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Delicieuse of Shrimps
Shell a pint cooked shrimps, then cut in quarter-inch pieces. Mix in a saucepan two tablespoons melted butter with two tablespoons flour, heat for half a minute, then pour in two gills milk, mix until it comes to a boil, then add the shrimps. Season with half a teaspoon salt, one saltspoon cayenne pepper and a saltspoon grated nutmeg. Cut six anchovies in oil in small pieces, add to the shrimps, lightly mix, then cook for ten minutes, frequently stirring meanwhile. Remove and let stand on a table till required. Boil four medium, peeled potatoes in a quart water with a teaspoon salt for thirty-five minutes, drain, press through a potato masher into a sautoir, add three egg yolks, one teaspoon chopped parsley, half teaspoon salt, one saltspoon cayenne and a saltspoon grated nutmeg. Sharply stir on the fire for five minutes, lightly butter six individual pudding moulds, line the bottom and sides of each with three-quarters of the potato puree, then fill up with the shrimp preparation, cover with the balance of the potatoes, place the moulds on a tin, cover with a buttered paper, set in the oven for twenty minutes. Remove, prepare six round pieces toast two inches in diameter, lightly butter, arrange on a dish, and unmould the delicieuse over the toasts. Pour a mousseline sauce over and serve.
A shrimp cream baked inside a duchesse-potato shell, unmoulded onto toast. The technique is sound; the measurements and a couple of the timings need translating.
- Gills and saltspoonsTwo gills of milk is one cup. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so the cayenne and nutmeg are a quarter teaspoon each in both the filling and the potato.
- A pint of shrimpsShellfish was commonly sold and measured by volume. The recipe does not make clear whether the pint is measured in the shell or shelled, so treat any weight conversion as approximate; something in the region of three-quarters of a pound to a pound of shell-on shrimp will do.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given at all; the reader is left to judge. A moderate oven, around 350F, is a reasonable modern reading for twenty minutes in small moulds set on a tray under buttered paper.
- SautoirA shallow pan with straight sides. The potato is dried and stiffened over direct heat in it, which is what lets the puree hold as a lining rather than slumping.
- The potatoesThirty-five minutes is long for medium peeled potatoes and risks their taking up water; boil until a knife slides in cleanly, roughly 20-25 minutes. The recipe's five minutes of sharp stirring on the fire is what drives off the moisture, and wet potato will not line a mould.
- Anchovies plus saltSix oil-packed anchovy fillets carry considerable salt of their own. Season the bechamel lightly, add the anchovies, then taste before adding the half teaspoon called for.
- Egg yolksThree yolks stirred into hot potato over the fire will scramble if the pan is too hot. Pull it to a low flame and beat hard, as the instruction to stir sharply implies.
- Mousseline sauceIn this period that means hollandaise lightened with whipped cream, folded in at the last moment. It cannot be held or reheated, so make it while the moulds bake.
- YieldSix individual moulds, six rounds of toast: six servings as a first course or light lunch.
Délicieuse is simply the French adjective pressed into service as a dish name, a flattering title rather than a descriptive one. The construction is pure French professional kitchen: a duchesse potato lining, a bound cream filling, a buttered-paper bake and a rich egg sauce at the table. The International Cook Book is generally credited to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and the entry shows the pattern of that trade -- the labour of lining six individual moulds and cutting six two-inch toast rounds is restaurant labour, being written down for a domestic audience.