A guide to modern cookery

149—LOBSTER BUTTER Reduce to a paste in the mortar the spawn, shell, and creamy parts of lobster. Add their equal in weight of butter and strain through tammy. 150—BUTTER A LA MAITRE D’HOTEL First manie and then soften into a cream one-half lb. of butter. Add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a little salt and pepper, and a few drops of lemon-juice. Serve this with grills in general. 151—MANIED BUTTER Mix, until perfectly combined, four oz. of butter and three oz. of sifted flour. This butter is made immediately before the time of dishing up, and is used for quick leasons like the Matelotes, &c. The sauce to which manied butter has been added should not boil if this can possibly be avoided, as it would thereby acquire a very disagreeable taste of raw flour. 151a—MELTED BUTTER This preparation, which is used principally as a fish sauce, should consist of butter, only just melted, and combined with a little table-salt and a few drops of lemon-juice. It should therefore be prepared only at the last minute; for, should it wait and be allowed to clarify, besides losing its flavour it will be found to disagree with certain people. 152—BUTTER A LA MEUNIERE | Put into a frying-pan the necessary quantity of butter, and cook it gently until it has acquired a golden tint and exudes a slight smell of nut. Add a few drops of lemon-juice, and pour on the fish under treatment, which should have been previously sprinkled with concassed parsley. This butter is proper to fish ‘‘a la Meuniére”’ and is always served on the fish. 153—MONTPELLIER BUTTER Put into a saucepan containing boiling water equal quantities of watercress leaves, parsley, chervil, chives, and tarragon (six oz. in all), one and one-half oz. of chopped shallots, and onehalf oz. of spinach leaves. Boil for two minutes, then drain, cool, press in a towel to expel water, and pound in a mortar with one tablespoonful of pressed capers, four oz. of gherkins, a garlic clove, and the fillets of four anchovies well washed. Mix this paste with one and one-half Ibs. of butter; then add the yolks of three boiled eggs and two raw eggs, and finally pour in, by degrees, two-fifths pint of oil. Strain through a fine sieve or through tammy, put the butter into a basin, and stir it well with a wooden spoon so as to make it smooth. Season with table-salt and a little cayenne. Use this butter to deck large fish, such as salmon and trout; but it is also used for smaller pieces and slices of fish. Remarks.—When this butter is specially prepared to form a coat on fish, the oil and the egg yolks are omitted and only butter is used. 154—BLACK BUTTER Put into a frying-pan the necessary amount of butter, and cook it until it has assumed a brown colour and begins to smoke. At this moment add a large pinch of concassed parsley leaves and spread it immediately over the object to be treated. 155—HAZEL-NUT BUTTER Put eight oz. of shelled hazel-nuts, for a moment, in the front of the oven, in order to slightly grill their skins and make them easily removable. Now crush the nuts in a mortar until they form a paste, and add a few drops of cold water with a view to preventing their producing any oil. Add their equivalent in weight of butter and rub through tammy. _ 156—PISTACHIO BUTTER Put into boiling water eight oz. of pistachios, and keep them on the side of the fire until the peel may be easily removed. Drain, cool in cold water, clean the pistachios, and finely pound while moistening them with a few drops of water. Add two oz. of butter and pass through tammy. 157—PRINTANIER BUTTER These butters are made from all early-season vegetables, such as carrots, French beans, peas, and asparagus heads. _