Ingredients.—1 lobster, 2 oz. of butter, grated nutmeg; salt, pepper, and pounded mace, to taste; broad crumbs, 2 eggs. Mode.—Pound the meat of the lobster to a smooth paste with the butter and seasoning, and add a few bread-crumbs. Beat the eggs, and make the whole mixture into the form of a lobster; pound the spawn, and sprinkle over it. Bake ¼ hour, and just before serving, lay over it the tail and body shell, with the small claws underneath, to resemble a lobster. Time.—¼ hour. Average cost, 2s. 6d. Seasonable at any time. Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons.
LOBSTER PATTIES (an Entrée).
Ingredients.—Minced lobster, 4 tablespoonfuls of béchamel, 6 drops of anchovy sauce, lemon-juice, cayenne to taste. Mode.—Line the patty-pans with puff-paste, and put into each a small piece of bread; cover with paste, brush over with egg, and bake of a light colour. Take as much lobster as is required, mince the meat very fine, and add the above ingredients; stir it over the fire for 5 minutes; remove the lids of the patty-cases, take out the bread, fill with the mixture, and replace the covers. Seasonably at any time.
LOBSTER, Potted.
Ingredients.—2 lobsters; seasoning to taste, of nutmeg, pounded mace, white pepper, and salt; ¼ lb. of butter, 3 or 4 bay-leaves. Mode.—Take out the meat carefully from the shell, but do not cut it up. Put some butter at the bottom of a dish, lay in the lobster as evenly as possible, with the bay-leaves and seasoning between. Cover with butter, and bake for ¾ hour in a gentle oven. When done, drain the whole on a sieve, and lay the pieces in potting-jars, with the seasoning about them. When cold, pour over it clarified butter, and, if very highly seasoned, it will keep some time. Time.—¾ hour. Average cost for this quantity, 4s. 4d. Seasonable at any time.
Note.—Potted lobster may be used cold, or as a fricassee with cream sauce.
LOBSTER (à la Mode Française).
Ingredients.—1 lobster, 4 tablespoonfuls of white stock, 2 tablespoonfuls of cream, pounded mace, and cayenne to taste; bread-crumbs. Mode.—Pick the meat from the shell, and cut it up into small square pieces; put the stock, cream, and seasoning into a stewpan, add the lobster, and let it simmer gently for 6 minutes. Serve it in the shell, which must be nicely cleaned, and have a border of puff-paste; cover it with bread-crumbs, place small pieces of butter over, and brown before the fire, or with a salamander. Time.—¼ hour. Average cost, 2s. 6d. Seasonable at any time.