Purchase as many crab shells as you have people to serve. To each six allow a pint of crab flakes. If you buy the crabs fresh, twelve crabs will serve six people. Squeeze over the flakes the juice of one lemon, add a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of Tabasco. Fill the meat loosely into the shells, place each shell on a pretty paper doily on a plate, and spread over a thick layer of mayonnaise dressing, with which you have mixed a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of tarragon leaves, a tablespoonful of chopped onion or shallot, and a tablespoonful of green chives.
CHICKEN SALAD
Cut cold boiled chicken into dice, add an equal quantity of tender celery, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice, mix with mayonnaise dressing, and serve on lettuce leaves.
A four pound chicken, and six heads of tender celery, three heads of lettuce, a half pint of whipped cream, and one pint of mayonnaise, will serve fifteen persons.
LOBSTER SALAD
Cut cold boiled lobster into cubes of an inch, mix with mayonnaise dressing and serve on lettuce leaves.
One three-pound lobster will serve six persons.
CRAB SALAD
Season crab flakes with salt, pepper and lemon juice, mix them with mayonnaise dressing, and serve on lettuce leaves, garnished with cress.
One pint of flakes will serve six persons.