The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) Part 12

Hen lobsters are preferred for sauce or salad, on account of their coral. The head and small claws are never used.

They should be alive and freshly caught when put into the boiling kettle. After being cooked and cooled, split open the body and tail and crack the claws, to extract the meat. The sand pouch found near the throat should be removed. Care should be exercised that none of the feathery, tough, gill-like particles found under the body sh.e.l.l get mixed with the meat, as they are indigestible and have caused much trouble. They are supposed to be the cause of so-called poisoning from eating lobster.

Serve on a platter. Lettuce and other concomitants of a salad should also be placed on the table or platter.

SCALLOPED LOBSTER.

b.u.t.ter a deep dish and cover the bottom with fine bread crumbs; put on this a layer of chopped lobster, with pepper and salt; so on, alternately, until the dish is filled, having crumbs on top. Put on bits of b.u.t.ter, moisten with milk and bake about twenty minutes.

DEVILED LOBSTER.

Take out all the meat from a boiled lobster, reserving the coral; season highly with mustard, cayenne, salt and some kind of table sauce; stew until well mixed and put it in a covered saucepan, with just enough hot water to keep from burning; rub the coral smooth, moistening with vinegar until it is thin enough to pour easily, then stir it into the saucepan. The dressing should be prepared before the meat is put on the fire, and which ought to boil but once before the coral is put in; stir in a heaping teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter, and when it boils again it is done and should be taken up at once, as too much cooking toughens the meat.

LOBSTER CROQUETTES.

Take any of the lobster remaining from table and pound it until the dark, light meat and coral are well mixed; put with it not quite as much fine bread crumbs; season with pepper, salt and a very little cayenne pepper; add a little melted b.u.t.ter, about two tablespoonfuls if the bread is rather dry; form into egg-shaped or round b.a.l.l.s; roll them in egg, then in fine crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.

LOBSTER PATTIES.

Cut some boiled lobster in small pieces; then take the small claws and the sp.a.w.n, put them in a suitable dish, and jam them to a paste with a potato masher. Now add to them a ladleful of gravy or broth, with a few bread crumbs; set it over the fire and boil; strain it through a strainer, or sieve, to the thickness of a cream, and put half of it to your lobsters, and save the other half to sauce them with after they are baked. Put to the lobster the bigness of an egg of b.u.t.ter, a little pepper and salt; squeeze in a lemon, and warm these over the fire enough to melt the b.u.t.ter, set it to cool, and sheet your patty pan or a plate or dish with good puff paste, then put in your lobster, and cover it with a paste; bake it within three-quarters of an hour before you want it; when it is baked, cut up your cover, and warm up the other half of your sauce above mentioned, with a little b.u.t.ter, to the thickness of cream, and pour it over your patty, with a little squeezed lemon; cut your cover in two, and lay it on the top, two inches distant, so that what is under may be seen. You may bake crawfish, shrimps or prawns the same way; and they are all proper for plates or little dishes for a second course.

LOBSTER a LA NEWBURG.

Take one whole lobster, cut up in pieces about as large as a hickory nut. Put in the same pan with a piece of b.u.t.ter size of a walnut, season with salt and pepper to taste, and thicken with heavy cream sauce; add the yolk of one egg and two oz. of sherry wine.

Cream sauce for above is made as follows: 1 oz. b.u.t.ter, melted in saucepan; 2 oz. flour, mixed with b.u.t.ter, thin down to proper consistency with boiling cream.

_Rector's Oyster House, Chicago._

BAKED CRABS.

Mix with the contents of a can of crabs, bread crumbs or pounded crackers. Pepper and salt the whole to taste; mince some cold ham; have the baking pan well b.u.t.tered, place therein first a layer of the crab meat, prepared as above, then a layer of the minced ham, and so on, alternately until the pan is filled. Cover the top with bread crumbs and bits of b.u.t.ter, and bake.

DEVILED CRABS.

Half a dozen fresh crabs, boiled and minced, two ounces of b.u.t.ter, one small teaspoonful of mustard powder; cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

Put the meat into a bowl and mix carefully with it an equal quant.i.ty of fine bread crumbs. Work the b.u.t.ter to a light cream, mix the mustard well with it, then stir in very carefully, a handful at a time, the mixed crabs, a tablespoonful of cream and crumbs. Season to taste with cayenne pepper and salt; fill the crab sh.e.l.ls with the mixture, sprinkle bread crumbs over the tops, put three small pieces of b.u.t.ter upon the top of each, and brown them quickly in a hot oven.

They will puff in baking and will be found very nice. Half the quant.i.ty can be made. A crab sh.e.l.l will hold the meat of two crabs.

CRAB CROQUETTES.

Pick the meat of boiled crabs and chop it fine. Season to taste with pepper, salt and melted b.u.t.ter. Moisten it well with rich milk or cream, then stiffen it slightly with bread or cracker crumbs. Add two or three well-beaten eggs to bind the mixture. Form the croquettes, egg and bread, crumb them and fry them delicately in boiling lard. It is better to use a wire frying basket for croquettes of all kinds.

TO MAKE A CRAB PIE.

Procure the crabs alive, and put them in boiling water, along with some salt. Boil them for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, according to the size. When cold pick the meat from the claws and body. Chop all together, and mix it with crumbs of bread, pepper and salt, and a little b.u.t.ter. Put all this into the sh.e.l.l and brown in a hot oven. A crab sh.e.l.l will hold the meat of two crabs.

CRABS. (Soft Sh.e.l.l.)

Crabs may be boiled as lobsters. They make a fine dish when stewed.

Take out the meat from the sh.e.l.l, put it into a saucepan with b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt, a pinch of mace and a very little water; dredge with flour and let simmer five minutes over a slow fire. Serve hot; garnish the dish with the claws laid around it.

The usual way of cooking them is frying them in plenty of b.u.t.ter and lard mixed; prepare them the same as frying fish. The spongy substance from the sides should be taken off, also the sand bag. Fry a nice brown and garnish with parsley.

OYSTERS.

Oysters must be fresh and fat to be good. They are in season from September to May.

The small ones, such as are sold by the quart, are good for pies, fritters, or stews; the largest of this sort are nice for frying or pickling for family use.

FRIED OYSTERS.

Take large oysers from their own liquor into a thickly folded napkin to dry them; then make hot an ounce each of b.u.t.ter and lard in a thick-bottomed frying pan. Season the oysters with pepper and salt, then dip each one into egg and cracker crumbs rolled fine, until it will take up no more. Place them in the hot grease and fry them a delicate brown, turning them on both sides by sliding a broad-bladed knife under them. Serve them crisp and hot.

_Boston Oyster House._

Some prefer to roll oysters in corn meal and others use flour, but they are much more crisp with egg and cracker crumbs.

OYSTERS FRIED IN BATTER.

_Ingredients._--One-half pint of oysters, two eggs, one-half pint of milk, sufficient flour to make the batter; pepper and salt to taste; when liked, a little nutmeg; hot lard.

Scald the oysters in their own liquor, beard them, and lay them on a cloth to drain thoroughly. Break the eggs into a basin, mix the flour with them, add the milk gradually, with nutmeg and seasoning, and put the oysters in a batter. Make some lard hot in a deep frying pan; put in the oysters one at a time; when done, take them up with a sharp pointed skewer and dish them on a napkin. Fried oysters are frequently used for garnis.h.i.+ng boiled fish, and then a few bread crumbs should be added to the flour.

STEWED OYSTERS. (In Milk or Cream.)

Drain the liquor from two quarts of oysters; mix with it a small teacupful of hot water, add a little salt and pepper and set it over the fire in a saucepan. Let it boil up once, put in the oysters, let them come to a boil, and when they "ruffle" add two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter. The instant it is melted and well stirred in, put in a pint of boiling milk and take the saucepan from the fire. Serve with oyster or cream crackers. Serve while hot.

If thickening is preferred, stir in a little flour or two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs.

PLAIN OYSTER STEW.

Same as milk or cream stew, using only oyster liquor and water instead of milk or cream, adding more b.u.t.ter after taking up.