Clams are served raw on the half sh.e.l.l during the months that oysters are out of season. Little Neck clams are best for this purpose, and the smaller they are the better. The manner of serving them is the same as for raw oysters. As many as ten or twelve are allowed for each person.
TO OPEN CLAMS
To remove clams from the sh.e.l.ls when wanted for cooking, wash the sh.e.l.ls well with a brush and clear water. Place them in a saucepan or pot with a very little hot water; cover the pot, and let them steam until the sh.e.l.ls open; strain the liquor through a fine cloth, or let it cool and settle; then pour it off carefully in order to free it from sand the sh.e.l.ls may have contained.
=CREAMED CLAMS=
Scald the clams in their own liquor. If opened by steaming, they are sufficiently cooked. Chop them into fine dice and measure. To each cupful of chopped clams add one cupful of thick cream sauce. For one cupful of sauce put into a saucepan one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter; when melted, stir in one tablespoonful of flour; cook, but not brown it; then add slowly one half cupful of clam liquor and one half cupful of milk or cream; season with pepper, and salt if necessary. Let it cook until a smooth, thick cream, stirring all the time; add the clams only just before serving. Pour the mixture over small pieces of toast laid on the bottom of the dish.
=ROASTED CLAMS=
Clams are roasted in the same manner as oysters (see page 133).
=CLAM FRITTERS=
Mix chopped clams with fritter batter (see page 426), using clam liquor instead of water in making the batter, and have the batter quite thick.
Drop the mixture from a tablespoon into hot fat, and fry until an amber color.
=SCALLOPS=
Scallops are dried with a napkin, then rolled in cracker dust, then in egg and crumbs, and immersed in hot fat for a minute, or just long enough to take a light color. Mix salt and pepper with the crumbs.
=LOBSTERS=
Lobsters are in season from March to November. They are in the market all the year, but during the off months they are light and stringy.
Their size increases with their age; therefore a small, heavy lobster is better than a large one.
They are unwholesome if boiled after they are dead. If bought already boiled, their freshness may be judged by the tail, which should be curled and springy. If it is not curled up, or will not spring back when straightened, the lobster was dead when boiled, and should be rejected.
Lobsters may be killed just before being boiled by running a pointed knife into the back through the joint between the body and tail sh.e.l.ls.
TO BOIL A LOBSTER
Have in a kettle enough water to entirely cover the lobster. Before it becomes very hot take the lobster by the back and put it into the warm water head first. This smothers instead of scalding it to death, and seems the most merciful way of killing it. A lobster treated in this way does not change position, and seems to have been killed instantly.
Cover the pot. When it boils, add one tablespoonful of salt, and boil for thirty minutes. It will be tough and stringy if cooked longer.
TO OPEN A LOBSTER
After the lobster is cold, break apart the tail and body; twist off the claws; remove the body from the sh.e.l.l; shake out the green, fatty substance and the coral, and save them to mix with the meat. Remove the stomach, which lies directly under the head, and is called the "lady"; remove also the woolly gills; break open the body, and take out the small pieces of meat which lie under the gills; break open the claws and remove the meat. With scissors or a knife cut the bony membrane on the inside of the tail; remove the meat in one piece, and open it to remove the intestine, which runs the entire length of the tail-piece. The intestine is sometimes without color.
TO BROIL A LOBSTER
With a sharp knife cut quickly down the back, following a line which runs down the middle of the sh.e.l.l. The fishman will ordinarily do this, and it is as quick and merciful as any way of killing. The lobster may be killed, if preferred, by running a knife into the back as directed above, and then opened with a heavy knife and mallet. Remove the stomach, or lady, and the intestine. Lay the two pieces on the broiler, with the sh.e.l.l part down, and broil over a moderate fire for thirty minutes or longer. Spread a little b.u.t.ter over it when half done, to keep it moist; spread b.u.t.ter, salt, and pepper over it when done; open the claws with a nut-cracker or mallet, and serve immediately.
TO BAKE A LOBSTER
Split the lobster open in the same way as for broiling. Remove the stomach, or lady, and the intestine; lay the two pieces in a baking-pan; spread over the top of each salt, pepper and b.u.t.ter, and sprinkle with bread crumbs; bake about forty minutes in a hot oven; during the baking baste it twice by pouring over it a little melted b.u.t.ter. Baked and broiled lobsters are considered a great delicacy.
=LOBSTER FARCI=
2 cupfuls of boiled lobster meat.
1 cupful of milk or cream.
2 tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter.
1 tablespoonful of flour.
Yolks of 3 hard-boiled eggs.
2 tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs.
1 tablespoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful chopped parsley.
1/4 nutmeg.
Dash of cayenne pepper or of paprica.
Put into a saucepan one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter; when it bubbles add one tablespoonful of flour; cook, but not brown; add one cupful of milk slowly, and stir until smooth; then remove it from the fire; add the salt, the pepper, the parsley, the yolks mashed fine, and lastly the lobster meat cut into pieces one half inch square. (Use a silver knife to cut lobster.) Be careful, in mixing, not to break the meat. Have the sh.e.l.l from which the meat was taken carefully washed and dried, leaving on the head; cut out neatly the inside sh.e.l.l of the tail-piece, and fit the two parts of the sh.e.l.l together. As the sh.e.l.l contracts in cooking, it is well to trim off a little from the sides of the body sh.e.l.l in order to leave an opening wide enough to admit a spoon in serving. Put the meat mixture into the sh.e.l.l. Cover the top with the bread crumbs, which have been moistened with one tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter. Place it in the oven for a few minutes to brown. If the meat of two lobsters is used, the sh.e.l.ls of both may be used, or the two tail-sh.e.l.ls may be fitted into one body sh.e.l.l, which will then hold all the meat.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LOBSTER FARCI.]
=LOBSTER CHOPS=
The mixture for chops is prepared in the same manner as for farci, except that the meat is cut a little finer. After it is mixed with the white sauce, spread it on a platter to cool; when sufficiently cold, mold into the form of chops. Then dip in egg, roll in fresh bread crumbs (see croquettes, page 293), and immerse in hot fat until fried to an amber color. The chops will mold better if the mixture is left for some time to harden. The chops may also stand for some hours before being cooked. Tin forms are made for molding chops, but they are easily shaped without them if the mixture has stood long enough to stiffen. After they are fried, make a little opening in the pointed end, and insert a small claw.
Serve the chops on a napkin, and garnish with lemon and parsley.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LOBSTER CHOPS, SERVED STANDING.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: LOBSTER CHOPS.]
=LOBSTER a LA NEWBURG=
One and a half cupfuls of boiled lobster meat cut into pieces one inch square.
1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.
3/4 cup of Madeira or sherry.
1 cupful of cream.
Yolk of two eggs.
1 truffle chopped.
1/4 teaspoonful of salt.