SHELL FISH

Clams. (0 judge whether clams and oysters are fresh insert a knife, and if the shell instantly closes firmly on the knife the oysters are fresh. If it shuts slowly and faintly or not at all they are dying or dead. When the shells of raw oysters are found gaping open they are not good.

Clam Bake.

Lay the clams on a rock, edge downward, forming a circle; cover them with fine brush, cover the brush with dry sage, cover the sage with larger brush; set the whole on fire, and when the brush and sage are a little more than half burnt look at the clams by pulling some out, and if done enough brush the fire, cinders, etc., off; mix some tomato or cauliflower sauce or catsup with the clams after being taken out of their shells; add butter and spices to taste and serve.

Clam Cho^vder.

Put in a pot some small slices of fat salt pork, enough to line the bottom of it; on that a layer of potatoes cut in small pieces; on the potatoes a layer of chopped onions; on the onions a layer of tomatoes in slices, or canned tomatoes; on these a layer of clams, whole or chopped (they are generally chopped), then a layer of crackers. Season with salt and pepper, and other spices if desired. Then repeat this process, layer after layer, in above order, seasoning each, until the pot is full. When the whole is in, cover with waten

^52 SHELL FISH.

set on a slow fire, and when nearly done stir gently, finish cooking -and serve.

When done, if found too thin, boil a little longer; if found too thick, add a little water, give one boil and serve. Fish Chowder is made exactly like clam chowder, except that fish are used instead of clams.

Clam Fritters.

Twelve clams, minced fine, one pint of milk, three eggs; add the liquor from the clams to the milk; beat up the eggs and add to this, with salt and pepper and flour enough for a thin batter; lastly add the chopped clams. Fry in hot lard, trying a little first to see if fat and batter are right. A tablespoonful makes a fritter of moderate size. Fry quickly and serve hot.

Fried Clams. Take large soft-shell clams, dry them in a napkin, and dip them first in beaten egg and then powdered cracker or bread crumbs, and fry in sweet lard or butter or both mixed.

Clam Pie. , Take a quantity of clams, if large chop them, put in a saucepan and cook in their own liquor, or, if necessary, add a little water; boil three or four medium-sized potatoes until done, then cut in slices; line a pudding-dish half way up its sides; turn a small teacup bottom up in the middle of the dish to keep up the top crust, put in first a layer of clams and then a few potatoes, season with bits of butter and a little salt and pepper and dredge with flour; add another layer of clams, and so on till the dish is filled; add the liquor in which the clams were cooked and a little water if neces- sary. There should be as much liquid as for chicken or other meat pie. Cover with top crust, cut places for steam to escape and bake three-fourths of an hour.

Clam Stew. Vut the clams in a stewpan with about the same quantity of Wc "G. %s the juice of the clams. Boil twenty-five or thirty minutes;

SHELL FISH. 253

remove all the scum that rises, and season with butter, salt and pepper.

Clam Soup.

Take the required number of clams, chop them fine, then cook in a little water with butter, pepper and salt; when almost done put in milk or cream, and in soup enough for four persons put one cup of rolled crackers. Serve hot.

To fit them for the table, living crabs require to be boiled in salt water; they are either placed in cold water which is then made hot or put at once into boiling water; crabs cooked by the latter method are found to have the finest flavor. The male crab is the most valuable for the table, and may be distinguished by possessing larger claws. In purchasing crabs in the living state preference should be given to those which have a rough shell and claws. When selecting a crab which has been cooked it should be held by its claws and well shaken from side to side. If it is found to rattle, or feels as if it contained water, it is a proof that the crab is of inferior quality. The crab may be kept alive, out of water, two or three days.

Soft Crabs.

Many will not eat hard-shell crabs, considering them indigestible, and not sufficiently palatable to compensate for the risk they run in eating them. And it must be owned that they are, at their best, but an indifferent substitute for the more aristocratic lobster. But in the morning of life, for him so often renewed, his crabship is a different creature, and greatly affected by epicures.

Do not keep the crabs over night, as the shells hai'den in twenty- four hours. Pull off the spongy substance from the sides, and the sand-bags. These are the only portions uneatable. Wash well and wipe dry. Have ready a pan of seething hot lard or butter and fry them to a fine brown. Put a little salt into the lard; the butter will need none. Send up hot, garnished with parsley.

254 SHELL FISH.

Scalloped Crab. Pick out all tlie meat of the crab and mix thoroughly; add to it one-third its quantity of bread crumbs, a good lump of butter, divided into little bits; season Avith salt and pepper, a dust of grated nutmeg and a dessertspoonful of vinegar or lemon juice sprinkled over the mass. Mix all equally together. Clean out the bottom shell of your crab, and fill it with the mixture; what is left you may put into scallop-shells or tins. Set them into a moderately hot oven. When hot through and slightly browned on the surface they are fit to serve on a dish covered Avith a napkin, the crab-shell in the middle and the scallop-shells around it, garnished with si:»rig8 of parsley.

Scald the hind quarters in boiling water, rub them with lemon juice and boil for three minutes, wipe them, dip them first in cracker dust, then in a mixture of two beaten eggs in half a cuj) of milk seasoned with pepper and salt, then again in cracker crumbs. When they are well covered with crumbs fry in a mixture of hot lard and butter.

Lobster Croquettes.

Chop the lobster very fine; mix with pepper, salt, bread crumbs and a little parsley; moisten with cream and a small piece of butter; shape with your hands; dip in egg, roll in bread crumbs and fry.

Lobster Cutlets.

Mince the flesh of lobsters fine; season with salt, pepper and tipice; melt a piece of butter in a saucepan; mix with it one table- spoonful of flour; add lobster and finely-chopped parsley; mix with some good stock; remove from the fire, and stir into it the yolks of two eggs; spread out the mixture, and, when cold, cut into cutlets, dip carefully into beaten egg, then into fine baked bread crumbs; let them stand an hour, and repeat, and fry a rich brown. Serve with fried parsley.

SHELL FISH. 255

Fried Lobster. If, when making a salad, you liave more lobster than you wish to use for that, keep it in a cool place and fry in butter and bread crumbs for breakfast.

Lobster Patties.

Make some puff-paste and spread it on very deep patty pans.

Bake it empty. Having boiled well two or three fine lobsters,

extract all the meat and mince it very small, mixing it with the

coral smoothly mashed, and some yolk of hard-boiled egg, grated.

Season it with a little salt, some Cayenne, and some powdered mace

or nutmeg, adding a little yellow lemon rind, grated. Moisten the

mixture well with cream, fresh butter, or salad oil. Put it into a

stewpan, add a very little water, and let it steam till it just comes to

a boil. Take it off the fire, and the patties being baked, remove them

from the tin pans, place them on a large dish, and fill them up to

the top with the mixture. Similar patties may be made of prawns

or crabs.

Lobster Rissoles.

Extract the meat of a boiled lobster; mince it as fine as possible; mix it with the coral pounded smooth, and some yolks of hard- boiled eggs, pounded also. Season it with Cayenne pepper, pow- dered mace, and a very little salt. Make a batter of beaten egg^ milk and flour. To each egg allow two large tablespoonfuls of milk, and a large teaspoonf ul 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. Similar rissoles may be made of raw oysters minced fine, or of boiled clams. These should be fried in lard.

Lobster Salad. Pick the meat from the shell, cut into nice square pieces, cut up some lettuce and mix. Make a dressing of four tablespoonfuls of oil, two of vinegar, one of mustard, the yolks of two eggs and pep-

25Q SHELL FISH.

per and salt to taste; rub smooth together, forming a creamy look- ing sauce, and cover the lobster with it. Garnish with sliced cucumber pickles, egg-rings, parsley and cold beet cut in fancy shapes.

Broiled Lobster.

Cut the tail part of a lobster in two, rub a little sweet oil over the meat and broil. When done, brush a little butter over it with the juice of half a lemon and a very little Cayenne. Place the meat back into the shell and send to the table with a dish of broiled tomatoes and a fresh baked potato.

Lobsters en Brochette.

Cut up the tail of a lobster in square pieces; take a few thin slices of bacon and cut into lengths to match the lobster; place them on a skewer alternately and broil; baste as in broiled lobster and send to the table on a bed of water-cresses.

Roasted Lobsters.

When lobsters are half cooked, remove from the water and rub

thoroughly with butter; lay before the fire; continue basting with

butter until it has a fine froth and the shell becomes a dark brown.

Place on a dish and serve with plain melted butter in a sauce-boat.

Gratin of Lobster.

Take out all the meat from a large lobster, then wash the body, tail, and shells, if the lobster is first cut in halves down the back, then dry and butter them and sprinkle with bread crumbs; chop the meat fine, with a little parsley and shallot, a few drops of essence of anchovies, a spoonful of vinegar, Cayenne pepper and salt, a little bechamel sauce, and boil all well together, add a yolk of ^gg, put it to cool, then fill your shells or paper cases, cover with bread crumbs and some pieces of butter; brown them in the oven, and dish on a napkin.

Broiled Oysters.

Drain select oysters in a colander; dip them one by one into

SHELL FISH. 257

melted butter, to prevent sticking to the gridiron, and place them on a wire gridiron. Broil over a clear fire. When nicely browned on both sides, season with salt, pepper, and plenty of butter, and lay them on hot buttered toast, moistened with a little hot water. Serve very hot, or they will not be nice. Oysters cooked in this way and served on broiled beefsteak are nice.

Oyster Chowder.

Fry out three rashers of pickled pork in the pot you make the chowder; add to it three potatoes and two onions, boih sliced; boil until they are nearly cooked; soak two or three dozen crackers in cold water a few minutes, then put into the pot half a can of oys- ters, one quart of milk and the soaked crackers. Boil all together a few minutes; season with salt, pepper and butter. Fish chowder can be made the same way by using fresh fish instead of oysters.

Oyster Croquettes.

Take the hard end of the oyster, leaving the other end in nice ehape for a soup or stew; scald them, then chop fine and add an equal weight of potatoes rubbed through a colander; to one pound of this add two ounces of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, half a teaspoonful of mace, and one-half gill of cream; make in small rolls, dip in egg and grated bread, fry in deep lard.

Fricasseed Oysters,

Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters, strain half a pint and put in a porcelain kettle, and when it boils put in the oysters. Have a tablespoonful of flour rubbed well into two tablespoonfuls of butter. When the oysters begin to swell, stir in the butter and flour, cook until the oysters are white and plump; then add a gill of cream and pepper and salt.

Fried Oysters. Take large oysters, wash and drain. Dip them into flour; put in a hot frying pan with plenty of lard and butter; season with salt

258 SHELL FISH.

and pepper; fry brown on both sides. Fried in this way, they are similar to broiled oysters.

Fried Oysters, No. 2.

Drain, remove all bits of shell, and sprinkle with pepper and salt, and set in a cool place for ten minutes. Then, if the oysters are small, pour them into a pan of crackers, rolled fine ; add liquor, mixi well and let stand five minutes; add a little salt and peppei*, mold into small cakes, with two or three oysters in each, roll in dry crackers and fry in lard and butter. Serve hot in a covered dish.

Chicken and Oyster Pie.

Parboil a chicken; cut up and place in a pie dish; cover with oysters and season to taste; add two hard-boiled eggs cut into slices, with a piece of butter, size of an egg, in the center; dust the whole with flour, and pour on one-half pint of milk; put on a puff- paste crust and bake about three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven.

Scalloped Oysters,

Prepare stale bread-crumbs, season to taste with pepper and salt; butter a deep dish; cover the bottom with the crumbs; add a layer of large-sized oysters, with butter; fill the dish alternately with oysters, crumbs and butter. Bake in a hot oven until cooked entirely through; if they become too brown on the top, cover with paper. If preferred, scallop the oysters separately and serve in the shells, observing that the shells are well cleaned. Instead of crumbs use slices of well-buttered bread, if you like, or bake with a crust of puff-paste.

Park Row Oyster Stew,

Put the oysters into a stewpan with a little liquor to cover them; add a little butter, pepper and salt; stir every now and then while on the fire, and when poured into the dish, put in about a table- spoonful of milk to every ten oysters.

Oyster soup is made in the same way, except that more liquor is

SHELL FISH. 259

added, and a tablespoonful of pounded butter crackers; add plenty of milk the last thing when the oysters are cooked, and let it boil up once.

Maryland Stewed Oysters.

Put the juice into a saucepan and let it simmer, skimming it care- fully; then rub the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs and one large spoonful of flour well together, and stir into the juice. Cut in small pieces a quarter of a pound of butter, half a teaspoonful of whole allspice, a little salt, a little Cayenne, and the juice of a fresh lemon; let all simmer ten minutes, and just before dishing, add the oysters. This is for two quarts of oysters.

Plain Stew.

One quart of oysters with liquor, pint and a half of milk, piece of butter size of egg, pepper and salt; boil all together until done.

Oyster Sauce.

Set the oysters in their liquor over the fire for a few minutes; then remove them from the liquor and stir into it some flour and butter well rubbed together, add salt and pepper, and when it has boiled well for five minutes put in the oysters and s^vve immediately.

Oyster Pie.

Make a rich puff paste; roll out twice as thick as for a fru/, ove, for the top crust — about the ordinary thickness for the lower. X^ine a pudding dish with the thinner, and fill with crusts of dry Ijread , or light crackers. Some use a folded towel to fill the interioi of the pie, but the above expedient is preferable. Butter the ed,,^es of the dish, that you may be able to lift the upper crust without breaking. Cover the mock pie with the thick crust, ornamented heavily at the edge, that it may lie the more quietly, and bake. Cook the oysters as for a stew, only beating into them at the last, two eggs, and thickening with a spoonful of fine cracker crumbs or rice flour. They should stew but five minutes, and time them so

260 SHELL FISH.

that the paste will be baked just in season to receive them. Lift the top crusty pour in the smoking hot oysters, and send up hot.

Many consider it unnecessary to prepare the oysters and crust separately; but experience and observation go to prove that if the precaution be omitted, the oysters are apt to be wofully overdone. The maker can try both methods and take her choice.

Pickled Oysteks, One ounce each of allspice, mace, cinnamon and cloves, one quart vinegar; scald all together, then put in the oysters, waiting until it is cool; next day scald all together.

Oyster Patties. Line small patty-pans with puff paste; into eaok pan put six oysters, bits of butter, pepper and salt; sprinkle over a little flour and hard-boiled eggs, chopped (allowing about two eggs for six patties), cover with an upper crust, notch the edges and bake; serve either in the pans or remove them to a larger platter.

Oyster Pot-Pie.

Have ready nice light-raised biscuit dough, cut into small squares. Season the oysters well with butter, pepper and salt, and thicken them with a little flour; drop in the pieces of dough and boil till done. This may be baked in the oven in a pudding-dish, allowing the dough to brown on the top.

Roasted Oysters.

Take oysters in the shell, wash the shells clean, and lay them on hot coals; when they are done they will begin to open. Remove the upper shell, and serve the oysters in the lower shell, with a little melted butter poured over each.

Oysters, Fancy Roast.

Toast a few slices of bread, and butter them; lay them in a shallow dish; put on the liquor of the oysters to heat; add salt and pepper, and just before it boils add the oysters; let them boil up once, and pour over the bread.

SHELL FISH. 261

Oyster a la Poulette.

Scald a dozen oysters in their own liquor; salt and remove the oysters; add a tablespoonful of butter, the juice of half a lemon, a gill of cream, and a teaspoonful of flour. Beat up the yolk of one egg while the sauce is simmering; add the egg and simmer the whole until it thickens. Place the oysters on a hot dish, pour the sauce over them, sprinkle a little chopped parsley on the top and serve.

Raw Oysters.

For a party, serve on a handsome block of ice in which a cavity has been made with a hot flat-iron. Set the ice on a platter and garnish the edges with slices of lemon. Have pepper, salt and vinegar on hand; also serve with lemon juice.

Oysters with Toast. Broil or fry as many oysters as you wish, and lay them on but- tered toast; salt and pepper; pour over them a cup of hot, rich cream; keep them perfectly hot until eaten.

Oyster Flavor.

A German cook has discovered a way to have oyster flavor all the year round. Take fresh, lai-ge, plump oysters, beard them and place them in a vessel over the fire for a few moments in order to extract the juice, then put them to cool, and chop them very fine wiih powdered biscuit, mace, and finely minced lemon peel; pound them until they become a paste; make them up into thin cakes, place them on a sheet of paper in a slow oven and let them bake until they become quite hard; pound them directly into powder, and place the powder in a dry tin box, well covered; keep in a dry place, and it will be very much appreciated when the true oyster flavor is imparted to fish, sauces and dishes. This makes a delicious .sauce for fresh cod.

New Way of Preparing Oysters.

The ways of preparing oysters are not many. This method.

262 SHELL FISH,

however, is not widely known: Take two dozen oysters and throw them in a large deep dish; then take a small bunch of parsley chopped fine, a little lemon rind grated, half a nutmeg grated, and the crumbs of a stale French roll, also grated; let the latter be well incorporated, adding some Cayenne. Have in readiness the yolks of three fresh eggs beaten up into a foam; dip each oyster sepa- rately into the eggs and roll them into the bread crumbs until they are all covered with a good coat. Put a quarter of a pound of butter in the oven till it is melted while arranging the oysters in the pan, then turn them continually until they assume a perfect brown and crusty appearance. When fully cooked serve them with some celery, salt and thin slices of Graham bread and butter.

Scallops. The heart is the only part used. If you buy them in the shell, boil and take out the hearts. Those sold in our markets are gen- erally ready for frying or stewing. Dip them in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs, and fry in hot lard. Or, you may stew them like oysters. The fried scallops are generally preferred.

Terrapins, or Water Turtles. Land terrapins, it is hardly necessary to say, are uneatable, but the large turtle that frequents our mill-ponds and rivers can be converted into a relishable article of food. Plunge the turtle into a pot of boiling water, and let him lie there five minutes. You can then skin the under part easily, and pull off the horny parts of the feet. Lay him for ten minutes in cold salt and water; then put into more hot water salted, but not too much. Boil until tender. The time will depend upon the size and age. Take him out, drain and wipe dry; loosen the shell carefully, not to break the flesh; cut open also with care, lest you touch the gall-bag with the knife. Remove this with the entrails and sand-bag. Cut up all the rest of the animal into small bits; season with pepper, salt, a chopped onion, sweet herbs, and a teaspoonful of some spiced sauce, or a tablespoonful of catsup — walnut or mushroom. Save the juice that

SHELL FISH. 263

runs from the meat, and put all together into a saucepan with a closely-fitting top. Stew gently fifteen minutes, stirring occasion- ally, and add a great spoonful of butter, or a teaspoonful browned flour wet in cold water, a glass of brown sherry, and lastly, the beaten yolk of an egg, mixed with a little of the hot liquor, that it may not curdle. Boil up once and turn into a covered dish. Send around green pickles and delicate slices of toast with it.