Shrimps, 5 to 6 minutes if large. Prawns, 6 to 8 minutes.
Obs.—Ready-dressed shrimps or prawns may be preserved fit for eating at least twelve hours longer than they would otherwise keep, by throwing them for an instant into boiling salt and water, when they first begin to lose their freshness, and then draining them as above.
TO DISH COLD PRAWNS.
When they are quite cold, dish them singly upon a very white napkin neatly arranged over a saucer or small basin reversed in a dish, and garnish the base with a wreath of curled parsley, or with small leaves of the purple endive.
TO SHELL SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS QUICKLY AND EASILY.
This, though a most simple process, would appear, from the manner in which it is performed by many people, to be a very difficult one; indeed it is not unusual for persons of the lower classes, who, from lack of a little skill, find it slow and irksome, to have resource to the dangerous plan of eating the fish entire. It need scarcely be remarked that very serious consequences may accrue from the shells being swallowed with them, particularly when they are taken in large quantities. Unless the fish be stale, when they are apt to break, they will quit the shells easily if the head be held firmly in the right hand and the tail in the other, and the fish be straightened entirely, then the two hands pressed quickly towards each other, and the shell of the tail broken by a slight vibratory motion of the right hand, when it will be drawn of with the head adhering to it: a small portion, only will then remain on at the other end, which can be removed in an instant.
CHAPTER IV.
Gravies.