peculiar way by the Italians, and hence this recipe finds its place
here.
To obtain a good roast-beef not less than two pounds ought to be cooked
on a strong fire. It ought to be covered with good olive oil and finally
with cup of soup stock which with the oil and the juice from the meat
will form a rich gravy. Salt it only when it is half cooked and do it
moderately, because the beef is already tasty by itself.
Put it on the fire half an hour before the soup is served and the meal
begins. This will be sufficient if the piece is not very big. To
ascertain the cooking prick it in the bigger part with a thin
larding-pin, but not often, in order not to allow too much juice to
escape. The juice must neither be of the color of the blood nor too
dark.
If baked it is to be seasoned with salt, oil and a piece of butter,
surrounded by raw potatoes peeled. Pour in the kettle a cup of broth or
of water. If you do not like cold roast beef, cut it into slices and
warm with butter and brown stock or tomato sauce.
129
ROAST VEAL
(Arrosto di vitella)
Choose for that milk veal that is to be found all the year round,
although it is always better during the spring or summer.
The piece or pieces of veal can be cooked in a saucepan, slightly larded
with garlic and rosemary, with oil, butter and a hash of corned beef,
salt, pepper and tomato sauce. In the gravy fresh peas can be cooked.
130
POT ROAST
(Arrosto morto)
This can be done with all kinds of meats, but the best is milk veal.
Take a good piece of the loins, roll it and tie with a string and put on
the fire with good olive oil and butter, both in small quantity. Brown
well from all sides, salt when half cooked and complete the cooking with
a half cup of broth, seeing that little juice remains. If no broth is at
hand, use tomato sauce, or tomato paste diluted with water. Some corned
beef chopped fine can also be added.
131
POT ROAST WITH GARLIC AND ROSEMARY
(Arrosto morto coll'odore dell'aglio e del ramerino)
Cook the meat as above, but add a clove of garlic and one or two bunches
of rosemary in the saucepan. When serving the roast rub the gravy
through a sieve without pressing and surround the meat with potatoes or
vegetables cooked apart.
The leg of lamb comes very well in this way, baked in the oven.
132
BIRDS
(Arrosto di uccelli)
The best way to cook birds, and that nearly always used by the Italians,
is roasted at the spit. They must be spitted with a small slice of bread
between each bird. Also wrap each bird in very thin slices of bacon, in
such a way that it can be spitted with this covering. Mind to slice the
bacon almost as thin as paper. Pass some oil--only once--over when they
begin to brown, using a brush or a feather, and salt only once,
moderately.
Put on the fire when near to be served, otherwise they may get dry and
lose much of their flavor. The cooking is rapidly done if on a good
fire.
133
ROAST OF LAMB
(Arrosto d'agnello)
Take a leg of lamb and season it with salt, pepper, oil and a drop of
vinegar. Pierce it here and there with the point of a knife and leave it
like this for several hours. Also lard it with bay leaf or rosemary to
be removed when serving. The leg of lamb can be baked or, as the
Italians do, cooked at the spit.
134
LEG OF MUTTON
(Cosciotto di castrato arrosto)
Before cooking see that several days elapse after the animal has been
butchered. This, naturally, according to the temperature. Beat it well
with a wooden mallet, then skin and remove the middle bone, without
spoiling the meat. Then tie it and give it a good fire at the beginning,
covering the fire when half cooked. Let it cook in its own juice and in
a cup of broth strained to remove the fat; nothing else. Salt when it is
almost cooked, but see that it is neither too well done nor rare, just
medium. Serve with its juice apart in a sauce.
135
ROAST OF HARE
(Arrosto di lepre)
The part of the hare fitted for roast is the hind quarters, but the
limbs of this game are covered with little skins that must be carefully
removed, before cooking, without cutting the muscles.
Before roasting keep it soaking for twelve or fourteen hours in a liquid
prepared as follows: put on the fire in a kettle three tumblers of water
with half a tumbler of vinegar or less in proportion with the piece to
be cooked, three of four scallions chopped fine, one or two bay-leaves,
a bunch of parsley, a little salt and a pinch of pepper; make it boil
for five or six minutes, cool and pour when cold over the hare. When you
remove the latter from the liquid wipe it and lard it all with little
pieces of good bacon.
Cook on a low fire, salt it sufficiently and grease with cream and
nothing else. Never use the liver of the hare which, it is said, is very
indigestible.
136
POT ROAST LARDED
(Arrosto morto lardellato)
Take a piece short and thick of beef or veal, quite tender and weighing
about two pounds or a little more. Lard it with ham or bacon cut in
little pieces. Tie with a string and put it in a stewpan with a piece of
butter, one fourth of a middle-sized onion cut in two pieces, three or
four ribs of celery half an inch thick and as many slices of carrot.
Season with salt and pepper and when the meat begins to brown--turning
it often--pour over one cup of water and complete the cooking on a low
fire, leaving it to absorb great part of the gravy. See, however, that
it doesn't dry up and become black. When you send to the table strain
the juice that has remained and pour it on the meat, that may be
surrounded with potatoes cut in pieces or kept whole if small,
previously browned in butter or oil.
137
PIGEON SURPRISE
(Piccione a sorpresa)
The pigeon (or chicken) must be opened and stuffed with a cutlet of milk
veal. Of course this cutlet must be of proportionate size. Beat it well
to render it thinner and more tender, season with salt, pepper, a pinch
of spices and little pieces of butter, roll it and put inside the pigeon
sewing the opening. The liver and giblets of the pigeon can be cooked
apart in brown stock or in butter, after being chopped. With the
resulting gravy the cutlet can be smeared. In this way the different
flavor of the two qualities of meat is better amalgamated.
138
STUFFED BEEF CUTLET
(Braciuola di manzo ripiena)
The ingredients for this dish are a slice of beef half an inch thick,
weighing about one pound, half a pound or less of lean milk veal, two
small slices of ham and two or three of tongue, one scant tablespoonful
of grated cheese, a piece of butter, two chicken livers, one egg, a
crumb of bread as large as a closed fist.
Make a hash with a small onion, a little celery, carrot and parsley, put
it on the fire with the butter and when it is browned, place in the
saucepan the veal cut in small pieces and the chicken livers, season
with little salt and pepper and complete the cooking with a little
broth. Remove the veal and chicken when cooked, and chop them fine. In
the gravy that remains make a pap rather hard with the crumb of bread,
moistening with broth if necessary. Now mix the chopped meat, the pap,
the eggs, the cheese, the ham and tongue cut in little pieces. When the
stuffing is composed thus, dip the cutlet in water, in order to stretch
it better, beat it with the back of the knife and flatten with its
blades. Put the stuffing inside and roll up and tie tightly with a
string crosswise. Roast or bake with oil and salt.
139
STUFFED CHICKEN
(Pollo ripieno)
For a middle-sized fowl use the following ingredients: two sausages, the
liver and giblets of the fowl, eight or ten chestnuts well roasted, some
pieces of mushrooms, a taste of nutmeg, one egg. If, instead of a fowl,
it is a turkey, double the dose.
Begin by giving the sausages and the giblets half a cooking, moistening
them with a little broth if necessary. Season with a little salt and
pepper on account of the sausages that already contain them. Remove them
and in the gravy that remains put a crumb of bread, in order to obtain
with a little broth two tablespoonfuls of thick pap. Skin the sausages,
chop the chicken giblets and the giblets and grind everything together
with the chestnuts, the egg and the pap; this is the stuffing with which
the fowl is to be filled, to be baked afterward. It is more tasty cold
than hot, and it can also be cut better.
140
CHICKEN WITH SAUCE PIQUANTE
(Pollo al diavolo)
This ought to be cooked with Cayenne pepper and served with a highly
seasoned sauce, but not everybody likes that and a simpler way to cook
the chicken "al diavolo" is the following:
Take a young chicken, remove the neck and the legs, open it all in front
and flatten it open as much as possible. Wash and wipe dry with a towel,
then put it on the grill and when it begins to brown turn it. Grease it
with melted butter or with oil, using a brush, and season with salt and
pepper. The later may be Cayenne pepper for those who like it. Keep
turning and greasing until it is all cooked.
To prepare the sauce piquante that many like with chicken broiled in
this way, put four tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan and when it
begins to brown add two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir until it is
well browned, but do not let it burn. Draw to a cooler place on the
range and slowly add two cupfuls of brown stock, stirring constantly,
add salt and a dash of Cayenne and let simmer for ten minutes. In
another saucepan boil four tablespoonfuls of vinegar one tablespoonful
of chopped onion, one teaspoonful of sugar rapidly for five minutes;
then add it to the sauce and at the same time add one tablespoonful of
chopped capers two tablespoonfuls of chopped pickle and one teaspoonful
of tarragon vinegar. Stir well and let cook for two minutes to heat the
pickles. If the sauce becomes too thick dilute it with a little water.
This sauce is excellent for baked fish and all roasts and boiled meats,
besides being a fitting condiment for the chicken "al diavolo".
141
CHICKEN WITH HAM
(Pollo in porchetta)
Fill a chicken with thin strips of ham, about half an inch wide. Add
three cloves (or sections) of garlic, two little bunches of fennel and a
few grains of pepper. Season outside with salt and pepper and cook in a
saucepan with butter, or preferably bake in the oven. Sausages cut
lengthwise and previously skinned can be substituted for the ham.
142
CHICKEN SAUTÉ
(Pollo saltato)
Take a young chicken, remove the neck and trim the wings. Cut away the
legs. Cut the chicken into six pieces. Remove some of the bones. Beat
an egg with a teaspoonful of water and place in it the pieces of chicken
after dipping them in flour and seasoning generously with salt and
pepper. Leave the pieces in the egg until it is time for cooking. Then
take the pieces one by one, sprinkle with bread crumbs and place a
saucepan with a good piece of butter on the fire. When the butter begins
to brown put in the pieces of chicken from the side of the skin, then
turn them when browned to the other side. Let them on a good fire for
about ten minutes. Serve with lemon. The chicken prepared in this way is
good also when cold.
143
AFRICAN HEN
(Gallina di Faraone)
This fowl, that resembles the partridge, should not be too fresh, like
all game.
The best way to cook the African hen is roasted at the spit. Put in the
inside a ball of butter dipped in salt and wrap it in a piece of paper
greased with butter and sprinkled with salt. This paper must be removed
when the fowl is nearly cooked, and then the cooking is completed
greasing with more butter and adding more salt.
144
TAME DUCK ROASTED
(Anatra domestica arrosto)
Salt it inside and bandage all the breast with slices of bacon, large
and thin. Grease with oil and salt moderately when the cooking is almost
complete. If you have a wild duck grease with butter, as the meat is
drier.
145
TURKEY
(Tacchino)
The turkey has been imported to Europe from America, but it is
nevertheless a well known dish in Italian families, although not
enjoying the popularity that it has on this side of the ocean. When
roasted it is generally larded moderately with little pieces of garlic
and bay-leaf or rosemary and seasoned with a hash of corned beef or
bacon, a little butter, salt and pepper, tomato sauce or tomato paste
diluted in water. The breast, flattened until it is about half an inch
thick and seasoned generously some hours before cooking with oil, salt
and pepper, is excellent broiled on the grill.
146
LOIN OF PORK ROASTED
(Lombo di maiale arrosto)
The loin of pork, cut in little pieces forms an excellent roast at the
spit. The pieces of pork are to be divided by little pieces of toast and
greased with oil.
If the pork is to be baked, choose that piece of the loin that has its
ribs and that may weigh six or eight pounds. Lard it with garlic,
rosemary or bay leaf and a few cloves, but moderately, and season with
salt and pepper.
This roast is very popular in Italy, where they call it =arista=.
147
LEG OF LAMB
(Agnello all'Orientale)
This is a way to cook lamb in use in the Orient and adopted by the
Italians, especially in Southern Italy. The leg of lamb is to be larded
with the larding pin with slices of bacon seasoned with salt and pepper,
greased with butter or milk, or milk alone and salted when half cooked.
The Arabs, who are very fond of this dish, do not lard it, as pork is
forbidden by their religion, but cook it with an abundance of milk.
148
BROILED PIGEON
(Piccione in gratella)
Take a young, but fat pigeon, divide it in two parts lengthwise and
flatten it well with the hands. Then put it to brown in oil for four or
five minutes, just to harden the meat. Season when still hot with salt
and pepper, then arrange it as follows.
Melt in the fire, without boiling it, a piece of butter and mix the
liquid butter with one beaten egg. Dip the pigeon in the butter and egg
and keep it until it absorbs them. Then sprinkle with bread crumbs
ground fine. Cook on a grill on a low fire and serve with a sauce or a
side dish.
149
STEAK IN THE SAUCEPAN
(Bistecca nel tegame)
If you have a steak that does not appear to be too tender, put it in a
saucepan with a little piece of butter and some good olive oil, with a
taste of garlic and bay-leaf or rosemary. Add, if necessary, a little
broth or water or tomato sauce and serve with potatoes cooked in the
gravy that can be made more abundant with more broth, butter and tomato
sauce.
150
VEAL KIDNEY WITH ANCHOVY
(Rognone alle acciughe)
Take a veal kidney, remove the fat, cut it open and cover with boiling
water. When the water has cooled, remove the kidney, wipe with a cloth,
and pass through it clean sticks to make it stay open. Season with
melted butter, salt and pepper and leave it so prepared for an hour or
two.
Then take another piece of butter and two or three anchovies. Clean the
latter, chop and mix with the butter with the blade of a knife, making a
ball. Cook the kidney on the grill, but not too much, in order to keep
it tender, put it on a plate and grease when hot with the ball of butter
and anchovies.
151
VEAL KIDNEY SLICED
(Rognone di vitello affettato)
Cut in thin slices one or two veal kidneys, removing the granulous part
that is to be found in the middle, and put the slices in a saucepan with
a piece of butter, a bunch of parsley chopped very fine together with a
clove of garlic. Add a cup of hot broth; salt moderately and let it cook
without boiling, until the sauce is reduced to about one third.
One tablespoonful of vinegar adds a pleasant taste to this dish.
152
BROILED MUTTON KIDNEY
(Rognone di montone alla graticola)
After washing the kidneys, remove the filmy skin that covers them and
cut them in the middle without, however, detaching completely the two
parts. Season with salt and pepper, grease with oil and put them on a
strong fire on the grill. After ten or twelve minutes they will be
broiled. Serve hot with parsley and slices of lemon.
153
MUTTON KIDNEY FRIED
(Granelli di montone fritti)
Wash, remove the skin that covers the kidneys and cut in very thin
slices. Wipe with a cloth, dip first in ground bread crumbs, then in a
beaten egg mixed with melted butter, then again in the bread crumbs.
This must be done rapidly, at the time of frying, otherwise the bread
crumbs absorb the moisture of the kidney and make them too hard.
Melt a piece of butter in a saucepan on a strong fire and when it begins
to brown, dip the slices of kidney. Turn often, sprinkle with a little
parsley chopped fine, salt and serve with lemon.
154
BEEF TONGUE BOILED
(Lingua di bue lessa)
The tongue is boiled like the beef. When half cooked remove the skin,
which is not nice to see and has no nutritious elements, although it is
served with a purée of peas, or spinach or potatoes or beans, etc.
But it can be served simply with sprigs of parsley.
155
BEEF TONGUE WITH OLIVES
(Lingua di bue alle olive)
Scald the tongue and peel off the skin. Then put it back to boil until
fully cooked.
Melt a piece of butter and brown half a medium sized onion cut in
slices. When the onion is browned remove it from the butter and dilute
in the latter a teaspoonful of flour. When the flour begins to brown,
thin it with one or two cups of soup stock hot and passed through a
sieve. Mix and boil for ten minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper.
When the sauce is prepared place the tongue in the saucepan containing
it and let it cook again on a low fire for about an hour, turning it
over frequently and keeping it moistened with the gravy. Cut some olives
in a spiral to remove the stone and place it in the saucepan with the
tongue. This becomes more tasty if left with the olives for one or two
days.
156
STEWED BEEF TONGUE
(Lingua di bue in stufato)
Clean a fresh tongue of beef; put it in a plate, salt it generously and
put it back in the ice-box or in the pantry, until the following day.
After twenty-four hours, scald it in boiling water, skin and lard with
little pieces of bacon and put it in a kettle or a large saucepan in
which the seasoning is already placed. This seasoning consists of 1/2
lb. bacon cut in very thin slices, 1/4 lb. butter, one or two thin
slices of ham and two middle sized onions, sliced. Sprinkle the tongue
with flour, surround it with chopped meat and place the saucepan on the
fire. When the tongue begins to brown, pour five or six cups of soup
stock and one cup of water. Add the usual bunch of greens, two or three
cloves, salt, a pinch of pepper and one of cinnamon.
Cover the saucepan tightly, boil for about four hours, rub the sauce
through a sieve and serve everything hot.
157
VEAL SWEETBREADS
(Animelle di vitello)
Keep in fresh water for an hour. Then place them in a skimmer (ladle
with holes) and dip in boiling water or broth. After a brief boiling
remove and cool in cold water. Then remove the veins and gullet, taking
care not to tear them. The sweetbreads are prepared in various ways and
here we give some of the best known:
=Sweetbreads with butter.=--Boil in broth or water, clean and cut into
slices. Brown a piece of butter with salt and pepper. Then place the
sliced sweetbreads and brown them. Before serving squeeze on a little
lemon juice. The sweetbreads prepared in this way are served preferably
with rice or vegetables.
=Sweetbreads with white sauce.=--Boiled, cleaned and cut into slices,
they are placed in white sauce or =balsamella= (No. 54) adding a taste
of nutmeg, pepper, salt and the juice of half a lemon.
=Sweetbreads in fricassee.=--Boil, trim and cut into pieces. Then brown
in butter with a scallion chopped fine. Once browned, remove from the
gravy in which pour a tablespoonful of flour, moistened with broth. The
sauce that results is bound with egg-yolks and lemon juice.
=Sweetbreads fried.=--Boil and trim. Then cut in large slices, neither
too thick nor too thin. Dip in beaten egg and in bread crumbs ground.
Then fry in butter. Serve with vegetables.
158
TENDERLOIN WITH SPICES
(Filetto alla piemontese)
Clean and trim the meat, removing all the little skins. Then sprinkle
with nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and pepper, and place in an earthen vase
covered, together with a bunch of aromatic herbs, sage, parsley,
rosemary, onion, carrot and celery, all chopped fine. After a few hours
melt and brown a piece of butter with the aromatic herbs, then remove
the latter and place the tenderloin, leaving it to simmer for half an
hour, pricking it often with a large fork or a larding pin, to add its
juice to the gravy. Serve hot.
159
STUFFED ONIONS
(Cipolle ripiene)
Boil six large onions for an hour. Then drain and skin. Remove the heart
with the point of a knife. In the place of the heart place the stuffing
made with 1/4 lb. ham or tongue, chopped and mixed with bread crumbs
ground, two tablespoonfuls of milk, two pinches of salt and one of
pepper. When the onions are prepared and stuffed place them in a
saucepan whose bottom has been greased with butter, sprinkle with bread
crumbs ground and place in the oven, not too hot. At the time of serving
add some white sauce or =balsamella= (No 54). Stuffed onions are served
as vegetables, or side-dish with roast-beef or boiled-beef.
160
STEWED ONIONS
(Cipolle in stufato)
Keep in cold water, for half an hour, two pounds of middle-sized onions.
Afterward skin and place in a saucepan in which pour as much broth as is
necessary to cover them. Let them cook on a low fire for an hour, if
they are scallions, or young onions. If they are not, two hours are not
enough, sometimes.
When cooked and soft, drain and place in a large deep dish. Brown a
piece of butter with a tablespoonful of flour, a cup of broth, salt and
pepper. Mix everything and when it begins to boil pour the sauce on the
onions, which must be served hot.
161
VEAL LIVER
(Fegato di vitella alla veneziana)
Brown a large onion cut in thin slices in oil and place in the saucepan
the liver cut in thin slices. Brown everything on a strong fire. When
the liver takes a reddish color it is ready. If it is overdone, it
becomes too hard. Salt just before removing from the saucepan.
162
FRIED LIVER
(Fegato al tegame)
Clean and trim the liver, then cut in slices half an inch thick. Dip in
flour and place, without delay in a saucepan in which a small onion has
been browned in butter. Salt just before serving.
163
POLENTA WITH SAUSAGES
(Polenta colle salsicce)
The polenta is a very popular dish in Northern Italy and can be
prepared in various ways. Always, however, it is better to serve with
the addition of sausages, or with birds or tomato paste.
The =polenta= is practically cornmeal and it is made with the so-called
=farina gialla= or yellow flour.
The ingredients for a good polenta are one pound of corn meal,
preferably granulous, one quart and a half of water, salted in
proportion, one piece of butter, one cup and a half of milk.
Pour the meal little by little into boiling water, continually stirring
with a wooden spoon. When the meal is half cooked, put the butter and
pour the milk little by little. While the =polenta= boils, place on the
fire in a little saucepan a tablespoonful of olive oil or a small piece
of butter. When the oil is hot or the butter is melted, put some
sausages repeatedly pricked with a fork.
When the sausages are cooked, pour the polenta hot in a dish and place
the sausages and the gravy in a cavity practised in the middle. Serve
hot.
In cooking the sausages two or three bay-leaves may be added and removed
before serving.
164
SAUSAGES WITH ONIONS
(Salsicce alla cipollata)
The =salsicce alla cipollata= are prepared with fresh and lean pork meat
and bacon in equal quantity, chopped fine and seasoned with salt,
pepper and spices. Add a proportional quantity of onions chopped very
fine, not too much, however. Fill with the hash the prepared entrails,
tie every two inches to divide the sausages.
CELERY
(Sedano)
Beside being used as a condiment with a great quantity of dishes, the
celery may be prepared in various different ways to form appetizing
vegetable dishes. We give here a certain number of those that appear
most commonly on Italian tables:
165
CELERY WITH BUTTER
(Sedano al burro)
Two heads of celery for each person.
Clean and trim, removing the sprigs that are too hard, and the leaves,
that are to be cut where they begin to be green. Finally trim the stem.
Then wash repeatedly in running water, drain and put to boil in salted
boiling water. Remove when cooked and drain again.