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Scallops, Poulette
Place one and a half pounds very fresh scallops in saucepan with half gill white wine, one gill water, and half teaspoon salt, cover pan and let cook on brisk fire for five minutes. Finely chop six peeled shallots, place in a small saucepan with one ounce butter and cook for five minutes, frequently stirring meanwhile, but without browning, then add one good tablespoon flour and stir while heating for a half minute. Strain the scallop liquor through a cheesecloth into pan, add one gill milk, two tablespoons sherry, one saltspoon cayenne, half teaspoon finely chopped chives, sharply mix until it comes to a boil, then add scallops with six finely sliced canned mushrooms, mix well and let cook five minutes. Dilute two egg yolks with two tablespoons cream, the juice of a lemon, and add to the scallops; sharply mix while adding it, cook for two minutes, mixing meanwhile, pour into a deep dish and serve.
A classic sauce poulette built directly on the scallop cooking liquor. The measurements are pre-metric restaurant shorthand, and the cooking times belong to an era less worried about rubbery shellfish.
- The hinge: no boiling after the yolksOnce the egg yolks, cream and lemon juice go in, the sauce must stay below a simmer. Two minutes of gentle heat off to the side of the burner will thicken it; a boil curdles the yolks and the lemon acid makes the split worse.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is 1/2 cup (4 fl oz), so half a gill of wine is 1/4 cup and a gill of water or milk is 1/2 cup. A saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon, which is a serious amount of cayenne for this quantity; start with half.
- Scallop timingFive minutes of poaching plus five more simmering in the sauce will give you erasers. Poach them 1 to 2 minutes until just opaque, lift them out, reserve the liquor, and return the scallops only at the very end to warm through.
- ShallotsSix shallots is roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped. Sweat them in the butter over low heat with no colour at all, as the recipe directs.
- Canned mushroomsCanned mushroom caps were a common restaurant item of the period and are pre-cooked, hence the casual "six finely sliced." Fresh white or cremini work better but should be sauteed separately first, or they will leak water into the sauce.
- Lemon juiceThe recipe calls for the juice of a whole lemon, which will be 2 to 3 tablespoons. Add it at the end, gradually, and taste before adding the rest.
- Yield and serviceAbout four servings as a first course, two or three as a main. The recipe directs only that it be poured into a deep dish; the sauce thickens as it cools, so serve immediately.
Sauce poulette is a member of the old French family of pale sauces finished with a liaison of egg yolk, cream and lemon: a velouté made from the cooking liquor of whatever is being served, sharpened with acid and scented with shallot and chopped herb. The name is a diminutive of poule, hen, though the reason behind the name is a matter of tradition rather than settled record. It was applied most famously to mussels (moules à la poulette) and to tripe, sweetbreads and other mild ingredients, and scallops fall naturally into that group. The liquor strained through cheesecloth, the sherry and the canned mushrooms all point to a professional kitchen of around the turn of the twentieth century.