Lobster Béchamel

Creamy béchamel sauce served over lobster tails

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City/Region: France

Time Period: 1670

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The reign of Louis XIV from 1643 to 1715 was a peak time for all kinds of art, including the culinary variety. This was when chefs were making great strides to break away from medieval and renaissance cuisine to lay the foundations for what we know as French haute cuisine. One of these groundbreaking chefs was François Vatel, who cooked for nobility and royalty with such skill that people would visit his employers just to try his food.

During a stressful, last minute visit from the king himself with a retinue of over 2,000 people, Vatel believed that there was going to be no seafood to be had to serve on Friday, so in the depths of despair and disgrace, he ran himself through the heart with his sword. Of course, this was right as the shipment of fish was arriving.

This recipe, written just a year before Vatel’s tragic death, is for one of the mother sauces, the foundation of French haute cuisine. So to honor M. Vatel, I ate it with some lobster, though it is so delicious that you could serve it with just about anything, or just eat it with a spoon if no one’s looking.

“Sauce à la Béchamel.
Put in a pan, three or four pieces of butter, with a little parsley, scallions, chopped shallots, salt, crushed pepper, a little nutmeg, flour to bind the sauce. Wet with good cream. Turn on the fire to make it take on taste & consistency, and you use it as needed.”

— Les Dons de Comus by François Marin, 1670

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Ingredients:

Lobster

• 3 lobster tails
• 3 tablespoons (40 g) butter, melted

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons minced shallots, more or less to taste
• 4 1/2 tablespoons (60 g) butter, plus a bit more for cooking the shallots
• 8 tablespoons (60 g) flour*
• 2 cups (475 ml) cream
• 1 tablespoon minced parsley, more or less to taste
• 2 tablespoons minced scallions, more or less to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper, more or less to taste
• Nutmeg, more or less to taste

*Use a bit less if you want a thinner sauce. As written, this will make a sauce thicker than a modern béchamel.

Instructions:

1. For the lobster: Preheat the broiler to its highest setting.
2. Use kitchen shears to cut the top of the lobster shell down the middle all the way to the tail fin, but leave the tail fin uncut. Flip it over and press in with your thumbs to break the underside of the tail to help loosen the meat. Using a small knife or your fingers, loosen the meat from the top side of the shell. Make a shallow cut down the length of the top of the meat and remove the dark vein (part of the lobster’s digestive tract). Pull the meat out of the shell through the cut you made in down the top, leaving it attached near the tail fin. Close the shell back up, then lay the meat on top of it. You can remove the meat entirely if you like, this way just makes for a nice presentation.
3. Brush the melted butter on top of the lobster meat. If you have any leftover butter, save it for sauteeing the shallots for the sauce. Place the lobster tails in a pan and set them about 6 inches (15 cm) from the top of the oven. Let them cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until the meat turns opaque white.
4. For the sauce: Cook the shallots in a bit of butter over medium-high heat for a few minutes, just until they’re translucent. This step is optional as the original recipe doesn’t specify, but I personally prefer the taste of cooked shallots. When they’re done, set them aside to cool.
5. In a large saucepan or pot, melt the 4 1/2 tablespoons (60 g) butter over medium-low heat.
6. When the butter is mostly melted, stir in the flour with a whisk until it all comes together and continue to cook, stirring frequently, for two minutes to get rid of the raw flour flavor. If you use the full 8 tablespoons (60 g) of flour, it will be quite thick like a paste.
7. Add in about 1/3 of the cream and whisk vigorously to make sure there are no lumps. Add in another 1/3 of the cream and whisk vigorously again, then repeat one more time with the last 1/3 of the cream. You should have a nice, smooth sauce.
8. Stir in the shallots, parsley, and scallions along with some salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Taste and adjust the salt, pepper, and nutmeg as needed. Cook for 4-5 minutes so that it thickens. If it becomes too thick, you can add a bit more cream or some milk, making sure to whisk it in thoroughly. It’s a good idea to make the sauce just a bit thinner than you’d like as it will continue to thicken after you take it off the heat.
9. Serve the lobster tails forth with the béchamel sauce.

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