dipped into fresh water the instant before they are put into the
stewpan. They should be quickly lifted from it, and will stew down
easily to sauce with only the moisture which hangs about them. They
should be watched and often gently stirred, that they may be equally
done.
BAKED APPLE SAUCE.
(_Good._)
Put a tablespoonful of water into a quart basin, and fill it with good
boiling apples, pared, quartered, and _carefully_ cored: put a plate
over, and set them into a moderate oven for about an hour, or until they
are reduced quite to a pulp; beat them smooth with a clean wooden spoon,
adding to them a little sugar and a morsel of fresh butter, when these
are liked, though they will scarcely be required.
The sauce made thus is far superior to that which is boiled. When no
other oven is at hand, a Dutch or an American one would probably answer
for it; but we cannot assert this on our own experience.
Good boiling apples, 1 quart: baked 1 hour (more or less according to
the quality of the fruit, and temperature of the oven); sugar, 1 oz.;
butter, 1/2 oz.
BROWN APPLE SAUCE.
Stew gently down to a thick and perfectly smooth marmalade, a pound of
pearmains, or of any other well-flavoured boiling apples, in about the
third of a pint of rich brown gravy: season the sauce rather highly with
black pepper or cayenne, and serve it very hot. Curry sauce will make an
excellent substitute for the gravy when a very piquant accompaniment is
wanted for pork or other rich meat.
Apples pared and cored, 1 lb.; good brown gravy, third of pint 3/4 to
1-1/4 hour. Pepper or cayenne as needed.
WHITE ONION SAUCE.
Strip the skin from some large white onions, and after having taken off
the tops and roots cut them in two, throw them into cold water as they
are done, cover them plentifully with more water, and boil them very
tender; lift them out, drain, and then press the water thoroughly from
them; chop them small, rub them through a sieve or strainer, put them
into a little rich melted butter mixed with a spoonful or two of cream
or milk, and a seasoning of salt, give the sauce a boil, and serve it
very hot. Portugal onions are superior to any others, both for this and
for most other purposes of cookery.
For the finest kind of onion sauce, see _Soubise_, page 126, which follows.
BROWN ONION SAUCE.
Cut off both ends of the onions, and slice them into a saucepan in which
two ounces of butter have been dissolved; keep them stewing gently over
a clear fire until they are lightly coloured; then pour to them half a
pint of brown gravy, and when they have boiled until they are perfectly
tender, work the sauce altogether through a strainer, season it with a
little cayenne, and serve it very hot.
ANOTHER BROWN ONION SAUCE.
Mince the onions, stew them in butter until they are well coloured, stir
in a dessertspoonful of flour, shake the stewpan over the fire for three
or four minutes, pour in only as much broth or gravy as will leave the
sauce tolerably thick, season, and serve it.
SOUBISE.
(_English Receipt._)
Skin, slice, and mince quickly two pounds’ weight of the white part only
of some fine mild onions, and stew them in from two to three ounces of
good butter over a very gentle fire until they are reduced to a pulp,
then pour to them three-quarters of a pint of rich veal gravy; add a
seasoning of salt and cayenne, if needed; skim off the fat entirely,
press the sauce through a sieve, heat it in a clean stewpan, mix it with
a quarter of a pint of rich boiling cream, and serve it directly.
Onions, 2 lbs.; butter, 2 to 3 oz.: 30 minutes to 1 hour. Veal gravy,
3/4 pint; salt, cayenne: 5 minutes. Cream, 1/4 pint.
SOUBISE.
(_French Receipt._)
Peel some fine white onions, and trim away all tough and discoloured
parts; mince them small, and throw them into plenty of boiling water;
when they have boiled quickly for five minutes drain them well in a
sieve, then stew them very softly indeed in an ounce or two of fresh
butter until they are dry and perfectly tender; stir to them as much
_béchamel_ as will bring them to the consistence of very thick pea-soup,
pass the whole through a strainer, pressing the onion strongly that none
may remain behind, and heat the sauce afresh, without allowing it to
boil. A small half-teaspoonful of pounded sugar is sometimes added to
this _soubise_.
White part of onions, 2 lbs.: blanched 5 minutes. Butter, 2 oz.: 30 to
50 minutes. Béchamel, 3/4 to 1 pint, or more.
_Obs._—These sauces are served more frequently with lamb or mutton
cutlets than with any other dishes; but they would probably find many
approvers if sent to table with roast mutton, or boiled veal. Half the
quantity given above will be sufficient for a moderate-sized dish.
MILD RAGOUT OF GARLIC, OR, L’AIL À LA BORDELAISE.
Divide some fine cloves of garlic, strip off the skin, and when all are
ready throw them into plenty of boiling water slightly salted; in five
minutes drain this from them, and pour in as much more, which should
also be quite boiling; continue to change it every five or six minutes
until the garlic is quite tender: throw in a moderate proportion of salt
the last time to give it the proper flavour. Drain it thoroughly, and
serve it in the dish with roast mutton, or put it into good brown gravy
or white sauce for table. By changing very frequently the water in which
it is boiled, the root will be deprived of its naturally pungent flavour
and smell, and rendered extremely mild: when it is not wished to be
quite so much so, change the water every ten minutes only.
Garlic, 1 pint: 15 to 25 minutes, or more. Water to be changed every 5
or 6 minutes; or every 10 minutes when not wished so _very_ mild. Gravy
or sauce, 1 pint.
MILD ESCHALOT SAUCE.
Prepare and boil from half to a whole pint of eschalots by the preceding
receipt; unless very large, they will be tender in about fifteen
minutes, sometimes in less, in which case the water must be poured from
them shortly after it has been changed for the second time. When grown
in a suitable soil, and cultivated with care, the eschalots are
sometimes treble the size that they are under other circumstances; and
this difference must be allowed for in boiling them. Drain them _well_,
and mix them with white sauce or gravy, or with good melted butter, and
serve them very hot.
A FINE SAUCE, OR PURÉE OF VEGETABLE MARROW.
Pare one or two half-grown marrows and cut out all the seeds; take a
pound of the vegetable, and slice it, with one ounce of mild onion, into
a pint of strong veal broth or of pale gravy; stew them very softly for
nearly or quite an hour; add salt and cayenne, or white pepper, when
they are nearly done; press the whole through a fine and delicately
clean hair-sieve; heat it afresh, and stir to it when it boils about the
third of a pint of rich cream. Serve it with boiled chickens, stewed or
boiled veal, lamb cutlets, or any other delicate meat. When to be served
as a purée, an additional half-pound of the vegetable must be used; and
it should be dished with small fried sippets round it. For a _maigre_
dish, stew the marrow and onion quite tender in butter, and dilute them
with half boiling water and half cream.
Vegetable marrow, 1 lb.; mild onion, 1 oz.; strong broth or pale gravy,
1 pint: nearly or quite 1 hour. Pepper or cayenne, and salt as needed;
good cream, from 1/4 to 3/4 of pint. For purée, 1/2 lb. more of marrow.
EXCELLENT TURNIP, OR ARTICHOKE SAUCE FOR BOILED MEAT.
Pare, slice, and boil quite tender, some finely-grained mild turnips,
press the water from them thoroughly, and pass them through a sieve.
Dissolve a slice of butter in a clean saucepan, and stir to it a large
teaspoonful of flour, or mix them smoothly together before they are put
in, and shake the saucepan round until they boil: pour to them very
gradually nearly a pint of thin cream (or of good milk mixed with a
portion of cream), add the turnips with a half-teaspoonful or more of
salt, and when the whole is well mixed and very hot, pour it over boiled
mutton, veal, lamb, or poultry. There should be sufficient of the sauce
to cover the meat entirely;[58] and when properly made it improves
greatly the appearance of a joint. A little cayenne tied in a muslin may
be boiled in the milk before it is mixed with the turnips. Jerusalem
artichokes make a more delicate sauce of this kind even than turnips;
the weight of both vegetables must be taken after they are pared.
Footnote 58:
The objection to _masking_ a joint with this or any other sauce is,
that it speedily becomes cold when spread over its surface: a portion
of it at least should be served very hot in a tureen.
Pared turnips or artichokes, 1 lb.; fresh butter, 1-1/2 oz.; flour, 1
large teaspoonful (twice as much if all milk be used); salt, 1/2
teaspoonful or more; cream, or cream and milk mixed, from 3/4 to 1 pint.
OLIVE SAUCE.
Remove the stones from some fine French or Italian olives by paring the
fruit close to them, round and round in the form of a corkscrew: they
will then resume their original shape when done. Weigh six ounces thus
prepared, throw them into boiling water, let them blanch for five
minutes; then drain, and throw them into cold water, and leave them in
it from half an hour to an hour, proportioning the time to their
saltness; drain them well, and stew them gently from fifteen to
twenty-five minutes in a pint of very rich brown gravy or _Espagnole_
(see Chapter IV.); add the juice of half a lemon, and serve the sauce
very hot. Half this quantity will be sufficient for a small party.
Olives, stoned, 6 oz.; rich gravy, 1 pint: 15 to 25 minutes. Juice, 1/2
lemon.
_Obs._—In France this sauce is served very commonly with ducks, and
sometimes with beef-steaks, and with stewed fowl.
CELERY SAUCE.
Slice the white part of from three to five heads of young tender celery;
peel it if not very young, and boil it in salt and water for twenty
minutes. If for white sauce put the celery, after it has been well
drained, into half a pint of veal broth or gravy, and let it stew until
it is quite soft; then add an ounce and a half of butter, mixed with a
dessertspoonful of flour, and a quarter of a pint of thick cream or the
yolks of three eggs. The French, after boiling the celery, which they
cut very small, for about twenty minutes, drain and _chop_ it; then put
it with a slice of butter into a stewpan, and season it with pepper,
salt, and nutmeg; they keep these stirred over the fire for two or three
minutes, and then dredge in a dessertspoonful of flour: when this has
lost its raw taste, they pour in a sufficient quantity of white gravy to
moisten the celery, and to allow for twenty minutes’ longer boiling. A
very good common celery sauce is made by simply stewing the celery cut
into inch-lengths in butter, until it begins to be tender; and then
adding a spoonful of flour, which must be allowed to brown a little, and
half a pint of _good_ broth or beef gravy, with a seasoning of pepper or
cayenne.
Celery, 3 to 5 heads: 20 minutes. Veal broth, or gravy, 1/2 pint; 20 to
40 minutes. Butter, 1-1/2 oz.; flour, 1 dessertspoonful; cream, 1/4
pint, or three yolks of eggs.
WHITE CHESTNUT SAUCE.
Strip the outer rind from six ounces of sound sweet chestnuts, then
throw them into boiling water, and let them simmer for two or three
minutes, when the second skin will easily peel off. Add to them three
quarters of a pint of good cold veal gravy, and a few strips of lemon
rind, and let them stew gently for an hour and a quarter. Press them,
with the gravy, through a hair-sieve reversed and placed over a deep
dish or pan, as they are much more easily rubbed through thus than in
the usual way: a wooden spoon should be used in preference to any other
for the process. Add a little cayenne and mace, some salt if needed, and
about six tablespoonsful of rich cream. Keep the sauce stirred until it
boils, and serve it immediately.
Chestnuts without their rinds, 6 oz.; veal gravy, 1 pint; rind of 1/2
lemon: 1-1/4 hour. Salt; spice; cream, 6 tablespoonsful.
_Obs._—This sauce may be served with turkey, with fowls, or with stewed
veal cutlets.
BROWN CHESTNUT SAUCE.
Substitute rich brown gravy for the veal stock, omit the lemon-rind and
cream, heighten the seasonings, and mix the chestnuts with a few
spoonsful of _Espagnole_ or highly flavoured gravy, after they have been
passed through the sieve.
PARSLEY-GREEN, FOR COLOURING SAUCES.
Gather a quantity of young parsley, strip it from the stalks, wash it
very clean, shake it as dry as possible in a cloth, pound it in a
mortar, press all the juice closely from it through a hair-sieve
reversed, and put it into a clean jar; set it into a pan of boiling
water, and in about three minutes, if _gently_ simmered, the juice will
be poached sufficiently; lay it then upon a clean sieve to drain, and it
will be ready for use.
Spinach-green, for which particular directions will be found at the
commencement of Chapter XXIV., is prepared in the same manner. The juice
of various herbs pounded together may be pressed from them through a
sieve and added to cold sauces.
TO CRISP PARSLEY.
Wash some branches of young parsley well, drain them from the water, and
swing them in a clean cloth until they are quite dry; place them on a
sheet of writing paper in a Dutch oven, before a brisk fire, and keep
them frequently turned until they are quite crisp. They will become so
in from six to eight minutes.
FRIED PARSLEY.
When the parsley has been prepared as for crisping, and is _quite_ dry,
throw it into plenty of lard or butter, which is on the point of
boiling; take it up with a skimmer the instant it is crisp, and drain it
on a cloth spread upon a sieve reversed, and placed before the fire.
MILD MUSTARD.
Mustard for instant use should be mixed with milk, to which a spoonful
or two of very thin cream may be added.
MUSTARD THE COMMON WAY.
The great art of mixing mustard is to have it perfectly smooth, and of a
proper consistency. The liquid with which it is moistened should be
added to it in small quantities, and the mustard should be well rubbed,
and beaten with a spoon. Mix half a teaspoonful of salt with two ounces
of the flour of mustard, and stir to them by degrees sufficient boiling
water to reduce it to the appearance of a thick batter: do not put it
into the mustard-glass until it is cold. Some persons like a
half-teaspoonful of sugar in the finest powder mixed with it. It ought
to be sufficiently diluted always to drop easily from the spoon; and to
bring it to this state more than a quarter of a pint, and less than
_half_ a pint of liquid will be needed for four ounces of the best
Durham mustard.
For Tartar mustard see Chapter VII.
FRENCH BATTER.
(_For frying vegetables, and for apple, peach, or orange fritters._)
Cut a couple of ounces of good butter into small bits, pour on it less
than a quarter of a pint of boiling water, and when it is dissolved add
three quarters of a pint of cold water, so that the whole shall not be
quite milk warm; mix it then by degrees and very smoothly with twelve
ounces of fine dry flour and a _small_ pinch of salt if the batter be
for fruit fritters, but with more if for meat or vegetables. Just before
it is used, stir into it the whites of two eggs beaten to a solid froth;
but previously to this, add a little water should it appear too thick,
as some flour requires more liquid than other to bring it to the proper
consistence; this is an exceedingly light crisp batter, excellent for
the purposes for which it is named.
Butter, 2 oz.; water, from 3/4 to nearly 1 pint; little salt; flour, 3/4
lb.; whites of 2 eggs, beaten to snow.
TO PREPARE BREAD FOR FRYING FISH.
Cut thick slices from the middle of a loaf of light stale bread, pare
the crust entirely from them, and dry them gradually in a cool oven
until they are crisp quite through; let them become cold, then roll or
beat them into fine crumbs, and keep them in a dry place for use. To
strew over hams or cheeks of bacon, the bread should be left all night
in the oven, which should be sufficiently heated to brown, as well as to
harden it: it ought indeed to be entirely converted into
equally-coloured crust. It may be sifted through a dredging-box on to
the hams after it has been reduced almost to powder.
BROWNED FLOUR FOR THICKENING SOUPS AND GRAVIES.
Spread it on a tin or dish and colour it, without burning, in a gentle
oven or before the fire in a Dutch or American oven: turn it often, or
the edges will be too much browned before the middle is enough so. This,
blended with butter, makes a convenient thickening for soups or gravies
of which it is desirable to deepen the colour; and it requires less time
and attention than the French _roux_ of page 10.
FRIED BREAD-CRUMBS.
Grate lightly into very fine crumbs four ounces of stale bread, and
_shake_ them through a cullender;[59] without rubbing or touching them
with the hands. Dissolve two ounces of fresh butter in a frying-pan,
throw in the crumbs, and stir them constantly over a moderate fire,
until they are all of a clear golden colour; lift them out with a
skimmer, spread them on a soft cloth, or upon white blotting paper, laid
upon a sieve reversed, and dry them before the fire. They may be more
delicately prepared by browning them in a gentle oven without the
addition of butter.
Footnote 59:
This is not necessary when they are lightly and finely grated of
uniform size.
Bread, 4 oz.; butter, 2 oz.
FRIED BREAD FOR GARNISHING.
Cut the crumb of a stale loaf in slices a quarter of an inch thick; form
them into diamonds or half diamonds, or shape them with a paste-cutter
in any another way; fry them in fresh butter, some of a very pale brown
and others a deeper colour; dry them well, and place them alternately
round the dish that is to be garnished. They may be made to adhere to
the edge of the dish when they are required for _ornament_ only, by
means of a little flour and white of egg brushed over the side which is
placed on it: this must be allowed to dry before they are served.
For SWEET-PUDDING SAUCES, see Chapter XX.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VI.
=Cold Sauces, Salads, etc.=
SUPERIOR MINT-SAUCE.
(_To serve with lamb._)
THE mint for this sauce should be fresh and young, for when old it is
tough and indigestible. Strip the leaves from the stems, wash them with
great nicety, and drain them on a sieve, or dry them in a cloth; chop
them very fine, put them into a sauce-tureen, and to three heaped
tablespoonsful of the mint add two of pounded sugar; let them remain a
short time well mixed together, then pour to them gradually six
tablespoonsful of good vinegar. The sauce thus made is excellent, and
far more wholesome than when a larger proportion of vinegar and a
smaller one of sugar is used for it; but, after the first trial, the
proportions can easily be adapted to the taste of the eaters.
COMMON MINT-SAUCE.
Two tablespoonsful of mint, one _large_ tablespoonful of pale brown
sugar, well mixed together, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar, stirred
until the sugar is entirely dissolved.
STRAINED MINT SAUCE.
Persons with whom the mint in substance disagrees can have the flavour
of the herb without it, by mixing the ingredients of either of the
preceding receipts, and straining the sauce after it has stood for two
or three hours; the mint should be well pressed when this is done. The
flavour will be the more readily extracted if the mint and sugar are
well mixed, and left for a time before the vinegar is added.
FINE HORSERADISH SAUCE.
(_To serve with cold, roast, stewed, or boiled beef._)
The root for this excellent sauce should be young and tender, and grated
down on a very fine bright grater, quite to a pulp, after it has been
washed, wiped, and scraped free from the outer skin. We have given the
proportions for it in the preceding chapter, but repeat them here.
Horseradish, 2 heaped tablespoonsful; salt, 1 moderate teaspoonful; rich
cream, 4 tablespoonsful; good vinegar, 3 dessertspoonsful (of which one
may be chili vinegar when the root is mild.) When the other ingredients
are smoothly mingled, the vinegar must be stirred briskly to them in
very small portions. A few drops of garlic or shalot vinegar can be
added to them when it is liked.
COLD MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL, OR STEWARD’S SAUCE.
Work well together until they are perfectly blended, two or three ounces
of good butter, some pepper, salt, minced parsley, and the strained
juice of a sound lemon of moderate size. The sauce thus prepared is
often put into broiled fish; and laid in the dish _under_ broiled
kidneys, beef-steaks, and other meat.
For 2 oz. butter, 1 _heaped_ teaspoonful young minced parsley; juice of
1 lemon; 1 small saltspoonful salt; seasoning of white pepper.
_Obs._—The proportion of parsley may be doubled when a larger quantity
is liked: a little fine cayenne would often be preferred to the pepper.
COLD DUTCH OR AMERICAN SAUCE, FOR SALADS OF DRESSED VEGETABLES, SALT
FISH, OR HARD EGGS.
Put into a saucepan three ounces of good butter very smoothly blended
with a quite small teaspoonful of flour, and add to them a large
wineglassful of cold water, half as much sharp vinegar (or very fresh,
strained, lemon-juice) a saltspoonful of salt, and half as much cayenne
in fine powder. Keep these shaken briskly round, or stirred over a clear
fire, until they form a smooth sauce and boil rapidly; then stir them
very quickly to the beaten yolks of four fresh eggs, which will
immediately give the sauce the consistence of custard; pour it hot over
the salad, and place it on ice, or in a very cool larder until it is
quite cold: if properly made, it will be very thick and smooth, and
slightly _set_, as if it contained a small portion of isinglass. A
dessertspoonful of parsley,—or of tarragon,—can be mingled with it at
_pleasure_, or any flavour given to it with store-sauces which is liked.
It converts flakes of salt-fish, sliced potatoes (new or old), and hard
eggs, into excellent salads.
ENGLISH SAUCE FOR SALAD, COLD MEAT, OR COLD FISH.
The first essential for a smooth, well-made English salad dressing is to
have the yolks of the eggs used for it sufficiently hard to be reduced
easily to a perfect paste. They should be boiled at least fifteen
minutes, and should have become _quite_ cold before they are taken from
the shells; they should also be well covered with water when they are
cooked, or some parts of them will be tough, and will spoil the
appearance of the sauce by rendering it lumpy, unless they be worked
through a sieve, a process which is always better avoided if possible.
To a couple of yolks broken up and mashed to a paste with the back of a
wooden spoon, add a small saltspoonful of salt, a large one of pounded
sugar, a few grains of fine cayenne, and a teaspoonful of cold water;
mix these well, and stir to them by degrees a quarter of a pint of sweet
cream; throw in next, stirring the sauce briskly, a tablespoonful of
strong chili vinegar, and add as much common or French vinegar as will
acidulate the mixture agreeably. A tablespoonful of either will be
sufficient for many tastes, but it is easy to increase the proportion
when more is liked. Six tablespoonsful of olive oil, of the purest
quality, may be substituted for the cream: it should be added in very
small portions to the other ingredients, and stirred briskly as each is
added until the sauce resembles custard. When this is used, the water
should be omitted. The piquancy of this preparation—which is very
delicate, made by the directions just given—may be heightened by the
addition of a little eschalot vinegar, Harvey’s sauce, essence of
anchovies, French mustard, or tarragon vinegar; or by bruising with the
eggs a morsel of garlic, half the size of a hazel-nut: it should always,
however, be rendered as appropriate as may be to the dish with which it
is to be served.
_Obs. 1._—As we have before had occasion to remark, garlic, when very
sparingly and judiciously used, imparts a remarkably fine savour to a
sauce or gravy, and neither a strong nor a coarse one, as it does when
used in larger quantities. The veriest morsel (or, as the French call
it, a mere _soupçon_) of the root, is sufficient to give this agreeable
piquancy, but unless the proportion be extremely small, the effect will
be quite different. The Italians dress their salads upon a round of
delicately toasted bread, which is rubbed with garlic, saturated with
oil, and sprinkled with cayenne, before it is laid into the bowl: they
also eat the bread thus prepared, but with less of oil, and untoasted
often, before their meals, as a digester.
_Obs. 2._—French vinegar is so infinitely superior to English in
strength, purity, and flavour, that we cannot forbear to recommend it in
preference for the use of the table. We have for a long time past been
supplied with some of most excellent quality (labelled _Vinaigre de
Bordeaux_) imported by the Messrs. Kent & Sons, of Upton-on-Severn, who
supply it largely, we believe, both to wholesale and retail venders in
town and country.
THE POET’S RECEIPT FOR SALAD.[60]
Footnote 60:
_Note._—This receipt, though long privately circulated amongst the
friends and acquaintance of its distinguished and regretted author,
now (with permission) appears for the first time in print. We could
not venture to deviate by a word from the original, but we would
suggest, that the mixture forms almost a substitute for salad, instead
of a mere dressing. It is, however, an admirable compound for those to
whom the slight flavouring of onion is not an objection.
“Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve
Unwonted softness to the salad give;
Of mordent mustard, add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment which bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault,
To add a double quantity of salt;
Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
And once with vinegar, procured from town;
True flavour needs it, and your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs;
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole;
And lastly, in the flavoured compound toss
A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce:
Then, though green turtle fail, though venison’s tough,
And ham and turkey are not boiled enough,
Serenely full, the epicure may say—
Fate cannot harm me,—I have dined to-day.”
Two well-boiled potatoes, passed through a sieve; a teaspoonful of
mustard; two teaspoonsful of salt; one of essence of anchovy; about a
quarter of a teaspoonful of very finely-chopped onions, well bruised
into the mixture; three tablespoonsful of oil; one of vinegar; the yolks
of two eggs, hard boiled. Stir up the salad immediately before dinner,
and stir it up thoroughly.
N.B.—As this salad is the result of great experience and reflection, it
is hoped young salad makers will not attempt to make any improvements
upon it.
SAUCE MAYONNAISE.
(_For salads, cold meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables._)
This is a very fine sauce when all the ingredients used for it are good;
but it will prove an uneatable compound to a delicate taste unless it be
made with oil of the purest quality.
Put into a large basin the yolks only of two very fresh eggs, carefully
freed from specks, with a little salt and cayenne; stir these well
together, then add about a teaspoonful of the purest salad oil, and work
the mixture round with a wooden spoon until it appears like cream. Pour
in by slow degrees nearly half a pint of oil, continuing at each
interval to work the sauce as at first until it resumes the smoothness
of cream, and not a particle of the oil remains visible; then add a
couple of tablespoonsful of plain French or of tarragon vinegar, and one
of cold water to whiten the sauce. A bit of clear veal jelly the size of
an egg will improve it greatly. The reader who may have a prejudice
against the unboiled eggs which enter into the composition of the
Mayonnaise, will find that the most fastidious taste would not detect
their being raw, if the sauce be well made; and persons who dislike oil
may partake of it in this form, without being aware of its presence,
provided always that it be perfectly fresh, and pure in flavour, for
otherwise it will be easily perceptible.
Yolks of fresh unboiled eggs, 2; salt, 1/2 saltspoonful, or rather more;
cayenne; oil, full third of pint; French or tarragon vinegar, 2
tablespoonsful; cold water, 1 tablespoonful; meat jelly (if at hand),
size of an egg.
RED OR GREEN MAYONNAISE SAUCE.
Colour may be given either to the preceding or to the following _Sauce
Mayonnaise_ by mingling with it some hard lobster-coral reduced to
powder by rubbing it through a very fine hair-sieve: the red hue of this
is one of the most brilliant and beautiful that can be seen, but the
sauce for which it is used can only be appropriately served with fish or
fish-salads. Spinach-green will impart a fine tint to any preparation,
but its flavour is objectionable: that of parsley-green is more
agreeable. Directions for both of these are contained in the previous
chapter.
IMPERIAL MAYONNAISE.
(_An elegant jellied sauce, or salad-dressing._)
Put into a bowl half a pint of aspic, or of any very clear pale jellied
stock (that made usually for good white soup will serve for the purpose
excellently); add to it a couple of spoonsful of the purest olive-oil,
one of sharp vinegar, and a little fine salt and cayenne. Break up the
jelly quite small with the points of a whisk of osier-twigs, stir the
ingredients well together, and then whisk them gently until they are
converted into a smooth white sauce. This receipt was derived originally
from an admirable French cook,[61] who stood _quite_ at the head of his
profession; but as he was accustomed to purvey for the tables of kings
and emperors, his directions require some curtailment and simplifying to
adapt them to the resources of common English life. He directs the
preparation to be mixed and worked—to use a technical expression—over
_ice_, which cannot always be commanded, except in opulent
establishments, and in large towns. It is not, however, essential to the
success of this sauce, which will prove extremely good if made and kept
in a cool larder; or, if the bowl in which it is mingled be placed in a
pan of cold water, into which plenty of saltpetre and sal-ammoniac,
roughly powdered, are thrown at the moment it is set into it. In this
country a smaller proportion of oil, and a larger one of acid, are
usually preferred to the common French salad-dressings, in which there
is generally a very small portion of vinegar. To some tastes a spoonful
or two of cream would improve the present Mayonnaise, which may be
varied also with chili, tarragon, or other flavoured vinegar. It should
be served heaped high in the centre of the salad, for which, if large,
double the quantity directed _here_ should be prepared.
Footnote 61:
Monsieur Carême, to whose somewhat elaborate but admirable works,
published thirty years or more since, all modern cooks appear to be
specially indebted.
REMOULADE.
This differs little from an ordinary English salad-dressing. Pound very
smoothly indeed the yolks of two or three hard-boiled eggs with a
teaspoonful of mustard, half as much salt, and some cayenne, or white
pepper. Mix gradually with them, working the whole well together, two or
three tablespoonsful of oil and two of vinegar. Should the sauce be
curdled, pour it by degrees to the yolk of a raw egg, stirring it well
round as directed for the Mayonnaise. A spoonful of tarragon, cucumber,
or eschalot-vinegar, may be added with very good effect; and to give it
increased relish, a teaspoonful of cavice, or a little of Harvey’s
sauce, and a dessertspoonful of chili vinegar may be thrown into it.
This last is an excellent addition to all cold sauces, or
salad-dressings.
Hard yolks of 2 or of 3 eggs; mustard, 1 teaspoonful (more when liked);
salt, 1/2 teaspoonful; pepper or cayenne; oil, 3 tablespoonsful;
vinegar, 2. If curdled, yolk of 1 raw egg. Good additions: tarragon or
eschalot, or cucumber-vinegar, 1 tablespoonful; chili vinegar, 1
dessertspoonful; cavice or Harvey’s sauce at pleasure.
_Obs._—A dessertspoonful of eschalots, or a _morsel_ of garlic, very
finely minced, are sometimes pounded with the yolks of eggs for this
sauce.
OXFORD BRAWN SAUCE.
Mingle thoroughly a tablespoonful of brown sugar with a teaspoonful of
made mustard, a third as much of salt, some pepper, from three to four
tablespoonsful of very fine salad-oil, and two of strong vinegar; or
apportion the same ingredients otherwise to the taste.
FORCED EGGS FOR GARNISHING SALAD.
Pound and press through the back of a hair-sieve the flesh of three very
fine, or of four moderate-sized anchovies, freed from the bones and
skin. Boil six fresh eggs for twelve minutes, and when they are
perfectly cold, halve them lengthwise, take out the yolks, pound them to
a paste with a third of their volume of fresh butter, then add the
anchovies, a quarter of a teaspoonful of mace, and as much cayenne as
will season the mixture well; beat these together thoroughly, and fill
the whites of egg neatly with them. A _morsel_ of garlic, perfectly
blended with the other ingredients, would to some tastes improve this
preparation: a portion of anchovy-butter, or of potted ham, will supply
the place of fish in it very advantageously.
Eggs, 6; anchovies, 4; butter, size of 2 yolks; mace, 1/4 teaspoonful;
cayenne, third as much.
ANCHOVY BUTTER.
(_Excellent._)
Scrape the skin quite clear from a dozen fine mellow anchovies, free the
flesh entirely from the bones, and pound it as smooth as possible in a
mortar; rub it through the back of a hair-sieve with a wooden spoon;
wipe out the mortar, and put back the anchovies with three quarters of a
pound of very fresh butter, a small half-saltspoonful of cayenne, and
more than twice as much of finely grated nutmeg, and freshly pounded
mace; and beat them together until they are thoroughly blended. If to
serve cold at table, mould the butter in small shapes, and turn it out.
A little rose pink (which is sold at the chemists’) is sometimes used to
give it a fine colour, but it must be sparingly used, or it will impart
an unpleasant flavour, and we cannot much recommend its use: it should
be well pounded, and very equally mixed with it. For kitchen use, press
the butter down into jars or pattypans, and keep it in a cool place.
Fine anchovies, 12; butter, 3/4 lb.; cayenne, small 1/2 saltspoonful;
nutmeg and mace, each more than twice as much; rose pink (if used), 1/2
teaspoonful.
This proportion differs from potted anchovies only in the larger
proportion of butter mixed with the fish, and the milder seasoning of
spice. It will assist to form an elegant dish if made into pats, and
stamped with a tasteful impression, then placed alternately with pats of
lobster-butter, and decorated with light foliage. It is generally eaten
with much relish when carefully compounded, and makes excellent
sandwiches. To convert it into a good fish sauce, mix two or three
ounces of it with a teaspoonful of flour and a few spoonsful of cold
water, or of pale veal stock, and keep them constantly stirred until
they boil. The butter should not be moulded directly it is taken from
the mortar, as it is then very soft from the beating. It should be
placed until it is firm in a very cool place or over _ice_, when it can
be done conveniently.
LOBSTER BUTTER.
Pound to the smoothest possible paste the coral of one or two fresh hen
lobsters, mix with it about an equal proportion of fresh firm butter,
and a moderate seasoning of mace and cayenne, with a little salt if
needed. Let the whole be thoroughly blended, and set it aside in a cool
larder, or place it over ice until it is sufficiently firm to be made
into pats. Serve it garnished with curled parsley, or with any light
foliage which will contrast well with its brilliant colour. The coral
may be rubbed through a fine sieve before it is put into the mortar, and
will then require but little pounding.
An excellent preparation is produced by mingling equal proportions of
lobster and of anchovy butter in the mortar, or one-third of the anchovy
with two of lobster: to this some of the white flesh of the latter can
be added to give another variety, after it has been prepared by the
receipt for _boudirettes_, Chapter III.
TRUFFLED BUTTER (AND TRUFFLES POTTED IN BUTTER.)
(_For the breakfast or luncheon table._)
Cut up a pound of sweet fresh butter, and dissolve it gently over a
clear fire; take off the scum which will gather thickly upon it, and
when it has simmered for three or four minutes, draw it from the fire,
and let it stand until all the buttermilk has subsided; pour it softly
from this upon six ounces of ready-pared sound French truffles, cut into
small, but rather thick, slices, and laid into a delicately clean
enamelled saucepan; add a full seasoning of freshly pounded mace and
fine cayenne, a small saltspoonful of salt, and half a not large nutmeg.
When the butter has become quite cold, proceed to heat the truffles
slowly, shaking the saucepan often briskly round, and stew them as
gently as possible for twenty minutes, or longer should they not then be
very tender. If allowed to heat, and to boil quickly, they will become
_hard_, and the preparation, as regards the _truffles_, will be a
comparative failure. Lift them with a spoon into quite dry earthen or
china pans, and pour the butter on them; or add to them sufficient of it
only to cover them well and to exclude the air, and pot the remainder of
the butter apart: it will be finely flavoured, and may be eaten by
delicate persons to whom the truffle itself would be injurious. It may
also be used in compounding savoury sauces, and for moistening small
_croustades_ before they are fried or baked. The truffles themselves
will remain good for months when thus prepared, if kept free from damp;
and in flavour they will be found excellent. The parings taken from them
will also impart a very agreeable savour to the butter, and will serve
extremely well for it for immediate use. They will also be valuable as
additions to gravies or to soups.
We should observe, that the juice which will have exuded from the
truffles in the stewing will cause the preparation to become mouldy, or
otherwise injure it, if it be put into the pans either with them or with
the butter. The truffles must be well drained from it when they are
taken from the saucepan, and the butter must remain undisturbed for a
few minutes, when it can be poured clear from the juice, which will have
subsided to the bottom of the pan. We have given here the result of our
first experiment, which we found on further trial to answer perfectly.
ENGLISH SALADS.
The herbs and vegetables for a salad cannot be too freshly gathered;
they should be carefully cleared from insects and washed with scrupulous
nicety; they are better when not prepared until near the time of sending
them to table, and should not be sauced until the instant before they
are served. Tender lettuces, of which the stems should be cut off, and
the outer leaves be stripped away, mustard and cress, young radishes,
and occasionally chives or small green onions (when the taste of a party
is in favour of these last) are the usual ingredients of summer salads.
(In early spring, as we have stated in another chapter, the young white
leaves of the dandelion will supply a very wholesome and excellent
salad, of which the slight bitterness is to many persons as agreeable as
that of the endive.) Half-grown cucumbers sliced thin, and mixed with
them, are a favourite addition with many persons. In England it is
customary to cut the lettuces extremely fine; the French, who object to
the _flavour of the knife_, which they fancy this mode imparts, break
them small instead. Young celery alone, sliced and dressed with a rich
salad mixture, is excellent: it is still in some families served thus
always with roast pheasants.
Beet-root, baked or boiled, blanched endive, small salad-herbs which are
easily raised at any time of the year, celery, and hardy lettuces, with
any ready-dressed vegetable, will supply salads through the winter.
Cucumber vinegar is an agreeable addition to these.
FRENCH SALAD.
In winter this is made principally of beautifully-blanched endive,
washed delicately clean and broken into small branches with the fingers,
then taken from the water and shaken dry in a basket of peculiar form,
appropriated to the purpose,[62] or in a fine cloth; then arranged in
the salad bowl, and strewed with herbs (tarragon generally, when in
season) minced small: the dressing is not added until just before the
salad is eaten. In summer, young lettuces are substituted for the
endive, and intermixed with a variety of herbs, some of which are not
generally cultivated in England.
Footnote 62:
Salad-baskets are also to be found in many good English kitchens, but
they are not in such general use here as on the continent.
FRENCH SALAD DRESSING.
Stir a saltspoonful of salt and half as much pepper into a large
spoonful of oil, and when the salt is dissolved, mix with them four
additional spoonsful of oil, and pour the whole over the salad; let it
be _well_ turned, and then add a couple of spoonsful of tarragon
vinegar; mix the whole thoroughly, and serve it without delay. The salad
should not be dressed in this way until the instant before it is wanted
for table: the proportions of salt and pepper can be increased at
pleasure, and common or cucumber vinegar may be substituted for the
tarragon, which, however, is more frequently used in France than any
other.
Salt, 1 spoonful: pepper, 1/2 as much; oil, 5 saladspoonsful; tarragon,
or other vinegar, 2 spoonsful.
DES CERNEAUX, OR WALNUT SALAD.
This is a common summer salad in France, where the growth of walnuts is
generally abundant, but is not much served in England; though the sweet
flavour of the just-formed nut is very agreeable. Take the walnuts when
a pin will pierce them _easily_, pare them down to the kernels, and toss
them gently, just before they are served, in a French or English
salad-dressing (the former would generally be preferred we think), and
turn them into the salad-bowl for table.
SUFFOLK SALAD.
Fill a salad-bowl from half to three parts full with very tender
lettuces shred small, minced lean of ham, and hard-boiled eggs, or their
yolks only also minced, placed in alternate layers; dress the mixture
with English salad sauce, but do not pour it into the bowl until the
instant of serving. A portion of cold chicken (or veal), cut in thin
slices about the size of a shilling, may be added when convenient; the
ham and eggs also may be sliced instead of being minced, and the whole
neatly arranged in a chain or otherwise round the inside of the bowl.
YORKSHIRE PLOUGHMAN’S SALAD.
Mix treacle and vinegar, in the proportion of one tablespoonful of the
first to two of the latter; add a little black pepper, and eat the sauce
with lettuces shred small (with an intermixture of young onions when
they are liked).
AN EXCELLENT SALAD OF YOUNG VEGETABLES.
Pare off the coarse, fibrous parts from four or five artichoke bottoms,
boiled quite tender, well drained, and freed carefully from the insides;
cut them into quarters, and lay them into the salad-bowl; arrange over
them some cold new potatoes and young carrots sliced moderately thin,
strew minced tarragon, chervil, or any other herbs which may be better
liked, thickly over the surface, and sauce the salad with an English or
French dressing just before it is sent to table. Very young French beans
cut into short lozenge-shaped lengths, or asparagus points, can be added
to this dish at pleasure; or small tufts of cauliflower may be placed
round it. When these additions are made, the herbs are better omitted: a
little of the liquor of pickled Indian mangoes may be advantageously
mixed with the sauce for this salad, or in lieu of it some chili vinegar
or cayenne pepper. The Dutch or American sauce of the previous pages
would also make an appropriate dressing for it.
SORREL SALAD.
(_To serve with Lamb-cutlets, Veal cutlets, or Roast Lamb_.)
This, though a very agreeable and refreshing salad, is not to be
recommended when there is the slightest tendency to disorder of the
system; for the powerful acid of the uncooked sorrel might in that case
produce serious consequences.[63]
Footnote 63:
It should be especially avoided when dysentery, or other diseases of a
similar nature, are prevalent. We mention this, because if more
general precaution were observed with regard to diet, great suffering
would, in many instances, be avoided.
Take from the stems some very young tender sorrel, wash it delicately
clean, drain it well, and shake it dry in a salad-basket, or in a soft
cloth held by the four corners; arrange it lightly in the bowl, and at
the instant of serving, sauce it simply with the preceding French
dressing of oil with a small portion of vinegar, or with a _Mayonnaise_
mixed with _chili_ instead of a milder vinegar. The sorrel may be
divided with the fingers and mingled with an equal proportion of very
tender lettuces; and, when it is not objected to,[64] mixed tarragon may
be strewed thickly upon them. To some tastes a _small_ quantity of green
onions or of eschalots would be more agreeable.
Footnote 64:
The peculiar flavour of this fine aromatic herb is less generally
relished in England than in many other countries; but when it is not
disliked it may be used with great advantage in our cookery: it is
easily cultivated, and quite deserves a nook in every kitchen-garden.
LOBSTER SALAD.
First, prepare a sauce with the coral of a hen lobster, pounded and
rubbed through a sieve, and very gradually mixed with a good
_mayonnaise_, _remoulade_, or English salad-dressing of the present
chapter. Next, half fill the bowl or more with small salad herbs, or
with young lettuces finely shred, and arrange upon them spirally, or in
a chain, alternate slices of the flesh of a large lobster, or of two
middling-sized ones, and some hard-boiled eggs cut thin and evenly.
Leave a space in the centre, pour in the sauce, heap lightly some small
salad on the top, and send the dish immediately to table. The coral of a
second lobster may be intermingled with the white flesh of the fish with
very good effect; and the forced eggs of page 137 may be placed at
intervals round the edge of the bowl as a decoration, and an excellent
accompaniment as well. Another mode of making the salad is to lay the
split bodies of the fish round the bowl, and the claws, freed carefully
from the shells, arranged high in the centre on the herbs; the soft part
of the bodies may be mixed with the sauce when it is liked; but the
colour will not then be good.
_Obs._—The addition of cucumber in ribbons (see Author’s Receipt,
Chapter XVII.), laid lightly round it, is always an agreeable one to
lobster salad: they may previously be sauced, and then drained from
their dressing a little.
A more wholesome and safer mode of imparting the flavour of the
cucumber, however, is to use for the salad vinegar in which that
vegetable has been steeped for some hours after having been cut up
small.
AN EXCELLENT HERRING SALAD.
(_Swedish Receipt._)
Soak, skin, split, and bone a large Norway herring; lay the two sides
along a dish, and slice them slopingly (or substitute for this one or
two fine Dutch herrings). Arrange in symmetrical order over the fish
slices of cooked beet-root, cold boiled potatoes, and pickled gherkins;
then add one or two sharp apples chopped small, and the yolks and
whites, separately minced, of some hard-boiled eggs, with any thing else
which may be at hand, and may serve to vary tastefully the decoration of
the dish. Place these ingredients in small heaps of well-contrasting
colours on the surface of the salad, and lay a border of curled celery
leaves or parsley round the bowl. For sauce, rub the yolk of one
hard-boiled egg quite smooth with some salt; to this add oil and vinegar
as for an ordinary salad, and dilute the whole with some thick sour
cream.
_Obs._—“Sour cream” is an ingredient not much approved by English taste,
but it enters largely into German cookery, and into that of Sweden, and
of other northern countries also. About half a pound of cold beef cut
into small thin shavings or collops, is often added to a herring-salad
abroad: it may be either of simply roasted or boiled, or of salted and
smoked meat.
TARTAR SAUCE.
(_Sauce à la Tartare_).
Add to the preceding _remoulade_, or to any other sauce of the same
nature, a teaspoonful or more of made mustard, one of finely-minced
shalots, one of parsley or tarragon, and one of capers or of pickled
gherkins, with a rather high seasoning of cayenne, and some salt if
needed. The tartar-mustard of the previous chapter, or good French
mustard, is to be preferred to English for this sauce, which is usually
made very pungent, and for which any ingredients can be used to the
taste which will serve to render it so. Tarragon vinegar, _minced
tarragon_ and eschalots, and plenty of oil, are used for it in France,
in conjunction with the yolks of one or two eggs, and chopped capers, or
gherkins, to which olives are sometimes added.
SHRIMP CHATNEY.
(_Mauritian Receipt._)
Shell with care a quart of fresh shrimps (for the mode of doing this see
Chapter III.), mince them quickly upon a dish with a large sharp knife,
then turn them into a mortar and pound them to a perfectly smooth paste.
Next, mix with them very gradually two or three spoonsful of salad oil
of the best quality, some young green chilies chopped small (or when
these cannot be procured, some _good_ cayenne pepper as a substitute),
some young onions finely minced, a little salt if required, and as much
vinegar or strained lemon juice as will render the sauce pleasantly
acid. Half a saltspoonful or more of powdered ginger is sometimes used
in addition to the above ingredients.
When they are preferred, two or three small shalots minced and well
bruised with the shrimps may be substituted for the onions.[65] The
proportion of oil should be double that of the vinegar used; but in this
preparation, as in all others of the same nature, individual taste must
regulate the proportion of the most powerful condiments which enter into
its composition. All chatneys should be _quite thick_, almost of the
consistence of mashed turnips, or stewed tomatas, or stiff bread sauce.
They are served with curries; and also with steaks, cutlets, cold meat,
and fish. In the East the native cooks crush to a pulp upon a stone
slab, and with a stone roller, the ingredients which we direct to be
pounded. On occasion the fish might be merely minced. When beaten to a
paste, they should be well separated with a fork as the chilies, &c.,
are added.
Footnote 65:
The sauce can be made without either when their flavour is not liked.
CAPSICUMB CHATNEY.
Slice transversely and very thin, into a bowl or pan of spring water,
some large tender green capsicumbs, and let them steep for an hour or
two; then drain, and dress with oil, vinegar, and salt.
For TOMATA and SAUSAGE CHATNEY, see CHAPTER OF FOREIGN COOKERY.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VII.
=Store Sauces.=
[Illustration:
Mushrooms, Eschalots, and Tomatas.
]
OBSERVATIONS.
A WELL selected stock of these will always prove a convenient resource
in simple cookery for giving colour and flavour to soups, gravies, and
made dishes; but unless the consumption be considerable, they should not
be over-abundantly provided, as few of them are improved by age, and
many are altogether spoiled by long keeping, especially if they be not
perfectly secured from the air by sound corking, or if stored where
there is the slightest degree of damp. To prevent loss, they should be
examined at short intervals, and at the first appearance of mould or
fermentation, such as will bear the process should be reboiled, and put,
when again quite cold, into clean bottles; a precaution often especially
needful for mushroom catsup when it has been made in a wet season, or
when it has not been very carefully prepared. This, with essence of
anchovies, walnut catsup, Harvey’s sauce, cavice, lemon-pickle, chili,
cucumber, and eschalot vinegar, will be all that is commonly needed for
family use; but there is at the present day an extensive choice of these
stores on sale, some of which are excellent.
CHETNEY SAUCE.
(_Bengal Receipt_).
[Illustration:
Garlic.
]
Stone four ounces of good raisins, and chop them small, with half a
pound of crabs, sour apples, unripe bullaces,[66] or of any other hard
acid fruit. Take four ounces of coarse brown sugar, two of powdered
ginger, and the same quantity of salt and cayenne pepper; grind these
ingredients separately in a mortar, as fine as possible; then pound the
fruits well, and mix the spices with them, one by one; beat them
together until they are perfectly blended, and add gradually as much
vinegar as will make the sauce of the consistence of thick cream. Put it
into bottles with an ounce of garlic, divided into cloves, and cork it
tightly.
Footnote 66:
Hard acid fruit in a crude state is, we think, an ingredient not much
to be recommended; and it is always better to deviate a little from
“an approved receipt” than to endanger health by the use of
ingredients of a questionable character. Gooseberries or tomatas,
after being subjected to a moderate degree of heat, might be eaten
with far less hazard.
Stoned raisins, 4 oz.; crabs, or other acid fruit, 1/2 lb.; coarse
sugar, 4 oz.; powdered ginger, 2 oz.; salt, 2 oz.; cayenne pepper, 2
oz.; garlic, 1 oz.; vinegar, enough to dilute it properly.
_Obs._—This favourite oriental sauce is compounded in a great variety of
ways; but some kind of acid fruit is essential to it. The mango is used
in India; here gooseberries, while still hard and green, are sometimes
used for it; and ripe red chilies and tomatas are mixed with the other
ingredients. The sauce keeps better if it be exposed to a gentle degree
of heat for a week or two, either by the side of the fire, or in a full
southern aspect in the sun: the heat of a _very slow_ oven, in which it
might be left for a night, would probably have a still better effect. In
this case it must be put into a jar or bottles, and well secured from
the air. Half a pound of gooseberries, or of these and tamarinds from
the shell, and green apples mixed, and the same weight of salt, stoned
raisins, brown sugar, powdered ginger, chilies, and garlic, with a pint
and a half of vinegar, and the juice of three large lemons, will make
another genuine Bengal chetney.
FINE MUSHROOM CATSUP.
One of the very best and most useful of store sauces is good _home-made_
mushroom catsup, which, if really well prepared, imparts an agreeable
flavour to any soup or sauce with which it is mingled, and at the same
time heightens the colour without imparting the “bitter sweetness” which
the burnt sugar used as “browning” in clumsy cookery so often does. The
catsup ought, in fact, to be rather the pure _essence of mushrooms_,
made with so much salt and spice only as are required to preserve it for
a year or longer, than the compound of mushroom-juice, anchovies,
shalots, allspice, and other condiments of which it is commonly
composed, especially for sale.
_Directions to be observed in making and for keeping the catsup._—Let
the mushrooms be collected when the weather is dry, for if gathered
during, or immediately after rain, the catsup made with them will not
keep well.
Cut off the stalk-ends to which the earth adheres, before the mushrooms
are broken up, and throw them aside, as they should never be used for
the catsup. Reject also such of the flaps as are worm-eaten or decayed.
Those which are too stale for use may be detected by the smell, which is
very offensive.
When the mushroom first opens, the underside is of a fine pale salmon
colour; this changes soon to a sort of ashy-brown, which deepens almost
to black as the mushroom passes from its maturity to a state of decay.
As it yields a greater abundance of juice when it is fully ripe, it is
usually taken in that state for these sauces; but catsup of fine and
delicate flavour, though somewhat pale in colour, can be made even of
mushroom-buttons if they be sliced up small and turned often in the
liquid which will be speedily drawn from them by the application of
salt; a rather smaller proportion of which should be mingled with them
than is directed for the following receipt.
Every thing used in preparing the catsup should be delicately clean and
_very dry_. The bottles in which it is stored, after being dried in the
usual way, should be laid into a cool oven for an hour or two before
they are filled, to ensure their being free from the slightest degree of
moisture, but they must be _quite cold_ before the catsup is poured into
them. If the corks be sealed so as to exclude the air effectually, or if
well-cleansed bits of bladder first dried, and then rendered flexible
with a little spirit of any kind (spirits of wine is convenient for such
purposes), be tied closely over them, and the bottles can be kept in a
cool place free from damp, the catsup will remain good for a long time.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
_Receipt_:—Break up small into a deep earthen pan, two gallons of large
ripe mushroom-flaps, and strew amongst them three quarters of a pound of
salt, reserving the larger portion of it for the top. Let them remain
two days, and stir them gently with a wooden spoon often during the
time; then turn them into a large stewpan or enamelled saucepan, heat
them slowly, and simmer them for fifteen or twenty minutes. Strain the
liquor closely from them without pressure; strain and measure it; put it
into a very clean stewpan, and boil it quickly until it is reduced
nearly half. For every quart allow half an ounce of black peppercorns
and a drachm of mace; or, instead of the pepper, a quarter of a
teaspoonful (ten grains) of _good_ cayenne; pour the catsup into a clean
jug or jar, lay a folded cloth over it, and keep it in a cool place
until the following day; pour it gently from the sediment, put into
small bottles, cork them well, and rosin them down. A teaspoonful of
salad oil may be poured into each bottle before it is corked, the better
to exclude the air from the catsup.
Mushrooms, 2 gallons; salt, 3/4 lb.; to macerate three or four days. To
each quart of liquor, 1/2 oz. black pepper, or quarter of a teaspoonful
of cayenne; and 1 drachm of mace: to be reduced nearly half.
_Obs. 1._—Catsup made thus will not be too salt, nor will the flavour of
the mushrooms be overpowered by that of the spices; of which a larger
quantity, and a greater variety, can be used at will.
We can, however, answer for the excellence of the present receipt from
long experience of it. When the catsup is boiled down quite early in the
day, it may be bottled the same night: it is necessary only, that it
should _perfectly cold_ before this is done.
_Obs. 2._—When the mushrooms are crushed, or mashed, as some authors
direct, the liquor will necessarily be very thick; it is better to
proceed as above, and then to boil the liquor which may afterwards be
extracted from the mushrooms by pressure, with the sediment of the
catsup, and sufficient cloves, pepper, allspice, and ginger, to flavour
it highly: this _second_ catsup will be found very useful to mix with
common thickened sauces, hashes, and stews.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
(_Another Receipt._)
Break a peck of large mushrooms into a deep earthenpan; strew three
quarters of a pound of salt amongst them, and set them into a very cool
oven for one night, with a fold of cloth or paper over them. The
following day strain off the liquor, measure, and boil it for fifteen
minutes; then, for each quart, add an ounce of black pepper, a quarter
of an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of ginger, and two large blades
of mace, and let it boil fast for twenty minutes longer. When thoroughly
cold, put it into bottles, cork them well, and dip the necks into melted
bottle-cement, or seal them so as to secure the catsup from the air.
Mushrooms, 1 peck; salt, 3/4 lb. Liquor to boil, 15 minutes. To each
quart, 1/2 oz. black pepper; 1/4 oz. allspice; 1/2 oz. ginger; 2 blades
mace: 20 minutes.
DOUBLE MUSHROOM CATSUP.
On a gallon of fresh mushrooms strew three ounces of salt, and pour to
them a quart of ready-made catsup (that which is a year old will do if
it be perfectly good); keep these stirred occasionally for four days,
then drain the liquor very dry from the mushrooms, and boil it for
fifteen minutes with an ounce of whole black pepper, a drachm of mace,
an ounce of ginger, and three or four grains only of cayenne.
Mushrooms, 1 gallon; salt, 3 oz.; mushroom catsup, 1 quart; peppercorns,
1 oz.; mace, 1 drachm; ginger, 1 oz.; cayenne, 3 to 4 grains: 15
minutes.
COMPOUND, OR COOK’S CATSUP.
Take a pint and a half of mushroom catsup when it is first made, and
ready boiled (the double is best for the purpose), simmer in it for five
minutes an ounce of small eschalots nicely peeled; add to these half a
pint of walnut catsup, and a wineglassful of cayenne vinegar, or of
chili vinegar; give the whole one boil, pour it out, and when cold,
bottle it with the eschalots in it.
Mushroom catsup, 1-1/2 pint; eschalots, 1 oz.; walnut catsup or pickle,
1/2 pint; cayenne or chili vinegar, 1 wineglassful.
WALNUT CATSUP.
The vinegar in which walnuts have been pickled, when they have remained
in it a year, will generally answer all the purposes for which this
catsup is required, particularly if it be drained from them and boiled
for a few minutes, with a little additional spice, and a few eschalots;
but where the vinegar is objected to, it may be made either by boiling
the expressed juice of young walnuts for an hour, with six ounces of
fine anchovies, four ounces of eschalots, half an ounce of black pepper,
a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and a drachm of mace, to every quart;
or as follows:—
Pound in a mortar a hundred young walnuts, strewing amongst them as they
are done half a pound of salt; then pour to them a quart of strong
vinegar, and let them stand until they have become quite black, keeping
them stirred three or four times a day; next add a quart of strong old
beer, and boil the whole together for ten minutes; strain it, and let it
remain until the next day; then pour it off clear from the sediment, add
to it half a pound of anchovies, one large head of garlic bruised, half
an ounce of nutmegs bruised, the same quantity of cloves and black
pepper, and two drachms of mace: boil these together for half an hour,
and the following day bottle and cork the catsup well. It will keep for
a dozen years. Many persons add to it, before it is boiled, a bottle of
port wine; and others recommend a large bunch of sweet herbs to be put
in with the spice.
1st Recipe. Expressed juice of walnuts, 1 quart; anchovies, 6 oz.;
eschalots, 4 oz.; black pepper, 1/2 oz.; cloves, 1/4 oz.; mace, 1
drachm: 1 hour.
2nd. Walnuts, 100; salt, 1/2 lb.; vinegar, 1 quart; to stand till black.
Strong beer, 1 quart; anchovies, 1/2 lb.; 1 head garlic; nutmegs, 1/2
oz.; cloves, 1/2 oz.; black pepper, 1/2 oz.; mace, 2 drachms: 1/2 hour.
ANOTHER GOOD RECEIPT FOR WALNUT CATSUP.
Beat a hundred green walnuts in a large marble mortar until they are
thoroughly bruised and broken, and then put them into a stone jar, with
half a pound of eschalots, cut in slices, one head of garlic, half a
pound of salt, and two quarts of vinegar; let them stand for ten days,
and stir them night and morning. Strain off the liquor, and boil it for
half an hour with the addition of two ounces of anchovies, two of whole
pepper, half an ounce of cloves, and two drachms of mace; skim it well,
strain it off, and when it is quite cold pour it gently from the
sediment (which may be reserved for flavouring common sauces) into small
dry bottles, secure it from air by sound corking, and store it in a dry
place.
Walnuts, 100; eschalots, 1/2 lb.; garlic, 1 head, salt, 1/2 lb.;
vinegar, 2 quarts: 10 days. Anchovies, 2 oz.; black pepper, 2 oz.; mace,
1/4 oz.; cloves, 1/2 oz.: 1/2 hour.
LEMON PICKLE OR CATSUP.
Either divide six small lemons into quarters, remove all the pips that
are in sight, and strew three ounces of salt upon them, and keep them
turned in it for a week, or, merely make deep incisions in them, and
proceed as directed for pickled lemons. When they have stood in a warm
place for eight days, put into a stone jar two ounces and a half of
finely-scraped horseradish, and two ounces of eschalots, or one and a
half of garlic; to these add the lemons with all their liquor, and pour
on them a pint and a half of boiling vinegar in which half an ounce of
bruised ginger, a quarter of an ounce of whole white pepper, and two
blades of mace have been simmered for two or three minutes. The pickle
will be fit for use in two or three months, but may stand four or five
before it is strained off.
Small lemons, 6; salt, 3 oz.: 8 days. Horseradish, 2-1/2 oz.; eschalots,
2 oz., or garlic 1-1/2 oz.; vinegar, 1-1/2 pint; ginger, 1/2 oz.; whole
white pepper, 1/4 oz.; mace, 2 blades: 3 to 6 months.
_Obs._—These highly-flavoured compounds are still much in favour with a
certain class of housekeepers; but they belong exclusively to _English_
cookery: they are altogether opposed to the practice of the French
_cuisine_, as well as to that of other foreign countries.
PONTAC CATSUP FOR FISH.
On one pint of ripe elderberries stripped from the stalks, pour three
quarters of a pint of boiling vinegar, and let it stand in a cool oven
all night; the next day strain off the liquid without pressure, and boil
it for five minutes with a half-teaspoonful of salt, a small race of
ginger, a blade of mace, forty corns of pepper, twelve cloves and four
eschalots. Bottle it with the spice when it is quite cold.
BOTTLED TOMATAS, OR TOMATA CATSUP.
Cut half a peck of ripe tomatas into quarters; lay them on dishes and
sprinkle over them half a pound of salt. The next day drain the juice
from them through a hair-sieve into a stewpan, and boil it for half an
hour with three dozens of small capsicums and half a pound of eschalots;
then add the tomatas, which should be ready pulped through a strainer.
Boil the whole for thirty minutes longer; have some clean wide-necked
bottles, kept warm by the fire, fill them with the catsup while it is
quite hot; cork, and dip the necks into melted bottle-resin or cement.
Tomatas, 1/2 peck; salt, 1/2 lb.; capsicums, 3 doz.; eschalots, 1/2 lb.:
1/2 hour. After pulp is added, 1/2 hour.
_Obs._—This receipt has been kindly contributed by a person who makes by
it every year large quantities of the catsup, which is considered
excellent: for sauce it must be mixed with gravy or melted butter. We
have not ourselves been able to make trial of it.
EPICUREAN SAUCE.
Mix well, by shaking them in a bottle, a wineglassful of Indian soy,
half a pint of chili vinegar, half a pint of walnut catsup, and a pint
and a half of the best mushroom catsup. These proportions make an
excellent sauce, either to mix with melted butter, and to serve with
fish, or to add to different kinds of gravy; but they can be varied, or
added to, at pleasure.
Indian soy, 1 wineglassful; chili vinegar, 1/2 pint; walnut catsup, 1/2
pint; mushroom catsup, 1-1/2 pint.
TARRAGON VINEGAR.
Gather the tarragon just before it blossoms, which will be late in July,
or early in August; strip it from the larger stalks, and put it into
small stone jars or wide-necked bottles, and in doing this twist some of
the branches so as to bruise the leaves and wring them asunder; then
pour in sufficient distilled or very pale vinegar to cover the tarragon;
let it infuse for two months, or more: it will take no harm even by
standing all the winter. When it is poured off, strain it very clear,
put it into small dry bottles, and cork them well. Sweet basil vinegar
is made in exactly the same way, but it should not be left on the leaves
more than three weeks. The jars or bottles should be filled to the neck
with the tarragon before the vinegar is added: its flavour is strong and
peculiar, but to many tastes very agreeable. It imparts quite a foreign
character to the dishes for which it is used.
GREEN MINT VINEGAR.
Slightly chop, or bruise, freshly-gathered mint, and put it into
bottles; fill them nearly to the necks, and add vinegar as for tarragon:
in forty days, strain it off, and bottle it for use. The mint itself,
ready minced for sauce, will keep well in vinegar, though the colour
will not be very good. The young leaves stripped from the stems, should
be used for this preparation.
CUCUMBER VINEGAR.
First wipe, and then, without paring, slice into a stone jar some young
and quickly-grown cucumbers; pour on them as much boiling vinegar as
will cover them well, with a teaspoonful of salt, and two-thirds as much
of peppercorns to the pint and a half of vinegar: it may remain on them
for a month, or even for two, if well defended from the air: it should
then be strained, allowed to settle, and poured quite clear into small
dry bottles, which should be well corked. A mild onion can be intermixed
with the cucumbers, when its flavour is considered an improvement.
CELERY VINEGAR.
Throw into a pint and a half of ready boiling vinegar a few grains of
cayenne, or half an ounce of peppercorns, a large saltspoonful of salt,
and a pint of the white part of the roots and stems of some fine fresh
celery sliced up thin: let it boil for two or three minutes, turn it
into a stone jar, and secure it well from the air as soon as it is cold.
It may be strained off and bottled in three or four weeks, but may
remain as many months in the jar without injury.
ESCHALOT, OR GARLIC VINEGAR.
On from four to six ounces of eschalots or on two of garlic peeled and
bruised, pour a quart of the best vinegar; stop the jar or bottle close,
and in a fortnight or three weeks the vinegar may be strained off for
use: a few drops will give a sufficient flavour to a sauce, or to a
tureen of gravy.
Eschalots, 4 to 6 oz.; or, garlic, 2 to 4 oz.; vinegar, 1 quart: 15 to
21 days.
_Obs._—These roots may be used in smaller or in larger proportion, as a
slighter or a stronger flavour of them is desired, and may remain longer
in the vinegar without any detriment to it.
ESCHALOT WINE.
This is a far more useful preparation even than the preceding one, since
it can be used to impart the flavour of the eschalot to dishes for which
acid is not required. Peel and slice, or bruise, four ounces of
eschalots, put them into a bottle, and add to them a pint of sherry; in
a fortnight pour off the wine, and should it not be strongly flavoured
with the eschalots, steep in it two ounces more, for another fortnight;
a half-teaspoonful of cayenne may be added at first. The bottle should
be shaken occasionally, while the eschalots are infusing, but should
remain undisturbed for the last two or three days, that the wine may be
clear when it is poured off to bottle for keeping. Sweet-basil wine is
made by steeping the fresh leaves of the herb in wine, from ten to
fifteen days.
Eschalots, 4 oz.; sherry, 1 pint: 15 days, or more.
HORSERADISH VINEGAR.
On four ounces of young and freshly-scraped horseradish pour a quart of
boiling vinegar, and cover it down closely: it will be ready for use in
three or four days, but may remain for weeks, or months, before the
vinegar is poured off. An ounce of minced eschalot may be substituted
for one of the horseradish, if the flavour be liked.
CAYENNE VINEGAR.
Put from a quarter to half an ounce of the best cayenne pepper into a
bottle, and pour on it a pint of pale vinegar. Cork it closely, and
shake it well every two or three days. It may remain any length of time
before it is poured off, but will very soon be ready for use.
Good cayenne pepper, 1/4 to 1/2 oz.; vinegar, 1 pint: infuse from 2
weeks to 12 months.
LEMON BRANDY.
(_For flavouring sweet dishes._)
Fill any sized wide-necked bottle lightly with the very thin rinds of
fresh lemons, and cover them with good brandy; let them remain for a
fortnight or three weeks only, then strain off the spirit and keep it
well corked for use: a few apricot-kernels blanched and infused with the
lemon-rind will give it an agreeable flavour.
DRIED MUSHROOMS.
Peel small, sound, freshly-gathered flaps, cut off the stems, and scrape
out the fur entirely; then arrange the mushrooms singly on tins or
dishes, and dry them as gradually as possible in a gentle oven. Put
them, when they are done, into tin canisters, and store them where they
will be secure from damp. French cooks give them a single boil in water,
from which they then are well drained, and dried, as usual. When wanted
for table, they should be put into cold gravy, slowly heated, and gently
simmered, until they are tender.
MUSHROOM POWDER.
When the mushrooms have been prepared with great nicety, and dried, as
in the foregoing receipt, pound them to a very fine powder; sift it, and
put it immediately into small and _perfectly dry_ bottles; cork and seal
them without delay, for if the powder be long exposed to the air, so as
to imbibe any humidity, or if it be not well secured from it in the
bottles, it will be likely to become putrid: much of that which is
purchased, even at the best Italian warehouses, is found to be so, and,
as it is sold at a very high price, it is a great economy, as well as a
surer plan, to have it carefully prepared at home. It is an exceedingly
useful store, and an excellent addition to many dishes and sauces. To
insure its being good, the mushrooms should be gathered in dry weather,
and if any addition of spices be made to the powder (some persons mix
with it a seasoning of mace and cayenne), they should be put into the
oven for a while before they are used: but even these precautions will
not be sufficient, unless the powder be stored in a very dry place after
it is bottled. A teaspoonful of it, with a quarter of a pint of strong
veal gravy, as much cream, and a small dessertspoonful of flour, will
make a good _béchamel_ or white sauce.
EXCELLENT POTATO FLOUR, OR ARROW-ROOT.
(_Fecule de Pommes de terre._)
Grate into a large vessel full of cold water, six pounds of sound mealy
potatoes, and stir them well together. In six hours pour off the water,
and add fresh, stirring the mixture well; repeat this process every
three or four hours during the day, change the water at night, and the
next morning pour it off; put two or three quarts more to the potatoes,
and turn them directly into a hair-sieve, set over a pan to receive the
flour, which may then be washed through the sieve, by pouring water to
it. Let it settle in the pan, drain off the water, spread the
potato-sediment on dishes, dry it in a slow oven, sift it, and put it
into bottles or jars, and cork or cover them closely. The flour thus
made will be beautifully white, and perfectly flavourless. It will
remain good for years.
_Obs._—This admirable farina, or _starch_ of potatoes, is now much more
widely known and vended in England than it was some years since. It can
at present be procured at most foreign warehouses and general grocers’;
but we would recommend its being _home-made_ by the directions given
above, which we have had closely followed for many years with the best
possible success.
TO MAKE FLOUR OF RICE.
Take any quantity of whole rice, wash it thoroughly, changing the water
several times; drain and press it in a cloth, then spread it on a dish,
and dry it perfectly; beat it in a mortar to a smooth powder, and sift
it through a fine sieve. When used to thicken soup or sauces, mix it
with a small quantity of cold water or of broth, and pour it to them
while they are boiling.
This flour, when newly made, is of much purer flavour than any usually
prepared for sale.
POWDER OF SAVOURY HERBS.
All herbs which are to be dried for storing should be gathered in fine
weather; cleared from dirt and decayed leaves; and dried quickly, but
without scorching, in a Dutch oven before the fire, or in any other that
is not too much heated. The leaves should then be stripped from the
stalks, pounded, sifted, and closely corked in separate bottles; or
several kinds may be mixed and pounded together for the convenience of
seasoning in an instant gravies, soups, forcemeats, and made dishes:
appropriate spices, celery-seed, and dried lemon-peel, all in fine
powder, can be added to the herbs.
TARTAR MUSTARD.
Rub four ounces of the best Durham mustard very smooth with a full
teaspoonful of salt, and wet it by degrees with strong horseradish
vinegar, a dessertspoonful of cayenne, or of chili vinegar, and one or
two of tarragon vinegar when its flavour is not disliked. A quarter of a
pint of vinegar poured boiling upon an ounce of scraped horseradish, and
left for one night, closely covered, will be ready to use for this
mustard, but it will be better for standing two or three days.
Durham mustard, 4 oz.; salt, large teaspoonful; cayenne, or chili
vinegar, 1 dessertspoonful; horseradish vinegar, third of pint.
_Obs._—This is an exceedingly pungent compound, but has many approvers.
ANOTHER TARTAR MUSTARD.
Mix the salt and mustard smoothly, with equal parts of horseradish
vinegar, and of chili vinegar. Mustard made by these receipts will keep
long, if put into jars or bottles and closely corked. Cucumber,
eschalot, or any other of the flavoured vinegars for which we have given
receipts, may in turn be used for it, and mushroom, gherkin, or India
pickle-liquor, likewise.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VIII.
=Forcemeats.=
GENERAL REMARKS.
[Illustration:
Weighing Machine.
]
THE coarse and unpalatable compounds so constantly met with under the
denomination of forcemeat, even at tables otherwise tolerably well
served, show with how little attention they are commonly prepared.
Many very indifferent cooks pique themselves on never doing any thing by
rule, and the consequence of their throwing together at random (or “by
guess” as they call it) the ingredients which ought to be proportioned
with exceeding exactness is repeated failure in all they attempt to do.
Long experience, and a very correct eye may, it is true, enable a person
to dispense with weights and measures without hazarding the success of
their operations; but it is an experiment which the learner will do
better to avoid.
A large marble or Wedgwood mortar is indispensable in making all the
finer kinds of forcemeat; and equally so indeed for many other purposes
in cookery; no kitchen, therefore, should be without one;[67] and for
whatever preparation it may be used, the pounding should be continued
with patience and perseverance until not a single lump or fibre be
perceptible in the mass of the articles beaten together. This
particularly applies to potted meats, which should resemble the
smoothest paste; as well as to several varieties of forcemeat. Of these
last it should be observed, that such as are made by the French method
(see _quenelles_, page 163) are the most appropriate for an elegant dinner,
either to serve in soups or to fill boned poultry of any kind; but when
their exceeding lightness, which to foreigners constitutes one of their
great excellences, is objected to, it may be remedied by substituting
dry crumbs of bread for the panada, and pounding a small quantity of the
lean of a boiled ham, with the other ingredients: however, this should
be done only for the balls.
Footnote 67:
Two or three mortars, varying in size, should be in every household
where it is expected that the cookery should be well conducted: they
are often required also for many other domestic purposes, yet it is
not unusual to find both these and scales, weights, and measures of
every kind, altogether wanting in English kitchens.
No particular herb or spice should be allowed to predominate powerfully
in these compositions; but the whole of the seasonings should be taken
in such quantity only as will produce an agreeable savour when they are
blended together.
NO. 1. GOOD COMMON FORCEMEAT, FOR ROAST VEAL, TURKEYS, &C.
Grate very lightly into exceedingly fine crumbs, four ounces of the
inside of a stale loaf, and mix thoroughly with it, a quarter of an
ounce of lemon-rind pared as thin as possible, and minced extremely
small; the same quantity of savoury herbs, of which two-thirds should be
parsley, and one-third thyme, likewise finely minced, a little grated
nutmeg, a half teaspoonful of salt, and as much common pepper or cayenne
as will season the forcemeat sufficiently. Break into these, two ounces
of good butter in very small bits, add the unbeaten yolk of one egg, and
with the fingers work the whole well together until it is smoothly
mixed. It is usual to chop the lemon-rind, but we prefer it lightly
grated on a fine grater. It should always be _fresh_ for the purpose, or
it will be likely to impart a very unpleasant flavour to the forcemeat.
Half the rind of a moderate-sized lemon will be sufficient for this
quantity; which for a large turkey must be increased one-half.
Bread-crumbs, 4 oz.; lemon-rind, 1/4 oz. (or grated rind of 1/2 lemon);
mixed savoury herbs, minced, 1/4 oz.; salt, 1/2 teaspoonful; pepper, 1/4
to 1/3 of teaspoonful; butter, 2 oz.; yolk, 1 egg.
_Obs._—This, to our taste, is a much nicer and more delicate forcemeat
than that which is made with suet, and we would recommend it for trial
in preference. Any variety of herb or spice may be used to give it
flavour, and a little minced onion or eschalot can be added to it also;
but these last do not appear to us suited to the meats for which the
forcemeat is more particularly intended. Half an ounce of the butter may
be omitted on ordinary occasions: and a portion of marjoram or of sweet
basil may take the place of part of the thyme and parsley when preferred
to them.
NO. 2. ANOTHER GOOD COMMON FORCEMEAT.
Add to four ounces of bread-crumbs two of the lean of a boiled ham,
quite free from sinew, and _very_ finely minced; two of good butter, a
dessertspoonful of herbs, chopped small, some lemon-grate, nutmeg, a
little salt, a good seasoning of pepper or cayenne and one whole egg, or
the yolks of two. This may be fried in balls of moderate size, for five
minutes, to serve with roast veal, or it may be put into the joint in
the usual way.
Bread-crumbs, 4 oz.; lean of ham, 2 oz.; butter, 2 oz.; minced herbs, 1
dessertspoonful; lemon-grate, 1 teaspoonful; nutmeg, mace, and cayenne,
together, 1 small teaspoonful; little salt; 1 whole egg, or yolks of 2.
NO. 3. SUPERIOR SUET FORCEMEAT, FOR VEAL, TURKEYS, &C.
Mix well together six ounces of fine stale crumbs, with an equal weight
of beef-kidney suet, chopped extremely small, a large dessertspoonful of
parsley, mixed with a little lemon-thyme, a teaspoonful of salt, a
quarter one of cayenne, and a saltspoonful or rather more of mace and
nutmeg together; work these up with three unbeaten egg-yolks, and three
teaspoonsful of milk; then put the forcemeat into a large mortar, and
pound it perfectly smooth. Take it out, and let it remain in a cool
place for half an hour at least before it is used; then roll it into
balls, if it be wanted to serve in that form; flour and fry them gently
from seven to eight minutes, and dry them well before they are dished.
Beef suet finely minced, 6 oz.; bread-crumbs, 6 oz.; parsley, mixed with
little thyme, 1 large dessertspoonful; salt, 1 teaspoonful; mace, large
saltspoonful, and one fourth as much cayenne; unbeaten egg-yolks, 3;
milk, 3 teaspoonsful: well pounded. Fried in balls, 7 to 8 minutes, or
poached, 6 to 7.
_Obs._—The finely grated rind of half a lemon can be added to this
forcemeat at pleasure; and for some purposes a _morsel_ of garlic, or
three or four minced eschalots, may be mixed with it before it is put
into the mortar.
NO. 4. COMMON SUET FORCEMEAT.
Beef suet is commonly used in the composition of this kind of forcemeat,
but we think that veal-kidney suet, when it could be obtained, would
have a better effect; though the reader will easily comprehend that it
is scarcely possible for us to have every variety of every receipt which
we insert put to the test; in some cases we are compelled merely to
suggest what appear to us likely to be improvements. Strip carefully
every morsel of skin from the suet, and mince it small; to six ounces
add eight of bread-crumbs, with the same proportion of herbs, spice,
salt, and lemon-peel, as in the foregoing receipt, and a couple of whole
eggs, which should be very slightly beaten, after the specks have been
taken out with the point of a small fork. Should more liquid be
required, the yolk of another egg, or a spoonful or two of milk, may be
used. Half this quantity will be sufficient for a small joint of veal,
or for a dozen balls, which, when it is more convenient to serve it in
that form, may be fried or browned beneath the roast, and then dished
round it, though this last is not a very refined mode of dressing them.
From eight to ten minutes will fry them well.
NO. 5. OYSTER FORCEMEAT.
Open carefully a dozen of fine plump natives, take off the beards,
strain their liquor, and rinse the oysters in it. Grate four ounces of
the crumb of a stale loaf into fine light crumbs, mince the oysters but
not too small, and mix them with the bread; add an ounce and a half of
good butter broken into minute bits, the grated rind of half a small
lemon, a small saltspoonful of pounded mace, some cayenne, a little
salt, and a large teaspoonful of parsley. Mingle these ingredients well,
and work them together with the unbeaten yolk of one egg and a little of
the oyster liquor, the remainder of which can be added to the sauce
which usually accompanies this forcemeat.
Oysters, 1 dozen; bread-crumbs, 4 oz.; butter, 1-1/2 oz.; rind 1/2 small
lemon; mace, 1 saltspoonful; some cayenne and salt; minced parsley, 1
large teaspoonful; yolk 1 egg; oyster-liquor, 1 dessertspoonful: rolled
into balls, and fried from 7 to 10 minutes, or poached from 5 to 6
minutes.
_Obs. 1._—In this preparation the flavour of the oysters should prevail
entirely over that of all the other ingredients which are mixed with
them.
_Obs. 2._—The oyster-sausages of Chapter III. will serve excellently for
forcemeat also.
NO. 6. A FINER OYSTER FORCEMEAT.
Pound the preceding forcemeat to the smoothest paste, with the addition
only of half an ounce of fresh butter, should it be sufficiently dry to
allow of it. It is remarkably good when thus prepared, and may be
poached or fried in balls for soups or made dishes, or used to fill
boned fowls, or the breasts of boiled turkeys with equally good effect.
NO. 7. MUSHROOM FORCEMEAT.
Cut closely off the stems of some small, just-opened mushrooms, peel
them, and take out the fur. Dissolve an ounce and a half of good butter
in a saucepan, throw them into it with a little cayenne and a slight
sprinkling of mace, and stew them softly, keeping them well shaken, from
five to seven minutes; then turn them into a dish, spread them over it,
and raise one end, that the liquid may drain from them. When they are
quite cold, mince, and then mix them with four ounces of fine
bread-crumbs, an ounce and a half of good butter, and _part_ of that in
which they were stewed should the forcemeat appear too moist to admit of
the whole, as the yolk of one egg, at the least, must be added, to bind
the ingredients together; strew in a saltspoonful of salt, a third as
much of cayenne, and about the same quantity of mace and nutmeg, with a
teaspoonful of grated lemon-rind. The seasonings must be rather
sparingly used, that the flavour of the mushrooms may not be overpowered
by them. Mix the whole thoroughly with the unbeaten yolk of one egg, or
of two, and use the forcemeat poached in small balls for soup, or fried
and served in the dish with roast fowls, or round minced veal; or to
fill boiled fowls, partridges, or turkeys.
Small mushrooms, peeled and trimmed, 4 oz.; butter 1-1/2 oz.; slight
sprinkling mace and cayenne: 5 to 7 minutes. Mushrooms minced;
bread-crumbs, 4 oz.; butter, 1-1/2 oz. (with part of that used in the
stewing); salt, 1 saltspoonful; third as much of cayenne, of mace, and
of nutmeg; grated lemon-rind, 1 teaspoonful; yolk of 1 or 2 eggs. In
balls, poached, 5 to 6 minutes; fried, 6 to 8 minutes.
_Obs._—This, like most other forcemeats, is improved by being well
beaten in a large mortar after it is entirely mixed.
NO. 8. FORCEMEAT FOR HARE.
The first receipt of this chapter will be found very good for hare
without any variation; but the liver boiled for three minutes and finely
minced, may be added to it when it is thought an improvement: another
half ounce of butter, and a small portion more of egg will then be
required. A couple of ounces of rasped bacon, and a glass of port-wine,
are sometimes recommended for this forcemeat, but we think it is better
without them, especially when slices of bacon are used to line the hare.
A flavouring of minced onion or eschalot can be added when the taste is
in its favour; or the forcemeat No. 3 may be substituted for this
altogether.
NO. 9. ONION AND SAGE STUFFING, FOR PORK, GEESE, OR DUCKS.
Boil three large onions from ten to fifteen minutes, press the water
from them, chop them small, and mix with them an equal quantity of
bread-crumbs, a heaped tablespoonful of minced sage, an ounce of butter,
a half saltspoonful of pepper, and twice as much of salt, and put them
into the body of the goose; part of the liver boiled for two or three
minutes and shred fine, is sometimes added to these, and the whole is
bound together with the yolk of one egg or two; but they are quite as
frequently served without. The onions can be used raw, when their very
strong flavour is not objected to, but the odour of the whole dish will
then be somewhat overpowering.
Large onions, 3; boiled 20 to 30 minutes. Sage, 2 to 3 dessertspoonsful
(or 1/2 to 3/4 oz.); butter, 1 oz.; pepper, 1/2 teaspoonful; salt, 1
teaspoonful.
The body of a goose is sometimes entirely filled with mashed potatoes,
seasoned with salt and pepper only; or mixed with a small quantity of
eschalot, onion, or herb-seasonings.
NO. 10. MR. COOKE’S FORCEMEAT FOR DUCKS OR GEESE.
Two parts of chopped onion, two parts of bread-crumbs, three of butter,
one of pounded sage, and a seasoning of pepper and salt. This receipt we
have not proved.
NO. 11. FORCEMEAT BALLS FOR MOCK TURTLE SOUPS.
The French forcemeat, No. 17 of the present Chapter, is the most refined
and appropriate forcemeat to serve in mock turtle, but a more solid and
highly seasoned one is usually added to it in this country. In very
common cookery the ingredients are merely chopped small and mixed
together with a moistening of eggs; but when the trouble of pounding and
blending them properly is objected to, we would recommend the common
veal forcemeat No. 1, in preference; as the undressed veal and suet,
when merely minced, do not produce a good effect. Four ounces each of
these, with an ounce or so of the lean of a boiled ham, and three ounces
of bread-crumbs, a large dessertspoonful of minced parsley, a small
portion of thyme or marjoram, a saltspoonful of white pepper, twice as
much or more of salt, a little cayenne, half a small nutmeg, and a
couple of eggs, well mixed with a fork first to separate the meat, and
after the moistening is added, with the fingers, then rolled into balls,
and boiled in a little soup for twelve minutes, is the manner in which
it is prepared; but the reader will find the following receipt very
superior to it:—Rasp, that is to say, scrape with a knife clear from the
fibre, four ounces of veal, which should be cut into thick slices, and
taken quite free from skin and fat; chop it fine, and then pound it as
smoothly as possible in a large mortar, with three ounces of the rasped
fat of an unboiled ham of good flavour or of the finest bacon, and one
of butter, two ounces of bread-crumbs, a tablespoonful of the lean of a
boiled ham, should it be at hand, a good seasoning of cayenne, nutmeg,
and mace, mixed together, a heaped dessertspoonful of minced herbs, and
the yolks of two eggs; poach a small bit when it is mixed, and add any
further seasoning it may require; and when it is of good flavour, roll
it into balls of moderate size, and boil them twelve minutes; then drain
and drop them into the soup. No forcemeat should be boiled in the soup
itself, on account of the fat which would escape from it in the process;
a little stock should be reserved for the purpose.
Very common:—Lean of neck of veal, 4 oz.; beef-kidney suet, 4 oz., both
finely chopped; bread-crumbs, 3 oz.; minced parsley, large
dessertspoonful; thyme or marjoram, _small_ teaspoonful; lean of boiled
ham, 1 to 2 oz.; white pepper, 1 saltspoonful; salt, twice as much; 1/2
small nutmeg; eggs, 2: in balls, 12 minutes.
Better forcemeat:—Lean veal rasped, 4 oz.; fat of unboiled ham, or
finest bacon, 3 oz; butter, 1 oz.; bread-crumbs, 2 oz.; lean of boiled
ham, minced, 1 large tablespoonful; minced herbs, 1 heaped
dessertspoonful; full seasoning of mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, mixed;
yolks of eggs, 2: 12 minutes.
NO. 12. EGG BALLS.
Boil four or five new-laid eggs for ten or twelve minutes, and lay them
into fresh water until they are cold. Take out the yolks, and pound them
smoothly with the beaten yolk of one raw egg, or more, if required; add
a little salt and cayenne, roll the mixture into balls the size of
marbles, and boil them for two minutes. Half a teaspoonful of flour is
sometimes worked up with the eggs.
Hard yolks of eggs, 4; 1 raw; little salt and cayenne: 2 minutes.
NO. 13. BRAIN CAKES.
Wash and soak the brains well in cold water, and afterwards in hot; free
them from the skin and large fibres, and boil them in water, slightly
salted, from two to three minutes; beat them up with a teaspoonful of
sage very finely chopped, or with equal parts of sage and parsley, half
a teaspoonful or rather more of salt, half as much mace, a little white
pepper or cayenne, and one egg; drop them in small cakes into the pan,
and fry them in butter a fine light brown: two yolks of eggs will make
the cakes more delicate than the white and yolk of one. A teaspoonful of
flour and a little lemon-grate are sometimes added.
NO. 14. ANOTHER RECEIPT FOR BRAIN CAKES.
Boil the brains in a little good veal gravy very gently for ten minutes;
drain them on a sieve, and when cold cut them into thick dice; dip them
into beaten yolk of egg, and then into very fine bread-crumbs, mixed
with salt, pounded spices, and fine herbs minced extremely small; fry
them of a light brown, drain and dry them well, and drop them into the
soup or hash after it is dished. When broth or gravy is not at hand, the
brains may be boiled in water.
NO. 15. CHESTNUT FORCEMEAT.
Strip the outer skin from some fine sound chestnuts, then throw them
into a saucepan of hot water, and set them over the fire for a minute or
two, when they may easily be blanched like almonds. Put them into cold
water as they are peeled. Dry them in a cloth, and weigh them. Stew six
ounces of them _very_ gently from fifteen to twenty minutes, in just
sufficient strong veal gravy to cover them. Take them up, drain them on
a sieve, and when cold pound them perfectly smooth with half their
weight of the nicest bacon rasped clear from all rust or fibre, or with
an equal quantity of fresh butter, two ounces of dry bread-crumbs, a
small teaspoonful of grated lemon rind, one of salt, half as much mace
or nutmeg, a moderate quantity of cayenne, and the unbeaten yolks of two
or of three eggs. This mixture makes most excellent forcemeat cakes,
which must be moulded with a knife, a spoon, or the fingers, dipped in
flour; more should be dredged over, and pressed upon them, and they
should be slowly fried from ten to fifteen minutes.
Chestnuts, 6 oz.; veal gravy, 1/3 of a pint: 15 to 20 minutes. Bacon or
butter, 3 oz.; bread-crumbs, 2 oz.; lemon-peel and salt, 1 teaspoonful
each.
NO. 16. AN EXCELLENT FRENCH FORCEMEAT.
Take six ounces of veal free from fat and skin, cut it into dice and put
it into a saucepan with two ounces of butter, a large teaspoonful of
parsley finely minced, half as much thyme, salt, and grated lemon-rind,
and a sufficient seasoning of nutmeg, cayenne, and mace, to flavour it
pleasantly. Stew these _very_ gently from twelve to fifteen minutes,
then lift out the veal and put into the saucepan two ounces of
bread-crumbs; let them simmer until they have absorbed the gravy yielded
by the meat; keep them stirred until they are as dry as possible; beat
the yolk of an egg to them while they are hot, and set them aside to
cool. Mince and pound the veal, add the bread to it as soon as it is
cold, beat them well together, with an ounce and a half of fresh butter,
and two of the finest bacon, quite freed from rust, and scraped clear of
skin and fibre; put to them the yolks of two small eggs and mix them
well; then take the forcemeat from the mortar, and set it in a very cool
place until it is wanted for use. Veal, 6 oz.; butter, 2 oz.; minced
parsley, 1 teaspoonful; thyme, salt, and lemon-peel, each 1/2
teaspoonful; little nutmeg, cayenne, and mace: 12 to 15 minutes.
Bread-crumbs, 2 oz.; butter, 1-1/2 oz.; rasped bacon, 2 oz.; yolk of
eggs, 2 to 3.
_Obs._—When this forcemeat is intended to fill boned fowls, the livers
of two or three boiled for four minutes, or stewed with the veal for the
same length of time, then minced and pounded with the other ingredients,
will be found a great improvement; and, if mushrooms can be procured,
two tablespoonsful of them chopped small, should be stewed and beaten
with it also. A small portion of the best end of the neck will afford
the quantity of lean required for this receipt, and the remains of it
will make excellent gravy.
NO. 17. FRENCH FORCEMEAT CALLED QUENELLES.
This is a peculiarly light and delicate kind of forcemeat, which by good
French cooks is compounded with exceeding care. It is served abroad in a
variety of forms, and is made of very finely-grained white veal, or of
the undressed flesh of poultry, or of rabbits, rasped quite free from
sinew, then chopped and pounded to the finest paste, first by itself,
and afterwards with an equal quantity of boiled calf’s udder or of
butter, and of _panada_, which is but another name for bread soaked in
cream or gravy and then dried over the fire until it forms a sort of
paste. As the three ingredients should be equal in _volume_, not in
weight, they are each rolled into a separate ball before they are mixed,
that their size may be determined by the eye. When the fat of the fillet
of veal (which in England is not often divided for sale, as it is in
France) is not to be procured, a rather less proportion of butter will
serve in its stead. The following will be found a very good, and not a
troublesome receipt for veal forcemeat of this kind.
Rasp quite clear from sinew, after the fat and skin have been entirely
cleared from it, four ounces of the finest veal; chop, and pound it
well: if it be carefully prepared there will be no necessity for passing
it through a sieve, but this should otherwise be done. Soak in a small
saucepan two ounces of the crumb of a stale loaf in a little rich but
pale veal gravy or white sauce; then press and drain as much as possible
of the moisture from it, and stir it over a gentle fire until it is as
dry as it will become without burning: it will adhere in a ball to the
spoon, and leave the saucepan quite dry when it is sufficiently done.
Mix with it, while it is still hot, the yolk of one egg, and when it is
quite cold, add it to the veal with three ounces of very fresh butter, a
quarter of a teaspoonful of mace, half as much cayenne, a little nutmeg,
and a saltspoonful of salt. When these are perfectly beaten and well
blended together, add another whole egg after having merely taken out
the specks: the mixture will then be ready for use, and may be moulded
into balls, or small thick oval shapes a little flattened, and poached
in soup or gravy from ten to fifteen minutes. These _quenelles_ may be
served by themselves in a rich sauce as a corner dish, or in conjunction
with other things. They may likewise be first poached for three or four
minutes, and left on a drainer to become cold; then dipped into egg and
the finest bread-crumbs and fried, and served as _croquettes_.
NO. 18. FORCEMEAT FOR RAISED AND OTHER COLD PIES.
The very finest sausage-meat highly seasoned, and made with an equal
proportion of fat and lean, is an exceedingly good forcemeat for veal,
chicken, rabbit, and some few other pies; savoury herbs minced small may
be added to heighten its flavour if it be intended for immediate eating;
but it will not then remain good quite so long, unless they should have
been previously dried. To prevent its being too dry, two or three
spoonsful of cold water should be mixed with it before it is put into
the pie. One pound of lean veal to one and a quarter of the pork-fat is
sometimes used, and smoothly pounded with a high seasoning of spices,
herbs, and eschalots, or garlic; but we cannot recommend the
introduction of these last into pies unless they are especially ordered:
mushrooms or truffles may be mixed with any kind of forcemeat with far
better effect. Equal parts of veal and fat bacon, will also make a good
forcemeat for pies, if chopped finely, and well spiced.
Sausage-meat, well seasoned. Or: veal, 1 lb.; pork-fat, 1-1/2 lb.; salt,
1 oz.; pepper, 1/4 to 1/2 oz.; fine herbs, spice, &c., as in forcemeat
No. 1, or sausage-meat. Or: veal and bacon, equal weight, seasoned in
the same way.
PANADA.
This is the name given to the soaked bread which is mixed with the
French forcemeats, and which renders them so peculiarly delicate. Pour
on the crumb of two or three rolls, or on that of any other very light
bread, as much good boiling broth, milk, or cream, as will cover and
moisten it well; put a plate over to keep in the steam, and let it
remain for half an hour, or more; then drain off the superfluous liquid,
and squeeze the panada dry by wringing it in a thin cloth into a ball;
put it into a small stewpan or enamelled saucepan, and pour to it as
much only of rich white sauce or of gravy as it can easily absorb, and
stir it constantly with a wooden spoon over a clear and gentle fire,
until it forms a very dry paste and adheres in a mass to the spoon; when
it is in this state, mix with it thoroughly the unbeaten yolks of two
fresh eggs, which will give it firmness, and set it aside to become
quite cold before it is put into the mortar. The best French cooks give
the highest degree of savour that they can to this panada, and add no
other seasoning to the forcemeats of which it forms a part: it is used
in an equal proportion with the meat, and with the calf’s udder or
butter of which they are composed, as we have shown in the preceding
receipt for _quenelles_. They stew slowly for the purpose, a small bit
of lean ham, two or three minced eschalots, a bay-leaf, a few mushrooms,
a little parsley, a clove or two, and a small blade of mace in a little
good butter, and when they are sufficiently browned, pour to them as
much broth or gravy as will be needed for the panada; and when this has
simmered from twenty to thirty minutes, so as to have acquired the
proper flavour without being much reduced, they strain it over, and boil
it into the bread. The common course of cookery in an English kitchen
does not often require the practice of the greater niceties and
refinements of the art: and _trouble_ (of which the French appear to be
perfectly regardless when the excellence of their preparations is
concerned) is there in general so much thought of, and exclaimed
against, that a more summary process would probably meet with a better
chance of success.
A quicker and rougher mode of making the panada, and indeed the
forcemeat altogether, is to pour strong veal broth or gravy upon it, and
after it has soaked, to boil it dry, without any addition except that of
a little fine spice, lemon-grate, or any other favourite English
seasoning. Minced herbs, salt, cayenne, and mace, may be beaten with the
meat, to which a small portion of well-pounded ham may likewise be added
at pleasure.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER IX.
=Boiling, Roasting, etc.=
A THOROUGH practical knowledge of the processes described in the present
chapter will form a really good cook far sooner and more completely than
any array of mere receipts can do, however minutely they may be
explained; they should, therefore, be well studied and comprehended,
before any attempt is made to compound difficult dishes; and the
principles of roasting, boiling, stewing, and baking, at least, ought to
be clearly understood by every servant who undertakes the duties of what
is called _plain cookery_, which is, in fact, of more importance than
any other, because it is in almost universal request in this country for
families of moderate fortune; and any person who excels in it will
easily become expert in what are considered the higher branches of the
art.
In a vast number of English kitchens the cookery fails from the hurried
manner in which it is conducted, and from the excess of heat produced by
the enormous coal-fires constantly kept burning there at all seasons,
without which ignorant servants imagine no dinner can be properly
cooked; a mistake which cannot fail quickly to become apparent to the
most inexperienced reader who will give a patient trial to the slow
methods of cooking recommended in the following pages. These will be
found to combine exceeding economy in the consumption of fuel, with a
degree of superiority in the food prepared by them, which would scarcely
be credited unless it were put to the test. In stewing, and baking in
closely covered vessels, this superiority is more particularly
remarkable; and we would willingly give a far larger space to so useful
a subject than our limits will permit: we are, however, compelled,
though with regret, to restrict ourselves to such details as we have now
supplied in various parts of this volume.
TO BOIL MEAT.
[Illustration:
Iron Boiler.
]
Boiling, in the usual English manner, is the least advantageous of all
modes of cooking meat, because a large portion of the nourishment which
it contains is withdrawn from it in the process, and it is usually very
insipid in flavour.
We have already given, at the commencement of Chapter I., the substance
of Liebeg’s instructions for scientific boiling; but for the convenience
of the reader, we will briefly recapitulate them here, with such
additions as our own observation has enabled us to supply.
In making soup, gravy, or savoury jelly of any kind, the principal
object is to extract from the meat used for the preparation, all the
nutriment and savour which it can be made to yield. This is effected by
putting it into _cold_ water, and heating it very slowly indeed, and
then keeping it for a specified time at the point of boiling, or letting
it simmer in the gentlest manner; but when the meat itself is required
for food, its nutritious juices must be prevented from escaping as much
as possible, which is done by plunging it into fast boiling water for a
few minutes, to contract the pores of the surface (to harden it, in
fact), and adding immediately afterwards as much cold water as will
reduce the whole to a moderate temperature. Part of the water should
then be taken away, as meat should never be cooked in a larger quantity
than is absolutely needed to keep it entirely covered until it is ready
to serve; for this reason it should be always boiled in a vessel nearly
of its own size.
Large joints should be neatly trimmed, washed extremely clean, and
skewered or bound firmly into good shape, when they are of a nature to
require it; brought to boil over a moderate fire, and simmered until
they are done, the scum being carefully and entirely cleared from the
surface of the water, as it gathers there, which will be principally
from within a few minutes of its beginning to boil, and during a few
minutes afterwards. If not thoroughly skimmed off at the proper time, it
will sink, and adhere to the joint, giving it a very uninviting
appearance.
Pickled or salted meat requires longer boiling than fresh; and that
which is smoked and dried longer still: this last should always be laid
into _cold_ water, slowly heated, and if, from any circumstances, time
cannot have been allowed for soaking it properly and there is a
probability of its being too salt when served, it should be brought very
softly to boil in a large quantity of water, which should in part be
changed as soon as it becomes quite briny, for as much more that is
ready boiling.
It is customary to lay rounds of beef, and other large joints, upon a
fish-plate, or to throw some wooden skewers under them, to prevent their
sticking to the vessel in which they are cooked; and it is as well to
take the precaution, though unless they be placed over a very fierce
fire, they cannot be in danger of this. The time allowed for them is
about the same as for roasting, from fifteen to twenty minutes to the
pound. For cooking rounds of beef, and other ponderous joints, a pan of
this form is very convenient.
[Illustration:
Large Stock-pot.
]
By means of two almost equally expensive preparations, called a
_poêlée_, and a _blanc_, the insipidity which results from boiling meat
or vegetables in water only may be removed, and the whiteness of either
will be better preserved. Turkeys, fowls, sweetbreads, calf’s brains,
cauliflowers, and artichoke bottoms, are the articles for which the
_poêlée_ and the _blanc_ are more especially used in expensive foreign
cookery: the reader will judge by the following receipts how far they
are admissible into that of the economist.
POÊLÉE.
Cut into large dice two pounds of lean veal, and two pounds of fat bacon
cured without saltpetre, two large carrots, and two onions; to these add
half a pound of fresh butter, put the whole into a stewpan, and stir it
with a wooden spoon over a gentle fire until the veal is very white, and
the bacon is partially melted; then pour to them three pints of clear
boiling broth or water, throw in four cloves, a small bunch or two of
thyme and parsley, a bay-leaf, and a few corns of white pepper; boil
these gently for an hour and a half, then strain the _poêlée_ through a
fine sieve, and set it by in a cool place. Use it instead of water for
boiling the various articles we have already named: it will answer for
several in succession, and will remain good for many days. Some cooks
order a _pound_ of butter in addition to the bacon, and others
substitute beef-suet in part for this last.
A BLANC.
Put into a stewpan one pound of fat bacon rasped, one pound of beef-suet
cut small, and one pound of butter; the strained juice of two lemons, a
couple of bay-leaves, three cloves, three carrots, and three onions
divided into dice, and less than half a pint of water. Simmer these
gently, keeping them often stirred, until the fat is well melted, and
the water has evaporated; then pour in rather more than will be required
for the dish which is to be cooked in the _blanc_; boil it softly until
all the ingredients have given out their full flavour, skim it well, add
salt if needed, and strain it off for use. A calf’s head is often boiled
in this.
ROASTING.
[Illustration:
Bottle Jack.[68]
]
Footnote 68:
The bottle-jack is wound up like a watch, by means of a key, and turns
very regularly until it has run down.
Roasting, which is quite the favourite mode of dressing meat in this
country, and one in which the English are thought to excel, requires
unremitting attention on the part of the cook rather than any great
exertion of skill. Large kitchens are usually fitted with a smoke-jack,
by means of which several spits if needful can be kept turning at the
same time; but in small establishments, a roaster which allows of some
economy in point of fuel is more commonly used. That shown in the print
is of very advantageous construction in this respect, as a joint may be
cooked in it with a comparatively small fire, the heat being strongly
reflected from the screen upon the meat: in consequence of this, it
should never be placed very close to the grate, as the surface of the
joint would then become dry and hard.
[Illustration:
Improved Spring Jack.
]
A more convenient form of roaster, with a spit placed horizontally, and
turned by means of a wheel and chain, of which the movement is regulated
by a spring contained in a box at the top, is of the same economical
order as the one above; but eaters of very delicate taste urge, as an
objection to this apparatus, as well as to that shown above, that the
meat cooked in either, derives from the tin by which it is closely
surrounded, the flavour of _baked_ meat. The bottle-jack, with a common
roasting-screen containing shelves for warming plates and dishes, and
other purposes, is not liable to the same objection. To roast well with
it (or with a smoke-jack), make up a fire proportioned in width and
height to the joint which is to be roasted, and which it should surpass
in dimensions every way, by two or three inches. Place some
moderate-sized lumps of coal on the top; let it be free from smoke and
ashes in front; and so compactly arranged that it will neither require
to be disturbed, nor supplied with fresh fuel, for some considerable
time after the meat is laid down. Spit or suspend the joint, and place
it very far from the fire at first; keep it constantly basted, and when
it is two parts done, move it nearer to the fire that it may be properly
browned; but guard carefully against its being burned. A few minutes
before it is taken from the spit, sprinkle a little fine salt over it,
baste it thoroughly with its own dripping, or with butter, and dredge it
with flour: as soon as the froth is well risen, dish, and serve the
meat. Or, to avoid the necessity of the frothing which is often greatly
objected to on account of the raw taste retained by the flour, dredge
the roast liberally soon after it is first laid to the fire; the flour
will then form a savoury incrustation upon it, and assist to prevent the
escape of its juices. When meat or poultry is wrapped in buttered paper
it must not be floured until this is removed, which should be fifteen or
twenty minutes before either is served.
Baron Liebeg, whom we have already so often quoted, says, that roasting
should be conducted on the same principle as boiling; and that
sufficient heat should be applied to the surface of the meat at once, to
contract the pores and prevent the escape of its juices; and that the
remainder of the process should be _slow_. When a joint is first laid to
the fire, therefore, it should be placed for twenty minutes or half an
hour sufficiently near to effect this, without any part, and the fat
especially, being allowed to acquire more than the slightest colour, and
then drawn back and finished by the directions at the end of this
section.
The speedy application of very hot basting-fat to every part of the
meat, would probably be attended with the same result as subjecting it
to the full action of the fire. It is certain that roasts which are
constantly and carefully basted are always very superior to those which
are neglected in this respect.
Remember always to draw back the dripping-pan when the fire has to be
stirred, or when fresh coals are thrown on, that the cinders and ashes
may not fall into it.
When meat is very lean, a slice of butter, or a small quantity of
clarified dripping, should be melted in the pan to baste it with at
first; though the use of the latter should be scrupulously avoided for
poultry, or any delicate meats, as the flavour it imparts is to many
persons peculiarly objectionable. Let the spit be kept bright and clean,
and wipe it before the meat is put on; balance the joint well upon it,
that it may turn steadily, and if needful secure it with screw-skewers.
A cradle spit, which is so constructed that it contains the meat in a
sort of framework, instead of passing through it, may be often very
advantageously used instead of an ordinary one, as the perforation of
the meat by this last must always occasion some escape of the juices;
and it is, moreover, particularly to be objected to in roasting joints
or poultry which have been boned and filled with forcemeat. The cradle
spit (for which see “Turkey Boned and Forced,” Chapter XIV.) is much
better suited to these, as well as to a sucking pig, sturgeon, salmon,
and other large fish; but it is not very commonly to be found in our
kitchens, many of which exhibit a singular scantiness of the
conveniences which assist the labours of the cook.
For heavy and substantial joints, a quarter of an hour is generally
allowed for every pound of meat; and with a sound fire and frequent
basting, will be found sufficient when the process is conducted in the
usual manner; but by the _slow method_, as we shall designate it, almost
double the time will be required. Pork, veal, and lamb, should always be
well roasted; but many eaters prefer mutton and beef rather
underdressed, though some persons have a strong objection to the sight
even of any meat that is not thoroughly cooked.
Joints which are thin in proportion to their weight, require less of the
fire than thick and solid ones. Ribs of beef, for example, will be
sooner ready to serve than an equal weight of the rump, round, or
sirloin; and the neck or shoulder of mutton, or spare rib of pork, than
the leg.
When to preserve the succulence of the meat is more an object than to
economise fuel, beef and mutton should be laid at twice the usual
distance from the fire, after the surface has been thoroughly heated, as
directed by Liebeg, and allowed to remain so until they are perfectly
heated through; the roasting, so managed, will of course be _slow_; and
from three hours and a half to four hours will be necessary to cook by
this method a leg of mutton of ordinary size, for which two hours would
amply suffice in a common way; but the flesh will be remarkably tender,
and the flow of gravy from it most abundant. It should not be drawn near
the fire until within the last half or three quarters of an hour, and
should then be placed only so close as to brown it properly. No kind of
roast indeed should at any time be allowed to take colour too quickly;
it should be heated gradually, and kept at least at a moderate distance
from the fire until it is nearly done, or the outside will be dry and
hard, if not burned while the inside will be only half cooked.
STEAMING.
[Illustration:
Saucepan with Steamer.
]
[Illustration]
The application of steam to culinary purposes is becoming very general
in our kitchens at the present day, especially in those of large
establishments, many of which are furnished with apparatus for its use,
so admirably constructed and so complete, that the process may be
conducted on an extensive scale with very slight trouble to the cook;
and with the further advantage of being _at a distance from the fire_,
the steam being conveyed by pipes to the vessels intended to receive it.
Fish, butcher’s meat, poultry, vegetables, puddings, maccaroni, and
rice, are all subjected to its action, instead of being immersed in
water, as in simple boiling: and the result is to many persons perfectly
satisfactory; though, as there is a difference of opinion amongst
first-rate cooks, with regard to the comparative merits of the two modes
of dressing _meat_ and _fish_, a trial should be given to the steaming
on a small scale, before any great expenses are incurred for it, which
may be done easily with a common saucepan or boiler, fitted like the one
shown above, with a simple tin steamer. Servants not accustomed to the
use of these, should be warned against boiling in the vessel itself any
thing of coarse or strong flavour, when the article steamed is of a
delicate nature. The vapour from soup containing onions, for example,
would have a very bad effect on a sweet pudding, and on many other
dishes. Care and discretion, therefore, must be exercised on this point.
By means of a kettle fixed over it, the steam of the boiler in the
kitchen range may be made available for cooking, in the way shown by the
engraving, which exhibits fish, potatoes, and their sauces, all in
progress of steaming at the same time.[69] The limits of our work do not
permit us to enter at much length upon this subject, but the reader who
may wish to understand the nature of steam, and the various modes in
which its agency may be applied to domestic purposes, will do well to
consult Mr. Webster’s excellent work,[70] of which we have more
particularly spoken in another chapter. The quite inexperienced cook may
require to be told, that any article of food which is to be cooked by
steam in a saucepan of the form exhibited in the first of the engravings
of this section, must be prepared exactly as for boiling, and laid into
the sort of strainer affixed to the top of the saucepan; and that water,
or some other kind of liquid, must be put into the saucepan itself, and
kept boiling in it, the lid being first closely fixed into the steamer.
Footnote 69:
Invented and sold by Mr. EVANS, Fish-street Hill.
Footnote 70:
_Encyclopædia of Domestic Economy._ LONGMAN & CO.
Footnote 71:
Securely closed with a band of paste passed round the edges, and
pressed tightly over them. The lute or luting used for chemical
apparatus is of a kind of clay.
STEWING.
[Illustration:
Hot Plate.
]
This very wholesome, convenient, and _economical_ mode of cookery is by
no means so well understood nor profited by in England as on the
continent, where its advantages are fully appreciated. So very small a
quantity of fuel is necessary to sustain the gentle degree of ebullition
which it requires, that this alone would recommend it to the careful
housekeeper; but if the process be skilfully conducted, meat softly
stoved or stewed, in close-shutting, or luted[71] vessels, is in every
respect equal, if not superior, to that which is roasted; but it must be
_simmered_ only, and in the gentlest possible manner, or, instead of
being tender, nutritious, and highly palatable, it will be dry, hard,
and indigestible. The common cooking stoves in this country, as they
have hitherto been constructed, have rendered the exact regulation of
heat which stewing requires rather difficult; and the smoke and blaze of
a large coal fire are very unfavourable to many other modes of cookery
as well. The French have generally the advantage of the embers and ashes
of the wood which is their ordinary fuel; and they have always, in
addition, a stove of this construction, in which charcoal or _braise_
(for explanation of this word, see remarks on preserving, Chapter XXV.)
only is burned; and upon which their stewpans can, when there is
occasion, be left uncovered, without the danger of their contents being
spoiled, which there generally is with us. It is true, that of late
great improvements have been made in our own stoves; and the hot plates,
or _hearths_ with which the kitchens of good houses are always
furnished, are admirably adapted to the simmering system; but when the
cook has not the convenience of one, the stewpans must be placed on
trivets high _above_ the fire, and be constantly watched, and moved, as
occasion may require, nearer to, or further from the flame.
[Illustration]