Put twenty-four live crabs in cold water with a little salt, and leave them to soak for one hour, mince four ounces of carrot and the same quantity of onion, fry them in butter in a saucepan sufficiently large to contain all the crabs, add some parsley sprigs, thyme and bay leaf, season with salt, half a bottle of white wine and some white stock, then cover and cook for fifteen minutes; lift out the crabs, strain the broth, and sit it aside to rest, pouring off the top twenty-five minutes later. Remove the shells from the crabs; pick out the lungs from both sides, wash each one separately in tepid water and suppress the small legs, then drain well and pound them to a paste with half their quantity of cooked rice, dilute this puree with some of the juice they were cooked in, drain through a sieve and then a tammy and mix in one pint of bechamel (No. 409). Season with salt and red pepper, heat up without boiling and just when ready to serve, incorporate therein a quarter of a pound of fine butter, stirring it well with a spoon until it be completely melted.

Pour the very hot bisque into a soup tureen and serve separately a garnishing of pieces of bread cut into one quarter of an inch squares and fried in butter; divide them by putting six or eight in each separate soup-plate when serving.

(199). Bisque Of Crabs A La Stevens (Bisque De Crabes A La Stevens)

Wash twenty-four live crabs in several waters; then drain them, fry half a pound minced onions in butter, adding a quarter of a pound of rice flour and then the crabs; moisten with half a bottleful of white wine and two quarts of broth; cook slowly in a covered saucepan for fifteen minutes, then lift out the crabs only, and strain the broth into another vessel, and leave it to deposit its sediment. Remove the large shells from the crabs, also the small legs and lungs, then wash the crabs well in warm water, moving them around in the pan so as to free them of all adhering sand: after draining them well, pound them in a mortar with the addition of a little butter; moisten them with the decanted stock and some other broth, should it be too thick; strain through a sieve or tammy, and return them to the saucepan. Heat to a boiling degree without actually letting it boil, warm it, then add some egg-yolks, cream and fine butter; strain again through a tammy and serve the soup very hot with crusts of bread cut dice shaped, a quarter of an inch in size.

(200). Bisque Of Crabs, Oriental (Bisque De Crabes A L'Orientale)

Prepare and cook the crabs the same as for bisque of crabs (No. 198), have one pound of onions, cut them in halves through the center of the root and stalk, remove from each side of the halved onion, and on the bias, one quarter of an inch of the root and stalk; mince this up very fine, blanch, then drain and fry the pieces in butter, moistening them with one part of cream. Pound well the crabs to reduce them to a paste and add six quarts of oatmeal previously cooked fur thirty minutes in one quart of water. Add the onions, and when all is well mingled together, increase the quantity of bisque with the decanted crab juice and more broth, if the puree be too thick; strain through a sieve or tammy, return it to the fire, and heat it without boiling, and just when ready to serve, stir in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Pour the soup. into a very hot soup tureen and add a garnishing of crescent shaped quenelles, made of sweet potatoes (No. 317).