SHELL FISH.
FISH and the paper bag method of cooking, go hand and glove. The thing
that every housewife hates most, particularly in a small apartment, or
in the Winter when it is difficult to get the house thoroughly aired, is
the pervasive odor that announces to every one in the house or block
just what you are going to have for dinner. Bagged, the odor is so
minimized as to be entirely inoffensive. Ten minutes airing after the
bag is opened will be quite sufficient to dissipate every particle of
odor. Furthermore, the fish itself is much more delicate and digestible
with all the flavor of fish and seasoning held in and united in a
harmonious whole. Of course, this presupposes a fresh fish to start
with, or one just out of cold storage, before it has had a chance to
thaw and develope ptomaines. In buying fish, look at the eyes and flesh.
Fish should be firm to the touch. If pressed by the finger the flesh
should rise instantly. There should be no impression left. If fish is
fresh the eyes are bright and the gills red and the scales not easily
rubbed off. Never lay fish directly on artificial ice, say the
fishermen, as the ammonia used in the freezing affects them injuriously.
Shell fish are not so apt to spoil as the other fish.
The wood cookery dishes will be found of great value in cooking all
kinds of fish in paper bags. In many cases the flavor of the fish is
improved and the fish can always be taken from the bag with ease and
served whole if desired.
=Clam Pies.=--Line little tins or moulds with paste and put in a layer
of raw clams with a seasoning of butter and pepper. Dredge with flour,
add a spoonful or two of clam juice, cover with the paste, cut a hole in
the top, brush with beaten egg, slip into the bag, fasten and bake
twenty minutes.
=Roast Clams.=--Scrub the shells clean and slip in the bag. As soon as
the shells open, remove carefully and pour off the extra liquor in as
many small cups as you have persons to serve. Put a cup of the juice to
which a bit of butter and dusting of pepper has been added, in the
center of a soup dish, and arrange the clams around it. With an oyster
fork, the clams may then be removed from the shell, dipped into the
liquor and eaten. Serve very hot with quarters of lemon.
=Crabs, Soft and Hard.=--While soft shell crabs are too expensive for
the purse of moderate depth, the hard shell crustacean is always in
order and greatly to be desired. Crabs, like all other shell fish, are
best when fresh from their native waters, and the individual who can do
his own crabbing and then eat the fruits of his labor with the flavor of
the sea still with them, has nothing more to be desired from a
gastronomic standpoint. In most markets crabs may be found both alive
and boiled. If alive, keep them in cold water until ready to cook. If
already boiled, use them as soon as possible as they do not keep well
for more than twenty-four hours. When ready to cook live crabs, take up
on a skimmer, handling gingerly so as to avoid a pinch, and drop into a
large kettle of boiling salted water. Cook gently fifteen minutes, or
until a bright red, skim out, and cool, twist off the claws, remove the
upper shell from the under, scrape the spongy portions from the sides,
remove the green portion and wash free from sand. Crack the large claws
and remove the meat. If you are to serve the crab meat in the shells,
wash and dry as many of the upper ones as desired. These preliminaries
attended to, the crabs are ready to use, in any one of a dozen different
ways.
=Creamed Crabs.=--Remove the meat from a half dozen hard-shelled crabs.
Cook two tablespoonfuls of butter and a tablespoonful of finely chopped
onion until yellow, add two tablespoonfuls of flour, and pour in
gradually a cup of cream. As soon as blended and smooth, add the crab
meat, salt and paprika to season, a tiny grating of nutmeg and a
tablespoonful of sherry wine. Spread on slices of toast, grate a little
cheese on top, put into a bag, seal, set in the oven a moment to heat
through, then serve.
=Crabs Deviled à la William Penn.=--Boil hard-shelled crabs, then remove
the under part without breaking the upper shell. Take out the crab meat,
add about half the quantity of bread crumbs and some chopped hard boiled
eggs, with salt, cayenne and lemon juice to season. Form into a paste
with a little melted butter and fill the shells. Sift buttered crumbs
over the top, slip in the bag and cook ten minutes in a hot oven.
=Crab Meat au Gratin.=--Mix the meat from six crabs with a third the
amount finely chopped, sweet, green peppers. Add the yolks of two eggs
beaten with a half cup cream and a little sherry, and toss in a saucepan
until hot and creamy. Put the mixture into the cleaned crab shells or
the little brown ramequins, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and fine
crumbs; put in bag and crisp in a hot oven.
=Crab Flakes au Gratin.=--Add to one pint crab flakes, one-half cupful
cream sauce, two tablespoonfuls melted butter and a quarter teaspoonful
paprika. Mix well together, place in a small wood cookery dish or
ramequins, sprinkle the top with toast crumbs and a light sprinkling of
Roman cheese. Put into bags, bake and serve. If any be left over, it
makes a delicious salad served on lettuce with mayonnaise.
=Lobster Chops.=--Put into a saucepan a heaping tablespoonful of butter
and two very heaping ones of flour. As soon as melted and frothed, add
one cupful of hot milk or cream, and stir until the mixture is smooth
and thick. Season with salt and paprika, take from the fire, add two
cups of the lobster, cut fine, mix well and turn on to a platter to get
as cold as possible. When cold and firm, form into balls, then flatten
into chops, roll in egg, then in cracker crumbs and set away on the ice
until ready to cook. Put in buttered paper bag and cook ten minutes.
When ready to serve, tuck one of the little claws in the small end to
simulate a chop bone and garnish with lemon and parsley. For Sunday
night supper these chops may be cooked early in the day, then simply
re-bagged and heated in the oven for the meal.
=Coquilles of Lobster.=--Cook two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped onion
in a tablespoonful butter for fifteen minutes. Have ready a cream sauce
made by melting together over the fire a tablespoonful each of butter
and flour, then thinning with a cupful of white stock that has been
cooked with a small bouquet of sweet herbs. Salt and pepper to taste,
and if you like add half a cupful chopped mushrooms and their liquor.
Add to the lightly browned onions two cupfuls finely cut lobster meat, a
tablespoonful minced parsley, one cupful of the made sauce and salt and
paprika. Cook together ten minutes, then put the mixture into the
shells, pour a little of the sauce over each, sprinkle with buttered
bread crumbs, bag, and bake about ten minutes or until they are browned.
=Lobster in Shells.=--Cut the meat from two cans of lobster into small
pieces. Sprinkle a few bread crumbs and a little salt and pepper over
it. Then put in shells. On each shell put a good sized lump of butter,
two teaspoonfuls of wine, some more salt and pepper and some more bread
crumbs. Put prepared shells in a paper bag, put in a hot oven and cook
ten minutes.
=Mussels au Gratin.=--Remove and clean the mussels, straining all the
liquor thoroughly. Then make this sauce: Fry two tablespoonfuls of
chopped onions in butter for a few minutes, but do not let them brown;
add about a teaspoonful of flour, and, while the onions are blending,
add the liquor of the mussels, stirring it in slowly. Cook this mixture
for a few minutes; then add a tablespoonful of vinegar, the same
quantity of chopped parsley and pepper and salt to taste. Butter a
shallow earthen or wooden baking dish; in the bottom spread a layer of
the sauce, lay the mussels on top of it and cover them with the balance
of the sauce. Over all this spread a thin coating of breadcrumbs; butter
and bake in bag until they have browned. Serve in the same dish in which
they were baked.
=Boxed Oysters (Virginia Style).=--Take crusty rolls, cut off the top
and scoop out the hearts leaving them each like a box. Fill the space
with oysters, seasoning with salt, pepper and butter and sprinkling over
them some of the crumb of the roll that you have removed. Put bits of
butter on top, then replace the cover. Set the rolls in the buttered bag
and pour the strained oyster liquor over them. Put into a hot oven and
bake for fifteen minutes. Serve hot. Lemon juice or a little mace is
sometimes used for seasoning the oysters.
=Spindled Oysters and Bacon.=--For two dozen large oysters have two
dozen thin slices bacon, and a half dozen slices crisp toast. Have ready
a half dozen slender steel skewers. Fill these skewers with alternate
slices of bacon and oysters, running the skewer crosswise through the
eye of the oyster and threading the bacon by one corner, so that each
slice blankets an oyster. Do not crowd. Lay the skewers in a buttered
bag, and cook in a quick oven ten minutes. Lay each spindle with its
contents undisturbed on a slice of toast, pour the drip from the bag
over them and serve at once.