Part 71 (1/2)
Take them out of the sh.e.l.ls, mince them small, and put them in a pipkin with some claret wine, salt, sweet b.u.t.ter, grated nutmeg, slic't oranges, & some pistaches; being finely stewed, serve them on sippets, dish them, and run them over with beaten b.u.t.ter, slic't oranges, some cuts of paste, or lozenges of puff-paste.
_To boil Lobsters to eat cold the common way._
Take them alive or dead, lay them in cold water to make the claws tuff, and keep them from breaking off; then have a kettle over the fire with fair water, put in it as much bay-salt, as will make it a good strong brine, when it boils sc.u.m it, and put in the Lobsters, let them boil leisurely the s.p.a.ce of half an hour or more according to the bigness of them, being well boil'd take them up, wash them, and then wipe them with beer and b.u.t.ter; and keep them for your use.
_To keep Lobsters a quarter of a year very good._
Take them being boil'd as aforesaid, wrap them in course rags having been steeped in brine, and bury them in a cellar in some sea-sand pretty deep.
_To farce a Lobster._
Take a lobster being half boil'd, take the meat out of the sh.e.l.ls, and mince it small with a good fresh eel, season it with cloves & mace beaten, some sweet herbs minced small and mingled amongst the meat, yolks of eggs, gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, and sometimes boil'd artichocks cut into dice-work, or boil'd aspragus, and some almond-paste mingled with the rest, fill the lobster sh.e.l.ls, claws, tail, and body, and bake it in a blote oven, make sauce with the gravy and whitewine, and beat up the sauce or lear with good sweet b.u.t.ter, a grated nutmeg, juyce of oranges, and an anchove, and rub the dish with a clove of garlick.
To this farcing you may sometime add almond paste currans, sugar, gooseberries, and make b.a.l.l.s to lay about the lobsters, or serve it with venison sauce.
_To marinate Lobsters._
Take lobsters out of the sh.e.l.ls being half boil'd, then take the tails and lard them with a salt eel (or not lard them) part the tails into two halves the longest way, and fry them in sweet sallet oyl, or clarified b.u.t.ter; being finely fryed, put them into a dish or pipkin, and set them by; then make sauce with white wine, and white wine vinegar, four or five blades of large mace, three or four slic't nutmegs, two races of ginger slic't, some ten or twelve cloves twice as much of whole pepper, and salt, boil them altogether with rosemary, tyme, winter-savory, sweet marjoram, bay-leaves, sage, and parsley, the tops of all these herbs about an inch long; then take three or four lemons and slice them, dish up the lobsters on a clean dish, and pour the broth, herbs and spices on the fish, lay on the lemons, run it over with some of the oyl or b.u.t.ter they were fryed in, and serve them up hot.
_To broil Lobsters._
Being boil'd lay them on a gridiron, or toast them against the fire, and baste them with vinegar and b.u.t.ter, or b.u.t.ter only, broil them leisurely, and being broil'd serve them with b.u.t.ter and vinegar beat up thick with slic't lemon and nutmeg.
_Otherways._
Broil them, the tail being parted in two halves long ways, also the claws cracked and broil'd; broil the barrel whole being salted, baste it with sweet herbs, as tyme, rosemary, parsley, and savory, being broil'd dish it, and serve it with b.u.t.ter and vinegar.
_To broil Lobsters on paper._
Slice the tails round, and also the claws in long slices, then b.u.t.ter a dripping-pan made of the paper, lay it on a gridiron, and put some slices of lobster seasoned with nutmeg and salt, and slices of a fresh eel, some sageleaves, tops of rosemary, two or three cloves, and sometimes some bay-leaves or sweet herbs chopped; broil them on the embers, and being finely broil'd serve them on a dish and a plate in the same dripping-pan, put to them beaten b.u.t.ter, juyce of oranges, and slices of lemon.
_To roast Lobsters._
Take a lobster and spit it raw on a small spit, bind the claws and tail with packthred, baste it with b.u.t.ter, vinegar, and sprigs of rosemary, and salt it in the roasting.
_Otherways._
Half boil them, take them out of the sh.e.l.ls, and lard them with small lard made of a salt eel, lard the claws and tails, and spit the meat on a small spit, with some slices of the eel, and sage or bay leaves between, stick in the fish here and there a clove or two, and some sprigs of rosemary; roast the barrel of the lobsters whole, and baste them with sweet b.u.t.ter, make sauce with claret wine, the gravy of the lobsters, juyce of oranges, an anchove or two, and sweet b.u.t.ter beat up thick with the core of a lemon, and grated nutmeg.
_Otherways._