The spirit of cookery

Brown some thin slices or dice of bread in butter, and place them, together with the dice of the meat of the tails, in the soup-tureen, and pour the soup over them. Consideration of Proposed Amendments and Practical Variations. The more we study the art of cookery the greater becomes our admiration of the skill and ingenuity which have been applied to the production of the most characteristic results from the given materials. But we also find amendments proposed to well-established recipes, which merely exhibit the want of information of the authors. Whether in the case of bisque to make it clear or thick is a matter of choice, but whether the thickening should be effected by a consomme of fried bread in veal-broth or by boiled rice is immaterial. Some recipes are distinctly retrograde, and, compromising the fundamental idea, do not, in fact, yield a true bisque. In one of these the carapaces are not directed to be pounded, but left unused, while the meat of the tails, constituting the most delicate morsels, is pounded, and subsequently mostly left on the tammy. As the writer of this recipe loses sight of the colouring matter contained in the carapaces, which, being itself a fatty matter, unites with the butter during the cooking after comminution, particularly with the aid of a little spirit or wine, it is not surprising that he prescribes that the butter in which the crayfish were done should be coloured with red lobster spawn. This trouble, even when feasible, is totally unnecessary. The extraction of the pounded carapaces yields not only the red colour of the fat, which makes the bisque so nice to look at, but also the grand flavour which constitutes so great an attraction to the gustatory organs. On the other hand, the pounding of fleshy tails, while probably imparting some flavour to the soup, is destructive of the meat, and thereby of the visible proof of the genuineness of the bisque, for the tails are a kind of evidence which cannot be imitated, not only of the nature, but also of the richness of the preparation. In some parts of Germany forcemeat and marrow-balls, or quenelles, are poached into the soup besides the sliced tails and fried bread. The pounding of the carapaces is done in the presence of butter, and they are comminuted to a pulp. This pulp is now set to fry until the butter is coloured red BISQUE-LIKE SOUPS and begins to rise, and then only the original broth in which the crayfish were boiled is added. Some boil the crayfish in mere salt water, and throw this away, and liquefy the roasted crayfish butter with new stock. They now boil, and remove the coloured butter with a spoon during boiling, in order not to lose any in the carapace debris during straining.* The soup, after passing the tammy, may be allowed to stand until it is clear and cold ; the butter may be skimmed ofi", and the liquid decanted from the deposit. If the latter be now clarified with white of egg, clear bisque will result, and may be served, with the red butter restored to it, with the sliced tail-meat and fried bread immersed. It is the analogue of clear turtle, and a great deal more tasty than that, whereas the form above given, and to which we attribute the better quality, corresponds to thick turtle.