color of cocoa; pass it through a sieve into a saucepan, moisten it
with stock, mixing very carefully. Boil it up two or three times during
forty-eight hours, adding two carrots, two onions, thyme, bay, all
cut up, which you have colored in the frying-pan, also some salt and
peppercorns. When it is all cooked, pass it through a cloth or sieve.
When it is reduced the first time, you should add some stock, but by
the time it is finished it should be fairly thick. It will keep for a
fortnight.
[_G. Goffaux_.]
DUTCH SAUCE FOR FISH
Take a tablespoonful of flour and three of water; make it boil and
add the yolks of three eggs; melt one-half pound of butter and beat it
gently into your first mixture, add salt, the juice of half a lemon and
a pinch of grated nutmeg. Keep the sauce very hot in a _bain-marie_ or
in a double saucepan. If you have neither, keep it in a large cup placed
in a saucepan of hot water.
[_Mrs. Emelie Jones_.]
BEARNAISE SAUCE
(Very good with stewed meat)
Put some onions to cook in tarragon vinegar and water; when they are
half done, add more water and throw in a little thyme and a leaf or two
of bay; let it cook for one hour and pass it through a sieve. Melt some
butter in a pan and thicken it with flour; put your vinegar to it and
more water if you think it necessary; stir in salt and pepper and the
yolks of two eggs or more, according to the quantity that you wish
to make. Let it get thick, and just as you take it off the fire add a
sprinkle of chopped parsley and a pat of butter. This is a useful sauce
and it well repays the trouble.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
MUSLIN SAUCE
Melt a piece of butter the size of an egg, sprinkle and stir in some
flour, adding water if it becomes too thick. Keep stirring over the fire
for five minutes, and, still stirring, add pepper and salt and the yolks
of two eggs. You may add the yolks of three or four eggs if you wish for
a rich sauce. The last item is the juice of a lemon to your taste. This
is a very popular addition to meat.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
SAUCE BORDELAISE
Two shallots, ten tarragon leaves all chopped, are put into a very small
saucepan. Add a large glass of claret, a dessert-spoonful of butter, and
let it all reduce together. Add salt, pepper, three dessert-spoonfuls of
demi-glaze, let it come to the boil, and stir in two dessert-spoonfuls
of butter. [_Georges Goffaux_.]
POOR MAN'S SAUCE
Even a piece of meat of poor quality is much liked if it has the
following sauce poured over it when served. Put a little milk, say a
cupful, in a saucepan, with salt and pepper; let it heat. Chop up
a handful of shallots and a quarter as much of parsley that is well
washed. Throw them into the milk; let it boil, and when the shallots are
tender the sauce is ready. If you have no milk, use water; but in that
case let it be strongly flavored with vinegar.
THE GOOD WIFE'S SAUCE
This sauce is indispensable to any one who wishes to use up slices of
cold mutton. Trim your slices, take away skin and fat and pour on them
the following cold sauce. Hard-boil three eggs, let them get cold.
Crumble the yolks in a cup, adding slowly a tablespoonful of oil, salt,
pepper, a little mustard, a teaspoonful of vinegar; then chop the whites
of egg, with a scrap of onion, and if you have them, some capers. Mix
all together and pour it over the cold meat.
CREAM SAUCE
Roll a lump of butter in flour, put it in a pan on the fire, and as
it melts add pepper and salt. Stir it, and as it thickens add a little
milk; let it simmer and keep on stirring it. You will never get a good
white sauce unless you season it well and let it simmer for a quarter
of an hour. Strain it, heat it again, and serve it for fish, potatoes,
chicken.
SAUCE MAÎTRE D'HÔTEL
Every one likes this sauce for either meat or fish. In a double saucepan
melt a lump of butter, flavor it with salt, pepper, some minced parsley
that you had first rubbed on a raw slice of onion, and some lemon-juice.
Use vinegar instead of the lemon if you wish, but do not forget that it
does not require so much vinegar. Mix it with a fork and serve it warm;
do not let it bubble.
SAUCE AU DIABLE
(For cold meats)
Take a shallot or two, according to quantity of sauce needed, slice very
finely, shred a little parsley, put both into the sauce-boat, with salt,
pepper, and mustard to taste; add oil and vinegar in proportion of
one dessert-spoonful of vinegar to two table-spoonfuls of oil, till
sufficient quantity.
FRICASSEE OF PIGEONS
Put your pieces of pigeon into a stew-pan in butter, and let it cook
with the pigeons. Then add one carrot, two onions, two sprigs of
parsley, a leaf of sage, five juniper berries, and a very little
nutmeg. Stir it all for a few minutes, and then, and only then, add a
half-cupful of water and Liebig, two rusks or dry biscuits in pieces,
the juice of a lemon. Put it all on the side of the fire, cover the
saucepan and let it cook gently for an hour and a half.
[_Mme. Vandervalle_.]
HUNTER'S HARE
Cut the hare in pieces and cook it in the oven in butter, pepper and
salt, turning it now and then so that it does not get dry. Then prepare
Hunter's Sauce. Melt a bit of butter the size of an egg and add flour,
letting it brown, fry in it plenty of chopped onions and shallots,
adding tarragon vinegar, cayenne and pepper-corns; spice it highly with
nutmeg, three cloves, a sprig of thyme and a couple of bay-leaves. Chop
up the hare liver, put it in the sauce and pass all through the sieve.
Pour the sauce over the hare and add a good glass of claret, or, for
English tastes, of port wine. If the sauce is too thin, thicken it with
flour, and serve all together.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
FLEMISH RABBIT
Cut the rabbit into neat pieces. Put them into a deep frying-pan and
toss them in butter, so that each piece is well browned without burning
the butter. Take them out of the pan and in the same butter cook six
shallots (finely minced) till they are brown. Then return the rabbit
to the pan, seasoning all with salt and pepper, adding as well three
bay-leaves, two cloves, and two white peppers. If you have any gravy,
add a pint of it, but in default of gravy add the same quantity of
Bovril and water. Place on the fire till it boils, then draw it to the
side and let it cook there gently for three-quarters of an hour. Just
when it is nearly done, add a little vinegar, more or less according to
your taste. This is served with boiled and well-drained potatoes. If the
sauce is not thick enough, add to it a little flour which has been first
mixed with some cold water.
[_Georges Kerckeert_.]
ROAST KID WITH VENISON SAUCE
This dish is very excellent with mutton instead of kid; the meat tastes
like venison if this recipe is followed:
Put the meat, say a shoulder of mutton, to soak in a bottle of red
wine, with a sliced carrot, thyme, bay-leaves (4), six cloves, fifteen
peppercorns and a teaspoonful of vinegar, for two hours. Then bring the
liquor to the boil and just before it is boiling pour it over and over
the meat. Do this pouring over of hot liquor for two days. Then put the
meat in the oven with butter, pepper, and salt, till it is cooked.
Sauce: Brown some onions in butter and pour in your liquor, but without
the carrot. Let it simmer for three-quarters of an hour, and pour it
through a sieve. Roll a nut of butter in flour and add little by little
the liquor you have from the meat, then a coffee-spoonful of meat
extract and two lumps of sugar. This sauce ought to be quite thick. It
is served with the meat. [_Mme. Vandervalle_.]
BAKED RABBIT
Fry the pieces of rabbit, adding three onions, two medium potatoes, half
a glass of beer, a little water or stock, pepper and salt. Let it all
bake gently in an earthenware pot for two hours, and then thicken the
same with flour. It is an improvement to add when it is being cooked two
cloves, two bay-leaves, a pinch of nutmeg, and any fresh herbs, such as
thyme, parsley, mint.
[_Mme. E. Maes_.]
CHICKEN À LA MAX
Chop up some cold chicken into small squares, mix with a thick white
sauce, and let it heat. Put it on a hot dish and cover with fried
onions. Put chipped potatoes at the ends of the dish and a boiled
chicory at either side. This excellent dish has received distinction
also from its name, that of the heroic and ingenious burgomaster of
Brussels.
[_M. Stuart_.]
RABBIT À LA BORDELAISE
Cut a rabbit into joints, cover with vinegar, chop finely two small
onions, thyme, pepper, and salt, and a little grated nutmeg; let all
soak for twenty-four hours.
Take out the joints and brown gently in a little dripping; when all are
nicely browned take one cupful of the marmalade and stew till tender
one and a half to two hours. When ready, strain off the sauce, thicken
nicely with flour, dish the rabbit, and pour over the sauce.
LAEKEN RABBIT
Take a medium-sized rabbit, and have it prepared and cut into joints.
Put the pieces to soak for forty-eight hours in vinegar, enough to cover
them, with a sprinkle of fresh thyme in it and a small onion sliced
finely. After forty-eight hours, put one-quarter pound of fat bacon,
sliced, in a pan to melt, and when it has melted, take out any bits that
remain, and add to the melted bacon a bit of butter as big as an egg,
which let melt till it froths; secondly, sprinkle in a dessert-spoonful
of flour. Stir it over the fire, mixing well till the sauce becomes
brown, and then put in your marinaded pieces of rabbit. Add pepper and
salt and cook till each piece is well colored on each side. When they
are well colored, add then the bunch of thyme, the sliced onion and half
the vinegar that you used for soaking; three bay-leaves, one dozen dried
and dry prunes, five lumps of sugar, half a pint of water. Cover closely
and let it simmer for two hours and a half.
[_A Belgian at Droitwich_.]
RABBIT
Put the back and the hind legs of one or two rabbits in an oven,
covering the same first with a layer of butter (half inch thick) and
then with a layer of French mustard, pepper and salt. Roast by a good
fire for one hour, baste often with the juice from the meat and the
gravy.
HARE
To be put in a pan in the oven: sauce, butter, and a quarter of a pint
of cream, pepper, salt and some flour to thicken the sauce. Before the
hare is put in the oven, cover it with a thin piece of bacon, which must
be taken away before the hare is brought to table.
[_Mdlle. Breakers_.]
RUM OMELETTE
This simple dish is much liked by gentlemen. Break five eggs in a basin,
sweeten them with castor sugar, pour in a sherry glassful of rum. Beat
them very hard till they froth. Put a bit of fresh butter in a shallow
pan and pour in your eggs. Let it stay on the fire just three minutes
and then slip it off on to a hot dish. Powder it with sugar, as you take
it to the dining-room. At the dining-room door, set a light to a big
spoonful of rum and pour it over the omelette just as you go in. It is
almost impossible to light a glass of rum in a hurry, for your omelette,
so use a kitchen spoon.
THE CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY DISH
Boil up a quart of milk, sweeten it with nearly half a pound of sugar,
and flavor with vanilla. Let it get cold. Beat up six eggs, both yolks
and whites, mix them with the milk, put it all in a fireproof dish
and cook very gently. Cover the top before you serve it with ratafia
biscuits.
A FRANGIPANI
Put your saucepan on the table and break in it two eggs. Mix these with
two dessertspoonfuls of flour. Add a pint of milk, and put it on the
fire, stirring always one way. Let it cook for a quarter of an hour,
stirring with one hand, while with the other sprinkle in powdered sugar
and ground almonds. Turn out to get cold, and cut in squares.
APRICOT SOUFFLÉ
This is good enough even for an English "dinner-party." Beat the whites
of six eggs stiffly. Take four dessert-spoonfuls of apricot jam, or an
equal quantity of those dried apricots that have been soaked and stewed
to a purée. If you use jam, you need not add sugar. If you use the dried
apricots, add sugar to sweeten. Butter a dish at the bottom, and when
you have well mixed with a fork the beaten whites and the apricot, put
it in a pyramid on the dish and bake for fifteen minutes in a moderate
oven. Powder with sugar.
STEWED PRUNES
Prunes are very good done this way. Take a pound of prunes, soak them
twenty-four hours in water. Put them on the fire in a cupful of water
and half a bottle of light red wine, quarter of a pound of sugar and,
if you like it, a pinch of cinnamon or mixed spice. Let it all stew till
the liquor is much reduced and the prunes are well flavored. Let them
get cold, and serve them in a glass dish with whipped cream.
CHOCOLATE CREAM
Take the whites of six eggs and beat them stiff, doing first one and
then another, adding to them three soup-spoonfuls of powdered sugar and
three sticks of chocolate that you have grated. If you have powdered
chocolate by you, use that, and taste the mixture to judge when it
is well flavored. Mix it all well in a cool place. To do this dish
successfully, make it just before you wish to serve it.
[_Mdlle. Lust, of Brussels_.]
SEMOLINA SOUFFLÉ
Boil up two pints of milk and fifteen lumps of sugar with a bit of
vanilla. Add three soup-spoonfuls of semolina, and let it boil for
fifteen minutes, while you stir it. Take it from the fire, and add to it
the yolks of two eggs and their whites that you have beaten stiffly. Put
it in the oven for a quarter of an hour, and serve it hot.
[_Mdlle. Lust, of Brussels_.]
SNOWY MOUNTAINS
Butter six circular rusks, and put on them a layer of jam. Beat the
whites of three eggs and place them on the rusks in the shape of a
pyramide. Put them in the oven and color a little. They must be served
hot.
[_Mdlle. Lust, of Brussels_.]
RICHELIEU RICE
Put three soup-spoonfuls of Carolina rice to swell in a little water,
with a pat of butter. When the rice has absorbed all the water, add a
pint of milk, sugar to sweeten, a few raisins, some chopped orange-peel,
and some crystallized cherries, or any other preserved fruit. Put all
on the fire, and when the mixture is cooked the rice ought to be creamy.
Add the yolk of an egg, stir it well, and pour all into a mold. Put it
to cool. Turn it out, and serve it with the following sauce, which must
be poured on the shape.
A pint of milk, sugar, and vanilla; let it boil. Stir a soup-spoonful of
cornflour in water till it is smooth, mix it with the boiling milk, let
it boil while stirring it for a few minutes, take it from the fire, add
the yolk of an egg, and pour it on the rice shape. Serve when cold.
[_Mdlle. Lust, of Brussels_.]
EXCELLENT PASTE FOR PASTRY
Equal quantities of butter and flour, well mixed in a little beer; add
also a pinch of salt. Make this paste the day before you require it; it
is good for little patties and tarts.
[_Mdlle. Le Kent_.]
CHOCOLATE CREAM
(No. 2)
Melt four penny tablets of chocolate in hot milk until it is liquid and
without lumps. Boil up a pint of milk with a stick of vanilla, a big
lump of butter (size of a walnut) and ten lumps of sugar. When this
boils, add the chocolate and keep stirring continually. Then take the
yolks of three eggs and well beat them; it is better to have these
beaten before, so as not to interfere with the stirring of your mixture.
Add your three yolks and keep on stirring, always in the same way.
Then pour the mixture into a mold that has been rinsed out in very cold
water, and let it stand in a cool place till set.
[_Mrs. Emelie Jones_.]
BELGIAN GINGERBREAD
1/2 pound cornflour 1/4 pound butter 1/4 pound white sugar 1 or 2 eggs
1/2 ounce ginger powder.
Work all the ingredients together on a marble slab, to get the paste
all of the same consistency. Make it into balls as big as walnuts,
flattening them slightly before putting them into the oven. This sort of
gingerbread keeps very well.
[_L. L. B. d'Anvers_.]
APPLE FRITTERS
Put half pound of flour in a deep dish and work it with beer, beating it
well till there are no lumps left. Make it into a paste that is not very
liquid. Peel and core some good apples, cut them into rounds, put them
in the paste so that each one is well covered with it. Have a pan of
boiling fat and throw in the apple slices for two minutes. They ought
to be golden by then, if that fat has been hot enough. Serve them dusted
with powdered sugar and the juice of half a lemon squeezed on them.
[_Mme. Delahaye_.]
FOUR QUARTERS
Weigh four very fresh eggs and put them in an earthenware dish. Add
successively, sieved flour, fine sugar, and fresh butter, each one of
these items being of the same weight of the eggs--hence the name: Four
Quarters. With a wooden spoon, work these four ingredients, then let
them rest for five minutes. Turn it all into a buttered mold and let
it cook for five quarters of an hour in a gentle oven or in a double
saucepan. Turn it out, and eat it either cold or hot and with fruit.
[_Georges Kerckaert_.]
SAFFRON RICE
Wash the rice in cold water, heat it in a little water and add a dust of
salt. Flavor some milk (enough to cover the rice) with vanilla, and pour
it on the rice. Let it cook in the oven for an hour and a quarter. Take
it from the fire, and stir in the yolks only of two eggs, or of one
only, if wished. Sweeten the whole with sugar, and color it with a
little saffron. Turn it out, and let it get very cold.
[_Paquerette_.]
SEMOLINA FRITTERS
Quarter pound semolina, one and a half pints of milk, three eggs. Put
on the milk, and, as soon as it is boiling, drop the semolina in, in a
shower. Let it boil for a few minutes, stirring continually. Then add
the yolks of three eggs, and then the whites, which you have already
beaten stiff. Pour all on a dish, and cool. Have some boiling lard (it
is boiling when it ceases to bubble), and throw into it spoonsful of the
mixture. When they are fried golden, take them out, drain them a moment,
and sprinkle on some white sugar.
[_Mme. Segers_.]
SPECULOOS
(A Brussels recipe)
Pound down half pound flour, four ounces brown sugar, three and a half
ounces butter, a pinch of nutmeg, and the same of mace and cinnamon in
powder. Add, as well, a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. Make the paste
into a ball, and cover it with a fine linen or muslin cloth, and leave
it till the following day. If you have no molds to press it in, cut it
into diamonds or different shapes, and cook them in the oven on buttered
trays. I believe waffle irons can be bought in London.
GAUFRES FROM BRUSSELS
Mix in an earthern bowl half a pint of flour, five yolks of eggs, a
coffee-spoonful of castor sugar, half pint of milk (fresh), adding a
pinch of salt and of vanilla; then two ounces butter melted over hot
water. Then beat up the whites of four eggs very stiffly, and add them.
Butter a baking-tin or sheet (since English households have not got a
gaufre-iron, which is double and closes up), and pour in your mixture,
spreading it over the sheet. When the gaufre is nicely yellowed, take
it out and powder it with sugar. But to render this recipe absolutely
successful, the correct implement is necessary.
RICE À LA CONDE
Simmer the rice in milk till it is tender, sweeten it, and add, for a
medium-sized mold, the yolks of two eggs. Let it thicken a little, and
stir in pieces of pineapple. Pour it into a mold, and let it cool. Turn
it out when it has well set, and decorate with crystallized fruits. Pour
round it a thin apricot syrup.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
PAINS PERDUS
(Lost bread)
Make a mixture of milk and raw eggs, enough to soak up in six rusks.
Flavor it with a little mace or cinnamon. Put some butter in a pan and
put the rusks in it to fry. Let them color a good brown, and serve them
hot with sugar dusted over them.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
FRUIT FRITTERS
Peel some apples, take out the core and cut them in slices, powder them
on each side with sugar. You can use also pears, melons, or bananas.
Make a batter with flour, milk and eggs, beating well the whites; a
glass of rum and sugar to sweeten it. Put your lard on to heat, and when
the blue steam rises roll your fruit slices in the batter and throw them
into the lard. When they are golden, serve them with powdered sugar.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
MOCHA CAKE
Take half a pound of fresh butter, four ounces of powdered sugar, and
work them well together. When they are well mixed, add the yolks of four
eggs, each one separately, and the whites of two. When the mixture is
thoroughly well done, add, drop by drop, some boiling coffee essence to
your taste. Butter a mold and line it with small sponge biscuits, and
fill it with alternate layers of the cream and of biscuits. Put it for
the night in the cellar before you serve it the following day. You can
replace the essence of coffee by some chocolate that has been melted
over hot water.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
VANILLA CREAM
Sweeten well half a pint of milk and flavor it with vanilla. Put it to
boil. Mix in a dish the yolks of four eggs with a little cornflour.
When the milk boils, pour it very slowly over the eggs, mixing it well.
Return it all to the pan and let it get thick without bringing it to
the boil. Add some chopped almonds, and turn the mixture into a mold to
cool.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
RUM CREAM
Take sponge biscuits and arrange them on a dish, joining each to the
other with jam. (You can make a square or a circle or a sort of hollow
tower.) Pour your rum over them till they are well soaked. Then pour
over them, or into the middle of the biscuits, a vanilla cream like the
foregoing recipe, but let it be nearly cold before you use it. Decorate
the top with the whites of four eggs sweetened and beaten, or use fresh
cream in the same way.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
PINEAPPLE À L'ANVERS
Take some slices of pineapple, and cut off the brown spots at the edges.
Steep them for three hours in a plateful of weak kirsch, or maraschino,
that is slightly warmed. Cut some slices of plain cake of equal
thickness, and glaze them. This is done by sprinkling sugar over the
slices and placing them in a gentle oven. The sugar melts and leaves the
slices _glacés_. Arrange the slices in a circle, alternating pineapple
and cake, and pour over the latter an apricot marmalade thinned with
kirsch or other liqueur. This dish looks very nice, and if whipped cream
can be added it is excellent.
[_L. L. B. Anvers_.]
POUDING AUX POMMES
Take a pound of apples and peel them. Cook them, and rub them, when
soft, through a sieve to make them into a purée. Sweeten it well, and
scent it with a scrap of vanilla; then let it get cold. Beat up three
eggs, both whites and yolks, and mix them into your cold compôte, and
put all in a dish that will stand the heat of the oven. Then place on
the top a bit of butter the size of a filbert and powder all over
with white sugar. Place the dish in an oven with a gentle heat for
half-an-hour, watching how it cooks. This dish can be eaten hot or cold.
[_E. Defouck_.]
SOUFFLÉ AU CHOCOLAT
Melt two tablets of chocolate (Menier) in a dessert-spoonful of water
over heat, stirring till the chocolate is well wetted and very thick.
Then prepare some feculina flour in the following way: Take for five or
six persons nearly a pint of milk. Sweeten it well with sugar; take two
dessert-spoonfuls of feculina. Boil the sweetened milk, flavoring it
with a few drops of vanilla essence. When it is boiled, take it from the
fire, and let it get cold, mixing in the flour by adding it slowly so
as not to make lumps. Put it back on a brisk fire and stir till it
thickens; add then the melted chocolate, and when that is gently stirred
in take off your pan, and again let it get cold. At the moment of
cooking the soufflé, add three whites of eggs beaten stiff. Butter a
deep fireproof dish, and pour in the mixture, only filling up half of
the dish. Cook in the oven for fifteen minutes in a gentle heat, and
serve immediately. A tablet of Chocolat Menier is a recognized weight.
[_Gabrielle Janssens_.]
A NEW DISH OF APPLES
Take a pint of apple purée and add to it three well-beaten eggs, a taste
of cinnamon if liked, quarter of a pound of melted butter and the
same quantity of white powdered sugar. Mix all together and, taking a
fireproof dish, put a little water in the bottom of it and then some
fine breadcrumbs, sufficient to cover the bottom. Pour in your compôte,
then, above that, a layer of fine breadcrumbs, and here and there a lump
of fresh butter, which will prevent the breadcrumbs from burning. Cook
for half-an-hour.
GOLDEN RICE
Put a quart of milk to boil, and, when boiling, add half a pound of
good rice. When the rice is nearly cooked, add a pennyworth of saffron,
stirring it in evenly. This is excellent, eaten cold with stewed quinces
and cream.
[_V. Verachtert_.]
BANANA COMPÔTE
Divide the bananas in regular pieces; arrange them in slices on your
compôte dish, one slice leaning against the other in a circle.
Sprinkle them with sugar. Squeeze the juice of an orange and of half a
lemon--this would be sufficient for six bananas--and pour it over the
bananas. Cover the dish and leave it for two hours in a cold place. A
mold of cornflour or of ground rice may be eaten with this.
[_Mme. Gabrielle Janssens_.]
RIZ CONDE