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Canapes of Lobster
Cut out from a sandwich loaf of bread six round slices half inch thick and three inches in diameter; toast to a golden colour. Evenly divide the lobster forcemeat over the toasts, giving them a nice dome form. Wet the tops of the canapes with beaten eggs, cover with bread crumbs and place in a lightly buttered tin. Spread a very little melted butter over each; set in a slow oven for ten minutes, or until of a golden colour. Dress on a folded napkin and serve.
A straightforward hot canapé: toasted bread rounds mounded with lobster forcemeat, crumbed and baked. The only real problem is the oven temperature, which will not do what the recipe asks of it.
- The oven is the hingeA "slow oven" in period usage is somewhere around 250-325F, and ten minutes there is unlikely to bring a crumb coating to gold; the recipe hedges itself with "or until of a golden colour." Since the base is already toasted and the forcemeat only needs heating through, bake at 375-400F for 10-12 minutes and watch the colour.
- Lobster forcemeatPresumably a preparation given separately: cooked lobster meat pounded smooth with butter, a thick panada or bechamel, seasoning and egg to bind. Anything of that texture works, so long as it is stiff enough to hold a dome and not slump as it warms.
- Sandwich loafA close-crumbed white pan loaf, cut square rather than the open, holey crumb of an artisan boule. A dense supermarket white sandwich bread is closer to the intended material than a good sourdough.
- Cutting the roundsThree inches across and half an inch thick means a 3-inch cutter or an upturned glass. Cut before toasting; toasted bread tears under a cutter.
- Egg wash and crumbsWet only the domed top, not the sides, or the crumb coating will glue the canapes to the tin. Fine dry crumbs brown more evenly here than fresh ones.
- Dressing on a napkinA period service convention: the finished pieces were set out on a folded linen napkin on the platter. Purely decorative now, and a warm plate serves as well.
- YieldSix canapes, intended as a hot hors d'oeuvre or a savoury course rather than a main dish. Figure one or two per person.
The canape takes its name from the French for a couch or settee; the usual explanation is that the garnish reclines on a base of bread, though this is a traditional gloss rather than a documented derivation. By the late nineteenth century the form was well established in hotel and restaurant service on both sides of the Atlantic, and cookbooks of the period commonly distinguish cold canapes, spread and served as they are, from hot ones like this, crumbed and finished in the oven to arrive at table browned. Lobster was a fashionable filling for such a dish in American kitchens of the era, the cooked meat worked with butter and a thick panada into a smooth forcemeat that could be piped or moulded. The instruction to dress the finished canapes on a folded napkin belongs to the same world of formal dining room service that produced the book.