119. Crab Omelette. Make your omelette thus : — Break six eggs in a basin, season with salt and j^epper, and beat Avith a fork. Put tAvo ounces of butter in an oval-shaped pan ; and as soon as the butter melts pour in your eggs, stirring lightly with a fork, and taking care that the eggs do not catch the pan. While " doing," add a due proportion of the finely shredded flesh of a crab, with a touch of vinegar, a little more salt, and a dust of cayenne. Some cooks add a little minutely minced parsley. When your omelette is half set, toss or turn it till fully set. Don't let it take a brown colour. It must be pale gold. There are two ways of turning out the omelette on the dish. Either slant your pan down- wards from the handle and roll the omelette downwards till it takes the shape of a long oval, and so slide it gently on to the dish ; or simply fold over the omelette on both sides to the proper elliptical shape. In any case, when you beat your eggs before pouring them into the pan, be very careful that the oijeration does not take longer than one miinute. If you are longer about it your eggs will cook " watery " instead of " marrowy." And if anybody tells you that either milk or flour should be added to an omelette — 190 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. there are twenty ways of spelling tlie word, and nobody has found the right one — tell him he doesn't know Avhat he is talking about. If a female, beg her pardon, and ask her to amend the evil of her ways. You should avoid both the one and the other as you would avoid strychnine or Greek acid. Ohs. — Crab omelette should be served with a rich crayfish sauce, coloured with lobster coral. 120. Lobster Pie. Boil two large or three small lobsters, remove the tails, cut the fish in two, take out the gut, divide each into four pieces, and lay them in a small dish ; then put in the meat of the claws, and that Avhich has been picked from the bod}^ Clear the latter of the furry parts, and take out the substance ; beat the spawn in a mortar, do the same by the shells ; set these on to stew with some Avater, two or three spoonfuls of vinegar, pepper, salt, and pounded mace, and add a piece of butter rolled in flour ; when the goodness of the shells is extracted give the Avhole a good boiling, and strain it into the dish, strew some crumbs over it, and cover it with a paste. Bake it slowly, but take it out as soon as the crust is done. 121. Lobster a la Braise. Pound the meat of a large lobster very fine with two ounces of butter✪ Crab Omelette, and season it with grated nutmeg, salt, and white pepper ; add a little grated bread ; beat up two eggs; reserve part to put over the meat, and with the rest make the meat up into the form of a lobster. Pound the spawn and red part, and spread it over the meat ; bake it a quarter of an hour, and just before serving lay over it the FISH. 191 tail and body shell, with the small claws put underneath to resemble a lobster. 122. To Fricassee Lobster.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

119. Crab Omelette. Make your omelette thus : — Break six eggs in a basin, season with salt and pepper, and beat Avith a fork. Put two ounces of butter in an oval-shaped pan ; and as soon as the butter melts pour in your eggs, stirring lightly with a fork, and taking care that the eggs do not catch the pan. While "doing," add a due proportion of the finely shredded flesh of a crab, with a touch of vinegar, a little more salt, and a dust of cayenne. Some cooks add a little minutely minced parsley. When your omelette is half set, toss or turn it till fully set. Don't let it take a brown colour. It must be pale gold. There are two ways of turning out the omelette on the dish. Either slant your pan downwards from the handle and roll the omelette downwards till it takes the shape of a long oval, and so slide it gently on to the dish ; or simply fold over the omelette on both sides to the proper elliptical shape. In any case, when you beat your eggs before pouring them into the pan, be very careful that the operation does not take longer than one minute. If you are longer about it your eggs will cook " watery " instead of " marrowy." And if anybody tells you that either milk or flour should be added to an omelette — there are twenty ways of spelling the word, and nobody has found the right one — tell him he doesn't know what he is talking about. If a female, beg her pardon, and ask her to amend the evil of her ways. You should avoid both the one and the other as you would avoid strychnine or Greek acid. Ohs. — Crab omelette should be served with a rich crayfish sauce, coloured with lobster coral. 120. Lobster Pie. Boil two large or three small lobsters, remove the tails, cut the fish in two, take out the gut, divide each into four pieces, and lay them in a small dish ; then put in the meat of the claws, and that which has been picked from the body. Clear the latter of the furry parts, and take out the substance ; beat the spawn in a mortar, do the same by the shells ; set these on to stew with some Avater, two or three spoonfuls of vinegar, pepper, salt, and pounded mace, and add a piece of butter rolled in flour ; when the goodness of the shells is extracted give the Avhole a good boiling, and strain it into the dish, strew some crumbs over it, and cover it with a paste. Bake it slowly, but take it out as soon as the crust is done. 121. Lobster a la Braise. Pound the meat of a large lobster very fine with two ounces of butter, and season it with grated nutmeg, salt, and white pepper ; add a little grated bread ; beat up two eggs; reserve part to put over the meat, and with the rest make the meat up into the form of a lobster. Pound the spawn and red part, and spread it over the meat ; bake it a quarter of an hour, and just before serving lay over it the tail and body shell, with the small claws put underneath to resemble a lobster. 122. To Fricassee Lobster.

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