Take a clean, cool basin, the size being one sufficient
to hold about a quart. Next, take an egg, break the
egg into a tea-cup, and carefully separate all the white
from the yolk. This requires care, and the yolk must
be passed from one half-shell to the other half very
gently, in order to avoid breaking it. It is no use
trying to do it at all with a stale egg. Place the yolk
in a basin, and break it with a fork — a wooden salad-
fork is best. Then drop some oil on, drop by drop at
starting, and at the same time beat it up lightly but
quickly with the fork. Do not, pray, get impatient,
and put too much oil in at once. Continue slowly till
the yolk of egg and oil begin to look like yellowish
cream. When it once begins to get thick, you may
slightly increase the dose of oil, or let the drops fall
more quickly. Continue the process till the sauce
assumes the appearance of railway grease. This is
rather a nasty simile ; but then it is so exactly hke it,
that it conveys a correct idea. You may now add a
little white vinegar. Now, as the vinegar has the
effect of making the sauce thinner — and the thicker
the sauce is, the nicer it looks — this must be added
TO MAKE DISHES LOOK NICE. 51
with caution. A small bottle of dilute acetic acid,
purchased from some good chemist, will be found best
for the purpose, and is what I have always used myself,
it being simply strong vinegar, about eight times
stronger than ordinary ; and, consequently, one-eighth
of the quantity will answer the same purpose. Half
a salt-spoonful will be found sufficient, and will not
have the effect of thinning the sauce. Next, with a
silver knife, or ivory paper-knife, spread the sauce
over the lobster, till the whole dish, with the exception
of where the green salad shows round the edge, has
the appearance of a mould of solid custard.
Now to ornament it. First pick out about a dozen
of the brightest-looking capers, and stick them lightly
over the sauce. They will stick easily without being
in the least pushed in. Next pick out about a dozen
and a half pieces of the chopped parsley, each piece
about the size of a pin’s head, and drop these over it
to give it a slight speckled appearance. Next take
the beetroot, which of course is supposed to have been
boiled and got cold, and cut it into small strips about
an inch long, and as thick as a wooden lucifer match
split into four, and with these strips form a trellis-
work of beetroot round the edge of the salad where
the sauce joins the lettuce, so that the bottom of each
strip just touches the lettuce, but the strip itself rests
on the sauce. The contrast between the red trellis
and the white sauce has a very pretty effect. Next
cut the egg into quarters lengthways, and place the
pieces round the edge at equal distances, and put
the olives and anchovies at equal distances between
them ; and also arrange the small claws of the lobster,
bent at the joint, around the border. By this means
nearly all of the green salad is hidden, and the effect
of the dish is exceedingly pretty. The remainder of
the chopped parsley and capers may also be placed
52
PRACTICAL HOME COOKERY.
round the edge, as when the dish is mixed up it will
help to improve the flavour.
Page 25
Presented as published in 1906. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Take a clean, cool basin, the size being one sufficient to hold about a quart. Next, take an egg, break the egg into a tea-cup, and carefully separate all the white from the yolk. This requires care, and the yolk must be passed from one half-shell to the other half very gently, in order to avoid breaking it. It is no use trying to do it at all with a stale egg. Place the yolk in a basin, and break it with a fork — a wooden saladfork is best. Then drop some oil on, drop by drop at starting, and at the same time beat it up lightly but quickly with the fork. Do not, pray, get impatient, and put too much oil in at once. Continue slowly till the yolk of egg and oil begin to look like yellowish cream. When it once begins to get thick, you may slightly increase the dose of oil, or let the drops fall more quickly. Continue the process till the sauce assumes the appearance of railway grease. This is rather a nasty simile ; but then it is so exactly like it, that it conveys a correct idea. You may now add a little white vinegar. Now, as the vinegar has the effect of making the sauce thinner — and the thicker the sauce is, the nicer it looks — this must be added
with caution. A small bottle of dilute acetic acid, purchased from some good chemist, will be found best for the purpose, and is what I have always used myself, it being simply strong vinegar, about eight times stronger than ordinary ; and, consequently, one-eighth of the quantity will answer the same purpose. Half a salt-spoonful will be found sufficient, and will not have the effect of thinning the sauce. Next, with a silver knife, or ivory paper-knife, spread the sauce over the lobster, till the whole dish, with the exception of where the green salad shows round the edge, has the appearance of a mould of solid custard.
Now to ornament it. First pick out about a dozen of the brightest-looking capers, and stick them lightly over the sauce. They will stick easily without being in the least pushed in. Next pick out about a dozen and a half pieces of the chopped parsley, each piece about the size of a pin’s head, and drop these over it to give it a slight speckled appearance. Next take the beetroot, which of course is supposed to have been boiled and got cold, and cut it into small strips about an inch long, and as thick as a wooden lucifer match split into four, and with these strips form a trelliswork of beetroot round the edge of the salad where the sauce joins the lettuce, so that the bottom of each strip just touches the lettuce, but the strip itself rests on the sauce. The contrast between the red trellis and the white sauce has a very pretty effect. Next cut the egg into quarters lengthways, and place the pieces round the edge at equal distances, and put the olives and anchovies at equal distances between them ; and also arrange the small claws of the lobster, bent at the joint, around the border. By this means nearly all of the green salad is hidden, and the effect of the dish is exceedingly pretty. The remainder of the chopped parsley and capers may also be placed
round the edge, as when the dish is mixed up it will help to improve the flavour.