Hand-Book of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks: Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food

to find a ready market for them, though they are, as yet, very little known. _Crabs._--Crabs are boiled like lobsters, and may be served like lobster, _in salad_. They are often eaten, only boiled, without any seasonings. Like lobsters also, to be good, crabs must be put in the water alive. When well washed and clean, they may be prepared in the following way: Put them in a saucepan with slices of onions, same of carrots, parsley, chives if handy, thyme, bay-leaves, cloves, salt, and pepper-corns; half cover them with white wine, add butter, set on a good fire, and boil till done. Serve with parsley only. The sauce may be used a second time by adding a little wine. The _soft-shell crab_ is blanched five minutes, and _fried_ like fish. It may also be _sauté_ with a little butter, and served with a _maître d'hôtel_. _Broil_ it also, and serve it with a _maître d'hôtel_. _Muscles._--These are unwholesome between April and September. They must be heavy, fresh, and of a middling size. The very large ones are really inferior. Soak them in water and wash well several times, then drain. _In Poulette._--Put them in a saucepan with a little parsley chopped fine, and set them on a pretty good fire; as soon as they are opened, remove the shell to which they are not attached, and keep them in a warm place. For two quarts of muscles, put two ounces of butter in the saucepan in which they have been cooked and in which you have left their liquor; set on the fire, stir, and as soon as the butter is melted, add and stir into it a tablespoonful of flour; when turning a little yellow, add also half a dozen pepper-corns, then the muscles; boil gently about ten minutes, stirring occasionally; take from the fire, mix one or two yolks of eggs with it, a little lemon-juice, parsley chopped fine, and serve warm. _Another way._--When clean, put them in a saucepan with a few slices of carrot, same of onion, two or three stalks of parsley, one of