Shellfish

Erken's 1914 instructions for opening a boiled lobster: split head and tail, remove the stomach and intestine, crack the claws, save the roe and green.

Erken's preserved mussels (1914): boiled mussels layered in jars with bay leaves and peppercorns, covered with vinegar and mussel stock, heated and sealed.

Boiled mussels breaded in rusk crumbs and egg, fried golden and served with fried parsley and lemon – a French-inspired starter from Erken's fish chapter.

Lobster à l'américaine from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): boiled lobster in a sauce of shell stock, tomato purée and lobster innards, with mushrooms.

Cold lobster dish from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): tail halves filled with lobster mousse, garnished with truffle and oysters, on lettuce with mayonnaise.

Erken's lobster au naturel (1914): boiled, split lobsters in a ring around a bread base, garnished with crayfish, lemon, lettuce and tomatoes.

Cold lobster mold from Erken (1914): a mold lined with fish aspic and truffle, filled with sieved lobster forcemeat and cream, set cold.

Lobster in fish aspic from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914), layered with truffle, roe and tarragon, served with lobster salad, mayonnaise, egg and olives.

Lobster salad (mayonnaise de homard) from Erken 1914: lobster and lettuce in mayonnaise, piled high and garnished with egg, anchovies, beets and olives.

Erken's 1914 recipe for lobster in shells: lobster meat in a butter-and-milk sauce with egg yolk and parsley, gratinated in shells and garnished with roe.

Cold festive dish from Erken 1914: boiled lobster and roast hazel grouse slices in a roe, yolk, cream and oil dressing, with oysters and lettuce.

Cold lobster dish from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): lobster meat with mayonnaise, mushrooms and whipped cream, refilled into the shells and served on ice.

A layered mold dish from Erken 1914: fish forcemeat and stewed lobster in alternating layers, baked 1 hour in a hot oven and served with lobster sauce.

Lobster gratin from Erken 1914: lobster meat in a thick milk sauce with parsley, paprika, sherry and yolks, filled into shells and gratinated.

Lobster cutlets from Henriette Schønberg Erken: a lobster stew shaped like cutlets, breaded and fried in lard. From the Big Cookbook, 1949.

Lobster cutlets I from Erken 1914: a firm lobster stew shaped into cutlets, breaded and fried golden, arranged around the claws on rice or potato.

Cold party dish from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): lobster and caviar molded in small cutlets, coated with aspic sauce and truffle, with Russian salad.

Lobster croquettes from Erken (1914): diced lobster in a thick white sauce with sherry, chilled, rolled, breaded and deep-fried, served with mashed potato.

Erken's lobster mousseline from 1914: raw lobster pounded with egg white and cream, steamed in a mold, served with peas or asparagus and melted butter.

Lobster pudding from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): a butter, flour and milk base with lobster meat and egg whites, steamed, served with roe butter.

Erken's basic recipe for boiling live lobster (1914): head first into boiling salted water, hard boiling 5 minutes, then gentle simmering by size.

Erken's simple boiled mussels (1914): cleaned in salt water, boiled with paprika and steamed in their own stock until the shells open. Served with vinegar.

Erken's basic 1914 recipe for boiling crab: 20–25 minutes in salted water, cooled on its back, cleaned so all is eaten except the pope behind the eyes.

Erken's gratinéed crab in shells: crab meat with rusk, mustard and cream, filled into greased shells, topped with rusk and butter and gratinéed.

Potted crab I from Erken 1914: finely chopped crab simmered in butter and spices, stirred with cream and yolks, sieved, pressed into jars, sealed.

Potted crab II from Erken 1914: crab meat pounded with spices, sieved, pressed into small jars, baked at low heat and sealed with clarified butter.

Basic recipe from Erken's Big Cookbook for boiled crayfish: boiled 10 minutes with dill, cooled in the water, served ice-cold with olives and lettuce.

Crayfish in aspic from Erken 1914: crayfish mousse with crayfish butter, fish aspic and cream in tail shells and a charlotte mold, with truffle.

Erken's crayfish in shells from 1914: crayfish, mushrooms and small fish balls in white sauce with anchovy butter and sherry, gratinated in shells.

Erken's crayfish with rémoulade sauce: boiled crayfish marinated in oil and vinegar, served cold with a rémoulade of mayonnaise, cream, capers and lemon.

Crayfish pudding from Erken's Big Cookbook: milk sauce with crayfish butter, yolks and meat, folded with egg whites, steamed, with asparagus sauce.

Crayfish soufflé from Erken 1914: a thick Parmesan, crayfish butter and yolk base, folded with egg whites, layered with crayfish tails and truffle, baked.

Crayfish timbale from Erken's Big Cookbook 1914: a mold lined with crayfish tails and fish forcemeat, filled with ragout, steamed, with crayfish sauce.

Erken's method from 1914 for keeping oysters fresh for several days: alternating 12 hours in salt water and 12 hours dry with the deep shell down.

Warm oyster stew à la Carême (Erken 1914): a stock of oyster liquor, a butter-and-flour sauce with mushroom and Madeira; oysters and shrimp at the end.

Erken's oysters à la diable (1914): oysters in deep shells with white sauce, a truffle slice and Parmesan, set in coarse salt and gratinated golden.

A cold starter from Erken (1914): raw oysters chilled on ice and mixed with horseradish, lemon, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, served in glasses.

Oysters à la Marguerite (Erken 1914): celery sweated in butter, thinned with sherry and oyster stock, with oysters and shrimp warmed in the sauce.

Oysters à la Villeroi from Erken (1914): oysters dipped in a cooled, gelatin-set sauce, breaded in egg and rusk crumbs and deep-fried, with fried parsley.

Raw oysters in the shell on ice, from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): ice-cold oysters opened and served at once with butter, lemon and small sandwiches.

A cold starter from Erken (1914): small choux puffs filled with caviar, with a fresh oyster in a hollow in the center seasoned with white pepper and lemon.

An oyster gratin from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): layers of macaroni and oysters with grated cheese and butter, topped with rusk crumbs and gratinated.

Erken's grilled oysters II (1914): oysters in deep shells set in coarse salt, grilled in a hot oven and topped with a reduced brown sauce with tomato.

Oyster soufflé from Erken's Big Cookbook (1914): oysters folded into a butter-flour-cream base with egg yolks and stiff whites, baked. Served with toast.

Erken's instruction for boiling shrimp: dropped into boiling salted water (like seawater), large shrimp boiled 7–8 minutes, small shrimp 5 minutes.

Creamed shrimp from Erken 1914: boiled macaroni and peeled shrimp folded into whipped cream with horseradish, vinegar and sugar, served cold in shells.

Erken's fried oysters I (1914): oysters breaded in rusk crumbs and egg, deep-fried light golden brown in lard and served at once with lemon and parsley.

Erken's stewed mussels (1914): boiled mussels folded into a sauce of butter, flour and mussel stock, thickened with egg yolk and seasoned with vinegar.

Erken's stewed lobster from 1914: lobster meat heated in a white sauce of butter, flour and milk, seasoned with sherry and cayenne, with roe worked in.

Erken's stewed crab (1914): crab meat and roe in a butter-and-flour sauce with soured cream and sherry, filled into crab shells and gratinated light brown.