they are ready, and on the steam being kept up all the time they are
cooking. When baked the oven must be very steady.
_Fritot of Chicken._--Take a cold chicken, cut it into small neat
joints, season rather highly with salt and pepper, strew over them a
small grated onion (or one very finely chopped), and a dessertspoonful
of chopped parsley. Cover them with oil, and then squeeze over them the
juice of a lemon. Turn the pieces now and then, and let them remain
until they have absorbed the flavor. Meanwhile make a batter of four
tablespoonfuls of flour and about eight of milk, or as much as will make
a thick smooth batter; stir into it a wineglass of brandy and an egg,
the whole beaten to a high froth. Leave this batter in a warm place an
hour before using, dip the pieces of chicken into it, and fry in very
hot, deep fat. Serve piled high on a dish garnished with fried parsley.
XV.
ENTREES.--_Continued._
_Cigarettes a la Reine._--These are the newest development of the
rissole and croquette. They require strict attention to details to
secure perfect form. Roll puff-paste a quarter of an inch thick; prick
it all over--this is to deaden it; roll it now till it is no thicker
than cartridge-paper. Cut it with a sharp knife dipped in flour into
strips about two inches and a half wide and about the length of a cigar;
lay on each strip a roll of chicken quenelle meat that is very firm, and
the roll not thicker than a lady's slender forefinger; be careful that
the meat reaches nearly the whole length of the paste, yet leaves a
margin for closing, as the least oozing will spoil the appearance.
Moisten the edges of the paste all round with white of egg; fold the
paste over half an inch; be very careful to see that it adheres
thoroughly; then pinch the ends. Roll them gently with a cool hand on
the floured board to round them without pressure, taper off the ends
cigar fashion. If they are softening, lay them on a floured plate on ice
to get firm; then roll them in egg and very finely sifted cracker meal.
You may roll or improve the shape, if there is any irregularity, while
crumbing them. Remember what you aim to imitate is a cigar. The great
danger for the first time is getting them too large; they must therefore
be very slender. Fry in deep fat just as rissoles; serve on a napkin,
log-house fashion. These dainties, as will have been seen, have a large
amount of butter, and soften in a warm room; they must therefore be made
in a cold room, and if set on ice some hours before cooking will be much
easier to fry without bending or twisting.
_Cigarettes a la Chasseur_ are, as the name indicates, made of game, in
exactly the same way as the last recipe.
_Lobster Quenelles._--Prepare with bread panada as directed for quenelle
meat. Poach and drain them. Then dish in a circle with thick Hollandaise
sauce in the centre and round them.
_Chicken, Turtle Fashion._--This requires a pullet or young hen about
six months old. Bone the bird; stuff with a force-meat made of four
parts minced veal, two parts chopped hard eggs, a half part lean boiled
ham, two parts mushrooms, and two parts _pate de foie gras_. First make
the veal and ham hot in a little butter, then add the mushrooms and
_foie gras_; moisten with stock or mushroom liquor, and _gently simmer_
five minutes. Stir in two beaten yolks of eggs and a teaspoonful of
lemon juice. Season with a saltspoonful of salt, a quarter one of white
pepper, and a tiny pinch of nutmeg, grated. Stuff the fowl with this
mixture; sew it up with trussing-needle and string; turn the skin of the
neck half over the head, and cut off part of the comb, which gives the
appearance of the turtle's head. Scald and skin four chickens' feet;
cut off the claws, and insert two where the wings ought to be and two in
the thighs, so as to look like turtles' feet. Put in a stewpan a
tablespoonful of chopped boiled ham, an onion, and a small carrot cut
up, with a tablespoonful of butter; let them brown very slightly, add
half a pint of stock, skim it, lay the fowl in this stock, and stew
gently for an hour and a half to two hours, or even longer, according to
size. When quite tender take up the fowl, cut and remove the string with
which it is sewn, lay it on its back on a dish, garnish the breast with
sliced truffles cut in fancy shapes, place a crawfish tail to represent
the turtle's tail. When eaten hot serve veloute sauce. This is an
excellent dish cold garnished with aspic.
_Baked Ravioli._--Four ounces of veal, six ounces of butter, three
ounces of lean sausage-meat, a teaspoonful of mixed sweet herbs, a
little salt and pepper. Pound all in a mortar; when smooth, pound
separately a gill of spinach that has been boiled till just tender
without losing color, and a quarter of a pound of cream cheese or rich
cottage cheese, which must be squeezed in a cloth to remove all the
milk. When smooth, pound all together, and stir in the yolks of two
eggs. Make some pastry with half a pound of butter, three quarters of a
pound of flour, and the yolks of two eggs; mix stiff, and roll till
about as thick as a fifty-cent piece. Cut the paste in two parts. Take a
medium-sized biscuit-cutter, mark half as many circles on one half the
paste as you wish ravioli. Lay in the centre of each circle a mound of
the force-meat--perhaps a large teaspoonful, only be careful to leave a
quarter-inch margin all round. Moisten this margin with a camel's-hair
brush dipped in white of egg; lay the second half of the pastry over
these mounds; press the cutter on each to trim them, and you have a
number of little round patties; press the edges together very well by
curving the little finger round them. Have some rich stock boiling in a
stewpan; poach the ravioli five minutes. Take them up, drain them well,
arrange them in a fire-proof gratin dish, sprinkle them over with grated
Parmesan cheese, pour in a very little stock, and bake brown in the
oven.
_Veal Cutlets a la Primrose._--Take a pound of veal cutlet; cut it up
into small cutlets the size of a dollar, and perfectly round. Put two
ounces of butter (which has been first melted to let the curd separate)
into a saucepan, with three onions, two ounces of bacon cut into small
dice, a bouquet of herbs (including bay-leaf). Fry, stirring frequently,
for a quarter of an hour, then add a tablespoonful of corn-starch, a
dessertspoonful of Tarragon vinegar, and a pint of strong stock. Let all
simmer very gently for about one hour. Take up the cutlets, strain the
gravy and pour it over them, then sprinkle with a tablespoonful of
grated tongue, and the same quantity of parsley dried and crumbled
small. Chicken may also be cooked in this way.
_Quails a la Lucullus._--This, as its name implies, is a most expensive
and luxurious way of serving these dainty birds, yet by management the
livers of chickens may be saved a day or two by scalding them, and the
opportunity taken when several are required for general use during a
week. Bone very carefully six or eight quails. Cut up three ounces of
unsmoked bacon, put it in a saute pan, let it cook five minutes, then
add the livers, a shallot sliced, a small bouquet, twelve white
peppercorns, six cloves, a saltspoonful of salt. Let all cook carefully
ten minutes: nothing must burn or get very brown. When cooked, pound
well in a mortar, pass through a sieve, then add three truffles chopped;
stuff each quail into shape, butter some paper cases known as "quail
cases," put a quail into each case, a few drops of olive oil on each
breast. Then put them in a quick oven for ten minutes or a quarter of an
hour. For the gravy, put the bones of the quails in a stewpan, add a
tablespoonful of glaze and a gill of brown sauce, with one
tablespoonful of water. Simmer till the gravy is well flavored from the
bones, then strain, and add two tablespoonfuls of chopped truffles and
half a gill of sherry. Put one tablespoonful of this sauce over each
quail before sending it to the table, after very carefully draining all
grease from the quails. These are served in the papers, but rough paper
cases may be made to bake them in, and the regular crimped ones set in
the oven to get hot just before dishing up. Slip the quails into them
after draining.
_Quails a la Jubilee._--Bone as many birds as required. Lard them with
pork and thin strips of truffles. Stuff them in shape with equal parts
of sweetbreads and oysters, sew them up; roll them in buttered paper,
and cook in the oven in enough Chablis to cover them. Pound some boiled
potatoes and water-cresses together until thoroughly blended; put a
tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan with one of milk; put in the
potato, stir round till quite hot; use this to make a border on which
to serve the quails. When they have cooked fifteen to twenty minutes,
take them up, glaze them (melt glaze in a cup standing in hot water, and
brush them over). Lay them on the potato border, and pour into the
centre some Spanish sauce with mushrooms in which has been boiled a
slice of lemon.
XVI.
ENTREES.--_Continued._
_Pigeon Cutlets._--Take half a dozen young pigeons, split them down the
back, and bone them, all but the leg, cutting off the wings at the
second joint. Cut each bird in two down the breast; trim off all ragged
edges, so that each half-bird has as much as possible the appearance of
a cutlet, the leg serving for the bone. Saute these cutlets, having
seasoned them with pepper and salt, for three minutes in hot butter,
then put them in the oven for five minutes. When done, press between two
plates till cold. Then mask each cutlet with a thick puree of tomatoes
and mushrooms in which aspic jelly has been mixed, equal parts of each.
Let them be put on ice to stiffen the masking. Roll in fine cracker
meal, then dip into well-beaten egg, again into the meal, and then
place them in a saute pan with very hot clarified butter, and cook them
a fine golden brown. Dish up on a border of mashed potatoes browned with
grated Parmesan; serve mushrooms in the centre and Spanish sauce all
round.
_Pigeons a la Tartare._--The pigeons should be trussed for broiling;
flatten well with a rolling-pin without breaking the skin, season them
with pepper and salt, dip into clarified butter and cover with very fine
crumbs or cracker meal. Broil them carefully, turning often. Make a
sauce of a scant tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, a shallot, two
spoonfuls of pickled gherkins, and a boned anchovy. Mince all finely and
separately. Squeeze over them the juice of a lemon; add half a
tablespoonful of water and six of oil, and a little pepper. Mix all very
well, and just before serving rub in a teaspoonful of dry mustard. Put
the sauce into the dish, lay the pigeons over, and serve.
_Compote of Pigeons._--For any dish of pigeons except roast or broiled,
wild birds may be used in place of tame. Their flavor is far finer, and
if not perfectly young, which is the main objection to the use of wild
birds, the preparation remedies the defect. Cut four ounces of lean
unsmoked bacon into pieces, and fry five minutes. Split the pigeons in
half, skewer each half as neatly as possible with tiny skewers, so that
they will not sprawl when dished; flour and season them lightly, and fry
a nice brown on both sides; add one small carrot, one small turnip, two
sticks of celery, one shallot, six mushrooms--all cut small; add a
_bouquet garni_ and three gills of rich stock; let them all simmer very
slowly in a stewpan for one hour, or longer if the birds are not young.
Simmer together a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter; pepper and
salt (quantities depend on whether the stock be seasoned); stir
constantly, and when they begin to change color pour a gill of brown
stock to it, stirring well; remove from the fire. Take up the pigeons,
strain the gravy, then stir in the brown thickening you have made; boil
up, skim off all fat, then return the birds; let them get thoroughly
hot, but not boil. Serve on a border of mashed potatoes, pour the gravy
round and over them, and fill the centre with peas or spinach.
_Souffle of Partridges._--Clean and cook two partridges; remove the
breasts and best of the other flesh without skin or sinew. Take two
ounces of rice cooked till very tender, pound them together in a mortar
with one ounce of butter and a gill and a half of glaze melted, a
teaspoonful of salt, and a sixth of pepper. Pound until the whole can be
forced through a strainer, then add the beaten yolks of four eggs, and
last of all the whites of two beaten till they will not slip from the
dish; stir them very lightly into the mixture. Pour it into a silver
souffle case, or into a number of the small china cases. Bake till it
rises, and then serve immediately with a tureen of rich brown sauce.
This souffle can be made of any kind of cold bird or fish. The four eggs
are given for _medium_-sized partridges.
_Salmis of Snipe._--Clean and roast lightly six snipe, saving the trail.
When done let them get cold, then cut them up and remove the skin, and
lay them in a buttered stewpan; pound the trimmings and bones in a
mortar, and put them into a stewpan with two shallots, a clove, a
bouquet of herbs, and half a pint of claret; let this simmer until
reduced to one half. Then add three quarters of a pint of Spanish sauce.
Let these _very gently simmer_ for half an hour, skimming frequently;
strain through a fine sieve, and return to the stewpan. If it is not
thick enough to coat the spoon, reduce a little more. Pour this sauce
over the snipe in the saute pan, and let it get hot without boiling;
pile the pieces in a pyramid; meanwhile chop the trail, mix with half
the quantity of _pate de foie gras_ and a little salt and pepper;
spread this on croutons, bake, and use them to garnish the snipe.
_Fillets of Teal with Anchovies._--Remove the breasts from a pair of
teal after they have been three parts roasted. Take care to preserve
each half breast in good shape. Lay these fillets seasoned in a china
fire-proof dish which has been well buttered and strewed with grated
Parmesan; split two anchovies, remove the bone. Wash and dry the four
halves, lay one on each fillet of teal, moisten with a gill of fish
stock, sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, lay small
pieces of butter over, and bake in the oven fifteen minutes. The last
thing before serving squeeze the juice of a lemon over all.
Rabbits are so little cared for in this country that it may seem useless
to give recipes for using them. There are probably two reasons for the
low estimate in which rabbit is held here. One, that as they are offered
in market they are skinny, miserable animals. Yet there are parts of
the country where they attain a good size, and a fine plump rabbit may
compare favorably with fowl for many purposes. Indeed, English epicures
use it in preference for mulligatawny. The second reason, and probably
the one that is the real reason, for the difference in taste is because,
being so lightly esteemed, no care is ever given to the preparation of
them.
On the chance that some reader may feel inclined to test the
possibilities of the native rabbit, and its claims to a place in choice
cookery, I give two or three recipes, each admirable in its way. Rabbits
should be used quite fresh, and cleaned and wiped dry as soon after they
are killed as possible.
_Grenadines of Rabbit a la Soubise._--Take the whole backs of two
rabbits from the shoulders to the thighs, both of which you reject; cut
away the ribs and the thin part that forms the stomach, leaving only the
backbone with solid flesh each side; divide this into sections, about
two joints to each. Lard them, and then braise for one hour. Stand them
in a circle, and pour over and round them a pint of brown Soubise sauce.
_Fillets of Rabbit with Cucumber._--Half roast a rabbit, then remove the
solid flesh from each side the backbone in long fillets. Cut two
cucumbers and one Bermuda onion in thin slices, salt them, and let them
drain. Lard the fillets of rabbit, season them, and lay them in a
stewpan, with a pint of white sauce slightly thinned with white stock,
the cucumber, and the onion. Let them simmer for half an hour. Lay the
fillets in a circle, and put the cucumber and onion in the centre, the
sauce, which should be thick enough to mask them, over the fillets.
Fried sippets garnish this dish.
_A Civet._--For this dish the dark-fleshed rabbit, or hare, as it is
often called, is best. Cut it into meat joints; cut half a pound of
unsmoked bacon into slices, and fry in a saucepan; then lay in the hare,
and saute for fifteen minutes. Pour off the fat. Add half a pint of
port-wine, a bouquet garni, and a dozen mushrooms, and a little pepper
and salt; let this simmer gently one hour; then add a pint of brown
sauce and twenty button onions which have been blanched. Simmer for
another half-hour. Remove the bouquet, add a gill of stewed and strained
tomato, half a gill of glaze, and a tablespoonful of Chutney. Serve in a
pyramid, pour the gravy, after it is well skimmed, over the whole, and
garnish with fried croutons.
_Timbales d'Epinard._--Make some quenelle meat of chicken or veal
according to directions already given, and mix with puree of spinach,
prepared as follows, until it is a nice green; pick and wash some
spinach, put it into salted boiling water, and boil fast for fifteen
minutes. Drain and press it, then beat it through a wire sieve; return
to the saucepan with two ounces of butter; pepper and salt; stir till
well mixed. Stir a gill of cream to the quenelle meat, then use enough
of the spinach to give it a fine light-green color. When well mixed,
butter some dariole moulds; nearly fill them. Then dip your finger in
cold water and press a hole in the centre of each to the bottom; fill it
with a puree of ham, and then put a coating of quenelle meat over, and
steam twenty minutes.
Puree of ham is prepared as follows: pound lean boiled ham in a mortar
with some stock that has been boiled down to half glaze; rub through a
wire sieve. If too stiff, moisten with a little more melted glaze.
XVII.
COLD ENTREES, OR CHAUDFROIDS.
These elegant dishes are suitable for formal breakfasts, luncheons, and
suppers, and while presenting an unusually attractive appearance, are
easier to manage than less elaborate dishes, because they can usually be
prepared, all but garnishing, the day before.
Although in giving the recipes meat cooked for the purpose will always
be directed, and for formal purposes no care or expense should be
spared, the intelligent reader will see where she may make a very pretty
dish by utilizing cold fowl, game, or lamb for any simple occasion.
_Sweetbreads au Montpellier._--Parboil a pair of fine white sweetbreads,
after soaking them in salt and water an hour. Let them get cold between
two plates under slight pressure. Cut them into the form of cutlets
(cutlet cutters are to be obtained at the fashionable New York hardware
stores, and at the large French tin-shops down-town). Have some firm
aspic jelly not quite set; dip each cutlet in it; chop some aspic that
is hard and cold roughly; form a circle of it; arrange the cutlets on
this; fill the centre with asparagus heads; pour mayonnaise round, and
garnish with fancy shapes of aspic, red and white alternately. Red aspic
is colored with pulp of the red beet stirred into it while liquid and
then strained out; green is produced by spinach. The various shades of
amber, shading into rich brown, that are so effective when tastefully
mingled, are due to caramel coloring. When colored aspic is required for
garnishing, pour off a little into separate vessels, and color each as
required.
_Chicken Salad a la Prince._--Cut the white meat of cold fowl into neat
fillets, using a very sharp knife, so that there may be no ragged edges.
Mask each piece with a mixture made as follows: One tablespoonful of
finely minced capers, two of minced boiled ham, three hard-boiled eggs,
an anchovy boned and washed, and two sardines freed from skin. All these
must be well pounded, then rubbed through a sieve; add a teaspoonful of
finely minced tarragon and chives. Stir all into a tablespoonful of
mayonnaise and one of aspic, semi-fluid of course. When each fillet has
been well coated with the mixture and has set, line a border mould with
aspic jelly, ornament the fillets of chicken with little strips of
beet-root and cucumber arranged like a trellis-work. Place them very
carefully round the mould on the layer of aspic, then pour in a little
more aspic, until the border mould is full, and set it on ice. When
about to serve have a dish well layered with the small leaves of
lettuce. Drop the mould for one minute in warm water, and turn out on to
the lettuce. Fill the centre with a salad composed of cucumber cut into
dice, peas, string-beans cooked until tender (for this purpose the
canned French string-beans serve admirably, being beautifully cut
ready). Pour over the centre salad some thick mayonnaise.
Where mayonnaise makes too rich a dish for the digestion, bechamel sauce
may be substituted for masking, but never for salad; for instance, two
very simple chaudfroids of chicken may be made as follows:
_Chaudfroid of Chicken_, No. 1.--Cut up a young fleshy chicken into neat
joints, remove the skin, mask each piece carefully with bechamel sauce;
when quite set arrange on chopped aspic in a circle, garnish with strips
of cucumber and beet; cut the remainder of the cucumber and beet into
neat pieces, and stir into a gill of mayonnaise, and use for the centre.
This and all salads should be lightly seasoned before the mayonnaise is
added, or they are apt to taste flat.
_Chaudfroid of Chicken_, No. 2.--Prepare the chicken as in last recipe,
only before masking the joints season the bechamel well with finely
chopped tarragon; leave out the mayonnaise and aspic. Pile up the pieces
of chicken on the entree dish, and garnish with Roman lettuce, or, if
that is not to be had, the hearts of Boston lettuce.
_Chicken and Ham Cutlets._--Boil a young fowl with a good breast in
clear stock; take it out, let it get cold; cut the breast into rather
thin slices. The bones, skin, and trimmings may be thrown back in the
stock, which can be boiled down to make both the bechamel and aspic for
the dish (see recipes), or be kept for other purposes. Take the slices
of chicken and some very well cooked lean ham that is cut so thin you
can see the knife under the slices. Melt a little bechamel sauce, that
must be like blanc-mange, pour it on a plate, and before it has time to
cool cover the plate with the slices of chicken. Dip the ham into the
stock (if it has been boiled down to jelly, otherwise into melted
aspic), lay the ham over the chicken, then more thin slices of chicken.
Now cover the whole by means of a spoon with more bechamel; when all
this sets, which, as your sauce has only been half melted, it will do
quickly, you have a large white cake about half an inch thick. Cut this
cake into small pieces (unless you have a cutlet cutter), as like a
cutlet in form as possible, using a sharp penknife or boning-knife. Take
up each carefully, and with the end of a silver knife or small spoon
cover the edges with the bechamel sauce, which must be nearly set for
this purpose.
To garnish the cutlets, cut some tiny green leaves from pickled
gherkins, and red ones from the skin of a red pepper-pod, and place two
of each in the centre of each cutlet, star-shaped; a touch of white
sauce will make them stick; place a speck of parsley not larger than a
pin's head in the centre. Stick a tiny lobster claw three quarters of an
inch long at the narrow end of the cutlet, and place them in a silver
dish round some aspic of a bright amber color, chopped. Put a very
small sprig of parsley between each cutlet.
I may here remind the reader that when aspic or bechamel is used for
masking or for pouring into a mould as lining, etc., it must _not be
made hot_, only softened in a bowl set in warm water, just enough to be
free from lumps. It must, of course, be stirred from the moment it
begins to soften. The mould to be lined should be turned about till it
is well coated, and if there is a disposition to run off the sides, roll
it round in ice. For instance, when the first layer of bechamel is
poured on the plate as directed in last recipe, it must be moved about
until quite covered, yet very thinly. If it sets too soon, hold the
bottom of the plate over steam.