Marion Harland's Complete Cook Book: A Practical and Exhaustive Manual of Cookery and Housekeeping

paste with a great spoonful of butter; when this is blended with the liquid in the pan, add a glass of sherry and stir in very gradually the beaten yolk of an egg. Bring to the boil and remove from the fire. Turn into a deep heated dish. A fricassee of crabs Cut the meat into inch-length pieces, and as evenly as possible. Put into a saucepan a mixture of butter, lemon juice and minced parsley, cayenne and salt. Heat slowly, and when it bubbles stir in the crab meat. Simmer gently for fifteen minutes. Have ready in another vessel a tablespoonful of cream for each crab, heated with a pinch of soda. Thicken with a teaspoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour, and turn upon the yolks of three eggs, or one for every pair of crabs; stir for one minute over the fire, pour into a hot covered dish, stir in the hot crab meat; set in boiling water for three minutes, and serve. Oyster pâtés Into a pound of flour chop three-quarters of a pound of cold, firm butter, until you have a coarse yellow powder. Have all your utensils cold. Wet the flour and butter with three gills of iced water and, with a spoon, work into a mass. Turn upon a floured pastry board, roll and fold, then roll again three times, lightly and quickly. Fold and put in the ice-box for several hours. Roll into a sheet half an inch thick, and with a cutter cut into rounds like biscuits. Pile these three deep, and with a small cutter pass half-way through each pile. Put into the oven, which should be very hot, and bake to a light, delicate brown. The pastry should be very light. When done remove from the oven, and lift off the little round in the top of each pâté. This will serve as a cover. With a small spoon scoop out the soft paste from the center, thus leaving a cavity to be filled with the oyster mixture. Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and flour, and pour