garnished with a cluster of pointed almonds in the center, surrounded
by a ring of tangerine pieces, well skinned and laid like many crescents
one after the other. There is nothing so small and insignificant but has
great possibilities. Did not Darwin raise eighty seedlings from a single
clod of earth taken from a bird's foot?
It is to be regretted that Samuel Johnson never wrote the manual that
he contemplated. "Sir," he said, "I could write a better book of cookery
than has ever yet been written. It should be a book on philosophical
principles."
Perhaps the pies of Fleet Street reminded him of the Black Broth of
the Spartans which the well-fed Dionysius found excessively nasty; the
tyrant was curtly told that it was nothing indeed without the seasoning
of fatigue and hunger. We do not wish a meal to owe its relish solely to
the influence of extreme hunger--it must have a beautiful nature all
its own, it must exhibit the idea of Thing-in-Itself in an easily
assimilable form.
I am convinced, anyhow, that this little collection (formed through
the kindness of our Belgian friends) will work miracles; for there are
plenty of miracles worked nowadays, though not by those romantic souls
who think that things come by themselves. Good dinners certainly do not,
and I end with this couplet:
A douce woman and a fu' wame
Maks King and cottar bide at hame.
Which, being interpreted, means that if you want a man to stay at home,
you must agree with him and so must his dinner.
M. LUCK.
HORS D'OEUVRE
(Herring and Mayonnaise)
Take some salt herrings, one for each person, and soak them for a day in
water. Skin them, cut them open lengthways, take out the backbone, and
put them to soak for a day in vinegar. Then before serving them, let
them lie for a few minutes in milk, and, putting them on a dish, pour
over them a good mayonnaise sauce.
[_Mme. Delhaye._]
CARROT SOUP
Wash and scrape a pound of carrots, slice them, treat two medium sized
potatoes in the same manner, add a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme and a
chopped onion. Cook all with water, add salt, pepper, and cook gently
till tender, when pass it through a sieve. Put in a pan a lump of butter
the size of an egg, with a chopped leek and a sprig of chervil. Let it
cook gently for three or four minutes, then pour on the puree of carrots
and let it all come to the boil before taking it off to serve.
[_Madame Stoppers._]
SORREL SOUP
Take a quart of bouillon or of meat extract and water. Fry in butter a
carrot, a turnip, an onion, a small cabbage, all washed and chopped, and
add half a teaspoonful of castor sugar. Put your soup to it and set on
the fire. Let it simmer for twenty minutes, add any seasoning you wish
and a little more water, and let it simmer for another half hour. Then
shred a bit of basil or marjoram with a handful of well washed sorrel,
throw them in, cook for five minutes, skim it, pour it into a soup
tureen, and serve.
OSTEND SOUP
There are many varieties of this soup to be met with in the different
hotels, but it is a white soup, made of fish pieces and trimmings,
strained, returned to the pot, and with plenty of cream and oysters
added before serving. It should never boil after the cream is put in. A
little mace is usual, but no onions or shallot. A simple variety is made
with flour and milk instead of cream, the liquor of the oysters as well
as the oysters, and a beaten egg added at the last moment.
[_Esperance._]
ANOTHER SORREL SOUP
Take a tablespoonful of breadcrumbs, moisten them in milk in a pan,
then add as much water as you require. Throw in three medium potatoes, a
handful of well washed sorrel, and a sprig or two of chervil, a lump of
butter, pepper, and salt. Bring to the boil, simmer for quarter of an
hour, pass through a tammy, heat again for ten minutes and serve burning
hot.
[_Esperance._]
HASTY SOUP
Into a quart of boiling water throw lightly four tablespoonfuls of
semolina, so that the grains are separated. Let it boil for a quarter
of an hour, with pepper and salt. Take the tureen and put the yolk of an
egg in it with a bit of butter the same size, mix them with a fork and
pour in a teacupful of hot water with extract of meat in it, as strong
as you wish. Quickly pour in the semolina soup and serve it at once.
This is a quickly made and inexpensive dish, besides which it is a nice
one.
[_Madame Alphonse F._]
ARTICHOKES A LA VEDETTE
Boil some globe artichokes in salted water till they are tender. Take
out the center leaves, leaving an even fringe of leaves on the outside.
Remove as much of the choke as you can. Put them back in a steamer. Toss
some cooked peas in butter, then mix them in cream and taking up your
artichokes again put in your cream and peas in the center of each, as
much as you can get in. The cream is not necessary for this dish to be
a good one, but the artichokes and peas must both be young. As a rule
people cut their fruit too soon and their vegetables too late.
[_Chef reconnaissant._]
SURPRISE POTATOES
Quarter of an hour will suffice to prepare and cook this savory
surprise, once the potatoes are baked. Take three large potatoes of
symmetrical size, clean and bake them; cut each in two and remove the
inside without injuring the skin. Melt half an ounce of butter by the
fire, add two ounces of potato passed through a sieve, a teaspoonful of
grated parmesan, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of milk. Then stir in
the yolk of an egg and presently the white, well beaten. Fill the empty
potato skins with the mixture which ought to rise and puff out in ten or
twelve minutes.
VEGETABLE SALADS
Sometimes one has a few leeks, a half cauliflower, a handful each of
peas and beans. Instead of currying these vegetables (which removes all
distinctive flavor from them) cook them gently, and toss them when cold
in a good salad dressing. If you can give the yolk of an egg to it, so
much the better. Any cold meat is improved by a side dish of this sort.
The vegetables that one can curry with advantage are large marrows, cut
into cubes, turnips, potatoes, parsnips.
[_Marguerite Leblanc_.]
TOMATOES A LA SIR EDWARD GREY HOMMAGE
Take some fine firm tomatoes, not very ripe. Turn them with the stalk
side up and cut a slice off the top with a sharp knife. Take out the
inside with a teaspoon. Break into each tomato a pullet's egg, sprinkle
with pepper and salt. The inside of the tomato you will pass through a
fine wire sieve and it will be a thick liquor; mix it with bread-crumbs,
salt, pepper, and some grated cheese till quite thick. Put this mixture
on the top of each egg and place all in the oven for three or four
minutes, so that the eggs are only just set and no more.
[_Amie inconnue._]
STUFFED CARROTS
Take some good sized carrots, and after washing them well and cutting
off the green tuft, cut each one across about two and a half inches
from the leaves. Scoop out the inside yellow part, leaving a case of
the redder part and a piece to form the bottom, at the smaller end. Then
stew the cases very gently till a little tender, but not quite soft.
Take them out of the water, drain them, and then placing each on its
small end, fill up with hot chopped mushrooms, that have been tossed in
butter. Arrange in a circle on a dish, and garnish with small sprigs of
carrot leaves. The insides that you have scooped out are to be used for
soup flavoring.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
TO COOK ASPARAGUS
One should not let the tips of this vegetable touch the water. Take your
bundle, dip the stalks in warm water to remove any dust, and the tips
also, if it is necessary. Then tie the bundle round with tape, keeping
the ends of stalks even so that it will stand upright. Place them in
boiling water with the heads just sticking out, and keep them like that.
In this way the heads, which are very tender, will be cooked in the
steam and will not drop off.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
TOMATOES IN HASTE
Butter a pie-dish, preferably a fireproof china dish. Open a tin of
tomatoes and remove as much skin as you can if they are the unpeeled
kind. Put a handful of crumbled brown bread in the dish with lumps of
butter, then pour on that some tomatoes, dust with pepper and salt, then
more bread, and so on, finishing at the last with lumps of butter, and a
thick sprinkling of grated cheese. Bake for twenty minutes.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
KIDNEYS AND LETTUCE
Put on some water to boil. Take your lettuce, and choose the round kind,
and wash it well. Take out neatly with your fingers the center leaves,
and fill up instead with a sheep's kidney which you have lightly dusted
with flour, pepper, and salt. Tie the lettuce round very firmly and set
it in a pan of boiling water that covers up only three quarters of the
vegetable. Boil for eighteen minutes. Take out the lettuce, untie it,
drain it, and serve at once. Kidneys are good when they are placed
inside large Spanish onions and gently stewed, in which case a dab of
made mustard is given them.
TOMATO RICE
Put on your rice to boil. Make a tomato sauce by stewing them gently,
and then rubbing them through a sieve; this makes a purée, which you
must put back to heat with pepper and salt and a small quantity of made
mustard. Then grate some parmesan, or failing that, some Gruyère cheese.
Take off the rice, drain it, keeping it hot, put it on a dish and pour
over it your purée. Then sprinkle the grated cheese thickly on top of
all.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
RICE WITH EGGS
Boil some rice till it will press closely together. Fill some teacups
with it, pressing the rice well down; then leave a hole in the middle
and pour into each hole a small raw egg, yolk, and white. Set the
tea-cups to cook in the oven, and when the eggs are just set and no
more, press on them some more rice. Turn them out of the teacups, and if
you have rubbed the inside of the cups with a little butter this will be
easy, and sprinkle over the top of each mold plenty of chopped parsley.
Do not forget salt and pepper to season the ingredients.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
BROAD BEANS IN SAUCE
Take your shelled beans, very young and tender. Throw them into boiling
water for a minute, then pour the water away. Heat for a pound of beans
one and one-half pints of milk, stir in four ounces of salt butter, a
very little chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Do not let the milk boil,
but when it simmers put in the beans. When they have been heated for
ten minutes, thicken your sauce with the yolks of two eggs and a
tablespoonful of cream. Take out a bean and eat it to see if it is
cooked, and if so, pour all on a hot dish. Garnish with fried sippets
of bread. Old broad beans can be treated in the same way, but they must
first be skinned.
[_Aimee._]
OMELETTE OF PEAS
Beat up three eggs, to which add one tablespoonful of grated cheese,
pepper, and salt, and mix thoroughly. Butter an omelette pan, and pour
in the mixture, keep moving it gently with a fork while you sprinkle in
with the other hand some cooked green peas. The omelette will be cooked
by the time you have sprinkled in two handfuls. Slip it off on to a very
hot dish, fold over, and serve at once.
[_Jean O._]
BRUSSELS ARTICHOKES
Wash well some globe artichokes, and boil them in salted water.
Meanwhile make a good mushroom filling, highly seasoned, of cooked
mushroom, dipped into butter, pepper, salt, a few breadcrumbs, and
shreds of ham. Remove the center leaves from the vegetable and as much
of the choke as you can. Fill up with the mushroom force and stew gently
in brown sauce flavored with a bunch of herbs.
[_F. R._]
BELGIAN SALAD
is merely endive, washed and torn apart with red peppers added here and
there as well as the ordinary salad dressing.
_Belgian asparagus_ is done by adding to the cooked vegetable a bechamel
sauce, poured over the dish, and then slices of hard boiled eggs placed
on the top. The giant asparagus is used, and it is eaten with a fork.
[_A Grocer's Wife._]
BRUSSELS CARROTS
Cut young carrots in small pieces, blanch them in salted water; melt
some butter in a stew pan, add enough water and meat extract to make
sufficient to cover the carrots, season with pepper, salt and a pinch
of sugar and toss the carrots in this till they are tender. Then add the
yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of cream, holding the pan just off
the fire with the left hand, while you stir with the right. When it
is well mixed pour all out on a vegetable dish and sprinkle over with
chopped parsley.
[_Amie reconnaissante._]
CARROTS AND EGGS
Make the same preparation as above, for the sauce, with the same
seasonings, but add a dust of nutmeg. Then add half a pint of white
stock which will be enough for a small bunch of carrots; simmer them
for fifteen minutes and then break in three whole eggs, taking care that
they fall apart from each other. Let them cook till nearly set (for they
will go on cooking in the hot sauce after you remove them from the fire)
and serve at once. This is nearly as good if you use old carrots sliced,
instead of the young ones.
[_M. Zoeben_.]
CUCUMBERS AND TOMATOES
Take two earthenware pots and put some tomatoes to stew in one, in
water, pepper, and salt. Peel a cucumber, open it, remove the seeds and
stuff it with any forcemeat that you have; but a white one is best. Let
it cook gently in some brown stock, well covered over. When tender
put the cucumber along the dish and tomatoes on each side. A puree of
potatoes can surround them.
[_A. Fanderverde_.]
RED HARICOTS
Soak some white haricot-beans over night, or stew them till tender in
some weak stock. Make a tomato sauce in a saucepan, and flavor it
rather strongly with made mustard, stirring well, so that it is well
incorporated. When the beans are tender, drain them from the liquor
(keeping them hot) and reduce that to half its quantity. Put back the
beans and add the tomato sauce, heat for a couple of minutes, and serve
with three-cornered pieces of toast.
[_Elise et Jean_.]
POTATOES A LA BRABANCONNE
Boil some potatoes, rub them through a sieve, add pepper, salt, and
a tablespoonful of cream to a pound of potatoes, rub through a tammy
again. Chop a shallot, a spring or two of parsley and mix them in,
sprinkling in at the same time a dust of nutmeg and a dessertspoonful of
grated cheese. Place the puree in a dish to be baked, and before setting
it in the oven sprinkle on the top some bread-crumbs, and cheese grated
and mixed and one or two pats of salt butter. Bake till it is a golden
brown.
[_Elise et Jean_.]
FLEMISH PEAS
Cook some young peas and some carrots (scraped and shaped into cones)
in separate pans. Then put them together in an earthenware close covered
pan to simmer together in butter and gravy, the first water having been
well drained from them. Season with pepper and salt and let them cook
gently for ten or twelve minutes; do not uncover the pot to stir it, but
shake it every now and then to prevent the contents from burning.
[_Amie inconnue_.]
CHOU-CROUTE
Take as many white September cabbages as you wish, trim them, cut in
halves, remove the stalks, wash them very thoroughly and shred them
pretty finely. Procure an earthenware crock and put in a layer of
cabbage, sprinkle it with coarse salt, whole pepper, and juniper
berries. Fill up the crock in this way, put on the lid, and keep it down
closely with weights. It will be ready in about six weeks' time, when
the fermentation has taken place. It is good with pork or bacon.
SPINACH FRITTERS
Take any cold boiled spinach--though people generally eat all that there
is--and mix it thickly with the yolk of egg and a little rice flour; you
may add a little powdered sugar. Have ready some boiling fat, and drop
spoonfuls of the spinach into it. If the fat is hot enough the fritters
will puff out. Drain them quickly and serve very hot.
HARLEQUIN CABBAGES
Shred some red cabbage, to half a pound of it add two medium sized
apples, minced finely without core or skin, a bit of fat bacon, season
with pepper, salt, vinegar, which should be tarragon vinegar, and put
it to simmer in some gravy or milk and water. It should cook for an hour
over a gentle fire. Cook separately some green cabbage, cleaned, boiled
till tender in salted water, chopped, then put back on a gentle fire
with salt, pepper, a dust of nutmeg, and some fat or butter. Let it heat
and mix well, and then serve the two colors side by side in the same
dish; the red cabbage has a sour and the green has a nutty flavor which
is very agreeable.
LITTLE TOWERS OF SALAD
Put a couple of eggs on to boil hard, while you make a thick mayonnaise
sauce. Cut some beetroot, some cucumber, some cold potato, some tomato
into slices. Peel your eggs, and slice them, and build up little piles
of the different things, till about two inches high. Between each slice
you will sprinkle grated breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, a tiny scrap of
chopped raw shallot, parsley, all mixed in a cup. Finish with the
rounded ends of white of egg on the top, put lettuce round and pour the
dressing over it.
PUFFS FOR FRIDAY
Make a batter of a beaten egg, a dust of rice flour, pepper, salt and as
much cream as you can give. Roll out this batter so thinly that you
can almost see through it. Cut it into rounds and put on it any cooked
vegetables that you have, but they must be highly seasoned. Cold
potatoes will do if they are done with mustard, vinegar, or a strong
boiled sauce. Fold over the paste, press it together at the edges, and
fry in hot fat.
HADDOCK A LA CARDINAL
Take some fillets of haddock, or cod or hake, and poach them gently in
milk and water. Meanwhile, prepare a good white sauce, and in another
pan a thick tomato sauce, highly seasoned, colored with cochineal if
need be, and as thick as a good cream. Lay the fillets when cooked one
each on a plate, put some of the white sauce round it, and along the top
put the tomato sauce which must not run down. A sprig of chervil is to
be placed at each end of the fillet.
[_Seulette._]
SKATE STEW
Put the fins, skin, trimmings of skate into water enough to cook them,
with pepper and salt and simmer for half an hour. Strain it through a
fine sieve. Make a brown sauce of butter and flour, pepper, salt, adding
a little milk, about a teacupful for a pound of skate, then squeeze in
the juice of half a lemon, and if you have it, a glass of white wine.
Take the skate, cut it in pieces, simmer it in salted water; when
cooked, strain away the water, dish the fish, pouring over it the above
sauce. Decorate with strips of lemon peel laid in a lattice-work down
the center.
[_Une epiciere_.]
TO DRESS COARSE FISH
Any fish is good if dressed in this way. Make a brown sauce, well
flouring it with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. Mince and fry a shallot
and add it, then a large glass of red wine, a few drops of lemon juice.
Cook some fish roe, sieve it, and stir it into the sauce. Take your fish
and simmer it in milk and water till cooked, then heat it up quickly in
the sauce to serve.
[_F. R._]
FLEMISH SALAD
This is fillets of herring, laid in a bowl with slices of apple,
beetroot, cold potatoes, and cold cooked sprouts, covered with the
ordinary salad dressing. If the fish is salted, let it soak first of
all in milk to take away the greater part of the salt. This is a winter
dish, but the same sort of thing is prepared in summer, substituting
cold cooked peas, cauliflower, artichokes, beans, with the fish.
[_Amie reconnaissante._]
FLEMISH SAUCE
This popular sauce is composed of melted butter thickened with yolk of
egg and flavored with mustard; it is used greatly for fish.
BEEF SQUARES
If you have a small piece of very good beef, such as rump steak or
fillet of beef, it is more economical to cut it into squares, and grill
it lightly at a clear fire. Have ready some squares of toast, buttered
and hot, lay these on a hot dish with a bit of steak on the top, and on
the top of that a slice of tomato much peppered and salted and a small
pile of horse-radish. This makes a pretty dish and can be varied by
using capers or chopped gherkins instead of horse-radish. It is a great
saving to cut meat, bread, etc., in squares instead of rounds.
[_Une amie au convent._]
IMITATION CUTLETS
A dish that I have done for those who like curry flavoring is the
following. Take any cold cooked vegetables, and cutting them in small
pieces, roll them in a thick white sauce which you have strongly
flavored with curry. Put it aside to get firm. If you are in a hurry you
can bind with the yolk of an egg in the flour and make a thick batter in
that way. Form into cutlets and fry as you would a real cutlet. The same
thing can be done with macaroni or spaghetti that is already cooked,
with cold fish or anything that is insipid to the taste.
[_Une amie au convent_.]
KIDNEYS WITH MADEIRA
Use either sheep or pigs' kidneys. Cut them longways, so as to be able
to take out the threads from the inside of them. Put some butter on to
fry over a brisk fire and when it is browned, but not burnt, put in the
kidneys for three or four minutes. Take them out and keep them hot for a
minute while you add to the butter they were cooked in a soupspoonful
of Madeira wine, a good dust of chopped parsley, a little cayenne pepper
and salt. Mix it well, and if too thick add a little gravy. Pour the
sauce over the kidneys and finish with a powdering of chopped parsley.
Fried potatoes are eaten with this dish.
[_Mme. Vanderbelle Genotte._]
PIGS' TROTTERS IN BLANQUETTE
Any part of pork or veal is good done in this way. Take your pieces of
meat and fry them in butter till they are a good golden brown color. Put
them in a pan, covering them with water, and adding a sliced onion,
a bay leaf, a whole carrot, a leek, pepper, salt,--let it all simmer
gently over a slow fire till the meat is cooked but not boiled. Take the
pieces from the liquor and pass it through a sieve. Mix a little rice
flour in a cup of cold water, stirring well. Drop in the juice of half
a lemon and the beaten yolk of an egg, which stir round quickly. Put in
the meat again for a moment and serve it with boiled potatoes.
LOIN OF MUTTON IN THE POT
Put in an earthenware pot three shallots, finely minced; take a bit of
garlic, cut it close and rub it round the side of the pot; put in as
well a lump of butter, pepper and salt, and some rather fat gravy.
Divide the loin and put six chops in to simmer for three quarters of an
hour on a moderate fire, covering the pot with the lid. Before you serve
it, stir in a little lemon juice and stir up the sauce. To be served
with Cauliflower à la Aerschot as follows: Cut your cauliflower into
medium pieces, seeing that it is very clean, while you have some salted
water boiling up. Put in the pieces, boil till tender, then drain them
on a sieve. Put leaves and trimming of the vegetable into the pot to
simmer and serve as basis for a vegetable soup. Make a good white
sauce, adding the yolk of an egg, and flavoring it with nutmeg. Put the
vegetable on a dish and pour over the sauce, letting it stand for a few
moments by the fire before it is eaten.
[_Madame Herman Noppen._]
OX TONGUE WITH SPINACH AND WHITE SAUCE
Boil the tongue in salted water till the outer skin will peel off. Take
this off, then put the tongue back in the liquor to simmer while you
prepare the same. Take a piece of butter the size of an egg, melt it and
mix it with two dessertspoonfuls of ground rice, add some of the liquor,
pepper, and salt, stir well, so that it makes a good cream; drop in the
yolks of two eggs, always stirring, and a little lemon juice. Serve
the tongue whole with this sauce poured over it and spinach done in the
following way: Wash the spinach in running water till every bit of grit
has gone. Put some water on to boil, salt it well, and throw in the
spinach which you have freed from mid-rib and stalk. The water must be
boiling and the fire brisk. When tender, pass the spinach through the
sieve, then put a bit of butter into an enameled saucepan, then the
spinach, which heat for six minutes, add a little pepper. Serve it with
the tongue, and you can garnish as well with little croutons of bread
fried in butter.
[_Madame Herman Noppen_.]
VEAL FRITTERS
If you have only a little piece of veal or other cold meat, you can make
a very presentable dish in the following way: Cut a thin slice of meat
and spread on each side of it a layer of mashed potatoes to which you
have added some tomato sauce. Beat up an egg and dip the slices and
potato into it, lay them in fine breadcrumbs and fry them till a good
golden color in plenty of fat. Send them to table under a hot cover.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
STEWED BEEF