Pick out every bit of the meat from the body and claws of a cold boiled
lobster. Lay aside the coral for the dressing, and mince the rest. For
the dressing you will need—
4 eggs, boiled hard.
2 tablespoonfuls salad oil.
1 teaspoonful made mustard.
1 teaspoonful salt.
2 teaspoonfuls white sugar.
½ teaspoonful cayenne pepper. _Vinegar at discretion._
1 teaspoonful of Harvey’s, Worcestershire, or anchovy sauce.
Rub the yolks to a smooth paste in a mortar or bowl, with a Wedgewood
pestle, a silver or wooden spoon, until _perfectly_ free from lumps.
Add gradually, rubbing all the while, the other ingredients, the coral
last. This should have been worked well upon a plate with a silver
knife or wooden spatula. Proceed slowly and carefully in the work of
amalgamating the various ingredients, moistening with vinegar as they
stiffen. Increase the quantity of this as the mixture grows smooth,
until it is thin enough to pour over the minced lobster. You will need
a teacupful at least. Toss with a silver fork and do not break the
meat. Some mix chopped lettuce with the salad; but unless it is to be
eaten within a few minutes, the vinegar will wither the tender leaves.
The better plan is to heap a glass dish with the inner leaves of
several lettuce-heads, laying pounded ice among them, and pass with the
lobster, that the guests may add the green salad to their taste.
When lettuce is out of season, the following dressing, the receipt for
which was given me by a French gourmand, may be used.
Prepare the egg and coral as above, with the condiments there
mentioned, but mix with the lobster-meat four tablespoonfuls of fine
white cabbage, chopped small, with two small onions, also minced into
almost invisible bits, a teaspoonful of anchovy or other sauce, and a
tablespoonful of celery vinegar.
All lobster salad should be eaten as soon as possible after the
dressing is added, else it becomes unwholesome. If you use canned
lobster, open and turn out the contents of the can into a china dish
several hours before you mix the dressing, that the close, airless
smell may pass away.
Garnish the edges of the dish with cool white leaves of curled lettuce,
or with a chain of rings made of the whites of the boiled eggs.