Select young and delicate lobsters, or use prawns ; or even very small crabs of two or three inches in diameter. Pick out the meat, and put the cream and the coral in a basin apart. Cut the meat up as small as possible, and then pound in a mortar till the stringy lobster is beaten into a smooth paste ; then incorporate the lobster-cream and the coral, season with pepper and salt, and add either thick cream or butter rubbed to a cream. Form into cutlets, and use the end of a SHRIMPS. 125 claw to simulate the bone of the cutlet ; dip in bread- crumbs and eggs twice, and fry a golden brown. Heat a skewer red hot, and mark each cutlet so as to give it the look cf being broiled. Send up on a napkin, and serve a mayonnaise sauce in a tureen. If there is not enough of the lobster paste for the number of cutlets desired, introduce a little panada, or a little ground-rice mixture ; the lobster paste is rich enough to bear the introduction of the simple cereal mixture, but the two must be so completely mixed that the expedient is not perceived. Sauce for Lobster Cutlets. Make some stock with the bones of fish ; a wine- glass of this stock is to be seasoned with Maille vinegar, pepper, salt, and mustard flour. Mix in an equal quantity of single cream ; warm in a bain-marie, or milk saucepan. The taste of broth, vinegar, and mustard must be perceived, but not to an exaggerated degree. If the dish is not for a maigre day, veal broth may be used in place of fish stock. Shrimps. There is an art even in the apparently simple process of boiling shrimps. To be really good, shrimps must be boiled alive. The shrimps are placed in nets and plunged into water that is fiercely on the boil. The putting in of these shrimps lowers the temperature of the water for a moment. The experienced shrimp-boiler therefore heats the poker 126 STURGEON. and stirs up the water in which the shrimps are placed, in order that the temperature of the water shall be kept up to the boiling point whilst the shrimps are being cooked. When the shrimps are done they are suspended in nets in the sea for a short time. — Frank Biickland. Breakfast Fish. Take 2 ozs. of butter, a teaspoonful of mustard flour, a little cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon ; work it into a smooth paste ; pull the cold fish into flakes, and half fill some shells (scallop shells) or little china imitations ; lay the mixture over the fish and strew with breadcrumbs; heat iii the oven or before the fire. ' Hake. This is an excellent fish, though its merits are not generally known ; it is best cut in fillets and fried in batter, after being treated like fillets of sole a la Orly. It is also good curried. Sturgeon. It is said that a good cook can obtain beef, mutton, pork, or chicken from the flesh of the sturgeon. The best way to dress this fish is to cut fillets about i^ inches thick, and to stew them in good stock, and serve with sauce piquante round them ; or to make the fish into quenelles, and serve with maitre dliotel sauce. It may also be dressed as for ' Creme de Volaille ' on niaigre days. OYSTERS. viy Lampreys.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Select young and delicate lobsters, or use prawns ; or even very small crabs of two or three inches in diameter. Pick out the meat, and put the cream and the coral in a basin apart. Cut the meat up as small as possible, and then pound in a mortar till the stringy lobster is beaten into a smooth paste ; then incorporate the lobster-cream and the coral, season with pepper and salt, and add either thick cream or butter rubbed to a cream. Form into cutlets, and use the end of a SHRIMPS. 125 claw to simulate the bone of the cutlet ; dip in breadcrumbs and eggs twice, and fry a golden brown. Heat a skewer red hot, and mark each cutlet so as to give it the look of being broiled. Send up on a napkin, and serve a mayonnaise sauce in a tureen. If there is not enough of the lobster paste for the number of cutlets desired, introduce a little panada, or a little ground-rice mixture ; the lobster paste is rich enough to bear the introduction of the simple cereal mixture, but the two must be so completely mixed that the expedient is not perceived. Sauce for Lobster Cutlets. Make some stock with the bones of fish ; a wineglass of this stock is to be seasoned with Maille vinegar, pepper, salt, and mustard flour. Mix in an equal quantity of single cream ; warm in a bain-marie, or milk saucepan. The taste of broth, vinegar, and mustard must be perceived, but not to an exaggerated degree. If the dish is not for a maigre day, veal broth may be used in place of fish stock. Shrimps. There is an art even in the apparently simple process of boiling shrimps. To be really good, shrimps must be boiled alive. The shrimps are placed in nets and plunged into water that is fiercely on the boil. The putting in of these shrimps lowers the temperature of the water for a moment. The experienced shrimp-boiler therefore heats the poker 126 STURGEON. and stirs up the water in which the shrimps are placed, in order that the temperature of the water shall be kept up to the boiling point whilst the shrimps are being cooked. When the shrimps are done they are suspended in nets in the sea for a short time. — Frank Biickland. Breakfast Fish. Take 2 ozs. of butter, a teaspoonful of mustard flour, a little cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon ; work it into a smooth paste ; pull the cold fish into flakes, and half fill some shells (scallop shells) or little china imitations ; lay the mixture over the fish and strew with breadcrumbs; heat iii the oven or before the fire. ' Hake. This is an excellent fish, though its merits are not generally known ; it is best cut in fillets and fried in batter, after being treated like fillets of sole a la Orly. It is also good curried. Sturgeon. It is said that a good cook can obtain beef, mutton, pork, or chicken from the flesh of the sturgeon. The best way to dress this fish is to cut fillets about i^ inches thick, and to stew them in good stock, and serve with sauce piquante round them ; or to make the fish into quenelles, and serve with maitre dliotel sauce. It may also be dressed as for ' Creme de Volaille ' on niaigre days. OYSTERS. viy Lampreys.

Cookery and housekeeping