Lobster salad

“ Then, too, salad-making appeals largely to one's artistic nature, and the products of sea and fresh water are constantly furnishing opportunities for studies in many and varied shades of color. The lobster's vivid red, the brilliant tints of the salmon and red snapper, the delicate pink of shrimps, the dull white of scallops and halibut, and the bluish gray of mackerel and bluefish, each, in its season, may be made to contrast most effectively with fresh green herbs and yellow dressings.
Oysters, scallops and little-neck clams are frequently served in salads without cooking. ”

“ They will throw up a great deal of scum, which must be taken off. Wipe the lobster with a damp cloth, rub a piece of butter over, then wipe it with a dry cloth. Take off the large claws, and crack them; split down the tail, and place the whole neatly in a dish. A very nice sauce, as follows: boil hard 2 eggs, pound the yolk in a mortar, with a little vinegar, and the spawn of the lobster, make it quite smooth, add a large spoonful of salad oil, 3 spoonsful of good vinegar, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and a little cayenne and salt. ”

“ Cover the bones and trimmings from the fish that is to be used for the salad with cold water; add, if convenient, the body bones of a lobster or two. Add also one or two pounds of an inexpensive fish, and a pint of water for each pound of fish. All must be fresh. Bring the water slowly to the boiling-point and let simmer an hour, then add, for each quart of water, one tablespoonful, each, of chopped onion and carrot, a sprig of parsley and one teaspoonful of sweet herbs, sautéd delicately in two tablespoonfuls of butter. ”

“ LOBSTER RISSOLES.—Extract the meat of a boiled lobster; mince it as fine as possible; mix with it the coral pounded smooth, and some yolks of hard-boiled eggs pounded also. Season it with cayenne pepper, powdered mace, and a very little salt. Make a batter of beaten egg, milk, and flour. To each egg allow two large table-spoonfuls of milk, and a large tea-spoonful of flour. Beat the batter well, and then mix the lobster with it gradually, till it is stiff enough to make into oval balls, about the size of a large plum. Fry them in the best salad oil, and serve them up either warm or cold. ”

“ The lobster must be divided in two across the back, extract the meat carefully out of it, and cut it in a round or slanting direction to the thickness of a crown piece, break the claws and cut the same way, and place on salad as above, so as to form a thick crown near the border of eggs, then take the interior of the lobster, pound it and pass it through a fine sieve, add to your sauce. ”

“ In order to be good, lobsters should be weighty for their bulk; if light, they will be watery; and those of the medium size, are always the best. Small-sized lobsters are cheapest, and answer very well for sauce. In boiling lobsters, the appearance of the shell will be much improved by rubbing over it a little butter or salad-oil on being immediately taken from the pot.
LOBSTER CURRY (an Entrée) .
Ingredients.—1 lobster, 2 onions, 1 oz. butter, 1 tablespoonful of curry-powder, 1⁄2 pint of medium stock, the juice of 1⁄2 lemon. ”

“ You must first prepare a paste of salt, dry mustard, curry powder, black pepper, and salad oil. Spread it over the lobster, then melt an ounce of butter in a fire-proof dish, put in the fish, and heat it well through, browning the top. If you are using fresh lobster, it will require fully ten minutes in cooking.
Tinned salmon, or the remains of a tinned tongue, may be used in the same manner, and so may the Australian beef.
The remains of a cold roast duck are suitable for a most excellent devil. To make it you must remove the bones and cut the meat into rather small pieces, but not too small. ”

“ Season with salt, cayenne, made mustard, and lemon juice; or moisten with any salad dressing. Spread mixture on a crisp lettuce leaf, and prepare as other sandwiches.
Lobster Sandwiches à la Boulevard Mix an equal quantity of finely chopped lobster meat and the yolks of “hard-boiled” eggs forced through a sieve. Moisten with melted butter, and season with German mustard, beef extract diluted with a very small quantity of boiling water, and salt. Spread mixture between thin slices of buttered bread, remove crusts, and cut into fancy shapes. ”

“ When done, draw out the scarlet innocent, and lay him, face downward, in a sieve to dry. When cold, split open the body and tail, and crack the claws to extract the meat, throwing away the “lady fingers” and the head. Lobsters are seldom served without dressing, upon private tables, as few persons care to take the trouble of preparing their own salad after taking their seats at the board.
Devilled Lobster.
Extract the meat from a boiled lobster, as for salad, and mince it finely; reserve the coral. Season highly with [58] mustard, cayenne, salt, and some pungent sauce. ”

“ The head also should be separated from the body, but laid so near it that the division is nearly imperceptible. The head is never eaten. Split the body, and lay it open all [133] the way down, including the tail. If there is a good dresser of salads in the house, the lobster may be served up ready dressed, in a deep dish, seasoned with the proper condiments, after being cut small or minced, heaped up towards the centre of the dish, and decorated with the small claws laid across on the top, with the addition of green celery leaves, or parsley sprigs. ”

“ SALT MACKEREL, fat, meaty, juicy fish, are delicious for breakfast. They are freshly packed in brine and will not spoil on your hands.
CODFISH, as we salt it, is white, boneless and ready for instant use. It makes a substantial meal, a fine change from meat, at a much lower cost.
FRESH LOBSTER is the best thing known for salads. Right fresh from the water, our lobsters simply are boiled and packed in PARCHMENT-LINED CANS. They come to you as the purest and safest lobsters you can buy and the meat is as crisp and natural as if you took it from the shell yourself. ”

“ Season with salt, pepper, onion and lemon juice. Chop the lobster meat fine; melt the butter, cook in it the flour and seasonings, add the cream and lobster stock, and, when cooked, stir in the chopped lobster. When cool spread upon one side of the fillets, roll up the fillets and fasten with wooden [58] toothpicks that have been dipped in melted butter. Bake on a fish-sheet about fifteen minutes, basting with butter melted in hot water.
Set a plain border-mould in ice water; decorate the bottom and sides with pim-olas or gherkins cut in slices and dipped in half-set aspic ”

“ Be careful not to put in too much oil, as shell-fish absorbs the sharpness of the vinegar. Serve it up in a dish, not in a bowl.
LOBSTER SAUCE. Pound the spawn with two anchovies, pour on two spoonfuls of gravy, and strain all into some melted butter. Then put in the meat of the lobster, give it all one boil, and add the squeeze of a lemon. Or leave out the anchovies and gravy, and do it as above, either with or without salt and ketchup, as may be most approved. Many persons prefer the flavour of the lobster and salt only. ”

“ Put the oysters, salt, pepper, and onion juice into the thickened cream, and serve.
If milk be used, add a tablespoonful of butter to the thickened milk.
Lobster. Lobster should be perfectly fresh. If it be cooked, the odor should be fresh and the shells look bright, and when the tail is drawn back it should spring into position again. If the lobster be bought alive, see that it moves lively. To boil it, plunge it into boiling water and cook gently from ten to twenty minutes. A very small lobster will cook in ten minutes and a large one in twenty. ”

“ Put in a saucepan one chopped onion and one oz. butter, when beginning to color slightly add one dozen chopped mushrooms and four oz. bread crumbs, which have been previously soaked in consomme (No. 14) and then press nearly dry, add salt, pepper, cayenne and half a gill tomato ketchup. Mix all well together while heating and cook five minutes. Clean the crab shells, fill with the mixture, cover with crumbs and a little butter, brown in oven a light color. Lobster may be served in the same way. ”

“ Drop the mixture from a tablespoon into hot fat, and fry until an amber color.
SCALLOPS
Scallops are dried with a napkin, then rolled in cracker dust, then in egg and crumbs, and immersed in hot fat for a minute, or just long enough to take a light color. Mix salt and pepper with the crumbs.
LOBSTERS
Lobsters are in season from March to November. They are in the market all the year, but during the off months they are light and stringy. Their size increases with their age; therefore a small, heavy lobster is better than a large one. ”

“ Melt margarine; stir in flour, egg, seasoning and cream. Then add all of the vegetable stock slowly, blending and stirring carefully to prevent lumping. (Vegetable stock is liquid saved from canned vegetables or from cooking fresh vegetables. Store in jars in refrigerator.) Cook sauce in double boiler until smooth and thick, stirring constantly. Shred lobster meat and sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine meat and sauce, mixing well together and heating until mixture bubbles up for three minutes. Arrange lobster shells, pulling open, around inside of greased 11⁄2 qt. glass baking dish. ”

“ Tie the skewer to a spit, and put the lobster down to a sharp fire; baste with champagne, butter, pepper and salt. After a while the shell of the animal will become tender, and will crumble between the fingers. When it comes away from the body the operation of roasting is complete. Take down the lobster, skim the fat from the gravy in the dripping-pan, add the juice of a Seville orange, pepper, salt, and spice, and serve in a lordly dish. ”

“ They may be brushed with clarified butter before the coral is strewed over them, but they scarcely need it. A fierce degree of heat will destroy the excellence of all these preparations.
BOUDINETTES OF LOBSTERS, PRAWNS, OR SHRIMPS. (ENTRÉE) .
(Author’s Receipt.) When the fish has been prepared as above, mould it in as many very small round cups as will suffice for a dish; heat them gently through at the mouth of the oven or before the fire, and serve them dry, or with a little rich white sauce, coloured with lobster-coral poured round, but not upon them. ”