and pour melted butter over it.
Lettuce may be done in the same manner.
STUFFED POTATOES.
Take eight very large potatoes, wash and pare them. Make a small slit or
incision in each of them, and scoop out carefully with a knife as much
of the inside as will leave all round a shell about the thickness of two
cents. Then make a force-meat of the substance you have taken out of the
inside, mixing it with two minced onions, a small piece of minced cold
ham or pork, about two ounces of butter, and a little parsley; adding
the yolks of two or three beaten eggs. Mix the stuffing thoroughly, by
pounding it in a mortar.
Butter the inside of the potatoes, and fill them with this mixture. Then
having buttered a large dish, lay your potatoes in it separately. Bake
them half an hour, or till they are of a fine brown.
When you mash potatoes, moisten them with milk or cream, adding a little
salt. Heap them up on the dish in the form of a pyramid. Smooth the
sides of the pyramid with the back of a spoon, and brown it by holding
over it a red-hot shovel.
STUFFED CUCUMBERS.
Cut off one end of each of the cucumbers, and scoop out all the seeds
with a fork. Then pare them. Prepare a stuffing made of bread crumbs,
cold meat minced, salt, pepper, and sweet-herbs. Fill your cucumbers
with it, and fasten on with a skewer the pieces you have cut off from
their ends. Sow up every one separately in a thin cloth. Put them into a
pan with butter, flour, a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a little warm water.
Let them stew very slowly for about two hours, and then take them out.
Remove the cloths, and serve up the cucumbers with the sauce under them.
STUFFED TOMATAS.
Scoop out the inside of a dozen large tomatas, without spoiling their
shape. Pass the inside through a sieve, and then mix it with grated
bread, chopped sweet-herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stew it ten
minutes, with a laurel leaf, or two peach leaves. Remove the leaves, and
stuff the tomatas with the mixture, tying a string round each to keep
them in shape. Sprinkle them all over with rasped bread-crust. Set them
in a buttered dish, and bake them in an oven. Take off the strings, and
serve up the tomatas.
Egg-plants may be cooked in the same manner.
CAULIFLOWERS WITH CHEESE.
Having washed and boiled your cauliflowers in salt and water, drain them
well. Make a white sauce in a small pan, with butter rolled in flour,
and a little milk. Pour some of this sauce into the bottom of a dish
that will bear the fire. Chop your cauliflower, and spread a layer of it
on the sauce. Then cover it with a layer of rich cheese, grated and
slightly sprinkled with pepper. Then spread on the remainder of the
cauliflower, and then another layer of peppered cheese, and so on till
your dish is nearly full. Pour over it the rest of the sauce. Prepare
two or three handfuls of grated bread, mixed with a little of the grated
cheese. Spread it all over the surface of the last layer of cauliflower,
and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Allow a quarter of a pound of
cheese to each cauliflower.
Put the dish in a slow oven about a quarter of an hour before you serve
it up, and bake it till a brown crust forms on the outside. Clear off
the butter from the edges of the dish, and send it to table hot.
Broccoli may be done in the same manner.
RAGOOED CABBAGE.
Wash a fine savoy cabbage, and boil it for half an hour in salt and
water. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it for ten minutes in cold
water. Afterwards squeeze and drain it well, and take out the stalk.
Chop the cabbage slightly, and put it into a stew-pan with a quarter of
a pound of butter, and add two table-spoonfuls of flour. Season it with
salt and pepper, and moisten it with a little water. Let it stew slowly
for an hour, and then serve it up.
Cauliflowers or broccoli may be done in the same manner.
RAGOOED MUSHROOMS.
Take a pint of fresh mushrooms. When they are peeled and the stalks cut
off, put the mushrooms into a stew-pan with two table-spoonfuls of
vinegar, a sprig or two of parsley, a small onion, a few chives chopped
fine, some salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Let it boil gently for a
quarter of an hour. Before it goes to table, stir in the yolks of two
eggs.
If the onion has turned blue or black, throw the whole away, as it is
evident that some poisonous ones are among the mushrooms.
PUREES.
The word Puree cannot be exactly translated, as there is nothing in the
English language that gives precisely the same idea. In French it is
generally applied to a certain manner of cooking vegetables that
converts them into a substance resembling marmalade, which, when the
coarser parts are strained out, leaves a fine smooth jelly.
It is served up with meat.
PUREE OF TURNIPS.
Wash and pare some of the finest turnips. Cut them into small pieces,
and let them lie for half an hour in cold water. Then take them out and
drain them. Put them into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter and
some salt and pepper. Moisten them with a little broth or boiling water.
Let them stew over a very slow fire, for five or six hours, stirring
them frequently. Then rub them through a sieve, and serve up the jelly
with roast meat.
PUREE OF CELERY.
Wash your celery, peel it, and stew it slowly for three or four hours,
with salt, and a very little water. Then pass it through a sieve, and
season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.
PUREE OF ONIONS.
Take thirty onions; cut them in slices and put them into a stew-pan,
with a little salt, pepper, and a grated nutmeg. Let them stew slowly
till they are of a fine brown color, and then add a table-spoonful of
broth or warm water.
When it has attained the proper consistence, strain it and serve it up.
PUREE OF MUSHROOMS.
Peel a pint of mushrooms, cut them in pieces, and put them in a pan with
as much cold water as will keep them from burning. Throw in with them a
small onion to test their goodness; as, if there is a bad or poisonous
one among them, the onion will turn of a bluish black while cooking. In
that case, throw them all away.
Stew them slowly till they have lost all shape and have become an
undistinguishable mass. Then strain them.
Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, or a spoonful of flour, and
two lumps of sugar. Add your puree, and let it stew again for about five
minutes. When you take it off the fire, stir in the yolks of two eggs
slightly beaten, and a spoonful of cream or rich milk. Put it in the
middle of a dish, and lay round it thin slices of fried bread or toast.
PUREE OF BEANS.
Having strung and cut your beans till you have a quart, throw them into
boiling water, with a little salt. Let them remain a quarter of an hour.
Then drain them, and throw into cold water to green them. After they
have lain half an hour in the cold water, take them out and drain them
again.
Put a large piece of butter into a stew-pan with some pepper, a little
salt, and a spoonful of flour. Add your beans, and cover them with broth
or warm water. Put in a bunch of sweet-herbs cut small, and stew the
whole very slowly till it has dissolved into a mass. Then strain it. Put
a piece of butter into the puree, and serve it up.
PUREE OF GREEN PEAS.
Take a quart of shelled green peas. Wash them, and put them into a
stew-pan with water enough to cover them, a little salt and pepper, a
piece of butter the size of a walnut, a laurel leaf or a couple of
peach-leaves, and a bunch of mint.
Let them stew very slowly; and if necessary moisten them occasionally
with a little warm water or broth. Stir them frequently, that they may
not stick to the pan. When they become of the consistence of marmalade,
strain it. Chop an onion fine, fry it in butter, and have it ready to
mix with the puree.
Dried split peas may be made into a puree in the same manner.
Purees may be made in a similar manner of different sorts of meat,
poultry &c. seasoned, stewed slowly to a jelly, then strained through a
cullender or sieve, and taken as soups.
EGGS, &c.
In choosing eggs, hold them up against the light, and if you see that
the yolk is round, and the white thin and clear, you may suppose them to
be good. But if the yolk appears to be broken and mixed with the white,
giving it a thick cloudy look, you may be sure that the egg is bad. Eggs
may be preserved by keeping them in a keg of lime-water, or by greasing
each egg all over with dripping, and putting them into a tight vessel
filled with wood-ashes, placing them all with their small ends
downwards. You may also keep them by burying them in salt. Still they
are never so good as when quite fresh.
When you break eggs for use, do every one separately, in a saucer. If
you find the egg good, throw it into the pan in which they are to be
beaten. If you meet with a bad one, throw it away and wash the saucer or
get a clean one. A single bad egg will make the whole mixture heavy,
spungy, and of an unpleasant taste.
BOILED EGGS.
When the water boils hard, put in the eggs, and let them boil exactly
three minutes. Then take them out, and cover them up for about a minute,
which will greatly improve them. Send them to table wrapped in a napkin,
and laid in a deep dish.
FRIED EGGS.
Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan. When it ceases to hiss, put in
the yolks only of your eggs. Season them with pepper and salt. When
fried, color them by holding over them a red-hot shovel.
STEWED EGGS.
Melt some butter in a dish that will bear the fire. Add to it salt, and
nutmeg, and a little milk in the proportion of a table-spoonful to each
egg. Mix them well together. Then lay over it the yolks of your eggs,
first ascertaining that they are all good. Let it stew over a slow fire
for a few minutes; and color it by holding over it a red-hot shovel. The
eggs must not be allowed to get hard, but the surface should be soft and
perfectly smooth and even.
Before you put in the eggs, you may stir into the mixture some heads of
boiled asparagus.
STUFFED EGGS.
Boil twelve eggs hard. Take off the shell, and cut each egg in half.
Take out the yolks, and pound them in a mortar with a quarter of a pound
of butter; a nutmeg; some grated bread that has been soaked in milk; a
little salt; and if you choose, some minced sweet-herbs. Fill the whites
of the eggs with this stuffing, heaping it up, and smoothing it into a
round even shape. Butter a dish, and spread over the inside a thin layer
of the stuffing. Arrange in it all your halves of eggs, the bottoms
downwards. Put them into an oven, the lid of which must be hot. Let them
set about five minutes, and then send them to table.
EGG SNOW.
Take a quart of milk, and stir into it two spoonfuls of rose-water, and
a quarter of a pound of white sugar, with a powdered nutmeg. Add by
degrees the yolks of twelve eggs well beaten. Boil the whole together,
stirring it all the time, so as to make a thick smooth custard. If you
keep it too long on the fire, it will be lumpy. Set it away to get cold
in a deep dish. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth that will
stand alone, adding to it twelve drops of essence of lemon. Heap it on
the dish of custard so as to look like a pile of snow; or you may drop
it with a large spoon, so as to form separate balls. On the top of each
ball you may lay a tea-spoonful of stiff currant-jelly.
PANCAKES.
Beat together a quart of sifted flour, six eggs, a table-spoonful of
brandy, a grated nutmeg, a little salt, and sufficient water to make a
thin batter. Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan, or substitute a
little sweet-oil. Pour in a ladleful of the batter, and let it spread
into a circular form. When it is slightly brown on one side, turn it
carefully on the other. Serve them up with white sugar grated over each.
You may color them pink, by stirring into the mixture some of the juice
of a beet-root, which has been boiled and then beaten in a mortar.
OMELETS.
_Cheese Omelet._--Grate some rich cheese, and mix it gradually with your
eggs while beating them. Season with salt and pepper. Melt some butter
in a frying-pan. Put in your omelet, and fry it first on one side, and
then on the other. When you dish it up, fold it over in half.
_Bread Omelet._--Put two handfuls or more of bread crumbs into half a
pint of cream, with a grated nutmeg and a little salt. When the bread
has absorbed all the cream, stir it into the eggs as you beat them for
the omelet. Fry it in butter, and when dished, fold one half over the
other.
_Lobster Omelet._--Beat in a mortar the flesh of a boiled lobster,
adding, at times, a little butter; and season it with pepper and salt.
Stir it gradually into the eggs while beating them. Fry it in butter.
_Onion Omelet._--Boil some onions; mince them fine, and moisten them
with milk. Stir them into the eggs as you beat them.
_Ham Omelet._--Is made with grated cold ham, stirred into the eggs while
beating.
Omelets may be seasoned in the same manner with parsley, chopped
sweet-herbs, or mushrooms. Also with minced oysters.
MACCARONI.
Boil half a pound of maccaroni with two ounces of butter, some whole
pepper, and a little salt. Do not let it boil long enough for the
maccaroni to lose its shape. When done, mix with it a quarter of a pound
of rich cheese, scraped or grated. Butter a deep dish, and put the
mixture into it. Then set it for a quarter of an hour in the oven. Brown
the top with a red-hot shovel.
MACCARONI PIE.
Take half a pound of maccaroni, and put it into a stew-pan with an ounce
of butter, a little salt and pepper, and water enough to cover it. Stew
it till dry. Then grate a quarter of a pound of fine cheese, and mix it
with the maccaroni, adding another ounce of butter. Set it away to get
cold.
Take another pan, which must be very deep, with a flat bottom, and
nearly the shape of a drum. Butter the inside. Make a good paste, and
cover with it the whole interior of the pan, sides and bottom. Put in
the maccaroni. Cover the pie with a lid of paste. Bake it at least half
an hour. When done, loosen it from the pan and turn it out on a dish. It
will be in the form of a drum, if the pan was of that shape.
BLANCMANGE IN EGGS.
Take two ounces of shelled sweet almonds, and one ounce of shelled
bitter almonds. Blanch them by throwing them into scalding water to make
the skins peel off easily; then put them in cold water; wipe them dry
afterwards, and pound them in a mortar, adding at times a little
rose-water.
Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in warm water, and then stir it into a
quart of cream. Add a quarter of a pound of broken loaf-sugar, and a
wine-glass of rose-water. Boil it hard for a quarter of an hour, and
stir it all the time. Then strain it through a linen bag, and put it
into egg-cups, or into the halves of egg-shells nicely and evenly
trimmed, and set it away in a cold place to congeal.
Have ready some calves-feet jelly (made according to the directions
given in the article "Chickens in Jelly"); and when the blancmange is
firm, take out a small piece from the middle of each cupful, and replace
it with a lump of the jelly, put in so as to look like the yolk of the
egg. Or if more convenient, you need not put in the jelly till you have
taken the blancmange out of the cups or egg-shells, which must be done
by wetting the moulds with warm water on the outside.
The jelly for this purpose must be very high-colored, by means of
brandy, or dark sweet wine.
If nicely managed, the blancmange and jelly will look like eggs cut in
half. Lay them in a circle round a dish that contains something high and
ornamental,--for instance, a pyramid of ice-cream.
PART THE SIXTH.
PASTRY, CAKES, &c.
FRENCH PASTE.
Sift a quart of flour, and lay it in a pan. Make a hole in the middle,
and put into it the white of an egg slightly beaten, a piece of butter
the size of an egg, and a very little salt. Pour in gradually as much
cold water as will moisten it. Mix it well with your hands, as rapidly
as possible, and see that no lumps are left in it. Set it away to cool,
and in a quarter of an hour roll it out, and spread over it half a pound
of butter which has been kept in ice. Then fold up the paste with the
four sides laid one over another, so as entirely to inclose the butter,
and set it for half an hour in a cool place. Then roll it again; fold
it, and give it another roll. Set it away again; and in half an hour
roll it out twice more, and it will be fit for use.
PUFF PASTE.
May be made with a pound of butter, and a pound and a quarter of sifted
flour. The butter must be washed in cold water, and then squeezed very
hard, and made up into a lump. Divide it into eight parts. Mix one part
of the butter with the flour, adding just enough of water to moisten it.
Roll it out; spread over it a second portion of the butter; flour it;
fold it up, and roll it out again, adding another division of the
butter. Repeat this till you get in all the butter, a piece at a time,
folding and rolling the paste with each separate portion of the butter.
Then set it away to cool. If it sets several hours, it will be the
better for it; and better still if the paste is made the night before it
is wanted; always keeping it in a cold place.
While buttering and rolling, do every thing as quickly as possible.
Before you put it into the dishes, roll it out once more. It is
difficult in warm weather to make good puff paste without a marble
table, or slab, to roll it on.
CREAM TARTS.
Mix together a quart of flour, half a pound of butter, a little salt,
and two beaten eggs. Add a little cold water; make it into a paste, and
set it away to cool. Then roll it out again. Cut it into round shapes
with the edge of a tumbler. Lay round each a rim made of an even strip
of the paste, and notch it handsomely. Bake them for a quarter of an
hour, and then take them from the oven. Beat together a pint of cream,
four eggs, and four table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar. Fill the tarts
with this mixture, grate nutmeg over each, and bake them again for a
quarter of an hour.
ALMOND TARTS.
Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds and three ounces of shelled
bitter almonds. Beat them, a few at a time, in a mortar, mixing them
well, and adding at times a little rose-water. When done, mix with them
a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar powdered, and the juice and grated
peel of half a lemon.
Have ready some fine paste. Cut it into circular pieces about the size
and thickness of a dollar. Put into each piece of paste some of the
almond mixture, heaping it up in the centre. Cover them with lids of
the same, and crimp the edges very neatly. Bake them about half an hour,
and grate sugar over them when done.
RISSOLES.
Make some fine paste, and cut it out with the edge of a tumbler. Have
ready some minced veal, seasoned in the best manner, or some chopped
oysters, or any sort of force-meat, and lay some of it on one half of
each piece of paste. Then turn over it the other half, so as to inclose
the meat. Crimp the edges. Put some butter into a frying-pan. Lay the
rissoles into it, and fry them of a light brown.
They should be in the shape of a half-moon.
ALMOND CUSTARDS.
Blanch and pound in a mortar half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and
three ounces of peach-kernels, or shelled bitter almonds, adding
sufficient rose-water to moisten them. When they are all pounded to a
paste, mix with them a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and
boil them in a quart of milk or cream. Then set it away to cool. When
cold, stir eight beaten eggs into it. Put the mixture into cups. Set
them in an iron oven half filled with water, and bake them.
VANILLA CUSTARDS.
Cut a vanilla bean into slips, and boil them in a quart of milk, with a
quarter of a pound of white sugar. Let it boil slowly for a quarter of
an hour, and then set it away to cool. When cold, stir into it eight
beaten eggs, having left out the whites of four. Put the mixture into
cups, set them in water and bake them. Color them when done, by holding
over them a red-hot shovel. When cold, grate on sugar.
* * * * *
_Lemon Custards_ are made in the same manner; substituting for the
vanilla bean the grated rind of a large fresh lemon.
CHOCOLATE CUSTARDS.
Cut into pieces half a pound of the best chocolate. Pour on it
sufficient milk to prevent its burning, and let it boil ten minutes.
After you remove it from the fire, have ready a pint of boiling milk or
cream, and pour it on the chocolate. Beat together the yolks of eight
eggs and the whites of two only, and stir them into the chocolate with
two ounces, or more, of loaf-sugar. Put the mixture into cups, set them
in an oven with water in it, and bake them. Beat the six remaining
whites of eggs to a froth, adding a very little sugar, and heap some of
the froth on each custard. You may lay on the top of each heap of froth
one of the bonbons or confections called chocolate-nuts.
COFFEE CUSTARDS.
Take two ounces of roasted coffee and two ounces of raw coffee. Pound
them together in a mortar, but do not grind them. Boil this coffee in a
quart of rich milk. Let it get cold, and then strain it. Stir into it
two ounces of powdered loaf-sugar, and two large spoonfuls of cream.
Beat eight eggs, omitting the whites of four. Stir them gradually into
the coffee. Put it into cups, and bake the custards in an oven with
water. Grate white sugar over the tops when cold.
TEA CUSTARDS.
Boil a quart of cream or rich milk, and pour it (while boiling) on three
ounces of the best green tea. Add two ounces of loaf sugar. Cover it and
set it away. Take eight eggs, and beat them well, leaving out the whites
of four; and when the tea is cold, stir in the eggs. Then strain the
whole mixture; put it into cups, and bake them in an oven with water.
Grate sugar over the top of each.
RICE POTTAGE.
Put six table-spoonfuls of rice into a pint of water, and boil it till
quite soft. Drain it through a sieve, and put the rice into a quart of
milk with a quarter of a pound of sugar, and three or four peach-leaves,
or a few peach-kernels. Boil it, and before you serve it up, take out
the peach-leaves or kernels, and stir in the yolks of two eggs.
APPLE FRITTERS.
Pare and core some fine large pippins, and cut them into round slices.
Soak them in brandy for two or three hours. Make a batter, in the
proportion of four eggs to a table-spoonful of olive-oil, a table
spoonful of rose-water, the same quantity of brandy, the same quantity
of cold water. Thicken the batter with a sufficient quantity of flour
stirred in by degrees, and mix it two or three hours before it is
wanted, that it may be light by fermentation.
Put some butter into a frying-pan. Dip each slice of apple into the
batter, and fry them brown. Then drain them, grate white sugar over
them, and send them to table.
* * * * *
_Peach Fritters_ may be made in the same way, but the peaches must be
cut into quarters.
BREAD FRITTERS.
Boil a quart of milk with cinnamon and sugar to your taste. When done,
stir in a table-spoonful of rose-water. Cut some slices of bread into a
circular shape. Soak them in the milk till they have absorbed it. Then
drain them. Have ready some yolks of eggs well beaten. Dip the slices of
bread into it, and fry them in butter. Serve them up strewed with
powdered sugar.
RICE CAKE.
Take half a pound of rice and wash it well. Put it into a pint of cream
or milk, and boil it soft. Let it get cold. Then stir into it
alternately a quarter of a pound of sugar, two ounces of butter, eight
eggs well beaten (having left out the whites of four), and a wine-glass
of rose-water, or else the grated peel of a lemon. Mix all well. Butter
a mould or a deep pan with straight sides, and spread grated bread
crumbs all over its inside. Put in the mixture, and bake it three
quarters of an hour.
Ground rice is best for this cake.
If any of the cake is left, you may next day cut it in slices and fry
them in butter.
Or, instead of baking the mixture in a large cake, you may put flour on
your hands, and roll it into round balls. Make a batter of beaten eggs,
sugar, and grated bread; dip the balls into it, and fry them in butter.
POTATO CAKE.
Roast in the ashes a dozen small or six large potatoes. When done, peel
them, and put them into a pan with a little salt, and the rind of a
lemon grated. Add a quarter of a pound of butter, or half a pint of
cream, and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Having mashed the potatoes
with this mixture, rub it through a cullender, and stir it very hard.
Then set it away to cool.
Beat eight eggs, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Season it
with a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, and half a glass of rose-water.
Butter a mould or a deep dish, and spread the inside all over with
grated bread. Put in the mixture, and bake it for three quarters of an
hour.
SPONGE CAKE--CALLED IN FRANCE BISCUIT.