and remove the bone. Make a large sheet of nice suet paste. Lay the beef
steak upon it, seasoned with pepper and a very little salt. In the
centre of the meat place either a partridge, a quail, a plover, or any
nice game, or three or four reed-birds--season with powdered mace and
nutmeg. Add some bits of excellent fresh butter, dredged with flour.
Inclose the birds completely in the steak, so that the game flavor may
pervade the whole. Close the crust over all, so as to form a large
dumpling. Tie it in a cloth. Put it into a pot of fast-boiling water,
and boil it well, turning it several times with a fork. Dish it very
hot.
If game is not convenient, a fine tame fat pigeon may be substituted.
TO ROAST WOODCOCKS OR SNIPES.--Be very careful in plucking these to pull
out the feathers as carefully and handle them as lightly as possible;
for the skin is very easily torn or broken. Do not draw them, for
epicures have decided, that the trail, (as they call the intestines,) is
the most delicious part of the bird, and should by all means be saved
for eating. Having wiped the outside carefully with a soft cloth, truss
them with the head under the wing, and the bill laid along upon the
breast. Keep the legs bent from the knees, retaining that posture by
means of a splinter skewer. Suspend the birds to a bird-spit, with their
feet downward. Melt some fresh butter in the dripping-pan, and baste
them with it, having first dredged the birds with flour. Before the
trail begins to drop, (which it will do as soon as they are well
heated,) lay a thick round of very nice toast, (with the crust pared
off,) buttered on both sides, and placed in the dripping-pan beneath, so
as to catch the trail as it falls; allowing a slice of toast to each
bird, with the trail spread equally over it. Continue the basting,
letting the butter fall back from them into the basting spoon. When the
birds are done, which will be in less than half an hour at a brisk
fire--carefully transfer the toasts to a very hot dish; place the birds
upon them, and pour some gravy round the toast.
Snipes require less cooking than woodcocks. These birds are very
fashionable; but we do not think either of them superlative. They seldom
appear except at supper parties.
PLOVERS.--This is a very nice bird, with a peculiar and pleasant flavor.
They abound near our large bays and estuaries in the vicinity of the
ocean. There are two sorts, the green plover and the gray. Roast them
plain; basting them only with butter. Or fill them with a forcemeat, and
go entirely over the outside, first with beaten egg, and then roll each
plover in finely grated bread-crumbs.
If very fat, stew them plain in butter rolled in flour. Then serve them
up in their own gravy, enriched with a beaten egg. They make a nice
breakfast dish, either roasted or stewed. And are excellent in pies.
REED BIRDS.--Reed birds and rice birds are the same. They are very
small, (only a mouthful on each side of the breast,) but very delicious,
and _immensely fat_ in the summer and autumn. They are brought to market
with a lump of fat skewered on the outside, and are sold by the dozen
strung on a stick like cherries.
To cook them, roast them on a bird-spit, basting with their own fat, as
it drips. A nice way for retaining the whole flavor is to tie each bird
closely in a vine leaf, and bake them in a dutch oven. Or wrap them in
double vine leaves, and roast them in the ashes of a wood fire. Remove
the vine leaves before the birds are dished.
ROASTED PIGEONS.--Take fine fat _tame_ pigeons, and clean and truss them
nicely. Four pigeons, at least, are requisite to make a dish. Prepare a
stuffing or forcemeat of finely minced veal, and an equal quantity of
cold-boiled ham, seasoned with powdered mace and a very little cayenne.
Also, two slices of bread and butter soaked in as much milk as they will
absorb. Fill their bodies with this, (tying a string round to keep it
in,) and roast the pigeons till thoroughly done; basting with fresh
butter or lard.
Or you may stuff the pigeons with chopped mushrooms, seasoned with a
little cayenne, and putting into each a piece of fresh butter rolled in
flour.
Or you may stuff them with sweet potatos, boiled well, and mashed with
plenty of fresh butter. Or with chestnuts, boiled, peeled, and mashed
with butter.
Wild pigeons are generally too poor to roast. In places where they
abound, it has been found very profitable to catch them in nets, clip
their wings, and put them into inclosures, feeding them well with corn
so as to make them fat. They will then bring as high a price as tame
pigeons.
SAUCES.
MELTED BUTTER.--_For Sauces._--This is frequently called Drawn Butter.
For this purpose none should be used but fresh butter of the very best
quality. It is usually sent to table with boiled fish and boiled
poultry. Also, with boiled mutton, lamb, and veal. It is never served up
with any thing roasted, fried or broiled. Numerous sauces are made with
melted butter. If mixed with too much flour and water, and not enough of
butter, it will be very poor, particularly if the water is in too large
proportions. To prepare it properly, allow a quarter of a pound of nice
butter, to a heaped table-spoonful of flour. Mix the butter and flour
thoroughly, _before_ it goes on the fire. Then add to it four large
table-spoonfuls of milk, or hot water, well mixed in. Hold it over the
fire in a small sauce-pan, kept for the purpose. One lined with what is
called porcelain or enamel is best. Take care there is no blaze where
the sauce-pan is held. Cover it, and shake it over the fire till it
boils. Then having skimmed it, add three or four hard-boiled eggs
chopped small, and give it one more boil up; or season it with any other
ingredient with which you wish to distinguish the sauce.
CLARIFIED BUTTER.--For this purpose use none but the very best fresh
butter, such as is made in summer, when the cows are well pastured. Cut
up the butter, put it into an enameled or porcelain stew-pan, and melt
it gently over a clear and moderate fire. When it simmers, skim it
thoroughly, draw it from the fire, and let it stand five minutes, that
the milk or sediment may sink to the bottom. Then pour it clear from the
sediment through a muslin strainer, or a fine clean hair sieve. Transfer
to jars with close covers, and keep them in a cool dry place. If well
prepared, and originally very good, this butter will answer for sauces,
stews, &c., and continue good a long time. In France, where they do not
_salt_ any butter, large quantities are melted in this way for winter
use.
COLORING FOR SAUCES.--_For Pink Sauce._ Take a few chips of red alkanet
root, (to be had at the druggist's.) Pick it clean, and tie it in a very
thin muslin bag. Put the alkanet into the mixture, and let it infuse in
the boiling drawn butter. It will communicate a beautiful pink color,
which you may heighten, by pressing the bag a little. When done, take
out the bag, and stir the alkanet color evenly through the sauce. The
alkanet has no taste, and is very cheap. Beet juice will color a
tolerable red.
_For Green Sauce._--Pound some fresh spinach leaves, till you extract a
tea-cup or more of the clear green juice. Stir it into the melted butter
while boiling.
_For Yellow Sauce._--Tie up a very little turmeric powder in a muslin
bag. Let it boil in the butter. When done, take it out of the sauce-pan,
and stir the yellow coloring evenly through the sauce.
_For White Sauce._--Make this with cream instead of milk.
_For Brown Sauce._--Stir in plenty of French mustard.
_For Wine Sauce._--Stir in, just before you take the sauce from the
fire, a large wine-glass or more of _very good_ white wine, and grate in
half a large nutmeg, adding the grated yellow rind, and the juice of a
lemon. The wine must be of excellent quality, otherwise it will give a
bad taste to the sauce.
WHITE THICKENING--(_French Roux._)--Cut up a quarter of a pound of the
best fresh butter, and put it into a well tinned or enameled sauce-pan.
Set it over a moderate fire, and melt it slowly, shaking it round
frequently, and taking care to skim it well. When no more scum appears
on the surface, let it settle a few minutes; then pour it off from the
sediment at the bottom. Wash the sauce-pan or get another clean one.
Return the melted butter to it, and set it again over the fire. Then
dredge in gradually sufficient sifted flour to make it very thick and
smooth, stirring it well after each addition of flour. Do not allow it
to brown in the slightest degree, but keep it perfectly white to the
last; simmering, but not actually boiling, and take care that there is
no smoke about the fire.
To thicken white sauces, or soups, stir in a table-spoonful or two of
this roux, pronounced _roo_. In French cooking it passes for cream.
Browned thickening is made in the same manner; but with butter and
browned flour, and is used for brown soups and gravies.
BROWNING.--This is to enrich the taste and improve the color of gravies,
stews, and soups. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar with
two ounces of fine fresh butter; and, having stirred them well together,
put them into a sauce-pan over the fire, and simmer till it begins to
froth; then diminish the heat a little. When its color becomes a fine
dark brown, add two glasses of port wine, and three or four blades of
mace, powdered. When it comes to a boil, take it off, and stir it into
whatever you intend to color.
Another browning is mushroom catchup, or walnut catchup. They
communicate a slightly acid taste. So also does French mustard. Stir it
in at the last. Its tarragon flavor is very generally liked.
BROWNED FLOUR.--Sift some fine flour, spread it on a large dish, or
clean tin-pan. Place it before the fire, so as to brown but not to
scorch or burn. It will color first at the edges; therefore watch it,
and keep it evenly mixed with the white flour from the centre. When all
is nicely browned, set it to cool, and then put it away for use in a
large clean bottle or jar, well corked. Flour may be browned in an oven,
after baking is over, taking care to stir it well.--Have two dredging
boxes. One for browned flour and one for white. It is convenient also to
have dredging-boxes for powdered herbs. The cost of these boxes is very
trifling, and it saves time and trouble to have things ready when
wanted. A small sieve for powdered white sugar is indispensable.
LOBSTER SAUCE.--This sauce is for fresh salmon or turbot, or
sheep's-head fish. Also for salmon-trout, blue-fish, or the lake
white-fish.
Put a large hen lobster into a hard-boiling pot of highly-salted water,
that the animal may die immediately. Continue the boiling with a steady
heat, and in about three quarters, or an hour, the lobster will be done.
When cold, extract all the meat from the shell, and cut it into small
bits. Pound the coral, or red substance, in a marble mortar, with some
fresh butter, or plenty of salad oil; and a little cayenne. Add the
coral to the cut-up lobster, and put the whole into a stew-pan, with
some powdered mace and nutmeg, and a large table-spoonful of sweet oil.
Divide into four bits a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, each bit
rolled in flour. If your butter is not fresh and very good, omit it
entirely and substitute a larger quantity of oil. As bad butter spoils
every thing, never on any account, use it. Set the sauce-pan over the
fire, and let it boil up once. Then take it off, and while very hot,
stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs.
Crab sauce is made in the same manner. Prawn sauce also.
SHRIMP SAUCE.--Shrimps are the smallest shell-fish of the lobster
species. Put them into salted boiling water. They are done when they
have turned entirely red. When cold, pull off the heads, and peel off
the shells from the bodies; or _squeeze_ out the meat with your fingers.
Have ready some nice drawn butter, and thicken it with the shrimps,
either chopped or whole. Season the sauce with mace or nutmeg powdered,
and give it one boil up. Shrimp sauce is eaten with salmon and other
fine fish.
PICKLED SHRIMPS.--Having boiled, in salted water, three quarts or more
of shrimps, and taken them from the shells, boil two quarts of the best
cider vinegar, and season it well with blades of mace and pepper-corns,
and pour it hot on the shrimps, in a stone jar. Cork the jar, and seal
the cork with the usual red cement for pickle jars: a mixture of
one-third beeswax with two-thirds powdered rosin, and some fine
brickdust, all melted together.
OYSTER SAUCE.--Take a pint of the liquor of _fresh_ oysters, and strain
it into a sauce-pan. If your oysters are salt, and you can get no
others, boil a pint of milk instead of the oyster liquor, seasoning with
powdered nutmeg and mace, and enriching it with fresh butter dredged
with flour. When it has come to a boil, put in the oysters (having
removed from each the gristle, or hard part.) Let them simmer, but take
them from the fire without letting them come to a boil, which will
shrivel them, and render them tough and tasteless. A new fashion is to
season oyster sauce with the grated yellow rind and juice of a fresh
lemon. Others stir in a glass of sherry or Madeira. If you use wine or
lemon, you must not make the sauce with milk, as it will curdle. Use in
this case the oyster liquor, if it is fresh, thickened well with finely
grated bread-crumbs. The small, highly-flavored oysters, abounding on
the coast of New England, are excellent for sauce, or soups.
CLAM SAUCE.--Make this of half milk and half clam liquor, seasoned with
whole mace, and whole pepper. Use only the soft part of the clams, cut
up small, and simmer them from the beginning; adding bits of butter
dredged all over with flour Clams require longer cooking than oysters.
EGG SAUCE.--Boil four eggs from eight to twelve minutes. Then lay them
in a pan of fresh water, and let them remain till quite cold. Peel off
the shells, and take out the eggs. Chop the yolks and whites separately;
mix them, lightly, into half a pint of melted fresh butter, made in the
proportion of a quarter of a pound of butter to two large
table-spoonfuls of flour, and four of milk and hot water. Add some
powdered mace, or nutmeg. Egg sauce is eaten with boiled fish and
poultry.
Instead of milk or water, you can use for melted butter, some of the
water in which chicken or turkey was boiled, or some veal gravy.
CELERY SAUCE.--Split and cut up into short slips a bunch of celery,
having taken off the green leaves from the tops. The celery must have
been well washed, and laid an hour in cold water. Take a pint of milk,
and cut up in it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter that has been well
dredged with flour. Set it over the fire in a sauce-pan, and add the
celery gradually; also three or four blades of mace broken up. Boil all
slowly together, till the celery is quite soft and tender, but not
dissolved. The green tops of the celery, (strewed in, when it begins to
simmer,) will improve the flavor. Celery sauce is served up with boiled
turkey, boiled fowls, and with any sort of fresh fish, boiled or fried.
MINT SAUCE.--This is only used for roast lamb in the spring. When the
lambs are grown into sheep, the mint is too old for sauce. But they
harmonize very pleasantly when both are young.
Take a large bunch of fine fresh green mint, that has been washed well.
Strip the leaves from the stems, and mince them small. Put it into a
pint bowl, and mix with it gradually some of the best cider vinegar.
This sauce must not be the least liquid, but as thick as horse-radish
sauce or thicker. Make it very sweet, with the best brown sugar. Mix it
well, and transfer to a small tureen, or a little deep dish with a
tea-spoon in it. Serve it up always with roast lamb, putting a
tea-spoonful on the rim of your plate.
A quart or more of mint sauce, made as above, but with a larger
proportion of sugar and vinegar, will keep very well for several weeks,
in a jar well corked.
HORSE-RADISH.--Wash clean some roots of horse-radish, wipe them dry, and
scrape off the outside. Then grate the sticks of horse-radish with a
large grater. Put some of the grated horse-radish into a large saucer,
or small deep plate, and moisten it with good cider vinegar, but do not
put so much vinegar as will render it liquid. Send it to table with
roast beef or mutton.
CAULIFLOWER SAUCE.--Have ready some very rich good melted or drawn
butter, made with milk and flavored with nutmeg. Thicken it with plenty
of ready-boiled cauliflower, cut into little sprigs or blossoms. Give it
one boil up after the cauliflower is in, and send it to table with any
sort of boiled poultry. It will be found very nice. For a boiled turkey
it is far superior to celery sauce, and well suited to dinner company.
BROCCOLI SAUCE.--Make some nice drawn butter with milk. Flavor it with
powdered mace. Pound some spinach in a mortar to extract the juice.
Strain the spinach juice, and stir a small tea-cupful into the butter to
give it a fine green color. Have ready some well-boiled broccoli. Divide
one or two heads of the broccoli into tufts or sprigs. Put them into the
melted butter, and when it comes to a boil, take it off, and transfer it
to a sauce-boat. Serve it up with boiled poultry or fresh fish.
PARSLEY SAUCE.--Strip from the stalks the leaves of some fresh green
parsley; allow plenty of it. Chop it slightly; and while the drawn
butter is hot, stir into it the parsley, till the butter looks very
green. Serve it up with boiled fowls, rabbits, or boiled fish. The
appearance of parsley sauce will be much improved by stirring in some
spinach juice. The whole will be then a fine green.
CRIMPED PARSLEY.--Pick the small sprigs of parsley from the large
stalks. Wash it, and then throw it into clean cold water. After the meat
or fish that it is to accompany has been fried and taken out of the pan,
give the fat that remains a boil up, and lay the parsley into it. It
will crimp and still continue green, if not kept frying too long. Take
it out, drain it, and place it before the fire a few minutes, to dry it
from the fat. Dish it laid on the top of the fish or steaks.
FENNEL SAUCE.--The fennel should be young and fresh. Take a large
handful, or more, and having washed it clean, strip the leaves from the
stems, and boil it till quite tender. Put it into a sieve, and press the
water well from it. Mince it very small, and stir it into drawn butter.
It is served up with boiled fish.
Instead of melted butter, you may put the fennel into veal gravy,
thickened with butter dredged with flour.
SAGE AND ONION SAUCE.--Take a bunch of fresh sage leaves. Wash and drain
them. Pick them from the stems, and put them to boil in a small
sauce-pan, with just water enough to cover them. Boil them fast about
ten minutes. Take them out, and press them in a sieve to drain them dry.
Then mince or chop them small. Have ready two onions, boiled tender in
another sauce-pan; chop them also, and mix them well with the minced
sage. While warm, mix in a small bit of nice butter--season with pepper.
Put this sauce into a little tureen, and serve it up with roast goose,
roast duck, or roast pork, that has been stuffed with potato, bread, or
other stuffing. The sage and onion sauce is for those who prefer their
flavor to any other seasoning for those dishes.
This sauce will be greatly improved if moistened with some of the gravy
of the duck or goose.
FINE ONION SAUCE.--Peel some nice mild onions, and boil them in plenty
of milk, skimming them well. When done, take them out of the milk,
(saving it,) and slice them very thin, cutting the slices across, so as
to make the pieces of onion very small. Return them to the sauce-pan of
milk, (adding some fresh butter dredged with flour;) season them with
powdered mace or nutmeg, and give the onions another boil, till they are
soft enough to mash, and to thicken the milk all through. Eat this sauce
with steaks, cutlets, rabbits, or chickens.
PLAIN ONION SAUCE.--Peel some very small onions, and boil them whole in
milk, (seasoned slightly with pepper and salt,) and put in some bits of
butter rolled in flour. Let them boil till tender all through, but not
till they loose their shape. Eat them with any sort of boiled meat.
NASTURTION SAUCE.--This is eaten with boiled mutton; is superior to
caper sauce, and costs almost nothing, if you have nasturtions in your
garden. Gather the green seeds as soon as they are full grown, and throw
them (without the stems) into a jar of cider vinegar. They require no
cooking, but keep a muslin bag of spice in the jar, (mace and nutmeg
broken small, and a little piece of root ginger.) To use them for sauce,
make some nice drawn butter, and as it simmers throw in plenty of
nasturtions from the jar. The seeds, when gathered, should be full
grown, but by no means hard; and the color a fine green. If there is the
slightest brown tinge, the nasturtion seeds are too old, and should be
kept for planting.
MUSHROOM SAUCE.--Have ready some excellent drawn butter, and thicken it
with small button mushrooms that have been pickled. Or, take
freshly-gathered mushrooms of good size, rub off the outer skin with a
clean flannel, and cut off the stems close to the flaps. Wash the
mushrooms in a cullender. Have ready some bits of fresh butter dredged
all over with flour. Lay them among the mushrooms, (which, if very
large, should be quartered,) and put them into a stew-pan. Cover the
pan, and let them stew till the mushrooms are all tender. When you take
off the lid to try them, replace it immediately, keeping in as much of
the aroma as possible. If fresh, they will yield a great deal of juice.
When done, transfer them to a sauce-tureen, and serve them up with any
nice dish of meat or poultry.
The best mushrooms are found in pure open air or rather high ground, and
where there is no swamp or woodland. On the upper side of their top they
are not white, but of a pale grayish tint; the under side is invariably
light red, pinkish, or pale salmon color, which in a few hours, or after
being gathered, turns brown. The false mushrooms are poisonous. They are
entirely white above and below. The fungi that grow in forests or
marshes can never be mistaken for real mushrooms. They are of various
colors, chiefly bright yellow and red, and originate in foul air. By
boiling a silver tea-spoon with your mushrooms, you may test their
goodness. If the silver turns black, throw the mushrooms away. An onion
will also blacken from the same cause. Mushrooms should be cooked as
soon as possible. If kept two or three days, worms will be found in
them. Never give mushrooms to children. Even in their best state they
are not wholesome. The taste for mushrooms is an acquired one, and it is
best not to acquire it.
TOMATO SAUCE.--Scald some large ripe tomatos, to make them peel easily.
Then quarter them, and press them through a sieve to divest them of
their seeds. Put the juice into a stew-pan, adding some bits of fresh
butter dredged with flour; add finely grated bread-crumbs, and season
with a little pepper, and, if liked, a little onion boiled and minced.
Set the pan over a moderate fire, and let the tomatos simmer slowly till
it comes to a boil. Continue the boiling ten minutes longer. Serve it up
in a sauce-tureen. It will be mellowed and improved by stirring in (as
soon as it comes to a boil) a table-spoonful or a lump of white sugar.
TARRAGON SAUCE.--Put into a sauce-pan a large half pint of any nice
gravy that is at hand. After it has boiled five minutes, have ready a
handful of fresh green tarragon leaves, minced, and moistened with
plenty of cider vinegar. Add this to the gravy, and let it simmer five
minutes. Then take it out, and serve it up with any kind of boiled
poultry.
TO MAKE GRAVY.--Take two pounds of the lean of veal, or of very nice
beef. Cut it into small bits, and lay it in a sauce-pan with only as
much water as will cover it. Stew it slowly, (skimming it well) till the
meat is all rags. Then strain the gravy, and thicken it with some bits
of fresh butter dredged all over with browned flour, and give it
another simmer. You may flavor it with any seasoning you like.
For made gravies, you can use any small pieces of fresh meat that has
never been cooked, and the feet of calves and pigs. Boil in it also such
vegetables as you like, cut small. Strain out every thing before it goes
to table. For gravies, use nothing that has been cooked before. They
will not add to its goodness, but only render it flat and washy.
White gravy is made with fresh veal boiled in milk; and after straining,
thickened arrow-root, or rice flour, mixed with fresh butter, if real
cream cannot be obtained.