leaves of mint chopped very fine, a teacupful of vinegar, and two good
teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar. Dissolve the sugar in vinegar and put
it with the mint into a sauce boat.
VEAL AND PORK
_Roasting. Boiling_
_General Remarks_
Fillet 5 to 6 lbs. 2 to 2½ hours.
Shoulder half shoulder from 7 to 9 lbs. 2 to 2¾ hrs.
Loin 4 lbs. 1 hour.
If fillet piece is too large to cook for one joint you may cut off
a slice one and a half inches thick, horizontally, to be used later
either as veal cutlets or for veal olives.
For dishing and obtaining gravy and dripping proceed as for beef.
Generally speaking, a piece of veal wants a longer time for cooking
than a piece of beef or mutton of the same size.
_101. Veal Cutlets_
Chop off the long bones of two pounds of veal cutlets and put them to
stew in a stone saucepan with a little salt to make gravy. Melt an
ounce of fresh butter or dripping in an enamelled frying pan in the
stove with the top off and lay the cutlets in it. Fry briskly for ten
minutes turning once or twice. Replace the stove top and cook for
another twenty minutes. Place on a dish, pour the gravy already made
over them, and serve.
_102. Stuffed Fillet of Veal_
Take about three pounds of veal cut rather flat, score it several times
with a sharp knife. Lay the sage and onion stuffing (as per recipe 40)
on it and cover with flare or a buttered paper. Tie it with string, put
it into a baking tin, and bake for one and a half hours. Place on a hot
dish and pour the gravy over.
_103. Roast Pork_
A small leg of pork or about four pounds of loin must be scored on the
outside with a sharp knife. Put it into a baking tin and put in the
oven for two to two and a half hours. Dish up and treat the dripping as
directed for beef or mutton. Serve with onion or apple sauce.
_104. Boiled Shoulder of Pork_
Put into boiling water without salt, and boil for one and a half hours
if only half a shoulder; for two hours if whole.
_105. Boiled Ham_
Must be put into boiling water. If a whole ham, boil for three to three
and a half hours. Let it steam for a few minutes on a dish (with a
strainer under it) and then roll in baked breadcrumbs. Never put the
paper collar on the knuckle till thoroughly cold.
_106. Blanquette de Veau_
Take two pounds of breast of veal, cut it in squares about two inches,
put into a saucepan, cover with cold water, add a large pinch of salt.
Bring to a boil, then skim carefully. Add one whole onion stuck with
four cloves, one carrot cut in halves, a teacupful of white wine, a
bouquet of laurel, thyme, and parsley. Cook for half an hour, then
strain the meat and keep the stock boiling. Mix two ounces of butter
with the same of flour quite smoothly, stir it in the boiling stock
while over the fire. The resulting sauce must be perfectly smooth and
not too thick. Put the meat without the vegetables or herbs back into
the saucepan and continue to cook for an hour and a half till quite
tender, taking the greatest care that it should not burn. Stir the
yolks of two eggs and half an ounce of butter and the juice of a lemon
together and add it to the meat in the saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Arrange the meat in a deep dish and pour the sauce over it. Surround
the whole with six croutons of bread cut in the form of triangles and
fried a golden brown, in butter.
_107. Calf’s Head_
Half a calf’s head is more than enough for three or four persons. The
best plan is to soak the head in a bowl of cold water and a little
salt all night, previously removing the brains. It will take from two
and a half to three hours’ gentle boiling and care must be taken that
the cooking vessel is large enough to allow the head to lie flat and
the water to cover it. It must be put into cold water with a good
piece of salt, a knob of loaf sugar, one onion (large and whole), two
carrots (whole), and two teacupfuls of white wine. Serve with the meat
carefully removed from the bone, either cold with ravigote sauce or
with the cooked vegetables cut into small squares and a few button
mushrooms which have been cooked in the stock. Arrange this on the dish
and pour over it the following brown gravy: Fry lightly two slices of
onion in a little butter allowing it to get brown a little. Add some
of the stock from the head, a few drops of A. 1. sauce, and a good
teaspoonful of bovril, or meat juice from some other joint. Thicken
with a little mixed flour and water, pour into the frying pan, bring
to a boil and strain over the meat and vegetables in the dish. The
brains may be cooked separately and beaten into this gravy after it is
strained.
_108. Calf’s Feet_
Calf’s feet are of great use in the cooking for invalids. Soak as for
calf’s head over night. Put into a saucepan with cold water and a good
piece of salt, one onion whole and one whole carrot. This will make an
excellent soup served with the meat cut into nice little pieces and
the vegetables cut as directed for calf’s head. But if the feet are
intended for jelly it is better to omit the vegetables. Half a pint of
good port wine can be added to the stock after it is cooked. Before
straining add a teacupful of cold water to clear it.
_109. Pig’s Trotters_
Pig’s trotters can be served as an addition to a dish of tripe and
onions in which case they require soaking over night as they would be
already salted. Boil them without salt until tender and add to the
cooked tripe. As a separate dish you must, when cooked, roll them in a
freshly beaten egg and then in baked breadcrumbs and fry a golden brown
in a little butter.
FISH
_Frying. Boiling_
_General Remarks_
Raw fish should be kept in an uncovered dish in the icebox. Always wash
in a little vinegar and water before cooking. _Smoked fish_ such as
haddock should be boiled always in a deep frying pan allowing the water
to cover it.
_Kippers_ are difficult to cook without smell and to keep moist. The
best way is to lay the kipper on its back in a flat meat dish. A small
piece of butter should be always put into the dish first and a larger
piece on the open side of the kipper, with a little white paper. Put
into a quick oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. There will be no smell.
_Dried Sprats_, to be treated in the same way but they require only
twelve to fifteen minutes in the oven, and a little more butter.
_Bloaters_, like kippers, after removing the head and cleaning and
wiping on a damp cloth.
_110. Boiled Fish and Melted Butter_
_Plaice._ Lay your fish on a perforated white stone strainer in a
fish kettle. Cover with cold water, add a teaspoonful of salt and a
teaspoonful of vinegar. Put over a quick fire, bring to a boil and keep
it boiling for about fifteen minutes. Have ready the following sauce:--
Mix one dessertspoonful of flour smoothly with one ounce of butter. Add
sufficient boiling milk to make up to half a pint, and a little salt.
Put it into a double saucepan the bottom half containing boiling water.
Stir with a spoon always the same way until it thickens. Chop about six
sprigs of parsley (not stalk) and add to the sauce. Dish the fish in a
flat dish and serve the sauce in a sauce boat.
_Cod_ may be cooked in the same way only it must boil for fully half an
hour after it has been brought to the boil.
_Hake._ As for cod but boil only for twenty-five minutes.
_Halibut._ Is seldom bought whole. Buy say two pounds and boil for
twenty-five to forty minutes according to the thickness.
_Turbot._ Say two pounds. Must be put into _boiling_ water and boiled
gently for thirty minutes. Oyster sauce, foundation as above, only the
oysters (each cut in two) must be added after the sauce has thickened
and kept stirred for four to five minutes.
_111. Fried Fish_
_Plaice._ Cut about two pounds of filleted plaice into four pieces.
Beat an egg in a plate, white and yolk together. Put the fish into it
and then into rolled rusk crumbs. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan
about half a pound of best tub lard and when thoroughly hot (it can be
found out by dropping a crumb into the fat when it will sizzle) it is
ready for the dish. Lay the fish into it and fry for ten to fifteen
minutes. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and serve with a garniture of
lemon.
This recipe applies to soles--unless the sole is very thick, when it
must fry for twenty minutes. Whiting for twenty minutes and halibut for
twenty-five minutes.
_112. Fried Smelts_
Make a batter of one teacupful of flour mixed carefully with milk till
it is quite thin enough to run. Add a pinch of salt. Have ready in an
enamelled frying pan a quarter pound of best tub lard boiling. Dip each
smelt well into the batter and fry in the hot lard for ten to fifteen
minutes.
_113. Whitebait_
Are treated like smelts but the batter must be only half as thick and
the time required for cooking is from seven to ten minutes. Take up the
fish from the batter with a slice and scatter into the boiling fat. Do
not crowd the pan on any account.
_114. Stewed Eels_
Two or three freshly skinned eels cut into small pieces about two
inches long. Put into a stone saucepan with a little salt and a piece
of loaf sugar, one claret glass of white claret or cooking sherry, and
about a teacupful of good beef stock. Cover the eels with water and
slice a small Spanish onion into it. Stew gently for three-quarters of
an hour, thicken with a little flour mixed with water and serve in the
stone saucepan. Care must be taken not to break the fish when stirring
in the thickening.
_115. Salmon or Cod Cutlets_
One and a half to two pounds in three or four cutlets, dip into a
beaten egg and then roll in crumbs, made preferably of German rusks.
Have ready a quarter of a pound of best tub lard in an enamelled frying
pan and when hot put the fish in and fry for a quarter of an hour to
twenty minutes, turning over once. To ascertain if properly cooked pass
the knife down by the side of the bone and if cooked the knife will
pass quite easily. Dish with a slice on a flat dish and garnish with
parsley and lemon cut in quarters.
_116. Sole for an Invalid_
Lay a filleted sole in a rather deep meat dish and cover with milk and
a little salt and a piece of butter the size of a walnut. This will
make the sauce. Cover with another dish (flat) and bake in a quick oven
for about half an hour. Serve very hot with the sauce and a little
chopped parsley sprinkled over it.
_117. Crimped Skate and Black Butter_
Take about one and a half pounds of crimped skate. Have ready in
an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of butter made hot and a
tablespoonful of vinegar. Put it over the fire and let it slightly
burn. Fry the skate in it for twenty minutes and then serve on a hot
dish with a few slices of lemon laid round it.
_118. Pickled Herrings or Mackerel_
Have eight fresh herrings or four large mackerel cleaned and remove
the heads. Lay not very closely together with the backs upwards in a
pie-dish. Fill the dish with vinegar and a few peppercorns, a little
salt, an onion (sliced), and a piece of butter about the size of a
walnut. Bake in a moderately quick oven for about one and a half hours.
Serve in a glass dish and strain the vinegar over them.
_119. Herrings in Paper_
Have ready cleaned and beheaded say six herrings with soft roes if
possible. Lay six pieces of paper (buttered) on the hot shelf of the
oven to melt the butter, then wrap each fish in a piece of paper. Have
ready about a quarter of a pound of tub lard melted in an enamelled
frying pan and lay the fish in the papers in the boiling fat. The fire
must not be too fierce. Fry for about twenty or twenty-five minutes
over a brisk fire. Dish up and serve in the papers.
_120. Red Mullet_
Take for four persons two good-sized mullets. (Remove the head if
desired; never split them open.) Have a deep enamelled frying pan
ready. Put into it three ounces of butter, four or five wafer-thin
slices of onion, two tablespoonfuls of bottled tomato sauce or catsup.
Bring to a boil and lay the fish gently in the hot pan. Keep the
butter boiling lightly round the fish. Baste frequently with a large
spoon; then carefully turn the fish, taking care not to tear the skin
(thus spoiling the appearance). Generally it will take from thirty to
forty minutes to cook the fish through. This can be easily ascertained
by passing the blade of a fine knife gently through the fish by the
side of the bone. Have a little more butter and tomato catsup melted
together in a basin. Place the fish on a hot dish and pour the melted
butter and tomato sauce you have ready over the fish and serve very
hot. It should never be allowed to brown, so as to retain its pretty
red colour.
FOWLS AND GAME BIRDS
_Roasting and Between Boiling_
_General Remarks_
In roasting birds the great point is to avoid dryness.
Butter should be put _into_ the bird as well as outside.
The fowl should never be washed with water after being trussed but
wiped with a damp cloth.
On no account should a fowl intended for roasting be floured on the
outside. It is an abominable practice, causing the skin to become
leathery and thick.
Fowls or any birds already plucked and trussed cannot be kept for more
than two days. But before trussing they may be kept _hanging_ for three
or four days providing the weather is not thundery or hot.
_121. Roast Goose_
Have a goose of seven or eight pounds trussed for roasting. Stuff with
sage and onion stuffing (rec: 40), butter the breast well and cook in
a quick but not fierce oven for three and a half hours. Garnish with
sausages.
_122. Roast Duck_
If not stuffed put a piece of butter inside and butter the breast
liberally. Cook in a quick oven for one and a half hours. Dish as for
roast fowl and serve with green peas as per recipe. If stuffed it must
be cooked for one and three quarters hours.
_123. Wild Duck_
Put some butter inside the duck, butter the breast, and fasten a slice
of very fat bacon to the breast with a skewer. Bake in a quick oven for
one and a half hours. Serve garnished with parsley.
_124. Roast Fowl_
Put inside a properly trussed fowl about an ounce of butter and spread
butter also over the breast. Do not flour your fowl. Bake in a quick
oven for one and a quarter hours (roast one and a half hours). When the
fowl is done lay on a dish, strain the butter out of the meat tin, boil
up a little water in it to make gravy and pour over the fowl in the
dish. If to be stuffed see recipe: 41.
_125. Roast Pheasant_
Should be cooked in the same way as chicken and served with cranberry
sauce or black currant jelly. To make cranberry sauce take half a
pound of cranberries, a good teacupful of powdered sugar and just cover
with hot water. Boil gently for an hour. Sometimes the sugar is omitted.
_126. Snipe and Quail_
Snipe must not be trussed, but quail is always trussed. Butter the
breasts; a quail should have a piece of butter inside as well. Bake
in a quick oven for half an hour. Lay the birds on slices of thick
buttered toast. Serve them on toast with red or black currant jelly.
_127. Roast Partridge_
Butter the breast and inside. Bake in a tin in the oven for
three-quarters of an hour. Lay the bird on a thick slice of toast. Pour
the fat out of the tin, boil up in it a very little water and serve the
gravy thus made in a sauce boat.
The best toast for all game birds is made as follows: Remove the crust
from as many pieces of bread as required. When the birds are cooked
place them in another tin or dish and bring the fat in which they have
been cooked to a boil on the stove. Place the slices of bread in the
boiling fat and fry till they are a crisp brown.
_128. Roast Pigeons_
Take say two pigeons trussed for roasting. Put a good-sized piece of
butter into each and liberally butter the breasts. Put into a baking
tin and bake for half an hour to three-quarters. For dishing, split in
halves down the breast (it will be easy if the birds are well done)
and lay on hot buttered toast. Strain the fat out of the tin and put a
little good meat juice into it. Stir in a little well-mixed flour and
water and serve with green peas.
_129. Boiled Fowl_
Take a lean fowl and fasten a slice of lean bacon over the breast with
a small skewer. Put into a saucepan, with enough boiling water to
cover it, with an onion and a little white wine. Stew gently for an
hour. Remove the fowl whole and serve with melted butter sauce as for
fish without the parsley. The liquid in which it boiled should make
excellent soup if you boil in it any remains of chicken carcass just
for flavouring, or add some good beef stock.
_130. Venison_
Melt an ounce of butter or dripping in a baking tin and when hot lay in
it about three pounds of venison not too fat. Bake in a fairly quick
oven for two hours, basting it from time to time with the butter out
of the tin. Make the gravy as for beef. Serve with red currant jelly.
_131. Roast Turkey_
Have ready a turkey of about seven pounds trussed for roasting. Stuff
it with the best sausage meat and some truffles cut up very small.
Butter the breast very liberally and bake in a quick oven for three
hours. Garnish with sausages.
_132. Chicken Jelly_
Take an old fowl trussed and slash it well across the breast and thighs
with a sharp knife. Place it in a large saucepan, cover with cold
water, add a little salt, two big pieces of loaf sugar, and one whole
onion. Stew gently for three hours, strain from the fowl into a deep
basin, add quickly a teacupful of cold water and set it to get cold. It
can be used either as chicken broth or, with the addition of a glass of
good white wine, as a jelly in which to serve a young roast fowl.
_133. Chicken Rissoles_
Mince finely the remains of cold chicken with a slice of onion. Make
a little sauce, stirring smoothly one ounce of fresh butter into a
tablespoonful of flour, and pouring half a pint of boiling milk into
it. Return it to the saucepan and allow it to boil (a double saucepan
is best for all milk cooking); it will then thicken; put the chicken
into it, with a pinch of salt. Make some deep light pastry cases and
put a thick finger of larded bread into each till the pastry is cooked.
If the top edge of the pastry is moistened with a little milk, the lid
can be easily removed when cooked. Put the chicken mixture into the
cases after removing the bread, replace the top, and serve very hot, in
a meat dish.
VEGETABLES AND SALADS
_Green Vegetables_
_Always_ boil without a lid on.
_Always_ put straight into boiling water.
_Never_ add salt or soda till the vegetables are in the water.
_Never_ have green vegetables lying in cold water more than half an
hour before they are to be cooked.
Cabbage, savoy, cauliflower should be steeped for ten minutes in a
pan of cold water with a good tablespoonful of salt. Time to boil
twenty-five to thirty minutes.
Potatoes must lie in cold water without salt.
Onions should never lie in water or be wet before being used.
Turnips, carrots, and parsnips should be washed but never allowed to
lie in cold water.
Celery should be treated like cabbage.
Spinach, on the contrary, requires to be washed in seven different lots
of cold water and only the last lot without salt.
Fresh beans or peas should never pass through any cold water.
_134. Dry Vegetables_
Haricot beans should be put to soak for at least twelve hours in cold
water--pint of beans to three pints of cold water. No salt.
Dry peas (not split) the same.
_133. Salads and Their Dressings_
There are many green salads, and a salad is always a very welcome
addition to a meal if there should be cold meat or fowl in any form.
Lettuce, endive, watercress, corn salad, chicory or tomato, can be
dressed as follows: Having washed and dried the salad (by means of a
wire salad basket swung vigorously), place it in the salad bowl with a
little chopped onion or several young spring onions according to the
season. To two salad-spoonfuls of vinegar dissolve one salt-spoonful
of salt and a little pepper, turn into the salad and add three
salad-spoonfuls of best salad oil. Turn the salad over for five minutes
with the spoon and fork. The bowl should then appear quite dry, the
dressing having been taken up on the green salad. If dressing tomatoes
alone, place the tomatoes which must be firm and sound in a large basin
and pour over them some boiling water. The skin will then peel off
easily leaving the fruit whole. Cut them into slices, put into a glass
dish and sprinkle over them a little freshly chopped onion. Mix in a
breakfast cup the oil and vinegar, salt and pepper (always taking care
to add the oil last); stir well and pour over the tomatoes in the dish.
It is best not to attempt to turn this salad as the tomatoes so easily
get broken and the appearance of the salad is then spoiled. Sprinkle
over all a little finely chopped parsley.
_Potato Salad._ Take some boiled potatoes, cut into slices not too thin
and a little chopped onion. Place in a salad bowl. Mix the oil and
vinegar as before directed only allow exactly double the quantity of
dressing as the potatoes absorb it. Turn over well before serving.
_Chicory as Salad._ Will need the dressing prepared as for tomato.
_Russian Salad._ Any remains of cold beans, peas, carrots, beet-root,
etc., with the addition of one hard-boiled egg, the white chopped
separately from the yolk and added to the salad only after it is
dressed. Put into a large basin all the cold vegetables it is intended
to use together with a little finely chopped onion. Mix in a cup the
raw yolk of one egg, two teaspoonfuls of cream if possible, two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and three of oil, pepper, and salt. Work
all together and add a teaspoonful of powdered sugar. Turn it into the
vegetables and turn the salad very carefully once or twice. Sprinkle
the chopped egg over all.
_136. Asparagus_
This delightful vegetable is a welcome and useful addition to either
a lunch or dinner and can be served either hot or cold. If cold, then
with a nice mayonnaise sauce or with oil and vinegar. If hot, then as
follows: Prepare the asparagus, carefully cutting each stick slanting
thus removing about an inch from each. (These short ends can be washed
and put into stock to flavour it for asparagus soup. A few of the
tops being added for the sake of appearance.) Boil in plenty of water
till tender, strain carefully and serve with melted butter in which a
few dry brown breadcrumbs have been added, or quite clear butter as
desired. If any asparagus is left over from the meal it should be used
in an omelette.
_137. Indian Corn_
Take the corn and after cutting the stump end close to the green leaf,
put into a saucepan of boiling water sufficient to cover it and boil
gently with a good piece of salt for four hours. When cooked, pare off
the green leaves and serve on a clean serviette with melted butter in a
sauce boat.
_138. Salsify_
Carefully wash and remove shoots from the salsify. Place it in boiling
stock and boil till tender. Serve very hot in a vegetable dish either
with a white sauce or with a little melted butter over it in two lots
as they must not be crowded.
_139. New Potatoes_
Carefully select potatoes about the same size, have them scraped and
put into boiling water with a little piece of mint and some salt.
Boil for fifteen to twenty minutes or until quite tender, turn into a
vegetable dish and put a piece of butter the size of a walnut melted
over the potatoes, and dust a little finely chopped parsley over them.
_140. Potatoes Sautés_
Take some potatoes which have been boiled and cut them into thin
slices. Melt in a frying pan about an ounce of fresh butter and when
this boils lay the potatoes in it, not on top of each other but
perfectly flat, while the pan stands on the stove. Allow the potatoes
to brown first one side and then the other. Dish with a slice into a
vegetable dish and dust over with a little finely chopped parsley.
_141. Mashed Potatoes_
Boil the potatoes carefully, strain, and shake vigorously with the lid
on. Break them up then and beat with a carving fork, with two ounces of
fresh butter; then add fresh milk and continue beating till they attain
the consistency of very thick cream. They will then be ready to serve
with cutlets or as a bed for sausages.
_142. Stuffed Potatoes_