over night in winter, and early in the morning in summer. Hang it up by
the hind fins, and before it has had time to draw in its neck, cut off
its head with a very sharp knife, and leave the turtle suspended. It
should bleed two or three hours or more, before you begin to cut it up.
Then lay it on its back upon a table: have at hand several vessels of
cold water, in which to throw the most important parts as you separate
them; also a large boiler of hot water. Take off the fins at the joint,
and lay them by themselves in cold water; next divide the back-shell
from the under-shell. The upper part of the turtle is called the
calipash--the under part the calipee. In cutting open the turtle, be
very careful not to break the gall, which should be taken out and thrown
away; if broken, its bitterness will spoil all around it. Take out the
entrails and throw them away. The practice of cooking them is now
obsolete. So it is with the entrails of terrapins. Using a sharp knife,
cut off the fins carefully, also the liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, &c.
Wash them well, and lay them in a pan of cold water, the liver in a pan
by itself. If there are eggs, put them also into cold water. Having
extracted the intestines, stand up the turtle on end, to let the blood
run out. Afterwards cut out all the flesh from the upper and under
shells, and remove the bones. Cut the calipee (or meat belonging to the
under-shell) into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand, and
break the shell. The calipash, or meat next the back-shell, may be cut
smaller--the green fat into pieces about two inches square. Put all the
meat into a large pan, sprinkle it slightly with salt, and cover it up.
Lay the shells and fins in a tub of boiling water, and scald them till
the scales can be scraped off with a knife, and all the meat that still
adheres to the shells easily removed, as it is worth saving. Clean the
fins nicely, (taking off the dark skin,) and lay them in cold water.
Wipe the back-shell dry, and set it aside. Then proceed to make the
soup. For this purpose, take the coarser pieces of flesh with the bone
likewise. Put them into a pot with a pound of cold ham cut into pieces,
and eight large calves'-feet (two sets) that have been singed and
scraped, but not skinned. If you cannot conveniently obtain
calves'-feet, substitute a large fore-leg or knuckle of veal. Add four
onions, sliced thin; two tablespoonfuls of sweet-marjoram leaves; a
large bunch of basil; a dozen blades of mace; and a salt-spoon of
cayenne. The ham will make any other salt unnecessary. Pour on as much
water as will completely cover the whole, and let it simmer slowly over
a steady fire during five hours, skimming it well. If after a while the
soup seems to be boiling away too much, replenish it with a little hot
water from a kettle, kept boiling hard for the purpose. When it has
simmered five hours, take up the whole, and strain the soup through a
sieve into a deep pan. Wash out the soup-pot with hot water, and return
the strained soup to it, with the liver, &c., cut in small pieces, and
some of the best of the meat, and a portion of the green fat. Have ready
two or three dozen force-meat balls, the size of a hickory nut, and made
of the usual proportions of minced veal, bread-crumbs, butter, grated
lemon-peel, mace, nutmeg, and beaten yolk of egg. Put them into the
soup, and let it boil an hour longer; also the eggs of the turtle, or
some hard-boiled yolks of eggs. After it has thus boiled another hour,
add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two lemons, and a pint of
Madeira. Boil the soup a quarter of an hour longer, and it will then be
ready for the tureen. It must never boil hard.
In the mean time, stew in another pot the finest of the turtle-meat,
seasoned with a little salt and cayenne, and a liberal allowance of
sweet-marjoram leaves rubbed fine, and mixed with powdered mace and
nutmeg. Add a pound of fresh butter, cut into pieces and rolled in
flour. When the turtle-meat has stewed an hour, put in the green fat,
and add the juice and grated yellow rinds of two lemons, and a pint or
more of Madeira, and let the whole stew slowly an hour longer. While the
meat is stewing, take the shell of the back; wash it clean, and wipe it
dry; lay a band of puff-paste all round the inside of the shell, two
inches below the edge, and two inches above it. Notch the paste
handsomely, and fill the shell with the stewed turtle. Have ready the
oven, heated as if for bread. Lay a large iron baking-sheet or a square
pan upon four bricks (one at each corner) to elevate the turtle-shell
from the floor of the oven. Place on it the shell with its contents, and
let it bake till well browned on the surface. Send it to table with the
shell placed on a large dish. At the other end set the tureen of soup.
Have ready (on two side dishes) the fins stewed tender in a little of
the soup, and the liver fried in butter.
This receipt is for a turtle of moderate size. A large one will, of
course, require an increased proportion of all the articles used in
seasoning it--more wine, &c. In serving up turtle at a dinner-party, let
it constitute the first course, and have nothing else on the table while
the turtle is there.
We have seen elegant silver turtle-dishes, representing the back-shell
of the animal, superbly chased and engraved, the feet for it to stand on
being paws of silver; and the fins having hollow places to hold the
sauce. This was for the stew; making a dish separate from the soup,
which is always sent to table in a tureen.
TURTLE PASTY.--When the meat has been all extracted, scrape and wash the
large back shell of the turtle till it is perfectly clean. Make a rich
puff-paste. Roll it out thin, and line with it the bottom and sides, in
fact the whole of the back-shell. Having prepared and seasoned the best
pieces of the turtle-meat, as in the preceding receipt, stew them till
thoroughly done, and very tender, and when cool, fill the shell with
them. Have ready an upper lid of the same puff-paste, rolled out rather
_thick_. Cover the pie with it. Unite the edges of the upper and under
crusts, very neatly, wetting your fingers with water. Then notch them
handsomely all round, and cut a cross slit in the centre of the top or
cover. Set it directly into a rather quick oven. Bake the crust of a
light brown, and send it to table hot.
LOBSTERS.--If you buy a lobster ready boiled, see that his tail is stiff
and elastic, so that when you bend it under, it springs back
immediately; otherwise he is not fresh. If alive or unboiled, he will be
lively and brisk in his motion when newly caught. The same with prawns,
and crabs.
The heaviest lobsters are the best.
To boil a lobster, have ready a pot of fast-boiling water, very strongly
salted. Put in the lobster head downward; and if the water is really hot
(it is cruel to have it otherwise,) he will be dead in a moment. Crabs,
of course, the same. A moderate sized lobster (and they are the best,)
will be done in half an hour. A large one requires from three-quarters
to an hour. Before it is sent to table, the large claws should be taken
off, and laid beside it. The head also should be separated from the
body, but laid so near it that the division is nearly imperceptible. The
head is never eaten. Split the body, and lay it open all the way down,
including the tail. If there is a good dresser of salads in the house,
the lobster may be served up ready dressed, in a deep dish, seasoned
with the proper condiments, after being cut small or minced, heaped up
towards the centre of the dish, and decorated with the small claws laid
across on the top, with the addition of green celery leaves, or parsley
sprigs.
LOBSTER SALAD--(_plain_.)--Take a well boiled lobster. Extract all the
meat from the body and claws, cut it up small, and mash the coral with
the back of a spoon or a broad knife. Wash the best part of a fresh
lettuce, and cut that up also, omitting all the stalk. Mix together the
chopped lobster and the lettuce, and put them into a salad bowl. Make
the dressing in a deep plate, allowing for one lobster a salt-spoon of
salt, half as much of cayenne, a tea-spoonful of made mustard, (tarragon
mustard is best,) four table-spoonfuls (or more) of sweet oil, and three
table-spoonfuls of the best cider vinegar. Mix all these together, with
the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, mashed to a soft moist paste with
the other ingredients, adding the coral of the lobster. When they are
all mixed smoothly, add them to the lobster and lettuce. If the mixture
seems too dry, add more sweet oil. Toss and stir the salad with a
box-wood fork. Also, the things should be mashed with a box-wood spoon.
Cover, and set it in a cool place till wanted. It should be eaten as
soon as possible after mixing, as it becomes flat by standing.
Plenty of sweet oil renders a lobster wholesome. Still, persons who are
not in good health, had best abstain from lobster.
You may add to the dressing, one or two raw yolks of eggs, beaten well.
FINE LOBSTER SALAD--(_This is for company._)--Boil eight eggs for ten
minutes, or till quite hard. Lay them in cold water, or cool them by
laying bits of ice among them. When quite cold, cut each egg lengthways
into four or six pieces, taking a bit off one end of each piece or
slice. Cut up into long pieces the best part of a fresh lettuce, that
has just been washed in a pan of cold water. Lay the lettuce in a dish,
and surround it closely with the pieces of egg standing up on their
blunted ends, with the yolk side outward, and forming a handsome wall
all round the bed of lettuce. Upon this, pile neatly the bits of chopped
lobster, finishing with the small claws stuck into the top. Have ready
the dressing in a sauce-tureen. Make it of the beaten yolks of two raw
eggs, and four table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, thickened with the mashed
coral of the lobster, and the crumbled yolks of two hard-boiled eggs,
and season slightly with a little salt, cayenne, and a spoonful of
tarragon mustard. Finish with two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and stir
the whole hard with a box-wood spoon or fork. Send it to table with the
sauce-tureen, along with the dish of lobster, &c. Pour on each plate of
lobster a portion of this dressing. Or, if you can obtain no lettuce,
mix this dressing at once with the chopped meat of the lobster. Smooth
it in a pile on the dish, (keeping it towards the centre) and stand up
the slips of hard egg handsomely surrounding it--the small claws
decorating the top.
LOBSTER RISSOLES.--Extract all the meat from the shells of one or two
boiled lobsters. Mince it very fine; the coral also. Season it with a
little salt and cayenne, and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Add about a
fourth part of finely grated bread-crumbs; and with a sufficiency of
fresh butter or a little finely-minced veal suet, or some sweet oil,
make it up into balls or cones. Brush them over with yolk of egg, dredge
them lightly with flour, and fry them in lard. Introduce them as a side
dish at a dinner party, or as an accompaniment to salmon.
This mixture may be baked in puff-paste as little patties, or you may
bake in a soup-plate an empty shell of paste, and when done, (having
stewed the rissole mixture made moist) fill the cold paste with it, and
serve it up as a lobster pie.
In buying lobsters, choose those that are the heaviest and liveliest, or
quickest in their motions when touched. They are then fresh. The hen has
the broadest tail and the softest fins.
LOBSTER PUDDING.--Take the empty back shell of one large boiled lobster,
and all the best meat of two. Clean out the shell very nicely; washing
it, and wiping it dry. Mince the meat, and mash the coral with it;
adding half a dozen yolks of hard-boiled eggs crumbled among it, and
season it well with powdered mace and nutmeg, and a little cayenne.
Moisten it all through with plenty of sweet oil, and the raw yolks of
one or two eggs, well beaten. Fill the shell with this pudding, and
cover the surface of the mixture with a coating of finely-grated
bread-crumbs. Brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red hot
fire-shovel. Send it to table in the shell, laid on a china dish.
Small puddings may be made as above, of crab-meat put into several large
crab-shells, and placed side by side on a dish.
They may be eaten either warm or cold; and they look well with green
lettuce or pepper-grass, disposed fancifully among them.
CRABS.--Crabs are seldom eaten except at the sea-shore, where there is a
certainty of their being fresh from the water. They are very abundant,
but so little is in them, that when better things are to be had, they
are scarcely worth the trouble of boiling and picking out the shell.
They are cooked like lobsters, in boiling salt and water, and brought to
table piled on large dishes, and are eaten with salt, pepper, sweet oil,
and vinegar. The meat of two dozen crabs, when all is extracted, will
make but a small dish. Season it with cayenne, mustard, oil, vinegar,
and eat it cold; or stew it with fresh butter, powdered mace, and
nutmeg, and serve it up hot.
_Prawns._--The same.
SHRIMPS.--Of all fish belonging to the lobster species, shrimps are the
smallest. In England, where they abound, they are sold by the quart,
ready boiled. The way to eat them is to pull off the head, and squeeze
the body out of the shell by pressing it between your fore-finger and
thumb. At good tables they are only used as sauce for large fish,
squeezed out of the shell, and stirred into melted butter.
LOBSTER SAUCE.--Take a small hen lobster that has been well boiled.
Extract all the meat, and chop it large. Take out the coral, and pound
it smooth in a marble mortar, adding, as you proceed, sufficient sweet
oil. Make some nice drawn butter, allowing half a pound of nice fresh
butter to two heaped table-spoonfuls of flour, and a pint of hot water.
Mix the butter and flour thoroughly, and then gradually add to them the
coral, so as to give a fine color. Then mix this with a small pint of
boiling water. Hold the saucepan over the fire, (shaking it about till
it simmers) but do not let it quite boil. Put in the chopped lobster,
and let that simmer in the sauce, till well heated. To allow it to boil
will spoil the color, (which should be pale pink,) and may be improved
by a little prepared cochineal. Or, you may tie, in a small bit of thin
muslin, a few chips of alkanet, and put it into the sauce, (taking it
out, of course, before it goes to table.) Alkanet communicates a
beautiful pink color, and has no taste in itself.
This quantity of sauce is for a large fish--salmon, cod, turbot, or
sheep's head. There should always be an ample supply of sauce. It is
very awkward for the sauce to give out, before it has gone round the
company.
BEEF.
ROASTING BEEF.--The prime piece of beef for roasting is the sirloin; but
being too large for a small family, the ribs are generally preferred,
when there are but few persons to eat of it. So also is the baron, or
double sirloin, undivided along the back. It is chiefly seen at great
dinners. Except the sirloin and ribs, there are no very good roasting
pieces, all the rest being generally used for stews, soups, &c., and for
corning or salting. Unless the animal is a very fine one, the inferior
pieces are apt to be tough, hard, and coarse. The round is the best
piece for corning or salting, and for cooking, as beef _a-la-mode_, or
converting into what, in England, is called rump-steaks. These steaks
require a rolling-pin, before they can be made tender enough for good
eating, or good digestion. The finest and tenderest steaks are those cut
from the sirloin. The meat of a young well-fed heifer is very good; and
that of an old ox, (that has done working, and afterwards been fattened
well on plenty of wholesome food,) may be made of superior excellence.
The lean of good fresh beef is of a bright red color, a fine close
grain, and feels tender to the touch on pinching it between your thumb
and finger. The fat is firm and very nearly white. The suet about the
kidney, firm and quite white. If, on the contrary, the lean is coarse,
tough, and of a dull color, and the fat scanty, yellow, and moist, do
not buy that meat for any purpose. The same rules will apply to mutton.
If the weather is so cold that the meat is frozen, thaw it by lying it
all night or early in the morning in a tub of _cold_ water. If thawed in
water the least warm, the meat will spoil, and be rendered unfit to eat.
Meat that has been frozen, requires a much longer time to cook, than if
that accident had not happened. _All_ frozen animals must be thawed in
cold water previous to cooking. Cold roast-beef is much liked in
England. In America, where meat is more abundant, and therefore less
costly, it is not considered a proper dish to place before a visitor;
therefore, in our country, a large piece is seldom cooked with a view to
next day's dinner. We prefer smaller pieces, always served up fresh and
hot. Beef for roasting, should be well washed in plenty of cold water;
then dried with a clean cloth. Prepare the fire, in time to be burning
well, when the meat is put down. It should have plenty of hot coals, and
no part of the fire black, ashy, or smoky, and the hearth swept very
clean: _for no sweeping must go on while the meat (or any thing else) is
cooking_. The spit should always be kept perfectly clean, when not in
use; and well washed, wiped, and rubbed immediately after using. Run it
evenly into the meat, which will hang crooked if not well balanced. When
first put down, take care not to set it at once too close to the fire,
but place it rather more than two feet distant, that the meat may heat
gradually. If too near the fire at first, the outside will scorch, and
leave the inside red and bloody. Underdone meat (foolishly called
_rare_) is getting quite out of fashion, being unwholesome and
indigestible, and to most Americans its savour is disgusting. To ladies
and children it is always so, and even the English have ceased to like
it. It is now seldom seen but at those public tables, where they
consider it an object to have as little meat as possible eaten on the
first day, that more may be left for the second day, to be made into
indescribable messes, with ridiculous French names, and passed off as
French dishes, by the so-called French cook, who is frequently an
Irishman.
At first, baste the meat as soon as it begins to roast, with a little
fresh butter, or fresh dripping saved from yesterday's beef. Then, when
its own fat begins to drip, baste it with that, all the while it is
cooking. Gradually move it nearer to the fire, turning the spit round
frequently, so that the meat may be cooked equally on all sides. When it
is nearly done, sprinkle it slightly, with a little salt. When it is
quite done, and you take it from the spit, put it on a large hot dish,
and keep it warm while you skim the gravy, thoroughly, so as to remove
_all_ the fat. Then mix in the gravy a small tea-cup full of hot water,
and thicken it with a very little browned flour. Send it to table very
hot.
As a general rule, a sirloin, weighing fifteen pounds, will require
about four hours (or more) before a good steady fire. If it has been
frozen, it will take much longer. The fatter it is the more cooking it
will require. When sent to table, place near it, a small sauce-shell of
horse-radish, washed, scraped fine, and moistened with the best vinegar.
Put a tea-spoon on the top to take it with. Pickles, and a bottle of
French mustard, at good tables, are generally accompaniments to beef or
mutton, whether roasted or boiled.
The dripping of roast beef, after all the fat has been removed, and the
basting of the meat is over, should be strained into a pan, and kept in
a cold place, with a cover; and next day, when it is congealed into a
cake, scrape off whatever impurities may still adhere to the bottom,
transfer it to a covered jar, and set it in the refrigerator, or where
it will be cold. The dripping of roast beef is excellent for frying, for
plain pie-crust, or for many other purposes. The dripping of mutton
(being tallow) is only fit for soap-fat, and will spoil any dish
whatever.
BROILED BEEF STEAKS.--The best steaks are those from the tender-loin.
Those from the round or rump require beating with a rolling-pin. A
steak-mallet tears them and destroys the juices of the meat. Without
beating they will generally be found too tough or hard for an American
taste, though much liked in Europe, where tender-loin steaks are
considered too expensive. But they are here so much preferred, that, on
good tables, any others are seldom seen. Have all the steaks nearly of a
size and shape, and about half an inch thick. Trim off the fat, and cut
short the bone, or remove it altogether. Season them with black pepper,
but sprinkle on no salt till they have done cooking; as salt, if put on
at first, hardens them. Set your gridiron over a bed of bright clear
coals, having first rubbed the bars with a very little beef suet, or
dripping. Not mutton fat, as it will give the taste of tallow.
A beef steak cannot be cooked in perfection unless over wood coals. To
cook them before an anthracite fire, on an upright gridiron, is more
like toasting than broiling, and much impairs the true flavor. A
gridiron of the usual shape, with grooved or hollow bars to catch the
gravy, is best of all. Broil the steaks well; and when done on one side,
turn each steak with steak tongs; or a knife and fork, and an inverted
plate.
If onions are liked, peel and boil a few; drain and mince them, and
sprinkle them thickly over the surface of each steak. When they are
well done, take them off the gridiron, and transfer them to a heated
dish, laying a small bit of butter upon it; and put another bit of
butter on the surface of each steak, having first sprinkled them with a
very little fine salt. What there is of their own gravy, pour round them
on the dish. Send it to table as hot as possible.
The English custom of eating what is called _rare_ or underdone beef or
mutton, is now becoming obsolete. To ladies, especially, all food is
disgusting that is red and bloody-looking--and physicians have
discovered, that nothing is wholesome unless well cooked. The
introduction of French cookery has done that much good.
The onions may be stewed in butter or gravy, and served up in a
sauce-boat, seasoned with nutmeg. At the famous beef-steak club of
London, each guest is furnished with a small raw onion, to take on his
fork, and rub over his empty plate, just before the steaks are served
up, which is done one at a time, and as hot as possible, being cooked in
the room.
FRIED BEEF STEAKS.--Sirloin steaks should be tender enough without
beating. Rump steaks will require some; but do not beat them so much as
to tear the meat and exhaust all its juices. We have seen them pounded
almost into a mass of dry shreds, scarcely adhering together. Remove the
fat and bone. Lay them in a frying-pan, with a little fresh butter
dredged with flour, and season them with pepper. Fry them brown,
turning them on both sides. Have ready some onions, peeled, washed, and
sliced. After you have turned the steaks, cover them with the sliced
onions, and then finish the frying, till all is thoroughly done, meat
and onions, slightly sprinkling them with salt. The onions had best be
boiled in a small sauce-pan by themselves, before they are sliced and
fried.
Put the whole on one dish, the onions covering the meat.
Mutton chops, or veal cutlets, or pork steaks, may be fried in this
manner with onions, adding to them some minced sweet marjoram, or if
pork, some sage.
BEEF STEAK WITH OYSTERS.--Take very fine tender sirloin steak, divested
of fat and bone; cut them not larger than the palm of your hand; lay
them in a stew-pan with some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour.
Strain over them sufficient oyster-liquor to cook them well, and to keep
them from burning, and to make a gravy so as to stew, but not to boil
them. Season them with some blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and a
few whole pepper-corns. Let them cook till they are thoroughly done, and
not the least red. Then put in some fine large oysters. Set the stew-pan
again over the fire till the oysters are plump, which should be in about
five or six minutes. If cooked too much, the oysters will toughen and
shrink. When done, transfer the whole to a deep dish, mixing the oysters
evenly among the meat. Before you take them up, make some sippet or
thin toast, in triangular or pointed slices, with the crust cut off. Dip
the slices (for a minute) in boiling water; then take them out, and
stand them in a circle all round the inside of the dish, the points of
the sippets upwards.