No. 2532

Lobster in a Border

Homard en Bordure

Cut into quarter-inch squares, on the bias, the tail meat of two boiled lobsters, also the claws cut into four pieces; lay them in a deep dish and season with salt, oil and vinegar. Incrust in ice a plain border mold (Fig. 139), coat the inside with clear jelly (No. 103); cut some hard-boiled eggs into four pieces, that is once lengthwise and then each half egg once across; fasten to the yolks small springs of green chervil dipped in jelly, and fill the border mold with these eggs; then pour into the bottom a little melted jelly; let it set, add about half an inch more, and when this begins to harden fill up the mold, and let it remain on ice until the jelly is perfectly firm; then turn the mold over on a cold dish. Fill the inside empty space as high as the jelly with a vegetable salad (No. 2650), thickened with jellied mayonnaise (No. 613); dress on top the slices of lobster, covering the whole with jellied mayonnaise; cover with more jelly, and set on top the claws dipped in jelly. A mayonnaise printaniere (No. 612) should be served separately.

← No. 2531 Lobster or Spiny Lobster a la Ravigote Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2533 Lobster Tails in Their Shells →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold buffet piece from Delmonico's kitchen: an aspic ring set with hard-boiled eggs, unmolded, then filled with vegetable salad and dressed lobster. It is assembly work rather than cooking, and everything depends on the jelly setting in thin, patient layers.

Build it in layers, and wait for eachThe instruction to pour a little jelly, let it set, add half an inch, then fill is the hinge of the whole dish. Flooding the mold at once floats the egg pieces off the walls and they drift into a jumble; each layer must be firm to the touch before the next goes in.
"Incrust in ice"Ranhofer means bedding the mold in broken ice so the jelly sets against the metal; ice mixtures for this purpose were often salted, though the recipe does not say so. A bowl of ice water deep enough to come most of the way up the mold does the same job, or simply work in the refrigerator and allow longer between layers.
The mold is filled upside downThe inner surface is the show surface -- The mold is filled upright and inverted onto the dish at the end, so whatever touches the inside of the mold is what shows. Place the egg quarters cut-side against the metal, chervil facing out, and press them into a tacky coating layer of jelly rather than a wet one.
Aspic and jellied mayonnaiseNo. 103 is a clarified meat or fish jelly; a well-made stock-based aspic or a light fish stock set with gelatin serves. "Jellied mayonnaise" is mayonnaise slackened with a little melted aspic so it sets soft enough to coat and hold shape once cold.
Gelatin strengthCalves'-foot jellies of this period were set firm enough to unmold cleanly, though the recipe keeps the mold on ice until the jelly is perfectly firm. Modern sheet or powdered gelatin is best used at the upper end of the usual ratio, around 2 percent by weight of liquid, or the border risks collapsing when turned out.
Quantity and yieldThe recipe says only "two boiled lobsters" and uses just the tail meat and the claws; it gives no picked weight and no number of servings. As one item among the cold dishes of a buffet, the border was meant to be shared out rather than portioned.
UnmoldingA cloth wrung out in hot water, laid over the mold for a few seconds, releases it. Longer than that and the pattern of eggs melts into a blur.
ChervilFresh chervil is seasonal and wilts fast; dip the sprigs in cool liquid jelly as directed, which both fixes them and keeps them green. Flat-leaf parsley or tarragon leaves stand in without apology.
Holding timeCooked shellfish, hard-boiled egg and raw-yolk mayonnaise in one dish is fine cold and made the same day. Keep it refrigerated until service and do not leave it standing on a warm table for hours as a Gilded Age sideboard would have.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits in a long run of cold garnishings intended for the buffet of a large supper or ball, where dishes had to look composed after standing under lamplight. En bordure simply means "in a border": the aspic ring is scaffolding as much as food, giving height and a formal edge to a salad that would otherwise slump on the platter. The style belongs to the late-nineteenth-century vogue for chaud-froid and mirror-clear jelly work, in which clarity of the aspic was a measure of the kitchen's competence. Lobster, cheap and abundant along the American coast earlier in the century, had by Ranhofer's day become a luxury item on restaurant menus, and the cross-references to numbered jellies, mayonnaises and salads elsewhere in the book show how such a piece was assembled from a standing repertoire rather than made from scratch each time.