Canned lobster and salmon are very good, thus prepared. Smoked salmon can be made palatable for this purpose by soaking over night, and boiling in two waters.
Swiss Patés.
Some slices of stale bread.
A little good dripping or very sweet lard mixed with the same quantity of butter.
Two or three eggs beaten light.
Very fine cracker-crumbs.
Minced fowl or veal mixed with white sauce, and well seasoned. Cut thick slices of stale bread—baker’s bread is best—into rounds with a cake-cutter. With a smaller cutter extract a piece from the middle of each round, taking care not to let the sharp tin go quite through the bread, but leaving enough in the cavity to serve as a bottom to the paté. Dip the hollowed piece of bread in the beaten egg, sift the pulverized cracker over it, and fry in the dripping, or lard and butter, to a delicate brown. Drain every drop of fat from it. Arrange upon a hot dish when all are done, heap up with the “mince,” and eat without delay.
Devilled crab or lobster is nice served in this style.
Bread patés are a convenience when the housekeeper has not time to spare for pastry-making. You can, if you like, fry them without the egg or cracker; but most persons would esteem them too rich.