The Cook Book, by "Oscar" of the Waldorf

Boil a few crabs, pick out the meat and place the coral on one side. Chop up the meat, add to it one onion, ground ginger, lemon juice, mushroom catsup, salt and pepper ; put the mixture into a fryingpan with butter and cook until the butter is absorbed. Pour in a little stock, boil until nearly evaporated, then remove the pan from the fire. Butter five of the crab shells and fill them with the mixture. Grind the coral, mingle it with some breadcrumbs, sprinkle this over the mixture, put a few small lumps of butter on the tops, place the shells in the oven, and bake for a few minutes. Minced Crabs. Place the finely chopped meat of three crabs into a saucepan, pour over one wineglassful of white wine and one of vinegar, and season to taste with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Cook over a moderate fire for about ten minutes, and add two ounces of warmed butter, mixed with one boned anchovy, and stir in the well beaten yolks of two eggs. Sprinkle in sufficient breadcrumbs to thicken properly, turn the whole out on to a dish, and serve with parsley for a garnish. Crabs, Queen Style. Pick about a dozen hard-shell boiled crabs into as large pieces as possible; mix them in a salad bowl, with one-half breakfast cupful of sliced celery or shredded lettuce, one-half pinch of pepper, one pinch of salt, one tablespoonful of olive oil, and one and one-half tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Refill six well cleaned shells with the salad, and on each one lay one tablespoonful of mayonnaise sauce ; and sprinkle over with chopped hard boiled egg, the yolk separated from the white, some crab or lobster coral, and one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, every article to be used separately in order that each color may be distinct. Serve on a dish with a folded napkin, or ornamental dish-paper. Crab Ravigote. Boil some large hard-shell crabs, after which put them aside to become cold. Then turn them over on the hard shell side and with a sharp knife cut the breast away. Pick the meat off, clean it nicely, being careful not to leave any pieces of shell in it, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Mix with thick remoulade sauce and fill up one of the shells, which has previously been washed clean, with the mixture. The meat of two good-sized crabs so treated will be sufficient to fill the inside of one shell. Cover the meat with mayonnaise and decorate with fillet of anchovy and sliced pickles. Serve on a folded napkin with branches of parsley and quartered lemon. Stewed Crabs. Take eight live crabs and steam for twenty minutes; pick out the meats, put it in a saucepan with one-half pint of milk or cream and stew for fifteen or twenty minutes. Season with cayenne pepper and salt. Broiled Soft-Shell Crabs. Dip -some soft-shell crabs into melted butter and season with pepper and salt. Then put them on the fire and broil them until the shells are slightly brown. As soon as they are done serve them hot with melted butter or lemon juice or with a lemon cut into quarters. Slices of hot dry toast may be laid under them Fried Soft-Shell Crabs. Have a dish of cracker dust mixed with a little pepper and on the stove a pan half full of smoking hot fat; beat two eggs, roll the crabs in the crumbs and dip them in the eggs, then roll them again in the crumbs and put in the hot fat to fry. Take them out with a skimmer, lay on brown paper to free them from grease and serve them while hot. Stewed Soft-Shell Crabs with Okras.