slices of carrot and onion, put in the sweetbreads prepared as above,
i.e. washed and freed from skins, and larded, but not boiled. Let
them brown well over a brisk oven, shaking occasionally to prevent
adherence, and turning. When of a deep golden hue all over, moisten
with 3-4 tablespoonsfuls thick cream, or cream of the previous day,
slightly on the turn, add enough veal stock to nearly cover the
sweetbreads, cover hermetically, and put charcoal on the lid; place
over a moderate fire, as it were between 2 fires, which is the French
equivalent for our oven-cooking, and let them stew gently for nearly
an hour. To serve them, strain the sauce, add a little lemon juice.
They are very good done in this way also, and served upon fresh young
peas, spinach, or sorrel, done in the French way. It is essential
that the stock used should be _blond de veau_ or veal stock, because
one of the first rules of all good cookery is that all meats should
be cooked in their own sauces, i.e. that the sauce should be of the
same meat as the thing cooked.
(_d_) Stewed.--Trim some sweetbreads, and soak them in warm water
till quite white, blanch in boiling water, and then put them in cold
water for a short time. When cold, dry them, and put them in some
well-flavoured white stock, stew for ½ hour. Beat up the yolks of 2
or 3 eggs with some cream, a little finely-minced parsley, and grated
nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste; add this to the sauce, put it on
the fire to get quite hot; dish the sweetbreads, pour the sauce over,
and serve.
Tea.--Cut into small dice 1 lb. lean meat, place on the fire with 2
tablespoonfuls water, 1 teaspoonful salt; stir this gently until the
gravy is drawn, then add 1 qt. boiling water, simmer slowly for ¾
hour, skimming off the fat; when done strain through a sieve. It may
be made richer and more tasty by adding, when first warming the meat,
a little butter, onion, and parsley.
Vol-au-vent.--Roll out a sufficient quantity of good puff paste 1
in. thick, and stamp it out with a fluted cutter to the size of the
dish upon which it is to come to table. Mark it out with another of
a smaller size, leaving about 1½ in. at the edge of the paste, which
brush over with a beaten-up egg. Put it into a quick oven to rise and
become a good colour. When done, remove with the point of a knife the
piece marked out for the top, and scoop out all the soft part from
the inside; then turn upon a piece of writing paper to dry. Fill it
with minced veal and a small quantity of white sauce. As it is only a
professed cook who can make a vol-au-vent, it is much best to order
it from a confectioner’s and only fill it at home.
=Game=, =Poultry=, =&c.=--The cooking of game and poultry demands
especial care on the part of the cook, from the delicacy of flavour
and tenderness of flesh of these viands. The fine aroma of all
feathered game is best developed by roasting, and it may be observed
that in the case of young birds a few days “hanging” will be found
sufficient to render them tender, while in the case of old ones
it is far better to first roast them slightly--to bring out the
flavour--and then make them into a _salmis_, or to cut off the breast
for fillets and use the remaining portions for making soup. The
average time for hanging will vary as follows:--
In Mild In Cold
Weather. Weather.
Capon 3 days. 6 days.
Chickens 2 ” 4 ”
Duck, Goose, Turkey 2 ” 6 ”
Hare 3 ” 6 ”
Partridge 2 ” 6 to 8 ”
Pheasant 4 ” 10 ”
Pigeons, young 2 ” 4 ”
Pullet, young fat 4 ” 10 ”
Rabbit 2 ” 4 ”
When the weather is moist or rainy, the articles must be kept
somewhat less time. Keeping may be prolonged by putting a little
finely powdered charcoal in a muslin bag inside the game, changing
the charcoal daily.
The following general methods of dressing game may conveniently
precede special recipes for each kind.
_Aspic._--Cut the breast of a brace of birds into fillets, cook them
in the oven, smothered in butter, in a tin with pepper and salt, and
put them between 2 plates under a weight to get cold. With the rest
of the flesh of the birds make a forcemeat as follows: Pound it in
a mortar with an equal quantity of lean veal; add as much butter
as there is game meat, and as much breadcrumbs soaked in stock and
squeezed dry; mix the whole thoroughly well in the mortar, then pass
the mixture through a sieve; return it to the mortar; work into it 1
tablespoonful Spanish sauce or chaudfroid sauce, pepper and salt, a
little powdered sweet herbs or spices, then the yolks of 2 and the
white of 1 egg. Put this composition into a plain buttered mould,
steam it for ½ hour, and turn it out. When cold cut it in slices,
and cut the slices into rounds all of a shape; cut all the fillets to
the same size; cut also some ready-cooked truffles into slices; set
some white of egg in a jam pot placed in a saucepan full of boiling
water, turn it out, cut it in slices, and from them cut pieces all
of a size. Pour a little well-flavoured aspic jelly into a mould:
when it begins to set arrange the above materials, filling it up with
jelly until the mould is full, and when quite set turn it out.
_Boudin._--Pick out all the meat from any kind of cooked game, pound
it in a mortar. To 4 oz. of this add 4 oz. of the raw flesh of veal
or of fowl, also pounded; work the two together in a mortar, and add
4 oz. butter and 4 oz. paste made as for fish boudin, season with
pepper and salt, a very little powdered sweet herbs, then pass the
whole through a sieve. Return the composition to the mortar, work
into it 1 tablespoonful brown sauce (Espagnole), the yolks of 2 and
the white of 1 egg. Put the mixture into a buttered mould, and steam
it for 1 hour, then serve with brown sauce.
_Chaudfroid._--Roast 2 partridges, and when cold divide them into
joints; trim each joint neatly, removing the skin from it; dip them
in some chaudfroid sauce, made hot for the purpose, and if when
cooled the pieces of partridge are not well covered over with it,
repeat the operation. Arrange the pieces pyramidally on a dish, with
a border of chopped-up aspic jelly round them. The wings and breasts
cut from the birds used to make the sauce can be served in various
ways in the form of fillets, and the legs can also be utilised,
either to make a stew, or for the stock pot.
For the sauce, remove the legs, breast, and wings from 2 uncooked
birds, pound the carcases in a mortar, put them into a saucepan, with
a piece of ham or bacon chopped up, an onion, a carrot, 1 oz. butter,
a bundle of sweet herbs and spices, pepper and salt to taste; put the
saucepan on the fire, and when the contents are quite hot add a small
cupful of white wine (sherry or marsala), and a few minutes after add
rather more than a pint of good ordinary stock; let the whole gently
simmer over an hour, then strain and remove all fat carefully; mix
a little butter and flour in a saucepan, and stir on the fire till
the mixture browns, then gradually add the liquor and a cupful of
unclarified aspic jelly. If at hand a cupful of well-made Spanish
sauce may be used instead of the thickening of butter and flour.
_Croquettes._--Pick out from the remnants of any roast white game
a quantity of meat from the breasts, mince it all finely, and put
it into a saucepan, with a piece of butter previously melted, and
amalgamated with a pinch of flour; add pepper and salt, and a grate
of nutmeg. Stir well, and add, off the fire, the yolk of an egg
beaten up with the juice of a lemon, and strained. Spread out this
mince (which should be pretty stiff) on a marble slab, and when it
is nearly cold fashion it in breadcrumbs into small portions in the
shape of balls or of corks. Dip each in a beaten-up egg, and then
roll it in very fine baked breadcrumbs. Let the croquettes rest a
while, then fry them in hot lard, to a golden colour. Serve on a
napkin with plenty of fried parsley.
_Croustades._--Boil a quantity of rice in salted water till done.
Strain off the water, put the rice in a saucepan, and keep moistening
with as much milk or stock as it will absorb; add a handful of
Parmesan cheese and a little pepper. When the rice is thoroughly
done, or rather overdone, spread it out evenly to the thickness of
about 2 in. on a slab or dish. When quite cold, cut with a 2 in.
patty cutter as many “rounds” as the layer of rice will admit. Beat
up an egg, roll each “round” or “croustade” in it, and then cover it
well with breadcrumbs, repeating the operation if necessary. Make an
impression with a smaller patty-cutter on the top of each croustade,
dispose them carefully in the frying-basket, and plunge it into very
hot lard. When the croustades have taken a good colour, drain them,
and, lifting the cover (formed by the impression of the smaller
cutter), scoop out the rice from the inside of each croustade with a
teaspoon. Fill them quickly with game _purée_, and serve.
_Kromeskies._--Pick out all the meat from the remnants of any kind of
game, pound it in a mortar with a little butter, and pass it through
a hair sieve; put it into a saucepan with a little butter, pepper,
salt, and spice to taste, give it a turn on the fire, then take it
off; stir in, off the fire, the yolk of 1-2 eggs and some lemon
juice. Spread out the mixture to get cold, and divide it into very
small portions. Cut some slices of bacon as thin as possible, and to
the size of 1½ in. by 2½ in., place on each slice a teaspoonful of
the mince, and roll it up neatly in the bacon; beat up together the
yolks of 2 eggs, 1 tablespoonful brandy, 1 of olive oil, and 4-5 of
cold water; incorporate with this about 3 tablespoonfuls flour and a
good pinch of salt; keep on beating the mixture for a little time,
then add as much water as will make it of the right consistency. When
ready to use this batter, stir into it quickly the whites of 2 eggs
beaten up to a froth. Dip each kromesky in it, and fry them a nice
colour in hot lard.
_Pie._--(_a_) Have ready a forcemeat as follows: Chop equal
quantities of veal and fat bacon, with a little lean ham, and season
it highly with pepper, salt, and spice, and, if at hand, a few
truffles. Line a pie-dish with a layer of veal highly seasoned with
pepper, salt, and spice, and pieces of bacon or ham. On this lay the
game, either whole or in joints, as you choose, and fill up with
forcemeat, and, if necessary, a little more veal and ham in pieces,
and some truffles if handy. Cover with a good crust and bake.
(_b_) Can be made of a fowl, a rabbit, and 2 partridges (fowl only
if a pheasant is not at hand). They must be dressed, and put into
a large stewpan, and boiled until the flesh comes easily from the
bones; then the different meats of each must be passed separately
through a potting machine, or beaten well in a mortar (it is of
little consequence which), and spread in layers in an ordinary game
pie dish, with a layer of forcemeat between each layer--say a layer
of chicken, then one of forcemeat, then one of partridge, then one
of forcemeat, and so on--but on each layer pepper, a little salt,
Worcester sauce, tomato sauce, chili vinegar, or other flavourings
must be placed, and a few slices of shallot or truffles also. Then
take the inner pie dish in which the layers are placed, and put it
in the oven for 10 minutes. The jelly, which is generally served on
the top, can be made of the liquor in which the game has stewed,
flavoured to taste with vinegar, ketchup to taste, with gelatine
added, and passed through the jelly bag as ordinary jelly.
_Shikaree Pie._--Make a rich soup with 3 or 4 brace of partridges or
grouse, and the knuckle of a ham cut in pieces; stew slowly until the
breasts of the birds are done; take out the same, and some of the
lean of the ham; pound these when cold in a mortar, with a little
pepper, salt, allspice, lemon peel, and mushroom powder. When the
soup is reduced so as to form a rich consommé, let it cool and take
off the fat. Take a pheasant and 2 brace of partridges, or 3 brace
of grouse, cut into nice pieces, stew slowly for a short time in the
soup until tender; make a raised pie crust; when the game is cool
place a layer of game, then of the forcemeat, then more game, and
so on until the pie is full; add the gravy, place on the cover, and
bake; when cooked carefully remove the cover, pour in the rest of the
gravy; place the pie in a cool cellar or larder, so as all may be
jellied next day when required. This may be made of any game.
_Vol au Vent from cold Game._--Take the meat from a cold pheasant or
a brace of partridges, and a little cold ham or tongue; cut up small
into dice. Break up the bones and stew them with the trimmings in
about a gill of white stock seasoned with a blade of mace, 3 or 4
allspice, a little nutmeg and salt. Let it simmer for ½ hour, strain;
then add, if procurable, ½ pint of the smallest button mushrooms.
These should be first rubbed with a bit of flannel and a little salt
to take off the skin. When nearly done stir in 1 gill rich cream, and
a large piece of butter into which some flour has been rubbed. Put in
the meat and a few minced truffles; stir slowly until it boils. When
the sauce has well thickened pour it into the paste. Garnish, and
serve at once. Make some brioche paste into shapes by putting a piece
of bread into the centre of a mould; also cut out a few flowers,
leaves, &c., for ornament. Bake and take out the bread or mould. Some
persons make a few little balls of the paste as well, boil, and serve
them with the sauce. If button mushrooms cannot be had, use a small
tin of French champignons or a few white pickled mushrooms.
The following are special recipes.
_Cygnet_ (Cygne).--(_a_) The cygnet must not be skinned; pick the
bird, and truss it like a goose. Take 2 lb. rump steak, which chop
fine, and season with spice, a piece of onion or shallot, and butter;
rub the breast of the bird inside and out with beaten cloves, then
stuff it with the above, taking care to sew it up carefully and tie
tightly on the spit, that the gravy may not escape; inclose the
breast of the bird in a meal paste, after which cover it all over
with paper well greased with beef dripping. About ¼ hour before the
bird is taken up, remove paper and paste, and baste with butter and
flour till brown and frothy. For gravy--strong beef and ½ pint port
wine; pour over the bird, and serve with hot currant jelly. A squeeze
of lemon is an improvement.
(_b_) Truss it as a turkey, cover it with strips of fat bacon, and
roast it for 1 hour, then take it up and put it into a stewpan
just large enough to hold it, at the bottom of which lay 2 blades
of mace, 2 onions sliced, 1 carrot, 1 head celery, ½ lb. butter, 1
tablespoonful soy, 1 gill mushroom ketchup, 1 pint good gravy, 1 pint
port wine. The bird to be stewed in the above until tender (about 1½
hour). When done, place it on a dish with a cover; strain the liquor
into a stewpan, and boil away until only sufficient is left to serve
with the bird; of course judgment must be used as to the quantity
required. During the boiling of the sauce add ½ lb. Sultana raisins,
and season the whole with a little lemon juice and cayenne to taste,
then thicken with a little flour and butter mixed together, and boil
with the sauce; pour over the bird, and serve very hot.
_Duck_ (Canard, caneton). Roast.--Pluck, singe, and draw, blanche
the feet and remove their skin; make a stuffing with sage, onions
(previously blanched and chopped fine), and breadcrumbs, using twice
as much onion as sage, and twice as much breadcrumbs as onion, add a
little butter, pepper, and salt to taste. When stuffed, truss them,
tie some thin slices of bacon over the breasts, roast for 15 minutes
before a brisk fire, basting well with butter, remove the bacon from
the birds a minute or two before they are ready. Serve with gravy in
the dish, but not over the birds.
Stewed.--Half roast the duck, place it in a stewpan with 1 pint good
gravy, 3 glasses red wine, an onion, a bit of lemon peel, a bunch
of sweet herbs, an anchovy or a teaspoonful of the sauce, pepper,
and salt. It will not need stewing more than an hour, and should be
done very slowly. When done, strain the gravy, skim it, and add a
dessertspoonful of Worcester sauce. Thicken with butter and flour,
return the gravy to the stewpan, make the duck hot, and serve.
_Fowl_ (Poulet, poularde, volaille). Boiled.--Place 2 fowls trussed
for boiling, with an onion and a piece of butter inside each, into a
saucepan with sufficient water and 3 oz. butter, 2 carrots, a bunch
of sweet herbs (parsley, thyme, and celery), whole pepper and salt
to taste; let them boil slowly till done--about 1 hour. Serve within
a border of plainly boiled brussels sprouts, and with onion sauce
poured over them.
Braised Drumsticks.--Braise some drumsticks of fowls, and arrange
them upright round the outside of a small basin, which may contain
finely chopped salad with its dressing. Slices of tongue and curled
ham may be placed alternately between the drumsticks. The plate
and lower part of the basin should be hidden by mustard and cress,
relieved by thin slices of beetroot.
Chaudfroid.--Cut from the white part of a boiled chicken oval pieces
about 2 in. long. Make some sauce with 1 oz. butter, 1 oz. flour, and
½ pint very strong stock. Let it boil up once, add ¼ oz. of gelatine
if the stock is not quite a stiff jelly when cold. When the sauce
is beginning to set, mask each piece of chicken thickly with it.
Place a layer of aspic jelly, roughly broken up, on a dish, and when
the sauce on the pieces of chicken is quite cold and set, lay them
neatly on the aspic; in the centre of the dish heap up cold cooked
peas or beans, or a macédoine of vegetables.
Cold Fowls.--(_a_) Boil the fowl in the stock-pot and let it stay
in the stock till both are cold, it will be much better flavoured.
For the sauce, either of these will do. (1) Melt 2 oz. butter, add
1½ oz. flour, and 1½ gills white stock or milk. When it boils, add
½ teaspoonful lemon juice, and 2 tablespoonfuls cream. (2) Like the
above, but with the yolk of an egg instead of the cream. (3) Boil 1
or 2 heads of celery tender in white-stock or milk and water, and rub
them through a fine sieve. Take ½ pint of the liquor, thicken with
butter and flour, add the celery, and just boil. All these sauces
must be thick enough not to run off the fowl into the dish. Crumbs
coloured with cochineal, and then dried to crispness in a very slow
oven, or tinted with beetroot juice or horseradish dyed red, makes
a pretty garnish. The boiled liver rubbed through a sieve over the
fowl, and contrasted with slices of boiled carrot cut into fanciful
shapes, and put at intervals round the dish with parsley, makes a
change in the mode of serving, and has the recommendation of being an
eatable garnish.
(_b_) The meat of large cold roast fowls, however dark in colour, and
however tough, may be made tender by gently simmering in a stewpan
over the fire in the usual way, or better still, in the oven; for
the latter, cut the fowl into joints, place them in a deep pie-dish
with enough cold water to completely cover them; place the dish on
the bottom shelf of the oven, which should not be too hot, and let it
remain until sufficiently tender to draw out the bones; watch it in
order to add more water as the first reduces. It must be kept quite
under water all the time, or it would dry up and become hard and
brown; at the same time it does not do to put it in too much water at
first, as it would draw the goodness from the meat. It will probably
take about 1½ hour to do; and prepared in this way, it will be ready
to use for rissoles, croquettes, curry, or mince, taking care to chop
up a little fat streaky bacon with it. The liquor in which it has
been cooked will be very good to moisten it as required, or it may be
added to the stock-pot.
Country Captain.--Cut up a chicken into small pieces, melt some
butter in a saucepan, and put into it an onion shred very fine, fry
until quite crisp, sprinkle the fowl well with curry powder, add some
salt, and fry until thoroughly cooked, turning the pieces frequently.
Serve very hot, with the fried onions on the top.
Curried.--Mix together 1 tablespoonful mild curry powder, 1½
tablespoonful dried flour, and 2 large saltspoonfuls salt; skin and
cut in neat pieces the remains of cold fowl, dip them into the curry
powder, pressing the powder in. Thinly slice one large onion, peel,
core, and chop a sharp apple. Have in a fryingpan a piece of butter
larger than a walnut; when hot, cook the onion in it, turning often.
It should not be brown, and may require a little more butter. When
tender, add the apple, just to make hot; then put the onion and apple
into a hot stewpan, and keep warm. You will now require about 2 oz.
butter, made hot in the fryingpan. Put in the fowl, turn frequently
to prevent browning or burning, for the fowl should only be a deep
yellow. When of that colour, and enriched with the butter, place it
in the stewpan with the onion and apple. Pour over by degrees 1 pint
hot, not boiling, milk. Shake the stewpan over a clear, slow fire
2-3 minutes, and leave by the side of the fire to simmer gently for
¾ hour. Skim from time to time. The curry should be as smooth as
cream, but a little thicker. These quantities are for half a fine
fowl. Send to table very hot, with a dish of rice and a cut of lemon.
By strictly following this recipe, it will be scarcely possible to
discover that the fowl has been previously cooked. Mild curry powder
should be used.
Cutlets.--(_a_) Take the fillets of 3 chicken, which will give you 6
large and 6 small ones; flatten them with the handle of a knife which
has been dipped in cold water; pull off the upper skin from the large
fillets with the knife, and take the sinews from the smaller ones;
dip them in oiled butter, and place them in a sautépan, shaking a
little fine salt over them. Have ready prepared a rich white sauce,
in which a few prepared cockscombs, quenelles of veal or chicken
shaped into balls the size of a marble, some button mushrooms, and a
few dice of truffles have been stewed. When it is time to dress the
cutlets, fry them lightly and quickly, drain the butter from them,
pour over them a few spoonfuls of white sauce, and just at the last
a spoonful of thick cream; arrange them in a circle in the dish,
alternately a large and a small fillet, filling the centre with the
sauce of cockscombs, &c., which has been preparing. If you wish to
have 10 cutlets, 5 chickens will be wanted for this dish. (_b_) Take
the 10 fillets, pare them well; then take the small bones from the
pinions, scrape them, and stick one of these bones into the point of
each fillet--this must be very nicely done; season them with pepper
and salt, dip them into yolk of egg (2 will be required), then into
breadcrumbs, next into some melted butter, and breadcrumbs again; see
that they are quite covered. Cut the small fillets into dice, and
stew them in a purée of cucumbers and onions, thickened with the yolk
of egg, and seasoned with salt and a very little sugar, also some
mushrooms cut into dice; put this into the middle of the dish, and
having broiled the cutlets, arrange them in a circle round it. They
should not be broiled a minute before they are wanted. If preferred,
the small fillets may also be broiled in the same way as the others;
in that case the purée of cucumbers should be omitted, and they
should be served with a good white sauce, into which a little cream
has been stirred just at the last, and some slices of truffle lightly
fried.
Devilled.--Cut the inner part of the leg in 4 long slits, taking care
not to cut them through. Put in each cut a little piece of butter,
some mustard, pepper, and salt, and a little lemon juice. Place the
legs in a tin in front of the fire for about ¼ hour, taking care they
do not get too brown; the last thing turn them over, and finish on
the top side with a little more butter, pepper, salt, and mustard.
Fricassée.--The fowl is usually divided into 12 or 14 pieces. What
are called the legs make 2 and sometimes 4, but this is seldom done;
the wings make 4, and the breast and back are cut up, according to
the size of the fowl, into 2 or 3 pieces respectively. The mode of
proceeding is this: Having plucked and singed the bird, lay it on its
side on a table, grasp the thigh and leg together with the left hand,
and with a sharp knife cut down to the socket of the thigh bone;
pull the limb back with the left hand, disengage the thigh bone from
the socket, cut the skin neatly round the thigh, and put the limb on
one side. Do the same with the other leg and thigh. Cut off the head
and neck close to the body. To remove the wings, lay the fowl on its
back, and make an incision along the breast bone 1 in. from the ridge
of it, cutting down to the joint of the wing bone, which you disjoint
from the carcase; Then cut right down, and remove the wing. Take off
the other wing in the same way.