Stuffed Crayfish

Ingredients

• 3 doz. crayfish
• truffles
• mushrooms
• 1 pint of thickly reduced Bechamel
• 1 ounce of lobster or crayfish butter

Method

1. 1

   Cook 3 dozen crayfish and remove the meat from the shells.

2. 2

   Keep the heads and clean them well.

3. 3

   Cut the meat into small pieces and add half the amount each of truffles and mushrooms, both cut in squares.

4. 4

   Heat 1 pint of thickly reduced Bechamel, incorporate with it 1 ounce of lobster or crayfish butter, and add the crayfish meat mixture.

5. 5

   Season highly and put away to get cold.

6. 6

   Stuff the crayfish heads with the preparation, egg and bread crumb them and fry in hot lard.

7. 7

   Serve on a folded napkin.

As published

This recipe was extracted from "Dainty dishes" (1903) by Adolphe Meyer, page 6. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

truffles, butter the top lightly, and bake in a mild oven for 10 minutes. Tartelettes de Volaille a la Viennoise — Chicken Tartlets, Viennese Style. Fill flie tartlets (about one-third of the cavity) with puree of onions mixed with finely chopped ham, and finish as in other receipts. FISH AND SHELLFISH. Canapes db Crabs d'Huitres a la Savoy — Oyster Crab Canapes^ Savoy Style. From a sandwich loaf cut slices of bread j4 inch thick, then with a round pastry cutter (2 inches in di- ameter) cut out some crusts, scoop them out on one side (so as to form a cavity) and fry in butter to a light color. Chop fine 12 fresh mushrooms (the tails will answer for this purpose), cook them in butter until all their moisture has been rendered, add i pint of picked and well washed oyster crabs, moisten with a dash of sherry, and cook for a few minutes; then add I gill of thick cream sauce, bind with 2 or 3 eg^ yolks, season and put away to get cold. Fill the crusts with the oyster crab preparation. Choose some fresh mushrooms of the same size as the crusts, cook them in butter, fill also with the oyster crabs and set one mushroom on each crust, the mush- room top uppermost. Place the canapes in a buttered pan and bake them in a medium oven for about 10 minutes. Canapes a la Dewey — Canapes Dewey Style. Prepare some Oyster Crabs a la Newburg and add some finely chopped sweet peppers. Place some fresh mushrooms (previously cooked in butter) on round slices of bread fried in butter, fill (the 21 mushrooms) with the oyster crabs, place a smaller mushroom on top, heat well and serve. Canapes a la Manhattan — Manhattan Canapes. Chop together equal quantities of braised celery and raw oysters, mix well and spread on slices of buttered toast, sprinkle over with paprika, place a small piece of butter on each, and set in a hot oven for 6 or 8 min- utes. Serve very hot. Canapes de Homard a la Belasco— Lobster Can- apes, Belasco Style. Chop finely one onion and fry in butter without coloring, then add 6 fresh mushrooms chopped fine and trook with the onion until all moisture has been re- duced, next add the meat of a 2-pound lobster chopped fine, incorporate one gill of Bechamel and (when it boils) thicken with 2 egg yolks. Season highly and then put away to get cold. Have ready some split toasted English Muffins, put some of the lobster preparation on top, brush over with beaten eggs, and bestrew with bread crumbs mixed with grated Parmesan cheese. Place a small piece of butter on each canape and bake for lo minutes in a medium hot oven. Canapes de Homard a la Marthe-— Lobster Can- apes, Martha Style. Proceed as explained for Lobster Canapes, Belasco Style. Place the lobster preparation on a slice of but- tered toast tod cover with a very thin slice of Swiss cheese itht s^me size as the toast) and bake in a medium hot oven. Croutes de Haddock a l'Indienne — Crusts of Had- dock, Indian Fashion. Pound fine 8 ounces of smoked haddock, add a table- spoonful of Bechamel, 2 egg yolks and 2 tablespoon- f uls . of cream ; season with salt and curry, and rub 22 through a fine sieve. Spread some ol this preparattop on small round toasts, sprinkle over some chopped hard eggs, place them on a buttered dish, a&d CQok in a moderate oven from 6 to 8 minutes. I>res8v oQ a nap* kin and serve hot. Souffle de Haddock Fume — Souffle of Smoked Finnan Haddock. Pound fine in the mortar 8 ounces of haddock, add 2 tablespoonfuls of cold Bechamel, i ounce of butter and 2 egg yolks and then rub through a fine sieve. Put die forcemeat into a bowl, incorporate yi gilt of whipped cream^ season to taste with salt, cayenne and grated nutmeg and add the 2 egg whites whipped to a stiflF froth. Have ready some small baked tartlet crusts, fill them ^ of dieir height with the haddock preparation, butter the top lightly with melted butter and bake in a me- dium oven for lo minutes. Creme de Haddock Fume a la Meadowbrook — Cream of Smoked Haddock, Meadow- brook Style. Prepare a forcemeat of haddock, as explained for SouMe of Smoked Haddock, adding 4 otmces of fresh whitefish and omitting the whipped whites of egg. Try the forcemeat by dumping a teaspoonf ul of it in boiling water — ^if too solid, Jidd more cream. Butter and decorate some small timbale molds and fill them with the haddock forcemeat; next make a hollow in the center by putting the index finger (pre- viously dipped in lukewarm water) into the center of the forcemeat, place in this hollow part the belly part of two parboiled oysters, close up with forcemeat and cook the timbals in the bain-marie in a mild oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Serve with cream sauce. Souffle de Hareng Fume a l'Irlandaise — Souf- fle OF Bloater, Irish Fashion. Free 4 bloaters from skin and bones and chop the fillets rather fine. Cook 4 good-sized peeled potatoes in lightly salted 28 water and mash them fine ; add 4 ounces of butter, the yolks of 6 eggs and the chopped bloaters. Season to taste, then whip the 6 egg whites to a stiff froth and gently ihcorpbrate to the potatoes. ^ill some, small entree cases with this preparation, smooth and lightly butter the surface and bake in a mild oven for 12 or 15 minutes. Souffle de Homard a l'Americaine — ^Lobster Souf- fle A l'Americaine. Pound fine in the mortar the shell of a good-sized lobster. Heat in a saucepan 3 ounces of butter, add i small carrot and i onion cut fine, smother lightly and then add the pounded lobster shell ; stir for a few minutes, moisten with i gill of white wine and i pint of Tomato sauce, cook for 10 minutes, remove the scum, add i pint of Veloute, cook for 15 minutes longer and then strain and press through the etamine cloth. Reduce this sauce rather thickly, season highly and bind with 4 ^Sg yolks. Cut the lobster meat in small squares and add it to the sauce. Whip 6 egg whites to a stiff froth, incor- porate them gently with the lobster preparation, fill into small entree cases and cook in a mild oven. Souffle d'Ecrevisses a la Nantua — Crayfish Souffle^ Nantua Style. Proceed as for Lobster SoufHe, but instead of lobster shell use crayfish shells and all Bechamel instead of To- mato sauce. Cut the cra3rfish tails in small pieces and add some truffles cut in small squares. Petits Souffles aux Huitres — ^Small Souffles OF Oysters. Cook in their own juice 3 doz. oysters and then drain. Reduce the juice with i pint of Bechamel, bind with 4 egg yolks and season to taste. Remove the belly part from the oysters, cut them in 3 or 4 pieces, according to size, and add to the sauce. : Whip the whites of the 4 eggs to a stiff froth and 24 gently blend the latter with the above preparation. Then fill with it some small entree cases and cook in a medium oven from 8 to lo minutes. EcREVissEs Farcis — ^Stuffed Chayfish. Cook 3 doz. crayfish and remove the meat from the shells. Keep the heads and clean them well. Cut the meat into small pieces and add half the amount each of trufHes and mushrooms, both cut in squares. Heat I pint of thickly reduced Bechamel, incorporate with it I ounce of lobster or cra)rfish butter

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.