refrigerator, keep the finished piece cold until the moment it goes to table, and do not leave a lobster-and-mayonnaise centerpiece standing at room temperature through a long meal.

A Little History
Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is the record of that restaurant's repertoire at its height — thousands of numbered recipes, cross-referenced to each other in the way this one refers you to Nos. 613, 606 and 2470. Cold pieces like this belonged to the garde-manger, the cold larder, whose work was judged as much by appearance as flavor: aspic gave a cook a transparent medium in which truffle, egg white and gherkin could be arranged into deliberate patterns, then presented raised on a socle so the room could see it. The style descends from Carême's early nineteenth-century grandes pièces, and it survived into the twentieth century in hotel banqueting and competition buffets long after private kitchens had abandoned it. The lobster itself is worth noting: it is often said to have been cheap coastal food not long before, and its arrival on the Delmonico's cold table under a dome of clear jelly marks how thoroughly that had changed.

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