sauerbraten. Lay a piece of beef in a deep dish and pour a cup of
vinegar over it. Let it remain in this 2-4 days, turning and basting
it every day. To prepare for cooking wipe it dry; cut strips of fat
bacon the size of a little finger; roll them in a mixed seasoning
of salt, pepper, and pounded cloves. Make holes in the meat with
a large skewer, and put in the pieces of bacon. Make butter hot
in an iron pot or stewpan just large enough; put in the beef and
set it over a brisk fire, letting the steam escape to hasten the
browning; dredge it with flour, and turn it when one side is brown.
When the meat is nicely coloured add about 1 pint water, 2 carrots,
quartered lengthwise, a large onion or two sliced, 2 or 3 bay leaves,
1 teaspoonful whole pepper, a blade of mace, ¼ lemon peel, and a
good sprinkling of salt. Cover closely, and let it steam slowly 2-3
hours, adding a little water when necessary. At serving time take up
the meat, and keep it hot while you skim the fat off and strain the
gravy. The unbroken carrots may be laid round the meat. Add lemon
juice or vinegar if the sauce requires more acid; thicken with flour,
give it a boil up, pour a little over the meat, and serve the rest in
a sauceboat.
Schmarn Batter.-½ lb. flour, the yolks of 4 eggs, a little salt,
sugar, either nutmeg or grated lemon, and cream or milk enough to
give a rather thick batter; must be briskly and well stirred. Then
add the whites of the eggs, whisked to a snow; about 2 oz. butter
must be made quite hot in a stewpan, and into this pour the batter
over a brisk fire. Cover, and let it remain till a nice brown crust
has formed at the bottom, of not too dark a colour. As soon as this
incrusting takes place, break up the schmarn with a little iron
spatula or fork, and let it set and brown again; then break it up
smaller by tearing it lightly apart, and serve it without delay.
If salad is to be served with schmarn, leave out any flavouring of
nutmeg, &c., if disapproved of, as also the sugar. To the above
schmarn either cream, stewed prunes, or fruit syrup may be added at
table.
Schmarollen.--Let a pint of new milk boil, stir in 1 oz. sugar with
flour enough to thicken it; boil until the mixture no longer hangs
to the sides of the pan, then turn it out and when cool stir in 4
well-beaten eggs. Have 1½ pint milk boiling in a stewpan, and with
a spoon dipped each time in water, cut klösse out of the mass, and
simmer them in the milk a few minutes. Turn all into a dish, cut 2
oz. butter over them, and bake it a pale brown in a quick oven.
Spatzen.--Stir flour into cold water or milk, with a little salt, to
make a thick batter, beat it well with a wooden spoon; drop little
flakes or buttons into boiling water. This is easiest done by putting
some of the batter on a trencher or flat plate and flaking it quickly
off into the pot with a knife, dipped constantly in the water. Boil
them 5 minutes; they will swim on the top when done; strain and dish
them. Have ready a piece of butter melted in a stewpan, and a handful
of crumbs in it, crisped brown; pour this over the spatzen, and serve
while they are light and hot. A piece of butter may be stirred in as
they are dished. If preferred richer, use an egg or two and milk for
the batter.
Sticklerspersgrod.--For this simple and cheap dish, well flavoured,
ripe, red gooseberries are used; 4 lb. gooseberries, with ½ lb.
raspberries, keep them stirred gently in a stewpan over a clear fire
till the fruit is quite soft, then mash and strain the juice through
a cloth; make this juice quite boil, then add ½ lb. sugar and 6 oz.
cornflour or arrowroot, let it boil 10 minutes, stirring it all the
time; wet a mould with cold water, pour in, and when cold turn it
out. 1 pint juice to ¼ lb. cornflour are the best proportions. To be
eaten in soup plates, with sifted sugar and milk.
Stölle.--Mix 2 oz. dry yeast with ½ pint warm milk and ½ lb. flour.
Set this to rise. Take 1½ lb. flour, ¼ lb. sugar, 4 eggs, 1 oz.
bitter almonds pounded, ½ nutmeg, the grated rind of a lemon, a
little salt, and milk enough to work these into a dough. Add to this
the light sponge dough, and mix both well. Add ½ lb. softened butter,
½ lb. stoned raisins, ½ lb. currants, 2 oz. sweet almonds, cut in
slices, and the same of candied peel. Knead the whole, cover, and set
it to rise. When light flour the paste-board, turn the cake out, and
mould it into a long roll. Lay it on a flat baking tin; cut, with a
knife, 2 slits all along the roll, near 1 in. deep, so that the 3
divisions on the top are equal in width. Set it to rise. Bake it in
a moderate oven. When done rub it over with butter, and strew sugar
over when cold.
Strudels.--This form of pastry can only be described by the English
term roly-poly, in a very diminutive size. There are various ways of
making the paste, but they all agree in this one particular--that
it must be worked into a tough dough and very smooth. One way is to
beat 2 eggs and the yolks of 2 others, warm a piece of butter the
size of an egg and add it to the eggs with a little salt, work in
by degrees as much fine flour as will form a dough; knead this till
quite smooth. Divide the paste into small balls, roll them round
in the hands, then with a smooth rolling pin roll them out as thin
as possible. They should be the size of a saucer, but rather oval.
Spread over them whatever they are to be called after. Roll them up,
when the shape will be larger in the middle, and tapering off at both
ends. Lay them 1 in. apart in a baking tin or large stewpan that has
been well buttered, cover, and either bake them in the oven or over
a slow fire, with red coals on the lid to draw them. When they are
risen and beginning to colour, pour some hot milk over, and finish
baking a very pale brown.
Zweibach.--(_a_) Ingredients: 1 lb. flour, ¼ lb. sugar, ¼ lb. butter,
½ pint milk, and 2 tablespoonfuls good yeast. Warm the milk and stir
the yeast into it. Put the flour in a pan, and throw the sugar among
it. Make a hollow in the middle, and stir the yeast and milk into the
hollow like a thin batter. Cut up the butter on the flour, cover,
and set it to rise. Then beat it until the dough no longer hangs to
the hand or spoon. Let it rise again till it cracks on the top. Cut
and mould from the dough long cakes 1 in. thick, 5-6 in. long, and 2
broad. Set them on a buttered tin 2 in. apart; let them rise on this,
then brush them over with milk and bake them. Next day slice them
open with a sharp knife, lay them on a tin with the crust under, and
put them in a cool oven till they are crisp and baked yellow. (_b_)
Beat 6 eggs well, melt ¼ lb. butter in ½ pint new milk, stir into
this ¼ pint fresh yeast and 3 oz. powdered sugar. Then stir in, by
degrees, as much flour as will make a batter so thick that the spoon
moves with difficulty. Cover and place it in warmth to rise. In about
an hour sprinkle flour in, and work it well together, but not to a
stiff dough. Form cakes as described in (_a_), and finish the same
way in all particulars. Either caraways or anise seeds may be mixed
in them. The latter are very good and wholesome for infants’ food.
_Indian._--Bhartas.--Bharta holds the same relative position in the
cuisine of the East that salad does in that of the West. Bhartas can
be made of every kind of vegetable, either singly or in combination,
and many kinds of fruit; also with meat, fish, &c. From this it will
be seen that it is impossible to give recipes for every kind of
bharta, nor is it really necessary, as, once the spirit of the thing
in its various forms is mastered, anyone with ordinary ingenuity
will be able to successfully work out the problem for themselves.
The components of a bharta consist of, first, a chatni or zest, and,
secondly, the substantial part being a vegetable, vegetables, fruit,
meat, fish, &c. The latter constituent is in most cases cooked,
but there are a few exceptions in which its nature will permit of
it being used either raw or cooked--tomatoes for example. Bhartas
prepared with meat and fish are eaten as dishes by themselves, while
the more substantial vegetable bhartas may either form a separate
dish or be used as an accompaniment to curry, &c. For the Chatni or
Zest.--Ingredients: 6 spring onions, 2 green chillies, the juice of
½ lemon; salt to taste. Mode: Slice the onions as fine as possible,
chop the chillies crossways in circles, mix together, add the salt,
squeeze the lemon juice over all, and let the whole soak for ¼
hour at the very least. The onions must be of a fairly good size.
The chillies may be increased if the palate will permit, and for
appearance sake half may be green and the other half red, but fresh
of course. When limes are procurable, the juice of a whole one may
with advantage be substituted for that of the lemon. Cayenne pepper
and ordinary onions may be used when fresh chillies and spring
onions cannot be had. Mustard oil may be omitted but it is a great
improvement to all bhartas.
Brianees.--Brianees are spiced dishes somewhat resembling a mixture
of curry and pilau. They consist of meat, fish, or cheese, highly
seasoned and partially fried, which is put in a saucepan with
condiments of various kinds, carefully covered over, and then
steamed or boiled. The following example will suffice: Zarebrian
Punneezee.--Ingredients: ½ lb. cheese; 2 lb. rice; a small quantity
clarified butter; ½ lb. onions; 1 oz. flour; ¼ lb. dried pea flour;
cinnamon, cardamoms, cloves, saffron, ½ teaspoonful of each; ½ oz.
green ginger; ¾ oz. salt. Cut the cheese into small round slices, and
sprinkle them with flour; then fry in clarified butter till brown.
Grind the cardamoms and cloves, and add to the cheese. Spread a few
clean little sticks on the bottom of a saucepan (this is the native
way of preventing any substance from being burnt at the bottom of the
pan), and place the cheese on them. Fry the green ginger, onions, and
curry stuff, and add the mixture to the cheese. Parboil the rice, and
put it over with a small quantity of the rice water. Colour a little
rice with saffron, and put it into the saucepan under the rice on one
side, and the dried pea flour on the other; then pour a little hot
clarified butter over. Make a plain biscuit or thin cake of flour and
water, and place it on the rice. Cover the saucepan, put a live coal
or bit of charcoal on the top of the lid, and boil the whole until
the rice is done.
Burdwan.--This is made of almost any kind of meat which has been
previously roasted or boiled. Poultry, game-birds, hare, rabbit, kid,
veal, or venison are all suitable for the purpose. If the material
chosen happens to be raw, it can easily be made available by being
semi-boiled or semi-roasted especially for the purpose. The following
typical example will explain the mode of procedure. For the chicken
used therein, any other kind of meat, as fancy may suggest, can be
substituted.
Take a good chicken which has been left from a previous meal, or
purposely prepared, as explained above; a small teacupful of good
clear stock, a small Spanish onion, a wineglassful of white wine
(Chablis is the best), ½ oz. butter, 6 chillies (a little cayenne
pepper will do instead), the juice of ½ lemon, a small piece of
garlic. Mix the stock, onion (previously boiled or roasted), wine,
butter, chillies, and garlic, and let them thoroughly amalgamate
in a stewpan over a moderate fire. Then add the chicken cut up as
for curry. Allow the whole to simmer till done, when squeeze in the
lemon juice. It ought to be served very hot, accompanied by a dish of
boiled rice or kichri.
Chachki or Vegetable Curry.--Ingredients: 1 breakfastcupful shelled
peas, ½ lb. pumpkin, 1 small teacupful clear veal stock or water, 2
onions 1 in. diameter, 3 green chillies, a small clove of garlic, 1
tablespoonful curry powder, salt to taste, 1 wineglassful mustard
oil, or 2 oz. butter. Mode: Chop the onions, garlic, and chillies,
and then reduce them all to a pulp in a mortar. Boil the oil (or
butter) in a frypan, add the curry powder, onion, garlic, and chilli
pulp, and salt; let it fry for a few minutes, stirring constantly,
then put in the peas and pumpkin; when of a golden colour put the
whole into a saucepan. Pour the stock or water into the frypan just
used; let it boil up, scraping it as you do in making gravy; when
it has boiled for a few minutes, add it to the contents of the
saucepan, and let it simmer till tender, when serve. All vegetable
curries are made in the same manner, and any number of vegetables
may be used according to taste. When potato or spinach is one of the
ingredients, it will be necessary to ¾ boil them in water before
frying them; this will prevent the objectionable liquor given off by
them from entering into the gravy.
Chapatis.--1 lb. flour (the coarse kind preferable), 2 oz. butter,
1 teaspoonful salt, some water. Work the butter and salt into the
flour, add gradually sufficient water to form the whole into a dough.
Roll some of it out on a board with a rolling pin till about 1/16
in. thick; cut it into a circular form with an inverted saucer, and
bake it on a girdle over a clear fire; when done on both sides, place
it on a trivet before the fire, turning it occasionally. By the
time that the second cake is baked on the girdle, the first will be
toasted enough. Now butter the first chapati, and put it on a plate
in the oven. Repeat the process till all are ready.
Chicken Country-Captain.--A plump chicken, 4 oz. butter, 4 onions 1
in. in diameter, ½ teaspoonful each ground green chillies, ground
coriander seed, and salt, ½ teaspoonful ground turmeric. Cut up the
chicken as for curry; if uncooked veal, mutton, &c., is about to be
used instead of the chicken, it must be cut up after it has been
semi-broiled or semi-roasted. Slice the onions as fine as possible,
fry ¼ the quantity in the butter till of a golden brown colour,
drain them carefully from all superfluous grease, and put aside in
an oven to get crisp. Now put the ground chillies, coriander seed,
tumeric, and salt into the frypan, and after the contents have fried
for a minute, add the chicken and the remainder of the onions, and
keep constantly stirring the whole till the chicken is quite tender.
Serve garnished with the crisped onions. Boiled rice is generally an
accompaniment when time is no object.
Chicken Curry.--A small fowl, 1 pint stock, 6 onions about 1 in.
in diameter, 4 oz. butter, 1 small clove of garlic chopped fine, 2
green chillies (failing which, 3 dried bird’s-eye chillies) chopped
fine, 1½ heaped tablespoonfuls curry powder and ½ lemon. Slice the
onions fine, take a third of them and fry with half the butter
till crisp and of a nice golden colour; drain them carefully from
all superfluous grease and put them aside. Then fry the chicken,
cut up as directed, in the surplus of the butter left from the
last operation; when the meat is slightly coloured, put them also
aside. Now take a saucepan, put into it the curry-powder and the
remaining half of the butter; let it fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring
occasionally, then throw in the uncooked onions. Amalgamate well with
the contents of the saucepan, and after they have fried for a few
minutes add the stock chillies, salt, and garlic; stir well, and let
the liquor reduce to one-third of its original quantity, the cover
of the pan being drawn slightly aside to enable the steam to escape.
When it has reduced, add the chicken. Allow the whole to boil briskly
for 2 minutes; then place it on the edge of the hob to simmer gently
till cooked, stirring the curry frequently to enable the meat to
take up the gravy. In about 20 minutes it ought to be ready, but the
surest guide is to observe the appearance of the drumsticks; if the
bones are found protruding by the flesh having shrunk, it is done.
Finally, the piece of the lemon and the fried onions, which have been
put aside from the first operation, must be added to the contents
of the saucepan, and the whole quickly stirred, after which no time
should be lost in serving the curry.
Coconut Pudding.--Grate fine a large coconut, fry it slightly with a
little butter. Make 1 pint custard with some new milk, 4 well beaten
eggs, a little nutmeg, 1 tablespoonful loaf sugar; stir in gradually
a small glass of brandy, adding the coconut by degrees. When well
mixed, fill a pie dish, that has been lined with puff paste with the
mixture, bake in a gentle oven; about 20 minutes will suffice.
Coconut Soup.--3 pints prepared stock, the kernels of 2 large
coconuts, yolks of 2 eggs, juice of a lemon, 2 blades of mace, 1
saltspoonful ground cinnamon, salt and white pepper to taste, a
little corn or rice flour. Throw away the liquor inside the kernels
of the coconuts, remove the brown outside rind, and rasp them as fine
as possible. Mix the stock with the rasped kernel, add the mace,
cinnamon, pepper and salt, and let the whole simmer for ½ hour or
so, when carefully strain it through fine muslin. Make a paste with
the lemon-juice, the yolks of the eggs beaten up, and sufficient
cornflour till of the consistency of thin batter; add this gradually
to the liquor before prepared, stirring all the while. Let it simmer
till ready, when serve with a separate dish of plain boiled rice.
Curries.--Oriental dishes, with few exceptions, are prepared in
sufficiently small morsels to permit of their being eaten with the
hand, without the aid of knife, fork, or spoon. When, however, this
cannot be avoided, as in the case of pilau of poultry, game, or
joints, the meat is cooked just long enough to allow of its being
separated from the bone by the fingers without being stewed to rags.
Indeed, the whole art of curry and pilau making consists in correctly
timing the simmering process. If it is removed off the fire too soon,
the meat, though done, will be tough, and the spices will not have
had time to permeate the tissues; while again, if too much cooked,
the disintegration of the fibres will have caused the spices to
return into the gravy. Therefore, in either case, a failure will be
the inevitable result. A curry properly cooked must hit the happy
mean between these extremes, yet ought to be able to be eaten with a
spoon and fork only, which is the practice among Europeans in India.
The next rule to be borne in mind is the correct dressing of the meat
which is to be used. Beef, mutton, pork, fish, &c., must be cut into
dice not larger than 1 in. square. Poultry, partridges, &c., should
be disjointed as follows: The wings and legs into 2 parts at the
joints, and the backs crossways, according to size, into 3 or 4, and
the merrythought separated. It may be as well stated that 2 smaller
birds are preferable to one large. Hares and rabbits, according to
size, ought to have the legs each cut into 3 or 4 pieces, and the
backs crossways into 8 or 9; pigeon’s wings and legs whole, backs in
two. Small birds as quails, larks, &c., in two, lengthwise.
Dal-puri.-½ lb. lentil curry, 1 lb. ordinary light pie pastry. When
the lentil curry has become quite cold, mash it thoroughly in a
mortar till reduced to a fine pulp. Divide it and the pastry into
pieces each of the size of a walnut. There ought to be now twice the
number of the latter as of the former. Take 2 of the lumps of paste
and form them into small shallow bowls, put one of the lumps of the
curry-pulp into one of these bowls; carefully adjust a second bowl on
the first, and roll the whole out to the size of a dessert plate on a
paste board. Make similar cakes till all the materials are used up.
Fry each cake separately in a frying-pan with boiling oil, lard, or
butter, and serve very hot with the dam-pukht.
Dam-pukht.--Dam-pukht, like many Oriental dishes, is of Persian
origin, and etymologically signifies a stew which has been very
slowly simmered; in fact, the whole art of preparing it consists
in carefully simmering it as gently as possible. For this reason,
a gas or oil stove, in the absence of a charcoal fire, is the best
means of cooking it, as, under such conditions, the heat can be more
easily adjusted for the purpose in view than in the case of the
ordinary coal fire. Indeed, in England all Oriental cookery is much
more easily and conveniently prepared with the aid of such stoves.
Therefore, if satisfactory results are desired, the use of coal fires
should, if possible, be eschewed. Dam-pukhts can be made with any
kind of poultry--duck, goose, fowl, &c., or with game birds, such as
pheasants, partridges, &c. As the details of preparing all dam-pukhts
are practically the same, a single example, given below, in which
the process is displayed, will suffice to explain every case. In the
same way, by substituting a brace of pheasants or partridges for the
duck, and with exactly the same quantity of ingredients, a pheasant
or partridge dam-pukht can be made. A goose will require half as
much again, or, in the case of a large one, twice the quantity of
ingredients, otherwise the details are identical.
Dam-pukht of Duck.--A large fat duck (the fatter the better), 2
lb. beef, ½ lb. beef suet, 2 oz. butter, 1 oz. grated breadcrumbs,
1 tablespoonful sweet herbs, 1 teaspoonful each soy and apple
sauce, mustard-oil, olive-oil, pepper and salt, and mixed spices
and birdseye chillies to taste; also any vegetables, such as
carrots, turnips, potatoes, cauliflowers, marrow, &c., which may be
procurable. After the duck has been feathered, singed, and cleaned,
bone it carefully, so as not to break the skin; mix the soy and apple
sauce, mustard-oil and olive-oil well together, and pour it into
the bird. Make a good gravy of the giblets, flavouring with pepper,
salt, and sweet herbs. Mince the beef, suet, and the liver of the
duck very small (if you can procure an extra liver or so by all means
add them), then add the grated breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, spices,
chillies, and sweet herbs, and thoroughly amalgamate the whole well
together. Stuff the duck with the mixture. Now melt the butter and
pour it into the duck, and, having put it into a stewpan, pour the
giblet gravy over it, and let the whole simmer as gently as possible
till tender. When ready, glaze it with ordinary glaze if to be eaten
cold, if hot do not; but, in either case, serve surrounded by the
vegetables plainly boiled, and accompanied with some hot pickles.
Oriental epicures generally accompany dam-pukhts with a very nice
kind of bread, called dal-puri. Dal-puris are also often served with
curries--especially dry curries--pilavs, and very frequently alone.
Dhall Curry.--(_a_) Take ½ lb. mussoor or moong dhall; clean pick,
wash and roast it; mix with it 1 large tablespoonful onions, minced
fine, 1 saltspoonful ground chillies, same of turmeric and ground
ginger, a clove of garlic minced fine, 1 teaspoonful salt; slice 2
onions lengthways, warm a stewpan, throw in 2 oz. butter, fry the
sliced onions crisp, and remove; meanwhile cover the dhall and other
ingredients with about 2 in. water above the whole, let it boil
smartly until the dhall is dissolved: do not stir it while boiling,
but let it cake; rub the mixture through a sieve, pour the dhall into
the melted butter in which the onions were fried, stir until well
mixed, cover the stewpan close, and simmer for about 20 minutes;
serve very hot, with onions floating on the top of the mixture. Dhall
may be made from peas, Egyptian lentils, gram, or haricot beans but
the moong and mussoor dhall are the best.
(_b_) Slice and fry 4 onions in 2 oz. butter. When brown take them
out; put into the butter the same ingredients as in (_a_), fry until
of a golden colour, then add ½ lb. dhall, which fry until well done,
then just cover the dhall with water, let it boil slowly for about 20
minutes, or until dissolved: serve with the fried onions.
(_c_) Prepare the dhall as in (_b_), work it up into a paste, then
have ready some pie crust; roll it very thin, cut out about size of a
saucer, place some of the dhall on each piece, turn the paste over,
pinch the edges, throw into boiling butter or lard, and fry of a nice
gold colour. In India rice boiled as for curry is eaten with dhall.
Fish Moolay.--Fillet a sole, or cut a grey mullet, mackerel, or
haddock into nice pieces; rub with a little curry powder and salt;
fry of a light brown in butter. Grate a coconut, pour over it a
teacupful of boiling water, mash it well with a spoon, then strain.
Cut an onion into slices, fry it in the butter the fish was fried,
with a clove of garlic and 2 chillies (green are best); add the
coconut water; when boiling put in the fish, a little vinegar, salt,
and pepper; stew until the sauce thickens; serve very hot.
Hullvah (Indian Toffee).--Take equal weights of flour, butter,
Sultanas, almonds, and sugar; melt the butter, stir in gradually
the flour, let it fry until of a light brown, then add by degrees
the Sultanas, then the almonds, which must be blanched and sliced;
add the sugar, which should first be made into a thick syrup; keep
stirring until sufficiently cooked, pour into buttered moulds or
shapes.