Soyer's standard cookery

When lobsters are plentiful they are often to be had as cheaply as sixpence and ninepence each, so that this dish is not really as extravagant as it sounds. Take the white and claw meat of the lobster. Chop it up small and reserve it. Take the brown meat and rub it till quite smooth in a bowl with a bit of butter and a good dust of white pepper. Then add by degrees the contents of half a bottle of tomato catsup. Work the whole well together. Put into a bag four rashers of bacon. Cook for four minutes. Then take out the rashers and reserve them on a hot dish. Put in the lobster and tomato mixture and cook for eight minutes. Now cut open the bag, put in the white meat, and make hot for another four or five minutes. Be careful to lower the gas for this, as the white meat of the lobster must not get very hot. It must not actually cook, or it will toughen and be spoilt. Empty out carefully into a very hot dish. Garnish with the rashers of bacon and serve at once. (300° Fahr.) Marechale of Crab is prepared in exactly the same way, but as crabs run larger, from six to seven rashers of bacon may be used instead of four. Fried bread should garnish both these dishes. Croutes Strasbourg Aux CEufs. Butter a bag. Cut four squares of stale bread, all of a size. Free them from crust. Butter them thinly and dust lightly with pepper. Spread a layer of foie-gras on each. Put in the bag and cook in the oven for five minutes. Then cut open the bag, and break an egg on top of each square of bread. Dust the top of the egg with pepper and a very little salt and cook for another four minutes. Take out, dish up on a very hot dish, and serve. (300° Fahr.) CEufs a la Tripe. Take half a pint of white sauce, made with an ounce of flour, an ounce of butter, and half a pint of milk, and flavored with a little mace. Add to it two large thinly-sliced onions cooked in a little butter in a bag, and from four to six halved hard-boiled eggs. Pour gently into a well-greased double bag and make very hot in the oven for ten minutes. Dish up on a hot dish and serve as quickly as possible. (350° Fahr.) Stuffante a la Milanaise. Cut a round from the top of six tomatoes, scoop out the seeds, dust well with pepper and salt, and put a bit of butter in each tomato, fill with finely-minced cold veal and bacon or mutton or beef and bacon. Sprinkle fried breadcrumbs on top, grease a bag well, put in the tomatoes and cook in a fairly quick oven for from ten to twelve minutes. Dish up on a very hot dish and serve. (350° Fahr.) Riz a la Strasbourg. Take four ounces of freshly-boiled rice, mix with it the contents of a jar of Strasbourg paste (not the fat, only the pate) and work up lightly but thoroughly with a fork. Butter a bag thickly and put in the mixture; cook for ten minutes in a very hot oven, turn out on to a hot dish, garnish with a little grated yolk of freshly-boiled (hard) egg and serve at once. (350° Fahr.) Riz Aux Crevettes. Take four ounces of boiled rice. Add to it pepper and salt