Lobster Salad
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons.-1 hen lobster, 1 lettuce, endive, small salad (whatever is in season), a little chopped beetroot, 2 hard-boiled eggs, a few slices of cucumber. For dressing, 4 LOBSTER SAUCE. tablespoonfuls of oil, 2 do. of vinegar, 1 teaspoonful of made mustard, the yolks of 2 eggs; cayenne and salt to taste ; 1/4 teaspoonful of anchovy sauce. These ingredients should be mixed perfectly smooth and form a creamy-looking sauce. AVER- AGE COST, 38.
Wash the salad and thoroughly dry it by shaking it in a cloth. Cut up the lettuces and endive, pour the dressing on them and lightly throw in the small salad. Mix all well together with the pickings from the body of the lobster; pick the meat from the shell, cut it up into nice square pieces, put half in the salad, the other half reserve for garnishing. Separate the yolks from the whites of 2 hard-boiled eggs; chop the whites very fine and rub the yolks through LOBSTER SALAD. a sieve and afterwards the coral from the inside. Arrange the salad lightly on a glass dish and garnish, first with a row of sliced cucumber, then with the pieces of lobster, the yolks and whites of eggs, coral and beetroot placed alternately and arranged in small separate bunches, so that the colours contrast nicely.
SEASONABLE from April to October; may be had all the year, but salad is scarce and expensive in winter.
Note. A few crayfish make a pretty garnish for lobster salad.
Lobster Sauce (to Serve with Turbot, Salmon, Brill, &c.; very Good).---IN- •GREDIENTS for sauce for a turbot or brill.- 1 middling-sized hen lobster, pint of melted butter, 1 tablespoonful of anchovy sauce, 1/2 oz. of butter, salt and cayenne to taste, a little pounded mace when liked, 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of cream. AVERAGE COST, 2s.
Choose a hen lobster, as this is indispensable, in order to render this sauce as good as it ought to be. Pick the meat from the shells and cut it into small square pieces; put the spawn, which will be found under the tail of the lobster, into a mortar, with 1/2 oz. of butter and pound it quite smooth ; rub it through a hair-sieve and cover up till wanted. Make pint of melted butter; put in all the ingredients except the lobster- LOBSTER SOUP. meat and well mix the sauce before the lobster is added to it, as it should retain its square form and not come to table shredded and ragged. Put in the meat, let it get thoroughly hot, but do not allow it to boil, as the colour would immediately be spoiled; for it must be remembered that this sauce should always have a bright red appearance. If it is intended to be served with turbot or brill, a little of the spawn (dried and rubbed through a sieve without butter) should be saved to garnish with; but as the goodness, flavour and appearance of the sauce so much depend on having a proper quantity of spawn, the less used for garnishing the better.
TIME.-1 minute to simmer.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Note. Melted butter made with milk will be found to answer very well for lobster sauce, as by employing it a nice white colour will be obtained.
Less quantity than the above may be made by using a very small lobster, to which add only 1/2 pint of melted butter and season as above.
Where economy is desired, the cream may be dispensed with and the remains of a cold lobster left from table may, with a little care, be converted into a very good sauce.
Lobster Soup. INGREDIENTS for soup for 12 persons.-2 large lobsters or 6 small ones; the crumb of a French roll, 2 anchovies, 1 onion, 1 small bunch of sweet herbs, 1 strip of lemon-peel, 2 oz. of butter, a little nutmeg, 1 teaspoonful of flour, 1. pint of cream, 1 pint of milk; forcemeat balls, mace, salt and pepper to taste, breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 5 pints of water. AVERAGE COST, 7s. 6d.
Pick the meat from the lobsters and beat the fins, chine and small claws in a mortar, LOBSTER CUT UP. previously taking away the brown fin and the bag in the head. Put it in a stewpan, with the crumb of the roll, anchovies, onions, herbs, lemon-peel and the water; simmer gently till all the goodness is ex- LUNCHEON. tracted and strain it off. Pound the spawn in a mortar, with the butter, nutmeg and flour and mix with it the cream and milk.
Give one boil up, at the same time adding the tails cut in pieces. Make the forcemeat balls with the remainder of the lobster, seasoned with mace, pepper and salt, adding a little flour and a few breadcrumbs; moisten them wih the egg, heat them in the soup and serve.
TIME. hours or rather more.
SEASONABLE from April to October.
