veal stock, and perhaps the usual way of clearing it. But since cooking
has been studied scientifically, improvements on methods have been
introduced; one of these is the clearing of soup with albumen of _meat_
instead of egg. The advantages of this method are that the soup is
strengthened and the flavor improved, while clearing with whites of eggs
in the usual way, though greatly improving the appearance, tends to
lessen the flavor of soup.
_To clear Consomme with Beef._--Consomme is reduced stock, or stock
made of extra strength. Carefully remove all fat from three pints of it
when cold. It will, of course, be a stiff jelly. Chop fine an onion, a
carrot, and a turnip. Chop half a pound of lean beef from which all fat
is removed; this is best put through a chopping-machine, as it must be
very fine. Put the consomme, meat, and vegetables into a saucepan. Stir
them briskly till just on the boiling-point. Remove the spoon, let the
soup boil up well one minute. It should now be clear. Take a clean
cloth, fix it on a soup stand or in a colander, pour boiling water
through it, to warm it thoroughly; throw the water away, and pour the
soup gently through the cloth twice; do not press or stir it. It will be
beautifully clear and of excellent color. It is now ready to serve for a
variety of soups, named according to what is served in them.
_Consomme a la Rachel._--This is consomme to which is added tiny
quenelles made in eggspoons, and colored red, green, and black.
Quenelle meat is made from the uncooked breast of chicken or game, the
backs of hares or rabbits (or it may be made for certain purposes of
fish or very white veal), first chopped, and then pounded in a mortar
until it is a perfectly smooth paste. Mere chopped meat is not what is
required; it must be fine enough to go through a sieve. For Consomme a
la Rachel, however, the breast of chicken is necessary. Take four ounces
of chicken, free from skin and sinew; pound it until quite smooth; the
more it is pounded the better it is. Mix with it thick cream, a scant
saltspoonful of salt, very little pepper, and half a beaten egg, until
it is a softish paste, yet firm enough to mould; mix thoroughly. Now try
a little by poaching in a teaspoon; that is, fill a teaspoon with the
mixture, pressing it in form, then drop it into boiling water for three
minutes. Open the quenelle and taste it; if it is creamy, light, and
well flavored, it is right, but if there is the least toughness, add a
little more cream to the mixture. Notice also the seasoning; if more
salt is needed, add it carefully, and try again, till you have the
quenelle mixture just right, that is to say, creamy, light, very tender,
yet keeping its form. At present quenelles as entrees or for soups form
such an important part of fine cooking that it is worth while to get the
mixture perfect for other purposes than the present.
Having your quenelle meat ready, proceed to vary it as follows, allowing
one quenelle of each color to each guest: For the green quenelles use
sufficient pounded tarragon to color one third the meat delicately. For
the second use sufficient lobster coral pounded to redden it. The third
must be made dark with pounded truffles. Great care must be taken to
keep the three portions separate, so that one color may not injure the
other. To form them use two very small coffeespoons or eggspoons, as the
quenelles should not be larger than _small_ olives; butter the spoons
slightly, and when formed drop each for one or two minutes into boiling
pale-colored stock. Drop them, as they are done, into cold water, in
which they must be kept until you are ready to use them. When the soup
is to be served, drain them, lay the number required in the tureen, and
pour the boiling consomme on them. They will not require heating in the
soup. It may be observed that raw spinach pounded and rubbed through a
sieve, and boiled red beet, may be used to color the meat green and red,
and the rest left white. The consomme is then called Consomme d'Orleans.
_Consomme aux Oeufs files._--Put one quart of cleared consomme to
boil. Mix one egg, one dessertspoonful of flour, one tablespoonful of
milk, a pinch between forefinger and thumb of salt, and a dust of
pepper, into a batter, rub a nutmeg once back and forth over the grater,
and stir. When the soup boils, pass this batter through a fine strainer
into it. It should look like threads.
_Consomme a la Sevigne._--Pound two ounces of breast of cooked chicken
until it will pass through a wide sieve. Mix with it two eggs, three
tablespoonfuls of milk, twelve drops of almond essence, a scant
saltspoonful of salt, as much nutmeg as will go on the end of a penknife
blade, and a dust of cayenne. When well blended, fill three or four
small round muffin pans, well greased, and steam slowly twenty minutes,
or until set. Turn out very carefully; let them cool; then cut them into
fancy shapes, and serve in one quart of boiling consomme. A few
asparagus points boiled until just tender, but not mushy, are to be
dropped in the last thing.
_Potage a la Hollandaise._--For this will be required one quart of veal
or chicken stock, two ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, four yolks
of eggs, half a pint of cream, one gill of green peas, one gill of
boiled carrots, one gill of boiled cucumber, one teaspoonful of fresh
tarragon chopped fine, one teaspoonful of sugar, and one teaspoonful of
salt. Trim the carrots and cucumber with a very small scoop or cutter
the size and shape of peas; cook them just tender, and no more, in
boiling water. Put the stock on to boil; skim if necessary; add the salt
and sugar. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the cream to them, and beat
them till well mixed. This forms a "liaison." Make the butter and flour
into a paste in a bowl, pour half a gill of cold stock to it, then
enough hot stock to dissolve it; when mixed smooth, stir it into the
boiling stock, let it boil, then remove from the fire, and stir in very
carefully, to prevent curdling, the liaison of eggs and cream; let it
come to the boiling-point, but not boil, or it will curdle. Strain it
into a clean stewpan, and add the vegetables; let all get hot together;
then strew in the tarragon.
_Chestnut Soup (puree de marrons)._--Slit twenty-five large chestnuts at
each end, put them in boiling water, and boil ten minutes. Drop them
into cold water, and remove both the outer and inner skin. Melt three
ounces of butter in a saucepan, put in the chestnuts, and saute (toss
them about) for a few minutes, but do not brown them; then add a pint
and a half of rich white stock, and let the nuts boil in it until very
tender, when they must be rubbed through a fine sieve. Boil up again,
add half a pint of cream, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, a teaspoonful
of salt (less if the stock be salted), and a pinch of pepper.
_Princess Soup._--Cut a chicken in pieces; wash it; butter a stewpan,
put in the chicken with a blade of mace, an onion, a bay-leaf, and
twelve white peppercorns. Let this simmer, _closely covered_, ten
minutes, shaking it often to prevent its browning; then put to it two
quarts of hot veal stock, and simmer one hour. Put into another stewpan
two ounces of flour and two ounces of butter; stir them together, and
let them bubble once, then strain the liquor from the chicken to it;
stir well, and cook a few minutes. Take the white meat from the bones of
the chicken, pound it in a mortar very fine, stir it to the stock, then
rub through a soup strainer; add just before serving half a pint of
fresh cream and the juice of half a lemon. This soup must be made hot,
but not boil, after the chicken pulp and cream are added.
_Potage a la Royale._--Boil two ounces of macaroni till tender, but not
broken; throw it into cold water. Put three pints of white stock to
boil; cut the macaroni into lengths half an inch long; beat three yolks
of eggs in a bowl with a gill of cream; throw the macaroni into the
soup; when it boils, remove from the fire, add the cream and eggs and an
ounce of grated Parmesan cheese; stir till the soup reaches the
boiling-point, but by no means let it boil, after the cream and eggs are
added, or it will be spoiled. Salt soup always in the proportion of a
moderate teaspoonful of salt to the quart; if the stock is seasoned,
only add salt for the cream, eggs, etc. Use just a suspicion of cayenne.
In making soup to which eggs are added, the utmost care is required, yet
not any more than in making custard. The main point is to let the eggs
come near enough to the boiling-point to thicken, yet far enough from it
not to curdle. This a little patience will accomplish by watching and
removing the saucepan for a few seconds as the boiling-point approaches,
then returning it; do this once or twice, till the opaque, creamy
appearance shows the eggs are done.
VII.
FISH ENTREES.
Instead of giving recipes for cooking fish whole, for which excellent
directions are to be found in several modern cookery books, recipes for
fish entrees will be substituted. They are now frequently served at the
fish course, and by their convenience and economy, as well as the
variety they afford, are likely to grow in favor. Another point for them
is that they can often be made hours before, and simply heated when
needed, thus relieving the cook of the most critical part of her work at
the time when she needs her attention free.
Some of these entrees will be more suited for breakfast, luncheon, or
supper dishes than to precede a heavy dinner, such, for instance, as the
preparations of oysters when they have been also served before soup;
but the recipes are included here for their intrinsic worth.
_Fillets of Cod a la Normande._--Butter a tin dish, lay on it three
slices of cod moderately thick (an inch to an inch and a half), pour
over them one wineglass of white wine, place a buttered paper over them,
and bake in a moderate oven fifteen minutes. Reduce another glass of
wine in a stewpan by simmering, add to it half a pint of white sauce,
twelve small oysters, bearded and blanched, twelve small
quenelles,[62-*] and twelve button mushrooms. Season with pepper and
salt. Simmer one minute only, or the oysters will harden. Place the
slices of fish on a hot dish, pour the sauce over them, place the
oysters, mushrooms, and quenelles in groups in the corners of the dish.
_Lobster Soufflees._--Cut up the meat of a boiled hen lobster into neat
dice, showing as much of the red as possible. Prepare as many small
ramekin or soufflee cases as may be required by pinning bands of
writing-paper round them two to three inches higher than the case. Take
three tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise, half a pint of stiff aspic jelly,
and a gill of tomato sauce in which a teaspoonful of gelatine has been
dissolved. Every utensil used must be ice-cold, the jelly must be quite
cold, but not set. Put the tomato sauce, the jelly, and the mayonnaise
(which should be left on the ice till the last thing) into a bowl set in
another bowl of pounded ice; whisk them together until they begin to
look white; then stir the lobster in it, with a teaspoonful of very
finely chopped chervil and tarragon; fill the soufflee cases, piling the
dressing high; put them on a dish on ice. When they are "set," carefully
remove the paper bands, sprinkle a little dried and sifted lobster coral
over the tops, and serve.
_Coquilles of Prawns._--Pick the shells from four dozen prawns; mix
with one third the quantity of mushrooms slightly stewed in a
tablespoonful of butter and a saltspoonful of salt (the mushrooms must
not be brown); add four tablespoonfuls of Allemande sauce;[64-*] fill
the shells, which must be well buttered, dress each over with fine bread
crumbs which have been carefully fried a golden brown; put them in a
cool oven twenty minutes, only get thoroughly hot, but not to cook.
_Coquilles of Salmon or Halibut._--Take one pound of cold halibut or
salmon; break it into small pieces; put it in a stewpan with half a
saltspoonful of salt and a tiny pinch of pepper, and half a pint of
white sauce, a tablespoonful of very thick cream, and a teaspoonful of
anchovy sauce; stir well, and let all get hot. Butter some shells,
sprinkle over with a few fried crumbs, fill with the mixture, cover with
the fried crumbs, and put them in the oven to get thoroughly hot. Serve
on a napkin.
_Salmon en Papillotes._--Cut some slices of salmon into cutlets the
right size for serving, make paper cases to fit them, then cover each
slice with the following mixture: two tablespoonfuls of salad oil beaten
with the yolk of an egg, one teaspoonful of parsley chopped, one shallot
chopped, and one anchovy (all these must be chopped as finely as
possible), a half-saltspoonful of salt, and a grain of cayenne; mix,
spread on the fish, envelop each piece in a well-buttered case, fasten
up (by pinching the paper well), and bake half an hour. Serve in the
papers.
_Fillet of Sole a la Normande._--In speaking of sole, one of course
means the flounder, which is coming to be called the American sole, and
when filleted does make a fair substitute for the real thing, and it is
suitable for cooking in every way that the English sole can be used,
except whole. A boiled flounder without filleting, or a flounder fried
whole, as is so often done with sole, would be very coarse. Fillet two
flounders (in cities this will be done by the fishmonger, but in the
country it may have to be done in the kitchen, therefore directions for
doing it will be appended), lay the fillets, neatly trimmed and shaped,
into a thickly buttered pan or dish--either fire-proof porcelain or any
other that can go to table--pour over them a glass of sherry and four
tablespoonfuls of consomme; cover with oiled paper, and bake ten minutes
in a moderate oven; take out the pan, pour over the fillets half a pint
of _sauce Normande_; return to the oven for five minutes, and serve in
the pan.
_Sole a l'Horly._--Make a frying batter thus: mix one tablespoonful of
milk with two ounces of flour and a tablespoonful of salad oil to a
smooth paste; then add two yolks of eggs, and the whites whipped firm,
with a quarter of a saltspoonful of salt; mix with an upward movement of
the spoon, so as not to deaden the whites of eggs. Set it aside while
you prepare the sole. Mix a tablespoonful of salad oil, a teaspoonful of
Chili vinegar, a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar, a teaspoonful of
parsley and one of onion chopped exceedingly fine, a scant saltspoonful
of salt, and a quarter one of pepper. Mix all together, then cut the
fillets in half, trimming away all ragged appearance, and lay them for
fifteen minutes in the mixture (called a marinade); take them out, drain
them on a sieve, and then dip each fillet in the batter. This batter
should be just thick enough to coat the fish and run slowly off, not
cling in a thick paste round it. A French rule for testing the thickness
of frying batter is to dip a spoon in it and then let a drop run off the
end on a plate; if it drops freely, yet keeps a beadlike form, it is
right. Fry each fillet in a wire basket three minutes in very hot deep
fat. Serve with fried parsley.
_Turbans of Sole a la Rouennaise._--As these require a little of the
same mixture as would be used for lobster cutlets or croquettes, it is
good management to have them when lobster is required for something
else. The mixture for the cutlets is made as follows (less than a fourth
of it would be required for the turbans): remove all the flesh from a
boiled hen lobster; chop it small; wash, dry, and pound the coral, with
an ounce of butter; take one gill of white sauce, mix the lobster coral
and a tablespoonful of cream with it, and boil five minutes; mix in the
lobster with a little salt (unless the lobster is salt enough) and a
grain of cayenne. This made into cutlets, egged, crumbed, and fried, is
excellent, but our purpose now is to use it for stuffing. Take as many
fillets of sole as required, spread the lobster mixture on each, roll
them up, run a toothpick through them to keep them in shape; trim till
each will stand; put them on a buttered baking-sheet, cover with
buttered paper, and bake ten minutes. Chop up two truffles, two
hard-boiled yolks of eggs, and a tablespoonful of parsley, each chopped
separately. Take up the turbans, pour over them half a pint of cardinal
sauce, and ornament the turbans, one with the truffles, one with the
yolk of egg, and one with parsley; so on alternately.
_Directions for Filleting Flounders._--Take a sharp knife, cut away the
fins all round the fish, and split the flounder right down the middle of
the back, then run the knife carefully between the flesh and bones,
going towards the edge. You have now detached one quarter of the flesh
from the bone; do the other half in the same way, and when the back is
thus entirely loose from the bone, turn the fish over and do the same
with the other side. You will now find you can remove the bone whole
from the fish, detaching, as you do so, any flesh still retaining the
bone. Then you have two halves of the fish, and you have four quarters
of solid fish. To remove the skin, take the tail end firmly between the
thumb and forefinger of the left hand, hold the skin side downward on
the board, and with your knife make an incision across the flesh, then,
keeping the skin firmly between your thumb and finger, _push_ the knife
between it and the flesh, slightly humoring it to prevent tearing the
flesh. The skin parts quite easily, but no attempt must be made to _cut_
the fish from it.
FOOTNOTES:
[62-*] See Quenelles in No. VI.
[64-*] See directions in No. II.
VIII.
VARIOUS WAYS OF SERVING OYSTERS.
_Oysters a la Villeroi._--Scald (or blanch) some large oysters, dry
them, then drop them into some _very thick_ Villeroi sauce,[71-*] let
them get hot in it, but not boil. Take them out one by one; be sure they
are thickly coated with the sauce; have a large dish heaped with sifted
crumbs or cracker meal; as you lift each oyster from the sauce lay it on
the meal, turn it gently over in the meal, so that a light coat adheres,
and the sauce is by no means rubbed off. Place them on an oiled plate
where they will get quite cold, so that the sauce may chill and form a
whitish glaze under the crumbs. Beat two eggs with two tablespoonfuls of
water, and when free from strings dip each oyster in the egg, using a
small fork; let superfluous egg drip off for a moment, then lay the
oyster again on a deep bed of cracker crumbs, cover well, pat very
gently, and lay each as you do it on a dish sprinkled with them. Fry two
minutes in very hot deep fat, being careful the oysters do not touch
each other.
If I have made these directions as clear as I hope, it will be
understood that each oyster has a rich creamy coating under the crumbs,
and every effort must be made to avoid breaking the outer shell of egg
and crumb. For this reason the fat should be heated to 400 deg.. But
although great care in handling is necessary, they are not difficult to
succeed with when that care is given.
_Oyster Kabobs._--There are two ways of preparing these dainties, and I
give both. For those who cannot eat bacon the first will probably be
acceptable. For kabobs of any kind, silver or plated skewers are proper,
although very slender wooden ones may be used. Put in a stewpan a small
onion chopped _very fine_, a dessertspoonful of parsley, and a dozen
mushrooms, also chopped; let these fry one minute in a large
tablespoonful of butter, add a dessertspoonful (scant) of flour, stir
all together, then drop in as many fat oysters as are required; they
must have been blanched in their own liquor and the beards removed; stir
all round, and add three beaten yolks of eggs, one at a time, taking
care they do not curdle, but get just thick enough to cling round the
oyster. String six oysters on each little skewer, basting with the sauce
wherever it does not adhere; let each skewer cool, then roll the whole
in beaten eggs and abundant cracker meal, so that the skewer will seem
to be run through a sausage lengthwise. Fry two minutes in very hot deep
fat, serve on a napkin; allow one skewer to each person. Two minutes, if
the fat be sufficiently hot, will fry oysters a pale yellow-brown. They
should never take longer than this, for oysters harden and shrink if
overdone in the least. For this reason the use of a pyrometer, when
possible, saves mistakes and trouble. Such articles as oysters, smelts,
or any small things, should be fried at a temperature of 380 deg. to 400 deg..
It must be remembered that all fried articles darken after they leave
the frying-kettle, and therefore a very pale yellow becomes a golden
color on the dish.
_Kabobs_ No. 2.--This is the recipe given by the author of the
well-known Pytchley Books, and is admirable. Take the beards from as
many fat, fair-sized oysters as required. You require bacon of which the
fat is thick enough through to allow of circles being cut from the
slices as large as the oysters. Cut the bacon very thin, get a cutter
the size of the oysters, trim them with it, then cut eight circles of
bacon for six oysters. Put first a piece of bacon, then an oyster, then
more bacon, on each little skewer, till there are six oysters with a
piece of bacon between each through the centre and one at each end;
string them very evenly. Take a very little cayenne on the tip of a
knife and a saltspoonful of salt; mix this with two beaten eggs to which
two tablespoonfuls of water have been added. Dip each skewer of kabobs
in this; let them drip an instant, then lay them on a deep bed of crumbs
or cracker meal. Cover them thoroughly, shake them, then dip again into
the egg (if this has become full of crumbs strain it), and again lay
them in the meal. Shake lightly again, and arrange each skewer of kabobs
in a frying-basket, and fry two minutes.
I have spoken in the foregoing directions for "crumbing" of using
_plenty_ of meal, and experience tells me that the rule with those
unfamiliar with proper methods is to use so little that a plateful would
be considered _plenty_. With this quantity no good work can be done. You
need to turn on to a board or dish at least a quart of crumbs, or a
whole box of cracker meal. This will enable you to smother the article
until every part is covered, instead of sprinkling a little over and
under (which generally falls off as fast as put on, and leaves a surface
yellow with egg in parts), as you must do if a small quantity only is
used. All the meal that is left must be carefully sifted and put away.
If the small masses of egg and crumb which will be mixed with it are not
sifted out the cracker-meal cannot be used again. There must also be
plenty of egg used for dipping.
_Oysters in Aspic._--For these dariole moulds are needed, or the small
fire-proof china soufflee cases which imitate paper may be used. A
dariole is a small straight-sided tin mould, holding rather less than a
gill. They will be found at large house-furnishing stores, or a tinman
could easily make them, they being, in fact, like deep corn-muffin pans.
If they are made to order, avoid getting them too large--three inches
deep by two across will be large enough. Fill these moulds with aspic
jelly nearly cold, set them on ice while you prepare the oysters, which
must be bearded and cooked till plump in butter, but not allowed to
color. When cool, cut them in half, throw them into some stiff
bechamel,[77-*] which must be warmed till like thick cream, sprinkle
with a dust of cayenne; lay the oysters to get cold, that the bechamel
may harden on them. Scoop the centre very carefully out of the moulds of
aspic, leaving a half-inch thickness all round, fill the centres with
the oysters, pour in more aspic, cold, but not set, and put on ice for a
few hours, or till ready to serve. The aspic from the centres should
have been preserved and used to chop with more to garnish the dish. Turn
the moulds out very carefully, and garnish with chopped aspic and
watercress or parsley.
It is, of course, understood that bechamel sauce, cold, is like
blanc-mange, and that anything coated with it will be enveloped in white
jelly, not in a sticky white sauce. If bechamel does not become white
jelly when cold the stock of which it is made is not stiff enough.
_Lobster in Aspic_ is prepared as for salad, the solid meat cut in dice
and rolled in mayonnaise, then in chopped chervil or parsley. Then
proceed exactly as for the oysters.