82 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



bread ready, and cover the bottom of your dish thick ; 

 grate half a nutmeg over them, and pour the mussels 

 and sauce all over the crumbs, and send them to 

 table.* 



Mussel Pie. — Make a good paste, lay it all over the 

 dish ; wash your mussels clean in several waters, then 

 put them into a stew-pan, cover them, and let them 

 stew till they open ; pick them out, and see that there 

 be no crabs under the tongue ; put them into a sauce- 

 pan, with two or three blades of mace, strain the 

 liquor just enough to cover them, add a good piece of 

 butter, and a few crumbs of bread ; stew them a few 

 minutes ; fill your pie, cover it, and bake for half an 

 hour.f 



To Pickle Mussels. — Take fresh mussels, wash them 

 very clean, and put them in a pot over the fire till 

 they open. Then take them out of their shells, pick 

 them clean, and lay them to cool. Then put their 

 liquor to some vinegar, whole pepper, ginger sliced 

 thin, and mace, setting it over the fire; when it is 

 scalding hot, put in the mussels, and let them stew a 

 little ; then pour out the pickle from them, and when 

 both are cold, put them into an earthen jug (jar ?) and 

 cork it up close; in two or three days they will be fit 

 to eat. J 



Mussels dressed a la Provencale. — Wash the mussels 

 well several times, changing the water so as to cleanse 

 them thoroughly ; put them to dry in a saucepan over 

 a hot fire, till the shells open. Take off one valve of 

 the shell only. Put into a saucepan half a glass of 

 oil, parsley, chives, mushrooms, truffles, half a clove of 



* 'The Lady's Companion,' vol. i. p. 149. t Ibid 



J 'The Complete Cook,' by James Jenks, 1718. 



