SHRIMP SAUCE.—
Shrimps are the smallest shell-fish of the lobster species. Put them into salted boiling water. They are done when they have turned entirely red. When cold, pull off the heads, and peel off the shells from the bodies; or squeeze out the meat with your fingers. Have ready some nice drawn butter, and thicken it with the shrimps, either chopped or whole. Season the sauce with mace or nutmeg powdered, and give it one boil up. Shrimp sauce is eaten with salmon and other fine fish.
PICKLED SHRIMPS.—
Having boiled, in salted water, three quarts or more of shrimps, and taken them from the shells, boil two quarts of the best cider vinegar, and season it well with blades of mace and pepper-corns, and pour it hot on the shrimps, in a stone jar. Cork the jar, and seal the cork with the usual red cement for pickle jars: a mixture of one-third beeswax with two-thirds powdered rosin, and some fine brickdust, all melted together.
OYSTER SAUCE.—
Take a pint of the liquor of fresh oysters, and strain it into a sauce-pan. If your oysters are salt, and you can get no others, boil a pint of milk instead of the oyster liquor, seasoning with powdered nutmeg and mace, and enriching it with fresh butter dredged with flour. When it has come to a boil, put in the oysters (having removed from each the gristle, or hard part.) Let them simmer, but take them from the fire without letting them come to a boil, which will shrivel them, and render them tough and tasteless. A new fashion is to season oyster sauce with the grated yellow rind and juice of a fresh lemon. Others stir in a glass of sherry or Madeira. If you use wine or lemon, you must not make the sauce with milk, as it will curdle. Use in this case the oyster liquor, if it is fresh, thickened well with finely grated bread-crumbs. The small, highly-flavored oysters, abounding on the coast of New England, are excellent for sauce, or soups.