Sauce for the Cod's Head

Ingredients

• 1 lobster
• 1 handful salt
• 1/2 pound butter
• 1 meat spoonful lemon pickle
• 1 meat spoonful walnut catsup
• 1 slice lemon
• 2 slices horse-radish
• 1 pinch beaten mace
• salt
• cayenne

Instructions

1. Take a lobster; if it is alive, stick a skewer into the rent of the tail, to keep the water out.
2. Throw a handful of salt into the water.
3. When it boils, put in the lobster and boil it half an hour.
4. If it has spawn on it, pick them off and pound them exceedingly fine in a marble mortar, then put them into half a pound of good melted butter.
5. Take the meat out of the lobster, pull it into bits, and put it into your butter with a meat spoonful of lemon pickle, the same of walnut catsup, a slice of lemon, one or two slices of horse-radish, a little beaten mace, and salt and cayenne to your taste.
6. Boil them one minute, then take out the horse-radish and the lemon, and serve it up in your sauce boat.
7. N.B. If you cannot get lobsters, you may make shrimp, cockle, or muscle sauce the same way.
8. If there can be no shell fish got, you may then add two anchovies cut small, a spoonful of walnut liquor, and a large onion stuck with cloves;
9. strain it and put it in the sauce boat.