[165]. Farcied Crabs. Remove the meat from four dozen boiled hard-shelled crabs and chop up fine. Put in a saucepan an onion cut in pieces, and an ounce of butter. When beginning to color slightly, add a dozen chopped mushrooms, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and four ounces of bread-crumbs, which you have previously soaked in consommé, and then pressed almost dry; a pinch of salt and pepper, a little cayenne, and half a gill of tomato sauce ([Art. 90]). Mix all well together on the fire, and cook for five minutes. Wash your shells and fill them with the foregoing, cover them with bread-crumbs, and a very little melted butter on top; send to the oven and color a light brown.
[166]. Deviled Crabs. Proceed as for the foregoing, putting a tablespoonful of mustard in the above mixture, and a layer of mustard on top of each crab before covering with bread-crumbs.
[167]. Clam Fritters. Take fifteen clams, which chop very fine, and put in a bowl with two ounces of flour, two eggs, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a tablespoonful of parsley, which chop fine. Mix all thoroughly together. Put some lard in a frying-pan, into which, when very hot, throw a tablespoonful of your mixture at a time, until you have used the entire quantity; fry on both sides, and serve.
[168]. Oyster Fritters. Prepare as the foregoing.
[169]. Fish-Balls. Wash and peel six potatoes, boil them in a pint of water, with salt, drain them, mash them thoroughly; add an ounce of butter, a pinch of salt and pepper, and an egg; mix all well together, adding six ounces of boiled codfish from which you have removed the bones; mix your fish well with your other ingredients, form into balls about the size of a very small apple, roll them lightly and evenly in flour; fry them on both sides in about half their height of very hot lard, drain off the grease, and serve them very hot.
[170]. Codfish au Gratin. Take two pounds of boiled codfish, from which you have removed the bones, put in a dish with half a pint of béchamel sauce ([Art. 83]), in which you have mixed four ounces of American cheese. Sprinkle it on top with bread-crumbs and a little melted butter, and send to the oven until colored a bright yellow. Serve. You may, instead of the cheese, mix some chopped mushrooms with your fish. Other boiled fish may be prepared in the same manner.
[171]. Snails à la Provençale. Take four ounces of wood-ashes, which put in a cloth, and tie securely. Then place in a saucepan with about a quart of water, and boil fifteen minutes. Wash well four dozen snails, and put them in your saucepan, and boil them about fifteen minutes. Then take one out, and try with a larding-needle if you can remove it easily from its shell, and, if so, drain the snails, and take them out of their shells. Put into a saucepan on the fire a tablespoonful of oil, half a dozen mushrooms chopped very fine, some parsley, a clove of garlic, three shallots, all chopped fine, salt, a little red pepper, and a very little nutmeg. Add a tablespoonful of flour, and moisten with three sherry-glasses of white wine, and, as soon as your sauce begins to boil, add your snails, and boil gently for thirty minutes. Your sauce must be thick. Mix the yolks of three eggs in a tablespoonful of milk, and add to your sauce when it has ceased boiling. Put a snail in each shell, and enough sauce to fill each one. Sprinkle bread-crumbs on top, send to the oven for about ten minutes, and serve.
[172]. Clams on Toast. Take fifty clams and roast them very slightly, after which take them out of their shells, chop them fine, and, with all their juice, which you have carefully preserved, put them into a saucepan with a little butter, and stew for a few moments. Just before serving, season them with a little red pepper and a very little Tobasco pepper. First serve to each person a piece of toast, and then the clams to be poured over the toast.
[173]. Soft Clams steamed. Put some boiling water in a saucepan, in the bottom of which lay a brick. Put fifty soft clams in a pan, or in some utensil which may be placed inside your saucepan, and on top of the brick, so that the water shall not touch the clams. Boil quickly about five minutes, covering the saucepan with a lid. Then, if your clams are done, serve them in their shells, with a sauce separately, composed of a little chopped shallot, a little melted butter, salt, pepper, and a little vinegar or the juice of a lemon.
[174]. Clams au Gratin. Prepare exactly as for oysters au gratin ([Art. 150]).