Diced lobster meat with mushrooms, cohered with meat glaze and set in a cutlet mould with pike forcemeat. Egged, crumbed and fried. Created by Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York, who presumably thought that a seafood dish was the best way to honour the great English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) after he drowned in the sea off the coast of Italy.
Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 - 1822
Original Receipt in 'The Epicurean' by Charles Ranhofer, 1894, New York (online at www.archive.org)
(2261). LOBSTER CUTLETS A LA SHELLEY, OR WITH CREAM SAUCE (Côtelettes de Homard à la Shelley, ou à La Sauce à la crème)
Cook in a court bouillon (No. 38) one lobster of two and a half pounds, take out all the meat, cut one pound of this into three-sixteenths inch squares, add to it half a pound of cooked mushrooms cut the same as the lobster, and mix this salpicon with a veloute sauce (No. 415), reduced with mushroom essence (No. 392), and into which has been added a little meat glaze (No. 402); season, stir well over the fire, and when the preparation reaches boiling point, pour it into a vessel to get cold. Have a bottomless cutlet mold five-eighths of an inch high by three and three-quarters inches long and two inches wide; butter and lay it on a piece of buttered paper slightly larger than the mold, garnish the bottom and sides with a light layer of pike forcemeat (No. 90), set the salpicon in the center and cover with more forcemeat; poach this lightly, unmold and set it aside till cold, then dip it in beaten eggs, then in bread-crumbs; fry in clarified butter, drain and serve on napkins with favor frills (No. 10) and a separate lobster sauce (No. 488) containing chopped truffles.
With Cream Sauce
Have a lobster croquette preparation (No. 880), mold it to the shape of a cutlet, bread-crumb and fry the sauce as for the above; when a fine color, dress the cutlets and garnish with favor frills (No. 10), serving them with a separate cream sauce (No. 454).