Lobster or Spiny Lobster with Mayonnaise

Cook a large lobster; drain and let get cold with the tail stretched out. Detach the large claws and divide the body lengthwise in two; remove the meats whole from each halved tail, and cut them up slanting, but without deforming them. Wipe well the empty tail shells and fill them half way with chopped jelly, then return the meats to the shells upside down so that the red part is uppermost. Suppress the black vein from the center of the bodies, also the creamy parts, and rub these through a sieve and add them to a mayonnaise sauce (No. 606). Dress the two halves of the lobster on a napkin or dish, and in the hollow space formed by the shells place a bunch of parsley leaves; on this dress the lobster claws in their shells, after suppressing half of them, and surround the lobster on the bottom of the dish with a string of chopped jelly, and around this lay either croutons of jelly or halved hard-boiled eggs filled with a salad of vegetables (No. 2650); serve the mayonnaise sauce separately.