No. 826

Toasts a la Waddington

Roties a la Waddington

Trim some slices of bread-crumbs three-eighths of an inch thick, oval shaped, two and a half inches long by two inches wide; toast them lightly and cover one side with chopped ham and butter mixed. Remove the stones from some large verdal olives, cut off the ends, and then slice them into three pieces, so as to make rings each three-sixteenths of an inch high; lay them in a circle on the toast, on the outer edge, and fill each alternate olive ring with chopped up hard boiled egg-white, and the rest of them with the yolks prepared the same. Make a turban with one or two anchovies inside of these, fill this with chopped beetroot and cover the whole with jelly having the consistency of syrup. Serve them very cold, arranging them in form of a crown on a folded napkin, with sprigs of parsley in the center.

← No. 825 Tartlets of Game, Lobster, Salmon or Nonpare Cold Side Dishes No. 827 Toasted Bread Garnished with Chicken, Bacon, →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold canapé from Ranhofer's savoury repertoire, built as much by ruler as by taste. The assembly is the whole dish, so read the geometry before you start cutting.

Bread-crumbs means the crumb"Slices of bread-crumbs" is nineteenth-century usage for the soft interior of a loaf with the crust trimmed away, not dried crumbs. Cut 3/8-inch slices from a close-grained white sandwich loaf and stamp them into ovals 2 1/2 by 2 inches.
Toast lightly, and no furtherThe toast has to stay firm under wet garnish and jelly but must not brown hard.
Verdal olivesVerdale is a large green French table olive. Any big firm green olive works; you need one wide enough that a 3/16-inch cross-section makes a usable ring, so look for queen or Cerignola size.
The turbanRanhofer means a ring or coil, here formed by curling one or two flat anchovy fillets into a circle in the centre of the toast. Salt-packed fillets rinsed and patted dry hold a curve better than oil-packed ones.
Jelly of syrup consistencyThis is aspic, from clarified veal or chicken stock, cooled until it barely flows and coats the back of a spoon. Too warm and it floods the garnish out of place; too cool and it sets in ridges. Brush or spoon it on in two thin coats, chilling between. Powdered gelatine in strong stock, about a tablespoon per pint, gives the same body.
BeetrootCooked, not raw. Boil or roast a beet, peel and chop it fine, and blot it dry on paper towel first, or the juice will bleed pink into the egg and the aspic.
Chill hard before glazingAssemble on a tray, refrigerate the toasts until thoroughly cold, and glaze them cold. This is the hinge of the dish: warm toast melts the aspic and the whole mosaic slides.
Yield and serviceThe recipe gives no yield; a loaf will stamp out something in the region of 16 to 20 ovals. They should be built no more than a few hours ahead and kept covered and cold; the bread softens overnight.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working archive, some 3,500 numbered entries with the measurements of a draughtsman. Cold side dishes like this one belonged to the hors-d'oeuvre service of a formal dinner, small salty things set out to be looked at as much as eaten, and their appeal was frankly decorative: concentric rings of olive, chopped egg white and yolk, anchovy and beet, sealed under a coat of aspic so they would hold their pattern through a long meal. The name is often said to honour a patron or a guest, as many Delmonico's dishes did, though the identity behind it is unknown; the practice of naming a garnish after whoever it was first presented to is one reason the book reads like a guest list. The technique itself descends from French cuisine froide, where aspic glaze is traditionally said to have served the double duty of preserving and polishing; refrigeration was still a matter of ice chests, and "serve them very cold" was an instruction that took real work.