Gumbo or Okra with Soft Shell Crabs

Set into a saucepan four ounces of butter to heat, add to it two ounces of shallots, four ounces of lean raw ham, and fry without letting attain a color; pour in four quarts of thickened fish stock, a quarter of a pound of finely cut up green peppers and let the whole simmer for twenty minutes, then add sixteen soft shell crabs cut in two or four, according to their size, and well cleansed; boil again for fifteen minutes and drain off the crabs; pare them nicely and return them to the saucepan with the liquid, and thicken this with eight spoonfuls of ground gumbo or okra, and some good butter. Prepare a separate garnishing of rice cooked with twice its quantity of water, salt and lard, boiling all together for ten minutes; fill a buttered one quart charlotte mold with this, and set it in a slack oven for fifteen minutes; unmold, and serve the same time as the soup.