No. 855

Canapes Lorenzo

Canapes a la Lorenzo

Fry colorless two ounces of onions cut in one-eighth of an inch squares, and when done add a tablespoonful of flour; let this cook for a few minutes without browning, then moisten with a pint of fresh cream; season with salt, cayenne pepper and nutmeg, and reduce it to the consistency of a well thickened sauce; now throw in one pound of crab meat sauted in butter over a brisk fire in a pan, letting it boil up once and then set it away to cool. Cut slices of bread a quarter of an inch thick; from it cut round pieces four inches in diameter, using a cutter for this purpose; divide them straight through the center to make two even-sized pieces of each, toast them on one side only; cover this side with two ounces of the crab preparation for each half round, and lay the following preparation on top: with the hands work in a tin basin half a pound of butter, add to it grated parmesan cheese, cayenne and white pepper, and knead these together, adding grated parmesan so as to form a thick paste; cover the entire canape with a layer of this butter and cheese, and set them on a buttered baking-sheet in the hot oven so they attain a fine color, then serve them as quickly as they are removed from the oven. They may be made round shaped two and a half inches in diameter if preferred.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's crab canapes are a creamed-crab base under a broiled Parmesan butter crust. The mixture must be fully chilled before it goes on the toast or it slides off and the butter crust breaks.

Hot ovenRanhofer gives no temperature. A hot oven, in the region of 450F or above, suits the purpose, which is color on the cheese butter rather than cooking through. A broiler on high, watched constantly, will also color the top, though the recipe as written puts them in the oven on a baking-sheet.
Fry colorlessSweat the onions in butter over low heat until translucent with no browning at all. Any color at this stage shows through the pale cream sauce.
A pint of creamTwo cups. It is reduced to a thick sauce, with the consistency rather than any set volume as the guide; the finished mixture should mound on a spoon.
Crab meatA pound of picked crab, gone over for shell fragments. The saute in butter is for flavor, not doneness, since picked crab meat sold today is already cooked; keep it brief before it goes into the sauce.
Cheese butter proportionRanhofer does not quantify the cheese: half a pound of butter kneaded with enough grated Parmesan to make a stiff paste works out at roughly equal weights, in the region of 2 cups grated. Work it soft but not melted, then chill briefly so it spreads without tearing the toast.
The breadA close-crumbed white loaf cut a quarter inch thick. Four-inch rounds divided through the center give half-moons; toast one side only, and it is that toasted side which takes the crab mixture.
Yield and servingTwo ounces of crab mixture per half round means the pound of crab plus sauce covers roughly a dozen to sixteen pieces. Serve straight from the oven -- the cheese butter sets and dulls within a couple of minutes.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for most of the last third of the nineteenth century, and The Epicurean (1894) is his own record of that repertoire, some 3,500 numbered items with the house's dish names attached. Canapes in this book are hot savories, closer to the English savory course than to modern cold cocktail toasts, and Ranhofer gives dozens of them under proper names -- Lorenzo, Martha, of Game. The Lorenzo name became attached to the crab-and-Parmesan combination, sometimes as a canape, sometimes spooned into a shell or over fish. Whether it honored a particular Lorenzo is not documented; Delmonico's habit of naming dishes for patrons, singers and staff was constant enough that the origin of any one name is usually lost.