Crawfish with Butter

Select four or five dozen large, live, and well cleaned crawfish; put them inside a net and plunge this into a large vessel containing boiling water, in order to kill the crawfish at once. Drain them well, then break off all their small legs; melt some butter, having a sufficiency of it, according to the quantity of crawfish; pour off the top of it only into a saucepan, and cook it until it becomes nut brown, then add to it the crawfish, a bunch of parsley, aromatic herbs, some cut up onions and pepper corns; let cook while tossing for ten minutes, drain and put them back in the saucepan besprinkle with a handful of white and fresh bread-crumbs; pour over two or three gills of mirepoix stock (No. 419); remove the saucepan to a slower fire to let the crawfish cook for a few moments longer, but without ceasing to toss. Take them from the fire, trim them and add to the sauce some sherry and small bits of butter for the purpose of thickening it. Dress the crawfish on a deep dish, and pour the sauce over.