Chapter V., or, with flour and butter, then seasoned with spice as

above: the process should be quite the same in all of these receipts, though the composition of the sauce is varied. Essence of anchovies, cavice, chili vinegar, or yolks of eggs can be added to the taste. For Curried Oysters see Chapter XVI. OYSTER SAUSAGES. (_A most excellent Receipt._) Beard, rinse well in their strained liquor, and mince but not finely, three dozens and a half of plump native oysters, and mix them with ten ounces of fine bread-crumbs, and ten of beef-suet chopped extremely small; add a saltspoonful of salt, and one of pepper, or less than half the quantity of cayenne, twice as much pounded mace, and the third of a small nutmeg grated: moisten the whole with two unbeaten eggs, or with the yolks only of three, and a dessertspoonful of the whites. When these ingredients have been well worked together, and are perfectly blended, set the mixture in a cool place for two or three hours before it is used; make it into the form of small sausages or sausage cakes, flour and fry them in butter of a fine light brown; or throw them into boiling water for three minutes, drain, and let them become cold, dip them into egg and bread-crumbs, and broil them gently until they are lightly coloured. A small bit should be cooked and tasted before the whole is put aside, that the seasoning may be heightened if required. The sausages thus made are extremely good: the fingers should be well floured in making them up. Small plump oysters, 3-1/2 dozens; bread-crumbs, 10 oz.; beef suet, 10 oz.; seasoning of salt, cayenne, pounded mace, and nutmeg; unbeaten eggs 2, or yolks of 3. TO BOIL LOBSTERS. [In full season from April to October: may be had all the year.] Choose them by the directions given at the commencement of this chapter, and throw them into plenty of _fast-boiling_ salt and water, that life may be destroyed in an instant. To 1 gallon of water, 5 ounces salt: moderate sized lobster, 15 to 20 minutes; large lobster, 30 to 40 minutes; _very_ large, 1 hour or more. COLD DRESSED LOBSTER AND CRAB. [Illustration: Dressed Lobster. ] Before a lobster is sent to table take off the large claws, hold each of them firmly with the edge upwards, and with a quick light blow from a cutlet bat or ought else convenient for the purpose, crack the shell without disfiguring the fish. Split the tail open with a very sharp knife and dish the lobster in the manner shown in the engraving, either with, or without a napkin under it. When the soft part of the body is required to mix with the dressing, take it out before it is served, and add it to the _remoulade_, or other sauce with which it is to be mingled. The shrimp _chatney_ of Chapter VI. is a wholesome accompaniment to this fish; which we must remark here should be sparingly eaten, or altogether avoided, by persons in delicate health, and especially at night. It is too much the fashion to serve it as a supper dish at parties; and it sometimes produces dangerous attacks of indigestion and other illness. The flesh of the crab is much lighter. This is served in the shell, which should be entirely emptied and nicely cleaned out; the sides filled with the white flesh divided into small flakes, and the centre with the soft part or _cream_ as it is called. [Illustration: Dressed Crab. ] The flesh of two crabs can be served in one shell when a dish of handsome appearance is required, and the sauce can be mixed with it the instant before it is sent to table, though it will be whiter, and of better appearance without it. The centre may be filled with a red Imperial _Mayonnaise_, when a good effect is wanted. For other appropriate sauces see Chapter VI. LOBSTERS, FRICASSEED, OR AU BÉCHAMEL. (ENTRÉE.) Take the flesh from the claws and tails of two moderate-sized lobsters; cut it into small scallops or dice; heat it slowly quite through in about three quarters of a pint of good white sauce or _béchamel_; and serve it when it is at the point of boiling, after having stirred briskly to it a little lemon-juice just as it is taken from the fire. The coral, pounded and mixed gradually with a few spoonsful of the sauce, should be added previously. Good shin of beef stock made without vegetables (see page 97), and somewhat reduced by quick boiling, if mixed with an equal proportion of cream, and thickened with arrow-root, will answer extremely well in a general way for this dish, which is most excellent if well made. The sauce should never be thin; nor more than sufficient in quantity to just cover the fish. For a second course dish, only as much must be used as will adhere to the fish, which after being heated should be laid evenly into the shells, which ought to be split quite through the centre of the backs in their entire length, without being broken or divided at the joint, and nicely cleaned. When thus arranged, the lobster may be thickly covered with well dried, fine, pale fried crumbs of bread, or with unfried ones, which must then be equally moistened with clarified butter, and browned with a salamander. A small quantity of salt, mace, and cayenne, may be required to finish the flavouring of either of these preparations. HOT CRAB, OR LOBSTER. (_In season during the same time as Lobsters._) Slice quite small, or pull into light flakes with a couple of forks, the flesh of either fish; put it into a saucepan with a few bits of good butter lightly rolled in flour, and heat it slowly over a gentle fire; then pour over and thoroughly mix with it, from one to two teaspoonsful or more of common or of chili vinegar; if with the former, add to it a tolerable seasoning of cayenne. Grate in a little nutmeg, and when the whole is well heated serve it immediately, either in the shell of the crab or lobster, or in scallop-shells, and serve it plain, or with bread-crumbs over, as in the preceding receipt. A spoonful or so of good meat jelly is, we think, a great improvement to this dish, for which an ounce and a half of butter will be quite sufficient. This is sometimes called _Buttered Crab_. POTTED LOBSTERS. Separate carefully the flesh of freshly-boiled lobsters from the shells, and from the tough red skin of the tails, mince the fish up quickly with a very sharp knife, turn it immediately into a large mortar, and strew over it a mixed seasoning of fine cayenne, pounded mace, lightly grated nutmeg, and salt: this last should be sparingly used in the first instance, and it should be reduced to powder before it is added. Pound the lobsters to a perfect paste with from two to three ounces of firm new butter to each fish if of large size, but with less should it be small; and the lobster-coral previously rubbed through a sieve, or with a portion of it only, should any part of it be required for other purposes. When there is no coral, a fine colour may be given to the mixture by stewing the red skin of the tails very softly for ten or twelve minutes in part of the butter which is used for it, but which must be strained and left to become perfectly cold before it is mingled with the fish. The degree of seasoning given to the mixture can be regulated by the taste; but no flavour should predominate over that of the lobster itself; and for all delicate preparations, over-spicing should be particularly avoided. A quart or more of fine brown shrimps, if very fresh and quickly shelled at the instant of using, may be chopped up and pounded with the lobsters with excellent effect. Before the mixture is taken from the mortar it should be placed in a cool larder, or set over ice for a short time, to render it firm before it is pressed into the potting-pans or moulds. In putting it into these, be careful to press it into a compact, even mass; smooth the surface, run a little clarified butter over, when it is only _just liquid_, for if hot it would prevent the fish from keeping—and send the lobster to table, neatly garnished with light green foliage; or with ornamentally-cut paper fastened round the mould; or with a small damask napkin tastefully arranged about it. _Obs._—By pounding separately part of the white flesh of the fish, freed from every particle of the skin, and by colouring the remainder highly with the coral of the lobster, and then pressing the two in alternate and regular layers into a mould, a dish of pretty appearance is produced, which should be turned out of the mould for table. Ham and turkey (or any other white meat) are often potted in this way. LOBSTER CUTLETS. (_A Superior Entrée._) Prepare and pound with exceeding nicety, by the preceding receipt for Potted Lobsters, about three quarters of a pound of the flesh of a couple of fine fresh lobsters, of which one must be a hen lobster; add to it, when it is partially beaten, an ounce and a half of sweet new butter, a saltspoonful of salt, and about two-thirds as much of mixed mace and cayenne, with a dessertspoonful of the inside coral, the whole of which should be rubbed with a wooden spoon through a hair sieve, to be in readiness for use. When all these ingredients are well blended, and beaten to the finest and smoothest paste, the mixture should be tested by the taste, and the seasoning heightened if needful; but, as the preparation is very delicate, it should not be over-spiced. Mould it into the form of small cutlets about the third of an inch thick, stick into each a short bit of the smallest claws, strew the coral lightly over them so as to give them the appearance of being crumbed with it, arrange them round the dish in which they are to be sent to table, place them in a very gentle oven for eight or ten minutes only to heat them through, or warm them in a Dutch or American oven, placed at some distance from the fire, that the brilliant colour of the coral may not be destroyed; and pour into the centre some good _béchamel_ (see page 108), or the Lady’s Sauce, or the Cream Sauce of Chapter IV. A very white sauce best contrasts with the colour of the cutlets. This is an excellent and elegant dish, of which an admirable variety is made by the addition of three or four ounces of the freshest shrimps, quickly shelled, and chopped before they are thrown into the mortar, with half an ounce of butter and a little spice. All the coral can be added to the cutlets at pleasure; but it is generally in request for many purposes, and is required for this one only in part. _Obs._—As lobsters are well known to be the most indigestible of shell fish, and as they sometimes prove dangerously so to persons out of health, these pounded preparations are the best and safest forms in which they can be served: they should at all times be beaten to a smooth, _fibreless_ paste, before they are taken from the mortar; and no fish that is not entirely _fresh_ should ever be used for them. Prawns may be advantageously served in the same manner. For Indian Lobster Cutlets, see Chapter of Foreign Cookery. LOBSTER SAUSAGES. Let the fish be pounded as for the cutlets above or for _boudinettes_, but mix half or more of the coral with the flesh of the lobsters; shape it like small sausages, sprinkle them with the powdered coral, and heat them through in a Dutch or American oven. They may be brushed with clarified butter before the coral is strewed over them, but they scarcely need it. A fierce degree of heat will destroy the excellence of _all_ these preparations. BOUDINETTES OF LOBSTERS, PRAWNS, OR SHRIMPS. (ENTRÉE). (_Author’s Receipt._) When the fish has been prepared as above, mould it in as many _very small_ round cups as will suffice for a dish; heat them gently through at the mouth of the oven or before the fire, and serve them dry, or with a little rich white sauce, coloured with lobster-coral poured round, but not upon them. These _boudinettes_ are delicious, made entirely of shrimps or prawns, which it is an advantage to have prepared as follows, either for this purpose or for potting simply, as they will then be firmer, and will also remain good much longer:—Shell them quickly, and touch them as little as possible in the process; put them into an enamelled saucepan with about three ounces of butter to the quart, and strew the spice upon them; place them by the side of a gentle fire that they may heat through very gradually, and shake the saucepan round occasionally to mingle the seasoning equally with them. Do not allow them to boil, as that would render them tough, but when they are heated quite through and the butter approaches the point of simmering, draw them from the fire; let them remain for a few minutes in the saucepan, then lay them very evenly and closely into the pans and pour the butter on them; but let it be clear from sediment, or from any liquid which may be perceptible at the bottom of the saucepan. When merely required for _boudinettes_, the fish may be turned into a large pan or basin and left until thoroughly cold, then chopped small upon a dish with the butter in which they are imbedded, and pounded as usual; no additional butter will be required for them, and part of that in which they have been heated may be set aside for fish-sauce when the proportion of it directed here is considered too large. As it should cover the shrimps entirely when they are potted whole, sufficient to do so should be melted with them. It is an excellent plan to dissolve it in a separate saucepan, to skim it well, and after it has stood to become clear, to pour it gently over the shrimps, leaving all the buttermilk behind. They should not be placed immediately by the fire, or they will heat too quickly: they should be set away from it until the butter has cooled upon them. If carefully prepared, and agreeably seasoned, they will be excellent, and can be sent to a great distance without detriment if packed so as to be kept cool. The red shrimps may be substituted for the brown, when they can be more easily procured. _Obs._—Lobsters and shrimps, or prawns, in equal proportions, answer _extremely_ well for _boudinettes_ as for potting. TO BOIL SHRIMPS OR PRAWNS. Throw them into plenty of fast boiling water, to which salt has been added in the proportion of from five to six ounces to the gallon; take off all the scum, boil the shrimps for five or six minutes, or rather less should they be very small, and the prawns for about two minutes longer. The shrimpers[52] of the coast frequently cook them in sea-water, but the flavour is not then so agreeable as when fresh brine is used for them. They are always unwholesome when not sufficiently boiled; and even more so when they are stale. As soon as they are tender, drain them well in a cullender, and spread them out on a soft cloth to cool; or dish them on a napkin, and send them hot to table when they are liked so. The large brown shrimps are considered the best, and they are more easily shelled than the red ones: these last, however, are sometimes preferred to them. Prawns, though superior to shrimps only in _size_, are always much higher in price. Footnote 52: Or _pandlers_, as they are often called. Shrimps, 5 to 6 minutes if large. Prawns, 6 to 8 minutes. _Obs._—Ready-dressed shrimps or prawns may be preserved fit for eating at least twelve hours longer than they would otherwise keep, by throwing them for an instant into boiling salt and water, when they first begin to lose their freshness, and then draining them as above. TO DISH COLD PRAWNS. When they are quite cold, dish them singly upon a very white napkin neatly arranged over a saucer or small basin reversed in a dish, and garnish the base with a wreath of curled parsley, or with small leaves of the purple endive. TO SHELL SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS QUICKLY AND EASILY. This, though a most simple process, would appear, from the manner in which it is performed by many people, to be a very difficult one; indeed it is not unusual for persons of the lower classes, who, from lack of a little skill, find it slow and irksome, to have resource to the dangerous plan of eating the fish entire. It need scarcely be remarked that very serious consequences may accrue from the shells being swallowed with them, particularly when they are taken in large quantities. Unless the fish be stale, when they are apt to break, they will quit the shells easily if the head be held firmly in the right hand and the tail in the other, and the fish be straightened entirely, then the two hands pressed quickly towards each other, and the shell of the tail broken by a slight vibratory motion of the right hand, when it will be drawn of with the head adhering to it: a small portion, only will then remain on at the other end, which can be removed in an instant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------