Salade de Homard

Salade de Homard (lobster salad) teaches the hardest form of restraint: when the principal ingredient is splendid, seasoning must carry it rather than cover it. The source is exact about this. Tail meat is cut into collops, dressed as an ordinary salad, and given its decorating garnish directly on top. No mayonnaise. The lobster is the point.

The original entry assumed a brigade pantry where Salade de Saumon (No. 810) was already understood and a platter could be assembled in service quantities without explanation. At home, the honest equivalent is one home-scale batch of that referenced preparation, with its salmon replaced by enough lobster for four. There is no saucier, stockpot, or salamander to replace because the dish calls for none; the brigade scaffolding is scale and cross-reference, while the clean seasoning and direct garnish are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening, and the stove may remain cold.

Before you touch a knife, make certain the cooked lobster is cold and absolutely dry. Water makes the seasoning slide away and collect at the platter's edge; dry collops take a fine gloss and still taste unmistakably of lobster. This is the step that decides the salad.