in a saucepan and brown the celery, turning them often for about ten
minutes. After that pour over hot stock (soup stock or chicken broth)
cover the saucepan and parboil. A few moments before serving season with
brown stock, if you have any at hand, otherwise with salt and pepper
only.
166
CELERY AU JUS
(Sedano al sugo)
Select nine or ten heads, neither too hard nor too soft, and cut them
about four inches from the root. Remove the green and hard branches and
trim the root, cutting the latter to a point. Scald the celery, after
washing well, in salted boiling water. Ten minutes will be sufficient.
Dip in cold water, open well the leaves and wash again carefully. Drain
and make bunches of two or three heads each that you will put in a
saucepan with a pint of broth or water and half a cup of good fat, onion
and carrot chopped, salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for about
two hour. Then remove the celery, drain and serve.
167
SAUCE FOR CELERY AU JUS
(Salsa per sedani al sugo)
The celery, prepared as above, are seasoned with the following sauce:
Make a =roux= melting a piece of butter and browning an equal weight of
flour; stir for about three minutes on the fire, after which thin the
roux with a little brown stock or with bouillon cubes diluted in water.
Continue stirring and reduce the sauce. Then rub through a sieve, pour
over the celery and serve very hot.
168
FRIED CELERY
(Sedani fritti)
This is a convenient way to prepare left-over celery that is still too
good to be thrown away.
Clean the left-over celery removing as best you can the sauce in which
they were served, dip in frying paste (flour and egg) fry and serve with
lemon.
169
PURÉE OF CELERY
(Macco di sedani)
Take some big roots of celery, prepare as usual and wash in running
water. Boil in salted water, crush and rub through a sieve. Put in a
saucepan this purée, with a piece of butter, salt, flour and a little
cream or milk. The milk may be substituted with good soup stock or brown
stock. Just before serving add a little powdered sugar.
170
STEW
(Stufato)
The Italian =stufato= is somewhat different from the stewed meat that
is known under the name of "Irish stew". It corresponds to the French
=daube= and is prepared in Italy in many different ways.
An excellent =stufato= can be made in the following way: Chop fine two
bunches of parsley, a small carrot, half a medium sized onion, a little
piece of scallion and two bay-leaves. Brown with a good piece of butter
in a saucepan in which one and a half tablespoonful of oil have been
previously poured.
The meat must have been prepared beforehand, that is to say washed,
trimmed and larded. When half cooked, season moderately with salt and
pepper. If necessary, moisten with broth or water. During the cooking
the saucepan must be covered with its cover and with a sheet of paper
greased with fat or oil. The stufato will be ready after about three
hours' cooking on a low fire.
171
SOUTHERN STEW
(Stufato Meridionale)
Put the piece of meat in a saucepan of such a size that it remains
completely filled, moisten with two cups of water and two of white wine,
season with salt and pepper and cook for five hours on a low fire.
172
STEW MILANAISE
(Stufato alla milanese)
Beat and flatten a good piece of meat and lard with bacon or ham cut in
small pieces. Season with salt, pepper and a taste of cinnamon. Sprinkle
flour over the meat.
Place in a saucepan a little fat of beef chopped with a middle sized
onion and brown with a piece of butter. When the onion is browned,
remove it and place the meat over the melted butter. Brown with melted
butter. Then fill the saucepan with half water, half red wine, but only
when the meat is browned from all sides. Cover the saucepan the best you
can, with cover and greased paper and let it simmer for five or six
hours on a very low fire.
After removing the stew, let it cool, rub the gravy through a sieve, put
again on the fire and serve hot.
173
FRENCH STEW
(Stufato alla francese)
Prepare on the bottom of the saucepan a layer of thin slices of ham, on
which place several little cubes also of bacon. In the middle place a
bunch of parsley, and around this some cloves, half an onion sliced, a
few carrots in little cubes several young onions, bay-leaf, salt, and
pepper.
On this bed lay the meat that may be larded with bacon or ham and
seasoned with salt, pepper and a taste of cinnamon. Pour on the meat two
cups of soup stock or water and one cup of white wine. Cover the
saucepan hermetically and cook on a very low fire for five hours.
When the stufato is to be served cold, the gravy is to be rubbed
through a sieve before it gets cold.
=Note.=--In these and similar dishes we have indicated the use of
wine, which is a common ingredient, in small quantities in Italian
and French cooking. This, however, can always be dispensed with if
its taste is not appreciated, or for any other reason.
174
TROUT ALPINE
(Trota all'alpigiana)
These are many ways to prepare this delicious fish, found in abundance
in the many streams of clear water that run from the Alps and the
Apennine mountains. Often the trout is cooked in wine, but, of course,
this part many be changed.
For the =trota all'alpigiana=, so called because it is the favorite dish
of Piedmont, the trout must be cleaned, scaled, washed, wiped then
salted and left under the action of the salt for about an hour.
Pour in a fish-kettle one quart of white wine to which will be added
three medium sized onions a few cloves, two sections of garlic and a
little bunch made of thyme, bay-leaf, basil or mint; finally a piece of
butter as large as an egg, dipped in flour. Then put the trout in the
fish-kettle and place on a strong fire. When the liquid has boiled the
trout is cooked. Remove the onions and the bunch of greens and serve the
trout with its gravy and some parsley.
175
TROUT LOMBARD
(Trota fritta)
Clean, scale, wash and wipe the trout. Salt and leave for half an hour.
Fill with water half a fish-kettle; add half a lemon, two bay-leaves,
one carrot light or ten berries of pepper, one onion divided into four
parts, salt and three cloves. When the water is lukewarm, dip in the
trout. Cook on a moderate fire and serve the trout with parsley, slices
of lemon and young potatoes boiled. A good fish-sauce ought to accompany
it.
176
FRIED TROUT
(Trota fritta)
Small and young trouts are best for frying. Scale, clean, wash and wipe.
Then dip in flour and fry like the other fish in oil or in butter. Serve
with browned parsley and lemon.
177
TROUT WITH ANCHOVIES
(Trota alle acciughe)
Scale, clean wash and wipe the trouts. Cut the sides and place to pickle
with salt, pepper berries, garlic, parsley and onions chopped fine; with
mushrooms chopped fine with thyme, bay-leaf and mint, all seasoned with
good olive oil. Rub the pickled pieces at the sieve and place it and
the trout in a baking-tin. Bake in the oven and serve with anchovy
sauce (No. 17).
178
EGGS WITH ONION SAUCE
(Uova trippate)
Prepare some hard boiled eggs, shell and cut into disks one third of an
inch thick.
Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter in which brown half an onion cut
into thin slices, to be removed from the butter when browned. Then add
to the butter two teaspoonfuls of flour, mix but don't allow to brown,
thin with a cup of hot broth, add salt and pepper and let simmer for ten
minutes. Put the sliced eggs in the sauce to warm them, stir a little,
but carefully to avoid breaking them, and do not boil again. Just before
serving add to the sauce a teaspoonful of cream and stir carefully.
179
EGGS WITH HAM
(Uova al prosciutto)
Place in a frying pan as many pieces of butter, large like a nut, as
there are eggs to be cooked. For each piece of butter put a little slice
of ham and place the frying pan on the fire. As soon as the butter is
melted break an egg on each slice of ham. Let cook for ten minutes on a
moderate fire.
180
EGGS WITH TOMATO SAUCE
(Uova al pomidoro)
Prepare some hard boiled eggs, cut them through the middle lengthwise,
place in good order upon a plate and pour some good tomato sauce, taking
care not to cover the upper part of the eggs, which must emerge from the
sauce.
Instead of the tomato, the eggs may be arranged with a =balsamella=
sauce (No. 54).
181
SCRAMBLED EGGS
(Uova strapazzate)
Break the eggs in a plate, assuring first that they are all fresh.
Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter about as big as an egg. When it is
melted pour the egg and scramble them with a fork on a low fire.
When the eggs are cooked season moderately with salt and butter. Just
when you take them away from the fire and before serving add a
tablespoonful of milk or liquid cream. Serve hot with a little grated
cheese.
The scrambled eggs can be served with points of asparagus, truffles,
mushrooms, etc. which are prepared just as if they were to go in an
omelet.
PART II
PASTRY, SWEETS, FROZEN DELICACIES, SYRUPS
182
PUDDING OF HAZELNUTS
(Budino di nocciuole)
Shell half a pound of hazelnuts in warm water and dry them well at the
sun or on the fire, then grind them very fine, together with sugar, of a
weight somewhat less than the nuts. Put one quart of milk on the fire,
and when it begins to boil, put two third lb. lady fingers or macaroons
crumbed and let it boil for five minutes, adding a small piece of
butter. Rub everything through a sieve and put back on the fire with the
nuts to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool and add six eggs, first the
yolks, then the white beaten, pour in a mold greased with butter and
sprinkled with bread crumbs ground fine. The mold must not be all full.
Bake in the oven and serve cold.
This dose will be sufficient for eight or ten persons.
183
CRISP BISCUITS
(Biscotti croccanti)
One pound of flour.
Half a pound granulated sugar.
1/4 lb. sweet almonds, whole and shelled, mixed to a few pine-seeds.
A piece of butter, one and a half ounce.
A pinch of anise-seeds.
Five eggs.
A pinch of salt.
Leave back the almonds and pine-seeds to add them afterward, and mix
everything with four eggs, so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to
make a soft dough. Divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as
large as a hand, place them in a receptacle greased with butter and
sprinkled with flour. Glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs. Bake in the
oven, but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into
slices, which you will do the day after, as the crust will then be
softened. Put the slices back in the oven, so that they will be toasted
on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits.
184
SOFT BISCUITS
(Biscotti teneri)
For these biscuits it would be necessary to have a tin box about four
inches wide and a little less long than the oven used. In this way the
biscuits will have a corner on both sides and, if cut a little more than
half an inch, they will be of the right proportion. The ingredients
needed are:
Flour, about two ounces.
Potato meal, a little less.
Sugar, four ounces (1/4 lb.)
Sweet almonds 1-1/2 ounce.
Candied orange or angelica, one ounce.
Fruit preserve, one ounce.
Three eggs.
Skin the almonds, cut them in half lengthwise and dry in the sun or at
the fire. Pastry cooks usually leave them with the skin but it is much
preferable to skin them. Cut in little cubes the candied fruits and the
preserve.
Stir for a long while, about half an hour the sugar in the egg-yolks and
a little flour then add the white of the eggs well beaten and when every
thing is well beaten add the flour, letting it fall from a sieve. Mix
slowly and scatter on the mixing the almonds and the cubes of candied
and preserved fruit. Grease and sprinkle the tin box with flour. Bake in
the oven and cut the biscuits the day after. If desired these can also
be roasted on both sides.
185
BISCUITS SULTAN
(Biscotto alla sultana)
Granulated sugar, six ounces.
Flour, four ounces.
Potato meal, two ounces.
Currants, three ounces.
Candied fruits, one ounce.
Five eggs.
A taste of lemon peel.
Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.
Put first on the fire the currants and the candied fruits cut in very
little cubes with as much brandy or cognac as is necessary to cover
them: when it boils, light the brandy and let it burn out of the fire
until the liquor is all consumed: then remove the currants and candy and
let them dry in a folded napkin. Then stir for half an hour the sugar
with the egg-yolks and the taste of lemon peel. Beat well the white of
the eggs and pour them on the sugar and yolks. Add the flour and potato
meal letting them fall from a sieve and stir slowly until everything is
well mixed together. Add the currants and the pieces of candied fruits
and pour the mixing in a smooth mold or in a high and round cake-dish.
Grease the mold or the dish with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar
or flour. Put at once in the oven to avoid that the currants and the
candied fruits fall in the oven.
186
MARGHERITA CAKE
(Pasta Margherita)
Potato meal, three ounces.
Sugar, six ounces.
Four eggs.
Lemon juice.
Beat well the egg-yolks with the sugar, add the potato meal and the
lemon juice and stir everything for half an hour. Finally beat well the
whites, and mix the rest, stirring continually but slowly. Pour the
mixture in a smooth and round mold, greased with butter and sprinkled
with powdered sugar. Put at once in the oven.
Remove from the mold when cold and dust with powdered sugar and vanilla.
187
MANTUA TART
(Torta Mantovana)
Flour, six ounces.
Sugar, six ounces.
Butter, five ounces.
Sweet almonds and pine-seeds, two ounces.
One whole egg.
Four egg-yolks.
A taste of lemon peel.
First work well with a ladle the eggs with the sugar, then pour the
flour little by little, still stirring, and finally the butter,
previously melted in a double steamer (bain-marie). Put the mixture in a
pie-dish greased with butter and sprinkled with flour or bread crumbs
ground. On top put the almonds and the pine-seeds. Cut the latter in
half and cut the almonds, previously skinned in warm water, each in
eight or ten pieces. This tart must not be thicker than one inch, so
that it can dry well in the oven, which must not be too hot.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold.
188
CURLY TART
(Torta ricciolina)
Sweet almonds with a few bitter ones, four ounces,
Granulated sugar, six ounces,
Candied fruits or angelica, 2-1/2 ounces,
Butter, two ounces,
Lemon peel.
Mix two eggs with flour, flatten the paste to a thin sheet on a bread
board and cut into thin noodles. In a corner of the bread board make a
heap of the almonds with the sugar, the candied fruit cut in pieces and
the grated lemon peel. All this cut and crush so as to reduce the
mixture in little pieces. Then take a pie-dish and without greasing it,
spread a layer of noodles on the bottom, then pour part of the mixture,
then another layer of noodles and continue until there remains no more
material, trying to have the tart at least one inch thick. When it is so
prepared cover with the melted butter, using a brush to apply it evenly.
189
ALMOND CAKE
(Bocca di dama)
Granulated sugar, nine ounces,
Very fine Hungarian flour, five ounces,
Sweet almonds with some bitter ones, two ounces,
Six whole eggs and three egg yolks,
Taste of lemon peel.
After skinning the almonds in warm water and drying them well, grind or
better pound them well together with a tablespoonful of sugar and mix
well with the flour. Put the rest of the sugar in a deep dish with the
egg yolks and the grated lemon peel (just a taste) and stir with a ladle
for a quarter of an hour. In another dish beat the six whites of egg and
when they have become quite thick mix them with other ingredients
stirring slowly everything together.
To bake place the mixture in a baking-tin greased evenly with butter and
sprinkled with powdered sugar and flour.
190
CORN MEAL CAKES
(Pasta di farina gialla)
Corn meal, seven and a half ounces,
Wheat flour, five and a half ounces,
Granulated sugar, five and a half ounces,
Butter, three and a half ounces,
Lard, two ounces,
A pinch of anise seed,
One egg.
Mix together the corn meal, the flour and the anise seed and knead with
the butter, the lard and the egg that quantity that you can, forming a
loaf that you will put aside. What remains is to be kneaded with water
forming another loaf. Then mix the two loaves and knead a little, not
much because the dough must remain soft. Flatten with the rolling pin
until it becomes one quarter of an inch thick, sprinkle with flour, and
cut in different sizes and shapes with thin stamps.
Grease a baking tin with lard, sprinkle, with flour, glaze with the egg,
bake and dust with powdered sugar.
191
BISCUIT
(Biscotto)
Six eggs,
Granulated sugar, nine ounces,
Flour, four ounces,
Potato meal, two ounces,
Taste of lemon peel.
Stir for at least half an hour the yolks of the eggs with the sugar and
a tablespoonful only of the flour and meal, using a ladle. Beat the
whites of the eggs until they are quite firm, mix slowly with the first
mixture and when they are well incorporated pour over from a sieve the
flour and the potato meal, previously dried in the sun or on the fire.
Bake in a tin where the mixture comes about one inch and a half thick,
previously greasing the tin with cold butter and sprinkle with powdered
sugar mixed with flour.
In these cakes with beaten whites the following method can also be
followed: mix and stir first the yolks with the sugar, then put the
flour then, after a good kneading, beat the whites until they are firm,
pour two tablespoonfuls to soften the mixture, then the rest little by
little.
192
CAKE MADELEINE
(Pasta Maddalena)
Sugar, four and a half ounces,
Flour, three ounces,
Butter, one ounce,
Egg-yolks, four,
Whites of eggs, three,
A pinch of bi-carbonate of soda,
A taste of lemon peel.
First mix and stir the yolks with the sugar and when they have become
whitish, add the flour and stir for fifteen minutes more. Mix with the
butter, melting or softening it fine if it is hard and finally add the
whites when they are well beaten. The flour must be previously dried in
the sun or on the fire.
This cake may be given different shapes, but keep it always thin and in
little volume. It can be put in little molds greased with butter and
sprinkled with flour, or else in a baking tin, keeping it not more than
half an inch thick, and cutting it after baking in the shape of diamonds
and dusting with powdered sugar.
193
ALMOND CRISP-TART
(Croccante)
Sweet almonds, four and a half ounces.
Granulated sugar, three and a half ounces.
Skin the almonds, divide the two parts and cut each part into small
pieces. Put these almonds so cut at the fire and dry them until they
take a yellowish color, but do not toast. Meanwhile put the sugar on the
fire in a saucepan and, when it is perfectly melted, pour the almonds
hot and already slightly browned. Now lower the fire and be careful not
to allow the compound to be overdone. The precise point is known when
the mixture acquires a cinnamon color. Then pour little by little in a
cold mold, previously greased with butter or oil. Press with a lemon
against the walls of the mold, making the mixture as thin as possible.
Remove from the mold when perfectly cooled and, if it is difficult to do
so, dip the mold in boiling water.
The almonds can also be dried in the sun and chopped fine, adding a
small piece of butter when they are in the sugar.
194
WAFER BISCUITS
(Cialdoni)
Put in a kettle:
Flour, three ounces.
Brown sugar, one ounce.
Lard virgin, half an ounce.
Cold water, seven tablespoonfuls.
First dilute the flour and the sugar in the water, then add the lard.
Put on the fire the iron for waffles or better an appropriated iron for
flattened wafers. When it is quite hot open it and place each time half
a tablespoonful of the paste. Close the iron and press well. Pass over
the fire on both sides, trim all around with a knife and open the iron
when you see that the wafer is browned. Then detach it from one side of
the iron and hot as it is roll it on the iron itself or on a napkin
using a little stick. This operation must be made with great rapidity
because if the wafer gets cold, it cannot be rolled.
Should the wafers remain attached to the iron, grease it from time to
time, and if they are not firm enough, add a little flour.
These wafer-biscuits are generally served with whipped cream.
195
QUINCE CAKE
(Cotognata)
The ingredients are about six pounds of quinces and four pounds of
granulated sugar.
Put on the fire the apples covered with water, and when they begin to
crack remove them, skin and scrape to put together all the pulp. Rub the
latter through a sieve. Put back the pulp on the fire with the sugar and
stir continually in order that it may not attack to the bottom of the
kettle. It will be enough to boil for seven or eight minutes and remove
when it begins to form pieces when lifted with the ladle.
Now in order to prepare the quince-cake spread it on a board to the
thickness of about a silver dollar and dry it in the sun covered with
cheese cloth to keep away the flies. When it is dry cut it in the form
of chocolate tablets and remove each piece from the board passing the
blade of a knife underneath.
If it is wished to make it crisp, melt about three and a half pounds of
granulated sugar with two tablespoonfuls of water and when the sugar has
boiled enough to "make the thread" smear every one of the little quince
cakes with it. If the sugar becomes too hard during the operation put it
back on the fire with a little water and make it boil again. When the
sugar is dry on one side and on the edge, smear the other side.
196
PORTUGUESE CAKE
(Focaccia alla Portoghese)
Sweet almonds, five ounces.
Granulated sugar, five ounces.
Potato meal, one and a half ounce.
Three eggs.
One big orange or two small.
First mix the yolks of the eggs with the sugar, then add the flour, then
the almonds skinned and chopped fine, then the orange juice (through a
colander) then a taste of orange peel. Finally add to the mixture the
whites of the eggs well beaten. Put in a paper mold greased evenly with
butter, with a thickness of about an inch and bake in a very moderately
hot oven. After baked, cover with a white glaze or frost, made with
powdered sugar, lemon juice and the white of eggs.
197
MACAROONS
(Amaretti)
I
Granulated sugar, nine ounces.
Sweet almonds, three and a half ounces.
Bitter almonds, half of the above quantity.
Whites of egg, two.
Skin and dry the almonds, then chop them very fine. Mix the sugar and
the whites of egg and stir for about half an hour, then add the almonds
to form a rather hard paste. Of this make little balls, as large as a
small walnut. If the paste is too soft add a little butter, if too hard
add a little white of egg, this time beaten. Were it desired to give the
macaroons a brownish color, mix with the paste a little burnt sugar.
As you form the little ball, that you will flatten to the thickness of
one third of an inch, put them over wafers or on pieces of paper or in a
baking tin greased with butter and sprinkled with half flour and half
powdered sugar. Dispose them at a certain distance from one another as
they will enlarge and swell, remaining empty inside.
Bake in an oven moderately hot.
II
Powdered sugar, ten and a half ounces.
Sweet almonds, three ounces.
Bitter almonds, one ounce.
Two whites of egg.
Skin the almonds and dry them in the sun or on the fire, then chop and
grind very fine with one white of egg poured in various times. When this
is done, put half of the sugar, stirring and kneading with your hand.
Then pour everything in a large bowl and, always mixing, add half of the
other white of egg, then the other half of the sugar and finally the
other half of the white.
In this way an homogenous mixture will be obtained of the right
firmness. Shake into a kind of a stick and cut it in rounds all equal,
one third of an inch thick. Take them up one by one with moistened
fingers and make little balls as large as a walnut. Flatten them to the
thickness of a third of an inch and for the rest proceed as said above,
but dust with powdered sugar before putting in a hot oven.
With this dose about thirty macarons can be obtained.
198
FARINA CAKES
(Pasticcini di semolino)
Farina, six and a half ounces.
Sugar, three and a half ounces.
Pine-seeds, two ounces.
Butter, a small piece.
Milk, one quart.
Four eggs.
A pinch of salt.
Taste of lemon peel.
Cook the farina in the milk and when it begins to thicken pour the
pine-seeds, previously chopped fine and pounded with the sugar, then the
butter and the rest, less the eggs which must be put in last when the
mixture has completely cooled. Then place the whole well mixed in little
molds, greased evenly with butter and sprinkled with bread crumbs ground
fine, and bake.
199
RICE TART
(Torta di riso)