Plunge into boiling, salted water, twelve pounds of small, live, well washed lobsters: cook them for twenty-five minutes, then drain; break their shells, and extract all the meat. Pound the lobster meat with its equal quantity of boiled rice; season with salt and red pepper, then dilute it with fat broth or lean, should the bisque be desired lean, strain through a sieve, and again through a tammy. Heal it up without allowing it to boil, add a pint of bechamel (No. 409), and half a pound of lobster butter (No. .580); stir well the bisque until the butter is thoroughly melted. Color a lobster bisque a deeper red than the crawfish. Crusts of brioche, a quarter of an inch square, and dried in the oven may be served at the same time.

(206). Bisque Of Lobster A La Benoist (Bisque De Homard A La Benoist)

Mince very fine one medium carrots, one leek and two onions, fry them in butter and moisten with fat broth, or lean, some parsley sprigs, thyme, bay leaf, garlic, salt and black pepper. At the first boil, put in with this, twelve pounds of raw, live, and washed lobster,.continue to boil for thirty minutes, then drain them, break the shells, remove all the meat, reserve that from the claws, and pound the remainder with its equal quantity of wheaten grits. Make a light roux with four ounces of butter and five ounces of flour, moisten it with some of the broth the lobsters were cooked in. boil, skim, add this to the lobster preparation. Heat it up all together, then strain through a sieve and afterward through a tammy, warm it up again and just when ready to serve and very hot, stir into the bisque a piece of lobster butter (No. 580), and a quart of double cream. Put a garnishing into the soup tureen and pour the soup over; serve as a garnishing the lobster meat from the claws cut into small Julienne (No. 318), and small cream forcemeat quenelles, laid through a cornet on a buttered tin, and poached in a little boiling water.

(207). Bisque Of Lobster A La Cambridge (Bisque De Homard A La Cambridge)

Select twelve pounds of small, live lobsters, eight of them in all; remove the claws and cook them apart in boiling, salted water for twenty-five minutes. Cut in slices crosswise the remainder of the lobsters, fry these pieces in butter on a hot fire, adding four tablespoonfuls of flour; when slightly colored, moisten with half a bottleful of white wine and two and a half quarts of broth, half a gill of brandy, salt and pepper. Cook all for fifteen minutes, then remove the meat from the shells, pound it to a paste, and dilute it with its own broth; strain through a sieve, and afterward through a tammy; mix in one quart of bechamel (No. 409) ; warm up without boiling, and just when ready to serve, thicken the soup with twelve raw egg-yolks diluted in a quart of cream, and when the soup thickens, incorporate into it a quarter of a pound of lobster butter (No. 580). Put the following garnishing into a soup tureen, and pour the soup over. Remove the meat from the boiled lobster claws, cut the red part of it in slices an eighth of an inch thick, and from these punch out rounds three-quarters of an inch in diameter, using a column tube for the purpose: also have small, round quenelles, half an inch in diameter, made from the fillets of a pike or whiting in the shape of round beads.

(208). Bisque Of Lobster A La Portland (Bisque De Homard A La Portland)

Cut twelve pounds of lobster lengthwise in two, break the claws, sprinkle over some butter, and cook them on a baking-sheet in a hot oven for twenty-live minutes. Remove them, and suppress the largest shells, pound the meat with its equal quantity of plain boiled rice, seasoned with salt, pepper, and curry, and when all is well reduced to a paste, dilute it with broth; strain through a sieve and then a tammy, and warm up the soup without boiling; thicken it with twelve hard boiled egg-yolks pounded with four ounces of butter, and mix in also a pint of double cream, and serve as garnishing some mushrooms cut into fine Julienne and lobster quenelles. Put the soup into a tureen.

Lobster Quenelles

Cut one pound of cooked lobster meat in thin slices, add the coral and two ounces of butter; pound well and when reduced to a paste, take it from the mortar. Pound three quarters of a pound of panada, add gradually to it half a pound of butter, then the lobster paste, three eggs, one after the other, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and two tablespoons of Allemande sauce, test and rectify if necessary (No. 60). Roll this forcemeat to use for lobster quenelles, or else fill some sheeps' casings with it to make lobster boudins.