GIFT OF
DALIHDA COTEY
M1 . : j.;coN(3MICS
^^
CATHERINE OWENS
NEW COOK BOOK
PART I.
CULTURE AND COOKING
OR, ART IN THE KITCHEN
PART II.
PRACTICAL RECIPES
BY
CATHERINE OWEN
(Mus. NITSCH)
NEW YORK
CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY
104 & 106 FOUKTH AVENUE
GIFT
COPYRIGHT, 1885,
BY O. M. DUNHAM.
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.
IN the first part of this book I endeavored to
help inexperienced housekeepers in the difficulties
they find in using even the best recipes without
some knowledge of cooking. In response, however,
to a general demand for more recipes in "Culture
and Cooking," I have prepared a second part to
be used in conjunction with it. In this addition,
I have tried, not so much to give a great many
recipes, as to give the best I know of each kind, all
tested by myself, and to give them so minutely that
they will be easily practiced. Where there are many
ways of cooking one thing I have given two recipes,
the finest I know, and one more simple.
I have tried to avoid repeating in this second part
of the book, the information contained in the first,
except in the one or two instances where I have
thought repetition of a rule may have the effect of
successive blows of the hammer on a nail drive it
home.
THE AUTHOR.
111 418539
PEEFACE.
THIS is not a cookery book. It makes no attempt to
replace a good one ; it is rather an effort to fill up the
gap between you and your household oracle, whether
she be one of those exasperating old friends who mad-
dened our mother with their vagueness, or the newer
and better lights of our own generation, the latest and
best of all being a lady as well known for her novels as
for her works on domestic economy one more proof, if
proof were needed, of the truth I endeavor to set forth
if somewhat tediously forgive me in this little book :
that cooking and cultivation are by no means antagonis-
tic. Who does not remember with affectionate admira-
tion Charlotte Bronte taking the eyes out of the pota-
toes stealthily, for fear of hurting the feelings of her
purblind old servant ; or Margaret Fuller shelling peas ?
The chief difficulty, I fancy, with women trying
recipes is, that they fail and know not why they fail,
and so become discouraged, and this is where I hope
to step in. But although this is not a cookery book,
insomuch as it does not deal chiefly with recipes, I shall
yet give a few ; but only when they are, or I believe
vi Preface.
them to be, better than those in general use, or good
things little known, or supposed to belong to the do-
main of a French chef, of which I have introduced a
good many. Should I succeed in making things that
were obscure before clear to a few women, I shall be as
proud as was Mme. de Genlis when she boasts in her
Memoirs that she has taught six new dishes to a Ger-
man housewife. Six new dishes ! When Brillat-Sava-
rin says : " He who has invented one new dish has
done more for the pleasure of mankind than he who has
discovered a star."
CONTENTS.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
PRELIMINARY REMARKS 1
CHAPTER II.
ON BREAD.
Sponge for bread. One cause of failure. Why home-made
bread often has a hard crust. On baking. Ovens. More
reasons why bread may fail to be good. Light foils.
Rusks. Kreuznach horns. Kringles. Brioche (Paris
Jockey Club recipe). Soufflee bread. A novelty 12
CHAPTER III.
PASTRY.
Why you fail in making good puff paste. How to succeed.
How to handle it. To put fruit pies together so that the
syrup does not boil out. Ornamenting fruit pies. Risso-
lettes. Pastry tablets. Frangipane tartlets. Rules for
ascertaining the heat of your oven 22
CHAPTER IV.
WHAT TO HAVE IN YOUR STORE-ROOM.
Mushroom powder (recipe). Stock to keep, or glaze (recipe).
Uses of glaze. Glazing meats, hams, tongues, etc.
Maitre d'hotel butter (recipe). Uses of it. Ravigotte or
Montpellier butter (recipe). Uses of it. Roux. Blanc
(recipes). Uses of both. Brown flour, its uses 28
vii
viii Contents*
CHAPTER V.
LUNCHEONS.
Remarks on what to have for luncheons. English meat pies.
Windsor pie. Veal and ham pie. Chicken pie. Raised
pork pie. (Recipes). Ornamenting meat pies. Galan-
tine (recipe). Pish in jelly. Jellied oysters. A new
mayonnaise luncheon for small families. Potted meats
(recipes). Anchovy butter. A new omelet. Potato
snow. Lyonnaise potatoes 35
CHAPTER VI.
A CHAPTER ON GENERAL MANAGEMENT IN VERY SMALL FAMILIES.
How to have little dinners. Hints for bills of fare, etc. Filet
de bceuf Chateaubriand (recipe). What to do with the
odds and ends. Various recipes. Salads. Recipes 47
CHAPTER VII.
FRYING.
Why you fail. Panure or bread-crumbs, to prepare. How to
prepare flounders as filets de sole. Fried oysters. To
clarify dripping for frying. Remarks. Pate a frire a la
Careme. Same, a la Pro ven<?ale. Broiling 55
CHAPTER VIII.
ROASTING gg
CHAPTER IX.
BOILING AND SOUPS.
Boiling meat. Rules for knowing exactly the degrees of boil-
ing- Vegetables. Remarks on making soup. To clear
soup. Why it is not clear. Coloring pot-au-feu. Con-
somme. Orcme de cekri, a little known soup. Recipes. . 65
Contents. ix
CHAPTER X.
SAUCES.
PAGE
Remarks on making and flavoring sauces. Espagnole or
brown sauce as it should be. How to make fine white
sauce 70
CHAPTER XI.
WARMING OVER.
Remarks. Salmi of cold meats. Bceuf a la jardiniere.
Bceuf au gratin. Pseudo-beei'steak. Cutlets a la jar-
diniere. Cromesquis of lamb. Sauce piquant. Miroton
of beef. Simple way of warming a joint. Breakfast dish.
Stuffed beef. Beef olives. Chops a la poulette.
Devils. Mephistophelia n sauce. Fritadella, twenty re-
cipes in one 72
CHAPTER XII.
ON FRIANDISES.
Biscuit glacee at home (recipes). Iced souffles (recipes). Baba
and syrups for it (recipe). Savarin and syrup (recipes).
Bouchees de dames. How to make Curac.oa. Maraschino.
Noyeau 84
CHAPTER XIII.
FRENCH CANDIES AT HOME.
How to make them. Fondants. Vanilla. Almond cream.
Walnut cream. Tutti frutti. Various candies dipped
in cream. Chocolate creams. Fondant panache. Punch
drops 91
CHAPTER XIV.
FOR PEOPLE OF VERY SMALL MEANS.
Remarks. What may be made of a soup bone. Several very
economical dishes. Pot roasts. Dishes requiring no
meat 96
x Contents.
CHAPTER XV.
PAGE
A PEW THINGS IT IS WELL TO REMEMBER 105
CHAPTER XVI.
ON SOME TABLE PREJUDICES 108
CHAPTER XVII.
A CHAPTER OF ODDS AND ENDS.
Altering recipes. How to have tarragon, burnet, etc. Re-
marks on obtaining ingredients not in common use. An
impromptu salamander. Larding needle. How to have
parsley fresh all winter without expense. On having
kitchen conveniences. Anecdote related by Jules Gouffee.
On servants in America. A little advice by way of
valedictory \\ {
CONTENTS.
PART II.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BREAKFAST BREADS 119
CHAPTER XIX.
O.M KT.ETTEfl 124
CHAPTER XX.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 126
CHAPTER XXI.
FORCEMEATS STUFFING 131
CHAPTER XXII.
VEGETABLES 134
CHAPTER XXIII.
SOUPS 140
CHAPTER XXIV.
FISH 150
CHAPTER XXV.
ENTREES 157
CHAPTER XXVI.
ROASTS. . 178
xii Contents.
CHAPTER XXVII. PAGE
POULTRY 184
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GAME 191
CHAPTER XXIX.
SALADS 196
CHAPTER XXX.
BOILED PUDDINGS OF ALL KINDS 201
CHAPTER XXXI.
PlES, TARTS AND SWEET OMELETTES 2C8
CHAPTER XXXII.
DISHES FOR CHEESE COURSE, OR SUPPER 216
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SAUCES, SAVORY AND SWEET . 219
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CAKES . 233
CATHERINE OWEN'S
NEW COOK BOOK
PART I.
CULTURE AND COOKING.
CHAPTER I.
A FEW PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
ALEXAXDRE DUMAS, pere, after writing five hundred
novels, says, " I wish to close my literary career with a
book on cooking."
And in the hundred pages or so of preface or perhaps
overture would be the better word, since in it a group
of literary men, while contributing recondite recipes,
flourish trumpets in every key to his huge volume he
says, "I wish to be read by people of the world, and
practiced by people of the art " (gens de Vart) ; and al-
though I wish, like every one who writes, to be read by
all the world, I wish to aid the practice, not of the pro-
fessors of the culinary art, but those whose aspirations
point to an enjoyment of the good things of life, but
whose means of attaining them are limited.
There is a great deal of talk just now about cooking ;
in a lesser degree it takes its place as a popular topic
with ceramics, modern antiques, and household art. The
fact of it being in a mild way fashionable may do a lit-
tle good to the eating world in general. And it may
make it more easy to convince young women of refined
1 1
2 Culture and Cooking.
proclivities that the art of cooking is not beneath their
attention, to know that the Queen of England's daugh-
ters and of course the cream of the London fair have
attended the lectures on the subject delivered at South
Kensington, and that a young lady of rank, Sir James
Coles's daughter, has been recording angel to the asso-
ciation, is in fact the E. C. 0. who edits the "Official
Handbook of Cookery."
But, notwithstanding all that has been done by South
Kensington lectures in London and Miss Corson's Cook-
ing School in New York to popularize the culinary art,
one may go into a dozen houses, and find the ladies of
the family with sticky fingers, scissors, and gum pot,
busily porcelainizing clay jars, and not find one where
they are as zealously trying to work out the problems of
the " Official Handbook of Cookery."
I have nothing to say against the artistic distractions
of the day. Anything that will induce love of the beau-
tiful, and remove from us the possibility of a return to
the horrors of hair-cloth andbrocatel and crochet tidies,
will be a stride in the right direction. But what I do
protest against, is the fact, that the same refined girls
and matrons, who so love to adorn their houses that they
will spend hours improving a pickle jar, mediaevalizing
their furniture, or decorating the dinner service, will
shirk everything that pertains to the preparation of food
as dirty, disagreeable drudgery, and sit down to a com-
monplace, ill-prepared meal, served on those artistic
plates, as complacently as if dainty food were not a re-
finement; as if heavy rolls and poor bread, burnt or
greasy steak, and wilted potatoes did not smack of the
shanty, just as loudly as coarse crockery or rag carpet
indeed far more so ; the carpet and crockery may be due
A Fciv Preliminary Remarks. 3
to poverty, but a dainty meal or its reverse will speak
volumes for innate refinement or its lack in the woman
who serves it. You see by my speaking of rag carpets
and dainty meals in one breath, that I do not consider
good things to be the privilege of the rich alone.
There are a great many dainty things the household
of small or moderate means can have just as easily as
the most wealthy. Beautiful bread light, white, crisp
costs no more than the tough, thick-crusted boulder,
with cavities like eye-sockets, that one so frequently
meets with as home-made bread. As Hood says:
" Who has not met with home-made bread,
A heavy compound of putty and lead ?"
Delicious coffee is only a matter of care, not expense
and indeed in America the cause of poor food, even in a
boarding-house, is seldom in the quality of the articles
so much as in the preparation and selection of them
yet an epicure can breakfast well with fine bread and
butter and good coffee. And this leads me to another
thing : many people think that to give too much atten-
tion to food shows gluttony. I have heard a lady say
with a tone of virtuous rebuke, when the conversation
turned from fashions to cooking, " I give very little time
to cooking, we eat to live only " which is exactly what
an animal does. Eating to live is mere feeding. Brillat-
Savarin, an abstemious eater himself, among other witty
things on the same topic says, " L 'animal se repait,
rhomme mange, rhomme d' esprit seul salt manger"
Nine people out of ten, when they call a man an
epicure, mean it as a sort of reproach, a man who is
averse to every-day food, one whom plain fare would
fail to satisfy ; but Grimod de la Reyniere, the most eel-
4 Culture and Cooking.
ebrated gourmet of his day, author of "Almanack des
Gourmands," and authority on all matters culinary of the
last century, said, "A true epicure can dine well on one
dish, provided it is excellent of its kind." Excellent,
that is it. A little care will generally secure to us the
refinement of having only on the table what is excellent
of its kind. If it is but potatoes and salt, let the salt be
ground fine, and the potatoes white and mealy. Thack-
eray says, an epicure is one who never tires of brown
bread and fresh butter, and in this sense every New
Yorker who has his rolls from the Brevoort House, and
uses Darlington butter, is an epicure. There seems to
me, more mere animalism in wading through a long
bill of fare, eating three or four indifferently cooked
vegetables, fish, meat, poultry, each second-rate in qual-
ity, or made so by bad cooking, and declaring that you
have dined well, and are easy to please, than there is in
taking pains to have a perfectly broiled chop, a fine po-
tato, and a salad, on which any true epicure could dine
well, while on the former fare he would leave the table
hungry.
Spenser points a moral for me when he says, speaking
of the Irish in 1580, " That wherever they found a plot
of shamrocks or water-cresses they had a feast ;" but there
were gourmets even among them, for "some gobbled
the green food as it came, and some picked the faultless
stalks, and looked for the bloom on the leaf."
Thus it is, when I speak of "good living," I do not
mean expensive living or high living, but living so that
the table may be as elegant as the dishes on which it is
served.
I believe there exists a feeling, not often expressed per-
haps, but prevalent among young people, that for a lady
A Few Preliminary Remarks. 5
to cook with her own hands is vulgar; to love to do it
shows that she is of low intellectual caliber, a sort of
drawing-room Bridget. When or how this idea arose it
would be difficult to say, for in the middle ages cooks
were often noble ; a Montmorency was chef de cuisine to
Philip of Valois ; Montesquieu descended, and was not
ashamed of his descent, from the second cook of the
Connetable de Bourbon, who ennobled him. And from
Lord Bacon, "brightest, greatest, meanest of mankind,"
who took, it is said, great interest in cooking, to Talley-
rand, the Machiavelli of France, who spent an hour every
day with his cook, we find great men delighting in the
art as a recreation.
It is surprising that such an essentially artistic people
as Americans should so neglect an art which a great
French writer calls the " science mignonne of all dis-
tinguished men of the world." Napoleon the Great so
fully recognized the social value of keeping a good table
that, although no gourmet himself, he wished all his
chief functionaries to be so. "Keep a good table," he
told them; "if you get into debt for it I will pay."
And later, one of his most devoted adherents, the Mar-
quis de Cussy, out of favor with Louis XVIII. on
account of that very devotion, found his reputation as
a gourmet very serviceable to him. A friend applied
for a place at court for him, which Louis refused, till he
heard that M. de Cussy had invented the mixture of
cream, strawberries, and champagne, when he granted
the petition at once. Nor is this a solitary instance in
history where culinary skill has been a passport to for-
tune to its possessor. Savarin relates that the Cheva-
lier d'Aubigny, exiled from France, was in London, in
utter poverty, notwithstanding which, by chance, he was
6 Culture and Cooking.
invited to dine at a tavern frequented by the young bucks
of that day.
After he had finished his dinner, a party of young
gentlemen, who had been observing him from their table,
sent one of their number with many apologies and ex-
cuses to beg of him, as a son of a nation renowned for
their salads, to be kind enough to mix theirs for them.
He complied, and while occupied in making the salad,
told them frankly his story, and did not hide his pov-
erty. One of the gentlemen, as they parted, slipped a
five-pound note into his hand, and his need of it was so
great that he did not obey the prompting of his pride,
but accepted it.
A few days later he was sent for to a great house, and
learned on his arrival that the young gentleman he had
obliged at the tavern had spoken so highly of his salad
that they begged him to do the same thing again. A
very handsome sum was tendered him on his departure,
and afterwards he had frequent calls on his skill, until
it became the fashion to have salads prepared by d'Au-
bigny, who became a well-known character in London,
and was called " the fashionable salad-maker" In a few
years he amassed a large fortune by this means, and
was in such request that his carriage would drive from
house to house, carrying him and his various condiments
for he took with him everything that could give
variety to his concoctions from one place, where his
services were needed, to another.
The contempt for this art of cooking is confined to this
country, and to the lower middle classes in England. By
the " lower middle classes" I mean, what Carlyle terms
thegigocracy i.e., people sufficiently well-to-do to keep a
gig or phaeton well-to-do tradesmen, small professional
A Few Preliminary Remarks. 7
men, the class whose womenkind would call themselves
"genteel," and many absurd stories are told of the
determined ignorance and pretense of these would-be
ladies. But in no class above this is a knowledge of
cooking a thing to be ashamed of ; in England, indeed,
so far from that being the case, indifference to the sub-
ject, or lack of understanding and taste for certain dishes
is looked upon as a sort of proof of want of breeding.
Not to like curry, macaroni, or parmesan, pate de fois
gras, mushrooms, and such like, is a sign that you have
not been all your life accustomed to good living. Mr.
Hardy, in his " Pair of Blue Eyes," cleverly hits this
prejudice when he makes Mr. Swancourt say, lt I knew
the fellow wasn't a gentleman; he had no acquired tastes,
never took Worcestershire sauce."
Abroad many women of high rank and culture de-
vote a good deal of time to a thorough understanding
of the subject. We have a lady of the " lordly line of
proud St. Clair " writing for us <( Dainty Dishes," and
doing it with a zest that shows she enjoys her work,
although she does once in a while forget something she
ought to have mentioned, and later still we have Miss
Eose Coles writing the " Official Handbook of Cookery."
But it is in graceful, refined France that cookery is
and has been, a pet art. Any bill of fare or French
cookery book will betray to a thoughtful reader the at-
tention given to the subject by the wittiest, gayest, and
most beautiful women, and the greatest men. The high-
sounding names attached to French standard dishes are
no mere caprice or homage of a French cook to the great in
the land, but actually point out their inventor. Thus
Bechamel was invented by the Marquis de Bechamel, as
a sauce for codfish ; while Filets de Lapereau, a la
8 Culture and Cooking.
Berry were invented by the Duchess de Berry, daughter
of the regent Orleans, who himself invented Pain a la
a" Orleans, while to Kichelieu we are indebted for hun-
dreds of dishes besides the renowned mayonnaise.
Cailles a la Mirepois, Chartreuse a la Mauconseil,
Poulets a la Villeroy, betray the tastes of the three great
ladies whose name they bear.
But not in courts alone has the art had its devotees.
Almost every great name in French literature brings to
mind something its owner said or did about cooking.
Dumas, who was a prince of cooks, and of whom it is
related that in 1860, when living atVarennes, St. Maur,
dividing his time, as usual, between cooking and litera-
ture (Lorsqu'il ne faisait pas sauter un roman, il
faisait sauter des petits oignons), on Mountjoye, a
young artist friend and neighbor, going to see him, he
cooked dinner for him. Going into the poultry yard,
after donning a white apron, he wrung the neck of a
chicken; then to the kitchen garden for vegetables,
which he peeled and washed himself ; lit the fire, got
butter and flour ready, put on his saucepans, then cooked,
stirred, tasted, seasoned until dinner time. Then he
entered in triumph and announced, " Le diner est
servi." For six months he passed three or four days a
week cooking for Mountjoye. This novelist's book says,
in connection with the fact that great cooks in France
have been men of literary culture, and literary men often
fine cooks, " It is not surprising that literary men have
always formed the entourage of a great chef, for, to
appreciate thoroughly all there is in the culinary art,
none are so well able as men of letters; accustomed , as
they are to all refinements, they can appreciate better
than others those of the table/' thus paying himself and
A Few Preliminary Remarks. 9
confreres a delicate little compliment at the expense of
the non-literary world; but, notwithstanding the naive
self-glorification, he states a fact that helps to point my
moral, that indifference to cooking does not indicate re-
finement, intellect, or social pre-eminence.
Brillat-Savarin, grave judge as he was, and abstemi-
ous eater, yet has written the book of books on the art
of eating. It was he who said, fi Tell me what you eat,
I will tell you what you are," as pregnant with truth as
the better-known proverb it paraphrases.
Malherbe loved to watch his cook at work. I think it
was he who said, " A coarse-minded man could never be
a cook," and Charles Baudelaire, the Poe of France, takes
a poet's view of our daily wants, when he says, " that an
ideal cook must have a great deal of the poet's nature,
combining something of the voluptuary with the man
of science learned in the chemical principles of matter;"
although he goes further than we care to follow when
he says, that the question of sauces and seasoning re-
quires " a chapter as grave as &femlleton de science."
It has been said by foreigners that Americans care
nothing for the refinements of the table, but I think
they do care. I have known many a woman in com-
fortable circumstances long to have a good table, many
a man aspire to better things, and if he could only get
them at home would pay any money. But the getting
them at home is the difficulty ; on a table covered with
exquisite linen, glass, and silver, whose presiding queen
is more likely than not a type of the American lady-
graceful, refined, and witty on such a table, with such
surroundings, will come the plentiful, coarse, common-
place dinner.
The chief reason for this is lack of knowledge on the
io Culture and Cooking.
part of our ladies: know how to do a thing yourself, and.
you will get it well done by others. But how are many
of them to know ? The daughters of the wealthy in
this country often marry struggling men, and they know
less about domestic economy than ladies of the higher
ranks abroad; not because English or French ladies take
more part in housekeeping, but because they are at home
all their lives. Ladies of the highest rank never go to a
boarding or any other school, and these are the women
who, with some few exceptions, know best how things
should be done. They are at home listening to criti-
cisms from papa, who is an epicure perhaps, on the
shortcomings of his own table, or his neighbors'; from
mamma, as to what the soup lacks, why cook is not a
"cordon bleu" etc., while our girls are at school, far
away from domestic comments, deep in the agonies of
algebra perhaps ; and directly they leave school, in many
cases they marry. As a preparation for the state of
matrimony most of them learn how to make cake and
preserves, and the very excellence of their attainments
in that way proves how easy it would be for them, with
their dainty fingers and good taste, to far excel their Eu-
ropean cousins in that art which a French writer says is
based on "reason, health, common sense, and sound taste."
Here let me say, I do not by any means advocate a
woman, who can afford to pay a first-rate cook, avoiding
the expense by cooking herself ; on the contrary, I think
no woman is justified in doing work herself that she has
the means given her to get done by employing others.
I have no praise for the economical woman, who, from
a desire to save, does her own work without necessity for
economy. It is not her work; the moment she can afford
to employ others it is the work of some less fortunate per-
A Few Preliminary Remarks. 1 1
son. But in this country, it often happens that a good
cook is not to be found for money, although the raw ma-
terial of which one might be made is much oftener at
hand. And if ladies would only practice the culinary art
with as much, nay, half as much assiduity as they give to
a new pattern in crochet ; devote as much time to attain-
ing perfection in one dish or article of food, be it per-
fect bread, or some French dish which father, brother,
or husband goes to Delmonico's to enjoy, as they do to
the crochet tidies or embroidered rugs with which they
decorate their drawing-rooms, they could then take the
material, in the shape of any ambitious girl they may
meet with, and make her a fine cook. In the time they
take to make a dozen tidies, they would have a dozen
dishes at their fingers' ends; and let me tell you^ the
woman who can cook a dozen things, outside of pre-
serves, in a perfect manner is a rarity here, and a good
cook anywhere, for, by the time the dozen are accom-
plished, she will have learned so much of the art of cook-
ing that all else will come easy. One good soup, bouil-
lon, and you have the foundation of all others ; two
good sauces, white sauce and brown, " les sauces meres "
as the French call them (mothers of all other sauces),
and all others are matters of detail. Learn to make one
kind of roll perfectly, as light, plump, and crisp as
Delmonico's, and all varieties are at your fingers' ends;
you can have kringles, Vienna rolls, Kreuznach horns,
Yorkshire tea cakes, English Sally Lunns and Bath
buns ; all are then as easy to make as common soda bis-
cuit. In fact, in cooking, as in many other things, " ce
ri>est que le premier pas que coute; " failures are almost
certain at the beginning, but a failure is often a step
toward success if we only know the reason of the failure.
CHAPTER II.
ON BREAD.
OF all articles of food, bread is perhaps the one about
which most has been written, most instruction given,
and most failures made. Yet what adds more to the
elegance of a table than exquisite bread or breads, and
unless you live in a large city and depend on the baker
what so rare ? A lady who is very proud of her table,
and justly so, said to me quite lately, " I cannot under-
stand how it is we never have really fine home-made
bread. I have tried many recipes, following them
closely, and I can't achieve anything but a common-
place loaf with a thick, hard crust ; and as for rolls,
they are my despair. I have wasted eggs, butter, and
patience so often that I have determined to give them
up, but a fine loaf I will try fo-r."
" And when you achieve the fine loaf, you may revel
in home-made rolls," I answered.
And so I advise every one first to make perfect bread,
light, white, crisp, and thin-crusted, that rarest thing
in home-made bread.
I have read over many recipes for bread, and am con-
vinced that when the time allowed for rising is specified,
it is invariably too short. One standard book directs
you to leave your sponge two hours, and the bread when
made up a quarter of an hour. This recipe strictly
followed must result in heavy, tough bread. As bread
12
On Bread. 13
is so important, and so many fail, I will give my own
method from beginning to end ; not that there are not
numberless good recipes, but simply because they fre-
quently need adapting to circumstances, and altering a
recipe is one of the things a tyro fears to do.
I make a sponge over night, using a dried yeast-cake
soaked in a pint of warm water, to which I add a spoon-
ful of salt, and, if the weather is warm, as much soda as
will lie on a dime ; make this into a stiff batter with
flour it may take a quart or less, flour varies so much,
to give a rule is impossible ; but if, after standing, the
sponge has a watery appearance, make it thicker by
sprinkling in more flour, beat hard a few minutes, and
cover with a cloth in winter keep a piece of thick flan-
nel for the purpose, as a chill is fatal to your sponge
and set in a warm place free from draughts.
The next morning, when the sponge is quite light-
that is to say, at least twice the bulk it was, and like a
honeycomb take two quarts of flour, more or less, as
you require, but I recommend at first a small baking,
and this will make three small loaves ; in winter, flour
should be dried and warmed ; put it in your mixing
bowl, and turn the sponge into a hole in the center.
Have ready some water, rather more than lukewarm, but
not hot. Add it gradually, stirring your flour into the
sponge at the same time. The great fault in making
bread is getting the dough too stiff ; it should be as soft
as possible, without being at all sticky or wet. Now
knead it with both hands from all sides into the center ;
keep this motion, occasionally dipping your hands into
the flour if the dough sticks, but do not add more flour
unless the paste sticks very much ; if you have the right
consistency it will be a smooth mass, very soft to the
14 Culture and Cooking.
touch, yet not sticky, but this may not be attained at a
first mixing without adding flour by degrees. When
you have kneaded the dough until it leaves the bowl all
round, set it in a warm place to rise. When it is well
risen, feels very soft and warm to the touch, and is twice its
bulk, knead it once more thoroughly, then put it in tins
either floured, and the flour not adhering shaken out, or
buttered, putting in each a piece of dough half the size
you intend your loaf to be. Now everything depends on
your oven. Many people bake their bread slowly, leav-
ing it in the oven a long time, and this causes a thick,
hard crust. When baked in the modern iron oven,
quick baking is necessary. Let the oven be quite hot,
then put a little ball of paste in, and if it browns palely
in seven to ten minutes it is about right ; if it burns, it
is too hot ; open the damper ten minutes. Your bread,
after it is in the tins, will rise much more quickly than
the first time. Let it get light, but not too light twice
its bulk is a good rule ; but if it is light before your oven
is ready, and thus in danger of getting too porous, work
it down with your hand, it will not harm it, although it
is better so to manage that the oven waits for the bread
rather than the bread for the oven. A small loaf and
by all means make them small until you have gained
experience will not take more than three quarters of an
hour to bake ; when a nice yellow brown, take it out, turn
it out of the tin into a cloth, and tap the bottom ; if it is
crisp and smells cooked, the loaf is done. Once the bot-
tom is brown it need remain no longer. Should that,
however, from fault of your oven, be not brown, but
soft and white, you must put it back in the oven, the
bottom upwards. An oven that does not bake at the
bottom will, however, be likely to spoil your bread. It
On Bread. l
is sometimes caused by a careless servant leaving a col-
lection of ashes underneath it ; satisfy yourself that all
the flues are perfectly clean and clear before beginning
to bake, and if it still refuses to do its duty, change it,
for you will have nothing but loss and vexation of spirit
while you have it in use. I think you will find this
bread white, evenly porous (not with small holes in one
part and caverns in another ; if it is so you have made
your dough too stiff, and it is not sufficiently kneaded),
and with a thin, crisp crust. Bread will surely fail to
rise at all if you have scalded the yeast ; the water must
never be too hot. In winter, if it gets chilled, it will
only rise slowly, or not at all, and in using baker's or
German yeast take care that it is not stale, which will
cause heavy, irregular bread.
In making bread with compressed yeast proceed in
exactly the same way, excepting that the sponge will not
need to be set over night, unless you want to bake very
early.
If you have once produced bread to your satisfaction
you will find no difficulty in making rolls. Proceed as
follows :
Take a piece of the dough from your baking after it
has risen once. To a piece as large as a man's fist take
a large tablespoonful of butter and a little powdered
sugar ; work them into the dough, put it in a bowl, cover
it, and set it in a warm place to rise a shelf behind the
stove is best ; if you make this at the same time as
your bread, you will find it takes longer to rise ; the
butter causes that difference ; when very light, much
lighter than your bread should be, take your hand and
push it down till it is not larger than when you put it
in the bowl ; let it rise again, and again push it down,
1 6 Culture and Cooking.
but not so thoroughly ; do this once or twice more, and
you have the secret of light rolls. You will find them rise
very quickly, after once or twice pushing down. When
they have risen the third or fourth time, take a little
butter on your hands, and break off small pieces about
the size of a walnut and roll them round. Either put
them on a tin close together, to be broken apart, or an
inch or two from each other, in which case work in a
little more flour, and cut a cleft on the top, and once more
set to rise ; half an hour will be long enough generally,
but in this case you must judge for yourself, they some-
times take an hour ; if they look swelled very much and
smooth they will be ready. Have a nice hot oven, and
bake for twelve to fifteen minutes.
Add a little more sugar to your dough and an egg, go
through the same process, brush them over with sugar
dissolved in milk, and you will have delicious rusks.
The above is my own method of making rolls, and the
simplest I know of ; but there are numbers of other
recipes given in cookery books which would be just as
good if the exact directions for letting them rise were
given. As a test and every experiment you try will be
so much gained in your experience follow the recipe
given for rolls in any good cookery book, take part of
the dough and let it rise as therein directed, and bake,
set the other part to rise as / direct, and notice the dif-
ference.
KKEUZNACH HORNS. Either take a third of the
dough made for bread with three quarts of flour, or set
a sponge with a pint of flour and a yeast-cake soaked in
half a pint of warm water or milk, making it into a stif-
fish dough with another pint of flour; then add four
ounces of butter, a little sugar, and two eggs; work well.
On Bread. 17
If you use the bread dough, you will need to dredge in
a little more flour on account of the eggs, but not very
much; then set to rise as for rolls, work it down twice or
thrice, then turn the dough out on the molding board
lightly floured, roll it as you would pie-crust into pieces
six inches square, and quarter of an inch thick, make two
sharp, quick cuts across it from corner to corner, and you
will have from each square four three-cornered pieces of
paste; spread each thinly with soft butter, flour lightly,
and roll up very lightly from the wide side, taking care
that it is not squeezed together in any way ; lay them on
a tin with the side on which the point comes uppermost,
and bend round in the form of a horseshoe; these will
take some time to rise; when they have swollen much
and look light, brush them over with white of egg
(not beaten) or milk and butter, and bake in a good
oven.
KEIKGLES are made from the same recipe, but with
another egg and two ounces of sugar (powdered) added
to the dough when first set to rise; then, when well risen
two or three times, instead of rolling with a pin as for
horns, break off pieces, roll between your hands as thick
as your finger, and form into figure eights, rings, fingers;
or take three strips, flour and roll them as thick as your
finger, tapering at each end ; lay them on the board,
fasten the three together at one end, and then lay one
over the other in a plait, fasten the other end, and set to
rise, bake; when done, brush over with sugar dissolved in
milk, and sprinkle with sugar.
All these breads are delicious for breakfast, and may
easily be had without excessive early rising if the sponge
is set in the morning, dough made in the afternoon,
and the rising and working done in the evening ; when.
l8 Culture and Cooking.
instead of making up into rolls, horns, or kringles, push
the dough down thoroughly, cover with a damp folded
cloth, and put in a very cold place if in summer not on
ice of course then next morning, as soon as the fire is
alight, mold, but do not push down any more, put in a
very warm spot, and when light, bake.
In summer, as I have said, I think it safest, to prevent
danger of souring, to put a little soda in the sponge for
bread ; and for rolls, or anything requiring to rise sev-
eral times, it is an essential precaution.
BEIOCHE. I suppose the very name of this delectable
French dainty will call up in the mind's eye of many
who read this book that great " little" shop, Au Grand
Brioche, on the Boulevarde Poissoniere, where, on Sun-
day afternoons, scores of boys from the Lycees form
en queue with the general public, waiting the hour
when the piles of golden brioche shall be ready to ex-
change for their eager sous. But I venture to say, a
really fine brioche is rarely eaten on this side the Atlan-
tic. They being a luxury welcome to all, and especially
aromatic of Paris, I tried many times to make them,
obtaining for that purpose recipes from French friends,
and from standard French books, but never succeeded
in producing the ideal brioche until I met with Gouf-
fc's great book, the " Livre de Cuisine" after reading
which, I may here say, all secrets of the French kitchen
are laid bare ; no effort is spared to make everything
plain, from the humble pot-au-feu to the most gorgeous
monumental plat. And I would refer any one who wants
to become proficient in any French dish, to that book,
feeling sure that, in following strictly the directions,
there will be no failure. It is the one book I have met
with on the subject in which no margin is left for your
On Bread. 19
own knowledge, if you have it, to fill up. But to the
brioche.
PAEIS JOCKEY-CLUB RECIPE FOE BRIOCHE.
Sift one pound of flour, take one fourth of it, and add
rather more than half a cake of compressed yeast, dis-
solved in half a gill of warm water, make into a sponge
with a very little more water, put it in a warm place ;
when it is double its volume take the rest of the flour,
make a hole in the center, arid put in it an equal quantity
of salt and sugar, about a teaspoonful, and two tablespoon -
fuls of water to dissolve them. Three quarters of a pound
of butter and four eggs, beat well, then add another egg,
beat again, and add another, and so on until seven have
been used ; the paste must be soft, but not spread ; if too
firm, add another egg. Now mix this paste with the
sponge thoroughly, beating until the paste leaves the
sides of the bowl, then put it in a crock and cover ; let
it stand four hours in a warm place, then turn it out on
a board, spread it and double it four times, return it to
the crock, and let it rise again two hours ; repeat the
former process of doubling and spreading, and put it in
a very cold place for two hours, or until you want to use
it. Mold in any form you like, but the true brioche is
two pieces, one as large again as the other ; form the
large one into a ball, make a deep depression in the cen-
ter, on which place the smaller ball, pressing it gently
in ; cut two or three gashes round it with a sharp knife,
and bake a beautiful golden brown. These brioche are
such a luxury, and so sure to come out right, that the
trouble of making them is well worth the taking, and
for another reason : every one knows the great difficulty
of making puff paste in summer, and a short paste is
2O Culture and Cooking.
never handsome ; but take a piece of brioche paste, roll
it out thin, dredge with flour, fold and roll again, then
use as you would puff paste ; if for sweet pastry, a
little powdered sugar may be sprinkled through it in-
stead of dredging with flour. This makes a very hand-
some and delicious crust. Or, another use to which it
may be put is to roll it out, cut it in rounds, lay on
them mince-meat, orange marmalade, jam, or merely
sprinkle with currants, chopped citron, and spices, fold,
press the edges, and bake.
Before quitting the subject of breads I must introduce
a novelty which I will call "eoufflee bread." It is
quickly made, possible even when the fire is poor, and so
delicious that I know you will thank me for making
you acquainted witli it.
Use two or three eggs according to size you wish, and
to each egg a tablespoonful of flour. Mix the yolks
with the flour and with them a dessert-spoonful of but-
ter melted, and enough milk to make a very thick batter,
Avork, add a pinch of salt and a teaspoonful of sugar,
work till quite smooth, then add the whites of the eggs
in a firm froth, stir them in gently, and add a quarter
teaspoonful of soda and half a one of cream of tartar.
Have ready an iron frying-pan (or an earthen one that
will stand heat is better), made hot with a tablespoonful
of butter in it, also hot, but not so hot as for frying.
Pour the batter (which should be of the consistency of
sponge cake batter) into the pan, cover it with a lid
or tin plate, and set it back of the stove if the fire is
hot if very slow it may be forward ; when well risen
and near done, put it in the oven, or if the oven
is cold you may turn it gently, not to deaden it.
Serve when done (try with a twig), the under side
On Bread. 21
uppermost ; it should be of a fine golden brown and
look like an omelet. This soumee bread is equally
good baked in a tin in which is rather more butter than
enough to grease it ; the oven must be very hot in-
deed. Cover it for the few minutes with a tin plate or
lid, to prevent it scorching before it has risen ; when it
has puffed up remove the lid, and allow it to brown, ten
to fifteen minutes should bake it ; turn it out as you
would sponge cake very carefully, not to deaden it. To
succeed with bread you must use the very best flour.
CHAPTER III.
PASTRY.
To MAKE good puff paste is a thing many ladies are
anxious to do, and in which they generally fail, and this
not so much because they do not make it properly, as
because they handle it badly. A lady who was very
anxious to excel in pastry once asked me to allow her to
watch me make paste. I did so, and explained that there
was more in the manner of using than in the making
up. I then gave her a piece of my paste when com-
pleted, and asked her to cover some patty pans while I
covered others, cautioning her as to the way she must
cover them ; yet, when those covered by her came out
of the oven they had not risen at all, they were like rich
short paste ; while my own, made from the same paste,
were toppling over with lightness. I had, without say-
ing anything, pressed my thumb slightly on one spot of
one of mine ; in that spot the paste had not risen at all,
and I think this practical demonstration of what I had
tried to explain was more useful than an hour's talk
would have been.
I will first give my method of making, which is the
usual French way of making "feuilletonage" Take
one pound of butter, or half of it lard ; press all the
water out by squeezing it in a cloth ; this is impor-
tant, as the liquid in it would wet your paste ; take a
third of the butter, or butter and lard, and rub it into
Pastry. 23
one pound of fine flour ; add no salt if your butter is
salted ; then take enough water (to which you may add
the well-beaten white of an egg, but it is not absolutely
necessary) to make the flour into a smooth, firm dough; it
must not be too stiff, or it will be hard to roll out, or
too soft, or it will never make good paste ; it should roll
easily, yet not stick ; work it till it is very smooth, then
roll it out till it is half an inch thick ; now lay the whole
of the butter in the center, fold one-third the paste over,
then the other third ; it is now folded in three, with the
butter completely hidden ; now turn the ends toward
you, and roll it till it is half an inch thick, taking care,
by rolling very evenly, that the butter is not pressed out
at the other end ; now you have a piece of paste about
two feet long, and not half that width ; flour it lightly,
and fold over one third and under one third, which will
almost bring it to a square again ; turn it round so that
what was the side is now the end, and roll. Most likely
now the butter will begin to break through, in which
case fold it, after flouring lightly, in three, as before, and
put it on a dish on the ice, covering it with a damp cloth.
You may now either leave it for an hour or two, or till
next day. Paste made the day before it is used is much
better and easier to manage, and in winter it may be kept
for four or five days in a cold place, using from it as
required.
When ready to use your paste finish the making by
rolling it out, dredging a little flour, and doubling it in
three as before, and roll it out thin ; do this until from
first to last it has been so doubled and rolled seven times.
Great cooks differ on one or two points in making
pastry ; for instance, Soyer directs you to put the yolk
of an egg instead of the white, and a squeeze of lemon
24 Culture and Cooking.
juice into the flour, and expressly forbids you to work it
before adding the mass of butter, while Jules Gouffe
says, "work it until smooth and shining." I cannot
pretend to decide between these differing doctors, but I
pursue the method I have given and always have light
pastry. And now to the handling of it : It must only he
touched by the lightest fingers, every cut must be made
with a sharp knife, and done with one quick stroke so that
the paste is not dragged at all ; in covering a pie dish or
patty pan, you are commonly directed to mold the paste
over it as thin as possible, which conveys the idea that the
paste is to be pressed over and so made thin ; this would
destroy the finest paste in the world ; roll it thin, say
for small tartlets, less than a quarter of an inch thick,
for a pie a trifle thicker, then lay the dish or tin to be
covered on the paste, and cut out with a knife, dipped in
hot water or flour, a piece a little larger than the mold,
then line with the piece you have cut, touching it as little
as possible ; press only enough to make the paste adhere
to the bottom, but on no account press the border; to
test the necessity of avoiding this, gently press one spot
on a tart, before putting it in the oven, only so much as
many people always do in making pie, and watch the
result. When your tartlets or pies are made, take each
up on your left hand, and with a sharp knife dipped in
flour trim it round quickly. To make the cover of a
pie adhere to the under crust, lay the forefinger of your
right hand lengthwise round the border, but as far from
the edge as you can, thus forming a groove for the syrups,
and pressing the cover on at the same time. A word
here about fruit pies : Pile the fruit high in the center,
leaving a space all round the sides almost bare of fruit,
when the cover is on press gently the paste, as I have
Pastry. 2$
explained, into this groove, then make two or three deep
holes in the groove ; the juice will boil out of these holes
and run round this groove, instead of boiling out through
the edges and wasting.
This is the pastry-cook's way of making pies, and makes
a much handsomer one than the usual flat method,
besides saving your syrup. To ornament fruit pies or
tartlets, whip the white of an egg, and stir in as much
powdered sugar as will make a thin meringue a large
tablespoonful is usually enough then when your pies or
tartlets are baked, take them from the oven, glaze with
the egg and sugar, and return to the oven, leaving the
door open ; when it has set into a frosty icing they are
ready to serve.
It is worth while to accomplish puff paste, for so
many dainty trifles may be made with it, which, at-
tempted with the ordinary short paste, would be unsight-
ly. Some of these that seem to me novel I will describe.
Rissolettes are made with trimmings of puff paste; if
you have about a quarter of a pound left, roll it out very
thin, about as thick as a fifty-cent piece; put about half
a spoonful of marmalade or jam on it, in places about
an inch apart, wet lightly round each, and place a piece
of paste over all ; take a small round, cutter as large as
a dollar, and press round the part where the marma-
lade or jam is with the thick part of the cutter; then cut
them out with a cutter a size larger, lay them on a bak-
ing tin, brush over with white of egg; then cut some little
rings the size of a quarter dollar, put one on each, egg
over again, and bake twenty minutes in a nice hot oven;
then sift white sugar all over, put them back in the oven
to glaze ; a little red currant jelly in each ring looks
pretty ; serve in the form of a pyramid.
26 Culture and Cooking.
PASTRY TABLETS. Cut strips of paste three inches
and a half long, and an inch and a half wide, and as
thick as a twenty-five cent piece ; lay on half of them
a thin filmy layer of jam or marmalade, not jelly; then
on each lay a strip without jam, and bake in a quick
oven. When the paste is well risen and brown, take
them out, glaze them with white of egg and sugar,
and sprinkle chopped almonds over them ; return to
the oven till the glazing is set and the almonds just
colored; serve them hot or cold on a napkin piled log-
cabin fashion.
FRAKGIPANE TARTLETS. One quarter pint of cream,
four yolks of eggs, two ounces of flour, three macaroons,
four tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, the peel of a
grated lemon, and a little citron cut very fine, a little
brandy and orange-flower water. Put all the ingredi-
ents, except the eggs, in a saucepan of course you will
mix the flour smooth in the cream first let them
come to a boil slowly, stirring to prevent lumps ;
when the flour smells cooked, take it off the fire for
a minute, then stir the beaten yolks of eggs into it.
Stand the saucepan in another of boiling water and re-
turn to the stove, stirring till the eggs seem done about
five minutes, if the water boils all the time. Line patty
pans with puff paste, and fill with frangipane and bake.
Ornament with chopped almonds and meringue, or not,
as you please.
It is very difficult to make fine puff paste in warm
weather, and almost impossible without ice ; for this
reason I think the brioche paste preferable; but if it
is necessary to have it for any purpose, you must take
the following precautions :
Have your water iced ; have your buttei as firm as
Pastry. 27
possible by being kept on ice till the last moment ; make
the paste in the coolest place you have, and under the
breeze of an open window, if possible ; make it the day
before you use it, and put it on the ice between every
"turn, "as each rolling out is technically called; then
leave it on the ice, as you use it, taking pieces from it as
you need them, so that the warmth cannot soften the
whole at once, when it would become quite unmanage-
able. The condition of the oven is a very important
matter, and I cannot do better than transcribe the rules
given by Gouffe, by which you may test its fitness for
any purpose :
Put half a sheet of writing paper in the oven; if it
catches fire it is too hot; open the dampers and wait
ten minutes, when put in another piece of paper ; if it
blackens it is still too hot. Ten minutes later put in a
third piece ; if it gets dark brown the oven is right for
all small pastry. Called "dark ~broivn paper heat."
Light brown paper heat is suitable for vol-au-vents or
fruit pies. Darlc yellow paper heat for large pieces of
pastry or meat pies, pound cake, bread, etc. Light yel-
low paper heat for sponge cake, meringues, etc.
To obtain these various degrees of heat, you try paper
every ten minutes till the heat required for your purpose
is attained. But remember that "light yellow "means
the paper only tinged ; "dark yellow," the paper the
color of ordinary pine wood; "light brown" is only a
shade darker, about the color of nice pie-crust, and dark
brown a shade darker, by no means coffee color.
CHAPTER IV.
WHAT TO HAVE IN YOUK, STORE-BOOM.
great trouble with many young housekeepers is
betrayed by the common remark, " Cookery books al-
ways require so many things that one never has in the
house, and they coolly order you to ' moisten with gravy,'
4 take a little gravy/ as if you had only to go to the pump
and get it." It is very true that economy in cooking is
much aided by having a supply of various condiments ;
warmed-over meat may then be converted into a delicious
little entree with little trouble. I would recommend,
therefore, any one who is in earnest about reforming
her dinner table to begin by expending a few dollars in
the following articles :
1 bottle of capers,
I " olives,
1 " gherkins,
1 " soy,
1 " anchovies,
1 bottle of claret,
1 white wine,
1 sherry for cooking,
1 brandy,
1 Harvey sauce,
1 " tarragon vinegar, ; 1 walnut ketchup.
And a package of compressed vegetables and a few bay leaves.
Ten dollars thus spent may seem a good deal of money
to a young housewife trying to make her husband's salary
go as far as it will ; but I assure her it is in the end an
economy, especially in a small family, who are so apt to
get tired of seeing the same thing, that it has to be
28
What to Have in Your Store-room. 29
thrown or given away. With these condiments and
others I have yet to mention you will have no trouble
in using every scrap ; not using it and eating it from a
sense of duty, and wishing it was something better, but
enjoying it. With your store-room well provided, you
can indeed go for gravy " as if to the pump."
Besides the foregoing list of articles to be bought of
any good grocer, there are others which can be made at
home to advantage, and once made are always ready.
Mushroom powder I prefer for iiny use to mushroom
catsup ; it is easily made and its uses are infinite.
Sprinkled over steak (when it must be sifted) or chops,
it is delicious. For ordinary purposes, such as flavoring
soup or gravy, it need not be sifted. To prepare it, take
a peck of large and very fresh mushrooms, look them over
carefully that they are not wormy, then cleanse them
with a piece of flannel from sand or grit, then peel them
and put them in the sun or a cool oven to dry ; they re-
quire long, slow drying, and must become in a state to
crumble. Your peck will have diminished by the pro-
cess into half a pint or less of mushroom powder, but
you have the means with it of making a rich gravy at a
few minutes' notice.
Apropos of gravies that much- vexed question in
small households for without gravies on hand you can-
not make good hash, or many other things that are mis-
erable without, and excellent with it. Yet how difficult
it is to have gravy always on hand every mistress of a
small family knows, in spite of the constant advice to
" save your trimming to make stock." Do by all means
save your bones, gristle, odds and ends of meat of all
kincjs, and convert them into broth ; but even if you
do, it often happens that the days you have done so no
3O Culture and Cooking.
gravy is required, and then it sours quickly in summer,
although it may be arrested by reboiling. In no family
of three or four are there odds and ends enough, unless
there is a very extravagant table kept, to insure stock for
every day. My remedy for this, then, is to make a
stock that will keep for months or years in other words,
glaze. So very rarely forming part of a housewife's
stores, yet so valuable that the fact is simply astonish-
ing ; with a piece of glaze, you have a dish of soup on
an emergency, rich gravy for any purpose, and all with
the expenditure of less time than would make a pot of
sweetmeats.
Take six pounds of a knuckle of veal or leg of beef,
cut it in pieces the size of an egg, as also half a pound
of lean ham ; then rub a quarter of a pound of butter on
the bottom of your pot, which should hold two gallons ;
then put in the meat with half a pint of water, three
middle-sized onions, with two cloves in each, a turnip, a
carrot, and a small head of celery ; then place over a
quick fire, occasionally stirring it round, until the bot-
tom of the pot is covered with a thick glaze, which will
adhere lightly to the spoon ; then fill up the pot with
cold water, and when on the boiling point, draw it to the
back of the stove, where it may gently simmer three
hours, if veal, six if beef, carefully skimming it to re-
move scum. This stock, as it is, will make a delicious
foundation, with the addition of salt, for all kinds of
clear soup or gravies. To reduce it to glaze proceed as
follows : Pass the stock through a fine hair sieve or
cloth into a pan ; then fill up the pot again with Jwt
water, and let it boil four hours longer to obtain all the
glutinous part from the meat ; strain, and pour both
stocks in a large pot or stew-pan together ; set it over the
What to Have in Yonr Store-room. 31
fire, and let it boil as fast as possible with the lid off,
leaving a large spoon in it to prevent it boiling over, and
to stir occasionally. When reduced to about three pints,
pour it into a small stew-pan or saucepan, set again to
boil, but more slowly, skimming it if necessary ; when
it is reduced to a quart, set it where it will again boil
quickly, stirring it well with a wooden spoon until it
begins to get thick and of a fine yellowish-brown color ;
at this point be careful it does not burn.
You may either pour it into a pot for use, or, what is
more convenient for making gravies, get a sausage skin
from your butcher, cut a yard of it, tie one end very
tightly, then pour into it by means of a large funnel the
glaze ; from this cut slices for use. A thick slice dis-
solved in hot water makes a cup of nutritious soup, into
which you may put any cooked vegetables, or rice, or
barley. A piece is very useful to take on a journey,
especially for an invalid who does not want to depend on
wayside hotel food, or is tired of beef-tea.
The foregoing is the orthodox recipe for glaze, and if
you have to buy meat for the purpose the very best way
in which you can make it ; but -if it happen that you
have some strong meat soup or jelly, for which you have
no use while fresh, then boil it down till it is thick and
brown (not burnt) ; it will be excellent glaze ; not so fine
in flavor, perhaps, but it preserves to good use what
would otherwise be lost. Very many people do not
know the value of pork for making jelly. If you live in
the country and kill a pig, use his hocks for making glaze
instead of beef.
Glaze also adds much to the beauty of many dishes.
If roast beef is not quite brown enough on any one spot
set your jar of glaze for this purpose it is well to have
32 Culture and Cooking.
some put in a jar as well as in the skin in boiling water.
Keep a small stiff brush ; such as are sold for the pur-
pose at house-furnishing stores, called a glazing brush,
are best ; but you may manage with any other or even a
stiff feather. When the glaze softens, as glue would do,
brush over your meat with it, it will give the lacking
brown ; or, if you have a ham or tongue you wish to
decorate you may "varnish" it, as it were, with the
melted glaze ; then when cold beat some fresh butter to
a white cream, and with a kitchen syringe, if you have
one, a stiff paper funnel if you have not, trace any
design you please on the glazed surface ; this makes a
very handsome dish, and if your ham has been properly
boiled will be very satisfactory to the palate. Of the
boiling of ham I will speak in another chapter.
I have a few more articles to recommend for your*
store-room, and then I think you will find yourself equal
to the emergency of providing an elegant little meal if
called upon unexpectedly, provided you have any cold
scraps at all in the house, and maitre d'hotel butter.
To make the latter, take half a pound of fine butter,
one tablespoonful of very fresh parsley, chopped not too
fine, salt, pepper, and a small tablespoonful of lemon
juice ; mix together, but do not work more than suffi-
cient for that purpose, and pack in a jar, keeping it in a
cool place. A tablespoonful of this laid in a hot dish
on which you serve beefsteak, chops, or any kind of fish,
is a great addition, and turns plain boiled potatoes into
pomme de terre a la maitre d'hotel. It is excellent with
stewed potatoes, or added to anything for which parsley
is needed, and not always at hand ; a spoonful with half
the quantity of flour stirred into a gill of milk or water
makes the renowned maitre d'hotel sauce (or English
What to Plave in Your Store-room. 33
parsley butter) for boiled fish, mutton, or veal. In
short, it is one of the most valuable things to have in
the house. Equally valuable, even, and more elegant is
the preparation known as "Kavigotte" or Montpellier
butter.
Take one pound in equal quantities of chervil, tarra-
gon, burnet (pimpernel), chives, and garden cress (pep-
pergrass) ; scald two minutes, drain quite dry ; pound in
a mortar three hard eggs, three anchovies, and one scant
ounce of pickled cucumbers, and same quantity of capers
well pressed to extract the vinegar ; add salt, pepper, and
a bit of garlic half as large as a pea, rub all through a
sieve ; then put a pound of fine butter into the mortar,
which must be well cleansed from the herbs, add the
herbs, with two tablespoonf uls of oil and one of tarragon
vinegar, mix perfectly, and if not of a fine green, add
the juice of some pounded spinach.
This is the celebrated "leurre de Montpellier" sold
in Paris in tiny jars at a high price. Kavigotte is the
same thing, only in place of the eggs, anchovies, pickles,
and capers, put half a pound more butter ; it is good, but
less piquant.
Pack in a jar, and keep cool. This butter is excel-
lent for many purposes. For salad, beaten with oil,
vinegar, and yolks of eggs, as for mayonnaise, it makes
a delicious dressing. For cold meat or fish it is excel-
lent, and also for chops.
Two or three other articles serve to simplify the art of
cooking in its especially difficult branches, and in the
branches a lady finds difficult to attend to herself with-
out remaining in the kitchen until the last minute before
dinner ; but with the aid of blanc and roux a fairly
intelligent girl can make excellent sauces.
3*
34 Culture and Cooking.
For roux melt slowly half a pound of butter over the
fire, skim it, let it settle, then dredge in eight ounces of
fine flour, stir it till it is of a bright brown, then put
away in a jar for use.
Blanc is the same thing, only it is not allowed to
brown ; it should be stirred only enough to make all hot
through, then put away in a jar.
If you need thickening for a white sauce and do not
wish to stand over it yourself, having taught your cook
the simple fact that a piece of blanc put into the milk
before it boils (or it will harden instead of melt) and
allowed to dissolve, stirring constantly, will make the
sauce you wish, she will be able at all times to produce
a white sauce that you need not be ashamed of. When
the sauce is nearly ready to serve, stir in a good piece of
butter a large spoonful to half a pint ; when mixed,
the sauce is ready. Brown sauce can always be made
by taking a cup of broth or soup and dissolving in the
same way a piece of the roux ; and also, if desired, a
piece of Montpellier butter. If there is no soup of course
you make it with a piece of glaze.
Brown flour is also a convenient thing to have ready ;
it is simply cooking flour in the oven until it is a pale
brown ; if it is allowed to get dark it will be bitter, and,
that it may brown evenly, it requires to be laid on a large
flat baking pan and stirred often. Useful for thickening
stews, hash, etc.
CHAPTER V.
LUNCHEON.
LUNCHEON is usually, in this country, either a forlorn
meal of cold meat or hash, or else a sort of early dinner,
both of which are a mistake. If it is veritably luncheon,
and not early dinner, it should be as unlike that later
meal as possible for variety's sake, and, in any but very
small families, there are so many dishes more suitable
for luncheon than any other meal, that it is easy to
have great variety with very little trouble.
I wish it were more the fashion here to have many of
the cold dishes which are popular on the other side the
Atlantic ; and, in spite of the fact that table prejudices
are very difficult to get over, I will append a few recipes
in the hope that some lady, more progressive than prej-
udiced, may give them a trial, convinced that their ex-
cellence, appearance, and convenience will win them
favor.
By having most dishes cold at luncheon, it makes it a
distinct meal from the hot breakfast and dinner. In
summer, the cold food and a salad is especially refresh-
ing ; in winter, a nice hot soup or puree thick soup is
preferable at luncheon to clear, which is well fitted to
precede a heavy meal and some savory entree are very
desirable, while cold raised pie, galantine, jellied fish, and
potted meats may ever, at that season, find their appro-
priate place on the luncheon table. The potatoes, which
35
36 Culture and Cooking.
are the only vegetable introduced at strict lunch, should
be prepared in some fancy manner, as croquettes, mashed
and browned, a la mditre d'hotel, or in snow. The latter
mode is pretty and novel ; I will, therefore, include it
in my recipes for luncheon dishes. Omelets, too, are
excellent at luncheon.
In these remarks I am thinking especially of large
families, whose luncheon table might be provided with
a dish of galantine, one of collared fish, and a meat pie,
besides the steak, cutlets, or warmed-over meat, without
anything going to waste. In winter most cold jellied
articles will keep a fortnight, and in summer three or
four days.
WINDSOR PIE. Take slices of veal cutlet, half an
inch thick, and very thin slices of lean boiled ham ; put
at the bottom of one of these veal-pie dishes or " bak-
ers, " about two to three inches deep, a layer of the veal,
seasoned, then one of ham, then one of force-meat, made
as follows : Take a little veal, or if you have sausage-
meat ready-made, it will do, as much fine dry bread-
crumbs, a dessert-spoonful of finely chopped parsley, in
which is a salt-spoonful of powdered thyme, savory, and
marjoram, if you have them, with salt and pepper, and
mix with enough butter to make it a crumbling paste;
lay a thin layer of this on the ham, then another of veal,
then ham and force-meat again, until the dish is quite
full. Lay something flat upon it, and then a weight for
an hour. You must have prepared, from bones and
scraps of veal, about a pint of stiff veal jelly ; pour this
over the meat, and then take strips of rich puff paste
(the brioche paste would be excellent in hot weather),
wet the edge of the dish, and lay the strips round, press-
ing them lightly to the dish ; roll the cover a little
Luncheon. 37
larger than the top of the dish, and lay it on, first wet-
ting the surface, not the edge, of the strips round the
lips of the dish ; press the two together, then make a hole
in the center and ornament as you please ; but I never
ornament the edge of a pie, as it is apt to prevent the
paste from rising. An appropriate and simple ornament
for meat pies is to roll a piece of paste very thin, cut it
in four diamond-shaped pieces, put one point of each to
the hole in the center so that you have one on each end,
and one each side, then roll another little piece of paste
as thin as possible, flour it and double it, then double it
again, bring all the corners together in your hand, like
a little bundle, then with a sharp knife give a quick cut
over the top of the ball of paste, cutting quite deeply,
then another across ; if your cut has been clean and
quick, you will now be able to turn half back the leaves
of paste as if it were a half-blown rose. The ends which
you have gathered together in your hand are to be in-
serted in the hole in the center of the pie Then brush
over with yolk of egg beaten very well in a little milk or
water, and bake an hour and a half.
This way of covering and ornamenting a pie is ap-
propriate for all meat pies ; pigeon pie should, however,
have the little red feet skinned by dipping in boiling
water, then rubbed in a cloth, when skin and nails peel
off ; if allowed to lie in the water, the flesh comes too;
then one pair is put at each end of the pie, a hole being
cut to insert them, or four are put in the center instead
of the rose.
The Windsor pie is intended to be eaten cold, as are all
veal and ham pies, the beauty of the jelly being lost in
a hot pie. Do not fail to try it on that account, for
cold pies are excellent things.
38 Culture and Cooking.
ANOTHER VEAL AND HAM PIE, more usual, and proba-
bly the "weal and hammer" that "inellered the organ"
of Silas Wegg, was manufactured by Mrs. Boffin from
this recipe ; it is as follows :
Take the thick part of breast of veal, removing all the
bones, which put on for gravy, stewing them long and
slowly; put a layer of veal, pepper and salt, then a thin
sprinkling of ham; if boiled, cut in slices; if raw, cut a
slice in dice, which scald before using, then more veal
and again ham. If force-meat balls are liked, make
some force-meat as for Windsor pie, using if you prefer it
chopped hard-boiled eggs in place of chopped meat, and
binding into a paste with a raw egg ; then make into
balls, which drop into the crevices of the pie ; boil two
or three eggs quite hard, cut each in four and lay them
round the sides and over the top, pour in about a gill of
gravy, and cover the same as the Windsor pie. In either
of these pies the force-meat may be left out, a sweetbread
cut up, or musjiroons put in.
A chicken pie to eat cold is very fine made in this way.
KAISED POKK PIES are so familiar to every one who has
visited England, and, in spite of the greasy idea, are so
very good, that I introduce a well-tried recipe, feeling
sure anyone who eats pork at all will find it worth while
to give them a trial; they will follow it with many another.
The paste for them is made as follows :
Rub into two pounds of flour a liberal half pound of
butter, then melt in half a pint of hot, but not boiling
milk, another half pound or it may be lard; pour this
into the flour, and knead it into a smooth, firm paste.
Properly raised pies should be molded by hand, and I will
endeavor to describe the method in case any persever-
ing lady would like to try and have the orthodox thing.
Luncheon. 39
But pie molds of tin, opening at the side, are to be
bought, and save much trouble; the mold, if used, should
be well buttered, and the pie taken out when done, and
returned to the oven for the sides to brown.
To " raise" a pie, proceed thus : While the paste is
warm, form a ball of paste into a cone; then with the
fist work inside it, till it forms an oval cup ; continue to
knead till you have the walls of an even thickness, then
pinch a fold all around the bottom. If properly done,
you have an oval, flat-bottomed crust, with sides about
two inches high ; fill this with pork, fat and lean
together, well peppered and salted; then work an oval
cover, as near the size of the bottom cover as you can,
and wet the edges of the wall,, lay the cover on, and
pinch to match the bottom; ornament as directed for
Windsor pie, wash with egg, and bake a pale brown in a
moderate oven ; they must be well cooked, or the meat
will not be good. One containing a pound of meat may
be cooked an hour and a quarter. All these pies are
served in slices, cut through to the bottom.
Galantines are very handsome dishes, not very difficult
to make, and generally popular. I give a recipe for a
very simple and delicious one :
Take a fine breast of veal, remove all gristle, tendons,
bones, and trim to fifteen inches in length and eight
wide; use the trimmings and bones to help make the
jelly, then put on the meat a layer of force-meat made
tHus : Take one pound of sausage meat, or lean veal, to
which add half a pound of bread-crumbs, parsley and
thyme to taste; grate a little nutmeg, pepper, salt, and
the juice of half a lemon ; have also some long strips an
inch thick of fat bacon or pork, and lean of veal, and
lean ham, well seasoned with pepper, salt, and finely
40 Culture and Cooking.
chopped shallots. Lay on the meat a layer of force-
meat an inch thick, leaving an inch and a half on each
side uncovered ; then lay on your strips of ham, veal,
and bacon fat, alternately; then another of force-meat,
but only half an inch thick, as too much force-meat
will spoil the appearance of the dish ; if you have any
cold tongue, lay some strips in, also a few blanched
pistachio nuts (to be obtained of a confectioner) will
give the appearance of true French galantine. Roll up
the veal, and sew it with a packing or coarse needle and
fine twine, tie it firmly up in a piece of linen. Observe
that you do not put your pistachio nuts amid the force-
meat, where, being green, their appearance would be lost;
put them in crevices of the meats.
Cook this in sufficient water to cover, in which you
must have the trimmings of the breast and a knuckle of
veal, or hock of pork, two onions, a carrot, half a head
of celery, two cloves, a blade of mace, and a good bunch
of parsley, thyme and bay leaf, two ounces of salt. Set
the pot on the fire till it is at boiling point, then draw
it to the back and let it simmer three hours, skimming
carefully ; then take it from the fire, leaving it in the
stock till nearly cold; then take it out, remove the string
from the napkin, and roll the galantine up tighter if
too tight at first it will be hard tying the napkin at
each end only; then place it on a dish, set another dish
on it, on which place a fourteen-pound weight; this will
cause it to cut firm. When quite cold, remove strings
and cloth, and it is ready to be ornamented with jelly.
When the stock in which the galantine was cooked is cold
take off the fat and clarify it, first trying, however, if it
is in right condition, by putting a little on ice. If it is
not stiff enough to cut firm, you must reduce it by boil-
Luncheon. 41
ing ; if too stiff, that is approaching glaze, add a little
water, then clarify by adding whites of eggs, as directed
to clarify soup (see soups). A glass of sherry and two
spoonfuls of tarragon or common vinegar are a great
improvement. Some people like this jelly cut in dice,
to ornament the galantine, part of it may then also serve
to ornament other dishes at the table. But I prefer to
have the galantine enveloped in jelly, which may be done
by putting it in an oblong soup tureen or other vessel
that will contain it, leaving an inch space all round,
then pouring the jelly over it.
Jellied fish is a favorite dish with many, and is very
simple to prepare ; it is also very ornamental. Take
flounders or almost any flat fish that is cheapest at the
time you require them. Clean and scrape them, cut
them in small pieces, but do not cut off the fins ; put
them in a stew-pan with a few small button onions or
one large one, a half teaspoonful of sugar, a glass of
sherry, a dessert-spoonful of lemon juice, and a small
bunch of parsley. To one large flounder put a quart of
water, and if you are going to jelly oysters put in their
liquor and a little salt. Stew long and slowly, skim-
ming well ; then strain, and if not perfectly clear clarify
as elsewhere directed. (See if your stock jellies, by try-
ing it on ice before you clarify.) Now take a mold, put
in it pieces of cold salmon, eels that have been cooked,
or oysters, the latter only just cooked enough in the
stock to plump them ; pour a little of the jelly in the
mold, then three or four half slices of lemon, then oys-
ters or the cold fish, until the mold is near full, dis-
posing the lemon so that it will be near the sides and
decorate the jelly ; then pour the rest of the jelly over
all and stand in boiling water for a few minutes, then
42 Culture and Cooking.
put it in a cold place, on ice is best, for some hours.
When about to serve, dip the mold in hot water, turn
out on a dish, garnish with lettuce leaves or parsley and
hard-boiled eggs. The latter may be introduced into
the jelly cut in quarters if it is desired ; very ornamen-
tal force-meat balls made bright green with spinach juice
are also an improvement in appearance.
A NEW MAYONNAISE (Soyer's). Put a quarter of a
pint of stiff veal jelly (that has been nicely flavored with
vegetables) on ice in a bowl, whisking it till it is a white
froth ; then add half a pint of salad oil and six spoon-
fuls of tarragon vinegar, "by degrees, first oil, then vine-
gar, continually whisking till it forms a white, smooth,
sauce-like cream ; season with half a teaspoonful of salt,
a quarter ditto of white pepper, and a very little sugar,
whisk it a little more and it is ready. It should be
dressed pyramidically over the article it is served with.
The advantage of this sauce is that (although more deli-
cate than any other) you may dress it to any height
you like, and it will remain so any length of time ; if
the temperature is cool, it will remain hours without
appearing greasy or melting. It is absolutely necessary,
however, that it should be prepared on ice.
All these dishes, however, are only adapted for large
families, but there are several ways of improving on the
ordinary lunch table of very small ones. And nothing
is more pleasant for the mistress of one of these very
small families than to have a friend drop in to lunch,
and have a recherche lunch to offer with little trouble.
Warming over will aid her in this, and to that chapter
I refer her ; but there are one or two ways of having
cold relishes always ready, which help out an impromptu
meal wonderfully.
Luncheon. 4$
Potted meats are a great resource to English house-
keepers ; this side the Atlantic they are chiefly known
through the medium of Cross & Blackwell, though lat-
terly one or two American firms have introduced somo
very admirable articles of the sort. Home-made potted
meats are, however, better and less expensive than those
bought ; they should be packed away in jars, Liebig's
extract of meat jars not being too small for the purpose,
as, while covered with the fat they keep well ; once
opened, they require eating within a week or ten days,
except in very cold weather.
Potted bloater is one of the least expensive and appe-
tizing of all potted meats. To make it, take two or three
or more bloaters, cut off the heads and cleanse them, put
them in the oven long enough to cook them through;
take them out, take off the skin, and remove the meat
from the bones carefully ; put the meat of the fish in a
jar with half its weight of butter, leave it to slowly cook
in a cool oven for an hour, then take it out, put the fish
into a mortar or strong dish, pour the butter on it care-
fully, but don't let the gravy pass too, unless the fish is
to be eaten very quickly, as it would prevent it keeping.
Beat both butter and fish till they form a paste, add a
little cayenne, and press it into small pots, pouring on
each melted butter, or mutton suet. Either should be
the third of an inch thick on the bloater. This makes
excellent sandwiches.
POTTED HAM. Take any remains of ham you have,
even fried, if of a nice quality, is good for the purpose ;
take away all stringy parts, sinew, or gristle, put it in a
slow oven with its weight of butter, let it stay macerat-
ing in the butter till very tender, then beat it in a mor-
tar, add cayenne, and pack in pots in the same way as
44 Culture and Cooking.
the bloater. Thus you may pot odds and ends of any
meat or fish you have, and as a little potted meat goes a
long way, when you have a little lobster, a bit of chicken
breast, or even cold veal, I advise you to use it in this
way ; you will then have a little stock of dainties in the
house to fall back on at any time for unexpected calls
a very important thing in the country.
Potted chicken or veal requires either a little tongue
or lean ham to give flavor ; but failing these, a little
ravigotte butter, beaten in after the meat is well
pounded, is by no means a bad substitute.
Many people like the flavor of anchovies, but do not
like the idea of eating raw fish ; for these anchovy but-
ter is very acceptable.
Take the anchovies out of the liquor in which they are
packed, but do not wash them, put them in twice their
weight of butter in a jar, which stand in boiling water ;
set all back of the stove for an hour, then pound, add
cayenne, and pack in glasses.
Unexpected company to luncheon with a lady who has
to eat that meal alone generally, and (as is the unwise
way of such ladies) makes it a very slender meal, is one
of the ordeals of a young housekeeper ; company to lunch
and nothing in the house. But there is generally a
dainty luncheon in every house if you know how to pre-
pare it ; there certainly always will be if you keep your
store-room supplied with the things I have named. Let
the table be prettily laid at all times, then if you have
potted meat and preserves, have them put on the table.
Are there cold potatoes? If so cut them up into potato
salad, if they are whole ; if broken, warm them in a
wine-glass of milk, a teaspoonful of flour, and a piece
as large as an egg of maitre d'hotel butter. Have you
Luncheon. 4$
such scraps of cold meat as could not come to table? Toss
them up with a half cup of water, a slice of glaze (oh,
blessed ever-ready glaze!) a teaspoonful of ravigotte, or
maitre d' hotel, and a teaspoonful of roux or blanc, ac-
cording as your meat is light or dark, season, and serve.
Or you have no meat, then you have eggs, and what bet-
ter than an omelet and such an omelet as the following?
Take the crumb of a slice of bread, soak it in hot milk
(cold will do, but hot is better), beat up whites of four
eggs to a high froth; mix the bread with all the milk it
will absorb, no more, into a paste, add the yolks of eggs
with a little salt, set the pan on the fire with an ounce of
butter. Let it get very hot, then mix the whites of eggs
with the yolks and bread lightly, pour in the pan, and
move about for a minute ; if the oven is hot, when the
omelet is brown underneath, set the pan in the oven
for five minutes, or until the top is set; then double
half over, and serve. If your guests have a liking for
sweets, and your potted meats supply the savory part of
your luncheon, then have a brown gravy ready to serve
with it. Put into a half cup of boiling water a slice of
glaze, a spoonful of roux, and enough Harvey sauce, or
mushroom powder, to flavor. If your omelet is to be
sweet, before you fold it put in a layer of preserves.
The advantage of the omelet I have here given is
that it keeps plump and tender till cold, so that five
minutes of waiting does not turn it into leather, the
great objection with omelets generally.
Potatoes for luncheon, as I have said, should always
be prepared in some fancy way, and snow is a very pretty
one. Have some fine mealy potatoes boiled, carefully
poured off, and set back of the stove with a cloth over
them till they are quite dry and fall apart ; then have a
46 Culture and Cooking.
colander, or coarse wire sieve made hot and a hot dish in
which to serve them, pass the floury potatoes through
the sieve, taking care not to crush the snow as it falls.
You require a large dish heaping full, and be careful
it is kept hot.
This mode of preparing potatoes, although very pretty
and novel, must never be attempted with any but the
whitest and mealiest kind.
The remains of cold potatoes may be prepared thus:
Put three ounces of butter in a frying-pan in which fry.
three onions sliced till tender, but not very brown, then
put on the potatoes cut in slices, and shake them till
they are of a nice brown color, put a spoonful of chopped
parsley, salt, pepper, and juice of a lemon, shake well
that all may mix together, dish, and serve very hot.
CHAPTER VI.
A CHAPTER ON GENERAL MANAGEMENT IN VERY
SMALL FAMILIES.
A VERY small family, "a young menage" for in-
stance, is very much more difficult to cater for without
waste than a larger one; two people are so apt to get tired
of anything, be it ever so good eating, when it has been
on the table once or twice; therefore it would be useless
to make galantine or the large pies I have indicated, ex-
cept for occasions when guests are expected ; but, as I
hope to aid young housekeepers to have nice dishes when
alone, I will devote this chapter to their needs.
The chapter on "Warming Over" will be very useful
also to this large class.
In the first place it is well to have regard, when part
of a dish leaves the table, as to whether it, or any partic-
ular part of it, will make a nice little cold dish, or a re-
chauffe; in that case have it saved, unless it is required
for the servants' dinner (it is well to manage so that it is
not needed for that purpose); for instance, if there is the
wing and a slice or two of the breast of a chicken left, it
will make a dainty little breakfast dish, or cold, in jelly,
be nice for lunch. There is always jelly if you have
roast chicken, if you manage properly, and this is how
you do it :
Carefully save the feet, throat, gizzard, and liver of
your chickens; scald the feet by pouring boiling water
47
48 Culture and Cooking.
over them; leave them just a minute, and pull off the
outer skin and nails; they come away very readily, leav-
ing the feet delicately white; put these with the other
giblets, properly cleansed, into a small saucepan with an
onion, a slice of carrot, a sprig of parsley, and a pint of
water (if you have the giblets of one chicken), if of
two, put a quart; let this slowly simmer for two hours
and a half; it will be reduced to about half, and form a
stiff jelly when cold; a glass of sherry, and squeeze of
lemon, or teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar, makes this
into a delicious aspic, and should be added if to be eaten
cold. The jelly must of course be strained.
In roasting chickens, if you follow the rule for meat,
that is, put no water in the pan, but a piece of butter, and
dredge a very little flour over the chicken, you will have
a nice brown glaze at the bottom of the pan, provided
it has been cooked in a quick oven; if in a cool oven
there will be nothing brown at all ; but we will suppose
the bird is browned to a turn ; pour your gravy from the
giblets into the pan, take off every bit of the glaze or
osmazone that adheres, and let it dissolve, rubbing it
with the back of the spoon ; then, if you are likely to
have any chicken left cold, pour off a little gravy in a
cup through a fine strainer, leaving in your pan suffi-
cient for the dinner ; in this mash up the liver till it is
a smooth paste which thickens the gravy, and serve.
Some object to liver, therefore the use of it is a matter
of taste. If you dress the chickens English fashion, you
will need the liver and gizzard to tuck under the wings ;
in this case, stew only the feet and throat, using a little
meat of any kind, if you have it, to take their place ;
but on no account fail to use the feet, as they are as rich
in jelly as calves' feet in proportion to their size.
General Management in Small Families. 49
The jelly laid aside will be enough to ornament and
give relish to a little dish of cold chicken, and changes
it from a dry and commonplace thing to a recherche, one.
If two chickens are cooked it is more economical than
one ; there is, then, double the amount of gravy, gener-
ally sufficient, if you lay some very nice pieces of cold
chicken in a bowl, to pour over it and leave it enveloped
in jelly ; you still then, if from dinner for two people,
have perhaps joints enough to make a dish of curry or
fricassee, or any of the many ways in which cold chicken
may be used, for which see chapter on "Warming Over."
For small households large joints are to be avoided,
but even a small roast is a large joint when there are but
two or three to eat it. For this reason it is a good plan
to buy such joints as divide well. A sirloin of beef is
better made into two fine dishes than into one roast,
and then warmed over twice. Every one knows that
"Filet de bceuf Chateaubriand" is one of the classical
dishes of the French table, that to a Frenchman luxury
can go no further ; but every one does not know how
entirely within his power it is to have that dish as often
as he has roast beef ; how convenient it would be to so
have it. Here it is : When your sirloin roast comes from
the butcher, take out the tenderloin or fillets, which you
must always choose thick ; cut it across into steaks an
inch thick, trim them, cover them with a coat of butter
(or oil, which is much better), and broil them ten min-
utes, turning them often ; garnish with fried potatoes,
and serve with sauce Chateaubriand, as follows : Put a
gill of white wine (or claret will do if you have no
white) into a saucepan, with a piece of glaze, weighing
an ounce and a half ; add three quarters of a pint of
espagnole, and simmer fifteen minutes ; when ready to
50 Culture and Cooking.
serve, thicken with two ounces of maUre d'hotel butter
in which a dessert-spoonful of flour has been worked.
That is how Jules Gouffe's recipe runs ; but, as no small
family will keep espagnole ready made, allow a little more
glaze (of course the recipe as given may be divided to
half or quarter, provided the correct proportions are
retained), and use a tablespoonful of roux and the maUre
d' hotel butter, both of which you have probably in your
store-room ; if not, brown a little flour, chop some pars-
ley, and add to two ounces of butter; work them to-
gether, then let them dissolve in the sauce, for which
purpose let it go off the boil ; let the sauce simmer a
minute, skim, and serve.
The sirloin of beef, denuded of its fillet, is still a good
roast ; and as you can't have your cake and eat it too,
and hot fresh roast beef is better than the same warmed
over, warm ye never so wisely, I think this plan may
commend itself to those who like nice little dinners.
A nice little dinner of a soup, an entree, or made dish,
salad, and dessert, really costs no more than frequent
roast meat, or even steak and pudding, by following
some such plan as this :
Sunday. Pot-au-feu and roast lamb, leg of mutton
or other good joint, etc.
Monday. Eice or vermicelli soup made with remains
of the bouillon from pot-au-feu. If the Sunday joint
was a fore or hindquarter of lamb it should have been
divided, say the leg from the loin, thus providing choice
roasts for two days, and yet having enough cold lamb
that favorite dish with so many for luncheon with a sal-
ad ; and, surprising to say, after hot roast lamb for dinner
Sundaj 7 ", cold lunch for Monday, another roast Monday,
and cold or warmed up for lunch Tuesday, there will
General Management in Small Families. 51
still be (supposing as I do, in preparing this chapter,
that the family consists only of gentleman, lady, and ser-
vant) remains enough from the two cold joints to make
cromesquis of lamb (see recipe), a little dish of mince, or
a delicate saute of lamb for breakfast. It is surprising
what may be done with odds and ends in a small fam-
ily ; a tiny plate of pieces, far too small to make an ap-
pearance on the table, and which, if special directions
are not given, will seem to Bridget not worth saving,
will, with each piece dipped into the batter a la Careme,
and fried in hot fat, make a tempting dish for breakfast,
or an entree for dinner or luncheon. Two tablespoonfuls
only of chopped meat of any kind will make croquettes
for two or three people ; hence, ' save the pieces.' But
to return to our bills of fare : I have given the two roasts
of lamb for consecutive days, because the weather in
lamb season is usually too warm to keep it ; when this
can be done, however, it is pleasanter to leave the second
joint of lamb till Tuesday. Should a forequarter (abroad
held in greater esteem than the hindquarter) have been
chosen, get the butcher to take out the shoulder in one
round thick joint, English fashion ; this crisply roasted
is far more delicious than the leg ; you then have the
chops to be breaded, and an excellent dish of the neck
and breast, either broiled, curried, stewed with peas, or
roast.
Yet how often we see a whole quarter of lamb put in
the oven for two or three people who get tired of the
sight of it cold, yet feel in economy bound to eat it.
Should sirloin of beef have been the Sunday dinner,
you will know what to do with it, from directions al-
ready given; and as a sirloin of beef, even with the fillet
out, will be more than required for one dinner, it may
52 Culture and Cooking.
serve for a third day, dressed in one of the various ways
I shall give in chapter on " Warming Over." You have
still at your disposal the bouilli or beef from which you
have made your pot-au-feu, which, if it has been care-
fully boiled, not galloped, nor allowed to fall to rags, is
very good eating. Cut thin with lettuce, or in winter
celery, in about equal quantities, and a good salad dress-
ing, it is excellent; or, made into hash, f ritadella, or even
rissoles, is savory and delicious ; only bear in mind with
this, as all cooked meats, the gravy drawn out must be
replaced by stock or glaze ; it is very easy to warm over
bouilli satisfactorily, as a cup of the soup made from it
can always be kept for gravy.
A leg of mutton makes two excellent joints, and is
seldom liked cold as beef and lamb often are.
Select a large fine leg, have it cut across, that each
part may weigh about equally; roast the thick or fillet end
and serve with or without onion sauce (a la soubise) ;
boil the knuckle in a small quantity of water, just
enough to cover it, with a carrot, turnip, onion, and
bunch of parsley, and salt in the water, serve with caper
sauce and mashed turnips. The broth from this is ex-
cellent soup served thus : Skim it carefully, take out
the vegetables, and chop a small quantity of parsley very
fine, then beat up in a bowl two eggs, pour into them a
little of the broth not boiling beating all the time,
then draw your soup back till it is off the boil, and pour
in the eggs, stirring continually till it is on the boiling
point again (but it must not boil, or the eggs will cur-
dle and spoil the soup), and then turn it into a hot tureen
and serve. Use remains of the cold roast and boiled mut-
ton together, to make made dishes; between the days of
having the roast and boiled mutton you may have had a
General Management in Small Families. 53
fowl, and the remains from that will make you a second
dish to go with your joint.
The remains from the first cooked mutton, in form
of curry, mince, salmi, or saute, will be a second dish
with your fowl.
Veal is one of the most convenient things to have for
a small family, as it warms over in a variety of ways, and
in some is actually better than when put on the table as
a joint. By having a little fish one day, instead of soup,
and a little game another, and remembering when you
have an especially dainty thing, to have one with it a
little more substantial and less costly, you may have vari-
ety at little expense.
For instance, if you find it convenient to have for din-
ner fritadelle (see " Warming Over") or miroton of beef,
or cold mutton curried, you might have broiled birds, or
roast pigeon, or game. In this consists good manage-
ment, to live so that the expenses of one day balance
those of the other unless you are ao happily situated
that expense is a small matter, in which case these re-
marks will not apply to you at all. Then, never mind
warming over, or making one joint into two; let your
poor neighbors and Bridget's friends enjoy your superflu-
ity. To the woman with a moderate income it usually
is a matter of importance, or ought to be, that her
weekly expenditure should not exceed a certain amount,
and for this she must arrange that any extra expense is
balanced by a subsequent economy.
Salads add much to the health and elegance of a din-
ner ; it is in early spring an expensive item if lettuce is
used; but no salad can be more delicious or more health-
ful than dressed celery; and by buying when cheap, ar-
ranging with a man to lay in your cellar, covered with
54 Culture and Cooking.
soil, enough for the winter's use, it need cost but moder-
ately. Celeraic, or turnip-rooted celery is another salad
that is very popular with our German friends; it is a
bulbous celery, the root being the part eaten ; these are
cooked like potatoes, cut in slices, and dressed with oil
and vinegar, or mayonnaise, it is exceedingly good.
Potato salad is always procurable, and in summer at
lunch, instead of the hot vegetable, or in winter when
green salad is dear, is very valuable. It may be varied
by the addition, one day, of a few chopped pickles, an-
other, a little onion, or celery, or parsley, or tarragon, a
little ravigotte butter beaten to cream with the vinegar,
or with meat, as follows : Boil the potatoes in their skins,
peel them, cut them into pieces twice the thickness
of a fifty-cent piece, and put them into a salad bowl with
cold meat (bouilli from soup is excellent) ; put to them
a teaspoonful of salt, half that quantity of pepper, two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar, three or even four of oil, and
a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. You can vary this by
putting at different times some chopped celery or pickles,
olives, or anchovies.
CHAPTEK VII.
ON FRYING AND BROILING.
FRYING is one of the operations in cookery in which
there are more failures than any other, or, at least, there
appear to be more, because the failure is always so very
apparent. Nothing can make a dish of breaded cutlets
on which are bald white spots look inviting, or livid-
looking fish, just flaked here and there with the bread
that has been persuaded to stay on. And, provided you
have enough fat in the pan there should always be
enough to immerse the article ; therefore use a deep iron
or enameled pan there can be but two reasons why you
fail. Your fat has not been hot enough, or your crumbs
have not been fine and even.
Many suppose when the fat bubbles and boils in the
pan that it is quite hot ; it is far from being so. Others
again are so much nearer the truth that they know it
must become silent, that is, boil and cease to boil, before
it is ready, but even that is not enough; it must be silent
some time, smoke, and appear to be on the point of burn-
ing, then drop a bit of bread in; if it crisps and takes
color directly, quickly put in your articles.
These articles, whether cutlets or fish, must have been
carefully prepared, or herein may lie the second cause of
failure. Any cookery book will give you directions how
to crumb, follow them ; but what some do not tell you
is, that your bread-crumbs should be finely sifted; every
55
56 Culture and Cooking.
coarse crumb is liable to drop off and bring with it a
good deal of the surrounding surface.
I also follow the French plan in using the egg, and
mix with it oil and water in the proportion of three
eggs, one tablespoonful of oil, one of water, and a little
salt, beat together and use. It is a good plan to keep a
supply of panure or dried bread-crumbs always ready.
Cut any slices of baker's bread, dry them in a cool oven
so that they remain quite colorless, or they will not do
for the purpose. When as dry as crackers, crush under
a rolling-pin, and sift ; keep in a jar for use.
In no branch of cooking is excellence more appreci-
ated than in that of frying. A dish of filets de sole or
cutlets, crisp and golden brown, is an ornament to any
table, and is seldom disdained by any one. Apropos of
filets de sole; it is very high-sounding yet very attainable,
as I shall show. I was staying with a friend early in
spring, a lady always anxious for table novelties. " Oh,
do tell me what fish to order, I should like something
fried, now that you are here to tell cook how to do it ;
she hasn't the wildest idea, although she would be
astounded to hear me say so." "Have you ever
had flounders ?" I asked. " Flounders !" My friend's
pretty nose went up the eighth of an inch, and her con-
fidence in my powers as counselor went down to zero.
" Flounders ! but they are a very common fish you
know." "I know they are very delicious," I answered.
" Order them, and trust me ; but I must coax the
autocrat of your kitchen to allow me to cook and pre-
pare them myself."
An hour before dinner I went into the kitchen, put
at least a pound of lard into a deep frying-pan, and
set it where it would get gradually hot, then I turned
On Frying and Broiling. 57
my attention to the fish ; they were thick, firm floun-
ders, and were ready cleaned, scraped, and the heads
off. I then proceeded to bone one in the following
way : Take a sharp knife and split the flounder right
down the middle of the back, then run the knife care-
fully between the flesh and bones going toward the edge.
You have now detached one quarter of the flesh from
the bone, do the other half in the same way, and when
the back is thus entirely loose from the bone, turn the
fish over and do the same with the other part. You will
now find you can remove the bone whole from the fish,
detaching, as you do so, any flesh still retaining the
bone, then you have two halves of the fish ; cut away
the fins, and you have four quarters of solid fish. Now
see if the fat is very hot, set it forward while you wipe
your fish dry, and dip each piece in milk, then in flour.
Try if the fat is hot by dropping a crumb into it ; if it
browns at once, put in the fish. When they are beauti-
fully brown, which will be in about ten minutes, take
them up in the colander, and then lay them on a towel
to absorb any fat, lay them on a hot dish, and garnish
with slices of lemon and parsley or celery tops.
Now when this dish made its appearance, my friend's
husband, a bon vivant, greeted it with, " Aha ! Filets
de sole a la Delmonico" and as nothing to the con-
trary was said until dinner was over, he ate them under
the impression that they were veritable filets de sole.
Of course I can't pretend to say whether M. Delmonico
imports his soles, or uses the homely flounder ; but I do
know that one of his frequenters knew no difference.
Oysters should be laid on a cloth to drain thoroughly,
then rolled in fine sifted cracker dust, and dropped into
very hot fat; do not put more oysters in the pan than
5 8 Culture and Cooking.
will fry without one overlapping the other. Very few
minutes will brown them beautifully, if your fat was hot
enough, and as a minute too long toughens and shrinks
them, be very careful that it browns a cube of bread al-
most directly, before you begin the oysters. Egg and
bread-crumb may be used instead of cracker dust, but it
is not the proper thing, and is a great deal more trouble.
Should you be desirous of using it, however, the oysters
must be carefully wiped dry before dipping them; while
for cracker dust they are not wiped, but only drained
well.
Fish of any kind, fried in batter a la Careme (see
recipe), is very easy to do, and very nice.
Carefully save veal, lamb, beef, and pork drippings.
Keep a crock to put it in, and, clarified as I shall direct,
it is much better than lard for many purposes, and for
frying especially ; it does not leave the dark look that is
sometimes seen on articles fried in lard. The perfection
of "friture," or frying-fat, according to Gouffe, is equal
parts of lard and beef fat melted together.
Yet there are families where dripping is never used
is looked upon as unfit to use while the truth is that
many persons quite unable to eat articles fried in lard
would find no inconvenience from those fried in beef fat.
It is as wholesome as butter, and far better for the
purpose. Butter, indeed, is only good for frying such
things as omelets or scrambled eggs ; things that are
cooked in a very short time, and require no great degree
of heat.
The same may be said of oil, than which, for fish,
nothing can be better. Yet it can only be used once,
and is unsuitable for things requiring long-sustained
heat, as it soon gets bitter and rank.
On Frying and Broiling. 59
Do not be afraid to put a pound or two of fat in your
pan for frying ; it is quite as economical as to put less
for it can be used over and over again, a pail or crock
being kept for the purpose of receiving it. Always in
returning it to the crock pour it through a fine strainer,
so that no sediment or brown particles may pass which
would spoil the next frying.
To clarify dripping, when poured from the meat-pan,
it should go into a bowl, instead of the crock in which
you wish to keep it. Then pour into the bowl also some
boiling water, and add a little salt, stir it, and set it
away. Next day, or when cold, run a knife round the
bowl, and (unless it is pork) it will turn out in a solid
cake, leaving the water and impurities at the bottom.
Now scrape the bottom of your dripping, and put it in
more boiling water till it melts, then stir again, another
pinch of salt add, and let it cool again. When you take
off the cake of fat, scrape it as before, and it is ready to
be melted into the general crock, and will now keep for
months in cool weather. If you are having frequent
joints it is as well to do all your dripping together, once
a week ; but do not leave it long at any season with wa-
ter under it, as that would taint it. Fat skimmed from
boiled meat, pot-au-feu, before the vegetables, etc., go
in, is quite as good as that from roast, treated in the
same way.
Frying in batter is very easy and excellent for some
things, such as warming over meat, being far better
than eggs and crumbs. Care^me gives the following
recipe, which is excellent :
Three quarters of a pound of sifted flour, mixed with
two ounces of butter melted in warm water ; blow the
butter off the water into the flour first, then enough of
60 Culture and Cooking.
the water to make a soft paste, which beat smooth, then
more warm water till it is batter thick enough to mask
the back of a spoon dipped into it, and salt to taste; add
the last thing the whites of two eggs well beaten.
Another batter, called a la Provengale, is also exceed-
ingly good, especially for articles a little dry in them-
selves, such as chickens to be warmed over, slices of cold
veal, etc.
Take same quantity of flour, two yolks of eggs, four
tablespoonfuls of oil, mix with cold water, and add
whites of eggs and salt as before. Into this batter I
sometimes put a little chopped parsley, ancf the least bit
of powdered thyme, or grated lemon -peel, or nutmeg ;
this is, however, only a matter of taste.
BBOILING is the simplest of all forms of cooking, and
is essentially English. To broil well is very easy with
a little attention. A brisk clear fire, not too high in
the stove, is necessary to do it with ease ; yet if, as
must sometimes happen, to meet the necessities of other
cooking, your fire is very large, carefully fix the gridiron
on two bricks or in any convenient manner, to prevent
the meat scorching, then have the gridiron very hot be-
fore putting your meat upon it ; turn it, if chop or
steak, as soon as the gravy begins to start on the upper
side ; if allowed to remain without turning long, the
gravy forms a pool on the top, which, when turned, falls
into the fire and is lost ; the action of the heat, if turned
quickly, seals the pores and the gravy remains in the
meat. If the fire is not very clear, put a cover over the
meat on the gridiron, it will prevent its blackening or
burning if the article is thick I always do so and it is
an especially good plan with birds or chickens, which
are apt to be raw at the joints unless this is done ; in-
On Frying and Broiling. 6 1
deed, with the latter, I think it a good way to put them
in a hot oven ten minutes before they go on to broil,
then have a spoonful of mditre d'hotel butter to lay on
the breast of each. Young spring chickens are some-
times very dry, in which case dip them in melted but-
ter, or, better still, oil them all over a little while be-
fore cooking. There is nothing more unsightly than a
sprawling dish of broiled chickens ; therefore, in prepar-
ing them place them in good form, then, with a gentle
blow of the rolling-pin, break the bones that they may
remain so.
CHAPTER VIII.
ROASTING.
IK spite of Brillat-Savarin's maxim that one may be-
come a cook, but must be born a rotisseur, I am inclined
to think one may also, by remembering one or two
things, become a very good "roaster" (to translate the
untranslatable), especially in our day, when the oven has
taken the place of the spit, although a great deal of
meat is spoiled in roasting ; a loin of lamb or piece of
beef, that comes to the table so pale that you can't tell
whether it has been boiled or merely wilted in the oven,
is an aggravation so familiar, that a rich brown, well-
roasted joint is generally a surprise. Perhaps the cook
will tell you she has had the " hottest kind of an oven;"
but then she has probably also had a well of water
underneath it, the vapor from which, arising all the
time, has effectually soddened the meat, and checked
the browning. The surface of roast meat should be
covered with a rich glaze, scientifically called "osma-
zone." That the meat may be thus glazed, it should
always go into a hot oven, so that, as the gravy exudes,
it may congeal on the outside, thus sealing up the pores.
The general plan, however, is to put meat into a warm
oven an hour or two earlier than it should go, with a
quantity of water and flour underneath it. The result in
hot weather I have known to be very disagreeable, the
tepid oven having, in fact, given a stale taste to the joint
Roasting. 63
before it began to cook, and it at all times results in
flavorless, tough meat. There is no time saved, either,
in putting the meat in while the oven is yet cool. Heat
up the oven till it is quite brisk, then put the meat in a
pan, in which, if it is fat, you require no water ; if very
lean, you may put half a teacup, just enough to prevent
the pan burning ; you may rub a little flour over the
joint or not, as you please, but never more than the sur-
face moisture absorbs ; have no clinging particles of
flour upon the joint, neither put salt nor pepper upon
the meat before it goes into the oven ; salt draws out the
gravy, which it is your object to keep in, and the flavor
of pepper is entirely changed by the parching it undergoes
when on the surface of the meat, the odor of scorched
pepper, while cooking, being very offensive to refined
nostrils. This does not occur when pepper is not on
the surface ; for the inside of birds, in stuffing, and in
meat pies it is indispensable, and the flavor undergoes
no change. This remark on pepper applies also to
broiling and frying. Always pepper after the article is
cooked, and both for appearance and delicacy of flavor
white pepper should always be used in preference to
black.
Meat, while in the oven, should be carefully turned
about so that it may brown equally, and when it has
been in half the time you intend to give it, or when the
upper surface is well browned, turn it over. When it
comes out of the oven put it on a hot dish, then care-
fully pour off the fat by holding the corner of the meat
pan over your dripping-pan, and very gently allowing
the fat to run off ; do not shake it ; when you see the
thick brown sediment beginning to run too, check it ; if
there is still much fat on the surface, take it off with a
64 Culture and Cooking.
spoon ; then pour into the pan a little boiling water and
salt, in quantity according to the quantity of sediment
or glaze in the pan, and with a spoon rub off every speck
of the dried gravy on the bottom and sides of the pan.
Add no flour, the gravy must be thick enough with its
own richness. If you have added too much water, so
that it looks poor, you may always boil it down by set-
ting the pan on the stove for a few minutes ; but it is
better to put very little water at first, and add as the
richness of the gravy allows. Now you have a rich
brown gravy, instead of the thick whitey-brown broth
so often served with roast meat. Every drop of this
gravy and that from the dish should be carefully saved
if left over.
Save all dripping, except from mutton or meat with
which onions are cooked, for purposes which I shall
indicate in another place.
Veal and pork require to be very thoroughly cooked.
For them, therefore, the oven must not be too hot, nei-
ther must it be lukewarm, a good even heat is best ; if
likely to get too brown before it is thoroughly cooked,
open the oven door.
CHAPTER IX.
BOILING.
BOILING is one of the things about which cooks are.
most careless ; theoretically they almost always know
meat should be slowly boiled, but their idea of "slow " is
ruled by the fire ; they never attempt to rule that. There
is a good rule given by Gouffe as to what slow boiling
actually is : the surface of the pot should only show
signs of ebullition at one side, just an occasional bubble.
Simmering is a still slower process, and in this the pot
should have only a sizzling round one part of the edge.
All fresh meat should boil slowly ; ham or corn beef
should barely simmer. Yet they must not go off the
boil at all, which would spoil fresh meat entirely ; steep-
ing in water gives a flat, insipid taste.
All vegetables except potatoes, asparagus, peas, and
cauliflower should boil as fast as possible ; these four
only moderately. Most vegetables are boiled far too long.
Cabbage is as delicate as cauliflower in the summer and
fall if boiled in plenty of water, to which a salt spoon-
ful of soda has been added, as fast as possible for twenty
minutes or half an hour, then drained and dressed. In
winter it should be cut in six or eight pieces, boiled fast,
in plenty of water, for half an hour, no longer. Always
give it plenty of room, let the water boil rapidly when
you put it in the pot, which set on the hottest part of
65
66 Culture and Cooking.
the fire to come to that point again, and you will have no
more strong, rank, yellow stuff on your table, no bad odor
in your house. Peas require no more than twenty minutes'
boiling if young ; asparagus the same ; the latter should
always be boiled in a saucepan deep enough to let it
stand up in the water when tied up in bunches, for this
saves the heads. Potatoes should be poured off the
minute they are done, and allowed to stand at the back of
the stove with a clean cloth folded over them. They are
the only vegetable that should be put into cold water.
When new, boiling water is proper. When quite ripe
they are more floury if put in cold water.
SOUPS. As I have before said, I do not pretend to give
many recipes, only to tell you how to succeed with the
recipes given in other books. I shall, therefore, only
give one recipe which I know is a novelty and one for the
foundation of all soups. In one sense I have done the
latter already. The stock for glaze is an excellent soup
before it is reduced ; but I will also give Jules Gouffe's
method of making pot-au-feu, it being a most beautifully
clear soup.
It often happens, however, that you have sufficient
stock from bones, trimmings of meat, and odds and ends
of gravies, which may always be turned to account ; but
the stock from such a source, although excellent, will
not always be clear ; therefore, you must proceed with it
in the following manner, unless you wish to use it for
thick soup :
Make your stock boiling hot and skim well ; then have
ready the whites of three eggs (I am supposing you
have three quarts of stock one egg to a quart), to which
add half a pint of cold water ; whisk well together ; then
add half a pint of the boiling stock gradually, still whisk-
Boiling. 67
ing the eggs ; then stir the boiling stock rapidly, pouring
in the whites of eggs, etc. ; as you do it, stir quickly till
nearly boiling again, then take it from the fire, let it re-
main till the whites of eggs separate ; then strain through
a clean, fine cloth into a basin. This rule once learned
will clear every kind of soup or jelly.
There are many people who are good cooks, yet fail in
clear soup, which is with them semi-opaque, while it
should be like sherry. The cause of this opacity is gen-
erally quick boiling while the meat is in. This gives it
a milky appearance. After the stock is once made and
clear, quick boiling will do no harm, but of course wastes
the soup, unless resorted to for the purpose of making it
stronger. A word here about coloring soup : Most per-
sons resort to burnt sugar, and, very carefully used, it is
not at all a bad makeshift. But how often have we a
rich-looking soup put before us, the vermicelli appear-
ing to repose under a lake of strong russet bouillon, but
which, on tasting, we find suggestive of nothing but
burnt sugar and salt, every bit of flavor destroyed by the
acrid coloring. Sometimes stock made by the recipe for
pot-au-feu (to follow) requires no color ; this depends
on the beef ; but usually all soup is more appetizing in
appearance for a little browning, and for this purpose I
always use burnt onions in preference to anything else.
If you have none in store when the soup is put on, put
a small onion in the oven (or on the back of the stove ;
should you be baking anything the odor would taint) ;
turn it often till it gets quite black, but not charred.
Then put it to the soup ; it adds a fine flavor as well as
color, and you need not fear overdoing it.
Soup that is to be reduced must be very lightly salted;
for this reason salt is left out altogether for glaze, as the
68 Culture and Cooking.
reduction causes the water only to evaporate, the salt
remains.
GOUFFE'S POT- ATI-FEU. Four pounds of lean beef,
six quarts of water, six ounces of carrot, six of turnip,
six of onion, half an ounce of celery, one clove, salt.
Put the meat on in cold water, and just before it
comes to the boil skim it, and throw in a wineglass of
cold water, skim again, and, when it is "on the boil,"
again throw in another wineglass of cold water ; do this
two or three times. The object of adding the cold water
is to keep it just off the boil until all the scum has risenj
as the boiling point is when it comes to the surface, yet
once having boiled, the scum is broken up, and the soup
is never so clear.
The meat must simmer slowly, not boil, for three
hours before the vegetables are added, then for a couple
of hours more.
It is necessary to be very exact in the proportions of
vegetables ; but, of course, after having weighed them for
soups once or twice, you will get to know about the size
of a carrot, turnip, etc., that will weigh six ounces.
The exact weight is given until the eye is accustomed
to it.
This soup strained, and boiled down to one half, be-
comes consomme.
CELERY CREAM is a most delicious and little-known
white soup, and all lovers of good things will thank me
for introducing it.
Have some nice veal stock, or the water in which
chickens have been boiled, reduced till it is rich enough,
will do, or some very rich mutton broth, but either of
the former are preferable ; then put on a half cup of rice
in a pint of rich milk, and grate into it the white part
Boiling. 69
and root of two heads of celery. Let the rice milk cook
very slowly at the back of the stove, adding more milk
before it gets at all stiff ; when tender enough to mash
through a coarse sieve or fine colander add it to the
stock, which must have been strained and be quite
free from sediment, season with salt and a little white
pepper or cayenne, boil all together gently a few min-
utes. It should look like rich cream, and be strongly
flavored with celery. Of course the quantity of rice,
milk, and celery must depend on the quantity of stock
you have. I have given the proportion for one quart,
which, with the milk, etc., added, would make about
three pints of soup.
CHAPTER X.
SAUCES.
TALLEYRAND said England was a country with twen-
ty-four religions and only one sauce. He might have
said two sauces, and he would have been literally right
as regards both England and America. Everything is
served with brown sauce or white sauce. And how
often the white sauce is like bookbinder's paste, the
brown, a bitter, tasteless brown mess ! Strictly speak-
ing, perhaps, the French have but two sauces either,
espagnole, or brown sauce, and white sauce, which they
call the mother sauces ; but what changes they ring on
these mother sauces ! The espagnole once made, with no
two meats is it served alike in flavor, and in this matter
of flavor the artist appears. In making brown sauce for
any purpose, bethink yourself of anything there may be
in your store-room with which to vary its flavor, taking
care that it shall agree with the meat for which it is in-
tended. The ordinary cook flies at once to Worcester-
shire or Harvey sauce, which are excellent at times, but
" toujours perdrix " is not always welcome. A pinch of
mushroom powder, or a few chopped oysters, are excel-
lent with beef or veal ; so will be a spoonful of Montpel-
lier butter stirred in, or curry, not enough to yellow the
sauce, but enough to give a dash of piquancy. A pic-
kled walnut chopped, or a gherkin or two, go admirably
with mutton or pork chops. In short, this is just where
70
Sauces. 71
imagination and brains will tell in cooking, and little
essays of invention may be tried with profit. But be-
ware of trying too much ; make yourself perfect in one
thing before venturing on another.
ESPAGNOLE, or brown sauce, is simply a rich stock well
flavored with vegetables and herbs, and thickened with
a piece of roux or with brown flour.
WHITE SAUCE is one of those things we rarely find per-
fectly made ; bad, it is the ne plus ultra of badness ;
good, it is delicious. Those who have tried to have it
good, and failed, I beg to try the following method of
making it : Take an ounce and a half of butter and a
scant tablespoonful of flour, mix both with a spoon into a
paste ; when smooth add half a pint of warm milk, a small
teaspoonf ul of salt, and the sixth part of one of white pep-
per ; set it on the fire till it boils, and is thick enough
to mask the back of the spoon transparently ; then add a
squeeze of lemon juice, and another ounce and a half of
fresh butter ; stir this till quite blended. This sauce is
the foundation for many others, and, for some purposes,
the beaten yolk of an egg is introduced when just off
the boil. Capers may be added to it, or chopped mush-
rooms, or chopped celery, or oysters, according to the
use for which, it is intended. The object of adding the
second butter is because boiling takes away the flavor of
butter ; by stirring half of it in, without boiling, you re-
tain it.
CHAPTER XL
WAEMING OVER.
HASH is a peculiarly American institution. In no
other country is every remnant of cold meat turned into
that one unvarying dish. What do I say ? remnants of
cold meat ! rather joints of cold meat, a roast of beef
of which the tenderloin had sufficed for the first day's
dinner, the leg of mutton from which a few slices only
have been taken, the fillet of veal, available for so many
delicate dishes, all are ruthlessly turned into the all-
pervading hash. The curious thing is that people are
not fond of it. Men exclaim against it, and its name
stinks in the nostrils of those unhappy ones whose home
is the boarding-house.
Yet hash in itself is not a bad dish ; when I say it is
a peculiarly American institution, I mean, that when
English people speak of hash, they mean something
quite different meat warmed in slices. Our hash, in
its best form that is, made with nice gravy, garnished
with sippets of toast and pickles, surrounded with
mashed potatoes or rice is dignified abroad by the name
of mince, and makes its appearance as an elegant little
entree. Nor would it be anathematized in the way it
is with us, if it were only occasionally introduced. It
is the familiarity that has led to contempt. "But
what shall I do?" asks the young wife distressfully;
72
Warming Over. f$
'' John likes joints, and he and I and Bridget can't pos-
sibly eat a roast at a meal."
Very true ; and it is to just such perplexed young
housekeepers that I hope this chapter will be especially
useful that is to say, small families with moderate
means and a taste for good things. In this, as in many
other ways, large families are easier to cater for ; they
can consume the better part of a roast at a meal, and
the remains it is no great harm to turn into hash, al-
though even they might, with little trouble and expense,
have agreeable variety introduced into their bill of fare.
In England and America there is "great prejudice
against warmed-over food, but on the continent one eats
it half the time in some of the most delicious-made
dishes without suspecting it. Herein lies the secret.
With us and our transatlantic cousins the warming over
is so artlessly done, that the hard fact too often stares
at us from out the watery expanse in which it reposes.
One great reason of the failure to make warmed-over
meat satisfactory is the lack of gravy. On the goodness
of this (as well as its presence) depends the success of
your rechauffe.
The glaze, for which I have given the recipe, renders
you at all times independent in this respect, but at the
same time it should not alone be depended on. Every
drop of what remains in the dish from the roast should
be saved, and great care be taken of all scraps, bones,
and gristle, which should be carefully boiled down to
save the necessity of flying to the glaze for every pur-
pose. I will here give several recipes, which I think
may be new to many readers.
SALMI OF COLD MEAT is exceedingly good. Melt butter
in a saucepan, if for quite a small dish two ounces will
4
74 Culture and Cooking.
be sufficient ; when melted, stir in a little flour to
thicken ; let it brown, but not burn, or, if you are pre-
paring the dish in haste, put in some brown flour ; then
add a glass of white or red wine and a cup of broth, or a
cup of water and a slice of glaze, a sprig or two of
thyme, parsley, a small onion, chopped, and one bay
leaf, pepper, and salt. Simmer all thoroughly (all
savory dishes to which wine is added should simmer
long enough for the distinct " winey " flavor to disap-
pear, only the strength and richness remaining). Strain
this when simmered half an hour and lay in the cold
meat. Squeeze in a little lemon juice and draw the
stew-pan to the back of the stove, but where it will cook
no longer, or the meat will harden. Serve on toast, and
pour the sauce over. A glass of brandy added to this
dish when the meat, goes in is a great addition, if an
extra fine salmi is desired. By not allowing the flour
and butter to brown and using white wine, this is a very
fine sauce in which to warm cold chicken, veal, or any
white meat.
BCEUF A LA JARDINIERE. Put in a fireproof dish if
you have it, or a thick saucepan, a pint of beef broth, a
small bunch each of parsley, chervil, tarragon very lit-
tle of this shallot or onion, capers, pickled gherkins,
of each or any a teaspoonful chopped fine ; roll a large
tablespoonful of butter with a dessert-spoonful of brown
flour, stir it in ; then take slices of underdone beef, with
a blunt knife hack each slice all over in fine dice, but
not to separate or cut up the slices ; then pepper and
salt each one and lay it in with the herbs, sprinkle a
layer of herbs over the beef and cover closely ; then stand
the dish in the oven to slowly cook for an hour, or, if
you use a stew-pan, set in a pan of boiling water on the
Warming Over. 75
stove for an hour where the water will just boil. Serve
on a dish surrounded with young carrots and turnips if
in season, or old ones cut.
BEEF ATI GEATIN. Cut a little fat bacon or pork very
thin, sprinkle on it chopped parsley, onion, and mush-
rooms (mushroom powder will do) and bread-crumbs ;
then put in layers of beef, cut thick, and well and closely
hacked, then another layer of bacon or pork cut thin as
a wafer, and of seasoning, crumbs last ; pour over enough
broth or gravy to moisten well, in which a little brandy
or wine may be added if an especially good dish is
desired ; bake slowly an hour.
PSEUDO BEEFSTEAK. Cut cold boiled or roast beef in
thick slices, broil slowly, lay in a hot dish in which you
have a large spoonful of Montpellier butter melted,
sprinkle a little mushroom powder if you desire, and
garnish with fried potato.
CUTLETS A LA JARDINIERE. Trim some thick cutlets
from a cold leg of mutton, or chops from the loin, dip
them in frying batter, a la Careme, fry crisp and quickly,
and serve wreathed round green peas, or a ragout made as
follows : Take young carrots, turnips, green peas, white
beans ; stew gently in a little water to which the bones
of the meat and trimmings have been added (and which
must be carefully removed not to disfigure the vegeta-
bles). Encircle this ragout with the fried cutlets, and
crown with a cauliflower.
CROMESQUIS OF LAMB is a Polish recipe. Cut some
underdone lamb mutton will of course do quite small ;
also some mushrooms, cut small, or the powder. Put in
a saucepan apiece of glaze the size of a pigeon's egg, with
a little water or broth, warm it and thicken with yolks
of two eggs, just as you would make boiled custard, that
76 Culture and Cooking.
is, without letting it come to the boil, or it will curdle;
then add the mushrooms and meat, let all get cold, and
divide it into small pieces, roll in bread-crumhs sifted,
then in egg, then in crumbs again, and fry in very hot
fat; or you may, after rolling in bread-crumbs, lay each
piece in a spoon and dip it into frying batter ; let the
extra batter run off, and drop the cromesquis into the
hot fat. These will be good made of beef and rolled up
in a bard of fat pork cut thin, and fried; serve with sauce
piquant made thus : Take some chopped parsley, onion,
and pickled cucumbers, simmer till tender, and thicken
with an equal quantity of butter and flour. Of course
your own brightness will tell you that, if you are in
haste, a spoonful of Montpellier butter, the same of flour,
melted in a little water, to which you add a teaspoonful
of vinegar, will make an excellent sauce piquant, and
this same is excellent for anything fried, as breaded
chops, croquettes, etc. I may here say, that where two
or three herbs are mentioned as necessary, for instance,
parsley, tarragon, and chervil, if you have no tarragon
you must leave it out, or chervil the same. It is only a
matter of flavoring, at the same time flavor is a great
deal, and these French herbs give that indescribable
cachet to a dish which is one of the secrets of French
cooking. Therefore if you are a wise matron you will
have a supply on hand, even if only bought dry from the
druggist.
MIROTO^ OF BEEF. Peel and cut into thin slices two
large onions, put them in a stew-pan with two ounces of
butter, place it over a slow fire ; stir the onions round till
they are rather brown, but not in the least burnt ; add a
teaspoonful of brown flour, mix smoothly, then moisten
with half a pint of broth, or water with a little piece of
Warming Over. 77
glaze, three salt-spoonfuls of salt unless your broth was
salted, then half the quantity or less, two of sugar, and
one of pepper. Put in the cold beef, cut in thin slices
as lean as possible, let it remain five minutes at the back
of the stove ; then serve on a very hot dish garnished
with fried potatoes, or sippets of toast. To vary the
flavor, sometimes put a spoonful of tarragon or plain
vinegar, or a teaspoonful of mushroom powder, or a
pinch of curry, unless objected to, or a few sweet herbs.
In fact, as you may see, variety is as easy to produce as
it is rare to meet with in average cooking, and depends
more on intelligence and thoughtfulness than on any-
thing else.
The simplest of all ways of warming a joint that is
not far cut, is to wrap it in thickly buttered paper, and
put it in the oven again, contriving, if possible, to cover
it closely, let it remain long enough to get hot through,
not to cook. By keeping it closely covered it will get
hot through in less time, and the steam will prevent it
getting hard and dry ; make some gravy hot and serve
with the meat. If your gravy is good and plentiful,
your meat will be as nice as the first day; without gravy
it would be an unsatisfactory dish. If you cannot
manage to cover the joint in the oven, you may put it in
a pot over the fire without water, but with a dessert
spoonful of vinegar to create steam ; let it get hot
through, and serve as before.
For the third day the meat may be warmed up in
any of the ways I am going to mention, repeating once
more, that you must have gravy of some kind, or else
carefully make some, with cracked bones, gristle, etc.,
stewed long, and nicely flavored with any kind of
sauce.
?8 Culture and Cooking.
RAGOUT. A very nice ragout may be made from cold
meat thus : Slice the meat, put it in a stew-pan in which
an onion, or several if you like them, has been sliced;
squeeze half a lemon into it, or a dessert-spoonful of vine-
gar, cover closely without water, and when it begins to
cook, set the stew-pan at the back of the stove for three
quarters of an hour, shaking it occasionally. The onions
should now be brown; take out the meat, dredge in a little
flour, stir it round, and add a cup of gravy, pepper, salt,
and a small quantity of any sauce or flavoring you prefer;
stew gently a minute or two, then put the meat back to
get hot, and serve ; garnish with sippets of toast, or
pickles.
A NICE LITTLE BEEAKFAST DISH is made thus I Gilt
two long slices of cold meat and three of bread, buttered
thickly, about the same shape and size ; season the meat
with pepper, salt, and a little finely chopped parsley; or,
if it is veal, a little chopped ham ; then lay one slice of
bread between two of meat, and have the other two slices
outside ; fasten together with short wooden skewers. If
you have a quick oven, put it in ; and take care to baste
with butter thoroughly, that the bread may be all over
crisp and brown. If you can't depend on your oven, fry
it in very hot fat as you would crullers ; garnish with
sprigs of parsley, and serve very hot.
To WARM A GOOD-SIZED PIECE OF BEEF. Trim
it as much like a thick fillet as you can ; cut it
horizontally half way through, then scoop out as much
as you can of the meat from the inside of each piece.
Chop the meat fine that you have thus scooped out,
season with a little finely chopped parsley and thyme, a
shred of onion, if you like it; or if you have celery boil
a little of the coarser part till tender, chop it and add
Warming Over. f
as much bread finely crumbled as you have meat, and a
good piece of butter ; add pepper and salt, and make all
into a paste with an egg, mixed with an equal quantity
of gravy or milk ; fill up the hollow in the meat and tie,
or still better, sew it together. You may either put this
in a pot with a slice of pork or bacon, and a cup of
gravy; or you may brush it over with beaten egg, cover
it with crumbs, and pour over these a cup of butter,
melted, so that it moistens every part; and bake it, taking
care to basta well while baking ; serve with nice gravy.
BEEF LIVES are no novelty to the ear, but it is a
novel thing to find them satisfactory to the palate.
Take some stale bread-crumbs, an equal quantity of
beef finely chopped, some parsley, and thyme ; a little
scraped ham if you have it, a few chives, or a slice of
onion, all chopped small as possible ; put some butter in
a pan, and let this force-meat just simmer, not fry, in it
for ten minutes. While this is cooking, cut some un-
derdone oblong slices of beef about half an inch thick,
hack it with a sharp knife on botfi sides ; then .mix the
cooked force-meat with the yolk of an egg and a table-
spoonful of gravy ; put a spoonful of this paste in the
center of each slice of meat and tie it up carefully in the
shape of an egg. Then if you have some nice gravy,
thicken it with a piece of butter rolled in flour, roll each
olive slightly in flour and lay it in the gravy and let it
very gently simmer for half an hour. A few chopped
oysters added to the gravy will be a great addition. Or
you may lay each olive on a thin slice of fat pork, roll it
up, tie it, dip it in flour, and bake in a quick oven until
beautifully brown.
To WAKM OVER COLD MUTTON". An excellent and
simple way is to cut it, if loin, into chops, or leg, into
$O Culture and Cooking.
thick collops, and dip each into egg well beaten with a
tablespoonful of milk, then mfine bread-crumbs and fry
in plenty of very hot fat.
If your crumbs are not very fine and even, the larger
crumbs will fall off, and the appearance be spoilt.
These chops will be almost as nice, if quickly fried, as
fresh cooked ones. They will also be excellent if, instead
of being breaded, they are dipped into thick batter (see
recipe) and fried brown in the same way. This method
answers for any kind of meat, chicken thus warmed over
being especially good. The batter, or egg and bread-
crumbs form a sort of crust which keeps it tender and
juicy. Any attempt to fry cold meat without either re-
sults in a hard, stringy, uneatable dish.
WHITE MEAT OF ANY KIND is excellent warmed over
in a little milk, in which you have cut a large
onion, and, if you like it, a slice of salt pork or
ham, and a little sliced cucumber, if it is summer;
thicken with the yolks of one or two eggs, added
after the whole has simmered twenty minutes ; take
care the egg thickens in the gravy, but does not boil,
or it will curdle. If it is in winter, chop a teaspoonful of
pickled cucumber or capers and add just on going to
table In summer when you have the sliced cucumber,
squeeze half a lemon into the gravy, the last thing, to
give the requisite dash of acid. You may vary the above
by adding sometimes a few chopped oysters ; at others,
mushrooms, or celery. The last must be put in with
the onion and before the meat.
DEVILED MEAT. Our better halves are usually fond
of this, especially for breakfast or lunch.
For this dish take a pair of turkey or chicken drumsticks
or some nice thick wedges of underdone beef or mutton,
Warming Over. 81
score them deeply with a knife and rub them over with
a sauce made thus: A teaspoonful of vinegar, the same
of Harvey or Worcestershire sauce, the same of mustard,
a little cayenne, and a tablespoonful of salad oil, or but-
ter melted ; mix all till like cream, and take care your
meat is thoroughly moistened all over with the mixture,
then rub your gridiron with butter. See that the fire is
clear, and while the gridiron is getting hot, chop a tea-
spoonful of parsley very fine, mix it up with a piece of
butter the size of a walnut, and lay this in a dish which
you will put to get hot. Then put the meat to be grilled
on the fire and turn often, so that it will not burn; when
hot through and brown, lay it in the hot dish, lay an-
other hot dish over it, and serve as- quickly as possible
with hot plates.
Or the grill may be served with what Soyer calls his
Mephistophelian sauce, which he especially designed for
serving with deviled meats. Chop six shallots or small
onions, wash and press them in the corner of a clean
cloth, put them in a stew-pan with half a wineglass of
chili vinegar (pepper sauce), a chopped clove, a tiny bit
of garlic, two bay leaves, an ounce of glaze; boil all to-
gether ten minutes ; then add four tablespoonfuls of
tomato sauce, a little sugar, and ten of broth thickened
with roux (or water will do if you have no broth).
It will be remarked that in many French recipes a
little sugar is ordered. This is not meant to sweeten, or
even be perceptible; but it enriches, softens, tones, as it
were, the other ingredients as salt does.
SOYEE'S FEITADELLA (twenty recipes in one). Put
half a pound of bread-crumb to soak in a pint of cold
water; take the same quantity of any kind of roast, or
boiled meat, with a little fat, chop it fine, press the
82 Culture and Cooking.
bread in a clean cloth to extract the water ; put in a
stew-pan two ounces of butter, a tablespoonf ul of chopped
onions ; fry two minutes and stir, then add the bread,
stir and fry till rather dry, then the meat ; season with a
teaspoonf ul of salt, half of pepper, and a little grated nut-
meg, and lemon peel; stir continually till very hot, then
add two eggs, one at a time; mix well and pour on a dish
to get cold. Then take a piece, shape it like a small egg,
flatten it a little, egg and bread-crumb it all over, tak-
ing care to keep in good shape. Do all the same way,
then put into a frying-pan a quarter of a pound of lard
or dripping, let it get hot, and put in the pieces, and
saute (or as we call it ' 'fry ") them a fine yellow brown.
Serve very hot with a border of mashed potatoes, or any
garniture you fancy. Sauce piquant, or not, as you
please.
The above can be made with any kind of meat, poul-
try, game, fish, or even vegetables; hard eggs, or potatoes,
may be introduced in small quantities, and they may be
fried instead of sauteed (frying in the French and strict
sense, meaning as I need hardly say, entire immersion in
very hot fat). To fry them you require at least two
pounds of fat in your pan.
Oysters or lobsters prepared as above are excellent.
Boileau says, " Un diner rechauffe ne valut jamais
rien." But I think a good French cook of the present
day would make him alter his opinion.
Indeed Savarin quotes a friend of his own, a notable
gourmand, who considered spinach cooked on Monday
only reached perfection the following Saturday, having
each day of the week been warmed up with butter, and
each day gaining succulence and a more marrowy consist-
ency.
Warming Over. 83
The only trouble I find in relation to this part of my
present task is the difficulty of knowing when to leave
off. There are so many ways of warming meats to ad-
vantageand in every one way there is the suggestion
for another that I suffer from an enibarras de richesse,
and have had difficulty in selecting. Dozens come to my
mind, blanquettes, patties, curries, as I write; but as
this is not, I have said, to be a recipe book, I forbear. Of
one thing I am quite sure : when women once know how to
make nice dishes of cold meat they will live well where
they now live badly, and for less money; and "hash" will
be relegated to its proper place as an occasional and ac-
ceptable dish.
CHAPTER XII.
OK FBIANDISES.
" Le role du gourmand finit avec Fentremets, et celui du friand
commence au dessert. Grimod de la Reyniere.
AMEBICAN ladies, as a rule, excel in cake making and
preserving, and I feel that on that head I have very little
to teach ; indeed, were they as accomplished in all
branches of cooking as in making dainty sweet dishes
this book would be uncalled for.
Yet, notwithstanding their undoubted taste and ability
in making "friandises" it seems to me a few recipes
borrowed from what the French call la grande cuisine,
and possible of execution at home, will be welcome to
those who wish to vary the eternal ice cream and char-
lotte russe, with other sweets more elegant and likely to
be equally popular.
ICED SOUFFLE A LA BYKON". One pint of sugar
syrup of 32 degrees (get this at a druggist's if
you do not understand sugar boiling), three gills of
strained raspberry juice, one lemon, one gill of maras-
chino, fifteen yolks of eggs, two ounces of chocolate
drops, half a pint of very thick cream whipped.
Method of making this and the next recipe is as follows:
Mix the syrup and yolks of eggs, strain into a warm
bowl, add the raspberry and lemon juice and maras-
chino, whisk till it creams well, then take the bowl out
84
On Friandises. 85
of the hot water and whisk ten minutes longer ; add the
chocolate drops and whipped cream ; lightly fill a case
or mold, and set in a freezer for two hours, then cover
the surface with lady-fingers (or sponge cake) dried in
the oven a pale brown, and rolled. Serve at once.
Another frozen souffle is as follows :
One pint of syrup, 32 degrees, half a pint of noyeau,
half a pint of cherry juice, two ounces of bruised
macaroons, half a pint of thick cream whipped, made in
the same way as the last. I may here say that the fruit
juices can be procured now at all good druggists, so that
these souffles are very attainable in winter, and as noy-
eau and maraschino do not form part of the stores in a
family of small means, I will give in this chapter recipes
for the making of very fair imitations of the genuine
liqueurs.
BISCUIT GLACE A LA CHARLES DICKENS. One pint
of syrup (32), fifteen yolks of eggs, three gills of peach
pulp, colored pink with cochineal, one gill of noyeau,
half a pint of thick cream, and a little chocolate water-
ice, made with half a pint of syrup and four ounces of
the best chocolate smoothly mixed and frozen ready.
Mix syrup, yolks, peach pulps, noyeau, and a few
drops of vanilla, whip high ; mix with the whipped
cream, and set in ice for one hour and a half in brick-
shaped molds, then turn out (if very firm), and cut in
slices an inch thick, and coat them all over, or on top
and sides, with the chocolate ice, smoothing with a knife
dipped in cold water ; serve in paper cases.
BISCUIT GLACE A LA THACKERAY. One pint of syrup
(32), one pint of strawberry pulp, fifteen yolks of eggs,
one ounce of vanilla sugar (flavor a little sugar with va-
nilla), half a pint of thick cream.
86 Culture and Cooking.
Mix syrup, yolks, strawberry, and vanilla sugar, whip-
ping as before, then add the whipped cream lightly ; fill
paper cases, either round or square ; surround each with
a band of stiff paper, to reach half an inch above the
edge of the case, the bands to be pinned together to se-
cure them ; place them in a freezer. When about to send
to table, remove the bands of paper, and cover with
macaroons bruised fine and browned in the oven. The
bands of paper are meant to give the biscuit the appear-
ance of having risen while supposed to bake.
These delicious ices were invented by Francatelli, the
Queen of England's chief cook, to do homage to the
different great men whose names they bear, on the occa-
sion of preparing dinners given in their honor. They
read as if somewhat intricate, but any lady who has ever
had ice cream made at home, and had the patience to
make charlotte russe, need not shrink appalled before
these novelties, or fear for a successful result.
Baba is a cake many call for at a confectioner's, yet
few, if any one, attempts to make it at home. That
the recipes generally offered do not lead to success may be
one reason, and I offer the following, quite sure, if ac-
curately followed, such a baba will result as never was
eaten outside of Paris.
BABA. One pound of flour ; take one quarter of it,
and make a sponge with half an ounce of compressed
yeast and a little warm water, set it to rise, make a hole
in the rest of the flour, add to it ten ounces of butter,
three eggs, and a dessert-spoonful of sugar, a little salt,
unless your butter salts it enough, which is generally
the case. Beat all together well, then add five more eggs,
one at a time, that is to say, add one egg and beat well,
then another and beat again, and so on until the five are
On Friandises. 87
used. When the paste leaves the bowl it is beaten
enough, but not before ; then add the sponge to it, and
a large half ounce of citron chopped, the same of cur-
rants, and an ounce and a half of sultana raisins, seed-
less. Let it rise to twice its size, then bake it in an oven
of dark yellow paper heat ; the small round babas arc an
innovation of the pastry-cook to enable him to sell them
uncut. But the baba proper should be baked in a large,
deep, upright, tin, such as a large charlotte russe mold,
when they keep for several days fresh, and if they get
stale, make delicious fritters, soaked in sherry and
dipped in frying batter.
In some cases, however, it may be preferred to make
them as usually seen at French pastry cooks ; for this
purpose you require a dozen small-sized round char-
lotte russe molds, which fill half full only, as they
rise very much; bake these in a hotter oven, light brown
paper heat; try with a twig as you would any other cake,
if it comes out dry it is done ; then prepare a syrup as
follows : Boil half pound of sugar in a pint of water, add
to this the third of a pint of rum, and some apricot
pulp peach will of course do and boil all together a
few minutes ; pour this half an inch deep in a dish, and
stand the cake or cakes in it ; it should drink up all the
syrup, you may also sprinkle some over it. If any syrup
remains, use it to warm over your cake when stale,
instead of the sherry.
Baba was introduced into France by Stanislas Lec-
zinski, king of Poland, and the father-in-law of Louis
XIV. ; and his Polish royal descendants still use with
it, says Car erne, a syrup made of Malaga wine and
one sixth part of eau de tanaisie.
But, although our forefathers seemed to have relished
88 Culture and Cooking.
tansy very much, to judge from old recipe books, I
doubt if such flavoring would be appreciated in our
time.
SAVARINS commonly called wine cake by New York
pastry cooks are made as follows :
One pound of flour, of which take one quarter to make
a sponge, using half an ounce of German compressed yeast,
and a little warm milk ; when it has risen to twice its
bulk, add one gill of hot milk, two eggs, and the rest of
the flour ; mix well ; then add one more egg and beat,
another, still beating; then add three quarters of a
pound of fresh butter, a quarter of an ounce of salt, half
an ounce of sugar, and half a gill of hot milk, beat well;
then add eggs, one at a time, beating continually, until
you have used five more. Cut in small dice three ounces
of candied orange peel; butter a tin, which should be deep
and straight-sided a tin pudding boiler is not a bad
thing and sprinkle with chopped almonds. Fill the
mold half full, and when risen to twice its bulk, bake in
a moderate oven, dark yellow paper heat. When served,
this cake should stand in a dish of syrup, flavored with
rum, as for baba, or with sherry wine.
BOUCHEES DES DAMES, a very ornamental and delicious
little French cake, is sufficiently novel to deserve a place
here, I think. Make any nice drop cake batter (either
sponge, or sponge with a little butter in it I prefer) ; drop
one on buttered paper and bake ; if it runs, beat in a
little more flour and sugar, but not much, or your cakes
will be brittle ; they should be the size, when done, of a
fifty-cent piece, and I find half a teaspoonf ul of batter
dropped generally makes them about right. Have a
tin cutter or tin box lid, if you have no cutter so small,
about the size, and with it trim each cake when baked ;
On Friandises. 89
then take half the number and spread some with a very
thin layer of red currant jelly, others with peach or
raspberry ; then on each so spread put a cake that is
unspread, thus making a tiny sandwich or jelly cake.
If you have different sorts of jelly, put each separate, as
you must adapt the flavor of your icing to the jelly.
For red currant, ice with chocolate icing. Recipes for
icing are so general that I refer you to your cookery
book. Those with peach may have white icing, flavored
with almond, or with rum, beating in a little more
sugar if the flavoring dilutes your icing too much. Al-
mond flavoring goes well with raspberry. Cakes with
raspberry jelly or jam should be iced pink, coloring the
icing with prepared cochineal or cranberry juice. Thus
you have your cakes brown, pink, and white, which look
very pretty mixed.
The process of icing is difficult to do after they are put
together, but they are much handsomer this way, and
keep longer. You require, to accomplish it, a good
quantity of each kind of icing, and a number of little
wooden skewers ; stick one into each cake and dip it
in the icing, let it run off, then stand the other end of
the skewer in a box of sand or granulated sugar. The
easiest way is to ice each half cake before putting in
the jelly; when the icing is hard spread with jelly, and
put together.
CURA^OA may be successfully imitated by pouring over
eight ounces of the thinly pared rind of very ripe
oranges a pint of boiling water, cover, and let it cool ;
then add two quarts of brandy, or strong French spirit,
cover closely, and let it stand fourteen days, shaking it
every day. Make a clarified syrup of two pounds of
sugar into one pint of water, well boiled ; strain the
go Culture and Cooking.
brandy into it, leaving it covered close another day.
Rub up in a mortar one drachm of potash, with a
teaspoonful of the liqueurs ; when well blended, put this
into the liqueur, and in the same way pound and add
a drachm of alum, shake well, and in an hour or two
filter through thin muslin. Ready for use in a week or
two.
M AKASCHINO . Bruise slightly a dozen cherry kernels,
put them in a deep jar with the outer rind of three or-
anges and two lemons, cover with two quarts of gin, then
add syrup and leave it a fortnight, as for curafoa. Stir
syrup and spirit together, leave it another day, run it
through a jelly bag, and bottle. Ready to use in ten
days.
NOYEAU. Blanch and pound two pounds of bitter al-
monds, or four of peach kernels ; put to them a gallon of
spirit or brandy, two pounds of white sugar candy or
sugar will do a grated nutmeg, and a pod of vanilla ;
leave it three weeks covered close, then filter and bottle ;
but do not use it for three months. To be used with
caution.
CHAPTER XIII.
FRENCH CANDY AT HOME.
THIS chapter I shall have to make one of recipes
chiefly, for it treats of a branch of cooking not usually
found in cookery books, or at least there is seldom any-
thing on the art of confectionery beyond molasses or
cream taffy and nougat. These, therefore, I shall not
touch upon, but rather show you how to make the ex-
pensive French candies.
The great art of making these exquisite candies is in
boiling the sugar, and it is an art easily acquired with
patience.
Put into a marbleized saucepan (by long experience in
sugar-boiling I find them less likely to burn even than
brass, and I keep one for the purpose) one pound of
sugar and half a pint of water ; when it has boiled ten
minutes begin to try it ; have a bowl of water with a
piece of ice near you, and drop it from the end of a
spoon. "When it falls to the bottom, and you can take it
up and make it into a softish ball (not at all sticky) be-
tween your thumb and finger, it is at the right point ;
remove it from the fire to a cold place ; when cool, if
perfectly right, a thin jelly-like film will be over the
surface, not a sugary one ; if it is sugary, and you want
your candy very creamy, you must add a few spoonfuls
of water, return to the fire and boil again, going through.
91
92 Culture and Cooking.
the same process of trying it. You must be careful that
there is not the least inclination to be brittle in the ball
of candy you take from the water ; if so, it is boiled a
degree too high ; put a little water to bring it back again,
and try once more. A speck of cream of tartar is use-
ful in checking a tendency in the syrup to go to sugar.
When you have your sugar boiled just right set it to
cool, and when you can bear your finger in it, begin to
beat it with a spoon ; in ten minutes it will be a white
paste resembling lard, which you will find you can work
like bread dough. This, then, is your foundation,
called by French confectioners fondant ; with your fon-
dant you can work marvels. But to begin with the
simplest French candies.
Take a piece of fondant, flavor part of it with vanilla,
part of it with lemon, color yellow (see coloring can-
dies), and another part with raspberry, color pink ; make
these into balls, grooved cones, or anything that strikes
your fancy, let them stand till they harden, they are
then ready for use.
Take another part of jour fondant, have some English
walnuts chopped, flavor with vanilla and color pink ;
work the walnuts into the paste as you would fruit into
a loaf cake ; when mixed, make a paper case an inch
wide and deep, and three or four inches long ; oil it ;
press the paste into it, and when firm turn it out and cut
into cubes. Or, instead of walnuts, use chopped al-
monds, flavor with vanilla, and leave the fondant white.
This makes YANILLA ALMOND CREAM.
TTJTTI FKTJTTI CANDY. Chop some almonds, citron,
a few currants, and seedless raisins ; work into some
fondant, flavor with rum and lemon, thus making Eo-
man punch, or with vanilla or raspberry ; press into the
French Candy at Home. 93
paper forms as you did the walnut cream. You see how
you can ring the changes on these bars, varying the
flavoring, inventing new combinations, etc.
FONDANT PANACHE. Take yon.? fondant, divide it in
three equal parts, color one pink and flavor as you choose,
leave the other white and flavor also as you please ;
but it must agree with the pink, and both must agree
with the next, which is chocolate. Melt a little un-
sweetened chocolate by setting it in a saucer over the
boiling kettle, then take enough of it to make your third
piece of fondant a fine brown ; now divide the white
into two parts ; make each an inch and a half wide, and
as long as it will ; do the same with the chocolate fon-
dant ; then take the pink, make it the same width and
length, but of course, not being divided, it will be twice
as thick ; now butter slightly the back of a plate, or,
better still, get a few sheets of waxed paper from the
confectioner's ; lay one strip of the chocolate on it, then
a strip of white on that, then the pink, the other white,
and lastly the chocolate again ; then lightly press them
to make them adhere, but not to squeeze them out of
shape. You have now an oblong brick of parti-colored
candy ; leave it for a few hours to harden, then trim it
neatly with a knife and cut it crosswise into slices half
an inch think, lay on waxed paper to dry, turning once
in a while, and pack away in boxes.
If jour fondant gets very hard while you work, stand
it over hot water a few minutes.
Creamed candies are very fashionable just now, and,
jour fondant once ready, are very easy to make.
CREAM WALNUTS. Make ready some almonds, some
walnuts in halves, some hazelnuts, or anything of the
sort you fancy ; let them be very dry. Take fondant made
94 Culture and Cooking.
from a pound of sugar, set it in a bowl in a saucepan of
boiling water, stirring it till it is like cream. Then having
flavored it with vanilla or lemon, drop in your nuts one
by one, taking them out with the other hand on the end
of a fork, resting it on the edge of your bowl to drain for
a second, then drop the nut on to a waxed or buttered
paper neatly. If the nut shows through the cream it is
too hot ; take it out of the boiling water and beat till it
is just thick enough to mask the nut entirely, then re-
turn it to the boiling water, as it cools very rapidly and
becomes unmanageable, when it has to be warmed over
again.
VEEY FINE CHOCOLATE CEEAMS are made as follows :
Boil half a pound of sugar with three tablespoonfuls of
thick cream till it makes a soft ball in water, then let it
cool. When cool beat it till it is very white, flavor with a
few drops of vanilla and make it into balls the size of a large
pea; then take some unsweetened chocolate warmed, mix
it with a piece of fondant melted there should be more
chocolate than sugar and when quite smooth and thick
enough to mask the cream, drop them in from the end
of a fork, take them out, and drop on to wax paper.
Another very fine candy to be made without heat,
and therefore convenient for hot weather, is made as
follows :
PUNCH DROPS. Sift some powdered sugar. Have
ready some fine white gum-arabic, put a tablespoonful
with the sugar (say half a pound of sugar), and make it
into a firm paste ; if too wet, add more sugar, flavor with
lemon and a tiny speck of tartaric acid or a very little lem-
on juice. Make the paste into small balls, then take more
sugar and make it into icing with a spoonful of Santa
Cruz rum and half the white of an egg. Try if it
French Candy at Home. 95
hardens, if not, beat in more sugar and color it a bright
pink, then dip each ball in the pink icing and harden
on wax paper. These are very novel, beautiful to look
at, and the flavors may vary to taste.
To MAKE COCHINEAL COLOBLNG WHICH is QUITE
HARMLESS. Take one ounce of powdered cochineal,
one ounce of cream of tartar, two drachms of alum,
half a pint of water ; boil the cochineal, water, and
cream of tartar till reduced to one half, then add the
alum, and put up in small bottles for use. Yellow is
obtained by the infusion of Spanish saffron in a little
water, or a still better one from the grated rind of a
ripe orange put into muslin, and a little of the juioe
squeezed through it.
Be careful in boiling the sugar tot fondant, not to stir
it after it is dissolved ; stirring causes it to become rough
instead of creamy.
CHAPTER XIV.
A CHAPTER FOR PEOPLE OF VERY SMALL MEANS.
I AM sorry to say in these days this chapter may ap-
peal to many, who are yet not to be called "poor peo-
ple," who may have been well-to-do and only suffering
from the pressure of the times, and for whose cultivated
appetites the coarse, substantial food of the laboring man
(even if they could buy it) would not be eatable, who
must have what they do have good, or starve. But, as
some of the things for which I give recipes will seem
over-economical for people who can afford to buy meat
at least once a day, I advise those who have even fifty
dollars a month income to skip it ; reminding them, if
they do not, "that necessity knows no law."
A bone of soup meat can be got at a good butcher's
for ten or fifteen cents, and is about the best invest-
ment, for that sum I know of, as two nourishing and
savory meals, at least, for four or five persons can be
got from it.
Carefully make a nice soup, with plenty of vegetables,
rice, or any other thickening you like. Your bone will
weigh from four to six pounds, perhaps ; put it on with
water according to size, and let it boil down slowly until
nice and strong. If you have had any scraps of meat or
bones, put them also to your soup.
When you serve it, keep back a cup of soup and a few
96
Chapter for People of Very Small Means. 97
of the vegetables, and save the meat, from which you
can make a very appetizing hash in the following way :
Take the meat from the bone, chop it with some cold
potatoes and the vegetables you saved from the soup.
Cold stewed onions, boiled carrots or turnips, all help to
make the dish savory. Chop an onion very fine, unless
you have cold ones, a little parsley and thyme, if liked,
and sometimes, for variety's sake, if you have it, a pinch
of curry powder, not enough to make it hot or yellow,
yet to impart piquancy. If you have a tiny bit of fried
bacon or cold ham or cold pork, chop it with the other
ingredients, mix all well, moisten with the cold soup,
and, when nicely seasoned, put the hash into an iron
frying-pan, in which you have a little fat made hot ;
pack it smoothly in, cover it with a pot-lid, and either
set it in a hot oven, or leave it to brown on the stove.
If there was more soup than enough to moisten the hash,
put it on in a tiny saucepan, with a little brown flour
made into a paste with butter, add a drop of tomato cat-
sup, or a little stewed tomato, or anything you have for
flavoring, and stir till it boils. Then turn the hash out
whole on a dish, it should be brown and crisp, pour the
gravy you have made round it, and serve. For a change
make a pie of the hash, pouring the gravy in through
a hole in the top when done.
It is not generally known that a very nice plain paste
ca, be made with a piece of bread dough, to which you
have added an egg, and some lard, dripping, or butter.
The dripping is particularly nice for the hash pie, and,
as you need only a piece of dough as large as an orange,
you will probably have enough from the soup, if you
skimmed off all the fat before putting the vegetables in
(see pot-au-feu] ; work your dripping into the dough,
5
98 Culture and Cooking.
and let it rise well, then roll as ordinary pie-crust. Po-
tato crust is also very good for plain pies of any sort, but
as there are plenty of recipes for it, I will not give one
here.
One of the very best hashes I ever ate was prepared
by a lady who, in better times, kept a very fine table.
And she told me there were a good many cold beans
in it, well mashed ; and often since, when taking ' ' trav-
elers' hash" in an hotel, I have thought of that savory
dish with regret.
Instead of making your chopped meat into hash, vary
it, by rolling the same mixture into egg-shaped* pieces,
or flat cakes, flouring them, and frying them nicely in
very hot fat ; pieces of pork or bacon fried and laid
round will help out the dish, and be an improvement
to what is already very good.
To return once more to the soup bone. If any one of
your family is fond of marrow, seal up each end of the
bone with a paste made of flour and water. "When done,
take off the paste, and remove the marrow. Made very
hot, and spread on toast, with pepper and salt, it will be
a relish for some one's tea or breakfast.
In this country there is a prejudice against sheep's
liver ; while in England, where beef liver is looked upon
as too coarse to eat (and falls to the lot of the "cats-
meat man," or cat butcher), sheep's is esteemed next to
calf's, and it is, in fact, more delicate than beef liver.
The nicest way to cook it is in very thin slices (not the
inch-thick pieces one often sees), each slice dipped in
flour and fried in pork or bacon fat, and pork or bacon
served with it. But the more economical way is to put
it in a pan, dredge it with flour, pin some fat pork over
it, and set it in a hot oven ; when very brown take it out ;
Chapter for People of Very Small Means. 99
make nice brown gravy by pouring water in the pan and
letting it boil on the stove, stirring it well to dissolve the
glaze ; pour into the dish, and serve. The heart should
be shifted with bread-crumbs, parsley, thyme, and a lit-
tle onion, and baked separately. Or, for a change, you
may chop the liver up with a few sweet herbs and a lit-
tle pork (onion, or not, as you like), and some bread-
crumbs. Put all together in a crock, dredge with flour,
cover, and set in a slow oven for an hour and a half ;
then serve, with toasted bread around the dish.
It is very poor economy to buy inferior meat. One
pound of fine beef has more nourishment than two of
poor quality. But there is a great difference in prices of
different parts of meat, and it is better management to
choose the cheap part of fine beef than to buy the sir-
loin of a poor ox even at the 'same price ; and, by good
cooking many parts not usually chosen, and therefore
sold cheaply, can be made very good. Yet you must
remember, that a piece of meat at seven cents a pound,
in which there is at least half fat and bone, such as
brisket, etc., is less economical than solid meat at ten or
twelve.
Pot roasts are very good for parts of meat not tender
enough for roasting, the "cross-rib," as some butch-
ers term it, being very good for this purpose ;- it is all
solid meat, and being very lean, requires a little fat pork,
wh'oh may be laid at the bot'om of the pot; or better
still, holes made in the meat and pieces of the fat drawn
through, larding in a rough way, so that they cut to-
gether. A pot roast is best put on in an iron pot, with-
out water, allowed to get finely brown on one side, then
turned, and when thoroughly brown on the other a little
water may be added for gravy ; chop parsley or any
loo Culture and Cooking.
seasoning that is preferred. Give your roast at least
three hours to cook. Ox cheek, as the head is called, is
very good, and should be very cheap ; prepare it thus :
Clean the cheek, soak it in water six hours, and cut
the meat from the bones, which break up for soup ;
then take the meat, cut into neat pieces, put it in an
earthen crock, a layer of beef, some thin pieces of pork
or bacon, some onions, carrots, and turnips, cut thin, or
chopped fine, and sprinkled over the meat ; also, some
chopped parsley, a little thyme, and bay leaf, pepper
and salt, and a clove to each layer ; then more beef and
a little pork, vegetables, and seasoning, as before. When
all your meat is in pour over it, if you have it, a tum-
bler of hard cider and one of water, or else two of water,
in which put a half gill of vinegar. If you have no
tight-fitting cover to your crock, put a paste of flour and
water over it to keep the steam in. Place the crock in a
slow oven five or six hours, and when it is taken out re-
move the crust and skim. Any piece of beef cooked in
this way is excellent.
Ox heart is one of the cheapest of dishes, and realty
remarkably nice, and it is much used by economical peo-
ple abroad.
The heart should be soaked in vinegar and water three
or four hours, then cut off the lobes and gristle, and
stuff it with fat pork chopped, bread-crumbs, parsley,
thyme, pepper, and salt ; then tie it in a cloth and very
slowly simmer it (large end up) for two hours ; take it
up, remove the cloth, and flour it, and roast it a nice
brown. Lay in the pan in which it is to be roasted some
fat pork to baste it. Any of this left over is excellent
hashed, or, warmed in slices with a rich brown gravy, can-
Dot be told from game. Another way is to stuff it with
Chapter for People of Very Small Means. 101
sage and onions. It must always be served very hot with
hot plates and on a very hot dish.
Fore quarter of mutton is another very economical part
of meat, if you get your butcher to cut it so that it may
not only be economical, but really afford a choice joint.
Do not then let him hack the shoulder across, but, before
he does a thing to it, get him to take the shoulder out in
a round plate-shaped joint, with knuckle attached ; if
he does this well, that is, cuts it close to the bone of the
ribs, you will have a nice joint ; then do not have it
chopped at all ; this should be roasted in the oven very
nicely, and served with onion sauce or stewed onions. If
onions are not liked, mashed turnips are the appro-
priate vegetable. This joint, to be enjoyed, must be
properly carved, and that is, across the middle from the
edge to the bone, the same as a leg of mutton ; and like
the leg, you must learn, as I cannot describe it in words,
where the bone lies, then have that side nearest you and
cut from the opposite side.
You have, besides this joint, another roast from the
ribs, or else cut it up into chops till you come to the
part under the shoulder ; from this the breast should be
separated and both either made into a good Irish stew,
or the breast prepared alone in a way I shall describe,
the neck and thin ribs being stewed or boiled.
The neck of mutton is very tender boiled and served
\\it ] > parsley or caper sauce; the liquor it is boiled in
served as broth, with vegetables and rice, or prepared as
directed in a former chapter for the broth from leg of
mutton.
The mode I am about to give of preparing breast of
mutton was told me by a Welsh lady of rank, at whose
table I ate it (it appeared as a side dish), and who said,
IO2 Culture and Cooking.
half laughingly, " Will you take some * fluff ' ? We are
very fond of it, but breast of mutton is such a despised
dish I never expect any one else to like it." I took it,
on my principle of trying everything, and did find it
very good. This lady told me that, having of course a
good deal of mutton killed on her father's estate, and the
breast being always despised by the servants, she had in-
vented a way of usi ng it to avoid waste. Her way was th is :
Set the breast of mutton on the fire whole, just cov-
ered with water in which is a little salt. When it comes
to the boil draw it back and let it simmer three hours ;
then take it up and draw out the bones, and lay a force-
meat of bread-crumbs, parsley, thyme, chopped suet,
salt and pepper all over it ; double or roll it, skewer it,
and coat it thickly with egg and bread-crumbs ; then
bake in a moderate oven, basting it often with nice drip-
ping or butter ; when nicely brown it is done, and eats
like the tenderest lamb. It was, when I saw it, served on
a bed of spinach. I like it better on a bed of stewed
onions.
I now give some dishes made without meat.
RAGOUT OF CUCUMBER AND ONIONS. Fry equal
quantities of large cucumbers and onions in slices until
they are a nice brown. The cucumber will brown more
easily if cut up and put to drain some time before using ;
then flour each slice. When both are brown, pour on
them a cup of water, and let them stew for half an hour ;
then take a good piece of butter in which you have
worked a dessert-spoonful of flour (browned) ; add pep-
per, salt, and a little tomato catsup or stewed tomato.
This is a rich-eating dish if nicely made, and will help
out cold meat or a scant quantity of it very well. A
little cold meat may be added if you have it,
Chapter for People of Very Small Means. 103
ONION SOUP. Fry six large onions cut into slices
with a quarter of a pound of butter till they are of a
bright brown, then well mix in a tablespoonful of flour,
and pour on them rather more than a quart of water.
Stew gently until the onions are quite tender, season
with a spoonful of salt and a little sugar ; stir in quickly
a liaison made with the yolks of two eggs mixed with
a gill of milk or cream (do not let it boil afterwards),
put some toast in a tureen, and serve very hot.
PEA SOUP. Steep some yellow split peas all night, next
morning set them on to boil with two quarts of water to a
pint of peas ; in the water put a tiny bit of soda. In an-
other pot put a large carrot, a turnip, an onion, and a
large head of celery, all cut small and covered with water.
AVhen both peas and vegetables are tender, put them
together, season with salt, pepper, and a little sugar,
and let them gently stew till thick enough ; then strain
through a colander, rubbing the vegetables well, and
return to the pot while you fry some sippets of bread a
crisp brown ; then stir into the soup two ounces of but-
ter in which you have rolled a little flour.
This soup is simply delicious, and the fact of it being
maigre will not be remembered.
POTATO SOUP is another of this good kind, for meat is
scarcely required, so good is it without.
Boil some potatoes, then rub them through a colandar
into two quarts of hot milk (skimmed does quite well);
have some fine-chopped parsley and onion, add both
with salt and pepper, stew three quarters of an hour ;
then stir in a large piece of butter, and beat two eggs
with a little cold milk, stir in quickly, and serve with
fried bread. There should be potatoes enough to make
the soup as thick as cream.
IO4 Culture and Cooking.
Do not be prejudiced against a dish because there is
no meat in it, and you think it cannot be nourishing.
This chapter is not written for those with whom meat,
or money, is plentiful ; and if it be true that man is
nourished " not by what he eats, but by what he assim-
ilates,", and, according to an American medical author-
ity, "what is eaten with distaste is not assimilated"
(Dr. Hall), it follows that an enjoyable dinner, even
without meat, will be more nourishing than one forced
down because it lacks savor ; that potato soup will be
more nourishing than potatoes and butter, with a cup of
milk to drink, because more enjoyable. Yet it costs no
more, for the soup can be made without the eggs if they
are scarce.
Or say bread and butter and onions. They will not
be very appetizing, especially if they had to be a fre-
quent meal, yet onion soup is made from the same ma-
terials, and in France is a very favorite dish, even with
those well able to put meat in it if they wished.
CHAPTER XV.
A FEW THINGS IT IS WELL TO REMEMBER.
EVERY housekeeper has pet " wrinkles " of her own
which she thinks are especially valuable ; some are
known to all the world, others are new to many. So
it may be with mine ; but, on the chance that some few
things are as new to my friends as they were to me, I
jot them down without any pretense of order or regu-
larity.
Lemons will keep fresher and better in water than any
other way. Put them in a crock, cover them with water.
They will in winter keep two or three months, and the
peel be as fresh as the day they were put in. Take care,
of course, that they do not get frosted. In summer
change the water twice a week ; they will keep a long
time.
In grating nutmegs begin at the flower end ; if you
commence at the other, there will be a hole all the way
through.
Tea or coffee made hot (not at all scorched), before
water is added, are more fragrant and stronger. Thus,
by putting three spoonfuls of tea in the pot and setting
in a warm place before infusing, it will be as strong as
if you make tea with four spoonfuls without warming it,
and much more fragrant.
Vegetables that are strong can be made much milder
* 105
lo6 Culture and Cooking.
by tying a bit of bread in a clean rag and boiling it with
them.
Bread dough is just as good made the day before it is
used ; thus, a small family can have fresh bread one day,
rolls the next, by putting the dough in a cold place en-
veloped in a damp cloth. In winter, kept cold, yet not
in danger of freezing, it will keep a week.
Celery seed takes the place of celery for soup or stews
when it is scarce ; parsley seed of parsley.
Green beans, gherkins, etc., put down when plentiful
in layers of rock salt, will keep crisp and green for
months, and can be taken out and pickled when con-
venient.
Lemon or orange peel grated and mixed with powdered
sugar and a squeeze of its own juice (the sugar making
it into paste) is excellent to keep for flavoring ; put it
into a little pot and it will keep for a year.
Bread that is very stale may be made quite fresh for
an hour or two by dipping it quickly into milk or water,
and putting it in a brisk oven till quite hot through. It
must be eaten at once, or it will be as stale as ever when
cold.
Meat to be kept in warm weather should be rubbed over
with salad oil, every crevice filled with ginger ; meat that
is for roasting or frying is much better preserved in this
way than with salt ; take care that every part of the sur-
face has a coat of oil. Steaks or chops cut off, which
always keep badly, should be dipped into warm butter or
even dripping, if oil is not handy (the object being to
exclude the air), and then hung up till wanted.
Mutton in cold weather should be hung four or five
weeks in a place not subject to changes of temperature,
and before it is so hung, every crevice filled with ginger
A Few Things it is Well to Remember. 107
and thoroughly dredged with flour, which must be then
rubbed in with the hand till the surface is quite dry.
This is the English fashion of keeping venison.
It may be useful for those who burn kerosene to know
that when their lamps smell, give a bad light, and smoke,
it is not necessary to buy new burners. Put the old
ones in an old saucepan with water and a tablespoonful
of soda, let them boil half an hour, wipe them, and
your trouble will be over.
Meat that has become slightly tainted may be quite
restored by washing it in water in which is a teaspoonful
of borax, cutting away every part in the least discolored.
In summer when meat comes from the butcher's, if it
is not going to be used the same day, it should be washed
over with vinegar.
Poultry in summer should always have a piece of
charcoal tied in a rag placed in the stomach, to be re-
moved before cooking. Pieces of charcoal should also
be put in the refrigerator and changed often.
Oyster shells put one at a time in a stove that is
"clinkered" will clean the bricks entirely. They
should be put in when the fire is burning brightly.
Salt and soapstone powder (to be bought at the drug-
gist's) mend fire brick ; use equal quantities, make into a
paste with water, and cement the brick ; they will be as
strong as new ones.
Ink spilled on carpets may be entirely removed by
rubbing while wet with blotting paper, using fresh as
it soils.
CHAPTER XVI.
OK SOME TABLE PREJUDICES.
MANY people have strong prejudices against certain
things which they have never even tasted, or which they
do frequently take and like as a part of something else,
without knowing it. How common it is to hear and
see untraveled people declare that they dislike garlic,
and could not touch anything with it in. Yet those
very people will take Worcestershire sauce, in which gar-
lic is actually predominant, with everything they eat ;
and think none but English pickles eatable, which
owe much of their excellence to the introduction of a
soup f on of garlic. Therefore I beg those who actually
only know garlic from hearsay abuse of it, or from its
presence on the breath of some inveterate garlic eater,
to give it a fair trial when it appears in a recipe. It is
just one of those things that require the most delicate
handling, for which the French term a " suspicion " is
most appreciated ; it should only be a suspicion, its
presence should never be pronounced. As Blot once
begged his readers, " Give garlic a fair trial in a remo-
lade sauce." (Montpellier butter beaten into mayonnaise
is a good remolade for cold meat or fish.)
Curry is one of those things against which many are
strongly prejudiced, and I am inclined to think it is
108
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DEPARTM . .MI*: KCONOMK
.> SCIENCE
On Some liable Prejudices. 169
quite an acquired taste, but a taste which is an envi-
able one to its possessors ; for them there is endless
variety in all they eat. The capabilities of curry are
very little known in this country, and, as the taste for
it is so limited, I will not do more in its defense than
indicate a pleasant use to which it may be put, and in
which form it would be a welcome condiment to many
to whom "a curry," pure and simple, would be obnox-
ious. I once knew an Anglo-Indian who used curry as
most people use cayenne ; it was put in a pepper-box,
and with it he would at times pepper his fish or kidneys,
even his eggs. Used in this way, it imparts a delightful
piquancy to food, and is neither hot nor " spicy."
Few people are so prejudiced as the English generally,
and the stay-at-home Americans ; but the latter are to
be taught by travel, the Englishman rarely.
The average Briton leaves his island shores with the
conviction that he will get nothing fit to eat till he gets
back, and that he will have to be uncommonly careful
once across the channel, or he will be having fricasseed
frogs palmed on him for chicken. Poor man! in his
horror of frogs, he does not know that the Paris res-
taurateur who should give the costly frog for chicken,
would soon end in the bankruptcy court.
" If I could only get a decent dinner, a good roast
and plain potato, I would like Paris much better," said
an old Englishman to me once in that gay city.
i 'But surely you can."
"No ; I have been to restaurants of every class, and
called for beefsteak and roast beef, but have never got
the real article, although it's my belief," said he, lean-
ing forward solemnly, "that I have eaten horse three
times this week." Of course the Englishman of rank,
HO Culture and Cooking.
who has spent half his life on the continent, is not at all
the average Englishman.
Americans think the hare and rabbits, of which the
English make such good use, very mean food indeed,
and if they are unprejudiced enough to try them, from
the fact that they are never well cooked, they dislike
them, which prejudice the English reciprocate by look-
ing on squirrels as being as little fit for food as a rat.
And a familiar instance of prejudice from ignorance
carried even to insanity, is that of the Irish in 1848,
starving rather than eat the "yaller male," sent them
by generous American sympathizers ; yet they come here
and soon get over that dislike. Not so the French, who
look on oatmeal and Indian meal as most unwholesome
food. " a pese sur Testomac, $a creuse Testomac" I
heard an old Frenchwoman say, trying to dissuade a
mother from giving her children mush.
The moral of all of which is, that for our comfort's
sake, and the general good we should avoid unreason-
able prejudices against unfamiliar food. We of course
have a right to our honest dislikes ; but to condemn
things because we have heard them despised, is pre-
judice.
CHAPTER XVII.
A CHAPTER OF ODDS AND ENDS.
I HAVE alluded, in an earlier chapter, to the fact that
many inexperienced cooks are afraid of altering recipes ;
a few words on this subject may not be out of place. As
a rule, a recipe should be faithfully followed in all im-
portant points ; for instance, in making soup you can-
not, because you are short of the given quantity of meat,
put the same amount of water as directed for the full
quantity, without damaging your soup ; but you may eas-
ily reduce water and every other ingredient in the same
proportion ; and, in mere matters of flavoring, you may
vary to suit circumstances. If you are told to use cloves,
and have none, a bit of mace may be substituted.
If you read a recipe, and it calls for something you
have not, consider whether that something has anything
to do with the substance of the dish, or whether it is
merely an accessory for which something else can be
substituted. For instance, if you are ordered to use
cream in a sauce, milk with a larger amount of well-
washed butter may take its place ; but if you are told to
Tide cream for charlotte russe or trifles, there is no way in
which you could make milk serve, since it is not an
accessory but the chief part of those dishes. For a
cake in which cream is used, butter whipped to a cream
may take its place. Wine is usually optional in savory
dishes ; it gives richness only.
Ill
112 Culture and Cooking.
Again, in cakes be very careful the exact proportions
of flour, eggs, and milk are observed ; of butter you can
generally use more or less, having a more or less rich
cake in proportion. In any but plain cup cakes (which
greatly depend on soda and acid for their lightness)
never lessen the allowance of eggs ; never add milk if a
cake is too stiff (but an extra egg may always be used),
unless milk is ordered in the recipe, when more or less
may be used as needed. Flavoring may be always varied.
In reducing a recipe always reduce every ingredient,
and it can make no difference in the results. Some-
times, in cookery books, you are told to use articles not
frequently found in ordinary kitchens; for instance, a
larding-needle (although that can be bought for twenty-
five cents at any house-furnishing store, and should al-
ways be in a kitchen) ; but, in case you have not one for
meat, you may manage by making small cuts and insert-
ing slips of bacon.
Another article that is very useful, but seldom, if ever,
to be found in small kitchens, is a salamander ; but when
you wish to brown the top of a dish, and putting it in
the oven would not do, or the oven is not quick enough
to serve, an iron shovel, made nearly red, and a few red
cinders in it, is a very good salamander. It must be
held over the article that requires browning near enough
to color it, yet not to burn.
In the recipes I have given nothing is required that
cannot be obtained, with more or less ease, in New York.
For syrups, fruit juices, etc., apply to your druggist; if
he has not them he will tell you where to obtain them.
We often make up our minds that because a thing is not
commonly used in this country, it is impossible to get it.
Keally there are very few things not to be got in New
Chapter of Odds and Ends, 1 1 3
York City to the intelligent seeker. You need an arti-
cle of French or Italian or may be English grocery, that
your grocer, a first-class one, perhaps, has not, and you
make up your mind you cannot get it. But go into the
quarters where French people live, and you can get
everything belonging to the French cuisine. So preju-
diced are the French in favor of the productions of la
belle France, that they do not believe in our parsley or
our chives or garlic or shallots ; for I know at least one
French grocer who imports them for his customers. On
being asked why he brought them from France to a
country where those very things were plentiful, he an-
swered :
"Oh, French herbs are much finer."
Needless to say tarragon is one of the herbs so import-
ed, and can thus be bought ; but, as several New Jersey
truck gardeners grow all kinds of French herbs, they can
be got in Washington Market, and most druggists keep
them dried ; but for salads, Montpellier butter, and some
other uses, the dried herb would not do, although for
flavoring it would serve ; but the far better way is to
grow them for yourself, as I have done. Any large
seedsman will supply you with burnet, tarragon, and
borage (very useful for salads, punch, etc.) seeds, and if
you live in the country, have an herb bed ; if in town,
there are few houses where there is not ground enough
to serve for the purpose ; but even in these few houses
one can have a box of earth in the kitchen window, in
which your seeds will flourish.
Parsley is a thing in almost daily request in winter,
yet it is very expensive to buy it constantly for the sake
of using the small spray that often suffices. It is a good
plan, therefore, in fall, to get a few roots, plant them in
114 Culture and Cooking.
a pot or box, and they will flourish all winter, if kept
where they will not freeze, and be ready for garnishing
at any minute.
Always, as far as your means allow, have every con-
venience for cooking. By having utensils proper for
every purpose you save a great deal of work and much
vexation of spirit. Yet it should be no excuse for bad
work that such utensils are not at hand. A willing and
intelligent cook will make the best of what she has.
Apropos of this very thing Gouffe relates that a friend
of his, an "artist" of renown, was sent for to the
chateau of a Baron Argenteuil, who had taken a large
company with him, unexpectedly crowding the chateau
in every part. He was shown into a dark passage in
which a plank was suspended from the ceiling, and told
this was to be his kitchen. He had to fashion his own
utensils, for there was nothing provided, and his pastry
he had to bake in a frying-pan besides building two
monumental plats on that board and prepare a cold en-
tree. But he cheerfully set to work to overcome diffi-
culties, achieved his task, and was rewarded by the plau-
dits of the diners. Such difficulties as these our servants
never have to encounter, and a cheerful endeavor to
make the best of everything should be the rule. Yet,
let us spare them all the labor we can, or rather make it
as easy and pleasant as possible ; they will be more
proud of their well-furnished kitchen, more cheerful in
it, than they will of one where everything for their con-
venience is grudged, and such pride and cheerfulness
will be your gain.
There is always a great deal of talk about servants in
America, how bad and inefficient they are, how badly
they contrast with those of England. Certainly, they
Chapter of Odds and Ends 115
are not so efficient as those of the older country ; how
could they be ? There, girls who are intended for servants
have ever held before their eyes what they may or may
not do in the future calling, and how it is to be done.
But take one of these orderly, efficient girls, put her in
an American family as general servant or as cook, where
two are kept, washing and ironing to do, and a variety
of other work, and see how your English servant would
stare at your requirements. She has been accustomed to
her own line of work at home ; if housemaid, she has
been dressed for the day at noon ; if cook, she has never
done even her own washing.
She may, and will no doubt, fall into the way of the
country, after a while, and on account of her early habits
of respect, will make a good servant perhaps. But many
of them would be quite indignant at being asked to do
the average servant's work here. I am speaking now of
the trained servants ; but, comparing the London " maid-
of-all-work " or " slavey " with our own general servants,
and considering how much more is expected of the latter,
the comparison seems to me vastly in the favor of our own
Bridgets. We may rest assured, however smoothly the
wheels of household management glide along in wealthy
families across the water, people who can only keep one
or two have all our troubles with servants and a few
added, and their faults are just as general a subject of
conversation among ladies.
France (out of Paris, from Parisian servants deliver
me ! ) and Germany seem the favored lands where one
servant does the work of three or four. Yet even they,
are, they say, degenerating. Let us, then, be contented
and make the best of what we have, assured that even
Biddy is not so hopeless as she is painted. Kindness
1 1 6 Culture and Cooking.
(not weakness), firmness, and patience work wonders,
even with the roughest Emerald that ever crossed the
sea.
I have said somewhere else that you must beware of at-
tempting too much at once ; perfect yourself in one thing
before you attempt another. Take breaded chops or
fried oysters, make opportunities for having them rather
often, and do not rest satisfied until you have them as
well fried as you have ever seen them anywhere ; " prac-
tice makes perfect," and you certainly will achieve per-
fection if you are not discouraged by one failure. But
above all things never make experiments for company ;
let them be made when it really matters little whether
you succeed or not, and let your experiments be on a
small scale ; don't attempt to fry a large dish of oysters
or chops until it is a very easy task, or make more than
half a pound of puff paste at first ; for if you fail with a
large task before you, you will be tired and disheartened,
hate the sight of what you are doing, and, as a conse-
quence, not be likely to return to it very soon. The same
may be said of cooks ; some of them are very fond of ex-
periments, which taste I should always encourage ; but do
not let them jump from one experiment to the other ;
if they try a dish and fail, they often make up their
minds that the fault is not theirs, that it is not worth
while to " bother " with it. Here your knowledge will be
of service ; you will show them that it can be done, how
it should be done, and order the dish cook failed in, fre-
quently, giving it sufficient surveillance to prevent your
family suffering from her inexperience ; for, as a witty
Frenchman said of Mme. du Deffaud's cook, " Between
her and Brinvilliers there is only the difference of in-
tention,"
Chapter of Odds and Ends. 117
Few things add more to a man or woman's social repu-
tation than the fact that they keep a good table. It
need not be one where
" The strong table groans
Beneath the smoking sirloin stretched immense ; "
but a table where whatever you do have will be good,
be it pork and beans, or salmi ; the pork and beans
would satisfy a Bostonian, the salmi Grimod de la Eey-
niere himself. I do not admit with Di Walcott that
" The turnpike road to people's hearts I find
Lies through their mouths, or I mistake mankind."
But it is a fact that good living by this I do not
mean extravagant living presupposes good breeding.
Well-bred people sometimes live badly ; but ill-bred
people seldom or ever live well, in the right sense of
the term.
Now, by way of valedictory, let me repeat that I do
not think a lady's best or proper place is the kitchen ;
but it is quite possible to have a perfectly served table,
yet spend very little time there. Only that one little
hour a day that Talleyrand, the busy man full of intrigue
and statecraft, found time to spend with his cook, would
insure your table being well served. For, after devoting
say a few winter months to perfecting yourself in a few
things, you will be able to teach your cook, who is often
ambitious to excel if put in the right way. A word here
about cooks.
The knowledge that if they fail to do a thing well
you will do it yourself, will often put them on their
mettle to do their best ; while the feeling that you don't
know, will make them careless.
Ii8 Culture and Cooking.
Servants have a great deal more amour propre than
people imagine ; therefore, stimulate it by judicious
praise and appreciation ; let them think that to send in a
dish perfect, is a glory to themselves as well as a pleasure
to you. While careful to remark when alone with them
upon any fault that results from carelessness, be equally
careful to give all the praise you can, and repeat to
them complimentary remarks that may have been made
on their skill. Servants are usually such is the weak-
ness of feminine nature, whether in the drawing-room
or the kitchen very sensitive to the praise or blame of
the gentlemen of the family. Indulge poor humanity a
little when you honestly can.
PART II.
PRACTICAL RECIPES.
CHAPTER XVIII.
BREAKFAST BREADS.
ALTHOUGH breads were Yery fully treated of in the
first part of this booK, a few breakfast and tea-cakes
more quickly made may not be out of place.
SOUFFLEE BOLLS.
Melt a tablespoonful of butter in half a pint of milk;
when blood-warm put in half a cake of compressed
yeast, a beaten egg, two teaspoonfuls of sugar and a
saltspoonful of salt. When the yeast is dissolved, stir
in a cup and a-half of flour well dried and quite warm;
beat two or three minutes ; it should be too thick for
batter, and not thick enough for dough so thick that
you cannot take it up in a spoon at all; cover with a hot
cloth, and set it in a warm place ; it will rise in about
two hours ; if you have time, the texture will be better
if you beat it down and let it rise again befpre putting
it in the tins. They will be very good, however, if you
simply stir it down well, and with a tablespoon dipped
119
I 2O Practical Recipes.
in flour, fill small roll-pans with the batter rather more
than half full ; let them rise till the pans are full, and
then bake ten to fifteen minutes in a very quick oven;
when pale-brown brush them over with a little syrup
thinned with milk, and bake till quite brown ; be care-
ful they do not burn the syrup causes them to do so
easily.
SCOTCH SCONES.
Dissolve half a saltspoonful of soda and two ounces
of butter or lard in a gill of warmed sour milk ; put
ten ounces of flour and a little salt in a bowl ; pour the
mixture in and make it into a stiff dough; roll it out
into a round cake half an inch thick; mark it in eight
sections and bake on a griddle fifteen to twenty min-
utes ; split and butter while hot.
SCONES NO. 2.
Melt in half a pint of milk one ounce of butter; beat
up an egg and stir it into the milk; with a saltspoonful
of salt add enough fine flour mixed with a teaspoonful of
baking powder to make a very soft dough ; flour the
board thickly and make into round cakes, the size of a
small plate, an inch thick ; mark into sections and bake
twenty minutes on a griddle ; split and butter while
hot.
CORN BREAD.
One quart of milk, three eggs, two cups of Indian
meal, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of soda, two
of cream of tartar, lard half the size of an egg, one level
teaspoon of salt; mix Indian meal and flour; sift cream
of tartar to them ; stir with the milk into a smooth
Breakfast Breads. I 2 t
batter ; beat the yolks of the eggs ; stir them in; melt
the lard and add it; then beat the whites to a stiff foam
and stir them in ; dissolve the soda in very little boiling
water, and add it last thing ; bake in a very quick oven.
CORN MUFFINS.
One cup of corn-meal, one of flour, a dessert-spoonful
of butter, two eggs, two small teaspoonfuls of baking-
powder, one tablespoonful of sugar.
Mix flour and meal and sugar with enough milk to
make a stiff batter ; beat the eggs, melt the butter, and
add them to it ; stir in the baking-powder with a small
teaspoonful of salt.
EGG BISCUITS.
Sift with one pint of flour one teaspoonful of baking-
powder; chop into it a tablespoonful of butter till fine ;
beat one egg and mix it with half a cup of milk part
cream is much better; make a hole in the flour ; put in
a saltspoonful of salt, and pour in the egg and milk;
mix altogether into a soft dough, using more milk if
needful ; roll out as quickly as possible half an inch
thick ; cut into rounds and bake in a quick oven.
BATTER BREAD.
Two eggs, the whites beaten separately, a small cup
of flour, the same of milk ; mix yolks, flour and milk
into a smooth batter ; stir in a tablespoonful of butter
melted and a little salt ; then add the whites of the
eggs beaten till they stand high, and a teaspoonful of
baking-powder ; mix gently after the whites are in ;
bake in a well-buttered tin in a very hot oven.
1 2 2 Practical Recipes.
ENGLISH MUFFINS.
Dissolve a yeast-cake (compressed) in a pint of warm
water, with a teaspoonful of salt ; mix with as much
warmed flour as will make a very thick batter just as
thick as can be stirred without being dough; set to rise,
and when like a honeycomb, it is ready ; flour the griddle,
which must be moderately hot ; sprinkle some flour in
a saucer ; take with tablespoon dipped into flour a piece-
of the dough as large as a croquet ball ; drop it in the
saucer ; swing it round in it till it forms a round mass,
and drop it on the griddle; do the others the same way;
do not turn them till they look almost cooked through,
then brown them on the other side.
English muffins are never baked in rings, yet if rings
were made three and a half inches in diameter it would
save much trouble, for they are too soft to handle, and
it requires knack and practice to shape them really well
with the saucer.
They are better made the day before they are to be
eaten; they should be split a little all round, then toasted
on both sides quite crisp ; rip them open quickly and
don't attempt to spread butter on them, but lay it in
little bits all over each piece ; put them together again;
butter the outside, and cut them once across and set
them in the oven for the butter to melt ; if you have
eaten them this way, you will not be satisfied with hav-
ing them merely made hot in the oven.
QUICK BISCUIT.
Chop a tablespoonful of butter or lard in two heaping
cups of flour in which you have sifted a teaspoonful of
baking-powder, and half one of salt; wet with milk or
water enough to make a soft dough that you can just
Breakfast Breads. 123
roll out ; roll it out half an inch thick and cut with a
cutter into round cakes.
BUTTERMILK PUFFS.
To a quart of sharp buttermilk put half a teaspoonful
of baking-soda ; taste ; if not sweet add a little more ;
stir into it a teaspoonful of salt, one of sugar, and
enough flour to make a thick batter that will drop in
lumps from a spoon ; mix it all up very quickly, then
drop on a buttered baking-pan in little mounds.
These require a very hot oven, and will bake in seven
minutes. If your buttermilk is not rich, rub a little
butter into the flour till it is like sand ; these should
only take about twelve minutes from the time you be-
gin them till they are out of the oven ; they are de-
licious.
CHAPTEK XIX.
OMELETTES.
FRENCH OMELETTE.
Break four eggs; beat them, but not very much, just
so that you can take them up without strings; put a
piece of butter in a very dean smooth frying-pan and
let it get hot but not burn; put a saltspoonful of salt in
the eggs, and pour them in the pan; as the egg sets, shift
it from the sides with a spoon that the uncooked part may
run in its place; do not let it quite set; fold it half over;
shake the pan and slip the omelette off on to a dish.
This is the true French omelette. It has one drawback,
it must be eaten at once or it will be tough and heavy.
The addition of a little milk a tablespoonful to two
eggs tends to prevent it getting tough so quickly.
Neither of these omelettes can be kept, not even for a
minute, and for that reason where you are not sure of
your cook, and do not want to make the dish with your
own hands, I recommend the one mentioned on page 45.
It is good till cold and always handsome, yet true ome-
lette lovers would not approve of it.
Any kind of savory omelette is but a variation on this
plain one.
TOMATO OMELETTE, (TWO WATS).
Make some good tomato sauce see recipe very hot,
pour it in the dish round the omelette.
124.
Omelettes. 125
Or, Make some stewed tomato hot; lay two table-
spoonfuls of it on the omelette before you double it
over.
OYSTER OMELETTE.
Fricassee some oysters as for oyster patties; lay them
on the omelette before folding it.
MUSHROOM OMELETTE.
Use stewed mushrooms as directed for oysters and
tomatoes.
HAM OMELETTE.
May have a little cooked ham chopped and put in before
frying, or delicately shaved cold ham may be made hot
and laid between the omelette.
In short, there are innumerable ways of varying ome-
lettes which it would be mere repetition to give here.
CHAPTER XX.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS.
CARAMEL FOR COLORING.
Put four tablespoonfuls of sugar in a small thick
saucepan, with two tablespoonfuls of water; let them boil
ten minutes over a quick fire; then watch it till it colors
golden; it will soon go from this to dark-brown; when it
is all Hack like thick molasses, put a half cup of hot
water to it; it will sputter, but never mind that; stir till
it is all dissolved; then let it boil till it is syrup; pour it
into a bottle; it should look when cold like black molas-
ses and will keep for years.
BOUQUET OF SWEET HERBS.
Tie together two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, one
bay leaf, wrapping them round so that they will not
shed, and be easy to take out of the gravy or soup.
TO CHOP HERBS.
Always use the leaves only, never the stems; gather
the leaves firmly between the thumb and three fin-
gers of the left hand; let a sharp knife shave them
through as you push them forward under it; turn them
round ; gather them up again and cut them across in the
same way; then finish by chopping with both hands.
126
General Instructions. I 2 7
THIS IS THE WAY TO GET THEM FINELY AND EVENLY
CHOPPED. When sweet herbs are called for, it means
three parts parsley, two parts thyme, one part mar-
joram.
GARNISHING.
No matter how well a dinner may be cooked if it is
ill served it will lose a great deal. Everybody should
insist on the dishes being well arranged, and trimmed
or garnished before they are sent to table.
Corned beef is a very homely dish, yet if the carrots and
turnips are cut into nice forms and served: round it
alternately, with here and there a sprig of green pars-
ley, it will look far more appetizing than if it is on a
bare dish, and so it is with most other things, from
hash to croquettes.
Parsley is probably the most useful garnish we have,
yet a dish garnished with parsley does not mean a
kitchen-garden of it, and the tendency is usually to
overdo. The mere fact, that you insist on the dishes
being made to look their best, tends to make a
cook careful in her cooking. They are impressed with
the fact that the slap-dash method will not do. An
Hibernian damsel applied to me for a place, and in awe-
struck tones, as if it enhanced her own value to be so
near the rose, told me her sister was cook to Mr. Y.,
who never had a dish sent to table without (< Varnish."
My thoughts flew to " glaze," and as it was rather an
advanced form of cooking for our locality, I asked if she
herself knew how to make the "Varnish." A bewil-
dered look passed over her face, a suspicion that I was
laughing at her, as she said in a tone of dignified rebuke:
"It grows;" so I knew her " Varnish " was " garnish,"
her one idea of " garnish " parsley.
1 2 3 Practical Recipes.
Fried parsley is suitable for any light brown article,
such as savory patties, croquettes, cromesquis, sweet-
breads, etc. ; and it makes a change from the too per-
vasive uncooked article, pretty as it is.
For hot dishes with brown gravy, fried bread cut into
pretty shapes will not take two minutes, or as they will
keep a month in cool weather many may be prepared
when there is leisure, and made quite hot in a slow
oven. They will not be so nice, yet better than sod-
den toasted sippets.
White dishes such as fricassee are very nicely gar-
nished with little ornaments of puff paste glazed with egg
and baked a pale brown. Clubs, hearts, diamonds and
spades cut out of carrots, beetroot, and English pickled
walnuts and scattered over a white entree makes a novel
garnish. But the ways are many and open to any one's
invention, only take care that the garnish suits the dish.
I am unorthodox enough to think that flowers do not
suit salad unless they are the flowers of a vegetable, or
salad plant, such as nasturtiums and scarlet runner blos-
soms, bean or pea blossoms, etc. To me flowers sug-
gest sweet things, and are appropriate to fruit dishes.
FEIED PAKSLEY.
The whole secret is in having fresh curled parsley,
bright in color, and perfectly dry. It is better not
washed ; therefore never use any but the cleanest.
Have the fat in the frying-kettle hot enough to brown
a cube of bread in a few seconds ; put the parsley in a
frying-basket ; put it in the fat, and in half a minute,
if the fat is hot enough, it will be crisp and green ; it
will break easily when you take it out ; lay it on blot-
ting-paper or grocer's tea-paper to absorb the grease.
General Instructions. I 2, 9
CKOUTONS, which sound very fine, are just pieces of
stale bread cut with a cutter into pretty shapes and
dropped into the same hot fat ; they will take one
minute to become golden brown ; never let them be a
dark color. Nicely-made hash served on the centre of
small rounds of fried bread, with a little parsley, be-
comes an entree instead of a make-shift dish.
EGGS carefully broken and dropped into this same
kettle of boiling fat, and laid round a dish of nice hash,
make a very different breakfast-dish to one of hash with
boiled eggs, yet the expense is the same and the trouble
no more. Once you get used to using the deep frying-
kettle, it will be so much easier than the saute other-
wise, frying-pan that you will think nothing of using
it, and turning out golden wonders even if you are in
the greatest hurry. Eggs (to return to the subject)
fried one minute in this way, come out golden-brown
balls.
LARDING DAUBING.
Larding is a process that requires practice, when it is
very easy; it means to take a stitch in the surface of meat,
and is really more ornamental than anything else. For
purposes of moistening and flavoring dry meats, the
process called " daubing" is far better and perfectly
easy.
In larding cut the strips of solid salt pork about the
third of an inch square and two inches long for large
pieces of meat, a quarter of an inch for smaller, and as
thick as a good straw for poultry. Cut the strips, which
are called lardoons, parallel to the rind some time before
you want them, and lay them on ice ; take care they
are never too large for the needle. Mark the surface of
130 Practical Recipes.
the meat at equal distances with a knife, then put in
the larding-needle at the first mark ; push it almost up
to the end, bringing the point out at the second mark,
then pull it back, insert the lardoon in it, and bring it
through, leaving the pork in the meat and an end where
it entered and where it came out.
Meat a la daube has holes made through it and pieces
of pork as thick as your finger inserted ; they go all
through the meat.
TO CRUMB.
Where you have not a large quantity of ready dried
and sifted bread-crumbs it is better to use the cracker
powder that comes in boxes. It is just as economical
to turn out a whole box when you are crumbing, for
what is not used is sifted and returned to the box.
To crumb croquettes, cutlets, etc., beat up one or two
eggs (according as you have many or few articles) with
a teaspoon of oil and one of water and a little salt, or
the water may be used alone.
Have the egg in a saucer, and articles to be crumbed
on your right, and the cracker meal on your left, a dish
covered with cracker meal within reach. Dip each ar-
ticle with the right hand in the egg, lay it on the
cracker meal with the left, roll it well in it and lay it on
the dish; do not wet the left hand in the egg at all.
CHAPTER XXI.
FORCEMEATS. STUFFING. .
FORCEMEATS.
Many people believe they don't like dishes flavored with
herbs; yet they dine and enjoy dinner where herbs are
properly used, and never know the dish they enjoyed
owed its piquancy to their despised " yarbs." Herbs in
the hands of an inexperienced or careless person are
dangerous things so are spices, and most of the preju-
dice comes from their association with bad cooking.
Any attempt to make good forcemeat without herbs
degenerates into making the first stage of a bread-
pudding, and omitting everything that makes it good.
Yet one remedy there is for those who do not want
wet bread with an onion flavor, yet really cannot eat
herbs, and that is in sausage-meat. Really good sau-
sage-meat put into the breast of a turkey or chicken is
a great improvement to the bird : its richness moistens
it and adds much to the flavor ; it must not go into the
body, or it becomes steamed and unpleasant.
CHESTKUT FORCEMEAT.
Peel some Spanish chestnuts ; scald them a few
minutes to get off the inner skin ; drain them and stew
them till tender in gravy ; let them get cold and pound
131
1 3 2 Practical Recipes.
them with an equal quantity of butter and bread-
crumbs, adding the latter after they are pounded; season
with pepper, salt and nutmeg ; bind with the yolks of
two eggs.
This is used for turkey, and may be fried in balls to
garnish it.
OYSTER FORCEMEAT.
Take two dozen plump oysters, scald them, chop them
a little; take an equal quantity of bread-crumbs and
two ounces of butter ; scald a bit of onion as large as a
hazel-nut, and chop it very fine ; put in a teaspoonful
of finely-chopped parsley, asmallsaltspoonful of pepper,
and two of salt (it must be highly seasoned); squeeze in
the juice of half a lemon, and bind the whole with the
yolks of two eggs ; used for turkey, roasted or boiled, or
may be fried in balls to garnish.
SAGE AND ONION FORCEMEAT,
for ducks, pork and goose.
Boil some white onions till half done ; chop them
fine ; put as much 'bread-crumbs as there is chopped
onion, and to about a pint of stuffing put about ten
sage-leaves, dried till they powder easily. Season with
salt and pepper, highly.
ORDINARY VEAL-STUFFING (sOYER's).
Chop up half a pound of beef suet very fine (I sub-
stitute butter four ounces); put it in a bowl with
eight ounces of bread-crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of
finely-chopped parsley, two teaspoonfuls of equal quan-
tities of powdered thyme and marjoram, a suspicion of
lemon-peel grated, and the juice of half a lemon, a
Forcemeats. Stuffing. 133
quarter of a nutmeg, and a teaspoonful of salt ; one-
sixth of one of pepper ; bind with two yolks of eggs.
This is suitable for turkey, chickens, or baked fish.
HOW TO STUFF.
In stuffing any bird, fish, or piece of meat, avoid
packing it tightly there must be room for the stuffing
to swell ; beside, the stuffing should be well permeated
with the gravy of the article. Turkeys and chickens
should be stuffed ia the breast, loosening the skin with
the finger; geese and ducks in the stomach. No more
should be put in the latter than will go loosely in with-
out any pressure, or it will come out like steamy
pudding.
'TO BLANCH.
French cooks mean by this term to pour boiling
water on any article and then to put it immediately
in cold water. With almonds it means scalding them to
take off the skin.
CHAPTER XXII.
VEGETABLES.
TO BOIL VEGETABLES.
There is not much to add to what has been said in
the chapter on boiling, in the first part of this book.
Multiplying recipes is not adding to information; noth-
ing is more generally spoilt than vegetables, yet the
simple rules there given would prevent this, and no
number of recipes would do so.
It is usually the question of time that destroys boiled
vegetables; never over-cook them never put them on
too early, but each in their time. I give a general order
each day (knowing the incapacity of average servants to
remember differences of time unless it is fixed for
them).
Put on potatoes just half an hour before dinner-
time, peas or asparagus ten minutes, cabbage or cauli-
flower five minutes later, turnips a quarter of an hour,
and carrots, in fall and early winter, half an hour before
them; in winter, one hour before the potatoes; and
always put them in boiling water; always make them
boil up quickly again.
If you are forced to cook vegetables before they are
wanted, pour them off directly they are done and throw
them into cold water; when required drain them, and
make them hot in the sauce you serve with them; this
Vegetables. 135
is the French method; it preserves color and flavor, and
leaves the range free for other cooking, and is abso-
lutely necessary when serving a dinner of many dishes.
TO CUT VEGETABLES.
Peel turnips thick; scrape carrots or peel them very
thin, and cut them into slices the third of an inch
thick; make three slices in a pile, and cut them across.
TO CUT AND SHKED VEGETABLES.
Prepare them as directed; cut carrots, turnips, (or
onions) in slices the third of an inch thick; then make
them into piles, three slices in a pile, and cut down
through them every third of an inch, pushing the piles
forward with the left hand as the knife comes down.
These will be about the size to boil and serve with
white sauce. They need to be cut precisely, not only
for the appearance, but because if they are unequal in
size, some will be over-cooked and others under-done.
TO SHRED FOR SOUP
Cut the slices much thinner; five or six to the inch;
hold them in little piles firmly between the left thumb
and fingers, and cut across each pile evenly, making
about six cuts to the inch; with a little practice this be-
comes the quickest way of cutting vegetables, and far
more nicely than cutting them hap-hazard.
PREPARATION OF VEGETABLES.
CAULIFLOWER Should have nearly all the green
leaves trimmed off, leaving only one circle of the young
green; lay in cold water to cover them, in which is a
large handful of salt, Then rinse out of this in two
1 3 6 Practical Recipes.
waters. It may be tied up in an old napkin, which
keeps any speck of scum from it. It should boil till
the stalk is just tender, about twenty-five minutes, with
a level saltspoonful of soda, and a tablespoonful of salt
in the water, which should cover it well; serve with
Ilollandaise or white sauce; and, if liked, a little parme-
san cheese may be grated over it.
CABBAGE Is to be cooked in exactly the same man-
ner, and unless in deep winter, will take no longer; in
winter allow half an hour but cabbage requires a large
pot and. plenty of water; to be frequently pushed down,
and to boil without a cover as fast as possible " to gal-
lop " as the common phrase is. You will have then
no bad odor from it. Take care the pot is large enough
to prevent the water splashing over on the stove.
PEAS Kequire twenty minutes boiling, unless very
old, in just enough water in which a teaspoonful of
sugar to each quart is dissolved, and a teaspoonful of
salt; serve with plain butter in the dish.
STRING BEANS.
To look well, these should be most carefully cut slant-
wise, in thin uniform slices; or if very young, slit them
the whole length, and cut across twice to make slips an
inch long, like those that come in the French tins.
They should never be chopped across, any size from
half an inch to an inch, as careless cooks so often do.
They take twenty to twenty-five minutes in well salted
fast boiling water in which is half a saltspoon of soda;
serve either with plain butter or thin drawn butter in
which is a mere suspicion of sugar.
ASPARAGUS Must be scraped ; cut about an even
five inches long; tied in small bundles and boiled
Vegetables.
gently in well salted water; standing, if possible, as you
thus save the heads; they take twenty minutes, and are
served with white sauce or Hollandaise.
CARROTS Should be scraped, not peeled; split if
large, and cut in four (if to eat with boiled beef), and
boiled one hour and a half. If they are to be served
separate, cut them in slips, (see Cutting Vegetables) and
boiled one hour in salted water; they may then be
dressed with butter or white sauce.
CONES OF CARROT AND TURNIPS,
A more ornamental way is to boil them in quarters ;
chop them fine in a chopping-bowl ; put a piece of butter
with them and press them into a cone shape (a conical
wineglass will answer for a mould), and stand them in
a dish ; sprinkle over them dry-chopped parsley.
When carrots and- white turnips are both served,
mash the turnips and press them in the same way, ar-
ranging the orange and white cones alternately on the
dish ; garnish with parslay.
TURNIPS should be thickly peeled, cut in halves,
and boiled one hour in well-salted water ; they are
usually tender in that time. If you wish to mash
them, pour off the water; mash them with a tablespoon-
f ul of cream and half a saltspoonf ul of white pepper; salt
to taste ; a little butter may be used instead of cream,
but the flavor of butter should not be very perceptible.
A better way to cook them is to cut them (see Cutting
Vegetables) and boil forty-five minutes in salted water,
then served with white sauce.
Young spring turnips and carrots require less time to
boil, according to size, and should be served whole and
be simply dressed with white sauce.
138 Practical Recipes.
SPINACH requires careful washing to free it from sand;
pick off all discolored leaves and cut off the roots.
/always boil it without water twenty minutes or till
tender, leaving the cover on the saucepan ; when done,
there will be perhaps half a pint of water in the sauce-
pan after the spinach is taken out ; chop the spinach
fine in a chopping-bowl ; put butter, the size of an egg,
and a teaspoonful of flour in it and salt and pepper to
taste ; return it to the saucepan and let it stew till all
the water has boiled away, stirring often to prevent it
burning.
The usual way, however, is to put it in boiling water
with only a little salt ; let it boil twenty minutes ;
pour off the water and chop the spinach, as in last
recipe.
SWEET CORK should not be stripped of the husk until
just before using ; put it into boiling water ; boil twenty
minutes, and serve in a hot napkin.
Many prefer to boil it in the husk, and to strip it be-
fore sending it to table.
TOMATOES, STEWED. Scald them to remove the skin ;
cut them up ; put them in a saucepan, and let them
stew down slowly till they are thick from one to two
hours ; put in a lump of butter, pepper and salt, and a
teaspoonful of flour ; let them stew five minutes longer
and serve.
TOMATOES, BAKED. Scald them; skin them; cut a
hole in the top and put in it a little knob of butter in
which you have worked a quarter saltspoonful of salt
and a little pepper ; set them in a dripping-pan ; put in
it butter the size of an egg, and two teaspoonfuls of
flour kneaded in it ; bake them till tender and brown,
but not till they are all shrunken away ; take them up
Vegetables. 139
and set the pan on the stove ; stir the juice well, which
the lump of butter and flour will have served to thicken ;
when smooth, put it to the tomatoes and serve.
ONIONS, STEWED. Take care that the onions are
carefully peeled ; it is better to take off. a skin too
much than leave one that will shrivel ; choose them of
medium size ; let them boil quite tender in well salted
water they will take about an hour if not large and
serve with white sauce or drawn butter.
SPEING ONIONS, trimmed to leave about two inches
of the green (making them four or five inches long),
boiled about twenty-five minutes, and served as you
would asparagus, are a delicate and delicious dish.
CHAPTER XXIII.
SOUPS.
CLEAR SOUP. For beef stock, for all clear soups, I
can do no better than refer to the minute directions for
the making of Gouffe's Pot-au-feu, given on page 68.
That stock, carefully prepared, clear as follows :
To each quart of stock take the white and shell of one
egg, to which add a wineglass of cold water ; then beat
well together ; add a little of the boiling stock gradu-
ally, still beating the egg ; then stir the stock quickly
and pour in the white of egg, etc., at the same time stir-
ring till nearly boiling again ; then take it from the fire,
let it stand a few minutes that the white of egg may
separate from the soup into a curd ; then pour through
a clean, fine cloth or napkin into a bowl.
You now have a soup nearly colorless, clear as water,
and of delicious flavor. Add to it one half teaspoonful
of caramel (see recipe), or less, and it becomes like pale
sherry or weak tea. This is the ideal clear soup or
bouillon. Had jou reduced it before clearing, by quick
boiling, from two quarts to one (see page 67), you would
have consommee, and then the color may be made a very
little darker. Avoid a dark color, however, either for
bouillon or consommee.
VERMICELLI SOUP. To one quart of clear soup or
bouillon, add two ounces of vermicelli ; boil gently ten
minutes and serve.
140
Soups.
CLEAR VEGETABLE SOUP. Shred half a small carrot,
half a small turnip, about an inch of young leek or half
a dozen very small spring onions, if in season ; also a
few green peas or string beans if young ; boil all together
till quite tender, in salted water ; then add them, just
before serving, to the clear, hot stock. Take care that
you have all the vegetables of one size, or some will cook
to mash while others are hard ; they should be not more
than an inch in length and the thjckness of a match.
To a quart there should not be more added than two
tablespoonfuls altogether, each in good proportion. In
winter, canned peas and beans can be used.
CO^SOMMEE A LA RoYALE. For two quarts of con-
sommee, take the yolks of two eggs and one gill of
the consommee ; beat the eggs ; mix with the gill of
consomm6e ; put as much grated nutmeg as will lie on
the point of a penknife and a small pinch of salt ; pour
this custard into a cup ; set it in hot water, cover it, and
bake till firm, not longer. When done, if there is a
skin over the custard, take it off ; cut it into small
cubes ; add them to the boiling consommee and serve.
This custard is called royal paste, or pate royale.
PLAI^ FAMILY SOUP. Put two pounds of meat, with
any bones or trimming you have remnants of cold
meat or gravy helps to enrich it in a pot with three
quarts of cold water ; let them come slowly to a boil,
and then simmer (see page 65) for two hours, skimming
occasionally ; add to the soup three teasponfuls of salt,
one-half one of pepper, a carrot, a turnip, an onion, two
cloves, a stick of celery and two sprigs of parsley if you
have them.
If the vegetables are to be served with the soup, they
must be very neatly cut, quite small ; if the soup is to
142 Practical Recipes.
be strained, simply cut in thin slices will do. Let this
slowly simmer two hours more ; then put in a teaspoon-
ul of caramel (see recipe) ; remove the meat ; boil fast
for a minute or two, to send up the fat, and skim off
every bit of fat. If you find this difficult after the
thickest fat is off, lay pieces of common butchers' paper
or other unprinted paper on the surface till it no longer
comes off greasy.
I need not repeat recipes which are, after all, the
same thing, or should be. The clear soup may be varied
into "macaroni" soup, "clear asparagus," or any of
the many soups taking their name from the substances
served in them, by adding anyone of them to the stock,
always remembering that they should be cooked thor-
oughly first and then put into the boiling stock.
Do not, however, use cold vegetables for the pur-
pose.
ENGLISH CLEAR MOCK TURTLE. This soup, as made
by the English, is much richer than what is usually
known in this country by the name. I give the best
English method. Though more expensive it is not
more troublesome than the more ordinary way, and
when accomplished is a dish to set "before a king,"
or that gastronomous potentate, the Lord Mayor him-
self.
Get a calf's head ; order the butcher to split it ; re-
move the tongue and brains whole ; lay these in vine-
gar and water till you need them, and take out the lin-
ing membrane of the nasal passages whole. Soak the
head in salt and water, carefully washing where the
brains have been ; when all slime and blood are re-
moved, put the head in a large soup-pot, and add to it
six quarts of clear stock (see recipe). Slowly simmer
Soups. 143
for two hours after it has reached the boiling-point.
Next take out the calf's head ; cut all the meat from
the bones ; cut the flesh or skin into neat pieces two
inches square. Lay them on a dish ; to keep the pieces
flat, lay another dish on the top of them. Pour any
liquor that may have run from it, back into the stock-
pot with all the bones ; simmer for an hour longer ;
then strain it, and if not bright, clear it.
Mock turtle is a highly-flavored soup, yet very little
too much herb would srjoil it ; to avoid all danger do
as follows :
Put into a small saucepan three teaspoonfuls of
chopped parsley, one of sweet basil, two of marjoram,
two of savory, and one of lemon-thyme, two bay-leaves
any one making mock turtle often, would do well to
keep a bottle of these herbs in these proportions, the
parsley, however, always to be fresh, if possible. Pour
half a pint of water on these ; cover tightly and sim-
mer for twenty minutes ; take from the fire, and when
cool, strain, pressing with a spoon to get as much of
the flavor as you can. Next put your cleared soup
back into the pot ; put in the meat, or as much of it as
you wish to serve, keeping the remains for an entree
(see recipe, Calf's Head with Hollandaise Sauce). The
pieces of meat from the first cooking will probably be
tender ; if not, simmer them till they are. Now, add
the juice of the herbs gradually till you have the flavor
you desire ; it may take the whole ; next add a pint of
pale sherry and the juice of a lemon, with salt and
cayenne to taste.
If the soup is not a good color, add a teaspoonf ul or
more of caramel.
Serve with egg-balls.
144 Practical Recipes.
For half this quantity everything must be divided,
but it keeps well in cool weather, being a very solid
jelly when cold.
THICK MOCK TUKTLE. To make Thick Mock Turtle,
proceed exactly as before ; only instead of using clear
stock, any stock made from bones and scraps will do ;
it will, of course, need no clearing ; thicken with brown
thickening (see recipe), about one tablespoonful or
more for each quart, and all .the flavoring, egg-balls,
etc., as in the last recipe.
MOCK TURTLE SOUP. A fine American recipe. Pre-
pare a calf's head as already directed, saving tongue and
brains, Lay in the bottom of the pot a carrot, a turnip,
a small head of celery, three small onions, two large
sprigs of parsley, two of thyme, one bay-leaf, one ounce
of salt, and four cloves, and unless the flavor is objected
to, half a pound of lean ham. On these lay the head ;
then add seven quarts of water. Let it simmer three
hours.
EGG BALLS FOR SOUPS. Boil three eggs hard ; pound
the yolks, adding a small teaspoonful of very finely
chopped parsley, half a saltspoonful of fine salt, a quar-
ter one of white pepper ; moisten with raw yolk, and
roll each ball in white of egg beaten only a little ; when
well coated, dip into flour and drop into boiling water
for two minutes.
MULLIGATAWNY SOUP. This rich soup is best made
with the excellent but despised rabbit. A fowl, how-
ever, can be substituted.
Take a small knuckle of veal, say three pounds, and
one rabbit or fowl; if rabbit, lay it in water after cleaning.
Cut up the veal ; put the meat in a pot with two
ounces of butter, a small slice of lean ham if approved,
Soufs. 145
three onions and six apples peeled and cut up, and half
a pint of cold water ; set the stewpan on a hot fire,
shaking it about occasionally till the bottom is covered
with a brownish glaze ; then add a carrot cut up, a tur-
nip, three tablespoonfuls of curry powder, one of salt,
and four tablespoonfuls of flour ; mix all well together,
and pour on a gallon of hot, not boiling, water ; lay in
the bones of the veal, and the chicken or rabbit cut up ;
let all simmer three hours. Take out the chicken or
rabbit ; trim some nice pieces to serve in the soup ; keep
the rest with a cup of the soup for an entree (see
recipe). Skim off all scum and fat as it rises ; then
strain the soup. Have some plain boiled rice to serve
separate. The pieces of rabbit or chicken are either put
in the soup or handed round with the rice.
Of course, the amount of curry powder may be re-
duced one-half if too hot.
FISH SOUPS.
FRENCH FISHERMAN'S SOUP. Put a quarter pound
of butter in a stewpan ; when melted, add six ounces of
flour ; stir well together over a slow fire a few minutes ;
when cool, add a quart of milk and two quarts of stock ;
stir over the fire till foiling ; cut the flesh from two
flounders (or other firm fish) ; throw in the bones and
trimmings to the soup, with four cloves, two bay-leaves,
one spoonful of essence of anchovies, one of Harvey or
Worcestershire sauce, half a saltspoonful of cayenne, a
teaspoonful of sugar, one of salt (three if stock was un-
salted); let the whole boil quickly for ten minutes,
skimming well ; cut the fish into neat pieces ; lay it in a
stewpan with a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley ;
strain the soup through a fine strainer on to the fish 5
1 46 Practical Recipes.
let it cook ten minutes ; add a gill of cream if you have
it, and serve.
In place of stock, oyster liquor may be used.
BISQUE OF OYSTERS. Put the liquor from one quart
of oysters into a quart measure, filling it up with water ;
strain this into a large saucepan ; lay aside half of the
oysters, chop up the rest quite small, and put them to
the liquor ; let them stew fifteen minutes ; have a quart
of milk near boiling. Melt two ounces of butter in a
saucepan ; put two ounces of flour to it ; stir till they
bubble ; then quickly pour the milk on to it, stirring all
the time. When smooth, lay in the whole oysters ; strain
the oyster liquor to this, pressing the chopped oysters
well, and season; let the whole just simmer three minutes
after the oysters are put in, if they cook longer, they will
become tough. Take it from the fire while you beat the
yolks of two eggs one minute ; then stir them into the
bisque; stir for half a minute, but do not return the
soup to the fire ; serve in a hot tureen. Cut lemons
should be handed round with bisques.
BISQUE OF CLAMS is made exactly in the same way as
that of oysters, except that the clams should all be
chopped fine and strained out, unless they are very
tender.
BISQUE OF LOBSTER. Take the meat from a fine
boiled lobster, taking care to discard the spongy part,
called "ladies' fingers"; also the sand-bag from the
head and the entrail that runs through the body ; care-
fully save the coral ; wash the shell and claws care-
fully ; bruise them, and put them to boil with one quart
of water ; put in also all but the coral and the firm
white meat of the tail ; cut this into small squares ;
bruise half the coral j stir it into the soup you are mak-
Soups. 147
ing, to color it a fine red. Take the rest, bruise it, mix
it with fine cracker-dust, and moisten with white of ess
' oo
till it forms a scarlet paste ; make this into little balls.
When the soup has cooked a quarter of an hour, put one
ounce of butter in a stewpan, one ounce of flour, stir
over the fire till they bubble ; pour to it a quart of
hot milk, stirring quickly ; then strain to this the lob-
ster liquor ; stir and boil together till smooth ; then
drop in the pieces of flesh and the red balls (or if you
wish to have lobster cutlets the same day or salad, the
flesh need not be used ; the soup is excellent without it) ;
let them simmer one minute and serve.
WHITE SOUPS.
STOCK FOR WHITE SOUP, Four pounds of knuckle
of veal, one carrot, one turnip, two onions all these of
a fair size, about five ounces in weight of each vegetable
one bay-leaf, one clove, one saltspoonful of white
pepper, one tablespoonful of salt, five quarts of water ;
let the veal with five quarts of water slowly simmer for
two hours ; then add the vegetables cut up ; skim as
the scum rises ; cook another two hours and strain for
use.
WHITE MUSHROOM SOUP. One quart of stock, one
quart of milk, one gill of thick cream, half a can of
mushrooms and the liquor, two ounces of butter, two
ounces of flour, one teaspoon of salt. Put both stock
and milk to boil separately ; stir in a saucepan over the
fire the butter and flour together till they bubble ; pour
on half the milk quickly stirring all the time ; add the
rest, and then the stock ; when thick as cream and
smooth, put in the liquor of the mushrooms, the salt,
the mushrooms, and last the cream. Just before serv-
1 48 Practical Recipes.
ing squeeze in a teaspoonful of lemon- juice, or serve
cut lemon with it.
If you have successfully made white sauce (see re-
cipe), there will be no danger of any of these soups
being lumpy ; but if such a thing does occur, strain it
before adding the mushrooms or other article.
WHITE ASPARAGUS SOUP. Cut the points from a
bundle of asparagus ; lay them aside ; cut up the rest
of the i-ods quite small ; if very hard you may bruise
them ; put them into a quart and half-pint of stock,
and boil slowly till tender enough to go through a col-
endar ; when all has been strained, put the points into
the soup and let them boil till just tender about ten
minutes. Meanwhile put two ounces of butter and
two ounces of flour into a saucepan on the fire ; stir
till they bubble ; pour a quart of hot milk to this, a
pint at a time, stirring all the time ; then add the soup
to it, the salt, and lastly one gill of cream. Serve.
CREAM SOUPS. Under this name inexpensive easy
soups are made without stock ; they are very good, but
of course lack the flavor of soups made with stock.
CREAM OF CAULIFLOWER. Boil the white part of a
small cauliflower twenty minutes in salted water. Put
one quart of milk to boil ; melt in a saucepan one ounce
of butter and one ounce flour till they bubble, stirring
thoroughly ; pour in half the milk quickly, stirring till
smooth ; add the other half and boil a minute ; then
rub the cauliflower through a colander, stir it into the
soup ; season with a teaspoonful of salt and a quarter
one of white pepper, and serve. The pulp of beets
makes this "Cream of Beets," or of spinach "Cream
of Spinach " ; and the asparagus soup may be made in
the same way if no stock is at hand, The stock ? how-
Soups. 149
ever, is such an improvement that I think most people,
where economy is not a necessity, would prefer to use it.
GREEK PEA SOUP. Shell half a peck of young peas ;
throw them into water. Put all the shells to boil in two
quarts of any kind ol stock, with four sprigs of parsley,
six young onions, twelve mint leaves, and a handful of
spinach (for color).
Let them boil one hour ; rub them through a coarse
wire sieve. The shells are troublesome, but a great
deal can be got through with patience ; pour back soup
and pulp into a saucepan, let it boil ; throw in the peas
and boil till tender ; season, and stir in a dessert-spoon-
ful of white thickening, if not thick enough already.
A beautiful color can be given by bruising a handful of
spinach and squeezing it through a piece of cheese-cloth
into the soup.
ICED CLARET SOUP FOR HOT WEATHER. This is
a Danish soup, but very welcome in summer in this
climate.
Boil two ounces of sago in a pint of water until it is
like thick mucilage ; add to it a bottle of claret (with a
little grated nutmeg, and two teaspoonfuls of sugar or
not, as may be preferred) ; stir it well, strain it, ana
set it where it will be ice cold. Then serve as other
soup.
Corn-starch may be used in place of sago, using two
teaspoonfuls to thicken half a pint of water ; let it boil
ten minutes before adding the wine \ then pour in the
wine, stir, and strain, and season or leave unseasoned
as may be preferred.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FISH.
SALMON WITH GREEN DUTCH SAUCE. Take a piece
of salmon two inches in thickness, if for a small family;
put it on a plate, tie it in a napkin and put both in a
saucepan of boiling water in which is plenty of salt
four tcaspoonf uls to each quart, and a tablespoonful of
vinegar boil twenty minutes ; serve on a^uapkin.; gar-
nish with parsley and lemon, or slices of cucumber, with
green Dutch sauce (see recipe) in a sauce-boat.
BROILED SALMON, CAPER SAUCE. The steaks should
be an inch thick ; dip each piece in flour, put it on a
hot greased gridiron, turn it often for fifteen minutes,
when it should be of a fine pale brown. Serve caper
sauce (see recipe) in a boat.
CRIMPED COD MASKED WITH OYSTER SAUCE.
Take two or three pounds of codfish crimped, if
possible lay on a plate set on a napkin ; tie up the four
corners, and put it into as much boiling water as will
cover it, with one level tablespoonful of salt and the
same of vinegar to the quart of water.
Scald two dozen oysters in their own liquor ; let them
get firm, but they must not boil ; put a strainer on a
bowl ; pour them into it. Take the frill or beard from
the oysters ; put them back in the liquor. Put in a
saucepan one good tablespoonful of butter, the same of
flour j stir over the fire till they bubble ; do not let
150
Fish. 1 5 I
them burn ; pour the oysters and half a pint of the
liquor to the butter and flour ; stir till smooth and just
boiling, then add one gill of cream ; let it come again
to the boiling point ; season with white pepper, and
very little salt, if the oyster liquor is not salt enough ;
pour this over the fish.
Thi sauce should be quite thick, so that it will not
run of! the fish but mask it. If the tablespoonful of
flour was a quite full one it will be so, but if you have
any doubts, don't put quite all the half-pint of oyster
liquor until the cream is in ; you can always make thin-
ner, but without spoiling the oysters you cannot boil it
down to get thick, as you would do for ordinary white
sauce that is too thin.
Garnish with parsley and lemon.
HALIBUT WITH CAPEE SAUCE.
Take a fine thick piece of halibut, unless you have
a fish-boiler and strainer, put it on a plate, tie it in a
napkin, place it in boiling water with a level tablespoon-
ful of vinegar and one of salt to each quart. It will
take twenty minutes after it has boiled. All'fisli should
boil slowly to prevent breaking. When done take it
up, pour over it a pint of thick caper sauce (see recipe);
put round it a border of smal, new potatoes and tiny
sprigs of parsley between them.
FILET DE SOLE EN BECHAMEL.
Bone two flounders (see Filet de Sole, page 57); put
the bones and trimmings into a pint of water, with a
half slice of onion and sprig of parsley ; let them stew
down to half pint, strain, and put aside. Roll up the
eight filets after skinning them (see directions) ; tie
them round, not too tightly, and trim them so that
I 5 2 Practical Recipes.
they will stand ; put them in boiling milk, or water,
with a teaspoonful of salt ; boil slowly ; when no longer
transparent they are done ; they take from seven to ten
minutes according to size.
While they are cooking put a tablespoonful of butter
in a saucepan with a tablespoonful of flour, stir till
they bubble ; pour the half pint of fish stock on it, stir-
ring all the while. If you have cream, put half a gill
less of stock and use cream in its place. This is now
bechamel. Stand each little filet or turban (as a filet
rolled is called) on a pretty dish ; pour the sauce over
them so that they are well coated ; then ornament as
follows :
Chop half a saltspoonful of parsley fine, and sprinkle
over fish and sauce as evenly as possible ; if the sauce
is nice and thick, the parsley will rest on it. Have
ready thin slices of green pickled gherkins, some bits
of red pepper or capsicum skin, and if you can, the
outer skin of pickled walnuts ; each of these must be
the size and thickness of a silver half dime. Place a
piece on the top of each turban, alternately red, green,
and black. If you have no walnut, use only the green
and red. In garnishing this, or any other dish, always
have everything ready before cooking, so that it may
be quickly ornamented without getting cold.
FILET DE SOLE FKIED.
See minute directions for the preparation of this dish
in the first part of this book, page 57.
BAKED BLUEFISH.
This fish should be used very fresh. Choose one of
fair size ; wash it clean, taking care no -slime or dark
Fish. 153
matter adheres to the inside. To remove it use your
forefinger and some salt ; wipe it dry, and stuff it with
veal stuffing (see recipe), and sew it up ; lay it in a
dripping-pan with two ounces of butter in small pieces
over it ; sprinkle with a teaspoonful of salt ; dredge it
with flour, and bake in a good oven from half an hour
to forty minutes, according to size. While it is cook-
ing chop a tablespoonful of pickled cucumber, or half
the quantity of capers, and a teaspoonful of parsley.
Take up the fish, put it to keep hot, set the dripping-
pan on the stove; shake in it a dessert-spoonful of flour,
and let it brown (or use brown flour, see recipe, which
saves time) ; with the back of the spoon rub the flour
into the butter and gravy that is in the pan ; when
brown and smooth, but not at all burnt, pour in quickly
a cup of boiling water, and if you have it, a glass of
claret wine, and pepper to taste ; stir till all is smooth.
Strain this sauce, put in a dessert-spoonful of Worces-
tershire sauce, one of anchovy sauce, and the chopped
pickles and parsley. Serve the sauce in a separate
vessel. Garnish the fish with lemon points and parsley,
and serve.
STEWED CARP.
Cleanse carefully ; lay the fish in a stew-pan with
just enough broth of any kind to cover it and a tea-
spoonful of sweet herbs ; stew very gently ; when done
take up the fish and strain the liquor ; season with
pepper and salt, a glass of claret, and a dessert-spoonful
of Harvey sauce ; thicken with a dessert-spoonful of
brown thickening (see recipe), or one of flour and a tea-
spoonful of chopped parsley skim off any fat pour this
over the fish and serve with small sippets of fried bread.
A few small mushrooms are a great improvement.
154 Practical Recipes.
STEWED CARP (FRENCH MODE).
Prepare as in last recipe. Lay the fish in a stewpan
with a teaspoonful of salt ; pour over it half a bottle of
claret, with a slice of onion and a small piece of carrot
cut fine, and a bouquet of herbs ; stew gently till the
fish is cooked ; take up the fish, strain the wine, and
thicken with a teaspoonful of corn-starch mixed in
water ; put in a little pepper, boil one minute, and pour
over the fish.
FRIED SMELTS.
Choose them of an even size ; wash them, wipe
them dry, dip them in milk, then in flour. Beat
up an egg with a tablespoonful of cold water ; dip
each fish, after shaking off superfluous flour, in the egg
and then in sifted bread-crumbs, or cracker-dust ; lay
each one as you do it on a bed of cracker-dust. Have
the lard in a deep kettle, just as if for doughnuts ; when
it is very hot and smokes, drop in a piece of bread ; if it
becomes pale brown in a few seconds, it is hot enough,
if not, wait ; drop in a piece more ; if now hot enough,
put in the fish, using a frying-basket if you have one ;
do not fry too many at a time. They should, if your
fat was hot enough, be a beautiful yellow brown in one
minute, if they are not, let it get hotter before you put
the next lot in. Every one should be exactly the same
pale color, and there will be no difficulty in this if the
frying is done according to rule.
Serve with Tartar sauce or caper sauce (see recipe).
FISH, AU GRATIK.
This is a French mode of cooking fish very nice,
and to those who use mushrooms frequently, not ex-
Fish. 155
pensive, as they may probably have to open a can for
another purpose.
Chop up one or two good-sized mushrooms, or half a
can of them ; a small piece of onion the size of a hick-
ory nut ; a teaspoonful of chopped parsley ; a piece of
lemon peel the size of a dime ; a saltspoonful of salt,
half one of pepper ; put two ounces of butter in a
saucepan, put in it the chopped onion, let it fry till
tender ; stir in one tablespoonful of flour, and, when
smooth, half a pint of stock made from the bones, or
any other you have, with a glass of white wine ; when
thick and smooth add the chopped mushrooms and
parsley. Skin the fish, remove the bone, and cut it up
in neat pieces. If you have no regular gratin dishes
use any you can send to table. Butter it thickly, lay
in the fish, pour the sauce over it, then cover thickly
with dried bread-crumbs, shake over it some grated
cheese, and bake. Have half a cup of butter melted,
and when the gratin begins to brown, baste it all over
with the butter, taking care there are no dry spots.
This can, of course, be made without mushrooms, and
lemon juice used instead of wine.
This one recipe will serve for any fish au gratin, and
if the fish is boned early, the bones and trimmings will
make the stock for the sauce.
BAKED BLACK FISH AST EPICURE'S DISH.
Take a black fish of five pounds, cleanse and dry it
thoroughly, flour it slightly, score the sides ; put some
sweet lard or beef dripping in a pan, and brown the
fish on the top of the stove ; pour off the lard and mix
together the following ingredients : one teaspoonful of
ground cloves, two-third teaspoonful of mace, one table-
1 5 6 Practical Recipes.
spoonful of salt, half saltspoonful of red pepper, two of
black pepper, a large double handful of chopped onion,
a large single handful of chopped parsley. Fill the
scores in the sides of the fish with this seasoning, put
the rest over the top ; put sixteen balls of butter the
size of a large walnut, each rolled in flour, upon the
fish ; pour into the pan a quarter pint of water for
gravy.
(If more convenient, the fish may be prepared thus
far early in the day and put aside until an hour before
it is wanted.)
Put it in a good, moderate oven ; it will take one
hour to cook ; fifteen minutes before it is done put in
a dozen fine oysters and one pint of red wine. The
oysters may be omitted if desirable.
Take up the fish very carefully, to avoid breaking ;
stir the gravy well round the pan to take off any of the
clinging glaze ; strain it and pour it round, not over,
the fish ; garnish with lemon points and little bunches
of parsley.
CHAPTER XXV.
ENTRIES.
ANY small, dainty dish is proper for an entree,
from minced veal or beef, which is only glorified hash
(see chapter on warming over), to salmon or game cut-
lets.
As a rule, I think an entree should differ as far as
possible from every other part of the dinner. For ex-
ample, the day on which I had mock-turtle soup I
would not have the entree of calf s head ; nor with
oyster soup would I have oyster patties. Yet there
are cases where circumstances, rather than taste, must
be the guide.
The entrees are generally the weak point of a dinner,
and are consequently the test of a good cook.
CALF'S HEAD, HOLLANDAISE SAUCE.
If you have made mock-turtle soup, you may have
some of the meat remaining ; simmer the pieces in
enough of the soup, or some stock, to make them hot
through ; lay them in a dish (see recipe) and cover with
half a pint of Hollandaise sauce ; garnish with cut to-
matoes or tomato sauce may be used.
CALF'S HEAD, EK TOKTUE.
Take any pieces that may be reserved from making
soup, and a cup of the soup ; melt one ounce of butter
J57
1 5 & Practical Recipes.
in a saucepan, stir in a tablespoonful of flour, pour in
the cup of soup, stirring till smooth ; strain into this
the juice of a large ripe tomato, and the liquor from
half a can of mushrooms and a dozen of the mush-
rooms ; lay the pieces of meat in this sauce ; let them
stew for twenty minutes, taking great care they do not
burn. Take them up and pour the sauce over them ;
have ready a saucepan or fry ing-kettle of very hot fat
(see recipe) ; break into cups as many eggs as you have
guests ; drop them one by one into the smoking fat,
just as if it were water and you were going to poach
them; one minute ought to brown them, and fried in this
way they will be quite round do only one at a time, or
while you take one out the other would harden lay
these round the dish ; garnish with stoned olives or tiny
gherkins.
Cut little fillets of salt pork ; sprinkle them with a
mixture of parsley, very finely-chopped chives (or on-
ion), salt, and pepper ; trim the tongue ; parboil it to
take off the skin ; then lard it with these fillets (see
Larding) ; put in a small stone crock with a lid, two
slices of fat pork, two sprigs of parsley, two of thyme,
one bay leaf, one clove, half an onion, one carrot cut
in slices, a saltspoonful of salt, and half one of pepper ;
lay the tongue on the vegetables, etc. ; pour in half a
glass of wine and a glass of broth or soup ; cover it ; set
it in a moderate oven for three hours and a half, keep-
ing it well covered.
Take up the tongue, lay it in a dish, strain the gravy
to it, and either surround it with green peas, string
beans, or tomato sauce.
Entrees. 1 59
CALF'S BRAIDS, AU BEURRE NOIP
Soak the brains in one tablespoonful of vinegar and
one quart of water ; carefully remove all the fibrous
skin that surrounds them without breaking them ; put
them in boiling water well salted, and with them a
small bunch of parsley, a saltspoonful of powdered mar-
joram, and one of thyme ; let them boil gently twenty
minutes ; while they are doing so, fry some rounds of
bread the size of the top of a teacup and half an inch
thick, in very hot fat. Take up the brains, drain them,
divide them, and put a neat piece on each round of
fried bread ; stick a piece of red beetroot in the top of
each piece of brain and pour over them the leurre noir
(see recipe).
SWEETBREADS, FRIED.
When they come from the butcher they should be
put immediately into salt and water to take out any
dark blood ; leave them an hour, then parboil them for
ten minutes, drain them, and drop them into cold
water ; remove all loose thick skin and gristle, but do
not break them ; dry them, flour them, and then roll
them in egg and bread-crumbs or cracker-dust ; fry them
a rich light brown. If large, they should be split before
crumbing ; serve round a mound of green peas, and
bechamel or tomato sauce in a boat.
SWEETBREADS STEWED WITH MUSHROOMS.
Prepare a pair of sweetbreads by parboiling and skin-
ning (see last recipe), then lard them all over the top ;
lay some slices of fat pork in a stewpan, also a teaspoon-
ful of chopped onion, two of carrot, a stick of celery,
and two sprigs of parsley ; the vegetables must be finely
1 60 Practical Recipes.
minced ; lay the sweetbreads on these ; add a cnp of
stock, but not enough to cover the sweetbreads ; let
them slowly stew one hour ; then take up the sweet-
breads and set them with the larded side up in the oven
till they are pale 'brown ; strain the gravy, rubbing as
much through the sieve as you can ; put it back in a
saucepan, thicken with a teaspoonful of roux ; put in a
dozen and a half of canned mushrooms ; let it boil a
minute ; put the sweetbreads on a dish, pour the mush-
rooms in the centre and jthe gravy round. If the stock
should have dried away, boiling water or more stock can
be added.
SWEETBREADS, THE SIMPLEST WAY.
Parboil and skin them ; cut them tip in small pieces ;
put a tablespoonf ul of butter in a saucepan ; when hot,
drop the sweetbreads in with a saltspoonful of salt ; let
them cook slowly twenty minutes, occasionally shaking
them ; take them out ; stir a teaspoonful of flour into
the butter, and add half a cup of broth or water, stir-
ring carefully ; boil till thick and smooth ; return the
sweetbread ; let it stew a minute, and serve either on
squares of toast or with three-cornered pieces of toast
sticking round it.
TEAL CUTLETS.
Take the cutlets from the middle of the leg ; let them
be cut an inch thick ; divide into small shapely pieces ;
pound each piece with a rolling-pin till they are half an
inch thick ; squeeze a few drops of lemon juice over each
and pile them up one on the other for a couple of hours
or until you want to use them. The lemon juice makes
them very tender. Season them with salt, and egg and
Entrees. 1 6 1
bread-crumb them (see directions) carefully. Although
it is customary to speak of fried veal cutlets, they are
usually fried in just enough fat, for which process there
seems no proper English term but " dry frying " Veal
cutlets are one of the few things better cooked in this
way than immersed in boiling fat. The reason is, be-
cause they require to cook more slowly than most other
things.
Put in a pan two large tablespoonfuls of "beef drip-
ping, if you. have it, or lard, and any fat belonging to
the cutlets ; let it get thoroughly hot ; lay in the cut-
lets and let them get pale brown one side before you
turn them ; do this with a cake turner, carefully they
will take from twelve to fifteen minutes, for they re-
quire to be thoroughly done. Take them up and pour
the fat out of the pan, put in it a dessert-spoonful of
brown thickening, and when it has melted pour in a
cup of cream and hot water, or broth ; stir well, rubbing
all the gravy from the pan ; put in a saltspoonful of salt,
quarter of pepper. Dress the cutlets on a dish and pour
the gravy round, not over them.
For those who like ham^ they may be served with a
small slice of ham to each cutlet, and the ham being
fried first, the cutlets are fried in the fat from it, in-
stead of lard.
MUTTOK OR LAMB CHOPS BREADED.
These must be nicely trimmed, only about the third
of an inch of fat left on the outside ; and, if they are
loin chops, the soft flap end turned round, horseshoe
fashion ; if rib chops, cut an inch and a half of the
meat from the bone and scrape it.
Egg and crumb them (see directions), and drop them
1 6 2 Practical Recipes.
into very hot fat. Mutton chops will take one minute
to cook, lamb chops two minutes. If the fat has been
properly hot, the former will be a rich brown outside
and pink within, in that time. The lamb chops require
to be well done.
The chops may be laid round a mound of green peas,
string beans, or mashed potatoes.
CHICKEN CEOQUETTES.
Take the flesh of half a chicken, or rather more than
half a box of boned chicken (I find for croquettes the
boned chicken quite as good, and a great saving of
work) ; chop the chicken, and with it half a can of
mushrooms, or half a dozen large oysters.
Put a good tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan with
a tablespoonful of flour ; stir over the fire till they bub-
ble ; put into a half-pint measure a gill of strong stock,
half a gill of cream, and liquor of oysters or mushrooms
to make two gills ; pour this on to the butter and flour,
stir till a thick sauce is formed ; then put in the chop-
ped chicken and mushroom, with half a saltspoonful of
pepper, one of salt, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice ;
stir well, taking care that it does not burn. Take it
off the fire it should be a sort of thick mush, and very
creamy ; butter two plates ; turn it out and spread the
mixture on them ; put it on the ice so that it may get
cold and firm.
When quite firm cut the mixture into strips, form it
between the hands into rolls like corks, or small pears ; if
the latter, have ready some short willow or other twigs
to insert after they are crumbed. Be very careful not to
have the croquettes too large or they will burst in frying.
The quantity given will make from twelve to fifteen.
Entrees. 163
Have at least a pound of cracker-powder on a board ;
roll each one in it ; have an egg beaten with a dessert-
spoonful of water ; dip each croquette in the egg and
again in the cracker-dust, laying them as you do them
on a dish well strewed with cracker-powder. In crumb-
ing use one hand to pass the croquettes through the
egg, the other to crumb them.
Have the fat exceedingly hot, so that the bread you
try with colors in thirty seconds ; arrange the croquettes
in a frying-basket not more than six at a time, and im-
merse them ; the fat must be deep enough to cover the
croquettes, and they should brown in two minutes;
they are then done. Lift the frying-basket out, stand
it on brown paper, and lift each croquette out carefully
on to a hot dish ; lay in half a dozen more and fry
them. Croquettes look better garnished with fried
parsley than anything .else.
CHICKEN KISSOLES.
Make the same mixture as for croquettes ; indeed, in
cold weather and when only a small dish of croquettes
is required, a part of the mixture can be kept for two
or three days, by covering it with buttered paper, and
then used for rissoles or fritters. If you have no pastry
ready, rub three ounces of butter into four ounces of
flour ; wet with cold water to make a stiff, smooth
paste. Flour a pastry-board and rolling-pin, and roll
tne paste out as thin as possible ; cut it in pieces four
inches long and three wide. Roll the chicken mixture
into small sausage-like forms, the thickness of your
finger ; lay them on the paste, wet the edges and roll it
over the chicken, pressing the paste together smoothly
that they may not burst. Egg and crumb these just
1 64 Practical Recipes.
the same as croquettes and fry in the same way, only
rissoles require four minutes to cook instead of two.
Serve them log-house fashion with fried parsley in the
middle.
CHICKEN FRITTERS.
This is again the same mixture as for croquettes and
rissoles, but the fritter is a delicious variety. Make
some thick f rying-batter (see recipe) ; make the chicken
mixture into balls the size of a walnut ; flatten them a
little. Have the fat very hot, the batter ready, and then
drop each ball into the batter, which must be made
thick enough to coat them so that the meat is not seen
through it ; instead of arranging these in the frying-
basket as you would croquettes, have the basket in the
fat and drop each fritter from the end of a spoon into
it. The fat must be hot enough to make the batter
puff up at once ; when a rich brown they are done.
Lift out the basket, drain, and serve with fried parsley.
KROMESQUIES OF CHICKEN
Are the same as rissoles, only instead of the minced
chicken being enveloped in paste, very thin slices of fat
pork are used, fastened with wooden toothpicks, and
they are then crumbed and fried. They are more diffi-
cult than croquettes or rissoles, but very delicious.
They may be served in a rich brown sauce (see recipe).
VARIATIONS ON THE FOUR FOREGOING RECIPES.
Turkey, veal, or beef may be used for any of these
four dishes, instead of the chicken. A little onion or
ham, or any flavoring preferred, may be substituted for
the mushrooms or oysters, although nothing is so good
as these,
Entrees. 165
CHICKEN" FRICASSEE.
Prepare a chicken as directed (see preparation of
poultry). Cut each leg and wing in two at the joint ;
cut the back in two ; the stomach makes one piece.
With the gizzard and neck there should be thirteen
pieces.
Throw,the pieces into boiling water for one or two
minutes, take out and drain them. Put in a stewpan a
tablespoonful of butter, one of flour ; when they bubble
add half a pint of water or broth, two sprigs of parsley,
a pinch of grated nutmeg, four small onions, a small
teaspoonftil of salt, a saltspoonful of white pepper, then
the chicken. Cover closely, and when it reaches the
boiling point draw aside where it will simmer slowly
and not burn. Shake it round every few minutes. If
slowly cooked and closely covered, thesauQe will not dry
away much ; if it should do so, add a little more broth
or boiling water. When it has cooked one hour, if
young, it will be done ; if an old fowl it will take two.
Take up the meat and keep it hot, strain the sauce, un-
less the onion is liked in it. Put it back in the stewpan
with a dozen small mushrooms and a little of their
liquor, let it boil one minute, then beat the yolks of two
eggs with a tablespoonful of milk. Take the saucepan
to a cool place, wait one minute, then stir in the beaten
yolks. Put the saucepan back on the stove, stir till it
is a thick, smooth, yellow cream, but it must not boil or
the eggs will curdle and the appearance be spoilt.
Arrange the chicken on the dish in the following
way : The neck, gizzard, forepart of the back, and
drumsticks in the middle, one upper part of leg on each
side the dish, one wing beside each, then the breast and
hind part of the back, the ends of the wings top and
1 66 Practical Recipes.
bottom. Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice into the
sauce, lay the mushrooms over the meat and pour the
sauce over all. Serve.
This is decidedly the best way to make the dish, but
more difficult than the following, because it requires
watching or it will burn.
SIMPLER MODE FOR FRICASSEE.
Prepare the chicken as before, put it in a stewpan
with half a pint of water, one large or four small
onions, two sprigs of parsley, a pinch of nutmeg, a
scant teaspoon'ful of salt, a saltspoonf ul of pepper ; lay
in the chicken ; cook as before. When done, take it
out, put a tablespoonful of butter and a small one of
flour into a small saucepan ; cook till they bubble,
strain the gravy from the chicken, to this, stir till
smooth, add the yolks of two eggs, beaten with a table-
spoonful of milk ; when it has cooled one minute stir
in a hot spot but do not boil ; pour this sauce over the
chicken, arranged as in last recipe. The mushrooms
may be added or not, as convenient.
Little squares or crescents of rough puff paste, baked
and laid round either of these fricassees are a very nice
addition and serve to garnish.
FRICASSEE OF VEAL
Is made in the same way, but is improved by forcemeat
balls, poached (see recipe), and laid round.
SALMI OF DUCK OR GAME.
Strictly speaking, a salmi differs from warmed-over
duck or game, because the birds are only supposed to
be half cooked on purpose for it,
Entrees. 167
But, as a matter of fact, an excellent salmi can be
prepared from birds that have already done duty for
dinner, provided they were not overcooked and the
sauce made very rich.
Cut up the cold bird into neat joints, take away all
skin and gristle, take all bones that are bare of meat,
bruise them well ; lay the meat in a saucepan and put it
aside; lay the bones, skin and trimmings with any gravy
in another saucepan, into which put a small carrot, an
onion, a teaspoonful of salt, quarter one of pepper, two
sprigs of parsley, a clove, a blade of mace, a bay leaf, a
saltspoonful of thyme, an ounce of butter. The carrot
and onion, must be cut very fine. Let all these fry in the
butter till they are all colored light brown, then put in
half a pint of broth or water and a gill of wine, red or
white, with one lump of sugar. Let all stew, well
covered, till reduced to one-half ; then make half a pint
of brown sauce (see recipe), if you have none ready;
put it to the bones and vegetables, let them stew an-
other half hour. Then strain, taste if seasoned enough,
and pour into the saucepan with the meat. Leave them
a quarter of an hour to come back to boiling point, but
not to boil. Dish the bird, let the sauce boil fast to re-
duce it, skimming it well. When there is only enough
to serve with the meat pour it over it ; serve with fried
sippets round the dish, on each of which maybe a stoned
olive, or half a spoonful of red currant jelly if approved.
SALMI SAUCE.
The sauce made as above is called by professional
cooks "Salmi Sauce"; it is not troublesome to make,
and is equally good for warming over slices of cold beef
or mutton.
J 68 Practical Recipes.
SALMON CKOQUETTES.
Take the remains of dressed salmon, free from the skin
and bone, which should be bruised and boiled for stock in
a pint of water until reduced to half a pint; tear the flesh
into shreds ; make a bechamel sauce of the fish stock,
using a full tablespoonful of butter, the same of flour
(see recipe) ; when thick and smooth add a gill of thick
cream, a glass of sherry or white wine, and the beaten
yolks of two eggs these must be stirred in last and al-
lowed to come to the boiling point but not to boil ; then
put in half a pound of salmon flakes. It should be as
thick as oatmeal porridge ; when turned on to a but-
tered plate it should spread, but not run; spread it an
inch thick on a plate and set on ice to get quite cold.
When wanted for use divide into pieces, shape into the
form of corks, egg and crumb them (see Crumbing) and
fry two minutes in very hot fat.
Dipped into frying batter these are excellent. Gar-
nish with fried parsley, and serve with cucumber salad.
LOBSTER CUTLETS AND CROQUETTES.
Take the meat from a good-sized lobster ; put a table-
spoonful of butter and one of flour in a saucepan on
the fire ; stir till they bubble ; pour into it a gill of
water, a gill of cream, and a glass of white wine $ stir
till thick and smooth ; beat the yolks of two eggs ;
stir them in with the meat of the lobster, and enough
of the coral bruised to make the whole a fine red ; stir
it over the fire till it is at boiling point ; turn the mix-
ture out on a buttered plate and set it to harden. Flour
your hands and form the mixture when cold into cut-
lets, as near as you can, the shape and size of a small
Jamb cutlet, Crumb them as directed for croquettes ;
Entries. 169
stick one of the small lobster claws in the end of each
cutlet to represent the bone. Arrange in the frying-
basket very carefully and fry in very hot fat.
Lobster croquettes are made from the same mixture,
but formed into cork or cone shapes.
ROUGH PUFF PASTE.
(South Kensington School of Cookery. )
This pastry will serve for most purposes for which
puff paste is used ; it is better than most home-made
pnff paste, and takes no longer to make than common
short paste, while puff paste is the most laborious work
of the kitchen.
Have the butter as hard as possible, the chopping-
bowl and knife cold. Take eight ounces of flour and
six of butter ; put them in a chopping-bowl and chop
together, not too fine ; make a hole in the centre of the
flour and butter, in which put the yolk of one egg, a
quarter saltspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of lemon
juice and a tablespoonful of ice-water ; break the egg in
this water with a knife ; then slowly and lightly mix it
all with the fingers, using more water if necessary to form
& stiff "paste. Handle it lightly; keep the hands and
board well floured that the paste may not stick.
Take the rolling-pin, flour it, and roll out the paste
into an oblong sheet half an inch thick ; fold it one-
third over, then the other third over that (you have
now a neat piece of three thicknesses) ; turn the rough
edges toward you, roll it out again, and fold in the same
way ; do so once more, always turning the rough edges
toward you, and it is ready to use at once ; but if the
day is hot and you have time to lay it on the ice for a
short time it will be better ; also, if during the process
I/O Practical Recipes.
of rolling it shows signs of sticking, laying it on the ice in
a tin for a few minutes, will make your work the easier.
The only art in this pastry is to follow directions
exactly, and to handle lightly. Many will say, " I have
not a light hand." I answer : Every woman has a light
hand if she is handling white satin or velvet. Handle
pastry as delicately as if it were satin or velvet and the
pile would crush.
Before using this paste, read chapter on Pastry (part
first); all that relates to using puff paste applies to this.
This paste made one day, or only mixed, and once
rolled and folded, and finished and used the next, is
always better, and in ice may be kept two or three days
and be the better for it.
I find it a good plan in summer when T want to make
paste, to put chopping-bowl and knife and rolling-pin
in or on the ice-box, and have the pastry board as cool
as you can. With soft butter and warm tools you can
never have flaky or light paste.
Patties are among the most acceptable entrees, and
with the South Kensington rough puff paste very easy
to make, although the cases can be bought ready at a
pastry cook's and filled at home.
PATTY CASES.
Take some rough puff paste ; roll it a third of an inch
thick, not less ; have a medium-sized biscuit cutter and
one quite small, about the size of a silver dollar ; cut
out three times as many rounds with the large cutter as
you want patties eighteen if you want six ; pile them
three together, wetting the two under ones slightly
to make them adhere. You have now six patties rather
over an inch thick; take the small cutter, dip it in
Entrees. I 7 1
flour, shake off any that may cling, and press it on each
patty, cutting only half way through. Take the patties
up on a cake turner, and slip them on to a baking tin ;
brush each one over with yolk of egg beaten with a table-
spoonful of water ; set them in a hot oven to bake. If
you have had your paste cold, and handled it lightly and
quickly, these will rise to three inches in height. They
require fifteen minutes to bake. When they are pale
brown all over, take theni out ; let them stand one
minute ; then take off the small piece in the centre
it will have risen perhaps out of its place if not, with
a sharp-pointed knife lift it out ; then take a small
spoon and dig out the soft paste inside, leaving only a
crust about half an inch thick, but be very careful there
are no holes in the walls or sides ; replace the tops and
they are ready to fill with either of the following three
mixtures, or any other you may choose :
LOBSTER PATTIES.
Pick out the firm white flesh of a hen lobster ; cut it
into small dice. Put a large teaspoonful of flour and
two of butter into a saucepan on the stove ; let them bub-
ble ; pour to it a gill of cream or milk ; stir till smooth ;
then add a teaspoonful of the pounded coral to make a
bright pink sauce, and a teaspoonful of anchovy auce,
if you have it ; take it from the fire when it has boiled
two or three minutes ; beat the yolk of an egg with a
teaspoonful of cold milk, and stir it in gradually ; keep
on stirring, and add the lobster meat at the same time ;
set it on the fire again and let it come to the boiling
point, but not boil or the egg will curdle. It should
now look like chopped lobster in very thick red cream
or custard.
I 72 Practical Recipes.
If you need to keep it hot, do so in a saucepan of hot
water ; fill the patty cases neatly, put the top on and
put them in the oven ; but serve them before they get
so hot that the inside cooks, or the egg will curdle and
the pastry be spoiled.
N. B. Always put the filling in patties hot, or it will
not warm through till the patties are spoiled. *
OYSTER PATTIES.
Take a dozen and a half Blue Points ; scald them in
their own liquor, being careful they do not remain in
it a moment after it boils; take them out ; cut each
oyster into four pieces, if they are large; put a dessert-
spoonful of butter in a small saucepan with a dessert-
spoonful of flour; pour to this one gill of the liquor
strained and one gill of cream or milk; a saltspoonful
of salt and half one of white pepper; boil all, stirring
till smooth; beat the yolks of two eggs, add this with
the cut-up oysters to the sauce; let all get hot together,
stirring all the time; it must be very thick, which it
will be just before the boiling point; take it from the
fire quickly, stirring all the time to prevent the eggs
curdling; add a few drops of lemon juice and just a
suspicion of nutmeg.
These and lobster patties should be served on a silver
dish with fried parsley and a small crayfish in each cor-
ner of the dish, if obtainable.
CLAM PATTIES.
These are so very good that I think if they were better
known they would meet with favor.
Take small clams; scald them in their own liquor; take
out the hard part, and proceed exactly as for oysters.
Entries. 1 73
SALMON PATTIES.
Prepare as lobster patties, using salmon instead of the
lobster.
CHICKEN" PATTIES.
Take the white meat of a chicken ; cut it (not chop
it) into small dice ; take the chicken bones and trim-
mings, if you have no stock ready ; pound them well ;
put them into a pint of water with an ounce of carrot
cut fine, a sprig of parsley, a stick of celery, if you
have it, and a small onion, and a saltspoonful of salt ;
stew these slowly two hours; strain the stock or broth ;
put the liquor from half a can of mushrooms or a gill
of oyster liquor with it, and boil it as fast as possible till
there is about a gill left; put a gill of cream and the
chicken into this; thicken with a tablespoonful of flour,
and one of butter cooked in a separate saucepan ; pour
the chicken and liquor on to it, and stir till it all boils
gently ; take it oil at once ; two or three chopped
oysters or a dozen mushrooms improve it greatly ; fill
the cases with the hot filling, and serve on a napkin or
silver dish.
DRESDEN PATTIES.
These cases are no trouble at all to an expert in fry-
ing, and are elegant and economical.
Take stale baker's bread cut in thick slices ; with a
biscuit cutter of medium size cut rounds two inches
thick. Make a custard of two eggs and a pint of milk;
season it with salt, of course no sugar; pourit into a dish
and set the rounds of bread in it, taking care they are
well covered; turn them gently from time to time so that
they may get well soaked, but they must not break ; if
1 74 Practical Recipes.
there is any sign of them getting too soft to hold together
take them out; usually an hour suffices to soak them; let
them drain ten minutes ; then you may either flour the
outside or roll them in egg and cracker- dust. Have the
frying-kettle with plenty of fat in it, which must be hot
enough to color bread in half a minute ; set the soaked
pieces of bread in the frying-basket, using a cake -turner
to take them up. They must be very gently handled.
Set the frying-basket in the hot fat and fry till they
are a fine light brown. Take them up and with a sharp-
pointed knife cut a circle in the top, leaving a border
of half an inch all round ; with a spoon dig out a good
deal of the soft custard-like centre ; fill this either
with the same preparation as for chicken or oyster
patties, with sweetbreads, or with preserves, jelly, or
marmalade. If they are filled with meat of any kind
garnish with parsley.
A FEW OLD-FASHIONED PLAIN DISHES.
IRISH STEW.
Cut half a dozen lean chops from the neck of mutton;
flour them and lay them in a saucepan or stewpan with
two onions cut in slices, and a teaspoonful of butter ;
put them over a quick fire and let all brown lightly,
stirring occasionally to prevent burning ; when the
onions are a light brown pour in a pint of cold water.
Skim ofi the fat that will rise to the top ; put in a good
teaspoonful of salt, a level saltspoonful of white pepper,
and set the saucepan where it will simmer very gently;
when it has been simmering an hour and a half, skim
it carefully ; put in a teaspoonful of Worcestershire
sauce, and taste if the gravy is well seasoned. Then
Entries. I^S
put in half a dozen large (or more if small) potatoes cut
in half ; cover closely and simmer another hour. The
potatoes do not require to be covered with- the gravy,
they simply steam over the meat ; sufficient good rich
gravy for the meat is all that is necessary ; to cover the
potatoes with liquid, as is often done, is to make a
quantity of broth, but no gravy.
Arrange the chops in the centre of a dish, the potatoes
round, and pour the gravy over all.
HARICOT OF MUTTON (SIMPLE).
Take some nice rib chops ; trim off all but very little
fat ; flour them, lay them in a stewpan and brown them
well and quickly, taking care that they do not burn ;
cut up a carrot and a turnip into neat pieces, and a large
onion ; put them in with the chops, a teaspoonful of
salt, quarter one of pepper, and water enough to cover
them, no more ; let them simmer very gently two hours
and a half ; skim carefully to remove all grease. Take
up the chops ; arrange them on a dish round a mound
of neatly-cut string beans ; arrange the carrot ar.d tur-
nip neatly round the chops and put them to keep hot,
while you stir a dessert-spoonful of brown thickening
if you have it (see recipe for Roux or Brown Thick-
ening) into the gravy (or else use butter and brown
flour). Let it boil ; taste for seasoning, and strain it
over the meat and vegetables.
STEWED BEEFSTEAK.
Take two pounds of round steak ; cut in pieces the
size to serve ; flour them, and sprinkle Avith pepper and
salt ; lay them in a stewpan with two dessert-spoonfuls
of vinegar, and cover closely ; place the stewpan where it
1 76 Practical Recipes.
will gently cook, and leave it one hour. Then take off
the cover ; cut into it one onion, one small carrot, one
small turnip, and pour in half a pint of hot water ; cover
again and let it simmer two hours longer. Take up the
meat and keep it hot. Stir into the gravy, if you have
them, a teaspoonful of Worcestershire and one of mush-
room catsup, or Harvey sauce, with a teaspoonful of
brown thickening; strain it, rubbing all the vegetables
you can through the strainer ; let it boil up and pour
it over the meat. If preferred, the vegetables may be
left in and served with the steak.
SEA PIE.
This old-fashioned English dish is very good in
winter.
Take two pounds of meat ; if you buy it on purpose,
use part lean mutton and part beef, or beef, mutton,
and veal ; although mutton or beef alone will do ; put
them into a saucepan with just water to cover them ;
cut quite small, two onions, half a small carrot, and
half a turnip, with two heaped saltspoons of salt, and
a half one of pepper ; put to the whole a pint and
half of water ; let the whole stew slowly two hours.
Meanwhile make a suet crust (see recipe for Suet Crust)
of six ounces of suet and ten of flour; roll it out till
it will about fit the saucepan, and an inch thick or
rather less. Skim the gravy, when it has cooked two
hours, removing all fat ; taste if salt enough, and add
sauce for flavoring if you choose. Then put on the
suet crust for cover, making it fit over the meat closely ;
for this reason take care that you rolled it large enough ;
if too large never mind, let it turn up at the sides a
little. Put on the cover of the saucepan and cook
Entrees. 177
slowly another hour. It must cook slowly or the meat
will be stringy ; it must not stop cooking or the crust
will be heavy.
When done, cut the crust across pie-fashion ; lift out
each of the pieces and lay them round a dish, then pour
meat and gravy in the centre and serve.
CHAPTER XXVI.
ROASTS.
HO AST BEEF.
Very full directions are given in Chapter VIII for
roasting of all kinds. Yet to save referring back, I re-
peat the recipes, remarking that if you roast one thing
well, and know why you do it, you can roast all.
A piece of ribs of beef weighing eight pounds will
take an hour and quarter to an hour and half, according
to whether you like it rare or well done.
Set the joint on a wire stand in a dripping-pan; dust
it over with flour, but do not season it ; put it in a hot
oven ; meat put in a cool oven, and both allowed to get
hot together, will neither be sightly nor toothsome;
baste it frequently.
If you choose, and your meat is fat enough to war-
rant it, you may put a few peeled potatoes in the drip-
ping-pan, sprinkling them with salt, and turning them
about when you baste the meat, so that they may brown;
turn the joint over when it has been one hour in the
oven, so that it may brown equally.
When the meat is done it should look of a rich dark
mahogany color, brown all over but nowhere burnt.
Take it up on a hot dish; if you have potatoes put them
round it. Set the dripping-pan on the stove ; having
poured oS the fat carefully, and pour into it a cup of
178
Roasts. 1 79
boiling water ; with a spoon remove every scrap of the
sticky dark substance that clings to the pan, it will all
dissolve on the back of the spoon; put in one saltspoon
of salt and a little pepper; let this boil two or three
minutes on the stove till dark and rich; then serve it in
a sauce-boat; sprinkle the beef with fine salt, garnish it
with parsley and horse-radish scraped (if you have pa-
tience and a sharp knife), it is far better than the
ground horse-radisli in flavor, and of course the long,
delicate shreds are more ornamental, little tufts of the
white and green alternately are a pretty garnish.
FILLET OF BEEF.
Trim it very carefully; remove the gristly skin from
it, if the butcher has not done so; this must be carefully
done not to disfigure the fillet; roundoff the ends and
any superfluous fat; in short, make it a neat, compact
piece of meat. Lard it, (see Larding).
Set it in a dripping-pan on a wire stand, with some
beef fat, not suet, for basting. Half an hour to three-
quarters, if very large, will cook it in a hot oven.
Serve with brown mushroom sauce.
ROAST LEG OF MUTTON.
Eub the skin of a leg of mutton with salt (from the
skin there is no gravy to draw out); flour it lightly; set
it in a dripping-pan without water, and put it in a hot
oven; an hour and a half will cook a medium-sized leg,
unless liked well done, when it will take a quarter of an
hour more.
When done take it from the pan, set it on a hot dish,
and put it to keep hot. Pour the dripping off very
carefully from the corner of the pan, changing the corner
1 80 Practical Recipes.
when the dark sediment begins to run, as you wish to
save that, yet get rid of all grease; set the pan on
the stove and pour into it a small cup of water,
with a saltspoonful of salt; rub off all the gravy and dark
substance from the pan ; let it boil till all is dissolved,
then pour through a strainer into sauce-tureen and
serve.
BOAST SADDLE OF MUTTOK.
Have the saddle neatly trimmed and superfluous fat
removed; skin it and skewer the skin over it till it is
nearly done.
Set it in the oven one hour and a half before it is
wanted, if it weighs about six pounds ; the oven must of
course be hot; baste frequently, and half an hour before
it is done take off the skin; dredge the saddle with flour;
sift a little fine salt over it, and put it in a part of the
oven where it will brown well without burning.
Take it up on a very hot platter, pour the fat carefully
from the dripping-pan, put in a cup of hot water, rub
off all the glaze or gravy on the pan, season with salt
and put into the gravy a glass of claret and a spoonful
of red currant jelly; serve the gravy in a tureen.
The saddle should be carved lengthwise of the joint.
ROAST LAMB.
Lamb requires to be very thoroughly cooked. A leg
of lamb is roasted exactly as a leg of mutton. One
weighing four to five pounds will take an hour and
half. Serve with mint sauce (see recipe).
ROAST FILLET OF VEAL.
No meat requires more careful cooking than roast
veal. Any meat more insipid than plain unsavory
181
veal is not to be imagined. The less condiment there
is about roast beef or mutton the better, but veal re-
quires a great deal.
The handsomest joint of veal is the fillet, as the part
of the leg from which the cutlet is cut is called. Take
a piece about five pounds ; remove the bone in the
centre, fill it with veal forcemeat (see recipe) ; also
make a pocket with your finger between the skin and
the flesh and lay forcemeat in it. Skewer the veal ;
bind it firmly into a round shape, and flour it ; cover it
with very thin slices of fat pork ; set it on a wire stand
in a dripping-pan and put it in a moderate oven. Veal
requires very thorough cooking and will take half an
hour to the pound. Therefore great care must be taken
that it does not burn before it comes out of the oven ;
it should be often basted, and be a bright, dark brown
all over. If pork is objected to, spread butter over it
before putting it in the oven.
Just before it is taken out make half a pint of butter
sauce (see recipe). Then place the meat on a platter ;
take away all the bits of pork, set the dripping-pan on
the stove and pour the sauce into it, send it round
with your spoon into every part till all the glaze or
hardened gravy is dissolved and the whole a nice brown.
Remove the strings and skewers from the meat and
pour a little of the brown gravy round it ; serve the rest
ir a tureen. Garnish with cut lemon.
BOAST FILLET OF VEAL WITH MUSHROOMS OR OYSTERS.
Prepare a fillet as in the last recipe, only do not re-
move the bone in the centre ; roast in the same way.
While it is cooking take a dozen large oysters, or more
if small, scald them in their own liquor ; take them up,
1 8 2 Practical Recipes.
strain the liquor, stir an equal quantity of cream and a
tablespoonful of white thickening (see recipe for Blanc,
page 34), a little salt and cayenne into it, and boil till
thick. Take up the meat ; with a very sharp knife cut
out the bone, and a good piece of meat round it so as to
leave a cavity. Set the meat on a platter, put it to keep
quite hot. Quickly take all the veal (free from gristle)
from the bone and chop it with the oysters ; stir it into
the sauce you have made ; it should be about as stiff
as mush. Make all hot together and pour it into the
cavity of the veal. Make gravy as in the last recipe.
Mushrooms chopped and stewed in butter may be used
instead of the oysters if preferred.
BOAST YEAL AND MACARONI (AN ITALIAN DISH).
Prepare a fillet or shoulder of veal as directed, but
without pork ; set it in the oven. Boil some macaroni,
broken into six-inch lengths, till tender. When the
veal is within half an hour of being done, cleanse and
trim some mushrooms ; cut them up, sprinkle salt
over them, and lay them in the dripping-pan with the
macaroni. When you take up the meat lay the maca-
roni round the dish, the mushrooms over it ; have drawn
butter or bechamel sauce ready to pour into the pan ;
boil it up and strain it, taking care to rub all you can
of the bits of mushroom and glaze through the strainer.
Serve the gravy in a tureen.
ROAST SHOULDER OF YEAL, STUFFED.
Get the butcher to bone the shoulder ; cut off the
knuckle part and use it for stock with the bones (when
you have meat boned take care to have the bones sent
home) ; fill the cavity where the blade bone was with
Roasts. 183
good forcemeat (see recipe for veal forcemeat) ; skewer
it and flour it ; cover with fat pork, butter, or nice
beef dripping, and bake it, allowing half an hour for
each pound ; pour off the fat, if any, from the dripping-
pan, and make gravy as directed for roast fillet of veal.
ROAST LOIN OF VEAL.
Make a pocket with your finger between the skin and
flesh of the veal and insert the forcemeat, or slices of
fat pork if preferred ; skewer it securely, flour it, put
buttered paper over the kidney, and rub the skin with
a little salt and put it in the oven ; remove the paper
half an hour before serving. Make gravy as directed
for roast fillet of veal.
BOAST LOIN" OF PORK.
Select quite young pork with very small bones, the
middle of the loin is the best part; if lean enough for
the rind to be left on, score it thoroughly, for the sake
of the carver, but not too deeply; the scores less than
half an inch apart; a sharp, strong penknife is best for
the purpose; rub the pork over with flour, salt, and sage
leaves, dried on a plate, and rubbed to powder.
Set it in the dripping-pan and bake in a moderate
oven, allowing half an hour to each pound. It must be
well browned, but not burnt. When done take up the
meat, pour the fat from the corner of the dripping-pan,
taking care to keep back the sediment; pour hot water
into the pan, set it on the stove, dissolve all the dried
gravy with a spoon, and let it boil; skim off the fat
which the boiling will send up, and season; serve the
gravy in a tureen, with apple sauce in another.
CHAPTER XXVII.
POULTRY.
PREPARATION OF POULTRY.
Chickens, ducks, capons and turkeys should be killed
at least twenty-four hours before cooking; the following
directions as to cleansing and preparing apply to all
kinds of poultry.
When well picked, singe by removing the stove cover
and putting some paper in, pass the bird over the flame,
taking care not to blacken it or burn the skin.
Cut the neck off as near the body as possible, pushing
the skin down before you do it, so as to leave enough
skin to cover the place where the neck has been cut;
cut off the feet below the joint; with your forefinger
loosen the crop, and take it out without breaking or
emptying it. Next cut a slit right under the rump
large enough to run two fingers, if a chicken or duck;
your hand, if a turkey or goose, into the body. Before
attempting to draw out the entrails, loosen with your
finger all the tiny strings that attach them to the body,
be sure that your fingers can pass between the contents of
the stomach and the body in every direction without ob-
truction; then bend your hand or fingers round the mass
and draw it forward, this will bring the whole out in a
ball; by no means drag it by any particular part, or you
will break the entrails or gall bladder, and the whole
184
Poultry. 185
process, in the former case, be an unclean one; in the lat-
ter, the bird may be spoiled, for it is impossible to wash
away the bitter of the 'gall if broken. Cut off the vent
which will free the main/entrail. If properly managed
the bird will be quite clean inside, and need only wiping
with a wet cloth; if not clean, pour lukewarm water
through the bird, wipe inside and out with a towel, but
do not wash the outside unless necessary from acci-
dental soiling. With care, a chicken may be emptied
without any uncleanliness; lay the bird aside.
The gall, a small dark green bladder, is attached to
the liver; -cut it off, leaving a bit of the liver with it to
avoid breaking, throw the liver into cold water; by cut-
ting the gizzard very carefully at the wide side without
penetrating the inner skin, it can be peeled off, leaving
the inside whole, thus avoiding the usual mess made by
inexperienced hands. Scald and skin the feet (see
directions, page 47); put liver, gizzard, heart, feet and
neck on in a pint of water, if chicken or duck; a quart,
if turkey, with a slice of onion and piece of carrot if
at hand, and let them stew slowly down to half the
quantity, when they will be a stiff jelly.
TO TRUSS AND STUFF CHICKEN OR TURKEY. For
roasting, twist the pinions under the wing to the back,
push up the legs till they lie flat against the side of the
bird and the lower joints are even with the rump; pass
a skewer through the centre of the thighs bringing it
out opposite, fasten them in that position with a cord,
fasten the ends of the legs close to the vent; press on the
breast bone hard with the palm of the hand. If the bird
is to be stuffed, loosen the skin of the breast and put
the forcemeat (see recipe) where the crop was, turn the
neck skin over to the back and sew it.
I 6 Practical Recipes.
ROAST CHICKED.
Flour it, set it in a dripping-pan with a few slices of
fat pork laid on the breast, or else put a few pieces of
butter on it. If you do not use the pork, put an ounce
of butter in a wooden spoon, press it to make it stick ;
to baste, rub the butter side over the bird ; keep the
spoon in a cool spot when not in use.
Allow fifteen minutes to the pound, turn the chicken
over when the one side is brown; when done take it up.
If you used pork, pour off the fat and remove the pork;
have the gizzard ready chopped, the liver mashed fine,
and a teaspoonf ul of flour mixed with it; pour the liquor
from the giblets to it, stir well, then pour the whole
into the pan and boil it on the stove.
Take the string and skewers from the chicken, set it
in a dish, with watercress round it, pour the gravy in a
tureen and serve.
ROAST FOWL.
If the fowl is over a year old, wrap it in two coats of
soft paper after it is prepared as above; set it in the
oven, allowing an hour and a half in a good oven: when
it has been in an hour, take off the paper and let it
brown. This method of semi-steaming it will make it
tender; make gravy and serve as in last recipe.
FOWL BRAISED.
Loosely fill a nice fowl with forcemeat ; put it in a
stewpan with a pint of broth, two glasses of white wine,
an onion stuck with two cloves, a piece of carrot to
make half a cup when cut up, a blade of mace, half a
teaspoon of salt, a quarter of pepper ; lay thin slices of
pork over the fowl and cover the pot closely ; let it
Poultry. 187
cook very gently one hour from the time it begins to
boil ; take the fowl from the pot and put it in the oven
to brown ; strain the gravy into a smaller saucepan and
boil it down fast till it is a glaze, or looks like syrup ;
glaze the fowl with this (see Glazing, p. 32) when it is
brown. Have ready a can of mushrooms stewed with
their liquor ten minutes in the liquor from the giblets ;
thicken this with brown thickening.
If you have no broth or stock to braise the fowl, you
must have made it with the giblets beforehand, and use
only brown sauce to stew the mushrooms in.
ROAST TURKEY.
Except in point of time, follow the directions for
roasting chicken. For stuffing, see directions for truss-
ing and stuffing turkey. On account of the length of
time it requires to be in the oven, a turkey should be
covered with well-buttered paper for the first half the
time. It will take three hours to cook a moderate-
sized one ; it must be very frequently basted and turned
about. Dish and serve as chicken, except that it should
be garnished with sausages fried brown, or fried oysters.
The latter is the more elegant mode, especially if it is
stuffed with oysters (see Forcemeats).
BRAISED TURKEY.
" Turkey braised, the Lord be praised," is part of an
old saying which at all events testifies to the estimation
in wkich our forefathers held this mode of preparing
the savory bird.
Cover the turkey with slices of pork, tying it round
with cord to keep it in shape. Put four slices of pork
in the pot or braising pan ; put the turkey stuffed on
1 8 Practical Redpes.
these ; lay the giblets round it, with four onions, three
cloves, three carrots cut small, a parsnip, two bay
leaves, a bouquet of herbs (see Bouquet), a teaspoonful
of salt, and half of pepper, and almost cover this with
any good stock you may have. Cover tightly and allow
to simmer very gently from four to six hours, according
to the size of the bird. Braised turkey is served hot or
cold ; if it is to be eaten hot let it be in the oven to
brown, unless you have cooked it in a regular braising-
pan which will hold hot coals on the lid, when the oven
will be unnecessary ; remove the vegetables, boil the
gravy down rapidly, skimming it to free it from fat.
Garnish either with carrot and turnip cut into fancy
forms and boiled separately, or with small sausages fried.
Strain part of the gravy, stir in a spoonful of brown
thickening, and pour it over the bird.
If it is to 'be served cold, let it remain in the gravy in
which it was braised for an hour after it leaves the fire ;
then strain the liquor ; boil down to two-thirds its orig-
inal quantity, so that when cold it will form a hard
jelly ; free it from fat ; clear with white of egg (see di-
rections for clearing stock) ; brush two coats of this
over the turkey and let the rest get cold ; when stiff
cut it into stars or strips, chopping the trimmings of
it and use to garnish the dish.
BOILED TUKKEY.
Prepare a turkey as directed. In trussing turkey
for boiling, the legs are pushed up, a slit cut in each
side, and the legs drawn into the body ; it is correct to
stuff the breast for roasting, but for boiling the inside
may be filled with oyster forcemeat (see recipe) or with
chestnuts ; bind it into shape with tape, flour it, put it
Poultry. I&9
into an oval pot with just warm water enough to cover
it ; put in a dessert-spoonful of salt, a carrot, an onion,
and four cloves, and a dozen pepper-corns, a few sticks
of celery, and a bouquet of herbs ; bring it to a boil;
simmer a turkey of ten pounds very gently for two
hours after it reaches the boiling point, skim off every
bit of scum as it rises or it will discolor the bird. Take
it up, drain it a moment, make some thick white sauce
or bechamel (see recipe) with some of the water it was
boiled in, pour it over the turkey to mask it. Send to
table with it either oyster sauce, celery sauce, or Hol-
landaise, or even good parsley sauce. Garnish with
forcemeat balls, or little rolls of crisp bacon, or lemon
and parsley.
BOILED CHICKED is cooked in the same way, but
allowing half the time or less if small, and half the in-
gredients in the water.
BOAST DUCK OR GOOSE.
Clean a duck as directed for fowls; twist the pinions
round on the back; it is correct English fashion to leave
the feet on ; scald them, and twist them up against the
back. If you prefer them off, however, break the bone
below the joint, and cut them off. Stuff the body of
the duck with forcemeat (see forcemeat for ducks), sew
up the slit and press the legs close to the side of the
bird, securing them with a skewer and cord.
Many people like duck underdone; when this is so,
half an hour in a hot oven will cook a quite young one;
the usual time for a duck weighing four pounds is one
hour. Make brown gravy in the dripping-pan with the
stock from the giblets, chopping the liver and gizzard,
and skimming off all grease, let this boil down until
1 96 Practical Recipes.
rich and brown. Send hot apple sauce to table with the
duck.
A goose is cooked and trussed exactly as duck, except-
ing that in no case should the feet of a goose be left on.
The time for a young goose is one hour and a half; it
should be frequently basted, and served very brown. If
the skin is very fat and oily, some prefer to parboil the
bird half an hour in salt and water; then flour it, and
put it in a very hot oven, or it will not brown; once it
begins to color, the heat may be a little slackened; serve
with brown giblet sauce and apple sauce in separate
tureens.
KOAST CAPON.
Follow the directions for roast turkey. If wanted for
a company dinner, it may be stuffed with chestnut force-
meat (see recipe), and served on a bed of watercresses.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GAME.
As much as the French excel the English in soups
and all made dishes, so do the latter excel them in roasts
and game.
The English rule for game is to leave the natural
flavor unimpaired ; therefore they use no forcemeat, no
flavored sauces, no larding, butter only is used to baste,
and that liberally, and bread sauce which has little
flavor of its own, but is said to bring out that of game,
is served with it.
Therefore in the following recipes where I have pre-
scribed pork, I am following French or American taste;
but it may always be replaced by butter, / think, to ad-
vantage.
ROAST GROUSE, PRAIRIE HEtf, OR PARTRIDGE.
Clean as directed for poultry in general. If you wish
to serve these birds English fashion, instead of cut-
ting the head off, make a slit to take out the crop, and
twist the head round and bring it under the wing; rub
the breast and legs with lemon, then mix a teaspoonf ul of
salt, a quarter one of white pepper, and a tablespoonful
of butter together, put them inside the bird; take a slice
of fat pork, broad and long, and lay it over the breast
and legs; truss the bird into good shape with skewers
and twine, and roll it in buttered paper. Put in a drip-
191
1 9 2 Practical Recipes.
ping-pan in a quick oven, leave it half an hour; then
take off the paper, dredge the bird with flour lightly,
and baste thoroughly, put it in a part of the oven where
it will brown quickly. When a good color take it up,
remove strings and skewers, but not the slices of pork;
put a little stock or boiling water in the dripping-pan
stirring well, skim off the grease, then squeeze in the
juice of half an orange, add a little pepper and salt, and
serve with bread sauce.
BROILED PRAIRIE HEN", OR PARTRIDGE.
Clean and prepare as directed. Split the back of the
bird, butter it all over, place it on a hot gridiron and
turn several times to prevent burning. It will take, on
a good fire, fifteen to twenty minutes, according to size;
just before it is done, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
While the bird is cooking, chop a teaspoonful of pars-
ley very fine, mix it with the juice of a quarter lemon
and a tablespoonful of butter. This quantity is for each
bird, put this maitre d'hotel lutier, as it is called, on a
very hot dish, and lay the bird first on paper to take
any dark grease there may be, and than lay it on the
dish ; garnish with parsley.
ANOTHER WAY (BLOT),
And preferred by me, is as follows : Split each bird in
two lengthwise pieces; put butter the size of an egg in
a stewpan, set it on a good fire, when hot lay the birds
in ; leave them till about half cooked, turning them
three or four times ; then take them off, put them on a
gridiron, cook fifteen minutes and serve with the follow-
ing sauce: Put with the butter in the stewpan in which
were the birds, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, one of
chopped mushrooms, salt and pepper ; sprinkle in, and
stir at same time, a teaspoonful of flour, a gill of white
wine, and one of broth, boil till slightly thick; serve the
birds on it, or they may be served with mayonnaise sauce.
SALMI OF GAME.
See salmi of duck, and follow directions.
ROAST QUAILS.
These, being birds of white flesh, are unlike most
game, which is better kept long after killing, and should
be cooked very fresh. Clean the birds ; roll each in a
thin slice of salt pork, tying it on with cord; lay the
birds on a dripping-pan, and baste often; when done,
serve on slices of toasted or fried bread, with the crust
cut off.
BROILED QUAILS.
Cook exactly the same as partridge, only of course
they require much less time to cook, ten minutes usu-
ally suffices ; serve on toast, with watercresses round the
dish.
SMALL BIRDS, SKIPE, WOODCOCK, ETC.
Leave on the head and neck, carefully picked free of
feathers ; twist the head, and use the beaks of snipe and
woodcock as a skewer to secure the legs, running it
through the body ; wrap each one in bacon, fastened
with wooden toothpicks, and put them in a hot oven.
Have as many slices of bread, cut round, and fried
brown in butter as you have birds ; when done (they
will not take more than twelve or fifteen minutes in a
hot oven), place each on a slice of bread, and serve very
hot.
194 Practical Recipes.
A QUICK WAY TO COOK SMALL BIRDS.
Prepare them as usual ; dip each bird in flour and
shake them ; sprinkle with salt. Have a kettle with
smoking lard ; try it with a piece of bread, if it colors
brown in one-half minute it is ready, if not wait and
try again. When it is hot enough drop the birds in ;
they will cool the lard, therefore don't put in more than
six at a time ; three minutes will cook them ; try the
lard before putting in more. Have ready as many
rounds of bread as you have birds, soaked in egg and
milk two eggs to half a pint ; drain each piece and
drop them into the hot fat ; take them up when pale
brown and lay a bird on each.
If the fire is good and the fat deep enough (there
should be two to three pounds in the kettle), a dozen
birds and a dozen rounds of bread will take less than
twenty minutes, and make a most delicious dish,
Epicures prefer that woodcock and snipe should not
be drawn, but the entrails otherwise the "trail" be
caught on toast laid under them in cooking.
ROAST VENISOtf.
Trim neatly a well-hung haunch of venison, scraping
off all dark skin and dried surface ; wipe thoroughly,
and if it is getting "high " let the cloths be dipped in
vinegar ; cover the haunch with a thick sheet of white
cartridge paper well buttered ; tie this securely over.
Baste the venison to prevent the paper from burning ;
half an hour before the meat is done remove the paper,
sprinkle a little salt over the meat, dredge it with flour,
and baste liberally with butter stuck in a spoon. Pour
the fat from the dripping-pan, keeping back any brown
gravy there may be ; pour a cup of boiling water to this,
Game. 195
and boil it down adding only salt ; serve the gravy in a
tureen ; put a frill of white paper round the knuckle,
and serve very hot. Allow fifteen minutes to the pound.
Red-currant jelly and venison sauce should be served
with venison. Venison sauce is equal parts of mutton
broth, made very strong, and port wine, with a little
cayenne pepper. Many simply serve currant jelly made
hot.
Some roast the haunch in a flour-and- water paste
until nearly done, when it is removed and the meat
browned.
VEKISON" CUTLETS OR STEAKS.
Cut cutlets or steaks an inch thick, trim neatly, but
take away no fat ; pepper and salt them ; broil them
on a hot gridiron over a clear, gentle fire ; turn often,
they will take twenty minutes ; send stewed mushrooms
and baked potatoes to table with them ; or, if you have
no mushrooms, make some currant jelly hot, and send
it as sauce.
CHAPTER XXIX.
SALADS.
Although there are many salads of different names,
there are but two dressings in ordinary use : the simple
French dressing, suitable for any salad where there is
no meat used, and mayonnaise. There are many others,
of course, several varieties of English dressing all more
or less bad American dressings no better.
The French excel in salads, and it is 4 rare, indeed, at
a French table to eat one poorly mixed. Yet their
method is very simple, so simple, indeed, that many
think it cannot matter in mixing oil and vinegar whether
one or other goes first, provided the quantities are right ;
but this is the secret, the oil must be first. The reason
is this : if the leaves are wet first with the vinegar, the
oil will not adhere and will lay at the bottom of the
bowl, and a sharp, crude salad will be the result. This
shows, too, why the lettuce must always be ivell dried
before being put in the bowl.
LETTUCE SALAD.
This is best prepared on the table, as it should be
eaten soon after it is made.
The lettuce should be carefully washed and dried.
Hold over the bowl a salad-spoon, into which put a
saltspoonf ul of salt and a quarter one of white pepper ;
196
Salads. igj
then fill the salad-spoon with oil ; pour this over the
lettuce, and toss the leaves over and over till they
shine ; then put two more tablespoonfuls of oil, toss it
again ; then put one tablespoonful of vinegar ; mix
lightly, and the salad is made. These are average pro-
portions ; many like four parts oil to one of vinegar.
ANCHOVY SALAD.
Wash six anchovies ; let them lie in water an hour ;
remove the bones, also heads, fins and tails ; put them
on a dish with two lettuces, a teaspoonful of chopped
parsley, and a sliced lemon ; pour over them either a
simple French dressing or a mayonnaise sauce (see
recipe).
CARDINAL SALAD.
Take two or three heads of very white celery, using
only the best part ; cut them of even lengths ; place
them on a flat dish, arranging them like a bundle of
asparagus, taking care that some of the delicate leaves
are at each end ; color some thick mayonnaise with
lobster coral pounded, or with red beetroot boiled
tender and rubbed through a sieve using enough of
either to make the same a bright red ; pour it in spoon-
fuls over the middle of the celery until it is entirely
masked, leaving the pale green ends untouched by the
sauce. Put it on the ice till needed for use.
ASPARAGUS SALAD.
Take cold asparagus that has been boiled twenty
minutes that is till tender, but not in a mush ; color
some mayonnaise, green, either with spinach (see Spin-
ach Coloring) or juice of bruised parsley. Arrange the
198 Practical Recipes.
asparagus neatly in a pile on a dish, all the heads one
way ; put it on the ice till very cold ; then pour over it
the green mayonnaise (which must not be thin enough
to run off), leaving the asparagus points, however, un-
touched. This is an excellent breakfast salad.
CHICKED SALAD,
If you can make a good mayonnaise, chicken salad is
very easy to make, yet seldom well made. Cut up the
chickens quite small, make a plain French dressing
(three tablespoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar, salt and
pepper), pour it over the chicken, and leave it an hour;
take as much celery cut up small as you have chicken,
and toss both together, taking care to remember that
the salad ought to be seasoned sufficiently before the
mayonnaise is put on; then make a mound as smooth as
possible and cover it with mayonnaise which has been
on ice till very firm; dip a knife in water to smooth it.
Ornament either with celery tops alone or with capers,
stoned olives, gherkins or hard egg.
If lettuce is used instead of celery treat the chicken
as before, but lay the lettuce leaves round the dish.
LOBSTER SALAD.
Take a live hen lobster, plunge its head downwards in
boiling water; this kills it instantly; be sure the water is
salt enough; two large tablespoonfuls to the gallon of
water is not too much; boil it slowly twenty-five minutes if
medium size, if large, half an hour ; if over boiled, the
lobster will be tough. Put it into cold water when done
for one minute, then break the shell and crack the
claws. Take away the sand bag from the head, the
entrail that runs through the tail and the spongy parts
Salads.
199
that lie just under the shell. Save the coral r any eggs
there may be under the tail, the white fat that adheres to
the shell, and the green fat in the body. Cut the lobster
into dice, or tear it with two forks ; pour upon it just
enough French dressing to moisten and season it, or
mayonnaise may be used. This may be done some time
before the salad is eaten, but the putting together must
be done the last thing; this is true of all salads; lay
crisp white lettuce leaves or celery in the dish; lay on
them the lobster, and the green and white fat; pour over
it a mayonnaise; garnish with olives and the lobster claws;
separate the eggs and sprinkle them over the salad dress-
ing, or use the coral chopped if there are no eggs.
Veal or lean roast pork when very tender and well
cooked, dressed precisely in the same way as chicken
salad, are exceedingly good, although they should never
be used as a substitute for chicken in so-called "chicken
salad." On their own merits they would meet approval,
while under a false name they may be scorned.
POTATO SALAD.
Boil the potatoes in their skins till tender but not
broken ; peal and slice them while warm ; let them get
cold but not ice cold ; chop a teaspoonful of onion or
olives very fine; throw it over them and pour over
them French dressing enough to moisten them well.
Potatoes boiled in their skins are less likely to break
than when peeled beforehand.
This is the usual way of making potato salad; but I
prefer it made in the following manner:
POTATO MAYOiWAISE.
Boil potatoes in their skins, peel and slice them as.
2OO Practical Recipes.
above. .Make mayonnaise sauce, chop a small onion
very fine indeed, mix it with the mayonnaise, and dress
the potatoes with it; garnish with tufts of parsley.
BREAKFAST SALAD, (MURREY).
Scald two ripe tomatoes, take off the skin, put them
into cold water or on ice; drain and either slice them, or
cut them into sections as you would divide an orange;
peel and slice very thin one cucumber; put in a salad
bowl a few leaves of Romaine lettuce, add the tomatoes
and cucumber, one spring onion cut up, and, if possible,
a few tarragon-leaves; pour over the salad a plain salad
TOMATO SALAD.
Scald and skin fine ripe tomatoes ; cut them
either in slices or in sections parallel to the core, leaving
the hard core out; set them on the ice till very cold;
pour over them either a mayonnaise or a French dressing.
TOMATO SALAD, NO. 2.
Scald some tomatoes, choosing round ones; skin them;
let them get firm on ice; wash some fresh lettuce; put
two or three young leaves in a saucer, using as many
saucers as there are persons at table. Slice each toma-
to neatly and put the slices so that the tomato appears
uncut. Set one on each saucer in the middle of the
lettuce leaves; put on each a dessert-spoonful of mayon-
naise sauce.
CHAPTER XXX.
BOILED PUDDINGS OF ALL KINDS.
They must be put in boiling water and brought back
to the boiling point as quickly as possible ; not allowed
to boil again, just whenever is most convenient; steep-
ing a pudding in non-boiling water ruins it. Then it
must boil every minute oi the time directed, and should
the water boil away too much, be replenished from a
kettle of boiling water. This will hardly be necessary,
however, if the pudding was well covered with water at
first, except in the case of those requiring to boil more
than two hours, such as Christmas puddings, etc.
ENGLISH APPLE, OR OTHER FRUIT PUDDING
The English use a beef-suet crust where Americans
use a biscuit crust, and as it is both more wholesome
and more nutritious, I give the recipe hoping that those
who shudder at the idea of suet pastry will give it a
trial. It is no more trouble to make than biscuit dough.
Get beef kidney suet ; take all the skin from half a
pound of it ; chop it very fine ; put in a small teaspoon-
ful of salt ; mix it with a scant pound of flour ; make a
hole in the centre and put in a small cup of water ; mix
it as quickly and as lightly as you would biscuit ; add
more water, if needed, to make it a firm but not hard
201
202 Practical Recipes.
paste ; roll out on a floured board once to the thickness
of half an inch ; butter a quart bowl well ; line it with
this paste, pressing it in every part lightly ; leave it an
inch above the bowl ; cut off what remains over the inch
margin ; roll it out for the cover ; then fill the bowl
with apples peeled and cut in slices ; heap it up high ;
pour over them as much sugar as you think your apples
will need, and grate the rind of a lemon or some nut-
meg over them ; pour in half a cup of water ; wet the
edge of the paste, put on the cover, pinch the edges
together ; see that the water cannot get out ; then flour
a cloth ; cover the top of the pudding with it ; pass a
string round the bowl outside the cloth half-way down
(so that the flare of the bowl will prevent the string if
well tied from slipping up) ; tie the four corners of the
pudding cloth over the top of the bowl, so that you can
lift the pudding by it ; then put it into a pot of fast-
boiling water which must be kept boiling, and if it
diminishes much, replenish from another kettle kept
boiling. Serve with hard sauce.
RASPBERRY PUDDING is made in the same way, using
three parts of raspberries and one of currants in place
of the apples.
CHERRY PUDDING, with the same proportion of cur-
rants, is a delicious pudding.
FRUIT BATTER PUDDING.
Make a batter with four eggs, and a pint of flour
and a pinch of salt, using as much milk as will make
a rather thick batter ; stir in as many raspberries or
cherries as you can, with half a cupful of sugar. Serve
with hard sauce or a sauce of the fruit (see Fruit
Sauce).
Puddings. 203
ALBERT PUDDING.
Beat six ounces of butter to a cream ; then gradually
add to it five well-beaten eggs and half a pound of flour,
six ounces of loaf-sugar, the rind of a lemon grated ; add
half a pound of stoned raisins ; butter a bowl or mould
thickly, ornament it with stars and diamonds of cit-
ron and figs ; pour the mixture in a bowl which it
must fill within half an inch ; cover with a cloth as
directed for apple pudding. Boil or steam it at least
three hours.
LEMON PUDDING.
Twelve ounces of bread-crumbs, six ounces of finely-
chopped beef suet, four ounces of flour, four ounces of
sugar, the grated peel and juice of two small lemons,
four eggs ; mix all together, and then add milk enough
to make a thick batter. Boil in a buttered bowl or
mould three hours and a half. If a bowl is used, cover
with a floured cloth and tie up as directed for apple
pudding. Sift sugar over it when done. Serve with
lemon or wine sauce.
POLKA PUDDING.
Boil one quart of milk ; mix four tablespoonfuls of
cornstarch with a little cold milk, and pour the boiling
milk on to it, stirring all the time ; let it thicken over
the fire ; then add two tablespoonfuls of rose or orange-
flower water (/ find this rather too much, begin with
one, then taste). Stir in, either three tablespoonfuls of
rich cream or three ounces of butter ; blanch one ounce
of bitter almonds, two of sweet, and beat them up
quite fine, using white of one egg to prevent oiling ;
beat the yolk with three other whole eggs well, and add
2O4 Practical Recipes.
them to the mixture ; stir all over the fire till thick
and smooth ; put in a mould and ice it. Serve with
polka sauce (see recipe). Sauce boiling hot, pudding
cold, on hot plates.
QUEEN" MAB PUDDING.
Steep six bitter almonds bruised, and the peel of
a lemon (pared very thin) in a pint of milk on the
stove, at almost boiling point, until the flavor is well
drawn out ; add one ounce of gelatine and a pinch of
salt ; stir till gelatine is dissolved ; strain and return to
the saucepan ; add half a pint of thick cream and five
ounces of sugar ; let it all just boil ; stir in quickly the
yolks of six eggs well beaten ; set the saucepan in boil-
ing water and stir till thick, but be careful not to let
the eggs curdle ; pour it out and stir till nearly cold;
then mix two and a half ounces of candied cherries, and
two ounces of citron cut small ; or three ounces of pre-
served ginger, and one ounce of pistache nuts blanched;
pour the pudding into an oiled mould and pack in ice.
If ginger is used, serve the ginger syrup as a sauce ; if
cherries, use cherry syrup or currant jelly mixed with
syrup for sauce ; boil together half a cup of water and
a cup of sugar to make the syrup.
TROT PUDDING.
This is an excellent plain pudding ; one cup of
chopped and seeded raisins, one cup of suet finely
chopped, one cup of molasses, one cup of milk, three
eggs, three cups of flour, one teaspoonful of soda; spice
to taste, saltspoonful of salt ; mix all the dry ingredi-
ents first; then put molasses, the eggs well beaten, and
Puddings. 2O5
the milk ; boil three hours in a buttered bowl. Serve
with good wine or lemon sauce.
EKGLISH CHKISTMAS PUDDINGS
There are many good recipes differing very little from
each other, any one of which would make as good a
pudding as usually met with in " old England," but it
requires more than a good recipe to turn out the pudding
as it is eaten there; the best recipe is more often than not
spoiled in the cooking. I have known them to be
three-parts boiled (as is the usual way) and given to
friends, and yet in the final two hours' boiling be
spoiled.
In the tying up and boiling lies the art of making any
good boiled pudding; bear in mind the bowl or pudding
boiler must \>Q/ull, the cloth tied firmly over the bowl
(it will always ( ' give " enough for the swelling of the
pudding), the water be fast boiling, and when the pud-
ding is put in, be quickly brought to the boil again, and
kept boiling every minute of the time prescribed, re-
plenishing from a kettle of boiling water kept for that
purpose. If the pudding ceases to boil you will find it
sticky.
The orthodox Christmas pudding is always an equal
quantity of suet, fruit and eggs ; the variations are
ii. the proportions of ingredients added for flavoring,
and in the flour some families (and it is usually a family
recipe handed down for generations), use the same pro-
portion of flour as of each kind of fruit, others use half
flour and half bread-crumbs, others again use all bread-
crumbs and no flour. I give three recipes, all excellent,
provided they are properly boiled.
2 O 6 Practical Recipes.
CHRISTMAS PUDDING, NO. 1.
One pound of currants thoroughly cleaned, one pound
of raisins, stoned and chopped a little, one pound of
suet finely chopped, half a pound of brown sugar, four
ounces of blanched almonds split, four ounces of citron,
four of candied lemon peel, four of candied orange peel,
one pound of flour and eight eggs, two glasses of
brandy, and milk to make all into a very thick batter
just so that you can stir it. A teaspoonful of salt
scant, and a small nutmeg grated, a teaspoonful of gin-
ger, a scant one of cinnamon and half one of cloves, all
ground.
CHRISTMAS PUDDING, NO. 2 (VERY RICH).
This is a very delicious pudding, richer than the
other.
One pound of Muscatel raisins stoned, half pound of
Sultana raisins, half a pound of currants, half a pound of
mixed candied peels, half a nutmeg grated, three-quar-
ters of a pound of bread-crumbs, three-quarters of a
pound of beef suet chopped very fine, ten eggs, a quar-
ter an ounce of bitter almonds pounded, one tablespoon-
ful of flour, four ounces brown sugar, a gill of brandy
and one of sherry.
N. B. In both these puddings the spices may be in-
creased or lessened, the candied peels varied or part
omitted. These are matters of taste, and do not affect
the texture or character of the pudding.
TO MIX PLUM PUDDING.
Throw each ingredient as you prepare it into a pan ;
sprinkle the salt over all, then add the beaten eggs,
Puddings. 2Oj
the brandy, and when milk is used, put that last, as
it is only when the eggs and brandy are in you can tell
how much you need. The mixture must be so stiff
as to stir with difficulty. In the last recipe the bitter
almonds must be crumbled and added by degrees with
great care.
The quantities given make two quart puddings, or
may be boiled in one.
If boiled in two, use quart bowls ; butter them well,
fill them, put a buttered paper over the top, scald a
pudding cloth, flour it, tie it over (see general direc-
tions for puddings), and boil each pudding six hours;
and two hours on the day used. If one large pudding
is made, boil eight hours, and two on the day used.
These puddings may also be boiled in cloths (many
consider them lighter so boiled). Scald and flour a
square of muslin for each; lay it in a large bowl; pour
the pudding mixture in, tie it up closely as you would
dumplings, and boil six hours for a quart pudding, and
an hour and half the day used.
CHAPTER XXXI.
PIES AND TARTS.
In making either the American pie, or the English
tart, remember to heap the fruit in the centre, leaving
room for a groove round the edge. Before the cover is
put on wet the margin, but do not press the edges to-
gether, all the pressure should come between the fruit
and the edge lay your forefinger round, pressing closely
so that upper and under paste may adhere there, but
leave the edges untouched; cut four slits in the groove
you have made; see that they are open enough for the
syrup to boil into the groove instead of from the edges
and out in the oven; as the pie cools the syrup runs
back from the groove to the pie. See full directions in
Chapter III, for Pastry.
FLAKY CRUST FOR FAMILY PIES.
South Kensington Training School of Cookery.
Put one pound of flour in a bowl, mix with it a teaspoon-
ful of baking powder, whip the whites of two eggs to a
stiff foam, put them to the flour with a scant saltspoon-
ful of salt, and make all into a stiff paste with ice-cold
water (about one gill).
Flour a board, turn the paste out on it; flour the roll-
ing-pin, and roll it to a thin sheet. Divide half a pound
of butter into three parts. Take one part and spread it
208
Pics and Tarts. 209
all over the paste with a knife, dredge flour over it and
fold the paste in three, flour the rolling-pin again, roll
out the paste and spread the second portion of butter
over it; fold the paste as before, roll it out and spread
the third portion of butter. Fold it again and roll it
to the thickness required for a pie the third of an inch.
This paste requires a quick oven.
ENGLISH FRUIT TARTS.
These are made in oval deep dishes, with crust only
lining the sides, not the bottom, giving more fruit and
juice, and are preferred by those who do not like the
heavy undercrust.
CURRANT AND RASPBERRY TARTS.
Cut long strips of "rough puff paste" (see recipe) an
inch and half to two inches wide, wet the sides of an
oval dish, lay the paste round, pressing the sides not the
edges fill with three parts raspberries, one of currants,
pour in a cup of water and one of sugar, wetting margin
and put on a cover, observing directions (Pastry,
Chapter III).
CHERRY AND CURRANT TART.
Use three parts cherries and one of currants, unless
you have regular cooking cherries, when the currants
may not be necessary, make the tart according to direc-
tions for raspberry and currant tart.
BLACKBERRY TART.
Blackberry tarts or pies are greatly improved by
having one-third apple added to them. Make as directed
for other fruit tarts.
APPLE and all fruit tarts are made in the same way.
2 I O Practical Recipes.
APPLE PIE.
Make some " rough puff paste " (see recipe); roll half
of it thin; line a pie-plate; peel and cut up some fine
baking apples; fill the pie (see Chapter III). Grate the
rind of a lemon or some nutmeg over it; put two table-
spoonfuls of sugar, or more if apples are tart, and half
a cup of water over it; roll out the rest of the paste for
cover, the third of an inch thick, and cover as directed
elsewhere.
APPLE PIE, NO. 2.
Make some very nice apple sauce which must be
long and slowly stewed till it is almost jelly; flavor with
lemon peel and a little juice; line a pie-plate with
" rough puff" paste; cut some strips an inch and half
wide, lay this round the edge over the lining so as to
make a double edge, pressing only the lower part of the
strip; pour in the apple sauce, which must be cool; sift
sugar over thickly; cut thin strips of the paste, twist
them and lay them over in cross-bars; in every open
square stick half a blanched almond if wanted orna-
mental, or else after it is baked a saltspoonful of red
jelly in every square opening.
This pie may be made with any preserve.
LEMON PIE, NO. 1.
Beat two ounces of butter to a cream, if very salt
wash it first, mix with it four ounces of sugar, a cup of
bread-crumbs and the yolks of three eggs and one
white, the grated rind of two lemons, the juice of one.
Stir briskly and pour into a pie-plate lined with paste,
bake in a moderate oven ; beat two heaping tablespoonf uls
of powdered sugar with the whites of two eggs, make a
Pies and Tarts. 2 I I
meringue and cover the pie with it; return to the oven
to color.
LEMON PIE, NO. 2.
Two teaspoonfuls of corn-starch mixed with six of
cold water; stir a scant cup of boiling water in it and boil,
stirring all the while, just as you would make starch;
when it has boiled five minutes, grate the rind of two
lemons to it, add five ounces of sugar and the juice of
the lemons, two ounces of butter, stirring the latter in
one way till the mixture boils, then let cool one minute,
beat in the yolks of four eggs the whites of two, stir
well two minutes, then pour the mixture into two
medium-sized pie-plates. Bake in a moderate oven.
Beat the whites of two eggs with two heaping table-
spoonfuls of powdered sugar, spread it over the pie
when it comes out of the oven; return it, and let the
meringue color lightly.
LEMON PIE, NO. 3 (RICH).
Take four ounces of stale cup or sponge cake, or the
same quantity of macaroons, crumbled; squeeze over the
crumbs the juice of three lemons, grate the rind of two;
three-quarters of a pint of rich cream, or six ounces of
butter beaten to cream, and a quarter of a pound of
sugar; pour over these ingredients the well-beaten yolks
of six eggs, and the whites of three; add a small pinch
of salt and mix.
Pour the mixture into two medium pie-dishes lined
with rough puff paste (see recipe). Use the three
whites left for meringue which spread over the pies.
COCOANUT PIE, NO. 1.
Line a dish with rough puff paste, pour a pint of hot
milk (not boiling) over two well beaten eggs; set the
2 1 2 Practical Recipes.
bowl containing the mixture in boiling water, stir it till
thick, then take it out, and stir in half a cup of sugar,
and either a cup of grated cocoanut, or a cup of dessi-
cated cocoanut, with a teaspoonful of vanilla or the
grated rind of half a lemon.
COCOANUT PIE, NO. 2.
Mix two eggs well beaten with a cup of milk and the
milk of the nut, if it is quite sweet; take off the brown
skin of the nut, and grate it as finely as possible; mix
with it three tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs, three
tablespoonfuls of sifted sugar, two ounces of butter
beaten to cream, six ounces of Muscatel raisins stoned
and chopped and the grated rind of a lemon; mix and
fill the pies, bake in a moderate oven thoroughly.
This also makes a good boiled pudding.
SWEET PATTIES.
Take a pound of fine puff or rough puff paste ; roll it
the third of an inch thick, and cut with a biscuit cutter
three rounds; put one on the other; then with a smaller
biscuit cutter dipped in flour press on the top, cutting
only one-third through. When you have as many as
you want, glaze with white of egg ; bake them in a
quick oven. These are the shells to be filled with jam
or preserve, and will rise to three inches. Delicious
patties are simply filled with thick cream, twenty-four
hours' old, sweetened, flavored with vanilla and whipped
till firm; when prepared as directed above, remove the
centre piece of the patties, which is the cover, scoop
out the soft dough, leaving half an inch of crust ; put
the cream or preserve in with a spoon, pile it high, and
lay on the cover.
Pies and Tarts. 2 1 3
FRANGIPANI CREAM PATTIES.
Prepare the pastry shells as directed ; take off the
centre piece, which is the cover ; scoop out the soft
inside, leaving half an inch of crust, and fill with Fran-
gipani cream, made as follows :
One gill of cream, one tablespoonful of flour, one
tablespoonful of orange flour water, two of brandy or
one of sherry and one of brandy, mix and put in a small
saucepan, boil till the mixture leaves the sides of the
pan ; if it becomes thicker than very thick cream, add
more cream or milk ; beat in the yolks of four eggs, six
macaroons crumbled, four tablespoonfuls of sugar, the
peel of a lemon grated and a tablespoonful of any can-
died fruit, or ginger or citron, cut very fine ; set the
saucepan in boiling water after the eggs are added, and
stir till very thick; when cool it is ready for use. It will
keep a long time if put into jars and covered with but-
tered paper.
TARTLETS.
As these need not rise so much, you can use the
trimmings from patties to make them. Roll the paste
quite thin ; double it without rolling it again, and
cover patty pans with it, pressing the bottom as thin as
you can, but not the sides or edges ; cut pieces of bread
the size of the bottom of the patty pans and put one
in each. Bake in a quick oven. When done take out
the bread and put jam or preserve in its place. You
may, when cool, if you choose, put a spoonful of stiff
whipped cream on them ; or instead of the jam fill
them with frangipani cream. In this case only let
them color very lightly in the oven, and when filled
with the cream return them to the oven to brown.
214 Practical Recipes.
OMELETTE SOUFFLEE. ( JULES GOUFFE.)
The whites of six eggs beaten very stiff ; the yolks of
three beaten four minutes, with three tablespoonfuls of
sugar powdered, and one teaspoonful of vanilla extract
or the powdered vanilla which is better; turn the whites
on to the yolks and mix very gently, lifting the yolks
as it were, over the whites till blended, yet not stirring
them at all ; butter an oval dish a soufflee pan is best,
but an earthen or thick tin will do ; turn the mixture
very lightly into it ; sift sugar over, and bake in a
moderate oven till a golden brown. Serve instantly or
it will fall.
SOUFFLEE A LA VANILLE. (j. GOUFFE.)
Put in a three-quart saucepan one quart of milk,
keeping little of it out to mix with six ounces of flour ;
when smooth stir the flour into the milk ; keep on stir-
ring till it boils, when take it off the fire at once ; put
in six ounces of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of vanilla pow-
der or extract, and a pinch of salt ; break six eggs, add
the yolks to the paste, one at a time, beating it well ;
beat the whites very stiff, and add them very gently to
the rest ; if quickly done, the whites go to liquid, and
the paste becomes too wet.
Bake for twenty minutes in a buttered pan.
FLAMIKG OMELETTE.
Break six eggs ; beat the whites and yolks separately ;
add to the yolks one tablespoonf ul of powdered sugar ;
stir whites and yolks lightly together ; put butter the
size of an egg in a clean frying-pan, let it get hot and
begin to boil ; then pour the omelette in ; lift the pan
on one side for a minute, then let the mixture that is
Pies and Tarts. 2 I 5
not set, run over to the other side, detach the omelette
with a spoon f rom the side of the pan ; when it is partly
set, shake the pan gently back and forth to loosen it 5
turn it half over with a cake turner; slip it on a hot
dish, dust over with sugar, and pour over it six table-
spoonfuls of rum warmed if the weather is cold ; set
it alight and serve flaming.
This omelette may be made as directed in Part First,
if preferred.
CHAPTER XXXII.
DISHES FOR CHEESE COURSE, OR FOR SUPPER.
CHEESE FONDUE.
Put in a small saucepan one tablespoonful of butter,
one of flour ; stir over the fire till they bubble ; then
add a gill of milk or cream (so far this is only very thick
white sauce) ; stir to prevent burning ; when smooth
stir into it three ounces of finely-grated cheese of fine
quality, a saltspoonful (scant) of salt, and a tiny pinch
of cayenne ; turn it when well mixed into a bowl and
stir into it the beaten yolks of two eggs ; thoroughly
whisk the whites of three eggs solid ; stir them in very
gently the last thing. Butter a dish or tin which the
fondue will half fill, as it rises very much ; bake till
golden brown in a quick oven ; pin a hot napkin around
the dish in which it is baked ; serve instantly or it will
fall.
KAMINOLES (SOYER).
Melt one tablespoonful of butter ; add one of floor ;
stir over the fire till they bubble ; add half a cup of
water, stir in four ounces of cheese grated ; stir till
smooth ; remove from the fire ; stir in, very gradually,
three eggs well beaten; have ready a buttered baking-
sheet and drop the mixture on it in lumps the size of a
walnut ; press each slightly on top ; brush them over
216
Dishes for Cheese Course. 2 I 7
with beaten egg ; put a spoonful of grated cheese in
the depression, and bake in a hot oven twelve minutes.
Serve hot as possible.
BAMAQUINS.
Crumble a slice of stale baker's bread ; cover it with
a breakfast cup of boiling milk ; let it soak a quarter of
an hour in a hot place ; then strain off the milk but don't
press it ; beat it smooth ; stir in it two ounces of butter
which the warm bread will melt, then four ounces of
grated cheese (half parmesan is best), half a teaspoonful
of made mustard, half a teaspoonful of sifted sugar,
half a saltspoonful of pepper, one of salt, as much
powdered mace as will go on the end of a penknife, and
the yolks of three eggs ; mix together thoroughly ; just
before you are ready to bake them beat the whites of
four eggs solid; stir them into the mixture; either have
buttered paper soufflee cases ready to bake them in,
or deep patty pans lined with puff paste ; only half fill
them ; they will take ten to fifteen minutes to bake in
pastry, six to ten in paper. Have a hot oven and serve
very hot.
CHEESE STRAWS.
Make some puff paste or " rough puff"; roll it out as
thick as a silver dollar ; cut it in strips an inch and a
half wide and four inches long ; lay a little rich grated
cheese along the centre of half the strips ; then on each
lay a strip without cheese, thus making a sandwich as
it were ; brush each one over with the yolk of egg ;
bake in a quick oven ; serve cold or warm, piled on a
napkin, blockhouse fashion, with mustard and cress or
parsley garnish.
2 1 8 Practical Recipes.
CHEESE CAKOPEES.
Cut some stale baker's bread into slices half an inch
thick ; if you have a half-moon shaped cutter, cut them
into crescents with it, if not divide into diamonds or
any shape you please ; fry these a very pale brown in
hot butter ; spread on each a little thin mustard, and
over that a layer of rich cheese ; season with a little
salt and white pepper ; bake in a sharp oven till the
cheese is dissolved. Serve hot as possible on a napkin.
CHEESE FRITTERS. '
This will do to use up cheese that has become a little
dry, although, of course, fresh would be better. Put in
a chopping bowl or mortar three ounces of grated cheese,
a dessert-spoonful of finely chopped ham (this may be
omitted if not liked), three dessert-spoonfuls of finely
grated bread-crumbs, a teaspoonful of dry mustard, a
piece of butter the size of an egg ; a speck of cayenne,
and the yolk of an egg beaten. Pound together with a
potatoe masher or pestle till smooth and thoroughly
mixed ; form the balls into paste the size of a walnut ;
flatten a little, dip them into frying batter (see recipe),
and fry a light brown (see Frying). They will take
about two minutes to fry.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
SAUCES, SAVORY.
ENGLISH BREAD SAUCE.
The English serve bread sauce with most kinds of
game, also with roast chicken and turkey.
Take two ounces of bread-crumbs ; be careful there is
no crust as the sauce must be very white ; put them in
half a pint of rich milk, with six peppercorns and a
medium-sized onion ; let them boil at the back of the
stove ten minutes ; then take out the onion and pepper
corns ; stir in a tablespoonful of butter; or two of thick
cream if you have it ; stir till the butter is dissolved ; if
liked, a suspicion of nutmeg may be added. Serve hot
in a sauce tureen. Never prepare this sauce till wanted,
as if it stands it will get pappy.
BROWN SAUCE, OR ESPAGNOLE (SPANISH SAUCE)
(GOUFFFJ).
This sauce is one of the two sauces called by the
French "mother sauces," because these two sauces are
the foundation of nearly all others. If you succeed in
making them well, you can make the most dainty and
most elaborate sounding French sauces which may
frighten you to think of, yet which are very easy.
For true Espagnole (I use the French name here, that
219
220 Practical Recipes.
when some book orders you to " take half a pint of
Espagnole " you may remember the brown sauce you
can make so easily is the identical thing) is required
good stock or else glaze (see Chapter IV).
Dissolve a piece of glaze the size of a walnut in half
a pint of water, or else take a pint of strong soup or
stock. Put into it half a carrot, an onion both cut
fine a bouquet of herbs, and a lump of sugar ; boil
slowly till reduced to one-half the liquid ; then strain,
pressing the vegetables to get all the liquid out. Put
in another saucepan one ounce of butter, and scant one
of flour ; let them brown, stirring them to prevent
burning ; when a light brown, pour the stock to the
flour and butter and stir till it is smooth. This is
Espagnole. If you have brown flour at hand and use it
instead of white, you will not need to wait for the flour
and butter to brown.
A SIMPLE AND QUICK BROWN SAUCE.
Cut up an onion, put it in a saucepan with a tea-
spoonful of butter, fry it brown ; put in two cloves, a
stick of celery, or six celery seeds, a bouquet of herbs,
and a teaspoonful of gelatine ; boil all in a pint of water
till the gelatine is dissolved; take off the liquid and stir
in it a large teaspoonful of Liebig's extract of beef;
thicken with brown thickening, and put in half a tea-
spoonful of salt.
Remember, although good sauces always call for stock ?
and this may sometimes seem to preclude the possibility
of making them, there generally is in most families the
means of making stock in the house the bones from a
roast of beef, or of a turkey or chicken, or even a leg of
mutton bone, will all, or any, yield half a pint of sto6k,
Sauces. 221
taking care to break them up as small as possible; add
to them a carrot, an onion, and a bouquet of herbs. A
little arrangement is to be found at the best hardware
stores for cracking up bones, which is a great economy
in any family and would soon pay for itself.
The following are a few of the sauces made from
brown sauce, and which, solely on account of their
name, I think, people living near the great caterers buy
by the pint, at a very high price.
BORDELAISE (GOUFFE).
Put half a pint of Sauterne wine in a saucepan, boil
it down to one gill ; put a tablespoon ful of chopped
shallot blanched (see directions), or onion (a poor sub-
stitute), one pinch of pepper, and a pint of brown
sauce.
SAUCE PIQUAISTTE (SIMPLIFIED FROM GOUFFE).
Fry or stew half an ounce of shallot or onion chopped,
in a dessert-spoonful of vinegar ; let it cook until the
vinegar is all absorbed be very careful about this ; then
put it into three-quarters of a pint of brown sauce (to
which you have added a gill of broth or water to allow
for the boiling away) ; add a tablespoonful of chopped
cucumber, and one of chopped parsley ; cook gently
fifteen minutes.
SAUCE POIVRADE.
Dissolve two ounces of butter in a saucepan ; a car-
rot, a turnip, an onion cut in two, also, if to be had, a
shallot and two cloves, a sprig of thyme, one of parsley,
a bay leaf, a little salt, and two peppercorns ; let these
all fry until they are a nice brown, stirring them all the
222 Practical Recipes.
time; then add gradually a small cup of claret and half a
pint of good brown sauce ; simmer gently ten minutes,
and remove the scum as it rises ; strain and serve very
hot.
SAUCE ROBERT.
Fry in a small saucepan three medium-sized onions,
chopped fine, in a tablespoonful of butter ; stir them
as they fry, till they are clear and brownish ; add to
them half a pint of brown sauce and a wineglass of
water or broth to allow for the boiling away ; boil
twenty minutes and strain; then mix one teaspoonfnl
of vinegar in a cup with a teaspoonful of mustard, which
stir into the sauce and it is ready to use.
BEURRE NOIR, OR BROWN BUTTER.
Put two ounces of butter in a small saucepan ; let it
get brown, but not burn; when it is a good color let it
cool slightly ; then pour in a tablespoonful of vinegar
which you have made hot but not boiled ; heat both to-
gether. If you want it for poached eggs it is ready to
use, but for fish it should have a teaspooonful of chopped
parsley added.
BROWN THICKENING
Under the name of Roux this is given on page 34.
White thickening (Blanc) is on the same page.
MINT SAUCE FOR ROAST LAMB.
One tablespoonful of mint leaves, very finely chopped ;
three tablespoonfuls of vinegar if very strong, use one-
third water, and a dessert-spoonful of sugar; mix two
or three hours before using it.
Sauces. 223
BROWN MUSHROOM SAUCE.
Add to half a pint of brown sauce the liquor from a
can of mushrooms and half of the mushrooms; stew five
minutes. It is much improved by a glass of sherry, in
which case the sauce must be allowed to cook down if
it should be too thin. With the mushroom liquor and
sherry, stock to make the brown sauce is not indispens-
able, although a great improvement.
Use with fillet of beef, or roast beef, steak, etc.
TOMATO SAUCE (BLOT).
Put in a stew-pan two ounces of butter, half a bay
leaf, two peppercorns, a sprig of thyme, an onion cut
up, a sprig of parsley, a dozen medium-sized toma-
toes, and two wineglasses of broth or water ; stew
altogether about an hour ; then rub them through a
strainer ; put a tablespoonful of butter and a dessert-
spoonful of flour in a small saucepan ; stir together
till they bubble, then pour on the tomato juice and
stir till smooth.
WHITE SAUCES.
When sauces are thickened with eggs, it is safer after
they are added to stand the saucepan in another contain-
ing boiling water, and stir it in that, until it reaches the
boiling point; remember it must not boil or it will break;
yet if it does not reach the boiling point, the eggs will
not thicken.
BUTTER SAUCE
Is the foundation for several well-known white French
sauces. It will be observed that the first step is always
the same equal proportions of butter and flour stirred
224 Practical Recipes.
together over the fire until the flour is cooked; then milk
is added for white sauce, veal or chicken stock for bech-
amel, water for butter sauce. On these foundations
are several variations: eggs and oil make butter sauce
into Hollandaise; mushrooms and eggs make it into
veloute or allemande; a glass of white wine makes it
poulette.
When butter sauce, or white sauce is to be served
simply, more butter may be added in proportion to
the quantity of flour ; the butter will only make the
sauce more rich, not thicker or thinner ; the flour
should be one tablespoonful, or ounce, to half a pint of
liquid. A recipe for very rich white sauce is given in
the first part of this book. That sauce cannot be im-
proved upon for instant use, but butter or white sauce
made very rich, will break if left standing many minutes.
The best proportions for a sauce that is to be kept hot,
is one ounce of butter, one ounce of flour to half a pint
of liquid. If wanted richer than this, stir in one or two
ounces of butter at the last moment.
BUTTER SAUCE, SIMPLE.
One ounce of butter, one ounce of flour ; put the
butter in a small, thick saucepan, marbleized, or iron
(never use tin for sauce); when melted put in the flour,
stirring it, let it bubble, stirring all the time till it is a
fine yellow, it takes one minute usually ; then pour in
half a pint of hot water and a saltspoonf ul of salt. Using
milk instead of water makes it a simple white sauce.
ALLEMANDE SAUCE.
One ounce of butter put in a thick saucepan; when
melted add one ounce of flour, stir them, let them
bubble one minute; then pour in stirring all the while
half a pint of hot broth or white stock, or if you have not
it, hot water and the liquid from a can of mushooms.
Let it boil, take from the fire, wait a minute and stir
in gradually the yolks of three eggs, a saltspoon of salt,
a quarter one of pepper ; return it to the fire, stirring
carefully; it must get to the boiling point, or the eggs
will not be cooked, yet on no account boil, or it will
curdle ; when it is off the fire, stir in a tablespoonful
more butter. If it should be too thick, add a very little
broth or hot water.
SAUCE SUPREME.
Make an Allemande as above ; add to it two table-
spoonfuls of butter and three of stock ; stir, and bring
it to the boiling point at once; squeeze in a few drops of
lemon juice ; use at once.
POULETTE.
Make Allemande sauce and add to it a glass of white
wine. If anything is to be cooked in it, as sweetbreads
or chicken, leave out the eggs till last : they are some-
times omitted altogether.
CAPER SAUCE.
To half a pint of butter sauce put a dessert-spoonful
of capers not chopped, it spoils the appearance and
a teaspoonful of the vinegar, a saltspoonful of salt, and
a quarter one of pepper (white).
BECHAMEL KO. 1.
One ounce of butter put in a thick saucepan to melt ;
add one ounce of flour, let them bubble a minute, stirring
all the time; pour to it half a pint of hot strained white
226 Practical Recipes.
stock which has been well flavored with vegetables; stir
it and let it boil till quite thick five minutes perhaps
then add a gill of very thick cream. If the stock
was seasoned add very little salt, or the butter may
have been salt enough. The stock used must be quite
free from color or sediment.
This sauce, so simply made, makes many delicious
dishes ; any white meat can be warmed over in it, or
it can be used to mask boiled chickens or turkey.
Pour it over them while hot ; and when cold it will lay
over them like a white jelly, making a very elegant dish
if properly and carefuly put on. The bird should be as
completely and smoothly covered as a cake is with icing.
BECHAMEL NO. 2, FOR FISH.
Boil the bones and trimmings of fish (or else use a
flounder for the purpose) in a quart of water in which
you have a bouquet of sweet herbs, a bay leaf, a piece of
carrot, half a dozen peppercorns, and a small teaspoon-
ful of salt ; boil till there is only half a pint of stock ;
strain through a cloth, and pour it on to a tablespoonf ul
of butter and flour that have been cooked together, as
for white sauce, stirring carefully; when thick and
smooth stir in a gill of cream ; use as a sauce for fish
where directed.
OYSTER SAUCE, WHITE.
Open two dozen oysters, carefully preserve the liquor;
stir one ounce of butter and one ounce of flour together
over the fire until they bubble ; pour the strained oyster
liquor into a half -pint measure and as much cream or
milk as will fill it ; make this hot and put it to the
butter and flour, stirring all the while ; when it boils
Sauces. 21 J
put in the oysters, leave them only till they are firm and
plump ; when the edges begin to curl they are done ;
add half the juice of a small lemon, a quarter of a salt-
spoonful of pepper, and salt as may be required.
This sauce is excellent with turkey.
OYSTER SAUCE, BROWN.
Make half a pint of brown sauce; add the liquor strained
from two dozen oysters ; boil together till of the right
thickness (the oyster liquor will have thinned it), then
drop in the oysters, let them simmer till the edges curl;
take the sauce from the fire instantly.
It is English fashion to send this sauce to table with
beefsteak.
SOUBISE OR ONION SAUCE.
Boil medium sized onions tender, chop them up
quickly, put them into cold water while you make half
a pint of white sauce, then put a half saltspoonful of
white pepper in it; drain the onions, add them to the
sauce, and if you have it, a little cream; let them cook
together ten minutes and serve.
If you have the white sauce ready when the onions
are chopped, you need not throw them into cold water;
it is only to prevent them getting dark in color.
HOLLANDAISE SAUCE, (GOUFFE).
Put in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with
a saltspoonful of salt, and half one of pepper (white),
let it boil down to one dessert-spoonful. Take it from
the fire, add two tablespoonfuls of cold water, and yolks
of two eggs beaten; put on the fire again, stirring till it
begins to thicken (take care it does not boil); take it
228 Practical Recipes.
off the fire again, add a piece of butter the size of a
walnut, stir till melted; replace on the fire one minute,
take off again; put another piece of butter the same size,
stirring until the butter melts and becomes incorporated
with the eggs; replace again on the fire, do this until
four ounces of butter have been used and the sauce looks
like a thick yellow mayonnaise. Never add more butter
until the last is thoroughly blended; and when you put
in the third piece, put in a tablespoonful of cold water,
to prevent it turning.
You will observe that the whole process is very much
like making a hot mayonnaise, using butter instead of
oil; the reason for the frequent taking off and putting
on the fire, is because the eggs must be at boiling point,
yet not boil; after each fresh piece of butter, they are
cooled; they must then be brought back to the same
degree, if they were left on the stove the butter would
oil.
It sounds much more complicated than it is, and this
Hollandaise is the one found in all fine French cooking;
but it is not the one commonly used in this country and
in England, which is as follows:
DUTCH OR HOLLANDAISE SAUCE (SIMPLE).
Make half a pint of butter sauce as directed,- then stir
in gradually the beaten yolks of three eggs and two
tablespoonfuls of oil, putting it in drop by drop just as
you would for mayonnaise; when thick and smooth, put
in a dessert-spoonful of lemon juice, a saltspoonful of
salt, and half one of white pepper. Some mix with the
lemon juice before adding it a teaspoonful of dry mus-
tard.
YOU will observe this recipe is simply a combination
Sauces. 229
of mayonnaise and butter sauce, and when cold can be
used as a salad dressing by those who do not care for so
rich a sauce as mayonnaise.
GREEN DUTCH SAUCE,
Is simply Hollandaise sauce with sufficient parsley
juice to color it green. Pound the leaves of fresh pars-
ley and squeeze the juice through muslin. Stir it into
the sauce the last thing.
MAYONNAISE.
Stir the yolk of one egg in a bowl for one minute,
then add oil drop by drop, stirring all the time; when
once the oil and egg have thickened, and taken an
opaque creamy consistency, the oil may be put in more
freely. Yet always be careful to see it well blended
before adding more.
When it gets very thick, add a few drops of vinegar,
then more oil, till you have as much as you require; the
vinegar must depend on individual taste; half a gill of
vinegar is usually enough for half a pint of oil. Add
salt and pepper last; many mix a teaspoonful of dry
mustard with the egg at starting, but although a pleas-
ant addition, it does not belong to mayonnaise proper,
but to tartar sauce.
N. B. This sauce can be made more surely when
bowl, egg and oil are ice cold; in warm weather make it
in a cool room.
TARTAR SAUCE, NO. 1.
Make some mayonnaise, put into a bowl a tea-
spoonful of dry mustard, mix with a tablespoonful of
the mayonnaise till smooth. Add a tablespoonful of
230 Practical Recipes.
finely chopped shallots, a teaspoonful each of tarragon
and chervil; mix all together, and add to the mayon-
naise.
TARTAR SAUCE, NO. 2.
It is often difficult to obtain the herbs used in French
tartar sauce therefore this substitute is commonly
used; a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, one
dessert-spoonful of capers, one of finely chopped pickled
cucumbers, and half a one of onion or shallot. Add
these to half a pint of mayonnaise, or half to half the
quantity. Mustard as in last recipe.
SWEET SAUCES.
ALMOND SAUCE.
Take two ounces of almond paste, boil half a pint of
rich milk, pour a little on the almond paste at first,
to soften and moisten it. When it is well mixed with
the back of a fork, pour on the rest of the boiling milk;
mix a teaspoonful of flour with a little cold milk; pour
this to the almonds and milk. Let it boil two minutes,
remove from the fire, wait one minute, then stir in the
yolk of an egg; stir altogether over the fire till it comes
to boiling point. Add sugar to taste, and serve for any
sweet pudding.
HARD SAUCE.
Wash half a cup of butter till the salt is nearly all out
of it; then beat it, gradually adding a cup of powdered
sugar; and the beaten white of one egg; when it is all
very light and white, flavor either with a teaspoonful of
Sweet Sauces. 231
vanilla powder or extract, or with a tablespoonful of
wine.
LEMON SAUCE, (NEW YOKK COOKING SCHOOL).
One cup of sugar, half a cup of water, the rind (pared
off very thinly) of two lemons, with the strained juice;
boil all together ten minutes; beat the yolk of three
eggs. Strain the syrup, stir the the eggs into it, set
the saucepan in another of boiling water, and beat
rapidly till thick and smooth ; remove from the water,
and beat five minutes.
CHANDOT. CAREME'S CELEBRATED PUDDING SAUCE.
Mix half a pint of sherry, with four ounces of sugar
and two eggs well beaten in a bowl, which set in a sauce-
pan of boiling water; beat rapidly with an egg-beater
till thick and smooth.
ENGLISH BRANDY SAUCE FOR PLUM PUDDINGS.
A tablespoonful of butter stirred in a saucepan over
the fire, with two teaspoonf uls of flour, till they bubble.
Stir into them a gill of water and half a gill of brandy.
POLKA SAUCE.
Beat three ounces of butter, with a cup of powdered
sugar, till they are very light and foamy; set the bowl in
boiling water, make three glasses of sherry hot, add it
gradually to the butter and sugar, beating all the time;
do not cease beating till all are at the boiling point.
Then serve with ice-cold polka pudding.
VANILLA SAUCE.
Quarter of a cup of butter, a cup of water, and
one of sugar, boil together; remove from the fire, have
232 - Practical Recipes.
two eggs well beaten, pour the hot mixture to them and
then stir together over the fire till thick; if you do this
in a bowl set in boiling water, there is less danger of
curdling the eggs. Add one teaspoonful of vanilla pow-
der or extract and serve.
FRUIT SAUCE.
Sauce from fresh fruit is made by stewing the fruit,
cherries, raspberries, etc., in an equal quantity of water
and half a pint of sugar to each pint of water; when
very tender, pulp through a strainer. It may be thick-
ened with a little cornstarch if desired.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CAKES.
SPOKGE JELLY CAKE.
Beat three whole eggs ten minutes by the clock, with
a cup of sugar ; they should then look like thick cream
beaten, a full cup of flour, and a teaspoonful of baking
powder; spread on tins, and bake five minutes in a very
hot oven ; the whole success of the cake depends on the
oven. It is very like real sponge if right.
Spread with jelly, or cream, whipped and flavored;
put one layer on the other, and sift powdered sugar
over.
CUP CAKE.
Beat a cup of butter, or one-half lard, to a cream, with
two cups of sugar. Grate in the peel of a lemon, beat the
yolks of three eggs, stir them in, then sift in three cups
of flour, using just milk enough to make it a very thick
batter; when the flour is in, whip the whites firm and
add them, put in'a pinch of salt, and two teaspoonfuls of
baking powder; bake in a buttered tin in a quick oven.
I always keep a piece of cardboard (part of an old paper
box will do) to cover over cakes the first part of the
time they are in the oven; this prevents the heavy
streak, that is sometimes caused by the crust forming
before the cake has well risen.
233
234 Practical Recipes.
FRUIT CUP CAKE.
Make by above recipe, only have ready a cup of fruit,
currants and citron or anything you like, well floured
and made quite warm. Add them last, just stirring
them in, and get the cake into the oven quickly.
N. B. Fruit put in without flouring it will sink to
the bottom, so it will if put in cold, or if the cake is stir-
red much after it is added. A glass of wine is a great
addition to either of these cakes.
SPONGE CAKE.
Beat the whites of five eggs till they are solid, add the
yolks to them, stirring very gently; grate the rind of a
small lemon and squeeze in the juice of half. Sift in eight
ounces of powdered sugar, and four of sifted flour, add a
pinch of salt. Stir very gently after the flour is added,
and only enough to mix it. Line a tin with buttered
paper, and pour the cake into it; bake forty-five minutes
in a brisk oven. Cover the cake the first half hour.
When you take it out keep it from all drafts, or it will
fall.
POUND CAKE, (VERY RICH).
One pound of butter washed in rose-water if you want
it very nice; beat it to a cream with the yolks of eight
eggs and a pound of sugar, add a glass of wine and one
of brandy, with a tablespoonf ul of rose-water unless the
butter was washed in it. When very creamy, stir in a
pound of sifted flour, and the whites of eight eggs,
beaten to a firm froth.
Bake in a tin lined with buttered paper; it requires a
steady slow oven and will take an hour and a half; cover
for the first hour.
Cakes. 235
FKUIT POUND CAKE.
Make by foregoing recipe; but prepare a pound of
very well cleaned and dried fruit, shake two tablespoon-
f uls of flour through it, then sift out all that does not
adhere.
Make the fruit very warm and add the last thing.
PLAIN ICING.
Mix a pound of powdered sugar with the whites of
two eggs, the juice of half a lemon, a dessert-spoon-
ful of rose-water. Simply stir till smooth, and spread
over the cake with a knife dipped in cold water.
FONDANT ICING.
This has taken the place of the old-fashioned frosting
except for plum or pound cake. To make it, see " Fon-
dant," in the first part of this book, page 92. Melt the
fondant by standing the bowl containing it, in a sauce-
pan of boiling water and stirring it till it is like cream,
taking care none of the water boils into it ; flavor
and color as you please; spread it on the warm cake like
other icing.
INDEX.
PAGE
Albert pudding 203
Allemande sauce 224
Almond creams 93
Almond sauce 230
Altering recipes Ill, 112
Apple pie, No. 1 210
" " No. 2 210
Apple pudding, English 136, 201
Asparagus, to boil 66
Salad 197
Soups 143, 148
Baba cake 86
Small 87
Syrup for 87
Balls, egg 144
Forcemeat. 131
Baked, black fish 155
Blue fish 152
Tomatoes 138
Batter bread 121
Batter for frying, a la Careme... 59
Proven^ale 60
Batter fruit puddings 202
Bechamel, No. 1 225
" No.2 226
Filet de sole en 151
BEEF
Au gratin 75
Beefsteak, tobroil 60
Stewed 175
Bceuf a la jardiniere 74
Breakfast dish of 78
Filet, au Chateaubriand 49
Filet roast 179
Fritadella 81
Miroton of 76
Olives of 79
Pseudo beefsteak 75
Ragout of cold 78
Salmi of cold 73
Roast of 178
Simolest way to warm 77
Stock 68
Sirloin to make two dishes 40
To warm a large piece 78
To garnish 179
Beets, cream of 148
Beurrenoir , 222
Birds, small on toast 193
PAGE
Biscuit, egg in
Quick 122
Biscuit, glace a la Charles Dick-
Biscuit, glace a la Thackeray 85
Blackberry tart 209
Blackfish, baked 155
Blanc, or white thickening 84
Blanch, to 133
Bluefish, baked ! 152
BOILING, Chapter on 65
Boil to
Asparagus 66, 136
Cabbage 65, 136
Carrots 137
Cauliflower 135
Codfish 150
Filet de sole 151
Fowl 189
Ham 65
Lobster 198
Meats 65
Onions 139
Peas 136
Puddings 201
Salmon 150
String beans 136
Sweet corn 138
Turkey 188
Bordelaise sauce, Gouffc'g 221
Bouchees de dames 88
Brains, aubeurre noir 159
Braised, fowl 186
Turkey 187
Brandy sauce, English 231
BREAD, Chapter on 12
Batter bread 121
Baking 14
Breakfast breads 119
Cause of failure 14
" of thick crust 15
Compressed yeast 15
Corn bread 120
Crumbs for frying 56
Dough to keep 106
Pie, crustof 97
Kneading of 14
Oven, heating of 14
Rules for rising of 14
237
238
Index.
PAGE
Sauce 219
Souffl<e 20
To set sponge f or 13
Breakfast dish 78
Salad 200
Brioche 18
Jockey Club recipe for 19
For summer pastry 19, 20
Broiling, General rules for meats 60
Chicken 61
Broiled prairie hen 192
Partridge 192
Quail 193
Salmon 150
Brown butter 222
Flour 34
Mushroom sauce 223
Oyster sauce 227
Sauce, orEspagnole 71, 219,220
Koux, or thickening 34
Butter, brown . 222
Maitre d'hotel 32
Montpellier 33
Ravigotte 33
Sauce 136, 223
Cabbage, to boil 65
CAKES
Baba 86
Bouche'es de dames 88
Cup 233
Fruit cup 234
Jelly 233
Fruit pound 234
Pound 234
Savarin 88
Icing for 92, 2^:5
Calf's brains, au beurre noir 159
Head.alatortue 157
with Hollandaise sauce 157
Tongue stewed 158
Canopies of cheese 218
CANDIES
Chocolate creams 94
Cream almonds 93
Cream walnuts 93
Fondant 92
Panach6 93
Punch drops 94
Simple French 92
Vanilla almond cream 92
Walnut cream 92
Caper sauce 225
Capon, to roast 190
Cardinal salad 197
Carp, stewed 153
French mode 154
Carrots, to boil 137
Cones of 137
Cases, for patties 170
Cauliflower, to boil 135
Soup 148
Caramel for coloring 126
Celeraic . 54
PAGE
Celery seed for soup 106
Celery cream soup 68
Cheese canopees 218
Fondu 216
Fritters 218
Straws 217
Cherry pudding 202
CHICKEN
Boiled 189
Broiled 60
Cold 49
Croquettes 162
Fricassee 165, 166
Fritters 164
Kromesquis 164
Patties 173
Pie 38
Rissoles 163
Roast 48, 186
Use of feet 48
Preparation of 184
Chops, breaded 161
Christmas puddings 205
Clinkers, to remove 107
Cod.
150
Cocoanut pies 212
Coloring 128,95
Company to lunch 44
Cream patties 212
Cream soups 148
Croquettes of chicken 162
Lobster 168
Salmon 168
Cromesquies or kromeskies of
chicken 164
Ofcoldlamb 75
Croutons for garnishing 129
Crumbs for fry ing 56
Cup cakes 233
Cutlets, veal 160
Lobster ! 168
Venison 195
Cucumber and onion ragout 102
Curacoa, to make 89
Curry 108
Daube, to prepare meat a la 129
Devilled meat 80
Dishes without meat 102
Dresden patties 173
Dripping, to clarify 59
Duck, salmi of 166
Roast 189
Dutch sauce, green 229
Egg biscuit 121
Egg balls for soup 144
Eggs fried in balls 129
English apple pudding 201
Brandy sauce 231
Christmas pudding 205
Fruit tarts 209
Mock turtle soups 142
Muffins 122
Raised pies 38
Inde.
'X.
239
PAGE
Veal and ham pies 38
Windsor pie 36
ENTREES
Calf's brains au beurre noir 159
Calf's head, Hollandaise sauce. 157
Calf 's head, a la tortue 157
Calf's tongue, stewed 158
Chicken croquettes 162
Fricassee, No. 1 165
No. 2 166
Rissoles 163
Fritters 164
Patties 173
Kromeskies 164
Dresden patties 173
Lamb chops breaded 161
Lobster croquettes 1C8
Cutlets 168
Patties 171
Mutton chops breaded 161
Oyster patties 172
Salmi of duck 166
Of cold meat 73
Of game 166
Salmon croquettes 168
Patties 173
Sweetbreads fried 159
With mushrooms 159
Simple dish of 160
Veal fricassee 166
Cutlets 160
Variations 164
Fire-bricks, to remove clinkers .. 107
Family soups _ 141
Feuilletonage 23
Filet of beef 179
Filet of veal stuffed 180
With mushrooms or oysters. 181
FISH
Black fish, baked 155
Blue fish, baked 152
Broiled salmon, caper sauce... 15u
Carp, stewed, No. 1 153
" No, 2 154
Cod, oyster sauce 150
Halibut, caper sauce 151
Filet de sole in bechamel 151
Samefried 56
Au gratin 154
Salmon, boiled, green Dutch
sauce 150
Smelts 154
Fisherman's soup 145
Flavoring 70
Flaming omelet 214
Flounders, to bone 56
" as filet de sole 66
Fondant 92
For icing 235
Fondu 216
Forequarter of mutton 101
Forcemeat, chestnut 131
Oyster 132
PAGE
Sage and onion, for goose, pork
and ducks 133
Veal 133
Fowl, boiled 189
Braised ih6
Eoast 186
Frangipani cream 213
Tartlets 26
French herbs U3
Friandises 84
Fricassee chicken, No. 1 165
No. 2 166
Veal 166
Fritadella of cold meat 81
Fritters, cheese 218
Chicken 164
Fruit, batter pudding 202
Cup cake 234
Pound cake 235
Sauces 232
FRYING
Batter for C9
Provenqale _ 60
Crumbing for 56
Oil for 58
To clarify fat for 59
To test heat of fat 57
Croquettes 163
Filet de sole , 56
Fritters 164
Oysters 57
Parsley 128
Smelts 154
Sweetbreads 159
Galantine 39
GAME
Epicure's way of preparing 194
Grouse 191
Partridge 191
Prairie Hen 191
Quick way to cook small birds 194
Salmi of 166
Small birds on toast 193
Snipe 193
Woodcock 193
Venison 194, 195
Garnishing 127
Garlic 108
Glaze 30
To glaze ham, tongue, etc 82
Gouffe"'s pot-au-feu 68
Bordelaise sauce 221
Hollandaise sauce. 227
Omelet soufflee 214
Soufflee a la Vanille 214
Rules for ovens 27
Grating nutmegs 105
Gravy 29, 63
Grease, to clear soup of 142
Green Dutch sauce 229
Green pea soups 149
Hard sauce 230
Haricot of mutton 175
246
Index.
PAGE
Hash 97
Head, calves, Hollandaise sauce 157
" a la tortue 157
Heart, beef 100
Sheep's 99
Hollandaise sauce, No. 1 227
" No. 2 228
Iced claret soup 149
Icing plain 235
Fondant 235
Iced pudding, polka 203
Queen Mab 204
Iced soufflSe 85
" alaByron 84
Jelly cake 233
Jellied fish or oysters 41
Jelly for cold chickens 47
Jelly from pork 31
Kerosene lamps 107
Keeping meat 105
Poultry 107
Dough 106
Kensington, South, rough puff
paste 169
Kitchen conveniences 1 14
Kreuznach horns 16
Kringles 17
Kromesquies (or Cromesquie.s) .. 164
Of chicken 164
Of lamb 75
Lamb, cromesquies of 75
Roast 180
Lamps 107
Larding needle ,... 112
Larding 1-J9
Leg of mutton a la soubi.se 52
Boiled _ 52
Roast 179
Lemon pie, No. 1 210
No. 2 211
" rich, No. 3 211
Pudding 203
Peels 106
Sauce 231
To keep 105
Lettuce salad 196
Little dinners 50
Liver, sheep's 98
Lobster, to boil 198
Bisque of 146
Croquettes of 168
Cutlets 168
Patties 171
Salads 196
Luncheons, Chapter on 35
Macaroni with veal 182
Maitred' Hotel butter 32
Management in small families. , . 47
Maraschino, to make 90
Marrow, from soup bone. 98
Mayonnaise sauce 229
With jelly 42
Of potatoes 199
PAGti
Meat, to keep 106
Salad 52
Mephistophelian sauce, Soyer's.. 81
Miroton of beef 76
Montpellier butter 33
Mock turtle soup 142
Clear 143
Thick 143
Muffins, English 122
Corn 121
Mulligatawny soup 144
MUTTON
Chops breaded 161
Forequarter of 101
Haricot of 175
Neck of 101
Leg of 52
Roast 179
Saddle of 180
Mushroom soup, white 147
Fillet of veal with 181
Omelet 125
Sauce , 223
Powder 29
Nutmegs, best way to grate 105
Noyeau 90
Omelet, easy. 45
French 124
Flaming 214
Ham 125
Mushroom 125
Oyster 125
Soufflee 214
Tomato 124
Onion soup, maigre 103
Onions stewed 139
Spring stewed 139
Sauce orsoubise 227
Ornamenting meat pies 37
Ovens, Gouffe's, rules for heating 14
Oysters 27
Bisque of... 146
Forcemeat of 132
In Jelly 41
Omelet 125
Patties 172
Sauce, brown 227
White 226
To fry 57
Ox cheek 100
Partridge, to broil 192
Roast 191
Parsley, in winter 113
Seed for soup , 106
To fry.. 128
Pastry, Chapter on 22
To handle 24
Tablets' 26
Flaky family paste 208
Rough puff paste 169
Pate royale for soups 141
Patty cases 170
Index.
2 4 I
PAGE
PATTIES
Cream 212
Chicken 173
Dresden 173
Frangipani 213
Lobster 171
Oyster 172
Salmon 173
To fill 172
Peas, to boil 136
Soup, green 149
Maigre 103
PIES
Apple pie, No. 1 210
" " No. 2 210
Chicken, to eat cold 33
Cocoanut, No. 1 211
No. 2 212
English raised 38
Lemon, No. 1 210
" No. 2 211
" No. 3 (rich) 211
Sea 176
Veal and ham 38
Windsor 36
Piquante sauce 221
Plain dishes 174
Poivrade sauce 221
Potatoes, boiled 66
Mayonnaise of 199
Salads 54, 199
Snow 45
Soup, maigre 103
To warm over 46
Pot-au-feu 68
Pot-roasts 99
Potted meats 43
Polka pudding 203
Pork, for jelly 31
Roast loin of 183
Forcemeat for 132
Poulette sauce 225
Pound cake 234
Fruit 235
Poultry, to prepare 184
To stuff 185
Preparation of game 191
Poultry 184
Vegetables 135
Prairie hen, roast 191
Broiled 192
PUDDINGS
Albert 203
Apple, English 201
Batter, with fruit 202
Cherry 202
Christmas, No. 1 205
No. 2 206
To mix 206
General directions for boiled.. 201
Lemon 203
Polka 203
Queen Mab 204
Troy 204
Puffs, buttermilk 123
Puff paste 22
Puff paste, rough 169
Punch drops 78
QUAILS
Broiled 193
Roasted 193
Queen Mab pudding 204
Quick biscuit 122
Ragout, of cold meat 78
Of cucumber and onion 102
Ramaquins 217
Raminoles, Soyer's 216
Raspberry tart 209
Ravigotte 83
Recipes, to alter 111,112
Remarks, preliminary 1-12
On altering recipes. Ill, 112
On boiling 65
On bread making 12
On frying 54
On garnishing 127
On kitchen and servants 114
On little dinners 60
On luncheons 35
On maigre dishes 104
On management in small fami-
lies 47
On sauces and flavoring 70
On soups 67, 140
On table prejudices 108
On true economy in buying
meat 99
On roasting 62
Rissoles, chicken, etc 163
Rissolettes 25
ROAST
Beef 178
Capon 190
Chicken 186
Duck 189
Filletofbeef 179
Fillet of veal, stuffed 180
with mushrooms or oysters.. 181
Fowl 186
Goose 189
Lamb 180
Leg of mutton 179
Loin of pork 183
Loin of veal 183
Partridge 191
Prairie hen 191
Quail 193
Saddle of mutton 180
Shoulder of veal, stuffed 182
Turkey 187
Veal with macaroni 182
Venison 194
Robert sauce 222
Rolls, soufflee breakfast 120
Fine 15
Rough puff paste. ..-,. 109,
242
Index.
PAGE
ROUX 34
Royal paste for soup 141
Rusks 16
Sage and onion forcemeat 132
SALADS
Anchovy 197
Asparagus 197
Breakfast, Murreys 200
Cardinal 197
Celeraic 54
Chicken 198
Cold meat 52
Lettuce 196
Lobster 198
Mayonnaise of potato 199
Potato 19, 199
Pork in 199
Tomato, No. 1 200
No. 2 200
Veal in 199
Salamander, substitute for 112
Salmi
Of duck 166
Of cold meat 73
Of game 166
Sauce 167
Salmon, boiled 150
Croquettes... 168
Patties 173
Steaks broiled 150
Savarin cake 88
SAUCES
Almond 230
Allemande 224
Bechamel, No. 1 225
* No. 2 226
Beurrenoir 222
Bordelaise (Gouffe) 221
Bread 219
Brown, or espagnole ...71, 219
No. 2, simple and quick 220
Brown thickening for 34
Brown mushroom 223
Brown oyster 227
Butter, brown 222
White 224
Caper 225
Chandot (Caretne's) 231
English brandy ... 231
Flavoring for 70
Fruit 231
Green Dutch 229
Hard 230
Hollandaise (Gouffe's) 227
No. 2 228
Mayonnaise, No. 1 229
No. 2 42
Mephistophelian 81
Oyster brown 227
White 226
Polka 231
Soubise or onion 227
Supreme , 225
PAGE
Salmi 167
Tartar, No. 1 229
No. 2 23D
Tomato 223
Vanilla 231
White thickening for 34
Scotch scones 120
Scones 120
Sea pie 176
Smelts, to fry 154
Small birds, quick way to
cook l'J3, 194
Snipe on toast 193
Sole, filet de 56,151
SOUFFLEE
a la vanilla 214
Bread 20
Iced 84
alaByron 85
Omelette 214
Rolls 119
Soup bone 96
SOUPS.
Asparagus 148
Gouffe's pot-an-feu, or beef
stock for 68
Bisque of lobster 146
of clams 146
" of oysters 146
Claret soup, iced 149
Clear soup 140
How to clear 140
Clear vegetable 141
Coloringfor 126,67
Consommee a la royale 141
Cream of beets 148
of cauliflower 148
of celery 68
of spinach 148
Egg balls for 144
Family soup 141
French fisherman's 145
Mock-Turtle, English, clear... 142
Thick 144
Mock-Turtle, No. 2 144
Mulligatawny 144
Mushroom white 147
Onion 103
Pease, green 149
dried 103
Potato 103
To. remove grease from 142
Vermicelli 140
Spinach, to boil 138
Sponge cake 234
Sponge jelly cake 23
Stewed tomatoes 138
Carp, No. 1 153
No. 2 154
Beefsteak 175
Onions 139
Spring onions 139
Stew, Irish 174
Index.
243
PAGE
Stock, beef 68
Veal 147
Straws, cheese 217
String beans, to boil ' 136
To cut 136
Stuffing for veal or fish 132
Howto stuff 133
Sweet breads, to fry 159
Stewed with mushrooms 159
Simple dish of 160
Sugar, to boil 91
Tainted meat, to restore 107
Tartar sauce, No. 1 229
" No. 2 230
Tarts, English fruit 209
Blackberry 209
Raspberry and currant 209
Cherry and currant 209
Thickening, brown or roux 34
White or blanc 34
Tomato, baked 138
Omelet of 124
Salad 200
Stewed 8
Sauce 223
Tongue, calf's stewed 158
Trussing, poultry and game. 185, 191
Turkey, boiled 188
Braised 187
Roast 187
Turnips, to boil 137
Cones of 137
Tutti frutti candy v . 92
Vanilla almond cream 92
Sauce 231
Soufflee 214
Variations on dishes 164
VEAL
Cutlets 160
Fricassee.... 166
Loin roasted 1*3
Roast fillet 180
PAGE
Same with mushrooms or
oysters 181
With macaroni ];>
Stuffing for 13-4
VEGETABLES
Asparagus 66, 136
Cabbage 65, 130
Cauliflower 135
Carrots 137
Onions 13'J
Peas 136
Potatoes 66
Spinach 1?8
Spring onions 139
String beans 136
Sweetcorn 138
To cut vegetables .. 135
To make strong vegetables
milder 106
To prepare 135
VENISON
Cutlets 195
Roast haunch of 194
Steaks 195
Sauce for 195
Vermicelli soup 140
Warming over. Chapter on 72
What to do with the scraps 45
Where to buy articles not in gen-
eral use 112
Why meat does not brown in
cooking 62
Why you fail with bread 15
Why it has a thick crust 14
Why you fail in puff paste 22
Windsor pie.... 36
White asparaerus soup 148
Oyster sauce 226
Mushroom soup 147
Sauce, No. 1 71
* No. 2 223
Thickening 34
-* r>A Y USE
BOPRO^FX)
