Take a pound and a half of lean veal from the fillet, and cut it in
long thin slices; scrape with a knife till nothing but the fibre
remains; put it into a mortar, pound it 10 minutes, or until in a
purée; pass it through a wire sieve (use the remainder in stock); then
take 1 pound of good fresh beef suet, which skin, shred, and chop very
fine; put it into a mortar and pound it; then add 6 oz. of panada (that
is, bread soaked in milk and boiled till nearly dry) with the suet;
pound them well together, and add the veal; season with a teaspoonful
of salt, a quarter one of pepper, half that of nutmeg; work all well
together; then add four eggs by degrees, continually pounding the
contents of the mortar. When well mixed, take a small piece in a spoon,
and poach it in some boiling water; and if it is delicate, firm, and of
a good flavour, it is ready for use.
FORCEMEAT VEAL, or VEAL QUENELLES.
_Ingredients._—Equal quantities of veal, panada, and calf’s udder, 2
eggs; seasoning to taste of pepper, salt, and pounded mace, or grated
nutmeg; a little flour. _Mode._—Take the fleshy part of veal, scrape
it with a knife, till all the meat is separated from the sinews,
and allow about ½ lb. for an entrée. Chop the meat, and pound it in
a mortar till reduced to a paste; then roll it into a ball; make
another of panada the same size, and another of udder, taking care
that these three balls be of the same size. (It is to be remembered,
that equality of _size_, and not of weight, is here necessary.) When
the three ingredients are properly prepared, pound them altogether in
a mortar for some time; for the more quenelles are pounded, the more
delicate they are. Now moisten with the eggs, whites and yolks, and
continue pounding, adding a seasoning of pepper, spices, &c. When the
whole is well blended together, mould it into balls, or whatever shape
is intended, roll them in flour, and poach in boiling water, to which
a little salt should have been added. If the quenelles are not firm
enough, add the yolk of another egg, but omit the white, which only
makes them hollow and puffy inside. In the preparation of this recipe,
it would be well to bear in mind that the ingredients are to be well
pounded and seasoned, and must be made hard or soft according to the
dishes they are intended for. For brown or white ragoûts they should be
firm, and when the quenelles are used very small, extreme delicacy will
be necessary in their preparation. Their flavour may be varied by using
the flesh of rabbit, fowl, hare, pheasant, grouse, or an extra quantity
of mushroom, parsley, &c.
FORCEMEAT for Veal, Turkeys, Fowls, Hare, &c.
_Ingredients._—2 oz. of ham or lean bacon, ¼ lb. of suet, the rind
of half a lemon, 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley, 1 teaspoonful of
minced sweet herbs; salt, cayenne, and pounded mace to taste; 6 oz. of
bread-crumbs, 2 eggs. _Mode._—Shred the ham or bacon, chop the suet,
lemon-peel, and herbs, taking particular care that all be very finely
minced; add a seasoning to taste of salt, cayenne, and mace, and blend
all thoroughly together with the bread-crumbs, before wetting. Now beat
and strain the eggs; work these up with the other ingredients, and
the forcemeat will be ready for use. When it is made into balls, fry
of a nice brown, in boiling lard, or put them on a tin and bake for
½ hour in a moderate oven. As we have stated before, no one flavour
should predominate greatly, and the forcemeat should be of sufficient
body to cut with a knife, and yet not dry and heavy. For very delicate
forcemeat, it is advisable to pound the ingredients together before
binding with the eggs; but for ordinary cooking, mincing very finely
answers the purpose. _Average cost_, 8_d._ _Sufficient_ for a turkey, a
moderate-sized fillet of veal, or a hare.
_Note._—In the forcemeat for Hare, the liver of the animal is sometimes
added. Boil for 5 minutes, mince it very small, and mix it with the
other ingredients. If it should be in an unsound state, it must be on
no account made use of.
FOWLS, Boiled, à la Béchamel.
_Ingredients._—A pair of fowls, 1 pint of Béchamel, a few bunches of
boiled broccoli or cauliflower. _Mode._—Truss and boil the flowers;
make a pint of Béchamel sauce; pour some of this over the fowls, and
the remainder send to table in a tureen. Garnish the dish with bunches
of boiled cauliflowers or broccoli, and serve very hot. The sauce
should be made sufficiently thick to adhere to the fowls; that for
the tureen should be thinned by adding a spoonful or two of stock.
_Time._—From ½ to 1 hour, according to size. _Average cost_, in full
season, 5_s._ a pair. _Sufficient_ for 6 or 7 persons. _Seasonable_ all
the year, but scarce in early spring.
FOWLS, Boiled, to Carve.
[Illustration: BOILED FOWL.]
This will not be found a very difficult member of the poultry family
to carve, unless, as may happen, a very old farm-yard occupant,
useless for egg-laying purposes, has, by some unlucky mischance,
been introduced into the kitchen as a “fine young chicken.” Skill,
however, and the application of a small amount of strength, combined
with a fine keeping of the temper, will even get over that difficulty.
Fixing the fork firmly in the breast, let the knife be firmly passed
along the line shown from 1 to 2; then cut downwards from that line
to fig. 3: and the wing, it will be found, can be easily withdrawn.
The shape of the wing should be like the accompanying engraving. Let
the fork be placed inside the leg, which should be gently forced away
from the body of the fowl; and the joint, being thus discovered, the
carver can readily cut through it, and the leg can be served. When
the leg is displaced, it should be of the same shape as that shown in
the annexed woodcut. The legs and wings on either side having been
taken off, the carver should draw his knife through the flesh in the
direction of the line 4 to 5; by this means the knife can be slipped
underneath the merrythought, which, being lifted up and pressed
backward, will immediately come off. The collar- or neck-bones are the
next to consider: these lie on each side of the merrythought, close
under the upper part of the wings; and, in order to free these from the
fowl, they must also be raised by the knife at their broad end, and
turned from the body towards the breastbone, until the shorter piece
of the bone, as shown in the cut, breaks off. There will now be left
only the breast, with the ribs. The breast can be, without difficulty,
disengaged from the ribs by cutting through the latter, which will
offer little impediment. The side bones are now to be taken off;
and to do this, the lower end of the back should be turned from the
carver, who should press the point of the knife through the top of the
backbone, near the centre, bringing it down towards the end of the back
completely through the bone. If the knife be now turned in the opposite
direction, the joint will be easily separated from the vertebræ.
The backbone being now uppermost, the fork should be pressed firmly
down on it, whilst at the same time the knife should be employed in
raising up the lower small end of the fowl towards the fork, and thus
the back will be dislocated about its middle. The wings, breast, and
merrythought are esteemed the prime parts of a fowl, and are usually
served to the ladies of the company, to whom legs, except as a matter
of paramount necessity, should not be given. Byron gave it as one
reason why he did not like dining with ladies, that they always had the
wings of the fowls, which he himself preferred. We heard a gentleman
who, when he might have had a wing, declare his partiality for a leg,
saying that he had been obliged to eat legs for so long a time that he
had at last come to like them better than the other more prized parts.
If the fowl is, capon-like, very large, slices may be carved from its
breast in the same manner as from a turkey’s.
[Illustration: LEG, WING, AND NECKBONE OF FOWL.]