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

sauce. _Bisque of Lobster._--Boil one or several lobsters as directed, and when cold split the tail in two, lengthwise, take the flesh out of the shell, remove the black vein that is on the back, take out the meat of the two large claws, and keep the flesh of the claws and tail for the following day's breakfast. For a _bisque_, nothing is thrown away but the head, stomach, and black vein. The head is the part immediately under the eyes; the stomach is a small, round pouch immediately behind the head; and the vein runs from the stomach to the end of the tail. Put all the rest, shell, small claws, all the matter found in the large shell (green, white, or yellow), in a mortar and pound well. Then put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, set it on the fire, and when the butter is melted, put what is in the mortar in, stir with a wooden spoon for about ten minutes, then add one pint of warm broth, stir for about twenty minutes, and strain. Put the liquor back on the fire with about four ounces of toasted bread, boil five minutes, and mash through a colander. Put the liquor back again on the fire, add one quart of broth, boil gently ten minutes, and turn into the soup-dish. While it is boiling, chop fine the coral-piece of the lobster or lobsters, knead it with a piece of butter of about the same bulk, then rub both through a wire sieve; put them in the soup-dish with _croutons_ and about two or three ounces of the flesh of the lobster cut in very small dice. Turn the broth into the soup-dish also, and as directed above, and serve warm. When there is no coral in the lobster or lobsters, knead a hard-boiled yolk of egg with butter in its stead. Use one, two, three, or more lobsters, according to how much soup is wanted. It is not costly, because the flesh, or most of it, is kept to make a salad the next day, for