breakfast-cupfuls of self-raising flour and a pinch of salt, must be
mixed with tepid water into a nice elastic paste. Cut half a pound of
bacon (fat and lean together) into narrow long strips, slice thinly one
fair-sized Spanish onion into rings, and chop about eight leaves of
sage very fine. Roll the paste in small pieces to form layers in the
basin which must be greased by putting in a good-sized piece of butter
and allowing it to stand on the top of the stove until the butter has
melted and every part of the basin has had the hot butter run over it.
This will prevent the pudding adhering to the basin. Put one layer of
paste in the basin, then a layer of bacon and onion and just a little
sage sprinkled over the top, then another layer of paste, and so on
till all the bacon and onion are used up. Then put on the top layer of
paste which must quite fill the basin, and tie the pudding securely in
a freshly wetted pudding cloth. Care must be taken that the cloth is
not drawn too tight over the pudding and that the basin is full or the
water will get in and spoil the dish. The pudding must be immersed in
boiling water and boiled for three hours. At the end of that time turn
it out on a hot dish and serve with a little clear melted butter in a
sauce boat.
_25. Veal or Beef Olives_
It is often found inconvenient to cook a joint in a hurry (or the joint
may be found to be too large) when the following recipe will be found
useful. Cut a slice of about an inch thick off the round of beef or
fillet of veal, cut that into five or six pieces and flatten well with
a knife. Chop finely about half a Spanish onion, a few sweet herbs, and
pepper and salt, and put a little of these on each piece of meat and
cover with half a rasher of bacon. Tie each piece securely with string.
Melt one ounce of fresh butter in a frying pan over a clear fire and
when ready lay the olives in it. Fry briskly for three minutes, turn
over once and fry for the same length of time, then cover with another
frying pan, inverted, and fry for another ten to fifteen minutes.
Place the meat on a dish and remove the strings gently, cutting with
scissors. Put into the frying pan about half a teacupful of good meat
juice, a tablespoonful of white wine, a little salt, thicken with a
little flour and pour over the olives. They will keep their shape and
should be served with some nicely prepared vegetables, either beans,
peas, or potatoes.
_26. Pigeons with Carrots_
Split the roasted pigeons in halves and lay cut side down in a stone
saucepan with half a claret glass of white wine, pepper and salt,
with four carrots cut lengthwise, each into eight pieces then cut
across. Add a little good meat juice. Put enough water to just cover
the pigeons. Stew gently for three-quarters of an hour. Thicken with a
little flour and water and serve in the stone saucepan, or in a deep
dish.
_27. Ragoût of Veal_
Cut into small pieces two pounds of neck of veal. Put into a saucepan
and cover with cold water, and a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper,
one piece of loaf sugar, six spring onions, bottoms and green tops, six
small carrots split in two, and one small turnip. Stew gently for one
and a half to two hours, adding a little water if required. Half an
hour before serving add a half pint of fresh green peas, a pinch of
mixed herbs, half a glass of white wine. Thicken with a little smoothly
mixed flour and water, stirred into the veal. Best served in the
earthenware saucepan, with a napkin tied round it. If green peas are
not available a little Patna rice may be used after it has been washed
through several waters; or a few cut scarlet runners. Cold veal may be
treated as above but in that case a little good meat juice must be used
instead of the extra half pint of water.
_28. Rump Steak and Kidney Pie with Mushrooms or Truffles_
For a pie for four persons take a pound and a half of rump steak and
half an ox kidney. Cut into nice pieces with a little fat but no
gristle. Put it all in a deep pie-dish, with pepper and salt and the
contents of a small bottle of truffles cut in small pieces (or eight
mushrooms). Flour rather thickly over the top and add a little water to
the side of the dish so that it runs underneath the meat (and half a
teaspoonful of mushroom catsup if with mushrooms), cover with another
smaller pie-dish which should allow a small opening at the sides so as
to let the steam escape. Cook for three-quarters of an hour in a brisk
oven and meantime rub a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or lard,
into two and a half breakfast-cupfuls of self-raising flour with a
little salt, and mix with a little milk to an elastic paste. When ready
take the dish out of the oven and stir the meat and the flour together.
The pie will then be ready for the crust. Butter the rim of the dish
while still hot. Lay a strip of paste all round and moisten with a
little milk to make the top crust adhere. Bake in a quick oven for
half an hour. It is important that the meat should be cooked first as
otherwise it will either be underdone or the crust will be overcooked.
Do not forget to make a hole in the middle of the top crust before
baking.
_29. Kidney Sauté_
Remove the fatty centre of an ox kidney, cut the kidney into thin
slices and dice it on a pastry board on which has been poured a good
handful of flour. Rub the diced kidney well into the flour so that it
looks all white. Put it into a stone saucepan, add pepper and salt, a
little scraped carrot, one good-sized onion stuck with three cloves,
and cover with cold water. Stir the kidney so as to remove all the
flour into the water, which should look like milk. Cook in a quick oven
for two hours. This might be cooked in the morning and made warm in the
evening. Remove onion before serving.
_30. Kidney Sauté--Another Way_
Take one or two sheep’s kidneys, skin and split them. Lay each half,
flat side down, in a frying pan with an ounce of butter or dripping,
heated. Place on a quick fire, add one or two slices of onion cut thin,
pepper and salt. Remove from the fire and cut the kidneys up. Place
again on the stove, add a teaspoonful of bovril, a little Worcester
sauce (one teaspoonful), mix smoothly a dessertspoonful of flour with
water, add half a breakfast-cup of hot water to the kidneys. Stir and
keep boiling twenty minutes, and serve hot, either alone or within a
wall of freshly mashed potatoes.
_31. Kidneys in Onions_
To those who are fond of an onion there is hardly a more appetising
dish than onions prepared in the following manner. Take four or five
decent-sized sound onions. Small Spanish are the best. Cut rather a
deep slice off the top after removing the outer skin. You can then take
the centre out; say you remove half the onion leaving about four of
the thicknesses. Have ready two or three sheep’s kidneys prepared in
the following manner: Skin each kidney and split it. Sprinkle lightly
pepper and salt on the split side. Put into a frying pan a little
dripping or butter, lay the kidney flat side first in the boiling
fat, place the pan on a quick fire and fry lightly, turning twice. As
onion requires a lot of cooking it is best to put the prepared onion
cases into boiling dripping and cook in a quick oven twenty-five
minutes. Then place the kidney (half in each onion) and replace in the
oven in the baking tin another ten minutes. Care should be taken not
to overcook the kidney so that the gravy runs into the onion as it
finishes cooking. Serve very hot in a stone dish.
_32. Jugged Hare_
Cut the hare up. Rub the pieces in flour. Put one and a half ounces
of butter into a large enamelled frying pan, and lightly fry the hare
for ten minutes. Then place your hare in a stone jar with one Spanish
onion stuck with three cloves, some salt, a piece of loaf sugar, and a
little finely scraped carrot. Add two glasses of port wine and a little
Worcester sauce. Cover the jar with a plate and stand in a quick oven
for three hours. Dish into a flat dish, garnish all round with half
slices of lemon and serve with currant jelly.
_33. Yorkshire Pudding for Baked Beef or Mutton_
Separate the white of one egg from the yolk. Put the latter in an
earthenware bowl and stir it lightly. Beat the white separately with a
freshly cleaned knife in a plate. It is most important that a perfectly
clean knife be used or the white of the egg will not rise. Beat it to a
stiff froth and stir it into the yolk of the egg; and only afterwards
add half a teacupful of milk and a little pepper and salt.
Stir in a breakfast-cupful of self-raising flour vigorously and work
it perfectly smooth. If it is not then quite the consistency of very
thick cream add a little milk to make it so. Turn into a baking tin and
bake under the meat, which would be already three parts cooked then.
Do not forget to turn most of the fat out of the baking tin before the
pudding is poured in. Three-quarters of an hour is the time required
for cooking a Yorkshire pudding.
_34. Welsh Rarebit_
Take half a pound of good Cheddar cheese, not too strong, and cut it
into a flat meat dish with pepper and salt. Pour over a sufficient
quantity of bottled ale to fill the dish. Stand in a quick oven and
bake until the cheese is all melted. Have ready some buttered toast
about a quarter of an inch thick. Remove the cheese from the dish
leaving the beer and spread the cheese lightly on the toast. Replace in
the oven, and serve very hot. The object of the beer is to flavour the
cheese only and if the cheese were to be cooked in a frying pan over
the fire it would absorb all the beer and be rendered very bitter.
_35. Spaghetti_
Put half a pound of spaghetti into boiling water with a good pinch of
salt. If you carefully put the spaghetti upright in the saucepan and
give them a twist they won’t break. Boil gently, being careful to add
boiling water as needed to keep the same amount. It is important never
to add cold water as that chills the spaghetti and causes it to become
tough. Cook for one hour and meantime prepare the following sauce:
Put six good-sized tomatoes cut in quarters into a saucepan (or a
pudding basin may be used in the oven), with one large round of Spanish
onion chopped fine, three pieces of loaf sugar, a pinch of salt and
pepper, half a bottle of tomato catsup, and an ounce of fresh butter.
Stew gently on the side of the stove for three-quarters of an hour.
Strain all the water off the spaghetti with the lid, into a salad bowl
(or good-sized dish), stir in the tomato sauce which has been strained
thoroughly, and serve very hot with some grated cheese in another dish.
_36. Risotto_
Remove all the fat from a pint of good clear beef or mutton stock and
put it on the stove to boil. Wash a teacupful of Patna rice through
four waters and put it into the boiling stock and cook for half an
hour gently. Chop two thin rashers of bacon into small pieces, add
half an onion chopped very finely and put this into the stock while
it is boiling. Care should be taken, if the stock is already salted,
that very little salt is added. Drain the rice dry and have ready a
teacupful of Parmesan and Gruyère cheese (grated) and some good tomato
sauce made with skinned tomatoes. Stir the cheese and tomato sauce into
the rice in the saucepan and have ready some stone or metal moulds
rinsed in cold water but not wiped. Put some of the mixture into each
mould and place in a cold place for about two hours. Then put the
moulds into the oven with a dish over the top and serve when hot.
_37. Cauliflower au Gratin_
Remove all the stump of a young cauliflower and boil for fifteen
minutes in a large saucepan with a pinch of salt and a small pinch
of soda. When cooked, turn it into a cullender and break it into
small pieces (not too small) on a flat pie-dish. Take one and a half
tablespoonfuls of butter. Have ready half a pint of milk boiling.
Turn the boiling milk into the paste and stir well till quite smooth.
Put it back in the saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir four good
tablespoonfuls of grated Gruyère cheese into the sauce and turn it over
the cauliflower in the dish. Dust a little more cheese over it and
stand the dish in a quick oven for ten minutes to brown. The browning
can also be done with a Salamander.
_38. Macaroni au Gratin_
Have ready three pints of freshly boiling water with a good pinch of
salt in a saucepan for about half a pound of straight macaroni which
must be broken up to a convenient size. Macaroni should always be put
straight into boiling water. Boil gently for forty minutes to an hour
but be careful not to let it boil over, adding boiling water from time
to time as the macaroni swells. Strain the water off with the lid, and
stir into the saucepan a breakfast-cupful of grated Gruyère cheese
(a little grated Parmesan cheese is a great improvement added to the
Gruyère). Turn into a stone dish. Dust a little more cheese over the
top, put a piece of butter about the size of two good-sized walnuts and
place in a quick oven to brown slightly.
_39. Marrow Toast_
Take some good marrow bones and tie the ends in freshly scalded muslin
after previously salting slightly the end where the marrow is. Put them
into a large saucepan of boiling water with a cut onion. Boil for one
hour and then take the bones out. Remove the muslin and take the marrow
out on to a plate and season with a little pepper and salt and spread
on hot buttered toast. Replace in oven for a few minutes and serve very
hot. This makes a good savoury dish.
_40. Sage and Onion Stuffing_
(_For goose, fowl, beef, veal, or breast of mutton_)
Put into an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of fresh butter
ready for melting. (Salt butter always leaves a deposit in the pan
which causes the things to burn.) Take five large Spanish onions, cut
carefully on a board into thin slices, and put into the hot butter.
Place on the fire with the stove top on and boil for half an hour
without allowing them to brown. Take the soft part of one loaf, rub it
fine on a grater, chop ten or twelve large leaves of sage, mix with the
breadcrumbs, pour the onion hot into the centre, mix thoroughly and
stuff.
This stuffing will be found not to smell in the cooking, or to be
unpleasant after eating.
_41. Truffled Stuffing for Fowls_
For two fowls take the soft part of half a loaf of bread, eight small
sprigs of parsley (not the stalk), the yolk of one egg, the livers of
the fowls, one rasher of bacon not too fat, pepper and salt, one round
of Spanish onion, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, and one
small bottle of truffles. Rub the bread very fine on a cheese-grater
and chop onion and parsley very small. Fry the liver, bacon, and onion
very lightly, chop them very small and turn on to the board to mix
thoroughly with crumbs. Add the chopped truffles and a piece of butter,
break the yolk of the egg into it and stir the mixture well when the
stuffing will be ready to put into the fowl.
_42. Sauce Piquante for Leg of Mutton Cutlets_
After dishing the cutlets (rec: 86) turn the butter out of the pan and
put a little water into it as meat juice adheres to the pan. Into this
put a slice of Spanish onion chopped very fine, half a claret glass of
white wine, the juice of half a lemon, a little salt and pepper, half
a teaspoonful of Worcester sauce. Thicken with half a teaspoonful of
carefully mixed flour and water. Place the pan over the fire and bring
the mixture to boiling point, no more. Take it off and strain through a
gravy strainer over the meat and serve at once.
_43. Horseradish Cream_
Have a nice fresh horseradish rubbed finely on a coarse cheese-grater
having sufficient radish when grated for three large tablespoonfuls.
Place it in a basin and add half a large teacupful of thick cream. Stir
well and add three good teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar, a little salt,
and one and a half tablespoonfuls of good malt vinegar. Serve with cold
roast or boiled beef in a sauce boat. Never add anything to the radish
till the cream has been well stirred in and always add the vinegar last.
_44. Mustard Sauce_
This sauce has the great advantage that it does not require any cooking
and can be produced within a few moments if desired.
Two yolks of eggs carefully separated from the whites and placed in a
stone basin, and two teaspoonfuls of dry mustard stirred together till
perfectly smooth with two large tablespoonfuls of best salad oil and
two tablespoonfuls of best malt vinegar and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle
on it a little finely chopped parsley the last thing.
_45. Sauce Piquante_
Two or three thin slices of Spanish onion fried lightly in a little
good beef dripping. Two large tablespoonfuls of bovril added to the
onion which must be allowed to adhere lightly to the pan. Half a teacup
of hot water and a tablespoonful of best malt vinegar. Let the whole
come to a boil and thicken slightly with a little carefully mixed flour
and water. Strain and serve in a sauce boat.
_46. Egg and Lemon Sauce for Fish or Calf’s Head_
Melt in an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of fresh butter, add
quickly the yolks of two eggs and half a teacup of fresh cream. The
object of adding the cream with the yolks of the eggs is to prevent
the egg from becoming solid. Stir well together with a little salt the
juice of one lemon and a little milk. This sauce should be thick enough
without any added thickening.
_47. Apple Sauce_
Put six apples cut very small into a stone saucepan with a little cold
water. Add a teacupful of powdered sugar and half an ounce of butter.
Stew gently for one hour. Strain off some of the juice with the lid of
the saucepan and beat the apples with a fork until reduced to a paste.
_48. Tomato Sauce_
Put the tomatoes into a deep basin or jug and scald with boiling water.
They can then be peeled easily, the skin coming off like a glove from
the hand. Place in a rather deep frying pan with half an ounce of
butter and a piece of loaf sugar, pepper and salt. Mash with knife till
fairly smooth and serve, after steaming, with cutlets, veal, or mutton.
_49. Sauce Ravigotte_
(_For cold meat or boiled calves’ feet, cold_)
Chop together very small the yolk and white of one hard-boiled egg, add
the yolk of one raw one, six spring onions, a little parsley, pepper
and salt. Mix with one tablespoonful of vinegar and two of best salad
oil.
_50. Bread Sauce_
Peel and cut into quarters one onion and let it simmer in a pint of
milk till perfectly tender. Break one-fourth pound stale bread into
small pieces or grate it into crumbs, put it into a clean saucepan and
strain the milk from the onion over it; cover it with the lid and let
it remain an hour to soak. Beat it briskly with a fork, add a little
salt, a small pinch of cayenne pepper and either a little cream or a
piece of butter the size of a walnut.
_51. Brandy Sauce for Christmas Pudding_
Bring to a boil half a pint of milk, mix in a large basin one
tablespoonful of cornflour with a little cold milk, to a very stiff
paste, pour into it the boiling milk, stirring one way all the time,
add two large tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, two wineglasses of
brandy and serve in a sauce boat, very hot. _Note_: If the cornflour
is mixed very stiff and the milk is poured in while boiling, the sauce
will thicken and there will be no need to return it to the saucepan to
boil again.
_52. Curries_
_Rice._ The cooking of rice is the principal part in preparing a dish
of curry.
The rice must be snowy white in appearance and so dry when cooked that
each grain is perfectly detached.
Wash your rice in ten waters so as to get rid of all floury dust. Have
a saucepan ready with boiling water (in the proportion of three pints
to a quarter of a pound of rice) with a good pinch of salt. Pour the
rice into the saucepan and boil fast with the lid partly off (so that
it does not boil over) for twelve minutes. Drain off nearly all the
water, then shutting the lid tight, put the saucepan at the side of the
stove for the rice to finish cooking in its own steam. At the end of
twenty minutes the rice will be cooked and dry. Care must be taken not
to let it burn.
_Curried Eggs._ Fry lightly together one large Spanish onion cut
into rings and one or two tomatoes cut in four for about ten minutes
without allowing the onion to brown. Add a little good beef stock and
go on cooking in the frying pan for another twenty minutes, add then a
tablespoonful or more of curry powder and stir in the sauce. Four to
six hard-boiled eggs each cut into four are to be laid in the centre
of the frying pan and sauce turned over them with a spoon, after being
thickened with a little flour and water mixed smoothly. At the end of
five minutes lay the eggs down the centre of a dish and pour the curry
over them.
For meats or chicken, which would be already cooked, or for prawn
curries, proceed as above but take care to put meat or prawns in the
pan ten minutes after the stock has been added, and boil for ten
minutes before adding the curry and five minutes more afterwards.
_53. Mayonnaise_
_For Salmon, Lobster, and Cold Fowl_
_Salmon._ Cover with cold water in an earthenware saucepan two pounds
of salmon cutlets. A strainer should be laid at the bottom of the
saucepan. Add a little salt and a teaspoonful of vinegar. Cook for
thirty minutes. Dish on a flat dish and place on ice. Arrange on a bed
of sliced cucumber and lettuce and pour the mayonnaise over.
To make the mayonnaise put the yolks of two eggs in a pastry bowl, and,
while stirring with a spoon, keep adding drop by drop the best Lucca
salad oil to the amount of a teacupful. When all the oil is used, stir
in a teaspoonful of Tarragon vinegar. It is imperative that nothing
should be added to the yolks before the oil, or the mayonnaise will
not rise. For the same reason you must stir always the same way. To
make a larger quantity add half a teacupful of oil for each yolk, and a
quarter of a teaspoonful of Tarragon vinegar. If possible a mayonnaise
should not be made more than half an hour before it is required.
_Fowl._ The chicken should be carved and laid on a bed of mixed salad
with a few slices of beet-root round the outside of the dish.
_Lobster._ The lobster should be taken out of the shell and laid on a
bed of lettuce.
_54. Salmon and Cucumber Sandwiches_
Pound some fresh salmon in a mortar with a drain of anchovy sauce.
Spread it lightly on some thin bread and butter. Add a couple of thin
slices of cucumber and a little salt. Salmon and shrimp paste can be
used if preferred.
_55. Prawn Sandwiches_
Cut thin some bread and butter. Cut the prawns very fine and lay them
on the buttered bread with a little mustard and cress, pepper and salt.
_56. Sardine Sandwiches_
Scrape the sardines and remove the bones. Take eight slices of toast
about an inch thick, trim round the edges, and split with a knife.
Butter lightly while hot and lay the sardines between the split toast
not too thickly. Add a little red or white pepper if preferred and then
close the toast which should be then cut into two and served hot.
_57. Sardines on Toast_
Take the sardines out of the box and scrape off the scales, split them
and remove the backbone. Lay two sardines (four halves) on each slice
of buttered toast, sprinkle with a little red pepper and place in the
oven. Serve very hot.
_58. Beef and Tomato Sandwiches_
Take a sandwich loaf and cut the crust off on three sides. Pass the
knife down between the back crust and the crumb and slice the bread
against it. Butter each slice of bread and lay a thin slice of beef on
it, then a thin slice of tomato. Lay the other bread and butter on the
top with a pinch of pepper and salt.
_59. Caviare Savoury_
Take some slices of buttered toast, spread lightly with caviare and put
into the oven for a few seconds before serving.
_60. Hard-Boiled Eggs for Garniture of Sandwiches_
Have the water boiling, put the eggs into it and boil for fifteen
minutes quickly. Remove with a spoon and plunge them into cold water;
if the eggs are fresh this should avoid the green line which usually
forms round the white.
_61. Hors d’œuvres_
Hors d’œuvres make a nice beginning to a meal, do not give much trouble
to prepare, and dress the table laid out for lunch in an interesting
manner. My practice was to use four to six glass dishes.
_Sardines._ Remove carefully from the tin and lay on the dish with
their tails in the middle of the dish and the head part of the fish
towards the outer edge of the dish.
_Anchovies._ The French ones bottled in oil are the most profitable and
will keep quite a long time if carefully corked and the oil covers the
fish. Unroll them and split them lengthwise, laying them four or five
lengths one way of the dish and four or five the other, leaving little
squares of the dish visible. Fill each of these with the chopped up
white of an egg boiled hard.
A caviare hors d’œuvre should be served in the pot, packed in crushed
ice and plain toast provided on the table for it.
_Stuffed Eggs._ Have three or four eggs boiled hard. Place them in a
basin of cold water. Remove the shells as soon as they are cool enough
to hold in the fingers. Rinse in the water and cut each egg across the
middle, and cut a thin slice from each rounded end of the egg to enable
it to stand in an upright position. Remove the yolks into a plate and
mash them with a dinner fork, adding two teaspoonfuls of anchovy
sauce (bottled), one tablespoonful of cream, half a teaspoonful of dry
mustard. Work all together with the fork, and when perfectly mixed,
fill in the whites with the mixture. Cut a French olive into strips
lengthwise round the stone and place one piece across the top of each
egg to resemble a handle.