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Canapes of Shrimp
Cut in two, lengthwise, then crosswise, one pint fresh, medium-sized shrimp; place them on a plate, season with a teaspoon salt and a saltspoon cayenne pepper, mixing the seasoning well in.
Cut out of a loaf of sandwich bread six pieces, quarter of an inch thick and two and a half inches square. Toast to a nice colour. Equally divide the shrimps over the toasts. Place in a mortar one ounce butter, one ounce grated Parmesan cheese, one tablespoon anchovy paste and one saltspoon paprika; pound the whole to a paste, then spread the paste equally over the canapes, lay them in a tin and bake in the oven for eight minutes. Remove, dress on a hot dish, decorate with parsley greens and serve.
A hot savoury from the era when canapés meant toast under a broiler, not cold spoonfuls on a cracker. The recipe is sound; only the units, the salt and the missing oven temperature need attention.
- A pint of shrimpPeriod recipes often measure shellfish by volume rather than weight. A pint of shelled medium shrimp works out at roughly 10-12 oz, or about 3/4 lb; if you are buying shell-on, allow around 1 1/4 lb.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So a scant 1/4 tsp cayenne in the shrimp and the same measure of paprika in the paste.
- Cut back the saltA full teaspoon of salt on the shrimp, plus anchovy paste and Parmesan in the topping, will overwhelm the dish by current tastes. Season the shrimp lightly and let the anchovy carry the salt.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. An eight-minute bake suggests a fairly hot oven; around 400-425F will melt and brown the cheese paste without overcooking shrimp that are already cut small.
- Shrimp donenessCut in quarters, the pieces cook in a couple of minutes. Use raw shrimp so they finish in the oven; if you start with pre-cooked shrimp, cut the bake to four or five minutes and watch for the cheese to colour.
- The mortarButter, Parmesan, anchovy paste and paprika pound to a smooth compound in a mortar, but a small food processor or simply a fork against softened butter does the same. The butter must be at room temperature or the paste will not spread.
- Anchovy pasteStill sold in tubes and close enough to the period product for the purpose. Three or four oil-packed fillets mashed to a pulp will stand in for the tablespoon.
- YieldSix squares, enough as a first course for three, or cut into quarters after baking for about two dozen cocktail pieces.
Canapés of this kind belong to the hotel and restaurant repertoire that professional cooks carried into American cookbooks in the years around 1900 -- small toasts, a savoury paste, a brief pass through the oven, served as an opening course or as the English-style savoury at the close of dinner. The combination here, anchovy pounded with butter and hard cheese, is essentially beurre d'anchois enriched, a standard preparation of the French kitchen used on toast, on grilled fish and on cold meat. Parmesan appears because it grates dry and browns cleanly under heat. The mortar is the tell: pounding was the everyday method for compound butters and forcemeats until electric equipment displaced it, and books of this period assume one on the bench as a matter of course.