t best from March to October.

TO CHOOSE LOBSTERS.--This shell-fish, if it has been cooked alive, as it
ought to have been, will have a stiffness in the tail, which, if gently
raised, will return with a spring. Care, however, must be taken in thus
proving it; for if the tail is pulled straight out, it will not return;
when the fish might be pronounced inferior, which, in reality, may not
be the case. In order to be good, lobsters should be weighty for their
bulk; if light, they will be watery; and those of the medium size, are
always the best. Small-sized lobsters are cheapest, and answer very well
for sauce. In boiling lobsters, the appearance of the shell will be much
improved by rubbing over it a little butter or salad-oil on being
immediately taken from the pot.

[Illustration: THE LOBSTER.]

THE LOBSTER.--This is one of the crab tribe, and is found on
most of the rocky coasts of Great Britain. Some are caught with
the hand, but the larger number in pots, which serve all the
purposes of a trap, being made of osiers, and baited with
garbage. They are shaped like a wire mousetrap; so that when the
lobsters once enter them, they cannot get out again. They are
fastened to a cord and sunk in the sea, and their place marked
by a buoy. The fish is very prolific, and deposits of its eggs
in the sand, where they are soon hatched. On the coast of
Norway, they are very abundant, and it is from there that the
English metropolis is mostly supplied. They are rather
indigestible, and, as a food, not so nurtritive as they are
generally supposed to be.

HOT LOBSTER.

271. INGREDIENTS.--1 lobster, 2 oz. of butter, grated nutmeg; salt,
pepper, and pounded mace, to taste; bread crumbs, 2 eggs.

_Mode_.--Pound the meat of the lobster to a smooth paste with the butter
and seasoning, and add a few bread crumbs. Beat the eggs, and make the
whole mixture into the form of a lobster; pound the spawn, and sprinkle
over it. Bake 1/4 hour, and just before serving, lay over it the tail
and body shell, with the small claws underneath, to resemble a lobster.

_Time_.--1/4 hour. _Average cost_, 2s. 6d.

_Seasonable_ at any time.

_Sufficient_ for 4 or 5 persons.

LOBSTER SALAD.

272. INGREDIENTS.--1 hen lobster, lettuces, endive, small salad
(whatever is in season), a little chopped beetroot, 2 hard-boiled eggs,
a few slices of cucumber. For dressing, equal quantities of oil and
vi