The Rocky Mountain Cook Book : For High Altitude Cooking. Caroline Trask Norton
and pick the meat from the joints. Hammer the claws near the edges, so as not to break the meat. Remove the meat. If the body of the shell is to be used for serving, cut down the underside with a sharp knife.
TO BROIL A LIVE LOBSTER.
With a sharp knife cut quickly down the back, remove the intestines and stomach. Broil over a moderate fire for thirty minutes, shell side down. Spread a little butter over it when broiling to keep it moist. When done, break the claws, season with salt, pepper and melted butter.
PLAIN LOBSTER.
Remove the meat from the shell, place on a platter, garnish with the little claws and parsley. Season individually with salt, pepper, vinegar and oil or melted butter.
SAUTE LOBSTER.
Break the lobster meat in small pieces, heat in hot butter in saucepan or chafing dish, season with salt, pepper and a little vinegar. Cook for about five minutes.
CREAMED LOBSTER.
Cut the meat quite fine, reheat in a white sauce, seasoned with salt, pepper or paprica, lemon juice. Serve on toast or in patty cases, timble cases, bread boxes, or in shells or ramquin dishes, baked for five minutes in the oven with the buttered crumbs on top.
DEVILED LOBSTER.
Chop the lobster very fine season highly with lemon juice, paprica, a little chopped celery, two small pickles chopped fine, salt. Mix with a white sauce, using half as much sauce as meat. Fill the tail of the lobster shells with the mixture, setting them in the pan with the meat side up. Cover the top with buttered crumbs. Bake for fifteen or twenty minutes in a hot oven. Place two tails together lengthwise, the crumbs side up and garnish with the claws and parsley or watercress.
LOBSTER A LA NEWBURG.
Cut the meat from a two-pound lobster in inch pieces. Melt in the chafing dish or sauce pan two tablespoonfuls of butter, add the lobster and one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, a speck of cayenne or paprica. (A truffle chopped fine may be added.) Cover and let cook for five minutes, then add one-fourth cup of sherry or madeira, or half sherry and half brandy, and cook for five minutes. Beat the yolks of two eggs and mix them well with a cup of cream, add this and stir until it thickens. Serve at once or the eggs may cause it to curdle.
LOBSTER SOUFFLÉ.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
2 tablespoonfuls flour.
1 cup milk.
3 eggs.
1 cup of very finely chopped lobster meat.
Salt, paprica and little onion juice.
Melt the butter. Stir into it the flour and gradually the milk. Then the lobster and seasonings and the beaten yolks of the eggs. Cook for five minutes after the yolks are put in. Remove from the fire when cool. Add the stiffly beaten whites. Bake in a buttered pan in hot water until firm.
OYSTER SOUFFLÉ.
Make the same as lobster souffle. Use one cup of oysters that have been cooked and chopped fine. One-half cup of the oyster juice and one-half cup of milk.
MEATS.
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The cheaper cuts of meat should have a long, slow cooking to break up the fiber. A cheap cut of meat often contains more nourishment than an expensive cut. For example, there is more nourishment in a well-cooked piece of round than in a well-cooked fillet. Tough meats are better boiled, as a lower degree of heat can be used and slower cooking.
TO ROAST BEEF.
Beef should be well streaked with fat, of a bright red color, elastic to the touch, and have a thick outside layer of fat. Put the meat in the pan which has been heated hot on top of the stove, then sear the meat in the hot pan on all sides, turning it with a fork. Then place it in the pan on a rack, sprinkle first with flour, then with salt and pepper. Put two tablespoonfuls of drippings in the pan if you have them, but no water, as water steams the meat. Cook in a very hot oven for ten minutes, then reduce the heat, basting often with the fat in the pan. Roast ten minutes to a pound, if liked rare, and fifteen minutes if liked well done.
Rolled Roast—Should be cooked a little longer.
Searing—First cooking the meat in a hot oven hardens the outside and keeps the juices in. Place on the platter with the fat side up. Carve in thin slices across the grain.
GRAVY FOR ROAST BEEF.
Pour the fat from the pan in a bowl, then pour about a pint of hot water or stock in the pan, to get all of the settlings. Put four tablespoonfuls of hot fat in a sauce pan, stir into it two tablespoonfuls of flour, well mixed, stir in the hot water or stock from the pan. Season to taste with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup or mushrooms. Cook for ten minutes.
YORKSHIRE PUDDING.
Beat two eggs very lightly, add one-half teaspoonful of salt and one cup of milk. Stir this gradually on three-fourths cup of flour, beat until smooth. Pour in hot gem pans that have in them drippings from the roast beef. Bake in a hot oven thirty minutes, basting twice with beef drippings, but not until they have been baking for fifteen minutes. Serve around the roast beef. This is a much better way than baking it in a pan.
FILLET OF BEEF.
Have your butcher remove the fat veins and trim into shape. The best way of cooking it is to lard it. If you do not care to do that, first place it in the pan on several slices of pork and cover the top with thin, narrow strips, dredge with flour, salt and pepper, or cover the top of the fillet with buttered, seasoned crumbs. Place around the fillet one carrot, turnip and onion cut in thin slices, and a couple of stalks of celery. Cook in a hot oven for thirty minutes. After ten minutes’ cooking pour into the pan one cup of stock. Baste frequently. The fillet should be served rare. Put in a sauce pan a couple of tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When melted, stir slowly in the gravy from the pan, which has been strained from the vegetables, and the fat skimmed off. Pour into it a half can of mushrooms that have been drained from the liquor. Cook ten minutes. Pour around the fillet. If this does not make gravy enough add a little hot water to it.
BRAISED BEEF OR POT ROAST.
Four to six pounds of beef from the lower part of the round or rump. Place on the bottom of the pan six thin slices of salt pork and on the pork lay one-half cup each of carrot, turnip, onion and celery, cut in small slices. On the vegetables place the meat. Dredge well with flour, pepper and salt. Place in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. Then add two cupfuls of stock or hot water. Place slices of vegetables on top of the meat, cover closely with a pan. Cook slowly for four hours. When done, garnish the platter with vegetables, after being strained from the gravy. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter, stir into it one of flour and slowly add the gravy. Cook ten minutes. Serve as a gravy with the meat. This way of cooking beef may be done in a pot, then it is called a pot roast.
BEEF A LA MODE.
Use five or six pounds of beef from the lower part of the round, cut thick. Lard it well with a larding needle, or make incisions into the meat with a sharp-pointed knife. Press into them thin strips of salt pork. This is called daubing. It can be done by the butcher. Put several thin slices of pork or two tablespoonfuls of drippings in the pot. When hot, put in the meat and brown it on all sides by turning it, then dredge with flour, salt and pepper, half cover the meat with boiling water. Add