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CRAB (au Gratin)
Pick all the meat from a crab; lay in the empty shell a layer of the soft part, then a layer of grated crackers or biscuits; over this lay the fleshy part of the crab, on which pour a spoonful of mushroom ketchup; add some chopped hard-boiled yolks of eggs. Season with a little salt, pepper, and cayenne; cover all with the remainder of the soft part of the crab. Make it even with a wooden spoon or knife; egg and bread-crumb it over; stick a few bits of butter on top; set it in the oven for twenty minutes or half an hour, and serve very hot. Probable cost, 1s. 3d.
This is a dressed crab baked in its own shell, built in layers rather than mixed. Everything goes in already cooked, so the oven's only job is to heat it through and brown the top.
- "The soft part"This means the brown meat and tomalley from the body cavity, not the white claw and leg meat, which is the "fleshy part". Scrape the body clean and set the two kinds of meat aside separately before you start layering. A 2 lb boiled crab yields roughly 6-8 oz of picked meat in total.
- The shellScrub the empty carapace inside and out and snap away the thin, brittle rim so you have a firm dish. If the shell is cracked or you are working from pre-picked meat, use two small gratin dishes or ramekins.
- Crackers or biscuitsPlain unsweetened crackers — water biscuits or saltines are the closest thing now. Grate or crush them to coarse crumbs; a couple of tablespoons is enough for one crab, as they are there to absorb moisture from the brown meat, not to bulk it out.
- Mushroom ketchupA thin, dark, salty mushroom-and-spice liquor, not tomato ketchup. It is still sold in Britain; a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce or a scant teaspoon of light soy with a drop of anchovy essence stands in for the same savoury note. Season lightly afterwards, since both are salty.
- "Egg and bread-crumb it"Brush the smoothed surface with beaten egg, then scatter fine dry breadcrumbs over it. This gives a crust that browns rather than a loose crumb topping.
- OvenCassell's gives no temperature. A moderate oven, 350-375F, for the stated 20-30 minutes will heat the filling and colour the crumbs. If the top is pale at the end, a minute under the grill finishes it.
- Don't overbakeThe crab is already cooked, so extra time only dries the white meat and makes it stringy. Twenty minutes is usually plenty for a single shell; go to half an hour only for a large crab or a deep dish.
- YieldOne crab dressed this way is a generous first course for two, or a light supper for one with bread and a sharp salad.
Baking picked crab back into its own shell with crumbs and butter is a long-established way of serving the animal in Britain, and Cassell's title borrows the French au gratin to signal the browned crust — in this period the phrase described the topping, not a baked-pasta dish. The layering of dark body meat, crumbs, white meat and chopped hard-boiled yolk keeps the two kinds of crab meat visually distinct, as in a cold dressed crab, rather than mashing them into a single paste. Mushroom ketchup, the seasoning here, was a common store-cupboard liquor through the nineteenth century, made by salting and pressing field mushrooms and used much as cooks now use Worcestershire sauce; it faded from home kitchens as bottled tomato ketchup and proprietary sauces took over. The "probable cost, 1s. 3d." is characteristic of Cassell's, which gives a probable cost for most of its recipes.