Lobster Salade Mayonnaise

Ingredients

• the hard-boiled egg, cold, with the shell on
• the anchovies, rolled up
• the capers, dry
• the olives, stoned
• a little piece of bright-green parsley
• the lettuces
• the meat from the lobster
• a little pepper
• a little salt
• an egg, break the egg into a tea-cup
• some oil
• Half a salt-spoonful of dilute acetic acid

Method

1. 1

   Chop parsley and prepare the hard-boiled egg, anchovies, capers, and olives.

2. 2

   Wash and prepare the lettuce, then remove and chop the lobster meat.

3. 3

   Spread the lobster over the lettuce, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and set aside.

4. 4

   For the mayonnaise, beat the egg yolk and slowly add oil while mixing until thick.

5. 5

   Add vinegar cautiously.

6. 6

   Spread the mayonnaise over the lobster and decorate with capers, parsley, beetroot strips, and egg quarters.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from Common-sense papers on cookery (1880) by A. G. Payne, page 23. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

little piece of bright- green parsley; enough to cover a threepenny-piece when chopped is quite sufficient. Put all these things by on a clean dry plate for use — viz., the hard-boiled egg, cold, with the shell on ; the anchovies, rolled up ; the capers, dry ; the olives, stoned ; the parsley, chopped. And, as we have said, clear away what you have used before beginning any- thing fresh. Next, wipe, or quickly wash in cold water and wipe, the lettuces, and pile them up lightly in a silver or any oval-shaped dish. Next, remove all the meat from the lobster, not forgetting the soft part inside and the claws ; cut it all up into small pieces not much bigger than dice, and spread the meat over the top of the lettuce in the dish, taking care as much as possible to make the shape high in the centre. A sort of oval pyramid may convey the idea, though it is not a very mathematical expression. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over the lobster, and put the dish by in a cool place. Next, the sauce itself. I believe the directions generally given to be wrong in this respect. It is a mistake to put in any pepper, salt, or vinegar at To Make Dishes Look Nice. 63 starting. I will therefore describe exactly how to make mayonnaise sauce, at the same time stating that out of the dozens of times I have tried, I only re- member one failure, and that was on a fearfully hot day, and I had no ice. 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 salade-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 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 64 Common-sense Cookery. 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 ex- ception of where the green salade 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 salade where the sauce joins the lettuce, so that the bottom of each strip just touches the lettuce, but the strip To Make Dim ms Look Nice. 65 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 [dace the pieces round the edge at equal distances, arid put the olives and anchovies at equal distances be- tween them ; and also arrange the small claws of the lobster, bent at the joint, around the border. Y>y this means nearly all of the green salade 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. There is one thing more, however, that may make the dish look still prettier, and that is a little lobster- spawn. If the lobster contained any spawn, take a small piece and cut it up into little pieces the size of a pin’s head, or a little bigger — a dozen and a half pieces will be sufficient — arid sprinkle these over the sauce alternately with the little green pieces of parsley. It has been described how to make a nice-looking little lobster salade mayonnaise

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