Serve a mayonnaise or other cold sauce separately.
[960—HOMARD A LA PARISIENNE]
Tie a lobster to a little board; stretch out its tail to the fullest extent; cook it in court-bouillon, and leave it to cool in the latter.
When it is quite cold, with the help of scissors, carefully cut a strip of the shell from the back of the head to the tail. The aperture left by the removed strip of shell ought to be sufficiently wide to allow of the meat of the tail being removed without breaking it. Having emptied the tail, refill it with salad leaves, and return the strip of shell (upside down) to its place. Cut the meat of the tail into even collops, and lay on each a roundel of truffle stamped out with the fancy-cutter, and dipped in half-melted jelly. Then coat these slices, which should be on a dish, again and again, with cold melted jelly until they are well covered with it.
Now break the claws and remove their meat, as also that remaining in the carapace, and cut both meats into dice. Take the creamy parts, and rub them through a sieve.
Prepare a small vegetable salad; add thereto the meat dice, and cohere the two with a mayonnaise sauce combined with melted jelly and the creamy parts rubbed through a sieve. When the salad begins to set, owing to the jelly contained in the mayonnaise, garnish twelve small artichoke-bottoms with it, arranging the salad in them in pyramid form. Set a bit of truffle on each pyramid, and sprinkle the salad with melted fish jelly in order to make it glossy.
Dishing.—Dish the lobster on a cushion of buttered bread on which a [julienne] of lettuce has been stuck, or on one of carved rice. The cushion should have the shape of a wedge, in order that the lobster may lie at an angle of about 45°, with its head raised, when laid upon it. Arrange the slices (slightly overlapping one another) along the back of the lobster, [326] ]beginning at its head with the smallest of them, and progressing down towards the tail, gradually increasing their size.
Surround the lobster alternately with artichoke-bottoms garnished with salad, and quartered hard-boiled eggs, or halved hard-boiled eggs (set upright with their yolks facing outwards).
Border the dish with very clear jelly in large cubes or triangles, etc.