Moules à la Marinière
This preparation has a few variations: with or without white wine; with or without lemon; and with a different liaison. Only the shallot, a characteristic element of the "marinière," always remains.
Of the different recipes for the marinière, we give the simplest, which is also the best. In this, the sauce is bound with bread crumbs. If you prefer a liaison with beurre manié, you should replace the bread crumbs with 10 grams of flour (1/3 ounce) worked with 20 grams (2/3 ounce, 1 heaping tablespoon) of butter.
The cookbook provides a lengthy explanation of cooking mussels. We cooked the mussels with 1 sliced medium onion, 5 thyme sprigs, 1/3 Turkish bay leaf, a pinch of white pepper, and 1 cup water, covered, over high heat until mussels just opened wide, 6 to 8 minutes, discarding mussels that didn't open after 8 minutes.
