Two cupfuls of minced lobster seasoned with a quarter teaspoonful of
salt, a dash of paprika, and one teaspoonful, each, of lemon juice and
minced parsley. Moisten with one cup of thick drawn butter and the
beaten yolk of one egg. When cool, shape into cutlets; egg and crumb
them, let them stand for one hour on ice, then fry in deep, hot butter.
Creamed lobster
Two cups of boiled lobster meat, cut into dice. Season with paprika,
salt and lemon juice. Heat a great spoonful of butter in a saucepan and
turn in the lobster dice. Toss until smoking hot, add half a cup of
cream, heated (with a bit of soda), then beat into it the whipped yolks
of three eggs. Stir for one minute, and dish.
Send hot, buttered crackers around with it.
Curry of lobster
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and cook in it a
tablespoonful of sliced onion. Strain out the onion, return the butter
to the pan, and stir to a roux with a level tablespoonful of flour and
a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add four tablespoonfuls of cream, heated
(not forgetting the pinch of soda); lastly two cupfuls of lobster meat,
cut into dice. Stir steadily until very hot, and dish.
Note
All of these preparations of lobster may be made with canned lobster,
although they must always be inferior in flavor to those made from the
fresh fish. If canned lobster be used, drain off every drop of the
liquor and have the meat as dry as possible before it goes into the
manufacture of the proposed dish.
Scalloped lobsters
(Contributed)
Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with fine bread-crumbs. On this put a
layer of lobster and season with pepper and salt; add another layer of
crumbs, another of lobster and so on, until the dish is filled. Moisten
with milk, strew with bits of butter and bake about twenty minutes.
Deviled lobster
Two cups of lobster meat, cut into dice. Reserve the coral, rubbing
it to a paste with butter and lemon juice. Heat two tablespoonfuls
of butter in a saucepan, add the lobster meat highly seasoned with
paprika, French mustard, ten drops of Tabasco, or double the quantity
of Worcestershire sauce and salt. As soon as it bubbles turn in the
coral paste and let it just come to a boil before serving.
Deviled crab
Pick the meat from boiled crabs, taking care not to break the shells.
Flake the meat and mix with it a tablespoonful of melted butter,
cayenne and salt to taste and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Return to
the shells, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.
Crabs and champignons
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into dice, and half a can of
champignons (mushrooms), cut into dice of the same size. Make a roux
in a frying-pan of two tablespoonfuls of butter and one heaping
tablespoonful of flour, stirred until smooth. Mix the crab meat and
champignons well together, season with paprika, salt and a dash of
onion juice; turn into the smoking roux; cook three minutes; remove
from the fire; add quickly three tablespoonfuls of cream, heated, with
a pinch of soda; set over the fire for one minute, add a glass of
sherry, and serve _hot_.
Lobsters cooked in this way, substituting the fresh mushrooms for the
canned, are delicious.
Crabs en coquille (No. 1)
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into neat dice, and set on ice until
needed. One heaping tablespoonful of flour and an even tablespoonful
of butter. Four tablespoonfuls of cream. Salt, cayenne, ten drops of
Tabasco sauce or twice as much Worcestershire. A little boiling water.
Pinch of soda in the cream.
Make a roux of butter and flour. Season the crab meat and stir into
the roux, thinning with just enough boiling water to make the mixture
manageable. When smoking-hot, take from the fire, beat in the hot cream
and fill crab shells with the paste, rounding to suit the shape of the
shell. Sift fine crumbs, salted and peppered, over each, put bits of
butter on top, and brown on the upper grating of the oven.
Crabs en coquille (No. 2)
(A Cuban dish.)
Prepare as directed in foregoing recipe, but mix with the crab meat the
pulp of three tomatoes, cut into bits and drained dry, a green pepper,
seeded and minced, and four tablespoonfuls of the inside of an eggplant
(boiled and cold), cut small; also half a cup of fine bread (not
cracker) crumbs. Season with paprika, salt, and a teaspoonful of
onion juice. Stir into the roux over the fire, adding a little boiling
water if too thick, until very hot, when remove to a table and beat in
the whipped yolks of two eggs. Fill your crab shells, sift fine crumbs
on top, dot with butter and cook, covered, ten minutes before browning
upon the upper grating.
[Illustration: SWEETBREAD CUTLETS AND SARATOGA POTATOES, GARNISH OF
CELERY TOPS
CRAB SCALLOPED IN SHELL GARNISHED WITH LETTUCE AND LEMON
LOBSTER CUTLETS AND WHIPPED POTATO]
SHRIMPS
The wee shell-fish are comparatively little known in many parts of the
United States except as they come in cans. Even in this shape they lend
themselves to many pleasing combinations convenient for luncheons and
picnics.
Open the cans several hours before they are to be used, turn out the
contents into an open bowl, rinse in cold water, drain and set on ice,
or in some very cold place.
Buttered shrimps
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan; add a teaspoonful of
flour, and, when bubbling hot, a tablespoonful of tomato sauce, paprika
and salt to taste, and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Boil one minute
and add a can of shrimps, washed and drained. Stir the mixture four
minutes over a brisk fire and serve.
Pass thin slices of buttered brown bread with them.
Shrimps en coquille
Prepare as directed on preceding page, in crabs en coquille, No. 1.
They are very good.
Scallop of shrimps and mushrooms
Cook precisely as in recipe on preceding page, for crabs and
champignons.
Curried shrimps
Make a roux of one heaping tablespoonful of butter and a little less
flour; thin with one small cupful of boiling water; add an even
tablespoonful of best curry powder and one teaspoonful of onion juice.
Stir for one minute and add a can of shrimps, washed and drained. Cook
five minutes and serve.
Shrimps and eggs
(A Cuban dish.)
Make a roux of one large tablespoonful of butter and one of flour; when
it bubbles add a teaspoonful of onion juice and twice as much green
sweet pepper, minced fine, with salt and a saltspoonful of sugar. Boil
up and stir in a can of shrimps, previously washed and drained. Cook
for five minutes; remove to the table and mix in gradually, stirring
all the time, four eggs which have been beaten just enough to break the
yolks. Return to the fire and stir until the eggs begin to “set.”
Maryland terrapin
Boil the terrapin until the skin on the claws is sufficiently soft to
rub off at the slightest touch. Take from the shell, and remove every
particle of entrails and lungs. Place the meat in a chafing-dish.
Add butter, pepper and salt, the quantity of each depending on the
quantity of flesh. Let it simmer until the essence and butter reach the
consistency of light gravy. Serve hot. If desired, add a little good
sherry while eating, but not while cooking. Use no spices, dressing or
other ingredients that can detract from the flavor.
SARDINES
The adaptability of the sardine to a variety of preparations that
are appetizing and delicious is not generally recognized by the
housekeeper. The tiny fish may be used as the foundation of many nice,
light dishes, and during the heated months form a pleasing variety upon
the heavier lunch or supper dishes composed of meat. It is always well
to open a box of sardines an hour or two before the contents are to be
used. Drain the fish from the oil in which they are packed, as this is
too rich to be digestible, and does not improve the flavor of the fish.
In buying sardines, choose the more expensive quality rather than the
cheap, so-called sardines, which are often only American minnows packed
down in oil.
Baked sardines
Toast crustless slices of graham bread and butter them. Put the drained
sardines on a tin plate, squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice
and sprinkle with fine cracker crumbs. Set the plate in the oven and
bake the fish for ten minutes. Transfer the sardines to the toast, and
keep hot while you make the following sauce:
Strain a half-pint of liquor from a can of tomatoes and put it into a
porcelain-lined saucepan to heat. Rub together a teaspoonful of butter
and one of flour, stir these into the tomato liquor, and, as the sauce
thickens, add a half-teaspoonful of onion juice and a teaspoonful of
granulated sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Boil up once and pour over
the sardines and toast.
You may, if you like, substitute white bread for brown, and omit the
tomato sauce entirely.
Broiled sardines
Drain the sardines free from oil and lay them on a fine oyster-broiler.
Broil over a clear fire for five minutes. Butter heated saltine wafers,
and lay a sardine on each of these. Squeeze four drops of lemon juice
and two drops of onion juice on each fish and send to the table very
hot.
Canapés of sardines
Cut thin bread into crescents or triangles. The crescent is the true
canapé shape. Toast the bread. Flake sardines fine with a fork; work
into them a teaspoonful of melted butter, a teaspoonful of lemon juice,
a pinch of salt and four or five drops of Tabasco sauce. Spread the
toast first with butter, then with the sardine mixture, place on a tin
plate, cover, and set in the oven until very hot.
Grilled sardines
Cut as many strips of bread as you have sardines, making each piece a
little longer and broader than the fish. Toast or fry these. Roll your
sardines in egg and then in fine cracker crumbs, and fry to a light
brown. Lay a sardine on each strip of toast and garnish with lemon and
parsley.
Sardine eggs (cold)
Boil six eggs hard and throw into cold water. Remove the shells and
cut the eggs in halves, removing the yolks. Pound these yolks to a
paste with a tablespoonful of salad oil, and work into this paste eight
skinned and minced sardines. Now add a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and
a saltspoonful, each, of salt, pepper and mustard. Form into balls, and
fit these into the halved whites of the eggs, trimming off the bottoms
of the whites so that they will stand on end. Serve garnished with
water-cress, and with or without a mayonnaise dressing.
Sardine eggs (hot)
After making out the “eggs” as directed in foregoing recipe, put into a
saucepan with a broad bottom and closely fitting lid, and set in a pot
of water at a hard boil on the range. Do not let the water get into the
inner vessel. In twenty minutes they should be heated through. Transfer
to a hot dish and pour over them a hot Bearnaise sauce. (See Sauces.)
Sardines in cups
Cut rounds of stale bread more than half an inch thick. Press a smaller
cutter inside of the larger round half way through the bread. Scrape
out the crumb from the inner round, leaving sides and bottom whole. Set
upon the upper grating of a hot oven until crisped to a light brown.
Turn and toast the bottom of the cups; then butter well. Skin and
behead eight sardines. Scrape to a smooth pulp and mix with this sauce:
Make a roux of a large tablespoonful of butter and nearly as much
flour, thin with a few spoonfuls of boiling water, season with a
teaspoonful of anchovy paste and one of Worcestershire sauce; stir in
the sardine pulp, and when it begins to bubble fill the buttered bread
cups, which should have been kept hot. Send around sliced lemon with
them.
Anchovies au lit
Toast thin rounds of bread; butter and cover thickly with the yolks of
hard-boiled eggs, run through the vegetable press. Make a hollow in the
mass of powdered egg and lay a curled anchovy in the little pit thus
formed.
Set in a hot oven for five minutes, and serve.
Anchovy toast
Cut the crust from slices of bread and toast to a light brown. Butter
lightly, and spread with anchovy paste. Lay the toast upon a hot
platter in the oven while you make a sauce by cooking together a
tablespoonful of butter and the same quantity of browned flour, and
when they are blended pouring upon them a pint of beef stock. Stir to a
smooth, brown sauce, add a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, six stoned
and chopped olives, pepper to taste, and a very little salt. Pour this
sauce over and around the anchovy toast.
Anchovy croutons
Cut white bread into three-inch triangles, and fry them in butter to a
pale brown. Drain, and spread each lightly with anchovy paste, and on
this lay a slice of tomato. Dust with salt and pepper and serve cold.
Caviar in saucers
Prepare rounds of bread as directed for “Sardines in Cups,” and keep
hot while you make the filling thus:
Two tablespoonfuls of caviar, one teaspoonful of lemon juice,
one-fourth teaspoonful of curry powder, and the same of paprika. Put
all into a saucepan over the fire and stir until quite hot; then put it
into the hot and crisped “saucers.”
Caviar strips
Cut an equal number of slices of brown and of white bread—quite
thin—and butter on one side. Trim into neat oblongs and spread the
white bread with caviar. Fit a brown strip over each piece thus
prepared, press lightly and firmly together, and lay, log-cabin-wise,
in a tray lined with a doily.
A curry of salmon
Open a can of salmon two hours before using, and remove all bits of
skin and bone. Pour two tablespoonfuls of olive oil into a frying-pan
and fry in it a minced onion. When the onion is brown stir into the
oil a tablespoonful of flour mixed with a teaspoonful of curry powder,
and when these are blended add a large coffee-cupful of boiling water.
Season and stir for a moment, and turn the salmon into the mixture.
Cook for two minutes and serve. Pass sliced lemon with this dish.
Salmon mayonnaise
Have boiling in a kettle a gallon of salted water to which a gill of
vinegar has been added. Lay carefully in this two salmon steaks and
let them boil very slowly. Test with a silver fork, and when done, but
not at all broken, lift carefully from the water and drain. Set aside
until cool, then keep on the ice until wanted. Lay the steaks on a cold
platter and pour a very thick mayonnaise over them. Spread this smooth
with a knife that the steaks may be covered. Garnish with an abundance
of water-cress.
Scallop of salmon
Open a can of salmon several hours before it is needed. Remove all bits
of skin and bone, and flake the fish into small pieces. Make a white
sauce and stir the salmon into this. Pour into a buttered pudding-dish,
cover thickly with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.
Beauregard cod
Boil a pound of cod the day before it is needed and let it get cold.
Flake to pieces with a silver fork, removing all bits of skin and bone.
Next day heat a pint of fresh milk in a double boiler, thicken this
with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter, and stir in
the flaked fish. Season to taste and cook for five minutes. Turn upon
squares of buttered toast. Have ready four hard-boiled eggs, the yolks
powdered, the whites cut into rings. Sprinkle the yellow powder over
the fish and lay the white rings about the edge of the platter.
Baked smelts with oyster forcemeat
Choose fine, large smelts of uniform size. Clean, wash and wipe, and
fill them with a forcemeat made of one part fine crumbs, three parts
finely-minced oysters, seasoned with paprika, a little minced parsley,
salt and a tablespoonful of melted butter to a cupful of the forcemeat.
Sew the fish up with fine thread and long stitches; lay in your covered
roaster with a little boiling water under the grating and bake twenty
minutes, basting once with butter when nearly done. Serve with lemon
sauce.
They make a delicious fish course for luncheon. The threads should be
clipped carefully that the fish may not be torn as they are drawn out
before serving.
Baked smelts
Clean, wipe, roll in melted butter, then in cracker dust, set on ice to
stiffen for an hour, and cook fifteen minutes in your covered roaster.
Send sliced lemon around with this dish.
Creamed shad
(Contributed)
Make a white sauce by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and
a heaping one of flour, and, when they are blended, pouring upon them
a pint of unskimmed milk. Add a few drops of onion juice, then pour
slowly upon the beaten yolks of two eggs. Season with salt, pepper and
a teaspoonful of minced parsley. Into this sauce stir a pint of cold,
cooked shad that has been freed of bones and flaked very fine. Turn
into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle with crumbs and bake for twenty
minutes or until heated through.
A “pick-up” of fish
This is a good dish for Saturday when you are gathering up left-overs
to clear decks for the Sunday which is to begin the new week.
A cupful of cold, cooked fish—cod, halibut, salmon or any other firm
fish; the same quantity of cold, cooked macaroni, cut into small bits;
half a cupful of tomato sauce, one cupful of oyster liquor, which any
fish dealer will give you; a heaping tablespoonful of butter and the
same of flour, a teaspoonful of onion juice and the same of minced
parsley. Salt and paprika to taste.
Heat the butter in a saucepan; stir in the flour, and, when it bubbles,
the tomato sauce, the oyster liquor and the seasoning. Boil up once,
add fish and macaroni; heat to a bubble without stirring, and turn into
a deep dish.
Fish scallop
Prepare as above, but instead of stewing turn all into a buttered
pudding-dish as soon as macaroni and fish are added to the hot sauce;
strew crumbs on top, stick bits of butter over it and bake, covered,
half an hour. Then brown.
Baked chowder
Fry a small sliced onion in a large spoonful of butter; strain and
return butter to the frying-pan. Have ready two pounds of cod or other
firm fish cut into inch squares; put into the hot butter and toss and
turn until they are well coated; pack the fish in a buttered bake-dish
alternately with slices of parboiled potatoes, fat salt pork, minced
fine (about half a pound in all), bits of butter rolled in flour,
minced parsley and two tomatoes chopped. Season a large cupful of
oyster liquor with paprika and salt, and pour over all. Cover with
split Boston crackers that have been soaked in milk for half an hour,
fit on a lid and bake, covered, one hour. Then brown. A savory family
dish.
A “Cape Cod folks” tid-bit
Soak two pounds of salt cod over night. In the morning wash and scrub
it with a whisk to remove lingering crystals of salt and cover with hot
water in which an onion has been boiled. Let it stand in this until
the water is cold. Take out the fish and lay between two towels until
perfectly dry. Broil then on both sides, turning twice; lay it in a hot
water dish; break to pieces with a fork, and cover well with hot drawn
butter, seasoned with pepper, lemon juice and minced parsley. Let it
stand (covered) for ten minutes over the hot water before serving, and
you will be surprised by the excellent dish contrived of such homely
materials.
Halibut and cheese scallop
Have ready two cupfuls (less, if you happen not to have as much) of
cold, cooked halibut, flaked rather coarsely with a fork. Make a good
white sauce—drawn butter—based upon milk instead of water. Butter a
bake-dish and fill it with alternate layers of the fish, sauce and
grated cheese (very mild), using altogether about four tablespoonfuls
of the latter, and cover the top with crumbs. Bake half an hour in
a quick oven, and serve hot. Keep covered until ten minutes before
serving, when brown.
Deviled halibut or cod
Pick cold, cooked fish into bits with a silver fork. Make a forcemeat
of bread-crumbs, the yolks of two eggs run through colander or
vegetable press, a tablespoonful of melted butter, one of minced
parsley, a teaspoonful of onion juice, paprika and salt. Mix with
the fish, wet up with oyster liquor and fill scallop shells with the
mixture. Cover with fine crumbs, pepper and salt them, put a dot of
butter upon each scallop and bake quickly to a light brown.
EGGS
Curried eggs
Boil seven eggs hard and throw into cold water to loosen the shells.
Remove these without tearing or breaking the eggs, and cut round in
slices nearly half an inch thick. Have ready in a saucepan a large cup
of gravy from which the fat has been removed. Chicken gravy or stock
is especially nice for this purpose. Season well with a teaspoonful of
onion juice, half a cupful of strained tomato sauce, with pepper and
salt. Boil up, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour and a
teaspoonful of curry powder, and simmer together three minutes.
Arrange the sliced eggs upon a chafing-dish or hot-water dish, pour the
curry sauce over them; set in the hot oven for three or four minutes,
covered, to get heated through, and send to table in the hot-water dish.
Serve boiled rice with it.
Banana toast
Is a pleasing accompaniment to curried eggs.
Remove the crust from graham bread and cut it into thin slices. Spread
one piece with thin slices of banana and lay another slice of bread
upon this. Press the two pieces together that they may not fall apart,
and toast quickly to a light brown. Keep hot in the oven until wanted,
as these sandwiches are not good when cold.
Egg timbales
Beat six eggs light and stir into them a half-pint of rich milk, a
pinch of soda and salt and white pepper to taste. Pour into greased
muffin-pans; set these in an outer pan of boiling water, and bake until
the egg is “set.” Turn the timbales out upon a platter and pour a rich
brown sauce around them.
Baked omelet
Break five eggs, the whites and yolks separately. Soak the crumbs of a
slice of white bread in a half-cupful of milk for ten minutes. Beat the
yolks of the eggs thoroughly and whip the whites stiff. Stir the bread
and milk into the yolks, add a teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful
of white pepper, and stir in the whites of the eggs lightly—just enough
to mix them. Turn into a well-greased pudding-dish and bake in a quick
oven. Do not let the omelet crust over too quickly, but put a piece of
paper over the top for a few minutes. Uncover and brown.
Deviled eggs
Boil a dozen eggs hard, throw into cold water, and at the end of half
an hour remove the shells. Cut the eggs carefully in half, extract the
yolks and rub these to a paste with three tablespoonfuls of salad oil,
two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a half-teaspoonful of made mustard,
a dash of paprika, two or three drops of Tabasco sauce, and salt to
taste. Form this paste into balls, put the balls back into the halved
whites and fit the whites into place. Run a wooden toothpick through
the two halves of each egg to hold them together. Wrap every egg in
waxed or tissue paper to keep it from becoming dry. Eat cold, with or
without mayonnaise dressing.
Omelets cachés
Wash and wipe six large, smooth tomatoes of uniform size. Cut a
piece from the blossom end of each and lay aside. Scoop out the pulp
carefully, not to break the walls of the tomato. Set together in an
open pudding-dish and put this into a brisk oven until the tomatoes are
smoking-hot, but not until they break and collapse. Have ready the pulp
you have extracted, minced and stewed, seasoned with butter, pepper,
salt, a little onion juice and sugar. Drain off most of the juice. Beat
four eggs light, add four tablespoonfuls of cream, a tablespoonful
of butter heated to a roux with one of flour, mix quickly with three
tablespoonfuls of the drained tomato, and fill the tomato shells with
them. Fit on the tops and set in a shallow pan upon the top grating of
a quick oven. Five minutes should cook them. Slip a spatula under each
tomato, transfer to a hot platter and serve at once.
Pass thin slices of brown bread with them.
Chicken or turkey timbales
Boil eight eggs very hard and leave them in cold water for two or more
hours. Take the shells off, cut in half, and extract the yolks. Chop
the whites before running them through a vegetable press. Now mix with
them four heaping tablespoonfuls of the breast of chicken or turkey
minced as finely as possible; season with half a teaspoonful of onion
juice, paprika and celery salt to taste, and mix to a white paste with
the whites of three eggs beaten to a standing froth. Have ready enough
buttered “nappies” or _pâté_ pans to hold the mixture; fill them, set
in a pan of hot water and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven.
Turn out upon a hot platter; pour a good white sauce about the base,
heap a teaspoonful of the powdered yolks on the top of each and serve.