of sage leaves. Roast them about an hour. Do not baste them, but save
all the fat in the dripping-pan, emptying it as it is filled. When you
have taken the geese from the spit, cut off the legs and wings, and cut
the flesh from the breast in slices. Set them away to get cold.
Put the fat that has dripped from the geese into a kettle, with about
half as much lard as there is of the dripping. Boil it ten minutes. Have
ready a tall stone jar, or more than one if necessary. Lay two legs of
the geese side by side in the bottom, and sprinkle them with salt and
pepper; placing, if you choose, a laurel leaf on each. Then put in two
wings, and season them also. Next a layer of the slices cut from the
breast, seasoned in the same manner. When the pots are almost full of
the goose, fill them up to the top with the boiling fat, and set them
away till the next day to get cold. The upper layer must be covered at
least an inch thick with the fat.
Tie up the pots with covers of parchment wet with brandy, and keep them
in a cold but not in a damp place.
In France great numbers of geese are fattened for this purpose.
DUCKS WITH TURNIPS.
Stew some turnips with butter, salt, and a little sugar. When soft, take
them out and drain them. Cut up your ducks, season them, and put them
into the same pan that has held the turnips. Stew the ducks with a piece
of butter rolled in flour, a little water, and a bunch of sweet-herbs
tied up. When the ducks are nearly done, put the turnips in again, and
let all stew slowly together for ten minutes, skimming it well. Withdraw
the sweet-herbs before you send the dish to table.
A DUCK WITH OLIVES.
Having larded your duck, stew it whole, with butter, pepper, salt, and a
little water. Take half a pint of olives, cut them in half and take out
the seeds or stones. When the duck is nearly done, throw in the olives,
and let all stew together about five minutes or more. Serve up the duck
with the olives round it.
A DUCK WITH PEAS.
Stew the duck whole, with some lard and a little salt, till about half
done. Then take it out and drain it. Put into the stew-pan a large piece
of butter rolled in flour. When it has melted, pour in a quart of
shelled green peas, and add a bunch of mint, or other sweet herbs, and
some pepper and salt. Then put in the duck, adding a little warm water.
Let it stew slowly till quite done, skimming it well.
TURKEY PUDDINGS.
Mince thirty small onions and mix them with an equal quantity of bread
crumbs that have been soaked in milk. Chop an equal quantity of the
flesh of cold turkey. Mix all together, and pound it very well in a
mortar. Pass it through a cullender, and then return it to the mortar
and beat it again, adding gradually the yolks of six hard eggs, and a
pint of cream or half a pound of butter. Season it to your taste with
salt, mace and nutmeg.
Have ready some skins, nicely cleaned as for sausages. Fill the skins
with the mixture, and tie up the ends. Then simmer your puddings, but do
not let them boil. Take them out, drain them, and put them away to get
cold.
When you wish to cook them for immediate use prick them with a fork,
wrap them in buttered paper, and broil them on a gridiron.
Similar puddings may be made of cold fowls.
BAKED PIGEONS, OR PIGEONS A LA CRAPAUDINE.
Split the pigeons down the back. Take out the livers, which you must
mince with bacon and sweet-herbs, adding to them the livers of fowls or
other birds, if you have them, and bacon in proportion. Or you may
substitute sausage-meat. Add bread-crumbs soaked in milk, and the yolks
of two eggs or more, with salt, pepper, mace and nutmeg to your taste.
Mix all together, and stuff your pigeons with it, and then glaze them
all over with beaten white of egg. Place them in a buttered pan, and set
them in the oven. Bake them half an hour. Before you serve them up,
squeeze some lemon-juice into the gravy.
BROILED PIGEONS.
Split your pigeons and flatten them. Make a seasoning of sweet oil,
salt, pepper, chopped shalots, and chopped parsley. Rub this seasoning
all over the pigeons. Then cover them with grated bread crumbs. Wrap
each in a sheet of white paper, and broil them on a slow fire. Serve
them up with a sauce made of minced onions, butter rolled in flour,
lemon-juice or vinegar, and salt and pepper.
PIGEONS PEAR-FASHION. (PIGEONS AU POIRE.)
First, bone your pigeons. To do this, take a sharp knife, and slipping
it under the flesh carefully loosen it from the bone, and do not tear
the skin. Begin at the upper part of the bird, just above the wings,
scrape gradually down, and finish at the legs. Then take hold of the
neck, and draw out the whole skeleton at once. Make a good force-meat or
stuffing (as directed for baked pigeons), and fill them with it, making
them each into the shape of a large pear. Fasten them with skewers.
Glaze them all over with yolk of egg, and then roll them in grated
bread-crumbs. Stick in the top of each, the lower end of the leg, to
look like the stem of a pear. Lay them in a buttered dish (but not so
close as to touch each other) and bake them. Make a good gravy,
thickened with the yolk of an egg, and some butter rolled in flour.
PIGEONS WITH PEAS.
Take two or four pigeons (according to their size), and truss them with
the feet inwards. Put them into a stew-pan with a piece of butter
rolled in flour, and two or three slices of cold ham, or bacon, and a
little water. Let them stew gently till brown. Then add a quart of green
peas, and a bunch of mint, with another piece of butter, and a little
warm water or milk. Let them stew slowly, and when they are quite done,
stir in some more butter. Serve up the pigeons with the peas under them.
ROASTED PARTRIDGES.
Lard the partridges, and put in the inside of each a laurel leaf, and an
orange cut in pieces. If you omit the laurel leaf, do not peel the
orange, but put in the pieces with the rind on them. These must be taken
out before the partridges are sent to table. Be careful not to roast
them too much.
PARTRIDGES WITH CABBAGE.
Having trussed the partridges, put them into a stew-pan with a large
piece of butter rolled in flour; a quarter of a pound of bacon or ham
cut into dice; a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a little warm water. Put into
another stew-pan a fine Savoy cabbage, with a pint of the dripping of
beef or pork. Let it stew slowly till nearly done. Then take out the
cabbage and drain it, and put it into the stew-pan to cook with the
partridges for half an hour. Lay the cabbage under the partridges when
you send them to table.
A PARTRIDGE PIE.
Take three pair of large partridges and truss them as you do fowls. Rub
them all over with a mixture of pepper, salt, powdered mace and
powdered nutmeg. Take a pound of fat bacon and two pounds of lean veal,
and cut them into small pieces. Put them into a stew-pan with a quarter
of a pound of butter. Add a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a few shalots or
small onions, all minced fine. Stew them till the meat seems to be quite
done, and then put it into a cullender to drain. Afterwards put the meat
into a mortar, season it with pepper, salt, nutmeg and mace, and pound
it to a smooth paste; moistening it at times with some of the liquor in
which it was stewed.
Prepare a rich paste, and spread a sheet of it over the bottom of a
large and deep buttered dish. Put in the partridges, side by side, pour
in a little water, add a piece of butter, and cover them with the
pounded meat. Lay on the top a few slices of cold ham. Roll out a thick
piece of paste for the lid, and cover the pie with it; cutting the edges
into square notches, and folding over the half of each notch. Ornament
the lid with leaves and flowers made of paste. Bake it three hours, and
see that the oven is not so hot as to scorch it. When done, glaze it all
over with white of egg.
This pie will be greatly improved by the addition of some truffles. If
you cannot procure truffles, mushrooms cut in pieces may be substituted.
ROASTED PHEASANTS.
Make a stuffing of fresh raw oysters, chopped, and seasoned with pepper,
salt, nutmeg, and mace. Mix with it some sweet oil, some yolk of egg,
and fill the pheasants with this stuffing. Cover the pheasants with thin
slices of bacon or cold ham; wrap them in buttered sheets of white
paper, and roast them. Serve them up with oyster sauce.
BROILED QUAILS.
Split the quails down the back, and flatten them. Put them into a
stew-pan with sweet-oil, salt, pepper, and a leaf or two of laurel.
Cover them with thin slices of bacon or ham, and let them stew slowly on
hot coals. When nearly done, take them out, strew over them grated
breadcrumbs, and broil them on a gridiron.
Put into the stew-pan a little warm water, and scrape down whatever
adheres to the sides; skim it, and let it come to a boil. Pour this
gravy into the dish in which you serve up the quails, and lay the bacon
round it.
ROASTED PLOVERS.
Scald and pick your plovers, but do not draw them. Lard them, and lay
slices of toasted bread in the dripping-pan to receive what falls from
the birds while roasting. Serve them up with the toast under them.
Woodcocks and snipes are roasted in the same manner.
PART THE FOURTH
FISH.
STEWED SALMON.
Pour a half-pint of white wine into a stew-pan, with some sliced
carrots, onions, and mushrooms; pepper, salt, and mace; and a bunch of
chopped sweet-herbs. Lay in your piece of fresh salmon, and pour over it
some more wine. Stew it slowly for an hour or more. When done, serve it
up with the sauce that is under it, and also with some sauce Mayonnaise
in a boat.
The sauce Mayonnaise is made as follows:-- Put into a small tureen the
yolks of two beaten eggs, a little salt and Cayenne pepper, and a very
little vinegar. Stir and mix it well; then add (a drop at a time) two
table-spoonfuls of sweet-oil, stirring all the while. When it is well
mixed, stir in gradually some more vinegar. To stir and mix it
thoroughly will require a quarter of an hour. It will then be very
delicate.
You may color it green by adding a little juice of spinach, or some
chopped parsley or tarragon at the first, when you put in the eggs.
ROASTED SALMON.
A large piece of fresh salmon is very fine roasted on a spit, first
rubbing it with salt, and then basting it all the time with sweet-oil or
butter.
For roasted salmon, make a sauce as follows:--Put into a sauce-pan a
little parsley, a shalot or small onion, a few mushrooms, and a piece of
butter rolled in flour, pepper, salt, and a gill or more of white wine.
Let these ingredients boil for half an hour; then strain them through a
sieve, and mix with the sauce a table-spoonful of olive-oil.
BROILED SALMON.
Cut several slices of fresh salmon; soak them an hour in a mixture of
sweet-oil, chopped parsley, and shalots minced fine, with salt and
pepper. Then take each slice with the seasoning on it, and wrap it in
buttered paper. Broil the slices on a gridiron. When thoroughly done,
take off the paper, and serve up the salmon with melted butter and
capers.
Any other large fish may be dressed like salmon.
SALT COD-FISH.
Let it soak twenty-four hours in cold water, which must be changed
several times, and every time you change it pour in a wine-glass of
vinegar, which will greatly improve the fish. Boil the cod till
thoroughly done; then cut the flesh into very small slips; mix it with
parsley, butter, vinegar, Cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and mace; add to the
mixture some boiled onions, mashed potatoes, and the yolks of two or
three beaten eggs. Put the whole mixture into a deep dish, and make it
up into the form of a thick round cake. Go all over it with a bunch of
feathers, or a small brush, dipped in sweet-oil; and then grate bread
crumbs all over it. Set it in the oven till brown. Serve it up,
surrounded with triangular or three-cornered slices of toast, dipped in
melted butter.
Halibut may be dressed in the same manner, putting salt in the water
when you boil it, and also in the seasoning.
Fresh cod may be cooked in the same way.
BROILED FRESH MACKEREL.
Split your mackerel down the back; season it with pepper and salt; cover
it all over with oil or butter, and let it lay for half an hour or more;
then broil it, pouring on it whatever of the seasoning may be left in
the dish.
Serve it up, with sauce in a boat. Let the sauce be of melted butter,
with parsley, and a little lemon-juice, or vinegar.
Or you may broil the mackerel whole, having first seasoned it as above,
and wrapped it in oiled paper.
BROILED FRESH SHAD.
Having split the shad in half, cover it all over with a seasoning of
oil, pepper, salt, chopped onions, parsley, and laurel-leaf. Let it lie
an hour or two in the seasoning. Then broil it, covered with the
seasoning, and adding a piece of butter.
Or you may cook the shad whole. Make a stuffing of the above
ingredients, with the addition of some grated bread; put the stuffing
into the shad, and bake it, first pouring over it a glass of white wine.
Any large fresh fish may be baked in the same manner.
HASHED FISH.
Take any sort of cold fish, bone it, and then chop it with the remains
of a cold omelet, and some mushrooms if you have them. Mix with it some
chopped parsley, a little butter, a slice of bread soaked in milk, and
the yolks of two or three hard-boiled eggs chopped fine. Mix all
together, and season with pepper and salt. Stew it gently with a little
water for half an hour.
LOBSTER PIE.
Having boiled your lobster, take out the meat from the shell, season it
with salt, mustard, Cayenne pepper, and vinegar, and beat it well in a
mortar. Then stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, the yolks of two
beaten eggs, and two ounces or more of grated bread crumbs. Make some
puff-paste, put in the mixture, and cover it with a lid of paste
ornamented with leaves or flowers of the same. Bake it slowly.
OYSTER LOAVES.
Have ready some small loaves or rolls of bread. Cut a round piece out of
the top of each, and scoop out the crumb or soft part. Take the liquor
of your oysters, put into it the crumbs, with a little chopped celery,
and a large piece of butter. As soon as it boils, pour the liquor over
the oysters, and this will cook them sufficiently. Fill your loaves with
the oysters, putting into each a tea-spoonful of cream. Lay on again the
piece of crust that was cut out of the top of each loaf or roll, and set
them in the oven for a few minutes.
PART THE FIFTH.
VEGETABLES.
STEWED LETTUCE.
Wash a fine lettuce, and tie it up with a string passed several times
round it, to keep the leaves together. Put it in boiling water, with a
little salt. When the lettuce has boiled, take it out and press it to
squeeze out the water, but be careful not to break it.
Having mixed, in a stew-pan, a large spoonful of butter with a spoonful
of flour, add half a pint of cream or rich milk; put in the lettuce,
with a very little salt, half a nutmeg grated, and two lumps of sugar.
Let it boil ten minutes. Take out the lettuce, stir the yolks of two
beaten eggs into the sauce, and serve all up together.
STEWED SPINACH.
Take young spinach, and throw it into boiling water with some salt. When
it has boiled, take it out, drain it, and lay it in cold water for a
quarter of an hour. Then drain it and squeeze it. Cut it small, and put
it into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter. After it has stewed
slowly for a quarter of an hour, add a spoonful of flour, with a little
salt, sugar, and nutmeg. Moisten it with cream or milk, and let it
simmer again over a slow fire for another quarter of an hour. Then serve
it up, and lay on it slices of toasted bread dipped in melted butter.
STEWED CUCUMBERS.
Lay your cucumbers in cold water for half an hour; then pare them, and
cut them into slips about as long as your little finger; take out the
seeds; then boil the cucumbers a few minutes, with a little salt. Take
them out, and drain them well.
Put into a stew-pan some butter rolled in flour, and a little cream.
Stew your cucumbers in it for ten minutes. When you take them off, stir
in the yolks of two beaten eggs; and if you choose, a tea-spoonful of
vinegar.
STEWED BEETS.
Boil some beets. Then peel and cut them into slices. Stew them for a
quarter of an hour with a piece of butter rolled in flour, some onion
and parsley chopped fine, a little vinegar, salt and pepper, and a clove
of garlic.
STEWED CARROTS.
Scrape and wash your carrots. Scald them in boiling water; then drain
them, and cut them into long slips. Stew them in milk or cream, with a
little salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. When done, take them out, stir
into the sauce the yolks of one or two eggs, and a lump or two of
loaf-sugar, and pour it over the carrots.
STEWED CABBAGE.
Having washed your cabbage, cut it in four, and throw it into boiling
water with some salt. When it has boiled till quite tender, take it up,
squeeze out the water, and put the cabbage to drain. Then lay it in a
stew-pan with butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a spoonful of flour, and
half a pint of cream. Stew it a quarter of an hour, and pour the sauce
over it when you send it to table.
Cauliflowers may be stewed in the same manner.
STEWED PEAS.
Take two quarts of green peas; put them into a stew-pan with a quarter
of a pound of butter, a bunch of parsley, and the heart of a fine
lettuce cut in pieces, a bunch of mint, three or four lumps of sugar,
some salt and pepper, and a very little water. Stir all together, set it
on coals and let it stew gently for an hour or an hour and a half.
Having taken out the parsley, add a piece of butter rolled in flour; and
stir in the yolks of two eggs just before you send it to table.
You may, if you choose, put in the lettuce without cutting it in pieces;
tie it up with the bunch of parsley and two onions, and withdraw the
whole before you dish the peas. Serve up the lettuce in another dish.
STEWED BEANS.
Put into a stew-pan some parsley and some chives or little onions
chopped fine, some mushrooms (if you have them) chopped also, and a
large piece of butter rolled in flour. Add a glass of white wine and a
little water. Stir all together, and then put in as many beans as will
fill a quart measure when strung and cut small; having first soaked them
a quarter of an hour in cold water. Let them stew gently on hot coals
till quite tender. Just before you serve them up, stir in the yolks of
two eggs. You may substitute for the wine a tumbler of cream, but it
must be stirred in at the last.
STEWED ONIONS.
Boil some small onions with salt, and then drain them. Lay them in a
stew-pan with a piece of butter, and sprinkle them with flour, pepper
and salt. Pour on them some cream, and then turn every onion with a
spoon. Stew them ten minutes, and serve them up.
ONIONS STEWED IN WINE.
Boil twenty or thirty onions a quarter of an hour with a bunch of sweet
herbs, some salt, a few cloves, and a laurel leaf. Then take out the
onions, and put them into a stew-pan with some salt, a piece of butter
rolled in flour, and a pint of red wine. Stew them another quarter of an
hour, and serve them up garnished with pieces of toast dipped in the
sauce.
STEWED MUSHROOMS.
Having peeled and washed your mushrooms, drain them, and stew them with
butter, pepper, salt, and a little chopped parsley, adding a little
flour and warm water. When they are done, stir into the sauce the yolks
of two or three eggs, and some cream. Toast and butter a slice of bread.
Lay it on the dish under the mushrooms, and pour the sauce over them.
Put in a small onion with the mushrooms, that you may know by its
turning almost black, whether there is a poisonous one among them. If
the onion turns black, throw away all the mushrooms.
STEWED POTATOES.
Boil eight or nine large potatoes with a little salt, and then peel and
cut them in slices. Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, a
spoonful of flour, some salt, and half a grated nutmeg. Add a half-pint
of cream, and mix all together. When this sauce boils, put in your
sliced potatoes, and let them stew a quarter of an hour.
STEWED POTATOES WITH TURNIPS.
Pare and boil an equal quantity of turnips and potatoes. When done,
drain and mash them. Melt some butter in a stew-pan, and add to it a
little mustard. Stew the mixed potatoes and turnips in it, with a small
quantity of hot milk, for about ten minutes.
ASPARAGUS WITH CREAM.
Wash and boil four or five bundles of asparagus. Have ready a pint of
cream, or a pint of milk, with the yolks of six eggs stirred into it.
Take four large rolls of bread, and cut a round piece out of the top of
each. Scoop out the crumb from the inside of the rolls, and put it into
the cream with the heads of the asparagus, of which you must save out a
sufficient number (with a small piece of the stalk left on each) to
stick the rolls with. Make holes in the top-pieces of the rolls.
Fry the rolls in butter. Put the most of the asparagus heads into the
cream mixed with the crumb of the rolls, and simmer it awhile over a
slow fire. When the rolls are fried, fill their cavities with the
mixture. Stick the tops with the remainder of the asparagus, and lay
them on the rolls.
Asparagus may be simply boiled with salt, and served up on toasted bread
dipped in oil, and eaten with oil sauce.
POTATOES STEWED WHOLE.
Boil two dozen small new potatoes, with some salt. Put into a stew-pan a
piece of butter rolled in flour, half the peel of a lemon grated, half a
nutmeg grated, some salt, two or three lumps of sugar, and three
tea-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Lay the potatoes in this mixture, squeeze
over them the juice of a lemon, and let them stew gently about ten
minutes.
FRIED POTATOES.
Make a batter with the yolks of three eggs, a little salt, a
table-spoonful of oil, a table-spoonful of brandy, and sufficient flour
or grated bread to thicken it. Have ready some large cold potatoes cut
in slices. Dip each slice in the batter, and fry them in butter.
FRIED CAULIFLOWER.
Wash a fine large cauliflower, and cut it into quarters. Having boiled
some water with salt, throw the cauliflower into it, and boil it till
you can nip it easily with your fingers. Take it out and drain it. Then
put it into a pan with salt, pepper and vinegar, and let it lie half an
hour, turning it frequently.
Make the following batter, which must be prepared half an hour or more
before it is wanted, that it may have time to rise. Take three
table-spoonfuls of flour, three beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of butter
melted in a little warm water, a spoonful of sweet oil, and a spoonful
of brandy. Stir all together; and if you find it too thin, add a little
more flour; cover it, and let it set half an hour. Then beat to a stiff
froth the whites of the eggs, and stir them hard into the batter. Dip
your quarters of cauliflower into this mixture, and fry them of a fine
light brown.
When the cauliflower is done, let it remain in the pan a quarter of an
hour before you send it to table. Lay fried parsley round it.
Broccoli may be fried in the same manner.
FRIED CELERY.
Take ten or twelve fine stalks of celery. Cut them into pieces about six
inches long, and lay them an hour in salt and water. Drain them, spread
them on a dish, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Make a batter of
eggs, milk, and grated bread; allowing four eggs to a pint of milk. Dip
each piece of celery into the batter, and fry them in butter.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.[71-*]
Peel, wash, and drain your mushrooms, and then cut them in pieces. Make
a square case of white paper, and butter it well. Fill it with the
mushrooms mixed with butter, salt, and pepper. Broil them on the
gridiron over a clear fire, and serve them up in the paper.
If you choose, you may mix with the mushrooms some chopped onion and
sweet-herbs.
[71-*] In gathering mushrooms, take only those that are of a pale
pink color underneath, and a dull white or pearl color on the top.
Those that are perfectly white above, or whose under side is white,
yellow, or any color but pale pink, are unfit to eat, and poisonous.
After being gathered awhile, the pink tinge changes to brown, but it
always appears on the good ones while in the ground.
STUFFED CABBAGE. (CHOUX FARCIS.)
Take a large cabbage, with a hard full head; put it into boiling water
with some salt, and let it boil from five to ten minutes. Then take it
out and drain it. Cut off the stalk close to the bottom, so that the
cabbage may stand upright on the dish, and then carefully take out the
inside leaves or heart; leaving the outside leaves whole.
Chop fine what you have taken out of the inside, and chop also some cold
ham and veal, or cold chicken. Likewise four eggs boiled hard. Mix
together the chopped eggs, the ham and veal, the cabbage heart, and some
grated bread, adding salt and pepper. Fill the cabbage with this
stuffing, and tie tape round it to keep the outside leaves together.
Then put it into a deep stew-pan, with a quarter of a pound of butter
rolled in flour, and an onion stuck full of cloves. Let it simmer over a
slow fire for two hours or more.