Lobster Salad

Ingredients

• the meat of a tinned lobster
• the lettuce leaves
• some good thick mayonnaise sauce
• about a teaspoonful of capers
• three or four anchovies
• two hard-boiled eggs
• a dozen or more stoned olives
• a little tarragon vinegar
• a little of that very useful substance known as lobster butter
• two or three drops of cochineal
• some slices of cucumber
• some sliced gherkins

Method

1. 1

   Place the lettuce in a wire basket to dry.

2. 2

   Pile the leaves in a dish, then add the lobster meat on top.

3. 3

   Mask with mayonnaise sauce, sprinkle with lobster coral and parsley.

4. 4

   Add capers at intervals, fillet anchovies and create a trellis around the base.

5. 5

   Cut hard-boiled eggs in quarters and arrange them with olives.

6. 6

   If using homemade mayonnaise, add tarragon vinegar.

7. 7

   Optionally, color the sauce with lobster butter or vegetable coloring.

8. 8

   Garnish with cucumber slices and gherkins.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c (1880), page 131. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

the lettuce leaves in the centre of the dish, of course a silver dish being the best for the purpose. Then take the meat of a tinned lobster, dry the meat in a cloth, and place it on the top of the lettuce. Next take some good thick mayonnaise sauce and mask 88 CROSSE AND BLACKWELL'S the whole surface of the lobster with it. Next, if possible, procure a little lobster coral, and sprinkle a little of the coral over the white sauce, as well as a little finely-chopped green parsley. These little specks of red and green on the white look very pretty. Next take about a teaspoonful of capers, dry them in a cloth, and stick them in the sauce at intervals of about an inch apart. Then take three or four anchovies and fillet them (see Anchovies, to Fillet), and make a trellis-work round the base of the salad on the white sauce with the filleted anchovies. Next take two hard- boiled eggs, which should be allowed to get cold, cut them in quarters, and place them round the base. Also round the base put a dozen or more stoned olives. If the mayonnaise sauce used has been prepared by Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell, no vinegar need be added, but if the mayonnaise sauce is home-made, a little tarragon vinegar should be added to it after it is made. If the cook has by her some of that very useful substance known as lobster butter, a little of the mayonnaise sauce can be coloured red with it, and the cook can thus ex- ercise her ingenuity in ornament- ing the salad with the red and white sauce, which can be placed in stripes. Mayonnaise sauce can also be coloured green by the addition of Breton’s vege- table colouring. When lobster coral cannot be obtained, a very good substi- tute to make the little red specks to be sprinkled over the sauce can be obtained by taking some fine bread-crumbs, about the size of the coral. A very small quantity will be enough — half a tea- spoonful would be plenty. Place them in a saucer with two or three drops of cochineal, and shake them. The cochi- neal will turn the bread-crumbs a deep red colour, and it is almost impossible to distinguish these red bread-crumbs from lobster coral itself. Another good addi- tion to mayonnaise salad, made from tinned lobster, is to place some slices of cucumber round the base. The cucum- ber should of course be peeled, and the slices cut very thin. Another very nice addition is some sliced gherkins. In France sliced pickled gherkins are always served with mayonnaise salads, and render them, to my mind, far more appetising. When it is possible to ob- tain a few small claws of lobster — not the pincers — they can be placed round the dish to show what it is made of. A still nicer garnish for lobster salad is to place four or five small red crayfish, one in each corner, and another crayfish on the top of the salad. Tinned lobster can also be used for making lobster pates, but lobster butter made from the coral of fresh lobster is almost essential, as the inside of the pates should look red. In making lobster pates from tinned lobster, of course the first point is the pate cases. When it is possible, these are always best bought of a French pastrycook — if possible, ready made. The cases should be so constructed that they will hold a considerable quantity of forcemeat. The old-fashioned pates made many years ago by pastrycooks consisted of three layers, each one smaller than the other, which generally resulted in the pates being all pastry. There used to be a small sort of red wafer in the middle. The only flavour discernible in these wafers was that of anchovy, and these a few years back were sold as lobster pates. We will suppose, then, the cases are ready-made, and that each pat4 case will hold a large tablespoonful and a half or two tablespoonfuls of lobster forcemeat. This should be made as follows : — Get a small quantity of good white sauce and colour it a bright red with lobster butter; then add some of the meat from the tinned lobster, sufficient to make the whole a sort of lobster mince. Add, say, to every half-pound a brimming teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, and just a suspicion of the flavour of nutmeg, some black pepper, and the juice of a quarter of a lemon. No cayenne pepper need be added in consequence of there being a considerable quantity of cayenne already in the lobster butter, otherwise cayenne pepper is essential. Tinned lobster can also be made into “bashawed lobster ” as follows : — Get a little white sauce or a little butter, and colour it a deep red with some lobster butter. Next chop up a piece of onion, about the size of one’s thumb down to the first joint, and enough parsley to fill a tea- spoon brimming full when chopped. Cut up some of the meat of a tinned lobster

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.