Culture and cooking; or, Art in the kitchen

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THE LIBRARY

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THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

The Gastronomy Collection of
George Holl

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2006 witii funding from

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Culture and Cooking :

OB,

AET EST THE KITCHEK

CATHERINE OW^^^fALCou^^

'3

'Le Crfiateur, en obligeant I'homme i manger pour vivre, I'y invite par I'app^tit ct I'en
recompense par le plaisir."

CASSELL, PETTER, GALPIN & CO.,

NEW YORK, LONDON, and PAKIS.
1881

all 4^ )\(^ Qj^

1881,
Bt O. M. DUNHAM.

PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE (> CO.,

10 TO at ASTOR PLACE, NEW VOM.

TAV5'

AGR1C
LIBRARY

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

m

1^361804

IV 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,

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
PEELnmfAEY 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 rolls. —
Rusks. — Kreuznach horns. — Kringles. — Brioche (Paris
Jockey Club recipe). — Soufflee bread. — A novelty 13

CHAPTER m.

PASTRY.

Why yon 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

vi Contents,

CHAPTER V.

LUNCHEONS.

PAGE

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). — Fish 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 CHAPTEE 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 k frire a la
Careme.— Same, a la Proven^ale. — Broiling 55

CHAPTER VIII.
Roasting 62

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-
somm6. — Creme, de celeiri, a little known soup. — Recipes. . 65

Contents. vii

CHAPTER X.

SAUCES.

PAGE

Remarks on making and flavoring sances. — ^Espagnole or
brown sauce as it should be. — How to make fine white
sauce 70

CHAPTER XI.

WAEMING OVEE.

Remarks'. — Salmi of cold meats. — Boeuf a la jardiniere. —
Boeuf au gratin. — Pseudo-beefsteak. — 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.— Mephistophelian sauce. — Fritadella, twenty re-
cipes in one 73

CHAPTER Xn.

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 Cura^oa.— Maraschino.
— ^Noyeau 84

CHAPTER Xm.

FEENCH CANDIES AT HOME.

How to make them. — Foudants. — Vanilla. — Almond gfearilt—
Walnut cream. — Tutti frutti. — Various candies dipped
in cream. — Chocolate creams. — Foudant panache. — Punch
drops 91

CHAPTER XIV.

FOE PEOPLE OF VEEY SMALL MEANS.

Remarks. — ^What may be made of a soup bone. — Several very
economical dishes. — Pot roasts. — ^Dishes requiring no
meat 96

viii Contents,

CHAPTER XV.

PAGB
A PEW THINGS IT IS WELL TO REMEMBER 105

CHAPTER XVI.
On some table prejudices 108

CHAPTER XVII.

A CHAPTER OP ODDS AND ENDS.

Altering recipes.— How to have tarragon, bumet, 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 HI

Index 119

CULTUEE AND CoOKIKG,

CHAPTER I.

A FEW PBELIMINABY REMARKS.

ALEXA"NrDRE DuMAS, pere, after writing five hundred
novels, says, '* I wisli 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 / 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 tliat 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 R. 0. 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, mediae vali zing
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 Few 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,
VJiomme mange, Vhomme 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 '^ Almanach 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 tnie 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 Yulgar; 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 plaoe 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 T 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— ?'.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, *'Iknew
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
Rose 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 La^pcreau a la

8 Culture and Cooking.

Berry were invented by the Duchess de Berry, daughter
of the regent Orleans, who himself invented Fain a la
d"* Orleans, while to Richelieu 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 at Yarennes, St. Maur,
dividing his time, as usual, between cooking and litera-
ture (LorsquHl ne faisait pas sauter un roman, il
faisait sauter des petits oignons), on Mount joye, 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, " 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 ^feuilleton 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
1*

lO 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 Ueu" 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, li

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. Leam 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
rCest que le premier jJCis que coiite; " 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 11.

OK 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 for."

'* 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

13

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 liot. 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 — tiuice
its tuXk 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. 15

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 do^vn.

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 Qgg, 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.

Keeuzn"ACH Hoeks. — 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 nse 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 comer to comer, 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 Q%g
(not beaten) or milk and butter, and bake in a good
oven.

Kkii^'gles are made from the same recipe, but with
another o^g'g 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.

i8 Culture and Cooking.

instead of making up into rolls, horns, or kringles, pnsh
the dougli 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
yery 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.

Brioche. — 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-
fe'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 EECIPE FOR 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, and 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

20 Culture and Cooking.

never handsome ; but take a piece of brioclie paste, roll
it out thin, dredge with flour, fold and roll again, then
use as you would pulf 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 '^soufflee 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 with 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 ^eYjtliich batter,
work, 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 lialf 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 soufflee bread is equally-
good halced 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 Avas 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

22

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 ^gg, 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 ^gg instead of the white, and a squeeze of lemon

24 Culture ajtd 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 be
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, 25

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 ^gg, 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 Qgg 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.

Eissolettes 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 Qgg-, then cut some little
rings the size of a quarter dollar, put one on each, Qgg
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,

Pastbt 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 ^gg 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.

Feangipan"e Taetlets. — 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 butter 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 darh hrown the oven is right for
all small pastry. Called ''darh hrown paper heaV^
Light hrown paper heat is suitable for vol-au-vents or
fruit pies. Dark 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 tsn 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; ^Might 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 lif YOUE STOEE-BOOM.

One 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,'
* 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,

1 *' olives,

1 ** gherkins,

1 *' soy,

1 " anchovies,

1 ** tarragon vinegar.

bottle of claret,

** white wine,

*' sherry for cooking,

" brandy,

" Harvey sauce,

** 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

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 1 prefer for any 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 drjring, 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
kinds, and convert them into broth ; but even if you
do, it often happens that the days you have done so no

30 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 Qgg, 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 liot
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 Your Store-room, 31

fire, and let it boil as fast as possible with the lid ofE,
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 bum.

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
Bet 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'hStel 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 dliotel. 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 Have in Your Store-room, 33

parsley butter) for boiled fish, mutton, or real. 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 "Ravigotte" 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 ^ 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 ^^heurre de Montpellier,^'' sold
in Paris in tiny jars at a high price. Ravigotte is the
same thing, only in place of the eggs, anchones, 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.
2*

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
hefore 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.

LUN^CHEOK.

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

S5

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 dliotel, 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 Avith
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.

WiNDSOK 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 Qgg 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 yeal an^d ham pie, more usual, and proba-
bly the *'weal and hammer'' that ^^mellered the organ"
of Silas Wegg, was manufactured by Mrs. Boffin from
this recipe ; it is as follows :

Take the thick part of breast of yeal, removing all the
bones, which put on for grayy, stewing them long and
slowly; put a layer of yeal, 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 yeal
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 ^gg ; then make into
balls, which drop into the creyices of the pie ; boil two
or three eggs quite hard, cut each in four and lay them
round the sides and oyer the top, pour in about a gill of
grayy, and coyer the same as the Windsor pie. In either
of these pies the force-meat may be left out, a sweetbread
cut up, or mushroons put in.

A chicken pie to eat cold is yery fine made in this way.

Kaised pork 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 any one 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 :

Eub 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 ^^g, 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 diflBcult
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 uncoTcred ; then lay on your strips of ham, yeal,
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. Eoll 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 trimminsrs 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 yinegar 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 Nevt Matokj^aise (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, hy 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, 43

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 ^gg of maitre d'hotel butter. Have you

Luncheon, 45

such scraps of cold meat as could not come to table? Toss
them up with a half cup of water, a slice of glg-ze (oh,
blessed ever-ready glaze !) a teaspoonf ul of ravigotte, or
maitre dliotel, and a teaspoonf ul 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 miuute ; 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
«weet, before you fold it put in a layer of preserves.

The advantage of the omelet I have here given ig
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 liot and a Tiot 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 0:S GENERAL MANAGEMENT IN VERY
SMALL FAMILIES.

A VERY small family, *'a young menage,^' for in-
etance, 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-
chaiiffe; 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 \\f :

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 quich 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 hceuf 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
espagnoJe, and simmer fifteen minutes ; when ready to
3

50 Culture and Cooking,

serve, thicken with two ounces of mattre dliotel butter
in w^hich 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 mattre
dliotel 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
Sunday, 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 Car erne,
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 leav.e 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, win 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 ^^AYarmi-ng Over." You have
still at your disposal the bouilli or beef from which you
have made your pot-au-feii, 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 souMse) ;
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 sauU, 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 so 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 yery 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.

CHAPTER VII.

OHi FEYIN^G AND BKOILIKG.

Pryixg 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 yery
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

$6 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 Q,gg, 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 p(^ers 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 hone 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 haye 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 Ion vivant, greeted it with, *'Aha! Filets
de sole d, la Delmonico,^^ and as nothing to the con-
trary was said until dinner was over, he ate them under
the impression that they were \eT\idh\Q 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
3*

58 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, aud 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 ajid Broiling. 59

Do not be airaid 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. Careme 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

6o 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 tiling 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, and the least bit
of powdered thyme, or grated lemon -peel, or nutmeg ;
this is, however, only a matter of taste.

Broilikg 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. 6i

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.

KOASTIl^G.

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

63

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.

CHAPTEE IX.

BOILIKG.

BoiLiiJrG 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 com 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, hoiled 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

d^ 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 ma^vng jpot-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 Q.gg 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, 6y

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 houillo7i, 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
poUau-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-au-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 risen,
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 toil, 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
Boups 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 wliite
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.

8AU0ES.

Talleyrakd said England was a country with twen-
ty-four religions and only one sauce. He miglit 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
'^ toujour s 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 ^lontpel-
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, yi

imagination and brains will tell in cooking, and little
essays of invention may be tried witb profit. But be-
ware of trying too much ; make yourself perfect in one
thing before venturing on another.

EsPAGXOLE, 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 tablespoonf ul of flour, mix both with a spoon into a
paste ; when smooth add half a pint of warm milk, a small
teaq)oonful 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 o5
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

WARMING OVER.

Hash is a peculiarly American institution. In no
other country is eyery 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 witli 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;

73

Warming Over. 73

^* 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 4:he 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
wliite meat.

BcEUF A LA Jaediniere.— 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 au Gratis. — 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 Car erne, 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-crumbs sifted,
then in Qgg, then in crumbs again, and fry in yery 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 w^hich 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.

MiROTOK 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 seiTe 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 liot 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 kii^d of
sauce.

7^ Culture and Cooking.

Eagout.— A yery 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 BREAKFAST DISH is made thus : Cut
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, 79

as mnch 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 Qgg, 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 baste well while baking ; serve with nice gravy.

Beef Olives 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 hoth 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 Warm over Cold Mutton-. — An excellent and
simple way is to cut it, if Idin, into chops, or leg, into

8o Culture and Cooking.

thick collops, and dip each into ^^g 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 eyen, 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 Qgg 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 ajsy 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 hoil,
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. 8 1

score them deeply with a knife and rub them oyer -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 liker 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 bum; 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 gi'ill may be served with what Soyer calls his
Mepliistophelian 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.

Soter'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

4*

82 Culture and Cooking,

bread in a clean cloth to extract the water ; put in a
stew-pan two ounces of butter, a tablespoonful of chopped
onions ; fry two minutes and stir, then add the bread,
stir and fry till rather dry, then the meat ; season with a
teaspoonful 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 ^gg,
flatten it a little, Qgg 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 ja7nais
Hen." 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-
vantage—and in every one way there is the suggestion
for another — that I suffer from an emharras 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.

CHAPTEE XII.

OK FRIANDISES.

*' Le role du gourmand finit avec Tentremets, et celui du friand
commence au dessert. — Grimod de la Reyniere.

American 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 Byeok. — 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. 8$

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 coyer
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 Dicken^s. — One pint
of sjrrap (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 yanilla 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. Wlien 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 ^gg and beat well,
then another and beat again, and so on until the five are

On Friandises, 8/

used. Wlien the paste leayes the bowl it is beaten
enough, but not before ; then add the sponge to it, and
a large half ounce of citron cliopped, 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 are 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 syrap 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 symp
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 descendanta»still use with
it, says Careme, a syrup made of Malaga wine and
one sixth part of eau de tanaisie.

But, although our forefathers seemed to have relished

SB Culture and Cooking.

tansy yery 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 Grerman 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 Qgg 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. Out 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 sufiBciently 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 pieces 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, a^
you must adapt the flavor of your icing to the jelly.
For red currant, ice with chocolate icing. Eecipes 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.

CURA90A 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

90 . Culture and Cooking.

brandy into it, leaving it coyered close another day.
Eub 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. Eeady for use in a week or
two.

Makaschiko . — 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 cura9oa. Stir
syrup and spirit together, leave it another day, run it
through a jelly bag, and bottle. Keady 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.

CHAPTEE XIII.

FEENCH CAiq^DY 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
Bugar-boiling I find them less likely to bum 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. TVTien 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 yo^xY 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 flrm 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 Vanilla Almoi^-d Cream.

TuTTi FiiUTTi Candy. — Chop some almonds, citron,
a fetff currants, and seedless raisins ; work into some
fondant, flavor with rum and lemon, thus making Eo-
man punch, or with vanilla or rasj)berry ; 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.

FoKDANT PAif ACHE. — Take -^oxxY 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,
your 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. Hdke 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.

Veky fine chocolate ckeams 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 qI 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 Qgg, 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 Coloeikg 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 juice
squeezed through it.

Be careful in boiling the sugar for 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 YERY SMALL MEAKS.

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 Yege tables, 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
can be made with a piece of bread dough, to which you
have added an q^^^^, 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
{^QQ 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 tbe 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 stuffed with bread-crumbs, parsley, thyme, and a lit-
tle onion, and baked separately. Oi-, 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 nounshment 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 wliich 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,
which 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

100 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 really
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-
not be told from game. Another way is to stuff it with

Chapter for People of Very Small Means, lOi

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 yery 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
with 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.

102 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 using it to avoid waste. Her way was this:

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 Q^;g 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 Okioks. — 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.
When 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.

104 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 KEMEMBER.

Eyery 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
5* 105

io6 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 liot 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 yenison.

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 PEEJUDICES.

Mai?"y 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 untrayeled 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<;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 " sus2ncio7i " 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

On Some Table Prejudices, 109

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.

**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 liorse three
times this week." Of course the Englishman of rank.

no 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. '^ (7« pese sur Vestomac, p« creuse Vestomac," 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 XVIL

A CHAPTER OF ODDS AN^D EKDS — VALEDICTORY.^

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
use 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, haying 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 Qgg 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 ai:;ticle 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.
Really there are very few things not to be got in New

Chapter of Odds and Ends— Valedictory, 113

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
eyerything belonging to the French cuisine. So preju-
diced are the French in favor of the productions of la
Mle 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

8

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
nevei' 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— Valedictory. 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

Ii6 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."

Oiapter of Odds and Ends — Valedictory, \\*J

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 Rey-
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.

INDEX.

PAGB

Almond creams 93

Altering recipes Ill, 112

Asparagus, to boil 66

Ba6a.. 86

Small 87

Syrup for 87

Batter for frying a la Cargme 59

" " " Proven^ale.. 60

Beef, Bceuf k la jardiniere 74

" au Gratin 75

Pilet de boeuf Chateaubriand 49

Fritadella 81

Little breakfast dish of T8

Mirot -n of 76

Olives of 79

Pseudo-beefsteak 75

Eagoiit of cold 78

Salmi of cold 73

Simplest way to warm a joint 77

To warm over a large piece 78

Sirloin, to make two dishes 49

Biscuit glace, a la Charles Dickens. 85

" " Thackeray 85

Blanc for white sauce 31

Boiling, asparagus 66

Cabbage 65

Potatoes 66

PcHS 65

Rules for meat 65

Bouchees de dames 88

To ice 89

Bread 12

Baking 14

Cause of failure 15

" of thick crust 14

Compressed yeast 15

Kneading 14

Oven heating 14

Remarks 12

Rules of time for rising 14

To set sponge 13

Bread-crumbs for frying 56

Bread dough, to keep a day or two. 106

'* for pie crust 97

Soufflae 20

Brioche 18

Jockey Club, recipe for 19

PAOS

Brioche for summer pastry 19, 20

Broiling 60

Chickens and birds 61

Brown flour 34

Sauce 71

Butler, maitre d'hOtel 32

Montpellier 33

Ravigotte 33

Cabbage, to boil 65

Cakes, Baba 86

Bouchees de dames 8S

Savarins 88

Candies 92

Chocolate creams 94

Cream almonds 93

Cream walnuts 93

Fondant 92

Fondant panache 93

Punch drops 94

Simple French 92

Tutti frutti 92

Vanilla almond cream 92

Walnut cream 92

Celeraic, or turnin-rooted celery. . . 54

Celery seed for poup 106

Celery cream soup 6S

Chateaubriand, filet de boeuf 49

Chicken 48

Broiling 60

Cold.. 49

Pie 38

Potted 44

Roasting 48

Use of the feet 48

Clinkered fire-bricks 107

Cold meat salmi 73

Various ways of warming 72-81

Coloring for candy and icing 95

Company to lunch, and nothing in

the house 44

Cromesqnis of cold lamb 75

Crumbs for frying 56

Cucumber and onion ragout 102

Curacoa, to make 89

Curry 108

Deviled meats 80

Dishes made without meat 108

119

120

Index,

PAGE

Dri{)ping:, to clarify 59

Feuilletonao;e 23

Fire-bricks,to remove clinkers from 107

To mend 107

Flavoring 70

Flounders, to bone 56

As filet de sole 56

Foreqnartcr of mutton 101

Frangipane tartlets 26

French herbs 113

Friandises 84

Fritadella of cold meat, twenty

recipes in one 81

Frying 55

Batter a la Careme 59

" Proven(;ale 60

Crumbing 56

Filet d(; sole 56

Flounders 56

Oil for 58

Oj'siers 57

Remarks on 55

To clarify dripping for 59

To test the heat of fat for 57

Galantine 39

Garlic 108

Glaze 30

To glaze ham, tongue, etc 32

Gouffe's pot-au-f eu 68

Rules for ovens 27

Gravy 29-63

Grating nutmegs 115

Ham, to boil 65

To glaze 32

To pot 43

Hash 97

Heart, beef 100

Sheep's 99

Iced soufflee 85

A la Byron 84

Icing 89

Ink, to remove from carpets 107

Jellied fish or oysters 41

Jelly for cold chicken 47

Jelly from pork 31

Kerosene lamps 107

Keeping meat 106

Poultry 107

Dough 106

Kitchen conveniences 114

Knniznach horns 16

Kringles 17

Lamb, cromesquis of 75

Lamps li'7

Larding needle 112

Leg of mutton 52

A la Soubise 52

Boiled 52

Lemons, to keep 105

Peels 106

Little dinners 50

Liver, sheep's 98

Lnncheon^^ 35

Maitre d'h6tel butter 32

PAOK

Management in small families 47

Maraschino, to make 90

Marrow from soup bone 98

Mayonnaise, new 42

Meat, to keep 106

Salad 52

Mepliistophelian sauce 81

Miroton of beef 76

Montpellier butter 33

Mushroom powder 29

Mutton broth 52

Forequarter 101

Leg 52

Neck of mutton 101

Noyeau 90

Nutmegs, best way to grate 105

Omelet, new 45

Onion soup, maiirre 103

Ornameiitiug meat pies 37

Ovens 14

Goufte's rules for heating 27

Oysters, to fry 57

In jelly 41

Ox cheek 100

Panache fondant 93

Parsley seed for soup 106

Parsley in winter 113

Pjiste, puff 22

To handle 24

Pastry tablets 26

Pate a la Careme for frying 59

" Proven^ale 60

Peas, to boil 66

Peasse soup, maigre 103

Pie, bread dough for crust 97

Chicken, to eat cold 38

Fruit 24

English raised 38

To " raise "a 39

Veal and ham 38

Windsor 36

Pork for jelly 31

Potato salad 54

Snow 45

Soup, maigre 103

To w arm over 46

Pot-aufeu 68

Pot roasts 99

Potted meats 43

Punch drops 94

Ragout of cold meat 78

Of cucumber and onion 102

Ravieotte 33

Remarks, preliminary 1-12

On boiling 65

On bread-making 12

On frying 54

On kitchen and servants 114

On lirtle dinners 50

On luncheons 35

On maigre dishes 104

On management in small fami-
lies 47

On sauces and flavoring 70

Index,

121

PAOK

Bemarksonsonps 67

On table prejudices 108

On true economy in buying meat 99

On rojisting 62

Rissolettes 25

Rolls 15

Roux 34

Rusks 16

Salad, Celeraic f>4

Potato 54

Cold meat 52

Salamander, substitute for 112

Sauces 70

Flavoring 70

Brown or espagnole 71

Mephistophelian 81

White 71

Mayonnaise 42

Savarin (cake) 88

Soufflee bread 20

Iced 85

AlaByron 84

PAGB

Soup bone 96

Soup, celery cream 08

Consomme ." . . . 68

Pot-au-feu 118

Onion 103

Pease las

Potato 103

To color 67

To clear stock 66

Sugar boiling for candy. 91

Tainted meat, to restore 107

To make strong vegetables milder, 106

Tutti fnitti candy 92

Vanilla almond cream 92

Veal 53

W.irming over 72

What to do with scraps 45

Where to buy articles not in general

ns^e 112

Why meat does not brown in cook-
ing 62

Windsor pie 36

y