The encyclopædia of practical cookery

Sea-Crayfish a la Bordelaise. — Put a few shallots and one onion chopped very fine into a stewpan with a little oil, and fry them, but not enough to colour them, adding also two tails of uncooked Sea-Crayfish chopped up with the shells on. Toss the pan, and add a bunch of parsley garnished with a sprig of thyme, and a little cayenne and salt to season it; let them remain on the fire for two or three minutes, then add 3 wineglassfuls of white wine, put the cover over the pan, and boil for fifteen minutes. Take out the fish, drain it, wipe the shells clean outside, and put them on a dish, with chopped parsley dusted over them. Add a few tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce to the liquor to thicken it, and also a lump of butter, boil it up again, strain through a cloth, and pour it over the fish. Sea-Crayfish Patties. — Put 21b. of puff or brioche paste on to a damped board, roll it out thin, and with a biscuit-cutter cut it up into two dozen rounds about 3in. in diameter. Prepare a little mixture with two Sea-Crayfish and fish forcemeat, put a small quantity of this on half the rounds of paste, cover over with the other half, press the edges well together, brush the patties over with beaten egg, put them in a sharp oven, and bake until done; then take them Crayfish — continued. out, and serve as hot as possible. If desired, after they have been egged over they may be plunged into a frying pan of boiling fat, and fried. Sea-Crayfish with Prawns.— Put two large Sea-Crayfish into some court bouillon, and boil them until quite done ; then take them out, drain on a sieve, and remove the flesh from the tails, breaking the under-shell so as to keep the flesh whole. Sponge the meat and shells, and put them on a dish, with the shells spread their full length upon a bunch of parsley put in the centre ; cut the meat of the tails into [illustration: Fig. 557. Sea-Crayfish with Prawns.] slices, and put them along the sides of the shells ; put four Fig. 557. Sea-Crayfish with Prawns. sauce, with the creamy part of the shells added, also seasoned with a little cayenne. Garnish with croutons of aspic (see Fig. 557). CREAM (Fr. Creme; Ger. Ralim ; Sp. Crema; Ital. Crema). — The derivation of this term is somewhat obscure and confusing. Webster and other lexicographers give it as being akin to the Latin verb cremare, to burn; but fail to show the process by which this has come to signify the oily constituent of milk. It has been suggested that Cream alludes to the readiness with which milk burns in boiling ; but if we go back to the French use of the word, we find that it was first applied to a custard, which was known to Continental cooks as English Cream — Cream in delicate allusion, probably, to the care required in its cooking. Every cook knows that a custard should be boiled in a water-bath, on account of the readiness with which it burns ; a peculiarity that gave Continental cooks, who were jealous of England’s reputation with the custard, an opportunity of changing the name to creme an bainmarie. The famous Careme appears to have been still more dissatisfied even with this subterfuge, therefore he contrived to convert the English custard (creme Anglaise) into creme Franchise by the addition of a small quantity of isinglass to the mixture.