an inch and a half square; season with salt and pepper. Put them into a
saucepan, with a quartered onion, three cloves, a bay-leaf, and three
ounces of butter. Cover the saucepan closely, and let it steam gently
for half an hour, shaking it occasionally to prevent sticking. Add a
pint of boiling water; cover closely once more and boil gently for one
hour; then strain the sauce and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour
(mix the flour smoothly with a little cold water before adding it to the
sauce), boil a moment longer, and serve.
A tablespoonful of very small A. G. capers may be added before serving.
=Breast of Lamb with Asparagus Tops.=—Remove the skin and part of the
fat from a breast of lamb, and cut it into neat pieces; dredge a little
flour over them, and place them in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter;
let them remain until nicely browned; cover the meat with warm water,
add a bunch of parsley, two button-onions; simmer until the meat is
cooked; skim off the fat, take out the onions and parsley, and mince the
latter finely; return it to the gravy with a pint of the tops of boiled
asparagus, add salt and pepper, simmer a few minutes longer, and serve.
Canned asparagus may be used when the fresh vegetable is out of season.
=Fricassee of Chicken.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken, cut it into
joints, make a gravy by simmering the trimmings in stock enough to cover
them, with one onion, stock with three cloves, a bouquet of herbs, salt
and pepper. Simmer the gravy for one hour; strain and thicken a cupful
of it with a teaspoonful of flour; let this boil, then put in the
chicken. Draw the saucepan from the fire a few minutes, mix a little of
the sauce with the beaten yolks of two eggs and a cupful of cream. Add
this last mixture to the saucepan, let it get hot, but on no account
allow it to boil, or the eggs will curdle. Serve with the sauce poured
over the chicken, and sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top.
=Fried Chicken.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken, place it in a pan,
and simmer with an ounce of butter, a finely-chopped onion, the juice of
a lemon, salt and pepper; let them simmer nearly half an hour; take the
pieces out and dredge them in flour, and fry in boiling fat; turn the
pieces over while cooking, and fry a deep brown.
Make a dressing of flour, mixed smoothly in a cupful of cold milk and a
little chopped parsley. Add to the pan that the chicken simmered in,
boil gently, strain over the chicken and serve.
=Chicken with Rice a la Maryland.=—Cut up a chicken into joints, and put
it into a stew-pan with the heart, gizzard, and liver, and a slice or
two of bacon; cover with warm water, and boil gently until the chicken
is quite tender; then take the meat out of the stew-pan, and set it
where it will be kept warm; wash half a pint of rice, add it to the
gravy, season highly with salt and pepper. When done place the rice upon
a dish, lay the chicken on top, and if too dry brush a little melted
butter over it.
=Chicken Croquettes.=—Pound the white meat of a cold chicken with a cold
boiled sweetbread in a mortar; add a little salt, beat up an egg with a
teaspoonful of flour and a wineglassful of cream; mix the pounded meat
with the batter, put it in a saucepan, and simmer long enough to absorb
the moisture, _stirring all the time_; then turn it into a flat dish,
and set it in the ice-box to get cold and stiff, roll it into balls or
cones, dip in egg-batter, then roll them in crumbs or cracker-dust and
fry in boiling fat.
=Chicken a l’Italienne.=—Take half a pound of La Favorita macaroni, and
boil it in water with a lump of butter. When it has boiled a quarter of
an hour, drain off the water and cover the macaroni with milk; add salt
and pepper and a whole onion, stock with a few cloves; boil until the
macaroni is tender but unbroken.
Boil a chicken in the usual manner, cut it up and lay it on a hot dish,
pour the macaroni over it (remove the onion), grate a quarter of a pound
of Parmesan cheese over the dish, and brown it in the oven or with a
salamander.
=Chicken Patties.=—Pick the meat from a cold chicken, and cut it up into
small dice; place it in a saucepan with a cupful of chicken stock, a
cupful of cream, a piece of butter the size of an egg, rolled in flour,
salt and pepper, and a little grated nutmeg and lemon-peel; simmer
gently until it begins to thicken, remove the dish from the fire a few
minutes to cool; beat up the yolks of two eggs with a half teaspoonful
flour, moistened in milk or cream, and add to the saucepan, mix
thoroughly, and draw towards the fire (but do not let it boil) until it
thickens; before serving add the juice of half a lemon.
Fill your patty-shells with the mixture, one for each person, and serve
(see Oyster Patties for patty-shells).
=Chicken Pie.=—Line the sides of a pie-dish with a good puff paste. Have
your chicken cooked as for a fricassee, seasoned with salt and pepper
and a little chopped parsley. When they are nearly cooked lay them in a
pie-dish with half a pound of salt pork cut into inch squares, and some
of the paste cut into inch and a half pieces; pour in a part of the
chicken gravy, thicken with a little flour, and cover the dish with the
paste cover. Cut a hole the size of a dollar in the cover, and cover it
with a piece of dough twice the size of the hole (when baked remove this
piece occasionally and examine the interior), brush egg over the pie,
and bake in a quick oven.
Should the pie become dry pour in more of the gravy. Pigeon Pie may be
made by the above recipe.
=Chicken Panada= (Invalid cookery).—Take a fresh young chicken and boil
it until quite tender, in sufficient water to cover it. Strip the meat
from the bones and pound in a mortar until quite smooth, with a little
of the liquor it was boiled in; add salt, nutmeg, and a very little
grated lemon-peel. Boil this gently for a few minutes, with sufficient
liquid to make it the consistency of custard.
=Chicken with Dumplings.=—Disjoint one chicken, and put to boil in cold
water until done. Make dumplings with one pint of flour, one teaspoonful
of yeast-powder, and same quantity of salt. Wet this mixture with milk
and put with chicken until boiled. Take them out and fry in hot fat
until brown; do same with chicken afterwards. Use water in which chicken
was boiled to make gravy.
M. G. H.
=Chicken Toast.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken and chop up fine,
put in a saucepan, season with salt and pepper and just a little onion,
with a lump of butter; break over the meat two or three raw eggs; stir
all together, pour it upon nicely-buttered toast, and serve.
=Chicken Liver en Brochette.=—Wash the livers in cold water, dry them on
a towel, and cut them in two; cut slices of bacon into pieces about the
same size, and put them on a skewer alternately, and broil. When done
brush over them a sauce of melted butter, lemon-juice, pepper and salt.
=Braise of Duck with Turnips.=—Prepare a domestic duck as for roasting.
Line a small pan, just large enough for the duck, with slices of bacon;
strew over the bottom a little parsley, powdered herbs, and lemon-peel;
lay in the duck, and add a carrot cut into strips, an onion stuck with a
few cloves, and a dozen whole peppers; cover with stock and add a table
spoonful of strong vinegar; baste frequently and simmer until done. Fry
some slices of turnip in butter to a light brown, drain and add them to
the stew-pan after removing the duck, which should be kept hot. When the
turnips are tender remove them, strain the gravy, thickening if
necessary with a little flour or arrowroot; put the duck on a dish,
throw the hot gravy over it, and garnish with the turnips.
=Braise of Duck with Peas.=—Prepare and cook a duck as in the above
receipt, using green peas instead of carrots and onion, and fry two
onions in butter till they are of a pale brown; boil them to a thick
sauce with some of the duck gravy; season with salt and pepper, and
serve with the peas around the duck and the gravy thrown over.
=Salmi of Wild Duck.=—Cut up the remains of two roast, underdone wild
ducks into neat pieces and set them aside. Take the bones, giblets, and
ragged pieces, and put them in a stew-pan with a minced onion or
shallot, a salt-spoonful salt; and a very little cayenne; add a pint of
stock and a glass of port wine, boil gently half an hour, strain and
thicken the sauce with a teaspoonful of prepared brown flour. Put the
pieces of duck in a stew-pan, pour the sauce over them, and simmer until
quite hot. Add the juice of a sour orange to the dish and serve. A
garnish of olives is considered an improvement by some. Soak the olives
in cold water one hour; remove the stones with a small vegetable-cutter
and add them to the sauce, before taking the dish from the fire.
=Salmi of Partridge, Hunter’s Style.=—Take two cold roast partridges,
cut them into joints, and lay them in a saucepan with two ounces of
butter, a gill of Bordeaux or port, the grated rind and juice of a large
lemon, salt, and a little cayenne; thicken with a little flour if
desired; simmer gently until very hot and serve.
=Venison Epicurean.=—Cut a steak from the leg or a chop from the loin of
venison, about an inch and a half thick. Put a walnut of butter, salt
and pepper, into a chafing-dish; light the spirit-lamp under it, and
when the butter melts put in the chop or steak; let it cook on one side
a few minutes, then turn it over, and add a wineglassful of sherry or
port and a tablespoonful of currant-jelly. Simmer gently about seven
minutes if it is to be eaten rare, and allow twelve minutes cooking if
required well done.
Hot plates and a glass of Mr. Clair’s old East India Madeira are all
that is requisite to make the feast Apician in character.
=Venison Chops=, broiled and served with currant-jelly, are not to be
despised. Trim the ends as you would a French lamb-chop.
=Breast of Venison= may be dressed according to the receipt given for
breast of mutton.
=Venison Patties.=—Make a nicely-flavored mince of the remains of cold
roast venison; moisten it with a little sherry or gravy, and warm it in
a saucepan; fill the patty-shells with the meat and serve. (See oyster
patty for patty-shells.)
=Broiled Tripe.=—Cut up honeycomb tripe into pieces of three to four
inches wide; rub a little oil or melted butter over them, dredge them in
flour, and broil over a charcoal fire; squeeze a little lemon-juice over
each piece, and serve.
Never broil tripe over a hard-coal fire; the gases arising from the coal
spoil the flavor of the tripe, making it indigestible and unpalatable.
=Tripe Lyonnaise.=—Take a pound of cold boiled tripe and cut it into
pieces an inch square. Dissolve two ounces of butter in a frying-pan,
add a sliced onion to it, and fry until it is tender. Put the pieces of
tripe with the onion, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a
tablespoonful of vinegar, salt, and a little cayenne; heat all gently
together. Cover the bottom of a platter with tomato sauce, add the tripe
and serve.
=Tripe Fricassee.=—Cut up the tripe into square pieces; put them into a
stew-pan with a blade of mace, a bouquet of herbs, an onion quartered,
salt, and cayenne. Cover the tripe with Rhine wine or water and a little
vinegar; stew for one hour. Strain the sauce; put the tripe and sauce in
a clean saucepan, with a walnut of butter rolled in flour, a gill of
cream, a tablespoonful chopped parsley. Simmer ten minutes, squeeze in
the juice of a lemon, and serve.
=Pork and Beans.=—Wash a quart of beans thoroughly; cover them with cold
water and let them soak over-night. Change the water in the morning once
or twice. Then put them in a pot and simmer slowly for three hours until
they begin to crack open; pour them into a colander to drain off all the
water. Heat an earthen bean-pot with hot water, and wipe it dry; place a
small piece of pork on the bottom of the pot and pour in the beans. Cut
the rind of another piece of pork into strips, and sink it into the
beans, leaving only the rind of the pork exposed at the top. Dissolve a
tablespoonful of New Orleans molasses, with a teaspoonful of salt, in a
pint of warm water, and add it to the pot; set it in the oven and bake
slowly for three or four hours, or place the pot in a baker’s oven
over-night, instructing the baker to add a little water to the pot
should the beans become dry.
Serve with Boston brown bread.
=Baked Macaroni.=—For a small dish one-half pound macaroni, boiled until
soft, with a little salt in the water. Drain through a colander; then
put in the baking-dish, with one pint and a half of milk, a lump of
butter, pepper and salt, and grated cheese (enough to suit taste), and
distribute over top. Bake in a hot oven until brown.
M. G. H.
=Rice Croquettes.=—Put a quarter of a pound of Carolina “head” rice, one
pint of milk, three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, a walnut of
butter, and a teaspoonful of _best_ extract of vanilla into a saucepan;
simmer gently until the rice is tender and the milk absorbed. It must be
boiled until thick and dry, or it will be difficult to mould it into
croquettes. Beat it thoroughly for three or four minutes; turn it out on
a flat tin, and when cold and stiff form it into balls or cones; dip
these in beaten egg, roll lightly in crumbs, and fry in hot fat or
butter.
_VEGETABLE ENTREES._
=Stuffed Tomatoes.=—Take six ripe tomatoes of equal size; cut off the
tops and scoop out the insides; press the pulp through a sieve and mix
with it a little salt and cayenne, two ounces of butter broken into
little pieces, and two heaping tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs; fill the
tomatoes with the mixture, and bake in a moderate oven. Before serving
them brown the stuffing by holding a salamander or a small shovel
containing hot coals over them.
Any good force-meat may be used to stuff tomatoes; the remains of game
or poultry minced, and mixed with herbs and bread-crumbs, seasoned and
bound together with yolk of egg, will suit the most fastidious.
=Stuffed Egg-Plant.=—Cut the egg-plant in two; scrape out all the inside
and put it in a saucepan with a little minced ham; cover with water and
boil until soft; drain off the water; add two tablespoonfuls grated
crumbs, tablespoonful butter, half a minced onion, salt, and pepper;
stuff each half of the hull with the mixture; add a small lump of butter
to each and bake fifteen minutes.
=Stuffed Egg-Plant, No. 2.=—Pare off the purple rind of the egg-plant
and quarter it; round off the edges as neatly as possible, then place
them in salt and water for an hour. Take them out of the water, scrape
out the centre, and mix it with a force-meat of veal, bread-crumbs,
seasoning, and yolk of egg; put the mixture in the hollow egg-plant,
with a lump of butter upon the top of each, and bake a light brown.
=Stuffed Potatoes.=—Take a number of firm-skin potatoes of equal size;
clean them well and bake them. When done cut off a piece of the end of
each potato and scoop out as much of the inside as can be obtained
without injury to the skin; mash it with cream and butter; add a little
salt; set the dish on the range to keep hot. Take the whites of three
eggs, whip them to a froth, and add to the potatoes; mix all together;
simmer until quite hot; fill up the skins with the potato paste; fasten
the covers with white of egg, and bake fifteen minutes.
=Potato Balls.=—Boil a small potful of potatoes; wash them well, and mix
with them butter, salt, chopped parsley or chives, grated nutmeg, and
two raw eggs; work the paste into small balls, dip in beaten egg, roll
in cracker-dust or flour, and fry.
=Potato Cake.=—Take half a pound of dry mealy potatoes, either baked or
boiled; mash them until they are free from lumps; mix with them three
ounces of flour, salt and pepper, and as much lukewarm milk and butter
as will make a smooth, firm dough; add one egg and half a teaspoonful of
Royal Baking Powder. Roll the paste out with a rolling-pin till it is
nearly two inches thick; dredge a little flour over it, and cut it out
the exact size of the frying-pan. Rub the pan over with butter; lay the
cake carefully into it; cover with a plate; shake it every now and then
to prevent it burning; when it is half done on one side turn it over
carefully on the other. Serve on a hot dish with plenty of good fresh
butter.
Cold potatoes, if dry and mealy, may be warmed up in this manner.
Sweet potatoes make very good potato cake.
=Potato Fritters.=—Burst open four nicely-baked potatoes; scoop out the
insides with a spoon, and mix with them a wineglassful of cream, a
tablespoonful of brandy, two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, the juice
of one lemon, half a teaspoonful of Thurber’s best extract vanilla, and
the well-beaten yolks of four and the whites of three eggs; beat the
batter for several minutes until it is quite smooth, and drop large
tablespoonfuls of the mixture into boiling fat, and fry a light brown;
dust powdered sugar over them, and send to table.
=Parsnip Fritters.=—Boil four good-sized parsnips in salted water until
tender; drain them, beat them to a pulp, and squeeze the water from them
as much as possible; bind them together with a beaten egg and a little
flour. Shape them into cakes, and fry in hot fat.
=Oyster-Plant Croquettes.=—Wash, scrape, and boil the oyster-plant till
tender; rub it through a colander, and mix with the pulp a little
butter, cream, salt, cayenne, and lemon-juice; mix the ingredients
thoroughly together to a smooth paste, and set the dish in the ice-box
to get cold; then shape it into small cones, dip them in beaten egg and
roll in crumbs, and fry crisp and brown.
=Fritters.=—The following receipt will serve for many kinds of fruit or
vegetable fritters: Make a batter of ten ounces of flour, half a pint of
milk, and two ounces of butter; sweeten and flavor to taste; add a glass
of brandy, rum, or sherry; stir in the whites of two eggs well beaten;
dip the fruit in the batter, and fry. Small fruit and vegetables should
be mixed with the batter.
=Arrowroot for Batters and Sauces.=—Arrowroot may be used to thicken
batters, sauces, etc., for those who object to butter, as invalids very
often do. Mix a tablespoonful of Beatty’s Bermuda Arrowroot smoothly
with a little cold water, and stir it into a pint of the batter or
sauce.
=Omelettes.=—Numerous kinds of omelettes may be served as the last
entrée, and, if properly made, they generally give satisfaction. As a
rule an omelette is a wholesome, inexpensive dish, but yet one in the
preparation of which cooks frequently fail owing to ignorance of detail.
The flavoring and the ingredients used may be varied indefinitely, but
the process is always the same. In making an omelette care should be
taken that the frying-pan is hot and dry. The best way to ensure this is
to put a small quantity of fat into the pan, let it simmer a few
minutes, then pour it out; wipe the pan dry with a towel and put in a
little fresh fat, in which the omelette should be fried; care should be
taken that the fat does not burn, thereby spoiling the color of the
omelette.
It is better to make two or three small omelettes than one large one.
The eggs should be but slightly beaten, just long enough to mix them,
and no more; a tablespoonful of cream to every two eggs will be found an
improvement. Salt _mixed_ with the eggs prevents them from rising and
gives the omelette a flabby appearance; without salt your omelette will
taste insipid; sprinkle a little salt on the omelette just before
turning out on the dish.
=Oyster Omelette.=—Stew six oysters in their own liquor; remove the
oysters and thicken the liquid with butter rolled in flour; season with
salt, cayenne, and mix with it a teaspoonful chopped parsley. Chop up
the oysters and add them to the sauce; simmer gently until the sauce
thickens. Beat three eggs lightly with a tablespoonful and a half of
cream, and fry until they are delicately set; before folding over put a
few spoonfuls of the mixture in the centre; turn it out carefully on a
hot dish, with the balance of the sauce round it, and serve immediately.
If small oysters are used put them in the centre of the omelette, whole,
fold and serve with sauce round it.
=Rum Omelette.=—Fry an omelette in the usual way; fold it with a little
salt, and turn it out on a hot dish; dust sugar over it, and singe the
sugar into stripes with a hot iron rod; pour a wineglassful of warm rum
round the omelette, set a light to it, and send to table flaming.
=Omelette Souffle.=—Break six eggs into separate cups; beat four of the
yolks, and mix with them a teaspoonful of flour, three tablespoonfuls of
powdered sugar, very little salt, and any flavoring extract that may be
preferred. Whisk the white of the six eggs to a firm froth; mix them
lightly with the yolks; pour the mixture into a greased pan or dish, and
bake in a quick oven. When it is well risen and lightly browned on the
top it is done; take it out of the oven, dust a little powdered sugar
over it carefully, and send to table immediately. It must be served in
the same dish in which it is baked.
=Welsh Rarebit.=—Select the richest and best American factory cheese—the
milder it is the better, as the melting brings out the strength. To make
five rarebits take one pound of cheese, grate it, and put it in a tin or
porcelain-lined saucepan; add ale enough to thin the cheese
sufficiently, say about a wineglassful to each rarebit; stir until all
is melted. Have a slice of toast ready for each rarebit (crusts
trimmed); put a slice on each plate, and pour cheese enough over each
piece to cover it. Eat while hot.
=To make a “Golden Buck.”=—A “Golden Buck” is merely the addition of a
poached egg, which is put carefully on the top of the rarebit.
“=Yorkshire Rarebit.=”—This is the same as a “Golden Buck,” only it has
two thin slices of broiled bacon on the top.—_George Browne, in
Thurber’s Epicure._
[See Vegetables, page 90.]
_ROASTING._
Roasting is an excellent method of rendering food wholesome and
nourishing. Without making any great change in the chemical properties
of meat it renders it more tender and highly flavored, while there is
not so much waste of its nutritive juices as in baking. But where can
the average American get a slice of _roast_ beef? Our homes are not
provided with spits, bottle-jacks, Dutch ovens, and the like; and as a
very sensible writer in the New York _Times_ stated, “ninety-nine
_roasts_ in the United States are baked in ovens, and there is no help
for it.” I can see no possible way out of the dilemma but to submit
gracefully to baked meats for ever. The leading hotels and restaurants
overcome the difficulty by purchasing the very best of beef, and keeping
it from eight to fifteen days in their ice-houses. Thus the excellent
quality of the beef overcomes, in a measure, the bad effects created by
the superheated volatile portions that escape from the beef during the
process of baking.
No finer, better, or sweeter piece of meat was ever tasted, either in
England or America, than the Astor House roast beef; and the secret is
in securing the best quality, and taking proper care of it before
submitting it to the oven.
=Roast Beef.=—The best roasting-pieces are the fore and middle ribs and
the sirloin. The chuck-ribs, although cheaper, are not as profitable to
families, there being too much waste in the carving of them. The ends of
the ribs should be removed from the flank, and the latter folded under
the beef and securely fastened with skewers. Rub a little salt into the
fat part; place the meat in the dripping-pan with a pint of stock or
water; baste freely, and dredge with flour half an hour before taking
the joint from the oven.
Should the oven be very hot place a buttered paper over the meat to
prevent it scorching while yet raw, in which case it will need very
little basting; or turn the rib side up towards the fire for the first
twenty minutes. The time it will take in cooking depends entirely upon
the thickness of the joint and the length of time it has been killed.
Skim the fat from the gravy and add a tablespoonful of prepared brown
flour and a glass of sherry to the remainder.