Olives… á la Turenne et á la St. Augustine

Last week I became a little obsessed by the savoury section of Mrs A.B.Marshall’s Cookery Book published in 1889. The savoury course no longer appears on most menus, except as cheese and biscuits; it was usually a little more complex than that, a properly cooked little dish, usually but not always served hot, and was usually fishy or cheesy. I began to wonder what preceded a dinner, if a savoury completed it, and I looked at Agnes Bertha Marshall’s hors d’œuvres selection.

She recommends oysters simply served, or Bologna sausage sliced thin, the mysterious Luxette which was her own recipe and seems to be a savoury paste, anchovies, and olives. She has a set of instructions on how to stuff an olive with anchovies to be served on shredded lettuce on a little plate, glass or paper case, six per person – but, she adds ‘olives for this dish can be purchased in bottles already prepared with the anchovy’  – much more simple! Caviar is another suggestion with several different ways of serving it, sardines, salmon, mussels, herring fillets, herring roe, Lyons sausage with egg, and of course, Luxette… I must find out what this is!

Two recipes are illustrated – there are 125 illustrations in the book, line drawings but I cannot find out who the artist was, no credit at all!

Olives á la Turenne

• stoned olives (1 per person)
• Luxette
• round croûtons of fried bread (one per olive) buttered and sprinkled with chopped parsley
• shredded cooked white of egg
• shredded gherkin, red chilli, truffle
• unset aspic jelly
• shredded celery (kept in cold water until required)
• dressing of eschalot, coralline pepper, salt and oil

1. turn the olives and stuff with Luxette
2. stand on the croûtons and cover entirely with white of egg, gherkin, red chilli, truffle
3. set with the aspic
4. drain the celery and season with eschalot, coralline pepper, salt and oil

Olives á la St. Augustine

• Spanish olives, one per person
• pâté de fois gras, passed through a sieve
• aspic jelly
• sprigs of chervil
• round croûtons of fried bread (one per olive) buttered
• chopped ham, tongue or coralline pepper

1. turn the olives and pipe using a forcing bag with the pâté de fois gras
2. stand each olive in a bouche cup, fixing with aspic jelly
3. fill the moulds with apsic jelly and garnish with chervil
4. mask the croûtons with the ham, tongue or coralline pepper
5. when set, turn out of the moulds and set on the croûtons
6. serve on a dish-paper

Olives á la St. Augustine