Lobster Cutlets (A Superior Entrée)

Ingredients

• 0.75 pound lobster flesh
• 1.5 ounce sweet new butter
• 1 saltspoonful salt
• 0.67 saltspoonful mixed mace and cayenne
• 1 dessertspoonful lobster coral (roe)
• small claws from lobster
• béchamel sauce or Lady's Sauce or Cream Sauce
• 3–4 ounce fresh shrimps
• 0.5 ounce butter
• spice

Instructions

1. Prepare and pound the lobster flesh with exceeding care, following the preceding receipt for Potted Lobsters.
2. When the flesh is partially beaten, add the sweet butter, salt, mixed mace and cayenne, and the lobster coral.
3. Rub the whole mixture through a hair sieve with a wooden spoon until well blended.
4. Beat the mixture to the finest and smoothest paste.
5. Taste the mixture and heighten seasoning if needed, taking care not to over-spice as the preparation is very delicate.
6. Mould the paste into the form of small cutlets about one-third of an inch thick.
7. Stick a short bit of the smallest claws into each cutlet.
8. Strew the coral lightly over the cutlets so as to give them the appearance of being crumbed with it.
9. Arrange the cutlets round the dish in which they are to be sent to table.
10. Place them in a very gentle oven for eight or ten minutes only to heat them through, or warm them in a Dutch or American oven placed at some distance from the fire, so that the brilliant colour of the coral may not be destroyed.
11. Pour a good béchamel, Lady's Sauce, or Cream Sauce into the centre of the dish; a very white sauce best contrasts with the colour of the cutlets.