Читать книгу The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) - F. L. Gillette - Страница 17

Table of Contents

OILED LOBSTER.

Put a handful of salt into a large kettle or pot of boiling water. When the water boils very hard put in the lobster, having first brushed it and tied the claws together with a bit of twine. Keep it boiling from twenty minutes to half an hour, in proportion to its size. If boiled too long the meat will be hard and stringy. When it is done take it out, lay it on its claws to drain, and then wipe it dry.

It is scarcely necessary to mention that the head of a lobster and what are called the lady fingers are not to be eaten.

Very large lobsters are not the best, the meat being coarse and tough. The male is best for boiling; the flesh is firmer and the shell a brighter red. It may readily be distinguished from the female; the tail is narrower, and the two uppermost fins within the tail are stiff and hard. Those of the hen lobster are not so, and the tail is broader.

Hen lobsters are preferred for sauce or salad, on account of their coral. The head and small claws are never used.

They should be alive and freshly caught when put into the boiling kettle. After being cooked and cooled, split open the body and tail and crack the claws, to extract the meat. The sand pouch found near the throat should be removed. Care should be exercised that none of the feathery, tough, gill-like particles found under the body shell get mixed with the meat, as they are indigestible and have caused much trouble. They are supposed to be the cause of so-called poisoning from eating lobster.

Serve on a platter. Lettuce and other concomitants of a salad should also be placed on the table or platter.

SCALLOPED LOBSTER.

Butter a deep dish and cover the bottom with fine bread crumbs; put on this a layer of chopped lobster, with pepper and salt; so on, alternately, until the dish is filled, having crumbs on top. Put on bits of butter, moisten with milk and bake about twenty minutes.

DEVILED LOBSTER.

Take out all the meat from a boiled lobster, reserving the coral; season highly with mustard, cayenne, salt and some kind of table sauce; stew until well mixed and put it in a covered saucepan, with just enough hot water to keep from burning; rub the coral smooth, moistening with vinegar until it is thin enough to pour easily, then stir it into the saucepan. The dressing should be prepared before the meat is put on the fire, and which ought to boil but once before the coral is put in; stir in a heaping teaspoonful of butter, and when it boils again it is done and should be taken up at once, as too much cooking toughens the meat.

LOBSTER CROQUETTES.

Take any of the lobster remaining from table and pound it until the dark, light meat and coral are well mixed; put with it not quite as much fine bread crumbs; season with pepper, salt and a very little cayenne pepper; add a little melted butter, about two tablespoonfuls if the bread is rather dry; form into egg-shaped or round balls; roll them in egg, then in fine crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.

LOBSTER PATTIES.

Cut some boiled lobster in small pieces; then take the small claws and the spawn, put them in a suitable dish, and jam them to a paste with a potato masher. Now add to them a ladleful of gravy or broth, with a few bread crumbs; set it over the fire and boil; strain it through a strainer, or sieve, to the thickness of a cream, and put half of it to your lobsters, and save the other half to sauce them with after they are baked. Put to the lobster the bigness of an egg of butter, a little pepper and salt; squeeze in a lemon, and warm these over the fire enough to melt the butter, set it to cool, and sheet your patty pan or a plate or dish with good puff paste, then put in your lobster, and cover it with a paste; bake it within three-quarters of an hour before you want it; when it is baked, cut up your cover, and warm up the other half of your sauce above mentioned, with a little butter, to the thickness of cream, and pour it over your patty, with a little squeezed lemon; cut your cover in two, and lay it on the top, two inches distant, so that what is under may be seen. You may bake crawfish, shrimps or prawns the same way; and they are all proper for plates or little dishes for a second course.

LOBSTER Á LA NEWBURG.

Take one whole lobster, cut up in pieces about as large as a hickory nut. Put in the same pan with a piece of butter size of a walnut, season with salt and pepper to taste, and thicken with heavy cream sauce; add the yolk of one egg and two oz. of sherry wine.

Cream sauce for above is made as follows: 1 oz. butter, melted in saucepan; 2 oz. flour, mixed with butter, thin down to proper consistency with boiling cream.

Rector's Oyster House, Chicago.

BAKED CRABS.

Mix with the contents of a can of crabs, bread crumbs or pounded crackers. Pepper and salt the whole to taste; mince some cold ham; have the baking pan well buttered, place therein first a layer of the crab meat, prepared as above, then a layer of the minced ham, and so on, alternately until the pan is filled. Cover the top with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.

DEVILED CRABS.

Half a dozen fresh crabs, boiled and minced, two ounces of butter, one small teaspoonful of mustard powder; cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Put the meat into a bowl and mix carefully with it an equal quantity of fine bread crumbs. Work the butter to a light cream, mix the mustard well with it, then stir in very carefully, a handful at a time, the mixed crabs, a tablespoonful of cream and crumbs. Season to taste with cayenne pepper and salt; fill the crab shells with the mixture, sprinkle bread crumbs over the tops, put three small pieces of butter upon the top of each, and brown them quickly in a hot oven. They will puff in baking and will be found very nice. Half the quantity can be made. A crab shell will hold the meat of two crabs.

CRAB CROQUETTES.

Pick the meat of boiled crabs and chop it fine. Season to taste with pepper, salt and melted butter. Moisten it well with rich milk or cream, then stiffen it slightly with bread or cracker crumbs. Add two or three well-beaten eggs to bind the mixture. Form the croquettes, egg and bread, crumb them and fry them delicately in boiling lard. It is better to use a wire frying basket for croquettes of all kinds.

TO MAKE A CRAB PIE.

Procure the crabs alive, and put them in boiling water, along with some salt. Boil them for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, according to the size. When cold pick the meat from the claws and body. Chop all together, and mix it with crumbs of bread, pepper and salt, and a little butter. Put all this into the shell and brown in a hot oven. A crab shell will hold the meat of two crabs.

CRABS. (Soft Shell.)

Crabs may be boiled as lobsters. They make a fine dish when stewed. Take out the meat from the shell, put it into a saucepan with butter, pepper, salt, a pinch of mace and a very little water; dredge with flour and let simmer five minutes over a slow fire. Serve hot; garnish the dish with the claws laid around it.

The usual way of cooking them is frying them in plenty of butter and lard mixed; prepare them the same as frying fish. The spongy substance from the sides should be taken off, also the sand bag. Fry a nice brown and garnish with parsley.

OYSTERS.

Oysters must be fresh and fat to be good. They are in season from September to May.

The small ones, such as are sold by the quart, are good for pies, fritters, or stews; the largest of this sort are nice for frying or pickling for family use.

FRIED OYSTERS.

Take large oysers from their own liquor into a thickly folded napkin to dry them; then make hot an ounce each of butter and lard in a thick-bottomed frying pan. Season the oysters with pepper and salt, then dip each one into egg and cracker crumbs rolled fine, until it will take up no more. Place them in the hot grease and fry them a delicate brown, turning them on both sides by sliding a broad-bladed knife under them. Serve them crisp and hot.

Boston Oyster House.

Some prefer to roll oysters in corn meal and others use flour, but they are much more crisp with egg and cracker crumbs.

OYSTERS FRIED IN BATTER.

Ingredients.—One-half pint of oysters, two eggs, one-half pint of milk, sufficient flour to make the batter; pepper and salt to taste; when liked, a little nutmeg; hot lard.

Scald the oysters in their own liquor, beard them, and lay them on a cloth to drain thoroughly. Break the eggs into a basin, mix the flour with them, add the milk gradually, with nutmeg and seasoning, and put the oysters in a batter. Make some lard hot in a deep frying pan; put in the oysters one at a time; when done, take them up with a sharp pointed skewer and dish them on a napkin. Fried oysters are frequently used for garnishing boiled fish, and then a few bread crumbs should be added to the flour.

STEWED OYSTERS. (In Milk or Cream.)

Drain the liquor from two quarts of oysters; mix with it a small teacupful of hot water, add a little salt and pepper and set it over the fire in a saucepan. Let it boil up once, put in the oysters, let them come to a boil, and when they "ruffle" add two tablespoonfuls of butter. The instant it is melted and well stirred in, put in a pint of boiling milk and take the saucepan from the fire. Serve with oyster or cream crackers. Serve while hot.

If thickening is preferred, stir in a little flour or two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs.

PLAIN OYSTER STEW.

Same as milk or cream stew, using only oyster liquor and water instead of milk or cream, adding more butter after taking up.

OYSTER SOUP.

For oyster soup, see SOUPS.

DRY OYSTER STEW.

Take six to twelve large oysters and cook them in half a pint of their own liquor; season with butter and white pepper; cook for five minutes, stirring constantly. Serve in hot soup plates or bowls.

Fulton Market, New York.

BOSTON FRY.

Prepare the oysters in egg batter and fine cracker meal; fry in butter over a slow fire for about ten minutes; cover the hollow of a hot platter with tomato sauce; place the oysters in it, but not covering; garnished with chopped parsley sprinkled over the oysters.

Boston Oyster House.

BROILED OYSTERS.

Dry a quart of oysters in a cloth, dip each in melted butter well peppered; then in beaten egg, or not, then in bread or cracker crumbs also peppered. Broil on a wire broiler over live coals three to five minutes. Dip over each a little melted butter. Serve hot.

ROAST OYSTERS IN THE SHELL. No. 1.

Select the large ones, those usually termed "Saddle Rocks," formerly known as a distinct variety, but which are now but the large oysters selected from any beds; wash and wipe them, and place with the upper or deep shell down, to catch the juice, over or on live coals. When they open their shells, remove the shallow one, being careful to save all the juice in the other; place them, shells and all, on a hot platter, and send to the table hot to be seasoned by each person with butter and pepper to taste. If the oysters are fine, and they are just cooked enough and served hot, this is, par excellence, the style.

OYSTER ROAST. No. 2.

Put one quart of oysters in a basin with their own liquor and let them boil three or four minutes; season with a little salt, pepper and a heaping spoonful of butter. Serve on buttered toast.

STEAMED OYSTERS.

Wash and drain a quart of counts or select oysters; put them in a shallow pan and place in a steamer over boiling water; cover and steam till they are plump, with the edges ruffled, but no longer. Place to a heated dish, with butter, pepper, and salt, and serve.

Baltimore Style

STEAMED OYSTERS IN THE SHELL.

Wash and place them in an air-tight vessel, laying them the upper shell downward, so that the liquor will not run out when they open. Place this dish or vessel over a pot of boiling water where they will get the steam. Boil them rapidly until the shells open, about fifteen to twenty minutes. Serve at once while hot, seasoned with butter, salt and pepper.

PAN OYSTERS. No. 1.

Cut some stale bread into thin slices, taking off all the crust, round the slices to fit patty-pans; toast, butter, place them in the pans and moisten with three or four teaspoonfuls of oyster liquor; place on the toast a layer of oysters, sprinkle with pepper, and put a small piece of butter on top of each pan; place all the pans in a baking-pan, and place in the oven, covering tightly. They will cook in seven or eight minutes if the oven is hot; or, cook till the beards are ruffled; remove the cover, sprinkle lightly with salt, replace, and cook one minute longer. Serve in patty pans. They are delicious.

New York Style.

PAN OYSTERS. No. 2.

Lay in a thin pie tin or dripping-pan, half a pint of large oysters, or more if required; have the pan large enough so that each oyster will lie flat on the bottom; put in over them a little oyster liquor, but not enough to float; place them carefully in a hot oven and just heat them through thoroughly—do not bake them—which will be in three to five minutes, according to fire; take them up and place on toast; first moistened with the hot juice from the pan. Are a very good substitute for oysters roasted in the shell, the slow cooking bringing out the flavor.

French Restaurant, New Orleans, La.

OYSTER FRITTERS.

Select plump, good-sized oysters; drain off the juice, and to a cup of this juice add a cup of milk, a little salt, four well-beaten eggs, and flour enough to make batter like griddle-cakes.

Envelope an oyster in a spoonful of this batter (some cut them in halves or chop them fine), then fry in butter and lard, mixed in a frying pan the same as we fry eggs, turning to fry brown on both sides. Send to the table very hot.

Delmonico.

Most cooks fry oyster fritters the same as crullers, in a quantity of hot lard, but this is not always convenient; either way they are excellent.

OYSTER PATTIES.

Line patty-pans with thin pastry, pressing it well to the tin. Put a piece of bread or a ball of paper in each. Cover them with paste and brush them over with the white of an egg. Cut an inch square of thin pastry, place on the centre of each, glaze this also with egg, and bake in a quick oven fifteen to twenty minutes. Remove the bread or paper when half cold.

Scald as many oysters as you require (allowing two for each patty, three if small) in their own liquor. Cut each in four and strain the liquor. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour into a thick saucepan; stir them together over the fire till the flour smells cooked, and then pour half a pint of oyster liquor and half a pint of milk into the flour and butter. (If you have cream use it instead of milk.) Stir till it is a thick, smooth sauce. Put the oysters into it and let them boil once. Beat the yolks of two eggs. Remove the oysters for one minute from the fire, then stir the eggs into them till the sauce looks like thick custard.

Fill the patties with this oyster fricassee, taking care to make it hot by standing in boiling water before dinner on the day required, and to make the patty cases hot before you fill them.

FULTON MARKET ROAST.

It is still known in New York from the place at which it was and is still served. Take nine large oysters out of the shell; wash, dry and roast over a charcoal fire, on a broiler. Two minutes after the shells open they will be done. Take them off quickly, saving the juice in a small shallow, tin pan; keep hot until all are done; butter them and sprinkle with pepper.

This is served for one person when calling for a roast of this kind. It is often poured over a slice of toast.

SCALLOPED OYSTERS.

Have ready about a pint of fine cracker crumbs. Butter a deep earthen dish; put a layer of the cracker crumbs on the bottom; wet this with some of the oyster liquor; next have a layer of oysters; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and lay small bits of butter upon them; then add another layer of cracker crumbs and oyster juice; then oysters, pepper, salt and butter, and so on, until the dish is full; the top layer to be cracker crumbs. Beat up an egg in a cup of milk and turn over all. Cover the dish and set it in the oven for thirty or forty-five minutes. When baked through, uncover the top, set on the upper grate and brown.

OYSTER POT-PIE.

Scald a quart can of oysters in their own liquor; when it boils, skim out the oysters and set them aside in a warm place. To the liquor add a pint of hot water; season well with salt and pepper, a generous piece of butter, thicken with flour and cold milk. Have ready nice light biscuit dough, rolled twice as thick as pie crust; cut out into inch squares, drop them into the boiling stew, cover closely, and cook forty minutes. When taken up, stir the oysters into the juice and serve all together in one dish. A nice side entrée.

Prince's Bay, S. I.

BOSTON OYSTER PIE.

Having buttered the inside of a deep pie plate, line it with puff paste, or common pie crust, and prepare another sheet of paste for the lid; put a clean towel into the dish (folded so as to support the lid), set it into the oven and bake the paste well; when done, remove the lid and take out the towel. While the paste is baking, prepare the oysters. Having picked off carefully every bit of shell that may be found about them, drain the liquor into a pan and put the oysters into a stewpan with barely enough of the liquor to keep them from burning; season them with pepper, salt and butter; add a little sweet cream or milk, and one or two crackers rolled fine; let the oysters simmer, but not boil, as that will shrivel them. Remove the upper crust of pastry and fill the dish with the oysters and gravy. Replace the cover and serve hot.

Some prefer baking the upper crust on a pie plate, the same size as the pie, then slipping it off on top of the pie after the same pie is filled with the oysters.

MOCK OYSTERS.

Grate the corn, while green and tender, with a coarse grater, into a deep dish. For two ears of corn, allow one egg; beat the whites and yolks separately, and add them to the corn, with one tablespoonful of wheat flour and one of butter, a teaspoonful of salt and pepper to taste. Drop spoonfuls of this batter into a frying pan with hot butter and lard mixed, and fry a light brown on both sides.

In taste, they have a singular resemblance to fried oysters. The corn must be young.

FRICASSEED OYSTERS.

Take a slice of raw ham, which has been pickled, but not smoked, and soak in boiling water for half an hour; cut it in quite small pieces, and put in a saucepan with two-thirds of a pint of veal or chicken broth, well strained; the liquor from a quart of oysters, one small onion, minced fine, a little chopped parsley, sweet marjoram, and pepper; let them simmer for twenty minutes, and then boil rapidly for two or three minutes; skim well and add one scant tablespoon of cornstarch, mixed smoothly in one-third cup of milk; stir constantly, and when it boils add the oysters and one ounce of butter; after which, just let it come to a boil, and remove the oysters to a deep dish; beat one egg, and add to it gradually some of the hot broth, and, when cooked, stir it into the pan; season with salt, and pour the whole over the oysters. When placed upon the table, squeeze the juice of a lemon over it.

Small Oyster Pies.

For each pie take a tin plate half the size of an ordinary dinner plate; butter it, and cover the bottom with a puff paste, as for pies; lay on it five or six select oysters, or enough to cover the bottom; butter them and season with a little salt and plenty of pepper; spread over this an egg batter, and cover with a crust of the paste, making small openings in it with a fork. Bake in a hot oven fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the top is nicely browned.

Boston Oyster House.

STEWED CLAMS.

Wash clean as many round clams as required; pile them in a large iron pot, with half a cupful of hot water in the bottom, and put over the fire; as soon as the shells open take out the clams, cut off the hard, uneatable "fringe" from each with strong, clean scissors, put them into a stewpan with the broth from the pot, and boil slowly till they are quite tender; pepper well and thicken the gravy with flour stirred into melted butter.

Or, you may get two dozen freshly opened very small clams. Boil a pint of milk, a dash of white pepper and a small pat of butter. Now add the clams. Let them come to a boil and serve. Longer boiling will make the clams almost indigestible.

ROAST CLAMS IN THE SHELL.

Roast in a pan over a hot fire, or in a hot oven, or, at a "Clam Bake," on hot stones; when they open, empty the juice into a saucepan; add the clams, with butter, pepper and a very little salt.

Rye Beach.

CLAM FRITTERS.

Take fifty small or twenty-five large sand clams from their shells; if large, cut each in two, lay them on a thickly-folded napkin; put a pint bowl of wheat flour into a basin, add to it three well-beaten eggs, half a pint of sweet milk and nearly as much of their own liquor; beat the batter until it is smooth and perfectly free from lumps, then stir in the clams. Put plenty of lard or beef fat into a thick-bottomed frying pan, let it become boiling hot; put in the batter by the spoonful; let them fry gently; when one side is a delicate brown turn the other.

CLAM CHOWDER.

The materials needed are fifty round clams (quahogs), a large bowl of salt pork cut up fine, the same of onions finely chopped, and the same (or more, if you desire) of potatoes cut into eighths or sixteenths of original size; wash the clams very thoroughly and put them in a pot with half a pint of water; when the shells are open they are done; then take them from the shells and chop fine, saving all the clam water for the chowder; fry out the pork very gently, and when the scraps are a good brown take them out and put in the chopped onions to fry; they should be fried in a frying pan, and the chowder kettle be made very clean before they are put in it, or the chowder will burn. (The chief secret in chowder-making is to fry the onions so delicately that they will be missing in the chowder.)

Add a quart of hot water to the onions; put in the clams, clam-water and pork scraps. After it boils, add the potatoes, and when they are cooked, the chowder is finished. Just before it is taken up, thicken it with a cup of powdered crackers, and add a quart of fresh milk. If too rich, add more water. No seasoning is needed but good black pepper.

With the addition of six sliced tomatoes, or half a can of the canned ones, this is the best recipe of this kind, and is served in many of our best restaurants.

New Bedford Recipe

SCALLOPED CLAMS.

Purchase a dozen large soft clams in the shell and three dozen opened clams. Ask the dealer to open the first dozen, care being used not to injure the shells, which are to be used in cooking the clams. Clean the shells well, and put two soft clams on each half shell; add to each a dash of white pepper, and half a teaspoonful of minced celery. Cut a slice of fat bacon into the smallest dice, add four of these to each shell, strew over the top a thin layer of cracker dust; place a piece of table butter on top, and bake in the oven until brown. They are delightful when properly prepared.

SCALLOPS.

If bought in the shell boil them and take out the hearts, which is the only part used. Dip them in beaten egg and fry in the same manner as oysters.

Some prefer them stewed the same as oysters.

FROGS FRIED.

Frog are usually fried, and are considered a great delicacy. Only the hind-legs and quarters are used. Clean them well, season, and fry in egg batter, or dip in beaten egg and fine cracker crumbs, the same as oysters.

FROGS STEWED.

Wash and skin the quarters, parboil them about three minutes, drain them. Now put into a stewpan two ounces of butter. When it is melted, lay in the frogs, and fry about two minutes, stirring them to prevent burning; shake over them a tablespoonful of sifted flour and stir it into them; add a sprig of parsley, a pinch of powdered summer savory, a bay leaf, three slices of onion, salt and pepper, a cup of hot water and one of cream. Boil gently until done; remove the legs, strain and mix into the gravy the yolks of two eggs, well beaten to a cream; put the legs in a suitable dish, pour over the gravy and serve.