No. 1438 — Crayfish Pâté with Green Peas and Fish Forcemeat
English historical translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 1438 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original methods and measures.
Prepare fish forcemeat as in No. 1405. Boil and clean sixty fairly large crayfish, extracting tails and claws.
Boil one glass of dried green peas in cream until soft and let cool.
Butter and breadcrumb a round serving dish; alternate layers of fish forcemeat, crayfish tails and claws, peas, forcemeat and more peas, finishing with forcemeat.
Cover with strips of puff pastry four fingers wide as in No. 1403, make a rosette in the centre, brush with egg and bake for about an hour.
For sauce boil two glasses of meat stock with one spoonful each of flour and crayfish butter, adding seedless lemon slices and, if desired, half or one glass of cream.
Pour one glass of sauce into the pâté just before serving and serve the rest separately. The source totals ⅞ Russian pound of butter for the whole pâté.
To provide
60 fairly large crayfish 1 glass of dried green peas About ⅓ Russian pound 2½ glasses cream or milk For forcemeat: 1½ Russian pounds pike and ¼ pound butter ½ French roll and 1 onion ½ glass milk or thick cream Nutmeg, salt and herbs | 2–3 rusks and ⅓ spoonful butter For sauce: 1 spoonful flour and 1 spoonful crayfish butter ½ lemon 3–5 black and allspice berries For puff pastry No. 303: ½ Russian pound butter and 2 glasses flour 1 egg for glazing |