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Lobster Bordelaise
Place in a saucepan half a pint white wine, four gills water, six finely crushed shallots, a bean of crushed garlic, three branches parsley, a branch chervil, a sprig thyme, a sprig marjoram, a bay leaf and one clove. Season with a heavy teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, and let come to a boil. Then plunge in three well-washed live lobsters, one and a quarter pounds each, cover the pan, boil for twelve minutes, remove and let cool off in the broth. Take up and cut off their heads, then cut each one--shell and all--into eight even pieces each. Cut in exceedingly small square pieces one medium carrot, one medium onion and three branches well-washed white celery, place in a sauteuse, strain the lobster broth through a cheesecloth into the pan and let reduce on the range to about half a pint. Pour in one gill demi-glace and one and a half gills tomato sauce, mix well, then add the lobster, cover the pan and let cook for fifteen minutes. Remove, pour two tablespoons brandy on a saucer, set fire to it and let burn for four minutes, then pour over the lobster; mix well. Dress the lobster on a deep dish and serve.
A restaurant-style dish written for a cook with a stockpot of demi-glace already on hand. Two things need attention before you start: sourcing the demi-glace, and the fact that the lobster is cooked twice.
- Gills and pintsA gill is half a cup, so four gills is 2 cups and the half pint of wine is 1 cup. The broth is reduced to about 1 cup; the finishing sauce is 1/2 cup demi-glace and 3/4 cup tomato sauce.
- A bean of garlic"Bean" here appears to render the French gousse (a pod); either way it means one clove, not a head. The six shallots are not a misprint; shallots are characteristic of a bordelaise.
- SauteuseA wide, shallow pan; a sauteuse conventionally has sloping sides, as against the straight-sided sautoir. A large saute pan or skillet with a lid will serve. You need surface area for the reduction and room to turn the lobster pieces in sauce.
- Total cooking timeTwelve minutes in the court bouillon already cooks 1 1/4 lb lobsters through; the further fifteen minutes in sauce will firm the meat considerably. Cut the initial boil to about six or seven minutes if you want tender tail meat, and use the second stage mainly to marry the sauce.
- The brandyIgniting two tablespoons on a saucer and letting it burn four minutes will leave almost nothing — the point of the period technique was to burn off raw spirit. Warming the brandy and flaming it in the pan, off the heat and away from the extractor hood, achieves the same in seconds.
- Demi-glaceReduced brown veal stock, thickened in the old style with espagnole. Good jarred or frozen demi-glace works; a very reduced beef stock is a fair stand-in. Do not substitute gravy granules, which will make the sauce cloudy and salty.
- Chervil and marjoramFresh chervil is seasonal and rarely stocked; a little extra parsley with a few fennel fronds gets close. Fresh marjoram may be replaced by oregano used sparingly, as it is much louder.
- Cutting shell and allSplitting the lobsters into eight pieces through the shell is deliberate — the shell flavours the sauce and holds the meat together. A heavy knife or cleaver, and shell crackers at the table.
- YieldThree lobsters and roughly a pint of finished sauce serve six as a first course, or four generously with rice or plain boiled potatoes and bread for the sauce.
Bordelaise names a family of sauces associated with Bordeaux, built on red or white wine, shallots and a brown reduction; the shellfish version, in which the crustacean's own cooking liquor carries the wine and aromatics, was a familiar restaurant preparation in French professional kitchens. The International Cook Book was compiled by Alexander Filippini, long of Delmonico's in New York, and first appeared in 1906; the writing here is unmistakably professional: it assumes demi-glace and tomato sauce are already made, gives weights per lobster rather than a total, and specifies pieces by count. The double-cooking method — a court bouillon first, then a short braise in sauce — suits a kitchen that could boil lobsters in quantity and finish plates to order.