THE - - Pneumat NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTED BY MRS. HENRY DRAPER THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK Salo THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK A SERIES OF CHATS ON THE CULINARY ART AND NINE HUNDRED RECIPES BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA New York BRENTANO'S CHICAGO PARIS WASHINGTON 1896 THE NEW Yü FUELLIPRAY 687966 AETCH, LENKAN TILOLWILL NWA IC in PREFACE.-I. To the General Reader. Every one of the Recipes in this work has been carefully studied, and tested from personal experience, and compared with cognate formulas in the culinary manuals of such eminent authorities as Laguipière, Beauvilliers, Ude, Carême, Soyer, Francatelli, Urbain Dubois, Jules Gouffé, Kettner, Chandelier (Napoleon's last. chef at St. Helena), Garlin, Suzanne, and Durand, together with the English experts, Hunter, Kitchiner, Brand, Simpson, and Dolby. A lady to whom I once mentioned that I had tried prac- tically all the dishes which I have enumerated in the following pages, observed, with a smile, half of incredulity and half of disdainful compassion, that it was a wonder I had not died of apoplexy years ago; and should such a contingency suggest itself to the minds of my readers, I may respectfully inform them that my study of the Art of Cookery extends over a period of fifty-five years; and that ever since I was a boy I have been, not only theoretically but practically, a cook. In a work of mine called “Things I have Seen and People I have known," I incidentally remarked that my dear mother had all her children taught systematically, to :cook, - as an integral part of their education ; and that although, from the circumstance of my having been a delicate chily, I was, absolved from the ruder labours of roasting, boiling, and taking, I was early initiated into the mysteries of preparing soups entrées, sauces, and sweets. Further, I may just, bint that although I fully appreciate the attributes of a gourmet, I certainly do not wish to claim the status of a gourmand. I delight in the genesis, as well as in the analysis and the THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. moderate degustation, of artistically concocted plats; but it so happens that I have always had a very small appetite—that my favourite dishes have been boiled chicken and rice, Irish stew, macaroni, and haricot beans, and that for the last few years I have been almost a vegetarian. It is because I wish others to live well, and to satisfy a cultured appetite without injuring their digestion, that I have written this book. In composing it I have kept three objects in view. First, to avoid padding my pages with quasi-scientific disquisitions on the chemistry of cookery. Nothing would be easier than to tell the public that which they have been told over and over again—that in making the pot-au-feu, or fundamental beef broth, the heat of the fire swells the muscular fibres of the meat, dissolving the gelatinous substances therein contained, and that by these means the osmazome, which is the most savoury part of the meat, gently adds “its unction to the broth, while the albumen, which is the muscular part producing the scum, rises to the surface." To harp on such a string would be not only to waste the time but to exhaust the patience of my readers. Nor do I intend in these pages to teach the fundamental prin- ciples of cookery. I assume that the cook in whose hands I earnestly hope that very many ladies will place this book has learned the rudiments, and is able to use the minor arts, of her trade—that she knows how to roast, boil, fry, stew, and bake. I have not hesitated, therefore, to leave to :'her knowledge and judgment things which I should have had : to setorton detail if I had been writing a treatise on the :elements of; the culinary art. It is true that now and again I have given some simple hints with regard to braising, • since.that: is a process only imperfectly understood by the majority of English cooks, and not half so much used by them as it should be. My second object has been to make "The Thorough Good Cook” as cosmopolitan as I possibly could, though TO THE GENERAL READER. vii without attaching to avowedly foreign dishes more or less unpronounceable titles. I have seen and tried the cookery of every country in the civilised world—from that which has furnished forth the tables of princes down to that which has formed the fare of peasants and mechanics; and I do not know any foreign kitchen from which I have not been able to learn something, and in which I have not found dishes easily adaptable to English tastes. Scores of dishes, indeed, which we fondly imagine to be exclusively English have their counterparts in the cuisines not only of France but of Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, and even Greece and Turkey. That we, on the other hand, have a national English school of cookery is to me as indubitable as that we have a national school of painting; and I main- tain that our cuisine contains many excellent dishes, as wholesome as they are succulent, among which I hasten to cite turtle and mock-turtle soup, boiled leg of mutton and caper sauce, grilled fowl and mushrooms, Irish stew, beefsteak pie and pudding, Scotch kale and collops, lark and quail puddings, pickled salmon, soused mackerel, tripe and onions, ox-tail soup, liver and bacon, roast saddle of mutton, roast sirloin of beef, and plum pudding —which last dainty, if the directions I have given are followed, need not be in the least indigestible. We have, besides, the finest butcher's meat and nearly the finest game in the whole world ; although France and the United States beat us in the way of poultry. Finally, our Imperial mastery of India has added to the English kitchen a large number of splendid curries; and I seriously contend that a well-prepared curry is not only delicious to the taste but is also in most cases a salutary stomachic. The trouble is that, although we have plenty of good English dishes, not one cook in twenty knows how to prepare, artistically, edibles for the table, and that not one cook in a hundred has the faintest idea how even the simplest of curries should be composed. viii THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. My final object in putting forth a work to which I have devoted many years of hard study and labour has been to make “The Thorough Good Cook” adaptable to very moder- ate as well as to well-lined pockets. It does not profess to be a manual of cookery for the working classes; because I am well aware that a working man's wife, whose allowance for housekeeping would not exceed fifteen shillings to a pound a week, could not afford to purchase all the ingre- dients prescribed in many of my least expensive recipes. This book is meant, first for that middle class of which I am myself a member, and next for the upper classes among whom I have mingled, and who, even to the very grandest of them, I have long been convinced, very often become wearied to the point of disgust by the monotony of the bills of fare provided for them by able and experienced chefs, who, for all their ability and experience, are continually travelling in a circle, instead of striking out now and again at a tangent by borrowing dishes from alien kitchens. Over and over again have I been asked by ladies who have had French cooks in their employment to tell them of some novel sauce, some unhackneyed entrée, some seldom-heard- of salad or sweet or savoury or hors-d'ouvre, the recipes of which they might communicate to their cooks, so that some- thing like variety might be imparted to their luncheons or their dinners. The help which I have been able to give to a few I now extend to all; and I shall not, I hope, be accused of vanity when I say that such information as will be found in “The Thorough Good Cook” covers a rather wide range of culinary items. “I have seen the manners of my time and I have written this book," said, in his preface, the author of “La Nouvelle Héloïse.” I, for my part, have seen and essayed the cookery of two generations all over the globe-I have a retentive memory: and that is why I have written “The Thorough Good Cook.” G. A. S. PREFACE.-II. To the Lady of the House. DEAR MADAM, I have explained—I hope without objectionable iteration-in the Preface addressed to the General Reader the objects which I have mainly endeavoured to accomplish in this book. It remains for me respectfully and sympa- thetically to submit to you a few hints and suggestions which I think will be serviceable to you in establishing in your household that permanent boon and joy—a well-appointed kitchen. It would be altogether foreign to my purpose, and impertinent besides, were I to give you any lectures upon the necessity of economy, the kinds of tradesmen with whom you should or should not deal, and the best way of managing your servants. I have kept house myself ever since the year 1858, and I should say that, having always maintained a good table, not only for my wife and myself, but-as Grollier kept his well-bound books for himself and his friends—for my guests, I know a good deal about house- keeping. At the same time, it is quite possible that, though you yourself may be quite a young married lady, yet hav- ing had the inestimable advantage of thorough training by some experienced parent or relative, you know quite as much about domestic economy as I do. Still, I will briefly tell you what, in my opinion, will be of some service to you in the con- duct of your kitchen. You will find that in “ The Thorough Good Cook” I have made provision for “smart”—to use the cant term of to-day—or elegant and luxurious repasts as well A* THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. as for modest ones. I have done so because, for aught I know, you may be a lady of the highest rank. If not, in this commercial country it is quite within the domain of possibility that you may be a lady of rank one of these days. In any case, there are occasions when you will feel disposed to ask your friends to entertainments of a more festive and more elaborate nature than those in which you ordinarily indulge; and it is for that reason that I have given a good many recipes for dishes of which I have partaken in many lands at the tables of very superlative grandees indeed. At the same time I know perfectly well that, as a rule, cookery comparatively simple in its nature and moderate in its cost will be most acceptable to the majority of the ladies whom I have the honour to address. I have specially borne this in mind in respect to the names of the dishes which I prescribe. If you wish to be and have the means of being “smart,” you will usually find that I have given the dish its French name; but I have been careful to supply also the English one, except in cases where no English equivalent can be found. I have endeavoured, too, to exclude as far as ever I possibly could the French names of culinary processes. Many cookery books over- flow with such technical terms as marquer, masquer, faire revenir, dégraisser, lier, passer, mouiller, faire réduire, égoutter, and so forth; and English adapters of French recipes either give some absurdly blundering translation of the French technical term, or pitchfork it, untranslated, into their English text; thus puzzling and irritating the cook. That which I have tried to do has been to tell the culinary artist, in the plainest English at my command, how the dish is to be made; and I have been able to make the English all the plainer, either because I can cook the dish myself, or have seen it cooked over and over again by experts in the art. . Although, as I have said, you will find among my recipes TO THE LADY OF THE HOUSE. a large number of which I have made the acquaintance at the tables of ambassadors and other grand folk, I hope that I have avoided the absurdity of drawing up culinary forinulas of which the following may perhaps be taken as a typical reduction to absurdity: “Take twelve pounds of fillet of beef, four large capons, and eight pounds of ribs of mutton; moisten with two bottles of Chablis, one of Sauterne, and one of red Hermitage; to which add a glass of Curaçao and one of very old Cognac; mask the bottom of a silver stew-pan with slices of Bayonne ham, on which place a layer of truffles, asparagus tips, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pineapples; on this place your meat; simmer for seven hours; pour in two quarts of 'double' cream, a bottle of champagne, and the juice of twelve Seville oranges, and serve in a silver dish, with a spirit lamp beneath.” Upon my word, I have read recipes quite as Lucullian, quite as Apician, and quite as preposterous as the above, in a cookery book which could be bought for half-a-crown. The explanation of the absurdity is that the compiler of the culinary manual in question has picked up at a bookstall some cookery books written by a famous chef of the past—say Monsieur Vincent de la Chapelle, who was chief cook to the witty Earl of Chesterfield, and published his Livre de Cuisine in three volumes in 1742. A dish of miscellaneous ingredients called an olio was then extremely fashionable, and some of La Chapelle's olio recipes are in a degree as extravagant as the one which for the purpose of illustration I have invented.. Finally, throughout “The Thorough Good Cook” I have been intent upon the endeavour to persuade English ladies to bring about in their culinary economy that which I hold to be a long needed and most important reform. My dear Madam, for twenty-five or thirty pounds a year you can get a female cook who is able to make, we will say, about a dozen soups, and she will serve up about an equal number of plats of fish; she will be a good roaster and boiler, xii · THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and a tolerable adept with the gridiron and the frying- pan; her pies, puddings, and sweets will be as a rule ir- reproachable, and she will be able to give you a few simple entreés, such as hashed mutton, stewed rump steak, haricot mutton, veal cutlet and bacon, or minced veal. For forty pounds or thereabouts you shall have a cook who will be able to make a bisque of lobster or cray-fish, who can curry tripe or eggs, who will serve up, perhaps, twenty differ- ent entrées, who will know the difference between a chicken salad and one à la Russe, and who will even be able to send up a truite au bleu, a saumon à la Chambord, or a dariole of oysters. But unless you have a cook at fifty pounds a year or upwards, I will wager that she will be wholly un- satisfactory as a preparer of vegetables for the table. I am well acquainted with the cant so common in ordinary cookery books about “the boiled potato.” The boiled potato, the appearance of which at English tables dates from about a hundred and thirty years ago, has been the bane of English cookery; but let that pass. I will grant that your middle- class cook knows how not only to boil but to fry and mash and stew potatoes. Sometimes, but not often, she can sauter or slightly brown them. But with regard to other vegetables she is, in general, grossly ignorant. Our miser- able deficiencies in this regard arise, no doubt, from our stupid and barbarous custom, when the joint is served, of loading the plate with three or four kinds of crudely boiled vegetables : potatoes, carrots, and greens are all mixed up pell-mell by the side of the meat. I have even seen asparagus served with roast mutton. What we fail to understand is that no dish of meat should be served with more than one vegetable on the same dish, and that at least one course should be composed of vegetables alone, carefully and artistically cooked, and not brought to table reeking with the water in which they have been boiled. For goodness' sake, dear lady, persuade your cook to deal sensibly with the TO THE LADY OF THE HOUSE. xiii products of the vegetable kingdom, and to treat the turnips, the carrots, the broccoli, the beans, the Brussels sprouts, the cauliflowers, and especially the artichoke, not as subordinate adjuncts to a dish of meat or poultry, but as separate, inde- pendent, and important dishes. One word more, about my recipes generally. In such a work as this, overlapping is unavoidable; and many of the recipes might with equal propriety have been placed in any one of three or four of the sections into which “ The Thorough Good Cook” is divided. But in the Index to Recipes each recipe is entered separately, under its own name, as well as under the heading of the section to which it has been allocated. No difficulty will therefore be found in “ turning up” any dish for which I have thought it worth while to give directions. G. A. S. PREFACE.-III. To Mrs. Cook, My GooD SOUL, Many years ago we had a parlourmaid who, although she came from an aristocratic household in Park Lane, did not suit us very well. A short time after her departure I found in the drawer of her bedroom a half-finished note which she had written, apparently, to some lady-friend, to me unknown. It was indited on what I assumed to be the note-paper of her foriner employer—that is to say, it bore, in violet ink, an embossed address in Park Lane, a coronet, and a monogram. It began thus : “My dear Jane, I have been here a fortnight; but missus and I don't hit it. It is nothing but jor, jor, jor, from morning to night.” Here, like the story of the bear and the fiddle, that began and broke off in the middle, the epistle ended. Now, I have related this short anecdote with the view of assuring you that I have not the slightest intention of "jawing” or pestering you with advice touching a number of matters concerning which you very probably know quite as much if not more than I do. I have not written this book in order to teach the kitchenmaid or the very young and inexperi- enced cook the rudiments of her calling. That which I wish to do, assuming you to be a competent plain cook, is to make you a thoroughly good one. First of all, I want you to drive out of your head the nonsensical prejudice against entrées, or made dishes, as being “nasty French TO MO XV MRS. COOK. messes.” No greater trouble is needed in dressing even the most elaborate of the dishes for which I have given directions than is required for cooking haricot mutton or Irish stew, or for jugging a hare, or making a chicken and ham pie. I have put down in the very plainest terms that I can call to mind the manner of making all kinds of dishes, complicated as well as simple. As to the exact quantities of the ingredients used, I have thought it best to leave you a pretty considerable discretion, only, in one particular, I must most seriously beg you to attend to my counsel. Always be easy with the pepper-castor, especially in making soup. A dish too highly peppered is hopelessly spoiled. If a little more seasoning is re- quired, what are the salt, the pepper, and the mustard on the table for, if not for the purpose of heightening flavour? Remember that, in nine cases out of ten, dinner begins with soup. If the first dish is a failure and our tongues are smarting from the over-fiery soup, we are very apt to lose our temper for the rest of the repast. This remark applies quite as strongly to the making of curry. Too much curry powder is a very grave error. The curry, when it comes to table, should be heightened in flavour by more or less powerful chutney, according to the tastes of the guests. Remember that I am speaking as an expert in this respect, since I went through, some years ago, a regular course of curry making in Ceylon and at Calcutta; and when I came home my curry luncheons earned the approbation of numerous distinguished Anglo- Indian authorities, including the late Sir Richard Burton. I beg you to read over and over again the directions for making curry given in the body of this book,* especially as regards the boiling of the rice; and I ask you to do this not only in order that you may give pleasure to your em- ployers, but for a reason which I hope will at once come * Pp. 28, 322-24. xvi THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. home to you. A good curry-cook can always command higher wages than one who does not know how to dress curry, or dresses it clumsily. Again, my good friend, I do most earnestly entreat you to study well that which I have written about omelettes, * a delicious dainty which not one English cook out of fifty knows how to prepare properly. Always bear this golden rule in mind—that flour should never be used in making an omelette ; and that milk should be as rigorously excluded. Eggs are cheap enough. Practise making omelettes whenever you have the oppor- tunity, and induce your employers to have savoury omelettes for breakfast and sweet omelettes at dinner. Kindly read over and over again also that which I have said in my second preface about cooking vegetables. Don't turn them over to the kitchenmaid. Take them in hand yourself; for a well-prepared dish of cauliflower or spinach or arti. chokes should earn you as much praise as a lobster salad, or a vol-au-vent, or an ice pudding. And now, always abstaining from "jawing," let me in the friendliest manner ask you to bear a few concluding rules in mind. Serve hot-Serve hot, Mrs. Cook! A dish sent up scalding hot will soon get cool; but there is no hope and no cure for a dish that is lukewarm. And mind that you see that the kitchenmaid sends up thoroughly hot plates for hot dishes. Be clean, be clean, be clean every- where--in your kitchen, your larder, and your scullery. Keep the very strictest watch over the hog-tub—to use the vulgar name—or wash-bucket. Keep an equally sharp eye over the dustbin, and do not allow to accumulate there fever-breeding heaps of bones, cabbage stumps, lobster shells, etc. Many kinds of refuse can be got rid of by burning them in the modern ranges at the end of each day; but if you cannot get rid of them by this means, worry the dustmen incessantly to do their duty; and if they are See the Index to Recipes, under "Omelettes." TO MRS. COOK. xvii remiss, ask your employer to write to the vestry clerk and complain of their neglect. In conclusion, try to keep peace and good order in the servants' hall. Don't “row.” A “rowing ” cook is de- struction. Be perfectly friendly with all: still, in families where there is neither a butler nor a housekeeper, let the other domestics know that you, Mrs. Cook, are “boss," and must be treated with proper respect. Feed the servants well; but don't pamper them, and never allow anyone to enter the larder without your permission. You are account- able for everything there, and it is not right that you should run the risk of having your larder tampered with. Discourage grumbling, tale-bearing, and scandal. Never allow any of the tradespeople to come nearer your domain than the kitchen door. Put down sternly and strongly anything like bad language in the servants' hall. Do your best to keep your temper-I know full well how trying young servants are to their elders, and how heavy are the respon- sibilities of a cook with an elaborate dinner to think out and dress—and don't thump the kitchenmaid ! G. A. S. CONTENTS. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. :::::::::::: irtir THE GREEK CUISINE ... ... THE RUSSIAN CUISINE FRENCH DOMESTIC COOKERY ... THE AMERICAN CUISINE DELMONICO'S ... THE KITCHEN OF THE FATHERLAND THE SPANISH CUISINE ... THE SCOTTISH KITCHEN BREAKFAST DISHES ... SALADS ... ... ... ... MACARONI, RISOTTO, AND POLENTA CURRY ... ... ... ... ... WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE SCRAPS ? HASH ... ... ... ... OLD-FASHIONED PUDDINGS ... CONFECTIONERY ... ... ... PIES, PATTIES, AND TARTS SAVOURIES AND TIT-BITS POTATOES ... EGGS OYSTERS ... .. ... ... ... COLD Fish PORRIDGE ... .. CHOPS SHOULD CHOPS BE FRIED OR BOILED PARTRIDGES ... ... MINCES ... ... ... CHEESE ... COOL DRINKS How TO MAKE COFFEE ICES FOR THE CHILDREN ... ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: : : : : : : : : : :: 2-13 322 RECIPES. wanan SECTION 1.-SOUPS „ II.-FISH III.-ENTRÉES IV.-Roasts, ETC. ... V.-POULTRY, GAME, ETC. VI. ENTREMETS VII.-CURRIES VIII.-SAUCES IX.-VEGETABLES X.-SALADS ... ... XI.-HORS-D'EUVRES AND SAVOURY DISHES... XII.-EGGS XIII.-CHEESE XIV.-SWEETS XV.-ICES AND DRINKS XVI.--MISCELLANEOUS INDEX TO RECIPES ... ... GENERAL INDEX... ... ... CES 325 353 377 :::::: 387 : : 397 409 : ,, AK XV. : : : 469 : - --- - -- THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. The Greek Cuisine. You are very much mistaken if you think that, in talking about Greek cookery, I am going to descant on the black broth of the Spartans, or that I intend to paraphrase the bill of fare of Trimalcion's banquet, so admirably rendered in Professor Becker's “Gallus.” It is not on the ancient Greek cuisine that I wish here and now to give a few hints. The cookery of which I append a brief sketch is that which is practised in free and independent Hellas, and among Greeks who are yet subject to Ottoman rule, in this present year of grace. Yet I have not called this chat “modern” Greek cookery, because I hold that the epithet “modern” is in- sulting to the Greeks, who had a spoken and written popular language many hundreds of years before we arrogant English folk had any settled language at all. Let it be broadly stated that truly excellent cookery may be found in private houses at Athens, at Smyrna, and at. Constantinople, but that the Hellenes as a whole have not a very copious or refined kitchen. The staples, indeed, of the diet of the common people in Greece comprise bread, somewhat coarse in texture and dark in colour, grapes, and black olives. They will also eat as much of a milky kind of cheese (turi) as they can get; and THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. they are greatly addicted to sousing nearly all their dishes with olive oil. A common repast for a Greek peasant is a hunch of bread, scored backwards and forwards in parallel lines with a knife to a criss-cross pattern; this is seasoned with pepper and salt, and drenched with oil; and is then heartily partaken of, not only by the agricultural classes, but by monks, sailors, and artisans. The long and severe fasts ordained by the Greek Church necessitate the consumption, during Lent and cognate periods of abstinence, of vast quantities of dried fish; and in the Greek islands at all times fish is plentiful and cheap. When meat is eaten, it is generally beef; and the people usually seem to prefer the vraston, or boiled meat, to the pseton, or roast variety. Eggs, again, are in common demand; cabbage and onions are favourite vegetables ; and in the way of sauce the Greeks are never tired of oil and garlic. The oleaginous product of the olive is as dear to them as ghee to a Hindu; and in devouring garlic they surpass even the Marseillais. In polite society in Athens, French cookery, interiningled with a few native dishes, prevails. Among the middle classes the cuisine is a curiously compound one. It has a basis of radically Romaic preparations; but with these are blended a large proportion of Italian dishes; while the confectionery is almost wholly borrowed from the Turks. I should here mention that the celebrated Eastern delicacy called yaourt,* which is simply curdled cream left till it becomes quite sour and swims in liquid of a greenish hue, can be made very much after the fashion of Devonshire junket. Perhaps the best substance with which to curdle or coagulate it is rennet; but should a vitelline membrane be difficult to procure, any druggist will give you a few drops of some perfectly harmless acid, which will suffice to “turn” the cream. But yaourt is rather a Djagetai Tartar than a purely Ottoman dish. The Russians are quite as fond as * See p. 414. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. the Turks of sour cream, the use of which they borrowed from the Tartar tribes of the south, and which they serve with their national cabbage soup. But of this I shall have to speak in the chat about Muscovite cookery. In conclusion, I may mention that in Greek Sweet dishes, and even in some savoury ones, a good deal of honey is used; and this, again, is a practice learnt from the Turkish confectioners. The Russian Cuisine. I want to tell you something about Russian cookery, and to disabuse your minds of the possible impression that the Russians are a people who chiefly support existence on rye-bread, pickled cucumbers, caviare, and train-oil, with a tallow candle occasionally, by way of a treat. As a matter of fact, although the fare of the Russian peasantry is sufficiently coarse, the cuisine enjoyed by the well-to-do and the wealthy is a most appetising one. In the very highest ranks of society at St. Petersburg and Moscow, the cookery is entirely and exquisitely French, and the chef is usually an artist from Paris. There are, however, certain national dishes which are prepared in Russian households, and which are regularly served at the best hotels in the two great cities of Russia. I do not intend to worry you with a long string of names and dishes in Russ, as I am not anxious to make a vain show of familiarity with foreign languages, or to print a long list of words which many of my readers would not, I feel sure, be able to pronounce, and which probably they would not reinember. I may, however, just hint that the name of the cabbage soup for which I have given a recipe* sounds precisely like a sneeze. * See p. 117, B 2 THE TIIOROUGH GOOD COOK, Of course a Russian dinner, like that of most of the Northern nations, is preceded by a “snack,” or rather, a variety of “snacks,” served on a large tray, which is some- times placed on the sideboard of the dining-room, and sometimes on a table in the back drawing - room, where the guests are received. The “snacks” or relishes may consist of fresh caviare, raw herrings, smoked salmon, sun- dried sturgeon, raw smoked goose, radishes, cheese, sliced sausages, cod - sounds, raw ham, and bread and butter. With these appear tiny liqueur glasses of kümmel, kirsch- wasser, maraschino, anisette, and vodka, or corn brandy. Among the soups is a cold one, the stock of half- fermented rye or barley-beer, with pieces of herring, cucumber, meat, and ice floating in it. For the iced spinach and sorrel soup I have also given a recipe.* There is another capital hot soup, to which I must fain give its Russian name, which is casy to remember. This is “Borsch.” Prepare a pot-au-feu, with a piece of brisket of beef, vege- tables, and a piece of smoked bacon, which has first been blanched. When the meat is nearly done, add a mince, composed of raw beetroot, onions, leeks, quarter of a white cabbage head, and a piece of celery root; fry the whole in butter on a moderate fire; then season your vegetables and moisten with two quarts of broth. Let the liquid boil over a moderate fire; last of all, add the meat and the smoked bacon, cut into middling-sized squares. At the last moment, mix into the soup a little sour juice of beetroot, with three tablespoonfuls of raw beetroot rasped. The Russians are fond, too, of smoked fish, from which the fillets are taken out, and the skin removed. These are cut into slices, put together in their original shape, and dished up with a genuine Russian sauce of mustard, olive oil, and vinegar. Also they inake excel- lent patties of the flesh of the sturgeon, and likewise of * See r. 137. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. isinglass. These eat very much like fishy muffins. There is, again, a wonderful dish of fish and cabbage, which requires a good deal of pepper to make it go down, and is a pre- paration which I can scarcely recommend. The Russians are much given, also, to cold boiled suck- ing pig, and make a splendid dish of it. You must take your pig, divide him in pieces, boil him with white wine; let him cool, and bone him; then you encrust a mould with pounded ice, which you endue at the bottom and all round with poached white of egg, gherkins, and beet- root. Dip each item in aspic jelly previously to putting it in the mould; pour a thick layer of jelly on the bottom of the mould; let it set, and then arrange the pieces of boiled piggy alternated with minced gherkins and whole capers, being careful to leave a hollow all round the mould. Fill this hollow with cold liquid jelly, well set. When ready to serve, dip the mould in warm water, turn piggy out on a dish, and serve with horseradish sauce. I make no pretence of the dish being a cheap one; but this book is a cookery book for all, and I am entitled, therefore, to give expensive recipes as well as cheaper ones. French Domestic Cookery. There is an erroneous notion very common in England that all French cookery is as expensive as it is difficult; but I hold that, in many respects, the French system is less expensive than the English one, and that in a mul- titude of instances its variety is equalled by its simplicity. What did the great Louis Eustache C'de say !_“It is a mis- taken notion that good cookery is expensive; on the contrary, it is the cheapest. By good cookery we make the most of everything; by bad cookery, the least.” When I first went to France, the haute cuisine bour- THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. geoise, or, as I call it, upper middle-class cookery, was in a much better condition than it is at present in Paris, where it has declined owing to the immense number of cheap restaurants at which persons with moderate incomes lunch and dine. You must go very far into the Departments, and especially into legal, professional, and mercantile circles, to find upper middle-class cookery in perfection. There you will be regaled, as a standing dish, with the historical pot-au-feu, or beef-soup—call it broth, if you will. But now, mark : this should be immediately followed by bouilli - the beef which has been boiled to make the soup withal. I confess that I do not know what becomes of the gravy-beef in this country. Possibly the cook throws it away, after boiling it to rags in a violent, tempestuous, and unthinking way. The French not only eat the gravy- beef hot, but also make it, when cold, into a very nice salad, with oil and vinegar, gherkins, and a few thin slices of cold boiled potatoes sprinkled with finely chopped parsley. They treat cold French beans and cauliflowers in precisely the same manner; but the English horror of oil deters us from utilising cold vegetables in this sensible fashion. At home, in hot weather, I often revel in. fresh figs and other fruit, together with salads of cold asparagus, and cold French beans at breakfast. Hot boiled gravy-beef, you may say, is a tasteless and insipid viand, fit only for prisoners and paupers; but please to bear this in mind—that in France there is served with the bouilli a rich brown sauce, which makes the meat very palatable ; and, moreover, the beef itself has been so gently and carefully simmered during so many hours that it has become thoroughly tender, without being “pappy" or stringy, and is altogether suitable for the digestion of a dyspeptic person. As regards made-dishes, the most favourite ones in upper middle-class cookery in France are mutton cutlets, either CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. plainly broiled, or egged-and-bread-crumbed. They are cut very small; and not everybody is aware that the little paper frill round the shank is placed there to facilitate the action of the guest when he likes to eat his cutlet without the aid of a knife and fork. You have heard, no doubt, of the twenty-four cutlets which Louis XVIII. used to devour every day for luncheon. They probably did not represent, in dimensions, much more than twenty-four mouth- fuls. Veal cutlets are broiled and served with a purée of potatoes; that is to say, mashed, lubricated with butter, and moistened with milk to the consistency of thick cream ; or with an analogous purée of spinach, or sorrel, or chicory- all cheap and wholesome vegetables. Button-mushrooms are also extensively used, or champignons. As for calf's head, our neighbours treat it very successfully, both hot and cold. Cold, it is dressed with oil and vinegar, a salad of chopped parsley, yolks and whites of eggs, and olives, being arranged separately in four little pyramids at the corners of the dish. The French also patronise fried and broiled calves' ears, calves' brains with sharp sauce, calves' tongues, liver, sweetbreads, hot, cold, and in aspic jelly. Another most acceptable French made-dish is boiled fowl and rice, which is siinply the Western form of the Pollo con arroz of the Spaniards, and the pilaf of the Mohammedan nations. Fowl and rice is a dish that was probably brought to Western Europe by the Crusaders; for some reason or another, it does not often make its appearance at English middle-class tables. The American Cuisine. The American cuisine, broadly speaking, may be divided into three classes. First, domestic cookery, as it is practised in the Northern and Southern States; next, ordinary hotel 8 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. cookery, which may be impartially defined as a desert of very indifferent cooking, with a few oases here and there; and finally, the sumptuous cuisine which you find at Del- monico's, the Brunswick, and two or three other restaurants in New York; at the Continental Hotel, Philadelphia ; at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago; and at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. The chefs at these renowned establishments receive salaries of five thousand dollars a year or more; and they serve epicures with luncheons and dinners equal to any repasts that can be obtained at the greatest of French restaurants, or at the London West End clubs. The dishes I am about to mention all belong to American doniestic cookery. First there is “gumbo," * made of “ochra,” which is, I think, procurable in Piccadilly, not far from Fortnum and Mason's. Ochra is the plant called Abelmoschus esculentus, which yields a mucilaginous fruit used in soups and pickles in America, the West Indies, and the Isle of France. The odd name, Abelmoschus, is supposed to be derived from the Arabic, and means “ father of musk;" the seeds of one of the varieties of the fruit having a musky odour. “Gumbo" is only the Indian name for ochra, which is also called “bandikai.” Green corn and “succotash”+ you should be able to get at almost any co-operative store ; but let me tell you that perhaps the most enjoyable way of consuming green corn is to eat it from the cob, boiled and buttered. To see a pretty young American lady take up a corn-cob in a napkin and dexterously twirl it round and round till she has nibbled all the grains of corn from the cob, without soiling her fingers or her symmetrical chin, is a truly delightful spectacle. As for pork and beans, it is a New England dish, and a thoroughly national one besides. There is a New England Society both in Boston and in New York; and it is said * See p. 376. † See p. 454. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. that the two associations have amicably agreed to differ as to the exact date of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock. They hold their annual banquets on different days; but there is only just a sufficient interval between the two to allow the New York society to feast on pork and beans at Boston as well as New York; while the Bostonians follow suit, and revel on pork and beans both in their own State and in that of the Empire City. At a restaurant a truly patriotic American—and what American is not pat- riotic ?-never calls for pork and beans: he orders “Stars and Stripes.” Indian pudding is another distinctly American domestic dish. It is made of sifted Indian corn-flour, scalded in boil- ing water, and placed in a saucepan over a fire, with a quart of milk, a quarter of a pound of butter, and a pint of molasses or golden-syrup treacle ; six beaten eggs and a little lemon- juice are added to the mixture, which must be stirred till it is quite light and smooth, and it is then baked in a moderately hot oven. Fish pudding may be made of salmon, soles, or turbot, seasoned with salt, pepper, finely chopped onions, and parsley, with which the fish must be carefully rubbed. This is placed in paste rolled half an inch thick, tied up in a pudding-cloth, placed in boiling water, and allowed to simmer for an hour and a half. I don't know whether any of our caterers import the fresh-water or tide-water tortoises called “terrapin," of which there is a salt-water variety found in the maishes around Charleston. There is also, by the way, a chicken tor- toise, so named from its flatour, which is a great favourite with American epicures. If you do get hold of terrapin, cook them in the following manner :—They must be killed like lobsters, by being placed in boiling water; a cruel process no doubt, but would you like to eat lobsters with black shells ? Skin your terrapin when killed, and cut off their 10 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. claws; wash and put them on again to boil, with a teaspoon- ful of salt to every two. Remove the galls carefully; cut up the meat; season with pepper, mace, and nutmeg, and put in a stew-pan, with the juice of the meat ; and for each brace of terrapin, three ounces of butter and flour, a glass of sherry, and the yolks of two eggs beaten. The wine and eggs must be added after the whole is stewed perfectly tender. Serve in a silver dish, if you have got one, with a lighted spirit-lamp underneath. This is a costly delicacy ; but its English analogue, “ dressed” crab (which can be served both hot and cold), is very toothsome, and is cheap enough, goodness knows. Delmonico's. Memories of old times gathered fast and thick around me when I opened the pages of a goodly tome, published not long since by Messrs. Brentano, called “The Delmonico Cook Book: How to buy food, how to cook it, and how to serve it.” It was in the winter of the year 1863 that I first made my acquaintance with Delmonico's world-famous restaurants in New York. I had had some literary business to transact. with a great publishing firm somewhere near the bottom of Broadway, and my interview with them had not been of a very pleasant nature. It seemed to me that they shared the peculiarity ascribed by Canning in matters of commerce to the Dutch, of giving too little and asking too much. There were three partners, but at the outset I only saw two of them. One was a very methodical gentleman, bristling all over with figures; the other seemed to be of somewhat a theological tendency; but I could not make, in the way of business, anything satisfactory of either. I left the office in dudgeon, and was wending my way up Broadway towards CHAT'S ABOUT COOKERY. 11 . the Brevoort House, one of the most comfortable hotels in the world, when I heard a quick step behind me. A hand was laid on my arm, and I was accosted by a little stout gentle- man, who introduced himself to me in the friendliest imagin- able manner. “You didn't get along very well with our people,” he remarked. “You have seen the arithmetical partner and the pious one; I, sir, am the festive partner! Oysters on the half-shell, and Heidsieck's dry Monopole, white seal, at Delmonico's at once.” Delmonico then had a branch restaurant in William Street, and to that pleasant place of entertainment we forth with repaired; and, through the agency of the “ festive” partner, I made a very satis- factory business arrangement with the house of which he was a member. There was still another Delmonico's down town near Wall Street, and yet another on a most palatial scale in Fifth Avenue, corner of East Fourteenth Street ; but the last time that I was in the Empire City I found only a single Delmonico, installed in a magnificent mansion fronting on Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and Twenty-sixth Street, into the last of which thoroughfares looks out a magnificent café with a tessellated floor, lofty ceiling, and any number of small marble-topped tables. In this room smoking and drinking, as well as eating, are indulged in by gentlemen. The remaining moiety of the ground floor is occupied by a similar apartment fronting on Fifth Avenue, and used as a public restaurant. An elevator gives access to the second floor; and here is a series of private apartments and dining- rooms en suite, with a spacious and splendidly decorated ball- room or dining-hall. On the upper floors are a limited number of apartments for gentlemen; and in one of these suites of chambers Dion Boucicault, the dramatist, resided for a considerable period. The cuisine and the service at this house are not surpassed by any restaurant in the world, and the same may safely be said of the prices, which are 12 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOK. commensurate with the excellence of the fare and the per- fection with which it is served. Yet two persons can dine modestly at Delmonico's for five dollars, or £l sterling. This sum includes a bottle of very good claret, although it is the cheapest on the list. It may be added that at Delmonico's the rule obtains that a “portion” for one is quite enough for two. The author of “ The Delmonico Cook Book” is M. Ales- sandro Filippini, who has been twenty-five years chef at this historic house, and in an autograph letter which serves as a preface, he dedicates his exhaustive work to the Delmonico family. In five hundred closely printed pages one finds, to begin with, ample information touching the markets of New York; and the Britisher will derive much interesting inform- ation concerning a large variety of edibles which are rarely met with in this country. For example, M. Filippini men- tions wild turkeys, “truttled grouse, commonly called par- tridge,” squabs, robin or red-breasted snipe-oh! M. Filippini ! -sora or Virginia rail, antelope, brant, red-heads, cygnet or young swans, with, of course, the famous canvas-back duck. Among tish mainly strange to the English palate are pompanos, sheep's head, red. snapper, grouper, white fish, cisco, catfish, wall-eyed pike. Then there are green turtle and terrapin ; followed by clams, soft-shell crabs, and twenty varieties of oysters. M. Filippini proceeds to give a series of menus for every day in the year; in which, among a host of truly American dainties, you will find stuffed and devilled crabs, sweet potatoes, fried scollops with tomato sauce, stringed beans with cream, fish-balls, Saratoga potatoes, pigs' feet à la Boston, Martha Washington's pie, black fish au gratin, squash, broiled sea-bass, scrambled eggs with asparagus tops, tender loin steak, turkey with cranberry sauce, antelope chops, lamb steak, flat sausages with white wine, and blue fish à l'Italienne. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. The Kitchen of the Fatherland. I first set foot on German soil in 1850, when I went on a trip to Aix-la-Chapelle. I began to learn German ten years before, and I have always been an atrociously bad German scholar; but I have an intense admiration for the strength, solidity, and thoroughness of the German charac- ter: I delight in German art, and, as far as I can under- stand it, in German literature. I like the simplicity and truthfulness of German home-life, and I hope that I appre- ciate the comeliness of the flaxen-haired, blue-eyed, plump, and dimpled mädchen. Especially do I recognise the many excellent qualities of Teutonic cookery-a cuisine which has been half ignor- antly and half spitefully calumniated both in France and in England. In this country we are apt to think that the Germans subsist chiefly on sausages, sauer-kraut, fresh boiled beef, and suet pudding; washed down by un- limited potations of German beer, and a modicum of “ frightened water," as the Germans call Rhine wine, to which we give the generic term of hock. The truth is that the Germa: kitchen is a very copious and varied one, differing favourably in many particulars from the cookery of other Continental peoples; while, in its higher branches, it rivals not wholly unsuccessfully the French cuisine. It should not be forgotten that that much- vaunted cuisine was originally introduced into France by Günther von Andernach, the Lutheran physician of Francis I. One curious instance in which Germany differs from other nations in its modes of food preparation is apparent in its soups. What do you say to milk soup, sweet and savoury ; to chocolate soup, almond soup, and wine soup; to frothod-lemon soup, and beer soup—of which last there 14 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOK. are at least half-a-dozen varieties ? A very favourite one is beer soup with caraway seeds; it is made with some slices of bread boiled soft in a little water, then strained, and beaten smooth; caraway seeds, lemon-peel, sugar, spice, and beer are added; all is boiled together until the caraways are soft ; then it is stirred briskly with yolks of eggs in the tureen. There are soups, too, made of apples, pears, strawberries, currants, and cherries, which are all sweet pottages, and with which macaroons and Naples biscuits may be served. There are also a large number of fish-soups: some of which bear a strong resemblance to the fish-soups of the Russian kitchen. In sauces, again, the Germans are very strong. They make a capital asparagus sauce out of the yolks of eggs with cream, a dessertspoonful of four, a little salt and nutmeg, a piece of butter, and a sufficient quantity of the water in which the asparagus has been boiled. This must be stirred continually until thick; and a little lemon-juice or vinegar may be added, but not enough to give an acid taste to the sauce. I am not acquainted with any other national kitchen frugal enough to utilise the water in which asparagus has been boiled, and which has naturally absorbed a great deal of the exquisite flavour of that delicious escu- lent. Try it by all means, whenever the blessed vegetable is in season. I should say something in commendation of the Pomer- anian sauce for wild ducks, which is made thus:-Boil the peel of two Seville oranges until soft. Drain and cut this into thin strips, put them in a saucepan with a glass of old hock and a cup of clear gravy, without any flavour of spice; squeeze in the juice of the oranges; add a little cayenne pepper, and, if not quite acid enough, a little lemon juice. Pour the sauce over the ducks when served. I should applaud this sauce were it not, as I hold, that the very best sauce for roasted wild duck, and for a salmi of tame duck, is the sweet orange itself, simply sliced and CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. eaten bodily, rind and flesh, with the duck. The juice of the orange only loses its flavour when it is mingled with other ingredients, especially with wine. You want it fresh, sharp upon your palate; and it gives in its natural state an estimable zest to the bird itself. In salads and salad dressings the Teutons are very powerful; and this should be remembered--that in the Fatherland every known vegetable, when cooked plainly, can be used cold for salad. Potato salad may be considered as native to German soil. The potatoes must be boiled in their skins, and while warm must be peeled and sliced thin; then chives, onions, and parsley are chopped very fine and strewn over the potatoes in the salad bowl. Now sprinkle with salt and pepper ; add three spoonfuls of oil; moisten moderately with vinegar and water mixed, that the salad may not be too sour. Several items may be added to the potato salad, both for flavour and appearance. Among these, remember pickled beetroot sliced, a fresh cucumber sliced, a Yarmouth bloater or a Dutch herring minced small, or a few sardines shredded. Our Teutonic kinsmen alsɔ make excellent salads of red cabbage and celery, of white cabbage, of succory, of peas, beans, artichokes, cauliflowers, and young hops before they are leafy. Some salads they make with a dressing composed of cream instead of oil. They have a supreme salad which they call the Polish one, which is made of cold roast game or poultry cut into very small dice, seasoned with pepper, salt, mustard, and finely minced chives, over which are poured equal parts of oil and vinegar. In defence of the equality in quantity of the second with the first moistening ingredient, they urge that poultry and game are stronger in flavour than green-meat, and demand a sharper or inore acid sauce. When the Polish salad has arrived at this stage, three eggs, boiled for three minutes, have their yolks stirred in with the meat, while the whites are 16 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. chopped very small and added to the mixture. At the time of serving, chopped endive or lettuce is added to the whole. The Spanish Cuisine. The cookery of Spain has often been most unjustly dis- paraged, but I hope to show in the second part of this work, the Recipes, that the Dons can dress a goodly number of dainty dishes. I scarcely think that there could be a more appropriate topic for a chat on Iberian cookery, than the weekly dietary of Don Quixote. If, however, we wish to be accurate in this respect, it is necessary to go to the Spanish text of Cervantes, since most of the English versions that I possess give curiously conflicting and usually inaccu- rate translations of the hebdomadal bill-of-fare of the Knight of La Mancha. For example, an ornately illustrated and quite “up-to-date” edition of the “Adventures of Don Quixote” gives the following as the Don's menu :- “Soup, composed of somewhat more mutton than beef, the fragments served up cold on most nights; lentils on Fridays; collops and eggs on Saturdays; and a pigeon by way of addition on Sundays.” The Spanish text tells a very different story. Therein we read that the Knight of the Rueful Countenance fed on an olla—which is a great deal more than a soup, and is in reality composed of different sorts of meat and vegetables stewed together; and it takes its name from the round eartken pot in which the mess is usually prepared. The English translator says that in Don Quixote's olla there was “ more mutton than beef”; but Cervantes himself says just the contrary, namely, that there was "more beef than mutton.” Then the translator goes on to state that the “ fragments” of the soup were served up “cold on most nights.” He evidently does not know how to CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. translate the Spanish word salpicon, answering to our “salmagundi,” which is a mixture of chopped meat, eggs, anchovies, and red pickled cabbage. You will find a recipe for “salpicon” in this book.* Furthermore, we are told that on Saturdays the Don regaled on “collops and eggs,” and in another version—a very old one which I have- instead of “collops and eggs” I find “gripes and grumblings," as an equivalent for the Spanish duelos y quebrantos. The old English expression is a slightly coarse one; still it comes nearer the author's meaning than the modern English version does. These duelos y quebrantos were the “humbles” of animals (you have heard of humble pie), or else the carcases of lambs and calves which had died a natural death; and they were thus utilised for the making of a modest stew, at which no doubt the shepherds and other farm-servants grumbled as sorely as English school-boys and school-girls grumble at what they call “resurrection pie.” In another portion of the immortal romance of Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra there is a description of the marriage feast of “Camacho the Rich.” The first thing which pre- sented itself to Sancho's sight was a whole bullock spitted upon a large elm. In six huge pots around, entire sheep were swallowed up, and floated like so many pigeons. Hares ready flayed and fowls ready plucked hung upon the branches; infinite were the wild fowl and venison hanging about. Sancho counted three skins, each holding about twenty- four quarts, full of generous wines ; hillocks, too, he saw of the whitest bread, and cheeses were piled up in the manner of bricks. Naturally, the feast being a Spanish one, there were “two cauldrons of oil, larger than dyers' vats," which stood ready for frying purposes. There is a touch of Rabelais in the whole chapter of the Nuptials of Camacho; and Cervantes has more than once been accused of inditing in this description of a wedding feast a sly satire on the pro- * See p. 231. - C 18 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. verbial frugality of his countrymen in the way of eating and drinking, and the occasional difficulty which presented—and still presents-itself to travellers in Spain of getting anything to eat or drink at all. So far as my experience goes, you can get along tolerably well in Spain, when you are travelling out of the beaten track, if you will only contrive to reach a village inn at the time of the midday meal, when the standing dish is the natural puchero, for which I have given a recipe.* If you miss your puchero, I am afraid that you will not be able to obtain, in out-of-the-way places, anything more filling than chocolate, bread, garlic, and grapes. The Scottish Kitchen. It is not without some fear and trembling that I, who, if I am not a Saxon, am at least a cockney “pock-pudding,” presume to devote a page in this book to the cookery of the Land o' Cakes. The shadows of two mighty expositors of the Scottish kitchen of the past float before me as I address myself to my task. Memory recurs to the pages of “Waverley”; and, in imagination, I sit at the ban- queting board at which Fergus McIvor entertained Edward Waverley. Fish, game, and made dishes at the upper end of the table; lower down, immense, clumsy joints of mutton and beef; but no pork-swine's flesh being abhorred in the Highlands. The central dish, a yearling lamb, called a “hog in har’st,” roasted, set upon its legs, with a bunch of parsley in its mouth. The beverages, claret and champagne for the chief and his guests; with whisky and strong beer for the clansmen. Then I recall the breakfast which Lady Margaret Bellenden gave Claverhouse * See p. 132. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. in the great hall at Tillietudlem. No tea, no coffee, no variety of rolls and toast and muffins; but solid and sub- stantial viands—the priestly ham, the knightly sirloin, the noble baron of beef, the princely venison pasty; while silver flagons, saved with difficulty from the claws of the Covenanters, mantled, some with ale, some with mead, and some with generous wines of various qualities. And who, finally, can forget the description of the dinner, in “Old Mortality," of the parsimonious Laird of Milnwood ? The immense charger of broth thickened with oatmeal and colewort, in which were indistinctly discerned by close observers two or three short ribs of lean mutton sailing to and fro. There were two huge baskets, one of bread made of barley and peas, and one of oat cakes. The presence of a large boiled salmon would nowadays have indicated more liberal housekeeping; but, in the seven- teenth century, it was caught in such plenty in the con- siderable rivers of Scotland, and the servants found it so luscious and so surfeiting, that they made it a bargain that they should not have the royal fish oftener than five times a week. “He should have a lang-shafted spune that sups pottage with the de'il,” says the old Scottish proverb; and he should know a great deal about cookery in general, and Scottish cookery in particular, who presumes to try conclusions with Sir Walter Scott and with Professor Wilson. There is a vast wealth of culinary lore scattered both through the “Waverley Novels” and the “ Noctes Ambrosianæ.” Indeed, it has been more than once asserted that Sir Walter had a hand in compiling the recipes for “Meg Dodds' Cookery Book.” Still, Southerner as I am, I scarcely think that I am inaccurate in stating that a Scottish break- fast table is about the best supplied one in all Europe. I never crossed the Border but once in my life, and then it was to pay a visit to the late Mr. Dalgleish, sometime one of the C 2 20 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. members for Glasgow, who had a beautiful estate called Kilmardinnie, close to the great city on the Clyde. Such breakfasts we used to have at Kilmardinnie! Fresh trout, game pies, cold venison, a baron of beef on the sideboard, home-made scones, potato scones, white puddings, and Scotch “baps,” to say nothing of Dundee marmalade and Scotch bannocks. Breakfast Dishes. Before discussing the important question, What shall we have for breakfast ? it is expedient to determine with accuracy what is meant by the term “ breakfast” itself. There are breakfasts and breakfasts; and it so happens that the bravest, the honestest, the truthfullest, and the most meat- eating peoples under the sun, the Germans and the Britons, with their transatlantic descendants and their Australasian brethren, are the only races who give the proper appella- tion to the first meal of the day. We break our fast at eight or nine a.m., and we rightly term that meal“ breakfast.” Quite as appropriately do the Teutons call their fracture of fast Morgenbrod. The Italians ought to say rompere il digiuno, when they take their coffee and bread and butter in the morning. They prefer to ask simply for their early morning caffè, and with them breakfast is la cola- zione. It is in reality our lunch. The lively Gaul's déjeuner à la fourchette is also lunch, and not literally the breaking of a fast. Stay: the Spaniards rightly give the name of desayuno to the matutinal cup of chocolate, corrected · by a glass of cold water and a crust of bread; but, on the other hand, the Anglo-Indian's first meal of tea or coffee, with a little bread and butter, or bread and jam, generally brought to the bedside between five and six in the morning, is known as chotahazri, which means "little breakfast.” A big breakfast, CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. comprising various curries, follows at ten, to be succeeded at two p.m. by a copious tiffin; but at this repast, and at the dinner, which takes place at seven or eight, it is no longer good form, in smart Anglo-Indian society, to serve curry. But of curry I shall have something to say presently.* English people eat, as a rule, a great deal too much meat and not half enough vegetables. The Australians are literally gorgers of beef and mutton; and it is an equally common and painful spectacle to see a little New South Wales or a Victorian child devouring mutton chops or rump steaks at eight or nine o'clock in the morning. The Americans are quite as great sinners in this respect; and small Miss Columbia or diminutive Master Birdofreedom Saurin will think nothing of “wolfing” pork-steak, tender loin-steak, and mutton cutlets, after the hominy or the crushed wheat, and prior to the buckwheat cakes soaked in butter and drenched with maple syrup. Our transatlantic cousins have also an unholy fondness for fried potatoes at breakfast-time. Of their equally passionate liking for hot bread I will say nothing; because we also in this country have a penchant for hot buttered toast and hot French rolls. I had a friend once who prided himself on the possession of a cook unequalled in the invention of breakfast dishes. One of these devices was to send half a pound of prime Epping or Cambridge sausages to the family baker, and request him to insert the sausages in the dough of as many rolls. They came home smoking, and saturated with the grease from the porcine compost. My friend went to Rome; and I learned that he succeeded in persuading the people at Nazzari’s restaurant, in the Piazza di Spagna, to supply muffins with anchovies inside them. This fanatic of the breakfast-table died early, and lies buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome hard by the pyramid of Caius Cestius. If we banish butchers' meat from breakfast, it remains * See p. 28. THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. to be seen what viands I propose to put on the table at a meal which, obeying the laws of this terrible English climate of ours, we are bound to make a substantial one. Frequently, when I have returned from a long Continental journey, I have taken it into my head to ordain that the hours of our eating should be à la Française—that is to say, café au lait and bread and butter at eight a.m.; déjeuner à la fourchette at noon precisely, and dinner at six. The experiment, after a week or two, usually turned out a dis- astrous failure; the café au lait, somehow or other, never seemed so good as it is in France; and an hour after it was consumed we were ravenous for food. The twelve o'clock collation is really an enjoyable meal, and we were quite ready for dinner at six ; only, unfortunately, if we asked any of our friends to dine with us at that hour, they would stare with astonishment, and perhaps plead that they had a prior engagement. So we had to go back to our old time-table-breakfast at nine, lunch at half-past one or two, tea at five o'clock, and dinner at eight. We always regarded the last as being more of a social ceremonial than a “square” meal; the late dinner with us was an act of thankfulness for the day's work being done, and of our being able to throw off the cares of business, and chat cosily and light-heartedly. We ate very little, but liked the little to be tasty. With regard, however, to breakfast, it should be, although excluding chops and steaks and cold meat, a hearty one; and nothing else will ever do to begin the day with, in this land of fog and darkness, rain and rawness, and omni- present smoke. Thus an English breakfast menu should include kedgeree, at least one of ten kinds of omelettes ; sausages; eggs, fried, boiled, poached, scrambled, and au miroir; sinoked salmon (the Dutch is the best, smoked by the Jews: it is horribly dear, but delicious), potted shrimps, bloaters, or eggs and bacon, kippers, fried sardines, CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. now and then a little potted meat, dry toast (avoid buttered toast), and plenty of bread and butter, tea, coffee, or cocoa. When you have young and lady guests, marmalade and honey should make their appearance at the board ; and when you have any male friends with “hunters' appetites,” bid Mrs. Cook send them up broiled chicken and devilled kidneys arranged in various ways. Mushrooms and bacon are like- wise a very favourite dish, and, of course, among the dried fish figures the hoinely haddock, and among the fresh fish, plain boiled sole, whiting, and mackerel — but don't eat mackerel too often. Finally, I must say something about breakfast which should have been said at the beginning of this chat. Break- fast should invariably be prefaced with fruit. I do most firmly and abidingly hold with the Spanish proverb, that the gifts of Pomona are gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night. Many folks cannot always afford grapes; but oranges in their season—we are not half enough grateful for oranges—are usually wonderfully cheap; and if the golden fruit fail us, we have always the apple with us, be it from Kent, from Devon, from America, or from Tasmania—the toothsome, handsome, sociable, health-pre- serving apple. Salads. About salads, one of the most delightful and the healthiest of Heaven's gifts to man, many pages could be written; but in this place brevity is necessary, and will be observed. I cannot refrain, however, from referring to Sydney Smith's oft-quoted “Recipe for a Winter Salad,” originally written in an album at Castle Howard. All my readers may not have read this famous formula, so I give it:- THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. “Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the salad give. Of mordant mustard add a single spoon Distrust the condiment which bites too soon- But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt. Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And once with vinegar procured from town. True flavour needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs. Let onion's atoms lurk within the bowl, And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. And lastly, on the flavoured compound toss A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce.” Now, the Rev. Sydney Smith was a very witty and amiable cleric; but I maintain, nevertheless, that his salad is simply a barbarous mess, fit only for the consumption of Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns, and Vandals. Two large potatoes passed through a kitchen sieve! Shade of Parmentier! Mordant mustard in a salad! A double quantity of salt, and a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce! As for the onion atoms, lurking in the bowl, they are altogether intolerable if ladies are to partake of the salad. For male consumption a few spring onions may occasionally be allowed. The French put no onions in a green salad; but they rub a crust of bread with garlic. This, technically known as a chapon, is placed in the salad bowl, and rapidly tossed to and fro while the herbs are being mixed; but before serving, the garlic-imbued chapon is removed. Although potatoes in a green salad should be altogether tabooed, the tuber makes an excellent salad by itself, and an equally good and cheap soup. Among very cheap salads, also, I recommend tomatoes dressed with oil and vinegar and a little chopped shallot. Fifty years ago tomatoes, or “love-apples,” were scarce and CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 1, aga mitted to still the dear, and were usually sold, preserved in bottles, as sauce for hot meat. At present there is usually an ample supply, and sometimes a glut, of tomatoes, English or foreign, sold at very reasonable prices. The fruit-vegetable—or vegetable- fruit—has become amazingly popular with the working- classes, who often munch them raw, as they do apples ; but they would relish them much more, I think, if they cut the tomatoes into slices and dressed them in a salad as above; or if they stuffed them with a mixture of chopped herbs, any scraps of meat, to the lowliest, that come handy, bread-crumb, and a little egg just to bind the stuffing; and so steam them till quite hot. And, again, there would not be the slightest harm in putting the stuffed tomatoes under- neath the meat which is to be roasted. They will then prove excellent sops-in-the-pan, and a relief to the monotony of the baked potato. But to return to green salads, as to the dressing of which people are apt to be very dogmatical, and occasionally very ill-tempered. Most men have their recipe for salad dressing, just as nearly every woman has her own recipe for a plum pudding, which recipe is, in nine cases out of ten, that which was used by her mother. Some hold with simple lettuce, just moistened all over with vinegar and dusted with sugar. Another method that has been dogmatically insisted upon as the only orthodox one, is to wipe each leaf of lettuce dry; then to bring plenty of oil in contact with every part of the surface, finishing with the smallest dash of vinegar and a dust of salt. This, minus the salt, is my own dressing for lettuce salad; but when I have guests I allow fantasy to have some slight sway in the salad-bowl. A favourite Parisian top-dressing is to place a few fresh-water crayfish on the summit of the verdure. Crayfish form a very pretty garnish indeed for all fish salads; but when the crayfish are scarce and dear, decorate with shrimps or prawns. THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Macaroni, Risotto, and Polenta. I want to expatiate briefly on three staples of Italian good cheer-macaroni, risotto, and polenta. As a rule, English cooks use macaroni barbarously. Usually, they either over-boil or under-boil it; and when it comes to table it resembles either so many tobacco pipes with the bowls. knocked off, or so much “Stickphast” boiled, and garnished with badly grated cheese. I have known cooks who boiled macaroni in milk ; and, sad to say, I have had guests who ought to have known better actually ask for mustard with their macaroni. Benighted beings! With respect to risotto, it may be hinted that the Milan- ese add a little saffron to it, for the double purpose of giving it an attractive hue, and of correcting the tendency of rice to swell and impede digestion. The Romans often mingle with their risotto either sausage-meat, or a mince of chicken livers, or very finely shredded cooked bacon. You will find from the recipes* what risotto is, and you or your cook can indulge your fancy by adding what tasty things you like to the fundamental preparation of rice, butter, and grated cheese. Any cold meat you have left, or remains of made dishes, may be utilised for risotto ; and any kind of cheese, cheap or dear, that is hard enough to grate, will serve instead of Parmesan. If, for example, you take the dark yellow, strong-flavoured Gloucester cheese, you need not use so inuch saffron, which some might object to as a kind of “ doctors stuff”; but in any case I advise young housekeepers of moderate means to try macaroni and risotto, the accessories to both of which are very cheap. For the little ones, of course, macaroni boiled in milk, or made into a sweet pudding, with custard, and lightly baked, will prove a delicious and wholesome dish. And, while we are on the pudding subject, let me remind * See Index to Recipes. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 27 mothers who wish to give their children a change in the way of sweet diet, that a half-quartern loaf boiled in milk till it swells to twice its size, and served with stewed prunes, is a dish that will delight the youngsters, and be very good for their health besides. If they “kick” at the stewed prunes, give them stewed pears, nicely coloured with a little cochineal. And now for polenta. This is nothing but Indian corn- flour, easy enough, in all conscience, to procure. Polenta is the food of high and low througbout Italy. King Victor Emanuel once, recovering from a severe illness, and being asked what nourishment would be inost grateful to him, re- plied naturally, “ A bowl of polenta.” You may cook it by drop- ping into three pints of boiling water three-quarters of a pound of semolina, maize, or corn-flour; then boil the liquid to the consistency of very thick gruel; lubricate with a pat of butter, and season with pepper and salt. The only drawback of polenta-eating is that a couple of hours after devouring two or three bowls of it you feel hungry again. There is a polenta for the luxurious, in which may be mingled blanched and fried sweetbreads, with mushrooms, and even truffles; the whole being moistened with brown sauce and garnished with forcemeat balls, egged-and-bread-crumbed, and lightly fried. A favourite way of serving polenta is in combination with small birds, larks or thrushes for instance. The polenta is boiled to the consistency of a batter pudding, say half an inch thick, and is cut into the shape of a hollow circle or, better still, of a horseshoe. On this circular band you place your little birds at regular intervals. In the centre of the dish put a circular medallion of polenta, with three birds arranged in a pyramid. CHAT'S ABOUT COOKERY. are kinds of curry to be served; for the list of Indian curries comprises “Lord Clive,” “ Malay,” “Dry Madras," “J. P.,” “Mrs. W.,” for sweetbread, prawn, lobster, fish, vegetables, and mulligatawny, to say nothing of “pish-pash," "devil-pot,” and hard eggs. The serving of curry, however, is still incomplete. It must be accompanied by chutney, one kind of which is made of stoned raisins, garlic, shallot, chillies, mustard, salt, and sour apples all pounded together, with brown sugar and vinegar. There is another chutney made of tamarinds, tomatoes, lemon-peel, raisins, mustard, chillies, treacle, and vinegar. There is, furthermore, an exquisite chutney made in Ceylon, as a zest for the equally exquisite and famous Cingalese prawn-curry, which is one of the many glories of the capital cuisine of the Grand Oriental Hotel at Colombo. Into the composition of this fascinating condiment, grated cocoanut and pounded chillies enter largely; and the hue of the engaging substance is a delicate pink. The object of all these inventions is to heighten the temperature of the curry itself in a greater or lesser degree, according to taste. (English curries, by the way, are almost in- variably too hot; they are usually as fiery as whitebait in the “red-devil” stage.) In addition, there may be served with the curry the carefully dried ard salted slips of fish facetiously known as “Bombay ducks”; and again, at Colombo, there is brought with the curry another adden- dum, somewhat resembling the “ratafie” of the Emperor Akbar, being a thin, almost transparent cake, about the size of a cheese-plate, and called “popodam.” To the uninitiated, this Cingalese dainty has a suspicious resem- blance to a mixture of oatmeal and petroleum. It is made really of “dhall,” or “doll” (ground pulse), and “ghee" (liquefied butter), compounded with asafoetida, which loses its odious smell in cooking, and could well be modified in England by a mixture of potato flour and fresh butter. 30 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Finally, curry should never be eaten with a knife and fork, but with a fork and spoon. If the globe-trotters returning from the burning land of India would teach us to eat curry as the Anglo-Indians eat it; if they would only tell us something about Madras anchovy toast; about “ Agha's beard,” and “country captain ”; about cocoa-nut pudding, yam pudding, cocoa-nut soup, and cucumber preserve, they might at least lay the foundation of an English tiffin a hundred times more appetising and more wholesome than the monotonous dishes which weary us at luncheon, in this land of fogs, poor cookery, indigestion, and the “ blues.” What shall we do with the Scraps ? M. Octave Suzanne was once so courteous as to send me, from the Place Parmentier, Neuilly, near Paris, a copy of a little book of a hundred and seventy pages, purporting to be the third series of his “ Petite Encyclopédie Culinaire," being “ Cent Cinquante Manières d'Utiliser les Restes”; a concise little manual for the use of housekeepers who are at a loss to know how to make dainty dishes out of scraps. I read the manual from beginning to end with great interest, and I hope with some benefit to myself, in which benefit I now wish my readers to share. The author good-naturedly tra- verses Boileau's famous assertion—to be sure, the great satirist made it in verse, and poets are apt to be somewhat arbitrary in their statements—that a dinner warmed up again was never good for anything. M. Suzanne proves to demonstration that when a dinner, or what remains of it, is re-cooked with skill and discrimination, “metamorphosed with taste, and presented under an appetising form,” it can be made quite as good, if not better than it was in its - original shape. CHAT'S ABOUT COOKERY. 31 · Thus the author of the “ Little Culinary Encyclopædia” tells us how to “accommodate” the “restes,” or scraps of beef, mutton, veal, poultry, game, fish, and even of bread. Let us see how he deals with the staff of life. The house- holds must be few in which there will not be found remains of the bread of yesterday, or of the day before yesterday. These stale crusts may be made into “panada,” by putting the bread broken into bits into a stew-pan, covering it with water, and steaming it with salt and pepper. The bread must be allowed to soak for twenty minutes ; then the stew- pan is put on the fire, and stirred with a wooden spoon until it boils. An ounce of butter is now added, and the “panada” is allowed to simmer gently for an hour. Just before serving, another piece of butter must be added, and the yolks of three eggs. If you like, you may moisten your “panada” with broth or with milk, instead of water. “Klossen,” German fashion, may be made from very stale bread soaked in hot milk, then drained and put into a stewpan with butter. It is seasoned with salt, pepper, and ginger; then it is made into little rolls, poached or .steamed, and finally these are served up in the form of a pyramid, accompanied by any one of a long list of sauces, the composition of which M. Suzanne exactly prescribes. You may have over your stale bread-rolls Spanish, Bécha- mel, mayonnaise, Tartar, ravigote, mustard, mint, horse- radish, curry, tomato, piquante, or Maître d'Hôtel sauce. With a little hunger, which is the best sauce of all, “ Klossen" will be found, I should say, a very appetising dish. Finally, the stalest of stale bread can be utilised by grating it, and passing it through a tammy for use in egging and bread-crumbing cutlets and rissoles. M. Suzanne has in his manual half a dozen recipes for making bread puddings, in the French, German, and English manners. He has also had the good sense to import into his volume a capital recipe for that truly British dish, bubble-and-squeak, and 32 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. another for toad-in-the-hole; although, I may hint to him, in connection with the last-named dainty, that on the Continent I have frequently met with a mutton cutlet baked or fried in batter, but served singly, and called a cutlet “à la Nelson.” He seems equally well acquainted with our dry and buttered toast, with chicken-and-ham sandwiches, and even with water-zootje, which, he aptly observes, may, in the case of salmon, be served cold as well as hot. I dissent, however, from my esteemed con frère when he says that a mayonnaise sauce should be served apart, with cold water- zootje of salmon. If the zootje, or the liquor in which the salmon has been boiled, with a diversity of herbs, have a glass of white wine added to it, it will need no kind of sauce at all beyond cayenne or Nepaul pepper. Many of these hundred and fifty recipes for turning the scraps to account are familiar to English plain cooks; but there are many more which will be of the nature of a revelation to British housekeepers. Hash. “In the name of the Prophet-Hash !” It should, of course, properly be "figs, but that does not matter, since the Turks make very nice hashes of lamb and poultry ; but the hash with which I have to do is the dish popular in English middle-class households, and even more widely patronised in the United States, where, in the North, at least, the colloquial name for what is known in England as a “genteel boarding establishment” is a “hash-house." It is a sufficiently curious fact, to begin with, that although the word hash is undeniably derived from the French hachis, and Molière speaks of a glutton who devoured two partridges and half a leg of mutton en hachis, the specific term rarely appears in modern French CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. bills of fare; and, indeed, old French cookery-books, in their recipes for a hachis, prescribe what seems to be a kind of stew of meat, cut up very small, mingled with sausage - meat, chopped parsley, and onions, and served with a garnish, sometimes of fried eggs, and sometimes of tomatoes. The French kitchen also comprises boulettes of very finely chopped meat, herbs, and seasoning, which are browned in a stewpan and served with a rich sauce, into the composition of which garlic largely enters. These boulettes would seem to be cousins - german to the American dainties known as “hash-balls,” which are com- posed of minced cold roast meat, mixed with cold boiled potatoes chopped; seasoned with pepper and salt, and a little gravy, made into balls, covered with egg and bread crumb, and fried a light brown in butter, lard, or dripping As regards the British middle-class hash, it is fitting that I should briefly give my own personal experiences of the matter — experiences which go back more than fifty years. My mother, who had a large family to keep on very slender means, had all her children, boys and girls alike, systematically and practically taught to cook. She was a West Indian, and in the old slave-owning days the West Indies were a paradise of good cookery. She was the widow of an Italian gentleman, and there are very few Italians who do not interest themselves in culinary matters. I was a sickly, nervous child, and could not stand the fierce heat of a kitchen range. The most arduous culinary labour which I ventured to undertake was the cooking of a couple of kidneys, or some bacon, or a spitful of larks in a Dutch oven before the fire; but I was not a bad hand at making sauces; and, above all, I was proficient in the preparation of hash, which—don't be shocked—I have cooked scores of times in our drawing-room on the first floor of Number something, Regent's Quadrant, when William IV. was King. D 31 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. The way of it was this :-We often had a roast leg of mutton on Sunday. Monday we ate it cold; Tuesday was hash-day. My mother used to be away every day from eleven till four, giving lessons in Italian singing to the nobility and gentry, but before she went out on hash-days I was put through my paces in the initial stages of hash- making. When she saw me carefully occupied in cutting the cold mutton into thin slices, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and dredging a little flour over them, she would give me a kiss and depart on her daily toil. I let the sliced mutton rest till noon, and read my book. Then I proceeded to cook in a stew-pan a finely minced onion, lubricated with a bit of butter, moistened with half a pint of beef gravy stock, or with some “glaze.” The flavouring was sometimes a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup, or quite as often some burnt onions, which, however, I carefully removed from the stew-pan when the sauce was cooked. Then my slices of mutton went into a large stew-pan, which I simmered-oh, so gently—till the flour with which I dredged the meat had thickened the sauce; then I drew the stew-pan on to the hob, and left it there, still gently, gently cooking in its various juices; and then I read my book till my mother came home. Meanwhile, her maid had laid the table for us two—for all my brothers and sisters were away from home during several years of my childhood. When my parent arrived, she took the stew-pan from the hob, and put it on the fire to give it that final boil up which I was too small and too inex- perienced to impart to it. It is only the hand of the master or mistress-cook that is skilful enough to administer that final boil up; but I had not been wasting my tiine, for I had carefully toasted some bread, and cut the sippets to be placed round the hash, when it was poured into a hot dish, to be heartily and gratefully partaken of by the poor widowed gentlewoman and your humble servant. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 33 This is why I have always been interested in hash, and have ventured to tell you something about it in my Cookery Book. Old-Fashioned Puddings. I was turning over the other day that very interesting manual of cookery called “Kettner's Book of the Table," the recipes in which are due to the late M. Kettner, who who was once, I believe, chef to Leopold, King of the Belgians, and who established that very well-known re- staurant, the Hôtel du Pavillon, in Church Street, Soho. The literary portion of Kettner's book was contributed by my deceased friend E. M. Dallas, of the Times, who was himselt a technical expert in culinary matters. For the benefit of those who are fond of chestnuts, I will give, roughly, the recipe for a Nesselrode pudding, according to Kettner-Dallas. So many chestnuts peeled, blanched in boiling water for five ininutes, deprived of their thickened skin ; placed in stew-pan with syrup and a stick of vanilla ; simmered till the chestnuts are done, when they are drained, and pressed through a fine hair sieve; add yolks of eggs, boiled cream, pounded sugar, a gill of maraschino, stoned raisins; put all in a freezing-pot on the ice, add currants and raisins, put the pudding in an ice-mould, imbed the mould in ice, and let it remain for two hours.* What has all this to do with old-fashioned puddings ? my readers may ask. Everything, I answer. Mr. Dallas tells us that Nesselrode pudding was invented many years ago by Mony, chef to the renowned Russian diplomatist Count Nesselrode, the statesman who had the impu- dence to call Italy a “geographical expression.” When Carême heard of this, which is perhaps the most perfect * For further details, see p. 429. D 2 36 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOR. of iced-puddings, he almost burst with envy. He could not but praise the pudding; but he declared that Mony had taken the idea of it from the chestnut pudding in- vented by himself. As a matter of fact, neither Mony nor Carême invented the chestnut pudding, any more than they invented the sempstress's thimble or the mariner's compass. I find a capital recipe for a chestnut pudding in the “ Art of Cookery,” by dear old Mistress Hannah Glasse ; and the first edition of her immortal work was published in the year 1747, at least a hundred years before Nesselrode pudding came into fashion. The only material difference between Hannah's recipe and Kettner's is that the lady prescribes orange-flower or rose-water in lieu of vanilla, and sack (or sherry) instead of maraschino; and finally, her pudding is served hot. On the other hand, were it iced, it would be, to all intents and purposes, a Nesselrode pudding. I don't say that even Hannah invented the chestnut- pudding. Most of the very nicest dishes in the world's cuisine are of such immense antiquity as utterly to baffle the researches of the culinary antiquarian. Nobody knows the origin of Sauce Robert; or can tell after what Queen Potage à la Reine was first called. The original Robert may have been Robert le Diable, and the original Queen, Cleopatra. The Wise Man told us ages ago that there is nothing new under the sun; and I have long been, after sedulous study, both theoretical and practical, of cookery and of culinary literature, strongly of the opinion that, in the art in question, no discoveries of any great importance have been made since the middle of the eighteenth century, except the general utilisation of the tomato in cookery, and the general employment of the potato as an adjunct to savoury dishes. Beyond these two items, with the trifling one of sea-kale, I fail to see that we have added anything of much moment to our culinary arsenal. The Romans CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. made extensive use of truffles, which they fantastically im- agined to be the product of thunder; and mushrooms were so highly esteemed by the ancients as to be called the “food of the gods.” They were also well acquainted with hasty pudding, made from maize and milk; and the Car- thaginians seem to have indulged in a pudding of red wheat flour, mixed with cream cheese, honey, and eggs. In the modern cuisine we have probably at least two hundred puddings to which all kinds of fancy names have been given; but if the components of these modern puddings are carefully analysed, it will be found, I venture to think, that nearly all of them are only ancient puddings with modern designations. It is the remembrance of how many dainty dishes, which we think quite modern, are of very antique lineage that has prompted this “chat” on “Old-Fashioned Puddings.” Confectionery. One can scarcely go wrong, I should say, in prefacing a little essay on sweetmeats with a reference to Gunter. I have before me a trim little octavo, entitled “The Confec- tioner's Oracle," containing recipes for dessert on the most economical plan for private families, and all founded on the actual experiments, during thirty years, of William Gunter. The book is dated 1830, and the author must, consequently, have been practising the confectioner's art ever since the beginning of the century. The frontispiece, moreover, is the portrait of Mr. Gunter himself, with his autograph. The confectioner is a serene little gentleman, with mutton-chop whiskers, and a very tall white cravat, who is sitting at a table in his studio surrounded by dainty dishes. It is also worthy of remark that the portrait is litho- THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. graphed by “J. Netherclift,” who possibly was the father of the well-known expert in handwriting. Whether this Mr. William Gunter had any connection with the historic firm of confectioners and caterers still flourishing in Berkeley Square and in Belgravia, I have not the remotest idea; but his education, to judge from the preface to his Oracle, certainly does not seem to have been neglected. He begins his preface with the remark that “in this country the art of confectionery has hitherto, for the most part, been surrounded with as many mysteries as the temple of Osiris used to be among the ancient Egyptians, or as the craft of freemasonry is at the present day.” Gunter quotes Virgil, Horace, and Metastasio in the original tongues. He speaks enthusiastically of Tommy Moore as “the exquisite Moore," and fancies that the diet of the poet must have been composed from his childhood of méringues, ice cream, and maraschino. “We have,” he adds, in an off-hand manner, “a very similar thought in Anacreon, as applied by him to an early Greek poet-I forget the number of the ode.” But Gunter, after dallying in his preface, and telling his readers how he was in the habit of dining with that eccentric but amiable and intel- ligent man, the late Dr. Kitchiner, in Warren Street, Fitzroy Square, and how the doctor said to him, as the dessert made its appearance,“ Gunter, my friend, for the benefit of mankind, you ought to write a book on confectionery as a companion to mine on the art of cookery,” becomes solidly practical, and informs his readers how to clarify loaf-sugar, and how to classify the different degrees of sugar as the large and small “ thread,” the "pearl,” the “blow," the “feather,” the “ball,” the “crack,” and the “caramel.” Then he launches into pistachios and nut prawlings—“ prawlings” is a con- fectionery technicality to describe articles preserved from humidity by being covered with dry sugar. Next he waxes eloquent on fruit pastes, harlequin candy, candied fruits, CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 39 jellies, syrups, and marmalades, grains of catechu, vanilla cream, and especially ices, among which he mentions green grape ice, gunpowder-tea ice, and Indian ice, which last is made of the whipped yolks of twenty eggs, with two glasses of liquor boiled with syrup in a pan, which is placed in a freezing-pan lined with muslin. Gunter adds, in a footnote, that in 1830 the “ beautiful Mrs. Palmer," in Calcutta, at a table of extraordinary magnificence, was remarkable for the quantity and tasteful variety of ices which she in- troduced The confectionery recipes which I have given* are not exclusively from Gunter ; I have drawn on several French and English works, ancient and modern, on the subject, and have tried to simplify the recipes; and among the most lucid of the books which I have consulted, I find Jarrin's “ Italian Confectioner,” published in 1829, and “French Confectionery Adapted for English Families,” by Miss Crawford, published in 1853. Pies, Patties, and Tarts. There are only three nations in the world that know how to make proper puddings. If in turning over your cookery-books you chance to come across recipes for Dutch pudding, Spanish pudding, Russian pudding, and the like, put no trust in those formulas; they are mainly frauds. The Briton, the Teuton, and the American alone possess the art of pudding making. When, however, it comes to a question of pies, patties, and tarts, I am afraid that John Bull is equalled by some nations, and surpassed by others, in the secret of appetisingly combining meat, game, fish, or fruit with paste or crust. Possibly in days gone by the English venison pasty was * See “Sweets,” pp. 402-414. 40 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. supreme in its excellence. Pepys, who was a thoroughgoing epicure, makes frequent allusions in his Diary to a veni- son pasty as the solitary dish at a dinner which he distinctly states to have been a very good one; but in modern England the venison pasty is scarcely ever seen, save at hunting breakfasts, at the seats of country squires. The raised pie, when it does find a place in the modern bill of fare, is usually of game or of foie gras truffled. Turkey pie, again, a very noble form of pasty, is all but obsolete; and the same may be said of that once universal favourite, goose pie. King George IV., according to the Chronique Scandaleuse, was lunching on goose pie and Dublin whisky on board the Royal yacht in Kingstown Harbour when a messenger from London entered the cabin and informed his Majesty that Queen Caroline was dead. “Is she? by Jove!” exclaimed the ainiable monarch, and went on eating goose-pie. Although raised pies have in ordinary life been almost entirely superseded by pies made in dishes and covered with a cupola of crust, the castellated pie, or “coffin,” as our ancestors used to call it, still holds its own at the hunting breakfasts aforesaid and at fashionable suppers; while curiously enough, our old partiality for the raised pasty as a kind of national dish still dimly survives in those most convenient and palatable edibles, the Watling and Melton- Mowbray pork pies, which are really pasties or raised pies in miniature. In one respect they may be considered more relishable than their mediæval prototypes, since the cheap and modest little pork pie up-to-date—an entire one may be purchased for eightpence—contains between the undercrust and the pork itself a layer of aspic or jelly, which does not seem to have been an ingredient in the ancient pasties. The American pie, when composed of meat, is, of course, covered with a crust; and pigeon pie, or one made of “ squabs,” is a standing dish at most transatlantic table CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. d'hôtes. The transatlantic fruit pie, on the other hand, is rarely covered, although the Americans persist in calling it pie or “poy,” and are passionately fond of it. Britishers would usually call it a tart with a thick under-crust. Pumpkin pie may be considered as the essentially national type of pastry and fruit in which brother Jonathan delights, unless indeed you question the right of the pumpkin to be called a fruit at all; in which case I must bring to your notice huckleberry-pie, cranberry-pie, and pear-pie, all of which we should term fruit tarts. In noticing, however, the decline and fall of the venison pasty, it would be unjust to ignore the Continental survival of the raised pie in the shape of the always welcome “ Vol-au- Vent,” a piece of pastry for which, since it presents consider- able difficulty to the cook, I append here a seriously thought-out recipe. Having prepared your puff paste with a pound of flour and the same of butter, give it five turns, moisten the surface of the paste, fold it in two, let it rest five minutes, then place it on a floured sheet of paper, and cut it to the size required for your "Vol-au-Vent.” The paste should be cut to a shape for which the cover of a stew-pan will serve very well. When cut, turn it out on a baking sheet, flute the sides, and make a circular incision on the top, half an inch from the circumference, then bake for thirty-five minutes. When of a golden brown colour, take it out, open, and empty it, slip on a hot dish, and fill your crust with a ragoût composed of lamb's or calf's sweetbreads in slices, scollops of fat liver, sliced truffles, mushrooms, cock’s-combs, and quenelles. Put your ragoût in by layers, basting with brown sauce and half a glass of Madeira. Then put on the top, which Mrs. Cook may decorate according to her taste and fancy. Let the “ Vol-au-Vent” have just another whiff of the oven, and then serve it hot. The quenelles of which I speak are merely a forcemeat of minced chicken mixed with eggs, made into small shapes, and poached in boiling water. TIIE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Savouries and Tit-Bits. I venture to think that there is a mild kind of madness prevailing among people who like nice dinners touching savouries, and especially in connection with the stage of the repast at which the zests in question should be served. Over and over again have I said in print that when you have consumed a well-cooked dinner, and have passed gently and satisfactorily from the soup to the fish, thence to an entrée, thence to a joint or some game, thence to a special dish of vegetables, and finally to the sweets, it is in a sense mon- strous to indulge in a savoury, the very taste of which must necessarily spoil your appetite for dessert. How on earth can you enjoy the exquisite flavour of peaches and grapes and pine-apples, or good sound British apples, when your tongue has only a minute or two previously been excited by cayenne pepper or curry powder, or some other condiment used in confecting these confounded savouries? Why do you eat them? Our fathers used to devour devilled toast and pick the burnt flesh from devilled bones after dinner and while they were drinking their wine, and they did so in order to provoke an artificial thirst which would stimulate them to drink more wine. But delicate ladies and moderately drink- ing gentlemen, who have not the slightest desire to swill wine after dessert, have surely no need of savouries at the end of dinner. I know perfectly well, however, that when a lady has made up her mind to anything, that thing has got to be done; and so I have carefully selected some recipes for savouries. To discover them in the best sources of culinary information has been no easy task. They are almost entirely ignored by such illustrious masters of the gastronomic art as Ude and Carême. Even in a work so modern as Kettner's : CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. “Book of the Table,” the late Mr. Dallas observes, on the subject of hors d'ouvres or savouries, “There was a time when these little articles demanded a good deal of attention, but they are now of the smallest account, and are little more than the trifles—prawns, olives, radishes, an- chovies—which keep the customer occupied at the restaurant while the dinner he has ordered is getting ready." Kettner's “ Book of the Table” was published about twenty years ago, but the fashion in savouries has changed in a most capricious manner since Mr. Dallas's time. If you dine at a grand hotel, say at the Albemarle, the Berkeley, or the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington, your relishes—anchovies, radishes, olives, Italian salads, and what not—will be served as a prelude to your dinner ; but at dinners in private life, the, to me, objection- able savoury comes between the sweet and the dessert. In the name of common sense, why? When I have friends to dinner I feel compelled to submit myself to this silly fashion, simply because it is my endeavour to study other people's tastes rather than my own, and I shrink from laying down laws which I am well aware would be only reluctantly obeyed, if they were obeyed at all. If you like to be sensible and take your relishes as an overture and not a finale to your dinner, as the French, the Germans, the Scandinavians, and the Russians do, let ine recommend, in summer-time, as an admirable zest, a good slice of melon, not dressed with sugar, but with pepper and salt. Likewise, allow me most strongly to direct your atten- tion to pickled tunny. They will give you tunny as a hors d'auvre at the “Star and Garter” at Richmond, and at the “ Greyhound," Hampton Court, and you should be able to procure the article itself at Barto Valle's, or at any good Italian warehouse. There is also a favourite hot hors d'œuvre, to be served at the end of dinner, called the “ Madison Canapé,” which will be found in that great treasure-house of culinary lore, the 4+ THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. “ Delmonico Cook Book," of which I have already spoken. “ Madison canapés” are little slices of toast, covered with thin slices of lean cooked ham, over which is spread a little mustard. Then you add a layer of garnishing of “à la Provençale," a little butter with a dash of white wine. More grated Parmesan is dredged on the canapé, and fresh bread-crumbs and a little more butter are strewn over all. Place in a hot oven for ten minutes, and serve on a folded napkin. Potatoes. Madame de Staël said that she did not believe in ghosts, but that she was afraid of them. Not much more paradoxical is it, I hope, for me to say that, although I do not believe in potatoes, I recognise their great value in the alimentation of humanity. The potato has, I suppose, some nourishing qualities. Cobbett denied that fact alto- gether, and called the potato “hogs' food.” Still, it is sufficiently filling as an article of human diet. Its taste, although insipid, is not disagreeable; and it is wholesome when it is eaten ripe. New potatoes should be cautiously dealt with, since they contain an appreciable quantity of solanine — a vegetable alkaloid very bitter and acrid, and highly poisonous. I have heard, too, that what is called Elbe sherry is distilled from potatoes. So the tuber which I so heartily detest has its potable as well as its edible properties. I candidly admit that my dislike for this particular vegetable has become, in my mind, somewhat of a craze. I happened to belong to a very delightful little club in London where you have the advantage, if you choose to avail yourself of it, of seeing your dinner cooked. This club has amongst its CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 45 - members a goodly number of accomplished gourmets, and I fear I have been designedly teased into a state of exas- peration by references among my friends to a boiled potato. It is to me what the red rag is to a bull. The potato as an article of food in England, is, com- paratively speaking, a modern innovation. We have heard all about Sir Walter Raleigh's plantations in Ireland; but I prefer to read how Raleigh, having planted potatoes in his garden at Youghal, was the cause of bitter disappoint- ment to his gardener, who, on tasting the apples of the fine American fruit, found them very nasty. He subsequently discovered that the tubers were edible, and he was there- upon desired by his master to “throw away the useless weeds.” Would that he had thrown them away for good and all ! Moreover, at the period when Shakespeare spoke of "the sky raining potatoes,” they were never used as an accom- paniment to butcher's meat, or poultry, or any other favourite dish. Gerard, the Elizabethan herbalist, who had himself procured the plant from Virginia, especially recommends it as the basis for delicate conserves and restorative sweet- meats, with the assurance that its flatulent effects may be infallibly corrected by having the roots sopped in wine; adding that, to give the tubers the greater grace in eating, they should be boiled with prunes. Wishing, however, to be altogether impartial, and trans- posing the old proverbial axiom, I fully recognise the fact that what may be one man's poison may be another's meat. Thus, for the benefit of those who like potatoes, I have given a few recipes for the dressing of them, which I think will be serviceable.* Let me add here another mode of dressing potatoes as they have, for a hundred years past, been served at Lyons, in France. Cut your potatoes in slices of the circumference of a halfpenny, but twice as thick as * See Index to Recipes. 46 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. that coin. Put half a pound of butter in a sauté-pan with thirty button onions cut in rings. Place on the fire, and when the onions take a golden colour, put in your potatoes, seasoned with chopped parsley, salt, lemon - juice, and a good pinch of black pepper. Stir while they fry; when they become a deep yellow, serve. Eggs. Victor Hugo was accustomed to say that there were few things more inherently equivocal than an egg, and that he never broke the shell of one without a dim apprehension that the unexpected might suddenly make its appearance. It is certain that very strange things have from time to time come out of eggs, in addition to the chicken which they should normally produce. When the luxury of the Second Empire was at its height, and the practice of giving Easter eggs was carried to an unheard-of degree of extravagance, it is said that Mademoiselle Hortense Schneider, the once renowned heroine of opéra-bouffe, received a Paschal present pur- porting to be an egg, of such huge dimensions that it had to be carried upstairs by two stout porters. On being opened it was found to contain an elegant Victoria drawn by two cream-coloured ponies. But it is only of eggs in connection with cookery that I am at present treating, and I am bound solemnly to admit that English people rarely do sufficient culinary justice to the appetising offerings of Dame Partlet the hen. Boiled eggs for breakfast, fried or poached with bacon or ham, hard-boiled eggs in salad, and in sauce for salt fish, scrambled or mixed with rice in kedgeree—when one has mentioned CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. thes3 the catalogue of egg preparations has been pretty well exhausted. Eggs are, of course, used to a prodigious extent in the making of cakes and puddings; but our neighbours the French probably use millions more of eggs every year for the making of those omelettes in the confection of which very few English cooks are even tolerably proficient. A simple omelette should be made solely and exclusively of eggs; but in England there exists a preposterous delusion that milk, and even flour, may be added to the mixture in the pan, the result being the production of a stodgy, lumpy, indigestible mass, which is frequently fried a dingy brown instead of being of a delicate pale golden hue. I have given some carefully - thought-out recipes for savoury egg dishes ;* but when I tell you that the chef to the Duke of Bedford once sent me a little book of his composition in which there were at least a hundred and fifty recipes for dressing eggs, you will be able to form an idea of the variety and skill with which the French dress this eminently palatable and nourishing food. rin Oysters. To talk of oysters as an important factor in cooking at a period when there is practically an oyster famine, and when at some of the most noted shell-fish shops in London and at the watering-places the proprietors sorrowfully inform you that, owing to the almost prohibitive price of natives, they do a much larger trade in crabs, lobsters, haddocks, potted shrimps, and even in dried sprats from Norway and pickled anchovies, than they do in Colchesters or Whitstables, seems almost like a mockery. I have ventured, however, * See pp. 389-396. 48 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. to give a few recipes of oyster cookery * out of the very large number of such formulas which I have collected, in the hope that the exorbitant price of this delicious and wholesome food will, ere long, be reduced to something like moderate proportions—and moderation in the oyster tariff is to be represented by two shillings a dozen for natives, eighteenpence for middling, and one shilling for cooking oysters: that is to say, such bivalves as are used in making oyster sauce, oyster soup, and oyster patties. Large oysters, too, can be advantageously used for pickling An ingenious artist once painted a picture representing the first discovery of the oyster by man. But who the first man was who met an oyster on the seashore, and how he opened it, and how he ate it, the wisest of us cannot tell. The Pontiffs of Pagan Rome caused oysters, so we are told, to be served at every repast; but the delicacy must have been very expensive, since a basket of oysters cost the equi- valent of £9 sterling. They were served raw, and were dexterously opened by a slave at a side table at the beginning of the dinner. The inhabitants of the sea-coast of ancient Italy preferred large oysters, not so large, I hope as those American varieties of the species—huge, long, and grey in hue-the consumption of which once made Mr. Thackeray observe that he felt as though he had swallowed a baby, and which another traveller in the United States likened to the tongue of an indisposed giant. There is a story told of an astute Roman epicure named Fulvius Hirpinus, who constructed on his estate, close to the seashore, a fish - pond where he stored or “parked ” oysters, which he fattened with paste and cooked wine, worked to the consistency of honey. I say that he was astute, since, after he had regaled himself and friends on these artificially fattened oysters, he drove a roaring trade in selling them wholesale and retail to the nobility and gentry * See Index to Recipes. CHATS ABOUT COORERY. 49 of Rome. Oddly enough, in a comparatively modern cookery- book-that of “Will Rabisha ”_I find a direction—which seems to be a pretty ferocious one—that while oysters are undergoing the process of broiling they should be fed with white wine and grated bread. Of course many ways were adopted in those days for the feeding of oysters; but a paste of oatmeal and water seems to have been the staple of the sustenance given to the creatures before they were considered to be fit for the table. I remember once receiving a letter from a gentleman belonging to the Bureau of Education at Washington, U.S.A., who gave me the following formula for steaming oysters :- “The oysters are steamed in their shells. When their mouths open it is an indication that the festive bivalves are ready to tickle the epicurean palates of the average American legislator. A hot soup-plate is then taken, well larded with fresh butter, seasoned with black pepper and fresh salt, and the oysters are thrown into the sauce. A peculiar kind of 'chow-chow' is eaten with the steamed oyster, very highly seasoned. It is prepared by Harvey especially for the purpose. Beer is the beverage to be imbibed on this important occasion, and I should advise Milwaukee beer by all means.” My correspondent added that “ Oliver Wendell Holmes says in one of his books that two immense oysters should be carved in marble and placed on top of the Washington monument in Baltimore, instead of the statue of the immortal George. I am not in favour of re- moving the Father of his Country from off his imposing pedestal, but should like to compromise matters by making him sit on a pile of oyster-shells in lieu of a curule chair.” 50 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Cold Fish. The late Viscountess Combermere, whose friendship I had the privilege to enjoy for more than fifty years, was in many respects a remarkable lady. She was an accom- plished musician, a fluent writer, a delightfully humorous artist, a sprightly sayer of epigrammatic things; and she was accustomed to give at her hospitable mansion in Belgrave Square dinners and luncheons which were second to none in the fashionable world of London as regarded the fault- less quality of the cuisine and the spice of novelty which the noble hostess scarcely ever failed to impart to her entertainments. For example, towards the close of a wonder- fully varied luncheon, a dish of Hampshire bacon boiled with Windsor broad beans would make its welcome appearance- a dish altogether after Sir Henry Thompson's heart; and I have even seen a boiled leg of pork—a very small one, be it said-figure on the bill of fare at one of the Belgravian dinners. In very hot summer weather Lady Combermere would often give dinners which, with the exception of the soup, were entirely cold—cold fish, cold entrées, cold joint, cold vegetables, cold removes, cold sweets. On the eve of one of her feasts, at which I knew the Russian Ambassador would be present, I did my best to persuade her to have a cold soup “à la Russe,” a pottage in which pieces of cold fish, cucumber, and ice form part of the ingredients; but, after long hesitation, my proposal met with a reluctant veto. She was afraid, so Lady Combermere said, of that very ancient individual, British Prejudice. Of the cold fishes served at her table, I have always preserved the liveliest remembrance; and occasionally, when we have an un-English summer, that is to say, a hot and sunny one, we give a quiet little dinner of six or eight, at which everything, save the soup, is cold. But even under these circumstances, I confess that I cannot persuade my partner—who is not aged, and who has few CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 51 prejudices—to tolerate cold soup “à la Russe.” She has read all the recipes for these frigid potages, and declares them to be “nasty messes.” However, reserving my own opinion in the matter, I find that as regards cold fish in summer, we are perfectly in accord, and it is for this reason that I have given some recipes for cooking and serving it. aporte Porridge. I am not a porridge eater myself; that kind of food being productive in my case more of distension than of delight; but extensive observation in many lands during many years has led me to adopt the conclusion that civilised nations may, from a culinary point of view, be divided into two broad sections—the nations who habitually eat porridge, and those who do not care for it as an ordinary article of diet. The French are certainly not porridge eaters ; they infinitely pre- fer their beloved pot-au-feu to any kind of gruel ; although when they are in poor health they will swallow with tolerable gusto the preparation called panada, for which I have given a recipe.* The ancient Romans were moderately fond of oat soup. They took white oats and put them in the oven. When sufficiently dried, these were fanned, cleaned, and carried to a mill, the grinders of which were finely sharpened. The miller took care to hold the oats a little way off, in order that the grain might not be crushed. Curiously enough, this oat-soup, the grain being lubricated by thickened milk, is still a favourite dish in Normandy and Lower Brittany. The Greeks had several kinds of porridge, including a barley gruel called alphiton; to the barley was added linseed meal, with coriander seeds, salt, and the requisite quantity of water. As to the famous black broth of the Spartans, my own opinion is that it was a porridge made either of dark-coloured * See p. 31. E 2 52 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. lentils, or of those black beans which are known in Mexico as frigoles. The frumenta, or gruels, of the ancient Romans distinctly survive in the “polenta,” or porridge made from red and yellow maize flour, which is greedily consumed throughout the Italian peninsula, but especially in Piedmont and Tuscany. The American mush, for which you will find a recipe,* is nothing but a very simple preparation of polenta, or maize flour; but you may make it a great deal more appetis- ing if you dress it with butter, or with grated cheese. The Neapolitans mix their polenta to the consistence of a stiff pudding, and dress it with cheese, butter, and gravy; while at Nice it is often allowed to get cold, being afterwards cut into slices, garnished with cheese or scraped ham, or sausage meat with a little garlic, and then placed in the oven to be baked for about twelve minutes. The Americans have at least twenty different kinds of porridge, to which they are inordinately addicted as breakfast dishes. Mush, hominy, burgoo, crushed wheat, crushed millet, lentils, and beans are among the pottages which they consume. The Germans occasionally eat potato porridge ; and it is almost superfluous to say that the Scotch are tremendous porridge or “ parritch” eaters. The best way of making real Scotch porridge does not very much differ from the American mode of preparing mush. The water must be boiling; you must let the oatmeal trickle slowly and steadily through your fingers into the water, stirring all the time with a “spirtle” or porridge-stick till the entire preparation becomes a homogeneous, bubbling mass. Season your Scotch porridge with salt only. There is a good deal of porridge eaten in the North of England; and even in London and other large towns, frugal parents often bring up their children on what they term “the porridge system.” The oatmeal is nourishing enough, no doubt; but, taken regularly in con- siderable quantities by very young people, is apt to overheat * See p. 462. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 53 the blood. I think that barley or millet porridge for children would be better than continual oatmeal. For the rest, so far as my experience goes, I believe that the majority of London working people heartily detest all kinds of porridge. They associate it with “skilly," and they hate it because to their minds it represents the diet of the workhouse and the gaol. Jligentnich Chops. Is a steak a convertible term for a chop? I ask; because I have under my eye, as I am writing, dear old Hannah Glasse's recipe for “baked mutton chops.” “ Take,” says Hannah, “a loin or neck of mutton; cut it into steaks ; then take a quart of milk, six eggs beat up fine, and four spoonfuls of four; beat your flour and eggs with a little milk first, and then put the rest to it; put in a little beaten ginger and a little salt; pour all this over the steaks and send it to the oven. An hour and a half will bake it." It will be clear to the intelligent reader that this recipe for “baked mutton chops” is that which is at present known as the formula of "toad-in-the-hole.” Who first gave that name to baked mutton chops? But why do Hannah's “chops” become “steaks” when they are laid in the pie- dish? It strikes me, from the point of view of culinary philology, that the chop is something that must be smartly severed with a hatchet; whereas a steak is a piece of meat which is to be cut or sliced off the surface of a joint. Douglas Jerrold once put the case very neatly when, speaking of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, he remarked that the poor lady had for supper her last steak, prior to her final “chop” the next morning. Chops are, to my thinking, an almost exclusively English dish. There are, I know, in New York certain taverns where you can get mutton chops ho no ) 54 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. l'Anglaise—that is to say, thick chops with curly tails; and for the washing down of these professedly British dainties, real English half-and-half, which the Americans always care- fully counsel their countrymen to pronounce “arf-an'-arf," is provided. Still, travelling through the States and dining at different hotels and restaurants you will often be asked if you will take mutton, pork, or beef “steaks.” It is, moreover, a curious circumstance that, although next to roast beef the mutton chop is held to be the most de- lectable item in the diet of John Bull, the chop, so called, is not to be found in very old English cookery-books. For example, in Dr. Salinon's “Family Dictionary and Household Companion,” published in 1710, thirty-seven years before the appearance of Mrs. Glasse's work, no mention whatever occurs of chops. My theory is, that in the old English cuisine, chops were known as “collops"; meaning slices or lumps of flesh that had been beaten prior to their being cooked. The word itself is derived from the English “clap," or the Danish “kloppen,” to beat. You know that in the Book of Job allusion is made to the wicked man who “maketh collops of fat on his flanks”; and Shakespeare speaks of a “collop of Aesh”; while old Fuller alludes to “cut- ting good collops out of Crown land.” On the other hand, my Scotch readers will know that in Caledonia collops mean minced beef cooked in a stew-pan and kept moving, so that the mince shall not become coagulated into lumps. Touching the beating of the old English collop, it is as well to warn all and sundry not by any means to apply the bastinado to mutton chops before they are laid on the gridiron. Mutton is not so noble a meat as beef; still, its best parts should be protected from the indignity of verbera- tion. Hear on this subject the wise Francatelli:—“Chops must never be batted or beaten.” But I hear distracted female cooks urge, “How shall we treat the meat when it is tough ?" You should not choose tough meat, Madame Cook. The French, · CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 55 whose meat, with the exception of the “ Châteaubriand” and the veal chop, is nearly always tough, cure the normal leatheri- ness of their beef or mutton by laying it for some hours in a very mild marinade of wine-vinegar, cloves, mace, pepper- corns, and a little salt; but the English cook would indig. nantly declare that she could never consent to send up “pickled chops ” or steaks to the table. A mutton chop of the sort I have mentioned, thick, fat- tailed, and so judiciously broiled as to be done through, but not to exhaust its gravy, is an incomparably good lunch for busy people up to the age of fifty. The cook should be very careful to broil chops over a clear fire, and to turn them frequently, so that they may retain the gravy aforesaid. A dish of mutton chops is a deplorable solecism. Each chop should be served separately on its own hot plate, and if you can afford a silver hot-water plate, so much the better. The addition of a mite of minced shallot-for gentlemen only and a morsel of fresh butter placed underneath each chop, may be recommended by way of relish ; and if the natural gravy is for some reason or another scanty, you may pour- observing great discretion—a little Harvey sauce into your plate. Worcestershire sauce, in many cases admirable, is too potent for a hot mutton chop, and interferes with the balmi- ness of its flavour. You know that I hate potatoes; but a large, well-boiled, and mealy potato may be tolerated in the case of a fine chop“ with a curly tail.” Should Chops be Fried or Broiled ? The Marchioness of Londonderry is strongly of opinion that the gridiron is the only culinary utensil with which to cook a chop; and in the sensible advice which she has given to the wives of the colliers on the estate, she strongly THE TEGEOTGH GOOD CIJE inch the capsietes, o the gross of cleaniness and mnm, of the preparation of chops S: Lastende fashion, and in 10 other way. (zlinary doctors, hoserer, like medical ons, are rasionally apt to diter; and the Var- chimea has found critics who are not by any Leans satisfied with her rem endation of the grill to the working classes. (ne correspondent of a newspaper asks her if she has ever tried to grill a chop over a tiny kitchener, such as is to be found in small houses of the present das; and he ren- tures to think that those who have done so will agree with hinn that smoke and sinut will, under these circumstances, always accompany the grilled chop. Finally, he asks the Marchiones to make her choice between a chop properly fried in a clean pan, and a chop imperfectly grilled over a poky kitchener. This censor forgets that coals are cheap at the pit's mouth, and that a collier's wife whose husband's wages do not exceed twenty-five shillings per week can afford to keep a much better "open" fire than can be maintained by the working man's wife in places where there are no collieries. Moreover, the wife of the working man, whether he earns his livelihood above or below ground, should be taught to broil a chop as thoroughly as she should be instructed in the art of boiling a potato. The gridiron should be greased with a piece of fat before the chop is placed upon it, and the fire should be a perfectly clear one. The chop or steak should be frequently turned while it is cooking; and if an excessive amount of fat falls into the fire, the blaze should be at once abated by a handful of salt. If these details are properly attended to, I fail to see where the contingency of smoke and soot occurs. The recipes for cooking plain mutton chops are curiously numorous; and Dr. Kitchiner, in his “ Cook's Oracle,” tolerates ooth the broiling and frying of chops, giving, in the case of tho grill, tho sensible advice to the cook to set the gridiron slanting, to prevent the fat from dropping on the coals and so CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 57 making a smoke. In a culinary manual, published less than twenty years ago, both the broiling and the frying of chops are prescribed. In the first instance, the cook is directed to brush the cutlet over lightly with clarified butter to preserve the juice. The chop is to be turned four times, and when half-done it is to be seasoned with a mixture of salt and pepper. It is to be served on a hot dish with a thin slice of butter on the chop, and a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup or Chili vinegar; and, finally, it may be gar- nished with sliced lemon. When chops are fried, they are not to be dressed au naturel, but are dipped in egg and bread-crumbs, and to the butter in the frying-pan must be added a small quantity of stock or gravy. There is not much to be said against this mode of dressing chops, but most lovers of the delicacy would, we should say, regard the prescription of Chili vinegar in lieu of mushroom catsup as rank heresy; and although the garnish of sliced lemon may look as pretty as a border of parsley to a dish of sandwiches, the lemon is clearly an impertinence. The chop, let me repeat, should be neatly trimmed, very thick, with a proper allowance of fat, and so cooked that in the centre of the chop there should be a stratuin of under- done meat: a fount of natural gravy. As some epicures do not object to a little very finely minced shallot being sprinkled over their chop, so others are partial to chops with tomato sauce, an addendum which has become very rare in these days, when we have come to appreciate the excellent qualities of the “love-apple,” and eat the delicious fruit-vegetable either hot and stuffed, or raw as a salad. Unless the mutton chop is partaken of in a grill- room, where it comes straight from the gridiron to the table of the guest, an experienced gastronome will not be satisfied unless his chop is served on a hot-water plate ; for fat is a treacherous substance, and has a fatal tendency to get cold before the meat to which it belongs is half eaten. 58 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. This is the English chop in its beautiful simplicity; and although I have not one word to say against the world- famed roast beef of old England, it must be remembered that there are persons to whom beef is too potent and stimulating a meat, and whose constitution and palate are more efficiently administered to by the plainly cooked chop. No special ex- ception need be taken to walnut pickles as a relish, but the article itself possesses so characteristic and so delightful a flavour of its own that it seems superfluous to mar its savour with the conflicting taste of vinegar. The old English cooks sometimes played sad tricks with their mutton “steaks.” One Mrs. Mason, in her “ Ladies' Assistant,” published in 1787, seasoned her chops with pepper and salt, placed them in a buttered dish with milk, eggs, and flour, sprinkled some beaten ginger over the mass, and baked it in an oven. The good lady was scarcely aware that her mutton steaks baked would, as I have said, come down to pos- terity as a “ toad-in-the-hole”-a dish which has long since been banished from refined English society, but which an ironical fate has transplanted to the French cuisine as la côte- lette à la Nelson ; but Mistress Mason herself was not above borrowing from France, since her mutton chops in disguise, rubbed in pepper, salt, nutmeg, and chopped herbs, rolled in sheets of well-buttered white paper, and sautéd in a stew-pan and served with brown gravy, are only an English adaptation of the côtelettes à la Maintenon, invented at the instigation of the morganatic wife of Louis XIV. by Fagon his physician to stimulate the jaded appetite of the septuagenarian Grand Monarque. At a few first-class Parisian restaurants the carte comprises a dish professing to be a plain mutton chop, that goes by the name of côtelette au naturel, but it is at its best à poor, meagre, shrivelled affair, which, when contrasted with the splendidly juicy English chop with the curly tail, reminds the Briton of the old satirical couplet which declared that “Pitt was to Addington what London was to Paddington.” CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 59 The only tolerable French côtelettes au naturel are the tiny neck chops, each providing not inore than a couple of mouthfuls, which, as I have said before, are furnished with a little paper ruffle round the shanks, so that they may be despatched without the aid of knife or fork. On the other hand, although in unadorned chops the French are unable to approach us, they are exceedingly deft, tasteful, and versatile in their preparation of cutlets. Côtelettes à la Vicomtesse are egged and bread-crumbed, fried in a sauté-pan, garnished with quenelles of veal, dished on a border of mashed potatoes, and served with rich sauce. Côtelettes à la Westphalienne are covered with chopped Westphalia ham instead of bread crumbs ; côtelettes à la Provençale are fried in oil and seasoned with scraped garlic. Côtelettes à la Bohémienne are marinaded or pickled for three or four days before they are cooked, and are served with a sauce in which currant jelly and minced gherkins predominate. Then there are côtelettes à la Palestine, dressed with Jerusalem artichokes; cutlets with asparagus tips; with cauliflower; with sauce à la Soubise, à la financière, à la Marseillaise, and many other modes; while the famous côtelettes à la Réforme were invented either by Alexis Soyer when chef of the Reform Club, or by his friend and patron Lord Marcus Hill, the consummate gastronome. Let it be noted that while in all these frying operations the French use a sauté-pan admirably, they scarcely recog- nise a frying-pan in our sense of the term; and that there is no risk of either smoke or soot getting into their pans. For the rest, while holding an even balance between Lady Londonderry's defence of broiling, and the opposite advocacy of frying, I may point out that both processes involve the waste of dripping. The most economical and perhaps the best way of cooking the British chop is to roast it in a Dutch oven before à clear fire, where it can be done “to a turn,” and all the dripping can be saved. 60 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Partridges. In an old family album, on which I chanced the other day, I found a pen-and-ink drawing, made, I should say, by my father, very early in the present century. It repre- sents a female cook with a knife in one hand and Goethe's “Sorrows of Werther" in the other, and she is blubbering in a manner distressful to behold. Beneath was written, “Oh, Charlotte, Charlotte! oh, Werther, Werther! I must go and skin these (adjective) eels.” The remembrance of this humorous drawing is an obvious warning to me to abstain from any moralising reflections as to the cruelty of battues, the injustice of the game laws, and the hard-hearted- ness and selfishness of calling the bird which we so ruthlessly slaughter “Saint Partridge,” and speaking of the First of September as the “Glorious First.” The eels had got to be skinned by the sentimental cook who wept over the sorrows of Werther, and the partridges have got to be killed by somebody; and the fact that I have no kind of inclination for field sports, and if I went out shooting should probably pepper my next neighbour or myself, does not entitle me, I apprehend, to preach even the briefest of sermons against the undue preservation of game and the barbarity of “warm corners.” Only this I will say, and firmly hold to:—That men should hunt and shoot is right and proper; we have been hunters and shooters for many centuries. But I do maintain that it is revolting and unwoman-like for any lady to shoot at birds. I don't care what costume the tailor may drape la sportswoman in. I don't care whether she goes out on a shooting tramp in knickerbockers and gaiters, or in skirts lined with leather, or in jack-boots; she has no right to go out shooting at all. Killing is no part of the vocation of a woman, and least of all should a lady slaughter par- tridges. The hen partridge is the kindest and most devoted CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 61 mother in the whole feathered world. When she is in charge of her little brood, she endeavours to put them out of danger and to draw the intruder aside by the exercise of many a crafty wile. But, should the enemy come upon the brood too suddenly to be deceived by cunning, the mother partridge will boldly dash at the foe, and with self- sacrificing valour attack with beak, foot, and wing, until the enemy has left the ground or she herself is killed ; knowing that her young charges are taking advantage of the time to place themselves in safety. It is sickening to think of English women, created by Providence to be wives and mothers, forgetting the gentleness and the compassionateness of their sex, and butchering birds. Among the recipes which I have given you for par- tridges, I entreat you not to overlook braised partridge with cabbage.* It is the French perdrix aux choux, which the Paris correspondent of a daily newspaper seems to think to be a dish exclusively patronised by the French bour- geoisie. As a matter of fact, the partridge braised with cabbage has been for many generations an aristocratic plat; and the late E. M. Dallas, in his “Book of the Table,” says that French cooks “ elaborate with extraordinary care the ingredients of this preparation, and lavish immense ingenuity on it.” I will not indulge in such hyperbole, but will ask you to try partridge with cabbage. Minces. In the earlier strains of the minstrels whose chief musical instruments are the banjo, the bones, the tambourine, and the accordion, there is a ditty of which the hero is a certain “Uncle Ned,” who was exceedingly fond of * See Index to Recipes, 62 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. corn-cake, but having attained so advanced a period of life as to have lost all the molars and incisors requisite for the mastication of solid food, “ he had to let the corn-cake be.” It was possibly some remote ancestor of “Uncle Ned,” or, at all events, some individual in far-off antiquity, who, through loss of teeth, and the dentist's art being yet in its infancy, invented the culinary process known as mincing. The earliest product of this device was in all probability the sausage. The ancient Greeks, as we learn from the comedies of Aristophanes, were much addicted to sausages, and even to black puddings; and the skill of the Greek cooks in making these, to me, abhorrent dainties, was emulated by the cordons Bleus of old Rome. The cookery- book attributed authentically or apocryphally to Apicius contains a number of recipes for sausages. One is made from the minced liver of a pig that has been fed exclu- sively on figs; then there are bacon sausages, with the mince of which pepper, cummin, and winter savoury pounded in a mortar with pine-nuts, were used. Soyer, in his “Pantrophion,” tells of sausages composed of pork chopped into very small pieces, with which was pounded the finest white bread well soaked with wine and seasoned with pepper and decorticated myrtle leaves. The Romans also had chicken sausages; and one of their favourite hors d'auvres was a very small sausage made of hard-boiled egg, mush- rooms, and anchovies pounded together and well seasoned. Self and partner occasionally try precisely such a relish at home; only, instead of putting the mincemeat into skins, we stone some olives and dexterously stuff them with the mix- ture, serving them at the beginning, and not at the end, of the repast, on little discs of thin toast, delicately endued with anchovy butter. A mince, as we ordinarily understand it, is practically a sausage “at large,” that is to say, emancipated from its skin, served hot with a little gravy, and in most cases CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. accompanied by a poached egg, and garnished with sippets round the dish. Alexandre Dumas the elder, in his “Dic- tionary of Cookery," defines minces as minutely chopped meat with a border round it of chicory, prepared with cream, and says that minced roebuck should make its appear- ance at table with a purée of mushrooms; but we do not habitually mince venison in England. We hash it, and the French have no exact equivalent for our hash. To minced beef, Alexandre very properly assigns a sauce piquante. Here is the recipe, not from Dumas, but from my own culinary pharmacopæia :— Two tablespoonfuls of chopped onions in a stew-pan, with four of good malt vinegar (see that you get it) and a small piece of glaze ; boil together a few minutes, then add a pint of brown sauce and half a pint of broth; stir quickly over a sharp fire till the sauce adheres to the back of the spoon; then add a tea- spoonful of chopped mushrooms and a tablespoonful of chopped gherkins; it is now ready to use. This sauce must be seasoned rather highly with Nepaul pepper, and salt, and a little sugar. Don't pour it over your minced beef, which should be served not very moist, and accom- panied by the usual poached eggs; but have your sauce separately in a boat. Some ladies will not tolerate the chopped gherkins, the onions, the pepper. When boiled beef is minced, the French call it a miroiton, a term which they also apply to stewed fruit. Cheese. David, we all know, carried loaves and cheese to his brethren, and perhaps the cheese gave him additional vigour when he encountered Goliath of Gath. I suppose there has rarely been a period in the world's history, since it has had any history to speak of, when cheese has not been 64 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. eaten in some form or another; but I maintain that although we English people consume every year an enormous quantity of cheese, we are miserably behind foreign nations in em- ploying this succulent and wholesome article of food in our cookery ; and it is for this reason that I have given some cheese recipes.* It is true, of course, that children eat large quantities of cheese-cakes, which are made, as a rule, without any cheese at all; although in one kind of home-made cheese- cakes we begin by putting four well-beaten eggs into a saucepan containing a pint of boiling milk, and let it remain on the fire until it curdles; then we pour off the whey, put the curd on an inverted sieve to drain, and, when quite dry, add the other and sweet ingredients. There is a savoury cheesecake, too, made of well - drained curds, butter, eggs, with the addition of some grated Par- mesan and a little salt and pepper. But cheesecakes, after all, are frivolous things, scarcely calling for the notice of the serious student of cookery. We do make very excellent toasted cheese ; but the delicacy is evidently not of Saxon but of ancient British extraction, as Theodore Hook well showed in telling the story of the Welsh school-boy who declared that one of his ancestors gave a banquet at which five hundred cooks were employed; upon which a malicious Sassenach suggested that the boy's ancestor only presided at a feast of five hundred guests, and that every man brought and toasted his own cheese. With regard to the Welsh rabbit, or rare-bit, it is amusing to remember that M. Jules Gouffé, the distin- guished author of “Le Livre de Cuisine ”—perhaps one of the best French cookery-books of modern times — paid us the compliment, in his “Livre des Soupes," to admit “that we at least possess one national potage”_cheese soup, to wit—and he proceeded to specify with the utmost * See pp. 397-101, CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 65 gravity the ingredients and the mode of preparing a Welsh rabbit. There is indeed an English cheese soup which can be made without toast. You may grate very finely as much dry Gruyère or any other light-coloured cheese as you require ; strew a layer of it at the bottom of the soup- tureen ; over this place some very thin slices of the stale un- toasted crumb of bread. Repeat this process until the cheese is used, when one-fourth of the depth of the tureen should be occupied. Then you put a piece of fresh butter into a saucepan ; let it melt, and stir into it a tablespoonful of flour, and keep it on the fire, stirring constantly tillit browns. Then throw in two tablespoonfuls of finely minced onions; when they are browned, stir in gradually a quart of water ; let it boil, season with pepper and salt. Allow the soup to stand a couple of minutes before the fire to soak the bread and cheese, and when that is done, serve. ni Cool Drinks. What should we drink in broiling summer weather ? The most philosophic reply to the question is that we should drink as little as ever we possibly can, either of an alcoholic or a non-alcoholic nature, for there is danger, when the thermometer is at 85°, in gulping down draughts of cold water, especially if it is iced ; and in any case, touching aqueous potations, Falstaff very cogently ob- serves that “water swells a man.” Old and experienced travellers will, I think, agree with me that in exceedingly sultry weather, and in stress of water, thirst may be staved off by sucking gum Arabic; and in far-dis- tant days, when I was campaigning with Garibaldi in the Tyrol, we did very well, when the coffee ran out, by sucking chocolate drops, which gave us a strange sustaining l'alstaff try weatz4, I thin Wells a 66 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOK. power. If you can get water, and have some doubts about its purity, you may qualify it either with a tiny admixture of cognac or whisky, or of Spanish liquorice, or molasses, or—if you do not object to bitters-of gentian, and a few drops of syrup of ginger. These ingredients, indeed, added to Rosbach, with some sal-volatile, will form what is known as a pick-me-up, and with a lump of ice superadded will be found delicious. Civilised society, however, in a state of peace, requires “ a vast number of cooling drinks of a more or less luxurious quality. Cider-cup you will find I have given a recipe for,* Sindicam and ladies may find much solace in perry-cup, which I consider to be equal in dulcet pleasantness to Moselle-cup, and nearly equal to the king of all white-wine cups, chainpagne. Cold tea is a most delicious and refreshing beverage in hot weather, but I doubt whether it should be taken pure. It is much better both for the palate and the nerves of the drinker to mingle it with milk and sugar. That is the way in which the Australian miner takes it when he prepares to descend the shaft and his wife hands him, just before the basket or cradle is set going, his “billy” of tea. The Russians drink amazing quantities of tea, both in winter and summer; but they never drink it cold. The tea is poured from a samovar, a large brass urn; through the centre of this runs a tube in which heated charcoal or a red-hot metal cylinder is placed to keep the water warm ; and the tea is then poured from a tap, not into cups, but tumblers. Milk and sugar are eschewed; but the tea—which is usually five times better than any tea procurable in Western Europe or in America—is flavoured with a slice of lemon. I have heard of artfully contrived samovars divided into two separate compartments and moving on a pivot. The guests who “know the ropes” are aware that one compartment * See p. 449, CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 67 ge, not ind this chillin. contains innocent hot tea, and the other wicked hot punch. The machine has a tap on each side, and the non-abstaining Muscovite can easily twirl the samovar round and turn on the punch-tap. Obviously, however, neither hot tea nor hot punch should be regarded in warm weather as a cooling drink. Heat, however, should not be entirely disregarded as an element in two exceptionally cool and refreshing beverages. In the morning, instead of drinking your coffee hot, try it as a chaudfroid. Pour your café au lait into a soda-water glass in which you have placed a couple of very big lumps of ice. When you first grasp the glass in your fingers the heat will be scarcely tolerable, but by degrees, as you drink, you will experience an enchanting sensation of velvet-like softness, and gradually increased chilliness in the coffee; and in the end you will find that you are sipping a completely cold beverage, not violently iced, but gently, gradually, and completely refrigerated. A chaudfroid of tea in the afternoon is quite as delightful and quite as thirst-quenching. Iced milk I grant to be appetising, but save at very early morning, and then qualified by a dash of the best Jamaica rum, I doubt the prudence of gulping down, say, half a pint of milk at a draught. It lies heavy on the stomach, and is not easily digested. When children are thirsty, and curds and whey are not procurable, I think that in summer they might with advantage drink lemonade, thoroughly cooled, but not actually iced. I don't mean the so-called lemonade sold in bottles. This drink is, as a rule, only so much aërated water with an infusion of acetic acid. Real lemonade—which is made in the Italian penny ice-shops far better than it is in the houses of polite society-should be made from boiling water poured on slices of real lemon, well sweetened, and cooled first by placing wet cloths round the bottle, and next by surrounding it by pounded ice till the refrigerating, not the freezing, point has been attained, F 2 68 U THE KA GOOD COOK. THOROUGH How to make Coffee. On the principle of every man thinking his own geese swans, I believe that we make as good coffee in our house at Brighton as is to be met with in most middle-class families where the master and mistress know something about cookery; so I will tell you in a very few words how our coffee is made. We allow a tablespoonful and a half for each break- fast-cup; and we use the best coffee that we can get. Formerly we had a coffee-mill, and ground the so-called beans, which are really the seeds of the coffee-berry, at home; but now we are content to use good colonial coffee, with a very small quantity of chicory in it. To make the delicious beverage, we use that simple percolator of block tin which I have seen used for fifty years. In the upper cylinder of the percolator we place the coffee, closing the top with a perforated block-tin disc to prevent the aroma from escaping during the process of infusion and the water from falling with a rush on the coffee, then we pour in a sufficiency of boiling water, and the infusion percolates into the lower cylinder, and is in due time poured out from the spout, strong, and clear as a bell. That is all. Stay: the percolator must be kept from boiling again, which would be fatal to its flavour and its clearness; but it must be placed on a “hot plate,” to prevent it from becoming tepid. Lukewarm coffee is an abomination which should be administered only to spiteful cats and human miscreants. In case you should think my coffee recipe too rough- and-ready, I have given a number of recipes for the making of it,* culled from long acknowledged authori- ties on the subject. There are a hundred and one ways of making coffee ; but I have found ours palatable not only to ourselves, but to our friends. In the morning, * See pp. 452-45+. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. at breakfast, we drink café au lait-one part of coffee to three parts of boiling milk. After lunch and after dinner, and altogether against the advice of my medical attendant, I drink black coffee without milk and with a little sugar. At luncheon I take no petit verre with my coffee; after dinner I have a liqueur glass of green Chartreuse with my café noir, and it does me good. My medical attendant says that it does not. My medical attendant may go to Hong-Kong; and I have not the slightest doubt that when he dines at the Æsculapian Club he never fails to take his petit verre with his coffee. I remember dining once with no less than nine doctors; they all ate turtle soup, they all took curry, they all drank champagne and port afterwards, they all had liqueurs with their demie- tasse, and they all smoked. I was not present, either at the post-mortem or at the inquest. It is amusing to read what some old culinary authorities have to say about coffee. Worthy Dr. Kitchiner, in his “ Cook’s Oracle” (1827), observes that coffee, as used on the Continent, serves the double purpose of an agreeable tonic and an exhilarating beverage, without the unpleasant effects of wine; but as drunk in England, it debilitates the stomach, and produces nausea, being usually made from bad coffee served up tepid and muddy, and drowned in a deluge of water, sometimes deserving the title given to it in “The Petition against Coffee, à black, base, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking puddle-water.” For making coffee, the doctor recommended—nearly seventy years ago, you will remember—the use of the “German filter,” which was only a simple percolator; and he adds that not less than four shillings a pound must be paid for the coffee, and that at least an ounce should be allowed for two breakfast-cups. As to making coffee in the ordinary coffee-pot, the old- fashioned mode of boiling and clearing the liquid, it is simply abominable. I have read one recipe where you are 70 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. told that before you make your coffee you should put it into a basin and break into it an egg-white, yolk, shell and all. This compost being put into the pot, it is to be boiled up three times. It will then, says the prescriber of this nastiness, be as clear as amber, and “the egg will give it a rich taste.” Sometimes the dried skin of sole or cod- fish, scraped, washed, and dried, and cut in pieces an inch square, was used for settling the coffee, and isinglass was another favourite "clearer.” I once knew a cook who main- tained that the only possible way of clearing coffee was to throw a live coal into the pot after its final boil. That cook, I am sure, came to a bad end. Ices. I once asked good old Lady Combermere, the relict of the famous Field-Marshal of that name, and who lived to be nearly ninety, and preserved almost to the last her brilliant mental faculties, whether she could remember the period when ices first became popular in English society. She replied that, so far as she could recollect, both water and cream ices became fashionable about 1817; but that they were at first somewhat mistrusted by the beau monde, in- asmuch as they made its stomach ache. There is even at the present day a dim suspicion among otherwise intelligent people that ices are more or less in- digestible; but looking at the fact that fruit ices are prepared with fruit-juices strained and mixed with thick cold syrup, juice of lemon and orange, and a little of their peel, and that ice-creams are only so much syrup, cream, and fruit, or other flavouring, carefully frozen, it would not appear that these delicious dainties contain any indigestible or otherwise unwholesome element. : CHATS ABOUT COOKERY.. 71 Children are, as a rule, passionately fond of ices; but when their parents delight the little ones' hearts and palates with these delicacies, they should be very careful not to let Master Tommy or Miss Effie eat an ice when he or she happens to be over-heated. Ices are best eaten in the cool of the evening of summer days, or at the conclusion of a well-prepared repast, when an equal temperature reigns throughout the frame. Adults, as well as juveniles, should avoid ices when they are perspiring through the sultriness of the season or of an over-crowded and ill-ventilated room, just as they should avoid, under similar conditions, drinking a glass of iced, or even of very cold, water. Touching the precise period at which ices, either cream or water ones, were first introduced into England, I am inclined to think that the epoch suggested by Lady Combermere was only that of a revival, and that ices in some shape or another had been consumed, with intervals of capricious unpopularity, ever since the days of the Restoration. Lord Chesterfield's cook de la chapelle was an excellent hand at ice making; and the process of freezing is very accurately described by Mrs. Hannah Glasse, and does not to any material extent differ from the processes employed at the present day. There is no earthly reason why ices should be con- sidered an expensive delicacy, quite unfitted for the eco- nomical scheme of a small family with moderate means. The necessary apparatus can be purchased for a very reason- able sum, and half a dozen lessons from a confectioner would teach a plain cook most of the mysteries of ice making. You have only to imbed your circular metal ice-box in salted ice; when this is well set, your prepared liquor is poured into it, and it must be then incessantly worked until it is thick; but in order to make the ices quite smooth, a rotary motion must be given to the ice cylinder. It must not be forgotten that the more they are worked the smoother, 72 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOR. mellower, and more elastic they will become. While you are turning the cylinder in its bed of salted ice, be very careful to strip off any bits of ice which may adhere to the sides or the bottom of the metal box. If you do not attend to this, there will always be a peril of the pre- paration within becoming more hardly frozen in one part than in another; in other words, your ice will be lumpy, and a lumpy ice is confusion. If you can afford to indulge occasionally in a little picturesqueness and elegance in the service of your table, get some pewter fruit moulds imitating pineapples, small melons, pears, peaches, and so forth. Each species of mould should be filled with a preparation in accordance with its nature and colour. When the moulds are filled, they should be well closed, wrapped each in a sheet of paper, set on a thick layer of pounded ice, strongly salted and sulphuretted, and then covered over with another thick layer of the same mixture. In an hour's time the fruit-ices should be sufficiently frozen. Free the moulds from the paper, dip them in cold water, carefully open them, and dish your fruit-ices with such elegant surroundings as may suggest themselves to you. The tuft of the pineapple may be imitated with angelica. Of course you have heard of “surprises” in ice-creams. I have seen some astonishingly ingenious things done in this way at Vienna, where they will send you up ices simulating with marvellous closeness lobsters, oysters, bundles of as- paragus, and even mutton cutlets and small hams. One year, having a little birthday dinner at Brighton, to which a few very old friends were invited, we tried, with the brightest success, a cream-ice “surprise,” the recipe of which I now freely offer to the great body of my readers. Tell your cook to obtain as many large long potatoes as you in- tend to invite guests. Let the potatoes be baked a very dark brown, so that their skins shall be rather corrugated CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. than smooth. Then cut the potatoes in halves, scoop them out thoroughly, wipe the inside of the skins quite dry, and varnish with white of egg; fill each half with ice, make it perfectly level at the top, flatten it, join the halves together, and serve the seeming “praties” on a napkin in a dish. Of course you will announce them in the bill of fare as “baked potatoes à la tin can.” We managed at the outset to deceive every one of our guests; we even heard murmurs of “Oh! really!” “I could not possibly!” “Who ever heard of such a thing !” and I am afraid that one lady said “Shocking!” But one wily male guest said he would try a “pratie.” He touched one with the forefinger of his dexter hand, nodded his head sagaciously, and winked a knowing wink. He duly opened his surprise potato and revealed the ice within; there was a roar of laughter, and ten baked skins were at once emptied of their contents. How had he discovered the trick ? we afterwards asked him. “Baked potatoes,” he sententiously replied, “ are not served cold; and the guests, when potatoes come round, do not have glass plates with ice spoons set before thein.” For the Children. The well-being, as well as the good behaviour, of children depends to a very large extent on the dietary prepared for them. They should not-whether they be inclined to be bons vivants or not-be tempted by the sight of food which is not suitable to their tender years and to their tender digestions; but they should take their meals chiefly apart from their elders until they are at least ten years old. My experience in catering for young people has not been large, but I am enabled to speak from the experiences related to 174 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. me by many friends whose olive-branches have been and are numerous. Now let me think. The blinds are drawn up in the nurseries, and the youngsters are all wide awake; and, like their elders, their first desire upon waking is not to have a bath, but to have something to eat and drink. I hear some of my readers exclaim, “ Something to eat and to drink before they are washed and dressed! Ridiculous !” But I repeat that their first desire upon waking is to have something to eat and to drink; and that desire I maintain should be satisfied. Give your children, wise mothers, upon waking, a wine-glassful of home-made lemonade, a Marie biscuit, and some fruit—a few grapes, a pear, an apple, an orange, or a few figs. Let the little ones enjoy this early “snack" every day upon waking, and you will find that their general health will be very much the better for it, and it will go far to decrease your chemist's bill. Bread and milk should constitute the staple diet for breakfast; but beware of porridge more than once, or, at the outside, twice a week. Too much oatmeal porridge is apt to have a bad effect on the skin. With some children it brings about a roughness, and with others absolute soreness, of the skin. When given at breakfast it should be prepared with milk, and the con- sistency should be only that of arrowroot or corn-flour, and not resemble in thickness a “bran mash” or linseed poultice, as I have frequently seen it served. Brown sugar, and not white, should be served with porridge. There is no necessity for me to tell how bread and milk should be prepared, as we all know that; but there are two ways of serving up even this homely fare, an appetis- ing and a non-appetising way. I have had bread and milk for my morning meal for months together during times of sickness, so I ought to know something about the appetising aspect of it. A nice cottage, not a tinned, loaf should be chosen, cut into even squares, care being CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. taken to leave nice bright little edges of crust for this matutinal dish; next be careful to pour boiling, and not lukewarm, water on the bread; drain it off quickly so as not to allow the bread to be reduced to a pap; set the bowls-always have white bowls—on a warm plate, and pour on to the bread the hot fresh milk in a few seconds, just as it is on the point of boiling. Don't wait until the milk actually boils, or it may become brown and burnt in a moment, and will entirely spoil the repast. A nice dish of buttered toast, made from tinned loaves, should follow, with a cup of chocolate made from cocoa-nibs. The next day bread and butter, hot buttered toast, and boiled or poached eggs should be the fare, with glasses of cold milk or café au lait. No tea, please. For dinner have mutton or chickens broiled, or roast, but beef only in croquettes or minced, with plenty of nice fruit, custard, and rice puddings; use plain vegetables such as cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage and turnips, and have fish once a week. I say “once a week,” for fish impoverishes the blood of children. If the doctor allows cheese, it should be taken grated, either on a buttered biscuit, or eaten with boiled macaroni. Soup I should not recommend for children, as it requires to be highly flavoured to be altogether palatable; but occasionally good beef gravy over potatoes is to be commended as being nutritious. For the evening meal chocolate is better than tea, and if chocolate fails to meet with approval, I should give cold milk in summer or hot in winter, as tea is too astringent in its effects for children. Plenty of good bread and butter, home-made preserves, and plum and seed cakes; and occasionally chicken and ham, or egg sandwiches, should find favour for this last meal of the day. For children who are not very robust, I would recommend a little cold chicken broth, or a spoonful or two of beef-jelly on a biscuit just before bedtime; but strong and healthy children require absolutely nothing, as a rule, after their 76 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. schoolroom tea. Pastry should, in my opinion, be wholly avoided, and a watchful eye should be kept on the consump- tion of the contents of those fascinating boxes of bon-bons which so inany children receive nowadays as presents from their admiring friends. After children have passed their twelfth year they require à more generous diet; but it is of young children that I now write. · 77 RECIPES. SECTION I.-SOUPS. 1. Beef Broth (Pot-au-Feu). (The Foundation of Flesh Cookery.) BEEF, which should always be chosen fresh-killed, makes the best “pot-au-feu” or broth. Veal is not so good, except in cases of sickness, as it is of a pale colour and weakens the broth. The same may be said of poultry. Pork broth is only useful in the making of split-pea soup. Put your meat into cold water, and set the pot upon a good fire; salt and skim it carefully. When the scum is entirely removed, put in carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, parsley, a bay-leaf, a burnt onion, and simmer-ah! so gently—until the meat is quite done; and you will have an excellent and wholesome beef soup. Next to the quantity and the quality of the meat, that which contributes most to the making of good broth is to take care that it cooks over a slow fire, with- out ceasing one minute. Six hours' simmering is sufficient to make a good soup, but a longer period is better. The pro- portion is three pounds of meat to four quarts of water. For the use of the gravy beef, or broth, see the chat on French Domestic Cookery (p. 6). -rain 2. Consommé (White Stock). The leg is the most useful part of veal for this purpose, though, for large dinners, there are other pieces which can also 78 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. be used with it. The inside part of the leg is a fleshy fillet without sinews; this should be taken out when you wish to serve a fricandeau, the remainder of the leg of veal cut in pieces, with about two pounds of lean ham ; if you have a fowl that is too old for any other purpose, it will add to the excellence of the broth; put the whole into a stew- pan, with a quart of not too strong beef broth ; set the stew-pan over a charcoal fire to soak the juice out of the ineat, which operation should take about an hour's time, and, of course, is to be regulated by the fire kept under it; especial attention must be paid that it does not burn; frequently shake the stew-pan, that the contents may not stick to any part of it; when the juice is reduced to the consistence of glaze, of a nice rich colour, fill up the stew-pan with clear beef broth, and let it boil slowly by the side of the fire for three hours; remove all the fat, and pass the consommé through a napkin or fine cloth into one or two basins. If the weather is warm, it is better to divide the broth, for by keeping too great a quantity in one vessel, it is apt to grow sour before it is cold. Clear, light stock is a highly important preparation in cookery, any failure in which proves fatal to the whole dinner, therefore no care or attention should be spared in order that it may be had in perfection. 1+1 3. Beef Tea. Take two pounds of fresh lean beef, let it be free from all sinews, fat, and skin ; put the beef, cut in pieces, into a stew-pan, cover the meat with cold water; have another stew-pan, in which you place the one containing the beef, pour water round to come nearly to the top of the inner stew- pan; set over the fire, and let the water boil briskly for two hours; then take out the inner stew-pan, and let it stand SOUPS. 79 for ten minutes, that the tea may settle ; place a napkin over a basin, and carefully pass the tea through it. 4. Mutton Tea. Take two pounds of the lean part of a leg or loin of mutton, without fat or skin ; put this into a stew-pan and cover it with water, and proceed in the same way as directed in No. 3. Those persons who have not the convenience of stew-pans may put the meat into an earthen pot, cover it up quite close, and set it in a saucepan, with water boiling round it. nar 5. Veal Tea or Broth. Take two pounds of the fleshy part of a leg of veal, free from fat, cut it into small pieces, put it into a stew-pan, with as much water as will cover the meat, and proceed, as in No. 3, by putting one stew-pan in another; but it will require an hour longer in the bath, as the juice of young meat is not so readily extracted. This broth may be made more nourishing by the addition of a calf's foot, taking out the long bone. ar 6. Chicken Broth Is also to be prepared precisely in the same way as the veal, but remember to skin the chicken before it is used. To any of the broths thus made you may add vermicelli, macaroni, rice, sago, etc., first boiled in water, then put into the broth, and made tender by setting the stew-pan in a hot-water bath. THE THOROUGH GOOD COOR. • 7. Chicken Broth for the Consumptive. Put a young fowl, cut up as usual, into a small, well- tinned stew-pan, with two spoonfuls of rice, and two quarts of water; having skimmed it, add some coriander seed and two pinches of poppy grains; boil it gently for two hours; add six or eight crayfish, and give it twenty minutes' boiling ; then throw in a handful of borage leaves; cover it, and take the pan from the fire to infuse for a quarter of an hour. In putting the fowl on, add two spoonfuls of pearl barley, and when passed through a sieve, add two ounces of barley- sugar (sugar boiled with an infusion of marsh-mallows); when this is dissolved, use it lukewarm and perfectly skimmed. Capons are prepared for broths and teas like chickens, but they are inuch more nutritious, and are more suitable for men than for women and children. I may add that I have known wondrous benefit to result from the use of this chicken broth. 8. Julienne Soap. A carrot, turnips, onions, leeks, and celery, according to quantity required; cut the carrots in thin slices; cut them again across into small thin strips; if the carrots are old, peel off only the parts that are red; slice all your vegetables equally ; put three ounces of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted put in the onions, and fry for four minutes; add the remainder of your vegetables, pass them quickly with a tablespoonful of powdered sugar, and keep continually tossing them so that they shall not catch. When they are beginning to look somewhat dry, add a quart of clarified consommé ; let it boil gently at the corner of the fire for twenty minutes, and be very careful to skim it well. A greasy Julienne is SOUPS. 81 destruction; only, the vegetables must be lightly fried, or rather browned, in the butter, else your soup will not be a Julienne at all. Some cooks add sorrel leaves and cabbage-lettuce, and a little picked chervil, cut small; but to my mind these additions make a highly artistic soup a rude mess of pottage. Serve it—as indeed you should serve all soups and all warm dishes—as hot as ever you possibly can. The heat, Mrs. Cook, should be in the dishing-up and in the plates, not in the seasoning 9. French Brown Soup (Brunoise). To clear broth (No. 2) add carrots and turnips, cut into dice, straws, or like small pears, etc., and first slightly fried and drained if young; if old, blanched. Soak toasted sippets in a basin of broth, and put them into the tureen after the soup is dished, lest they crumble and spoil the clearness of the soup. This is essential whenever bread is used. Skim off the fat from the tureen and serve. You may cut leeks and celery in lozenges, the turnips and carrots in ribands, and with these, cooked, you have a second kind of Julienne soup. If gravy-soup is not sufficiently clear, it may be improved by the whites of two or three eggs, well whisked, being boiled up with it before it is strained a second time. This is one of the “secrets of the kitchen ” with which all experienced cooks should be familiar; if there be any impurities in the soup, they will gather in a kind of ragged ball about the whites of the eggs, and this ball you throw away. 10. Autumn Soup. Cut, as for a Julienne (No. 8), the white parts of four leeks, the same of two heads of celery, and a lettuce; wash, 82 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and throw them into boiling broth; add a pint of young peas, a little sugar and pepper, two large spoonfuls of flour, mixed thinly and smooth, with some cold stock; stir the broth with a tablespoon to render it smooth, and after boiling it an hour and a half, pour it into the tureen with crusts dried as usual (see No. 12). non 11. Spring Soap (Potage Printanier). Mix in your broth the white of an egg beaten up with a little cold beef stock, to clarify it; after twenty minutes' boiling, strain it through a napkin, and again set it to boil, mixing with it the roots and vegetables as follows :- The red part of a large carrot cut in small sticks half an inch long with a cutter a quarter of an inch wide, a turnip, a head of celery, and two leeks cut in the same manner, with twelve small white onions; wash and put them into the boiling broth; then add lettuce, sorrel, and chervil blanched sufficiently, and serve in a tureen containing three tablespoonfuls of green peas and three of asparagus tips blanched; add a little sugar and some small crusts of a French roll rasped, cut round three-quarters of an inch wide, without the least appearance of crumb, and dried in the hot-closet. A dear soup, but not extravagantly so. This soup may also be served à la Parisienne, à la Régence, à la Chasseur, or with small forcemeat balls of fowl or game. You will perceive that it is fundamentally a Julienne : only there is a greater variety of vegetables, and they are not fried. You will please to observe that I am adhering to my rule of not using French terms where English ones will do quite as well; but when I have to describe a “smart” dinner for “smart” people, it is necessary to indulge in a SOUPS. little “cooks' French,” which is about the worst French with which I am acquainted. on 12. Sorrel Soup. Cut and wash a handful of sorrel, a lettuce, and some chervil ; pass them, with a little fresh bacon scraped, melted, and strained, through a tammy. The scraped bacon is cheaper than butter. Place your mixture in a clear meat stock; add a pinch of sugar, and skim the soup. Boil gently for an hour and a half. Just before serving add four yolks of eggs, with two small pieces of fresh butter; let it boil up, but keep it stirring, that the egg mixture may mingle smoothly with it; serve it, not with toasted sippets, but with little “crusts” of bread fried in dripping, but carefully dried in the hot closet, so that they shall be crisp and not greasy. 13. Green Pea Soup (St. Germain). Take three pints of green peas, mature, but not too old, and let them sweat thoroughly in stock on the fire with a bunch of green onions, parsley, a little mint, and a quarter of a pound of ham. When done, pound and moisten them with white stock to about the same con- sistence as other thick soups. Set this to boil gently for about twenty minutes at the corner of the stove, and skim well. When about to serve, colour your soup with a little parsley—or spinach-green, as dry as you can obtain it, by squeezing between two napkins. Mix your green with about two ounces of butter, well worked in a cloth, that no moisture may remain in it: if any wet particles remain either in the green or the butter, it will cause them to curdle in the soup instead of producing a smooth opaque green. Put your green and butter in a round-bottomed G 2 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. basin ; stir them with a wooden spoon, while you gradually moisten with soup, till the whole forms one and the same body. Serve immediately with fried sippets. Green-pea soup should be velvet-smooth. Just before serving, you may put into it a few whole peas which have been boiled separately; but when you do this you must leave out the sippets. 14. Soup of Brussels Sprouts. Sort out about fifty Brussels sprouts nearly of a size and as small as you can get them ; boil them perfectly tender and green in salt and water, drain them thoroughly on a napkin, and when you serve the dinner, boil them for five minutes in two quarts of clear consommé (No. 2); add a small lump of sugar and salt, if required; fried crusts of French roll may be added. woon 15. Aurora Soup. This soup can only be made in perfection when the carrots are young and juicy. Take carrots, the reddest that can be found, scrape them and wash them; then remove the outside, as far as it is red, and put it into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter and half a pound of the lean of good-flavoured ham cut in pieces; set the stew-pan over a very slow fire to soak. When the carrots are tender, add two quarts of light consommé (No. 2), and let the whole boil for an hour; then rub it through a tammy, boil the soup again, and if it is too thick, add more consominé; skim it carefully, for this soup should be a clear light red colour; fry some squares of bread in clarified butter, and put them into the soup just before it is served ; season with a little cayenne pepper, salt, and sugar. SOUPS. 16. Young Carrot Soup. Scrape and wash a bundle of young carrots, grate off the red parts only without touching the hearts; put the red gratings into a stew-pan with an ounce of fresh butter, a little lean ham or bacon, an onion, a turnip, and a bunch of leeks and celery. Sweat the roots gently over a slow firy, stirring them with a wooden spoon, in order that they may all take the same colour; add a sufficient quantity of stock, and let the whole boil slowly for an hour and three-quarters; take out the ham and the roots, but strain the carrots through a sieve; pound them in a mortar, return them to their liquor, and rub all through a tammy. Add some more stock and boil over a quick fire; when it boils, set it at the corner of the stove and skim perfectly; add a pinch of sugar to soften the favour of the roots. When thoroughly clarified, serve in a tureen with bread- dice lightly fried. This is one of the wholesomest and most palatable summer soups I know. I call it, “Do- without-the-doctor soup.” If for a dinner-party you want a fancy name for this soup, you may christen it “Cardinal,” or “Mazarin,” or “Richelieu ;” because red is the distinctive colour of the vestments of the Princes of the Roman Church. Remember also that any dish—soup, fish, or entrée-dressed with tomatoes, may be styled “à la Portu- guaise;" because we seem to have borrowed the delicious fruit-vegetable in question from the Portuguese kitchen. 17. Potato or Parmentier Soup. I have given an alternative “fancy” title to this excellent pottage in remembrance of the philanthropist who was the first to introduce the potato into French cookery. Parmentier was a military apothecary, who, late in the last century, had learnt to believe in the dietetic value of the potato while 86 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. serving with the French armies in Germany. At the outset he had to encounter the bitterest opposition both from the French Academy of Sciences and the French clergy. The first declared the tuber to be poisonous; the latter denounced it as a “Protestant” vegetable. Parmentier, however, suc- ceeded in obtaining the support of Benjamin Franklin and of Lavoisier; but his triumph was completed when he induced Marie Antoinette to accept and wear in her bosom a bouquet of potato flowers. “La Liberté et les Patatas ”-“Liberty and Potatoes ”—was a popular cry in Paris in the early days of the French Revolution; and the strip of ornamental garden of the Palace of the Tuileries was planted with seed potatoes. Slice ten large potatoes (kidneys are the best), blanch them; stew them in stock with two leeks and a head of celery tied up, and the crumb of a French roll; when they break under the pressure of the finger, take out the bunch of herbs, and rub the potatoes through a tammy; mix with a sufficient quantity of stock, clarify the whole, add a pinch of sugar and a little nutmeg. When serving, just after boiling point, mix in a pint of milk-nursery milk if you can get it and if you can afford it-a third of a pint of double cream and a pat of fresh butter. Pour the soup into a tureen with some blanched chervil; fried crusts as usual, to make it more toothsome. This is a cheap soup without the cream, and eminently relishable. You may also make a clear Parmentier soup by using finely shredded potatoes mingled with shredded onions in the broth, and leaving out the milk and cream. Grain 18. Old-Fashioned Pea Soup, The foundation of this capital and thoroughly English (and sea-going) soup is the stock, otherwise a liquor in which a knuckle of veal or leg of mutton or pork has been boiled. But pork liquor is the best; and by all means, if possible, SOUPS. add to your stock a ham-bone. You should let the stock get quite cold and perfectly clarified. Taste it, and if too salt, add a little water. If you find it too weak, from the savoury point of view, boil down in it any bones you may have in the house, or a bit of neck or shin of beef. So soon as this liquor boils, add your split peas in the proportion of one pint of peas to one quart of stock. Then simmer, and pulp the whole through a colander. Having done this, simmer for a full hour with the ordinary soup vegetables. Then strain again. Serve with dried mint finely powdered and handed round separately. The seasoning (pepper and salt) should be very moderate. The only drawback to pea-soup is that it is said to be slightly flatulent. In this connection I remember the case of a negro sailor with the curious name of Napoleon Bonaparte who was brought up at the Thames Police Court by the captain of a merchantman lying in the London Docks, for refusing to do his work. Asked what he had to say in answer to the charge, the darkey pleaded that he was insufficiently fed; to which his skipper replied that he had a good dinner of roast beef and potatoes every day. “Me no want rob beef,” passionately exclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte, “me want pea- soup to blow um belly out!” Savages think nothing of food that does not distend the abdomen. 19. Pease Pudding. Pease pudding is so close an analogue to pea soup that I have not hesitated to introduce it in this place. Marrowy “melters,” whether whole or split, are far the best peas for this good dish. Boil them tied loosely in a cloth till they will pulp through a colander; add salt, pepper, two beaten yolks of eggs, a good piece of butter; tie up firmly, and boil (with pork if boiling) for another E8 TAE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. half-hour, or hang the cloth before the fire till the pudding gets firm, then turn it out. If you are not too refined, and have a stalwart stomach, use dripping instead of butter. It will impart a marvellous zest to the pudding. And if you wish to make it closely and pleasantly akin to the Italian risotto, add some finely minced beef, liver, or kidney. nin 20. French Split Pea Soap. Having picked three pints of green split peas, put them in a stock-pot with a little salt, a piece of fresh butter, and the necessary cold water. Add a little lean ham, and simmer thein for nearly two hours ; take away the ham, and pass the soup through a tammy, adding a little broth. Mix afterwards the rest of the broth prepared as usual, and boil the soup for an hour only ; to clarify, add a little sugar and butter when taken from the fire ; turn it afterwards by a little at a time into the tureen, where you have put a colouring of spinach rubbed through a tammy, to give a fine green tint. Serve on a plate some bread cut into small dice, and fried a light colour in butter. As this soup of dried peas can be used in winter, if care- fully prepared, the roots of the brunoise or julienne, sorrel, or chervil, can be added to it, but it is not sufficiently rich to receive the garnitures used in the soups of young peas, although the experiment may be made. In winter there are, for variety, cream of rice and pearl barley, and the purées of fowl and game. 21. Green Asparagus Soup. Make this as you do green-pea soup (No. 13). Slice and pulp part of the asparagus, put the other part, cut into nice points and dressed, into the strained soup before serving ; or 90 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. The crumb of two penny rolls may be boiled in the water instead of the potato flour; but it must then be strained. Add bread sippets fried, and thicken with the beaten yolks of four eggs. nown 25. Benedictine Soap Maigre. Melt a half-pound of butter very slowly, and add to it four onions sliced, a head of celery, and a carrot and turnip cut down. When the vegetables have fried in the butter for a quarter of an hour, and are browned on all sides, put to them nearly four quarts of boiling water and a pint and a half of young peas, with plenty of ground black and Jamaica pepper. When the vegetables are quite tender, let the soup stand to clear from the sediment and strain it into a clean stew-pan. If not yet sufficiently transparent, let it stand an hour, and turn it carefully over. When it boils, add to it three onions shredded, or five young ones; a head of celery cut in bits, carrots sliced and cut as wheels or stars, and turnips scooped the size of pigeons' eggs or turnip-radishes. When the vegetables are done enough without the liquid getting ropy from their dissolution, the soup is finished. This, like all vegetable soups, is the better for a spice of cayenne. in 26. Pumpkin Soup Maigre. Cut your pumpkin into slices, and put it in boiling water for five minutes, with some salt; take it out; pound it to a pulp, and put it into a saucepan with some melted butter, with which warm it up. Put into a tureen some crusts of bread spread with butter and sugar; add the pumpkin pulp ; pour in some boiling milk, mix the whole, and serve after you have let it simmer for ten minutes longer. Or you may make your pumpkin soup a savoury one with veal stock. SOUPS. This interesting vegetable is shamefully neglected by English cooks. Boiled or fried pumpkin is caten with roast meat in Australia; and pumpkin-pie is one of the nicest of American sweet dishes. -rom 27. Another Soup Maigre. Cut small four ounces of sorrel, sixteen ounces of celery, and six or eight onions. Fry them in six ounces of butter, and stew them three or four hours in three quarts of water. Season with pepper, salt, and a little mace, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour, mixed with a teacupful of the soup. Beat up the yolks of two eggs in half a pint of cream, put it into the tureen, with a large slice of bread toasted and cut into dice, and then pour in the stewed in- gredients. Whenever I prescribe cream, consult your dairyman's book. In a inultitude of cases good, pure milk will do quite as well. re 28. Yet Another Soup Maigre. Brown half a pound of butter in a saucepan, and stew it for a quarter of an hour with the following ingredients, all washed clean and chopped small :-Four cabbage-lettuces, two handfuls of spinach, the same of chervil, one handful of white beet-leaves, and one of sorrel, three carrots scraped down, some pepper and salt; add five pints of boiling water, and a large slice of the crumb of bread cut thin and dried before the fire. Stew gently for two hours, and a little before serving thicken with the beaten yolks of three eggs, and half a pint of cream or good milk. A pint of green peas and the tops of asparagus may be added. THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 29. Leek Soup, or Cock-a-Leekie. Wash and clean three or four dozen leeks; cut the white and tender green part in bits about an inch long, wash them again, and put them to drain in a colander or sieve. Have ready boiling four quarts of stock, made from beef, seasoned with pepper and salt; put in the leeks, and boil them gently for three hours, adding a fowl in time to allow it to be well boiled, and serve in the tureen. -1 lira 30. Cabbage Soup. Take three white cabbages, which split, blanch, and place in cold water; then cut the white leaves into pieces about an inch square, avoiding the stems as much as possible. Boil them in salt and water, with a piece of fresh butter as large as an egg. When tender, drain thein well on a sieve, and pour over two quarts of clear brown stock, moderately seasoned with black pepper. Serve with the crust of a French roll, cut in pieces of the size of a halfpenny. 31. Scotch Kale Soup. Put barley on in cold water, and when it boils take off the scum; put in any piece of fresh beef and a little salt; let it boil three hours; have ready a colander full of kale, cut small, and boil it tender. Two or three leeks may be added with the greens if the flavour is approved of. This broth is also made with salted beef, which must be put in water overnight to soak. virta 32. Cucumber and Pea Soup. Prepare the broth as usual, and pour it quite boiling into a tureen containing a pint of peas dressed à la SOUPS. Française (that is to say, stewed in broth, butter, and sugar), also two cucumbers cut in scollops, as for an entrée, and dressed in a demi-glaze with a pinch more sugar. wireless 33. Braised Lettuce Soup. Blanch twenty young lettuces; let them cool, and squeeze out the water; divide each in two without entirely separating ; season them slightly with pepper and salt ; fold them up again, and arrange them in a stew-pan containing a ladleful of veal stock (No.2) and one of beef broth (No.1), a small bunch of parsley, with a clove, a piece of bay-leaf and thyme, an onion, and a small carrot; cover them with a sheet of buttered paper, and let them boil gently for two hours ; drain them on a napkin; trim them neatly; cut each in two, and place them in the tureen with small crusts prepared as usual. When serving, pour in the broth, to which add the liquor from the lettuces; but the bunch of herbs boiled with them should afford no high degree of flavour. 34. Another Braised Lettuce Soup. Prepare twenty lettuces, and when divided, but not entirely separated, place in each a small spoonful of forcemeat of fowl, to which add a little chopped chervil. Surround this stuffing with the leaves, giving the lettuces a long shape; tie them with pack-thread to keep them so, and arrange them carefully in a stew-pan; boil them two hours, and serve. It is usual in braising lettuces to put slices of bacon beneath and above them; but if for soup, they are better dressed in broth only, and the necessity for draining and pressing them is avoided. 94 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 35. Cauliflower Soup (Potage à la Purée de Chouxieurs). Boil three large white cauliflowers in slightly salted water until quite tender; chop them very fine; put a quarter of a pound of butter into a stew-pan; one leek, one head of celery (in slices), a quarter of a pound of ham, and two bay- leavés; pass them ten minutes over a quick fire; add the cauliflowers and three tablespoonfuls of flour; mix well; add three quarts of white stock, and one ditto of boiled milk; stir it until boiling; rub it through a tammy; boil, and skim well; season with a teaspoonful of sugar, half ditto of salt, finish with an “alliance” of two yolks of eggs, mixed with a gill of cream ; pour the soup into the tureen; have a cauliflower boiled, and cut into twenty small sprigs; put these into the soup, but be sure not to break them. Sretan 36. Cauliflower, Green Broccoli, and Parsley Soup. White or brown stock as preferred. Blanch a head of cauliflower, put it in in small pieces, give them a few boils, and having cooled and drained them, let them boil in broth with some parsley blanched. When serving, turn it into the tureen containing two heads of broccoli blanched by themselves in a preserving pan, to give them a slight violet colour, then add the broth and fried crusts. roton 37. Bean Soup with Ham or Bacon. About a pound of lean ham or bacon must be well soaked. Pare away the under yellow skin, and boil it an hour. Meanwhile, have boiled some kidney beans, quite soft. They must have been soaked the night before. Mash half of then through a coarse sieve, and add them to the boiling bacon, with an onion, or chives, celery, chervil, etc. Take out the bacon, peel the rind off, cut up the meat into thin SOUPS. slices; return this, with the unbruised beans, to the pot, and give all a boil up together. The same quantity of fresh or salted pork, unsmoked, is, by some, preferred. — Good, satisfying, and cheap. rew 38. Turnip Soap. Slice one-fourth of a Swedish turnip, sweat it in fresh butter, and keep it stirring with a wooden spoon to colour it equally of a light brown; then let it simmer in some broth for nearly two hours, and rub it through a tammy; add broth of fowl prepared in the usual manner; skim the purée to clarify it, and add a pinch of sugar. Serve with it fried bread on a plate separately. irroir 39. Tomato Soup. Boil some tomatoes and pass them through a sieve. Brown some butter with a dessert-spoonful of flour. Pour in some stock; then put in the tomatoes, with pepper and salt. When the whole has boiled up thoroughly, add a wineglassful of pale sherry and a small quantity of Nepaul pepper, pour the whole on to some crusts which you have fried in butter, and serve. Sinar 40. Haricot Bean Soap à la Condé. Pick and wash three pints of dried red haricots, and stew them with a plump young partridge as you would lentils (No. 41); skim, and when the partridge is done, take it out, with the ham and roots. Rub the purée through a tammy, SOUPS. 97 43. The Basis of Fish Soups. The “stock," as it is technically called, may be made either of fish or of meat. The former is perhaps the more elegant, and is, besides, suited to meagre days; the latter is supposed to be the more rich and nourishing. Beef, veal, or the lean of mutton, may all be used for fish-stock. When made of fish, a skate, a cod's head, haddocks, whitings, eels, gudgeons, flounders, and other white fish are used, and also the heads, fins, and trimmings of the fish which are to be dressed. As fish-stock soon becomes sour, it should not be made till it is to be used. Boil the fish of which you make the stock in two quarts of water, with a couple of onions, a piece of lemon-peel, and a faggot of sweet herbs. Skim the liquor carefully, and strain it. If the fish soup is to be brown, the fish which makes the stock may be browned in a frying-pan before boiling. Catsup is generally put to brown fish soup. 44. Fish Soap. Procure three pounds of very fresh grey mullet, clean them well, and sprinkle a little salt over them; then put six ounces of the best olive oil into a stew-pan, with a pound-and-a- quarter of finely chopped onions, and sufficient salt; put the pan on the fire till the onions are partly browned ; then add a handful of washed parsley, and the same of mint, both chopped fine, and fry them a little, together with the onions ; now add a pint of the best wine-vinegar, and two or three pints of hot or cold water, and boil for twenty or thirty minutes; then pass the liquor through a sieve into another saucepan, and place the fish in it; put it on the fire, and let it simmer till the fish is done; then take it out and extract all the bones, cut the fish in pieces and put these into the tureen; pass the liquor again through a cloth into a stew-pan; put into a basin the H 98 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. yolks of three or four eggs, the juice of one or two lemons, and half a teacupful of water previously coloured with two drachms of saffron: beat up all together, and add it gradu- Atacams o salon: bens moge ally to the liquor; set it on a moderate fire for ten or fifteen minutes, stirring it all the time with a wooden spoon, and without permitting it to boil; then pour it over the fish, sprinkle a little cinnamon and a pinch of Nepaul pepper over, and serve. Turbots, soles, and flounders, may be done the same way.-Good, but dear. sintown 45. Fish Soap à la Parisienne. - Make, with the flesh of a large whiting, some forcemeat balls; take off the fillets of two soles, and an eel; trim them into scollops, and throw a little salt over them; make an essence with the usual roots, herbs, and spices, and add the trimmings of the fish, with half a bottle of Chablis or Grave wine, and two large spoonfuls of fish broth; when boiled nearly an hour, strain it into a sauté-pan, slightly buttered, in which you have placed the scollops of fish, having first washed and drained them on a napkin ; let them boil ten minutes, take out the fillets of soles, and lay them in the tureen, but let the eels cook for five minutes longer ; then drain and add these to the soles, to which also add the forcemeat moulded in a teaspoon, with thirty crayfish tails, and the same number of small mushrooms. Strain through a silk tammy the liquor in which the fish were done, and add to it some broth prepared as usual; let it boil for some minutes, and skim it, taking away the slight film occasioned by the wine in which the fish were dressed. Add some blanched chervil, and serve. SOUPS. 99 46. Bisque of Crayfish. This is a pottage which is sent to table on gala days only, when you are obliged to make a change of soups. Take the best crayfish you can procure, according to the quantity you may want. (Five or six dozen at least are generally requisite.) If you boil the crayfish expressly for the occasion, you must not put vinegar. Lay aside two dozen and a half of the finest tails that remain whole; the rest, with all the meat and fleshy parts of the inside, pound in a mortar with the flesh of the breast of two roasted fowls or chickens. Pre- viously have soaked or boiled in rich broth the crumb of two French penny rolls; put that also in the mortar, with the yolks of three eggs boiled hard. Pound the whole together. Next put the shells of the cray-fish to boil in a little broth; then take some of the liquor to dilute the soup with, which rub through a tammy. Now boil a pint and a half of cream, which you keep continually stirring round, in order to pre- vent a scum from rising. Pour that creain into the pottage, and season it well. Have, the red spawn of a lobster well pounded, dilute it with some of the broth, and mix it with your soup, or pottage. Keep it hot without letting it boil. Soak a few rounds of bread, which lay at the bottom of the tureen. Pour your bisque into the tureen, over the bread; place all round the tureen over the soup the tails that you have laid aside previously, and serve up hot. Take care that the soup is not too thick; and season it of a good flavour. 10+ 47. Lobster Soup. Take three fine lively young hen lobsters, and boil them; when cold, split the tails, take out the flesh, crack the claws, and cut the meat into mouthfuls; take out the coral and soft part of the body, and bruise part of the coral in a mortar ; h 2 687966 100 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. pick out the flesh from the chines; beat part of it with the coral; and with this make forcemeat balls, finely flavoured with mace or nutmeg, a little grated lemon-peel, anchovy, and cayenne; pound these with the yolk of an egg. Have three quarts of veal broth; bruise the sinall legs and the chines, and put them into it to boil for twenty minutes ; afterwards strain it; and then, to thicken it, take the spawn and bruise it in a mortar with a little butter and flour, rub it through a sieve, and add it to the soup, with the meat of the lobsters and the remaining coral; let it simmer very gently for ten minutes; do not let it boil, or its fine red colour will immediately fade. Turn into a tureen, add the juice of a lemon, and a little essence of anchovy. You will see that with the exception of the almond flavouring and the cream, this soup is twin sister (soup, in French, is feminine) to crayfish soup, or “Bisque d'écrévisses” (No. 46). Call this, if you like, “ Bisque de homard.” 48. Another Lobster Soup. (A most difficult one, and only fit for persons of perfect digestion.) Have three middle-sized, or five small lobsters-hen lobsters if possible-ready boiled, and five pints of veal gravy, though beef or mutton stock will answer very well. Break off and bruise in a mortar the small claws and fins, with an anchovy, a piece of lemon-peel, and a couple of onions. Put these to the stock, and simmer till you have obtained all the strength and flavour they contain. Strain off the stock. Split the tails, crack without mangling the great claws and carefully take out the meat, cutting it into small pieces, and lay it aside. Pick the meat from the chine, and take part of the coral, the soft part of a few oysters, an anchovy, the quarter of a nutmeg, a blade of mace, a little SOUPS. 101 cayenne, and a teaspoonful of lemon-peel grated. Put these in a mortar, beat them up with the yolks of two eggs and a very little flour; make of this a dozen or more small force- meat balls for the soup. Next bruise the spawn in the mortar with a little flour, and, rubbing it through a sieve, put the balls, with the meat of the claws and tails and the coral left from the forcemeat, into the soup. Fry the force- meat balls first, if you like, or brown them in a Dutch oven; after putting them in, the soup may simmer for a quarter of an hour, but must not boil. Squeeze the juice of a lemon or a Seville orange through a strainer into the tureen, and serve. iran 49. A Cheaper Lobster Soup. Make a good stock of a piece of beef, a slice of ham, butter, a good many onions, and some pepper, and any fish and lobster trimmings you may have. Strain the stock, pulping the onions; pound the spawn and body of the lobster as above, and stir into the soup. Mix it smoothly with the stock; season with cayenne and white pepper--a glass of sherry, if you like—skim off the scum, and add the cut bits of the tail and claws as directed above. 50. Lady Morgan Soup. . Lady Morgan (wife of Sir Charles Morgan, a physician) was popular between 1820 and 1835 as a lively novelist. She was a great friend of the famous Carême, who invented this soup in her honour. Raise the fillets from a middle-sized plaice, a sole, and a small eel; cut up the bones and trimmings of the fillets, which put in a stew-pan, adding half a bottle of champagne, the 102 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and poach' mould it into of the fresh butige flesh of a lemon, the skins of a pound of truffles, a pottle of mushrooms, two onions, a carrot, a head of celery, and two leeks, the whole sliced; half a bay-leaf, a little thyme, basil, savoury marjoram, a little grated nutmeg and cayenne pepper, two cloves, two anchovies washed, and a little salt; simmer these for an hour, and strain through a silk sieve, to add afterwards to some veal stock. Now "jump" the fillets of the fish, and trim them in scollops ; make a large whiting into forcemeat, using instead of the fresh butter a butter of crayfish, mould it into small balls with teaspoons, and poach them in some broth. Cut the truffles that were skinned and dressed in stock with a root-cutter one inch in diameter, to scollop them after- wards, one-sixth of an inch in thickness. When about to serve, strain the forcemeat balls, lay them in the tureen with the scollops of fish drained on a napkin, as also the truffles, and twenty mushrooms turned, two dozen oysters, as usually prepared, as many tails of prawns, and the crayfish tails, from the shells of which the butter is composed; clarify the broth for the soup, having added to it the trimmings of the fish and their stock, as also the stock in which the forcemeat and truffles were dressed, the liquor from the mushrooms, and a tablespoonful of the oyster liquor. When serving, pour the soup boiling into the tureen garn- ished as above. Lorin 51. Fisherman's Soup (Potage de Poisson à la Marinière). Clean a sinall pike, a tench, a carp, and a middling-sized eel, cut them in small lengths, and throw over them a little sea-salt to cleanse and salt them at the same time; an hour after, wash and drain them on a napkin ; then lay each fish separately in a sauté-pan, containing two onions, two carrots, and a pottle of mushrooms, sliced, come parsley roots, bay- SOUPS. 103 leaf, basil, thyme, two cloves, a clove of garlic, a pinch of pepper, and grated nutmeg, half a pint of Marsala, and a ladleful of broth; let them simmer for ten minutes, take out the carp, and ten minutes afterwards drain the remaining fishes on a baking sheet, observing that no fragment of the seasoning remains about them; lay them gradually in the tureen, which cover and place in the hot closet; strain the essence of the fishes through a sieve; add it to some brown broth; clarify it, and pour it into the tureen while boiling, mingling with it roots dressed in broth. I commend this dish (which is a kind of fresh-water " bouillabaisse”) to dwellers in houseboats, and anglers in the backwaters of the Upper Thames—if there are any fish left in the Upper Thames ! rin : 52. Soap Curry of Fish. Prepare a white broth with fish (see No. 43), and to this add eight ounces of rice that has been blanched; boil the soup till the rice is tender, triin some fillets of lampreys, or eels, into small scollops, and lay them on a buttered sauté-pan; make forcemeat balls of salmon ; pour over the scollops half a pint of Chablis, and the same quantity of white broth, and let them simmer slowly for a quarter of an hour; drain them, and arrange them with the quenelles at the bottom of the tureen, strain the liquor the scollops were done in into the soup, skim, and pour it into the tureen. 53. Oyster Soup. Take two quarts of strong clear stock, whether of fish or veal or chicken ; add the hard-boiled yolks of six eggs, and the hard parts of a quart of fresh juicy oysters, 104 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. previously well pounded in a mortar; simmer for half an hour, and strain into a fresh stew-pan, in which have the remainder of the quart of oysters, cleared from the beards, and washed; season with mace and cayenne, and let the oysters simmer for eight minutes, when the yolks of three eggs well beaten may be stirred into a little of the cool soup, and gradually mixed with the whole quantity, drawing aside the stew-pan and constantly stirring, lest the eggs curdle. When smooth and thick, serve in a tureen, and keep stirring the soup for a minute, to prevent curdling. Bear in mind that there are always cheap “cooking” oysters as well as costly ones. I am not such a simpleton as to advise anybody save nabobs to use “natives” in making this delicious pottage. Please to remember, Mrs. Working Man's Wife, if I may go out of my way to give you a hint, that you can make a most succulent soup from periwinkles or from whelks. You like hot eel soup, don't you? Well, try a hot decoction of “winkles” or whelks. I am sure that your husband will like it when he comes home from work. 54. Conger Eel Soup. Put a bunch of savoury herbs into a saucepan, with a large carrot sliced, two large onions, and two bay-leaves. Fry them to a light brown, then add four quarts of water. Let it boil, skim it well, season it with one ounce of salt and half an ounce of pepper, and put into it five pounds of the head and tail part of a conger-eel. Simmer gently and continuously for two hours, strain the soup, and add to it a pint of green peas. A few minutes before it is served put in a pint of new milk. This is sufficient for five pints of soup.—You are not, if you please, to condemn conger eel. Well dressed, it is a valuable adjunct to the table. SOUPS. 105 55. Fish Chowder. (Boston Style.) Take a nice cod-fish of about six pounds, cut the head off and remove all the bones, then cut the fish into square pieces, place them in a bowl, and add half a pinch of salt and à pint of cold water, so as to have the flesh firm. Take the head and bones, place them in a saucepan with two quarts of white broth on the stove, and, as soon as it comes to the boil, skim well. Season with one pinch of salt and half a pinch of pepper. Let it boil for twenty minutes. Peel and slice very fine one small onion, place it in a saucepan with one ounce of butter, half an ounce of salt pork cut in small dice-shaped pieces, let boil for five minutes, then add two tablespoonfuls of flour. Stir well together for three minutes on a brisk fire, being careful not to let it get brown. Strain the broth into a bowl, and add it to the flour, stirring well until all the broth is added. Let it boil for ten minutes. Cut two good-sized sound potatoes into small dice-shaped pieces, add them to the soup. Boil five minutes. Drain the cod-fish, wash it once more, and add it to the soup. Boil five minutes more; add half a pint of cold milk, being very careful not to allow to boil again; sprinkle a teaspoonful of chopped parsley over, and serve very hot. 56. Mock Turtle Soup. Parboil half a calf's head, take off the skin, and cut it in pieces about an inch and a half square; cut the fleshy parts in morsels ; take out the black parts of the eyes, and cut the rest in rings; skin the tongue, and cut in slices; add it all to three pints of good stock, and season with a little cayenne, two blades of mace, salt, the peel of the quarter of a lemon, and a quarter of a pint of sherry, with a dozen of 106 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. forcemeat balls ; stew all this three-quarters of an hour; rub down with a little cold water, a tablespoonful of flour; inix carefully with it a quarter of a pint of the soup, and then stir into the pot; put in the juice of a quarter of a large lemon, and the hard-boiled yolks of four eggs; let it simmer for ten minutes, and then put it all in the tureen. If eggs are scarce, boil two hard ; pound the yolks in a mortar with a pinch of salt, adding the yolk of a raw egg ; when mixed together, put them on a table dusted with flour, roll them in the form of a small sausage, and cut them into very small equal parts; round every piece in the palm of the hand with a little flour, and put them on a plate as they are done ; give them a boil in boiling water, then put in fresh cold water. Drain them through a tammy before putting them into the soup, ragout, or any dressed dish. Sinan 57. Mock Turtle à l'Amiral Duperre. (From the French Admiral of that name.) Take the fillets from a sole, cut them in scollops, and brown them lightly in butter with a little pepper and salt; put the fragments of the sole, with the butter from the frying-pan, into a stewpan with the trimmings from a small slice of salmon (the flesh of which make into a forcemeat ball with butter), a pottle of mushrooms, two onions, and two carrots sliced ; a little whole parsley, two anchovies washed, a little lean ham minced, half a clove of garlic, a pinch of pepper, allspice, cayenne, mace, two cloves, half a pint of Chablis, and two ladlefuls of broth; boil these slowly for an hour; squeeze through a tammy, and add the essence of a Spanish sauce; pour into the tureen containing the scollops of soles the balls of salmon moulded into a teaspoon, two sweetbreads cut in scollops, also mushrooms and cocks'. SOUPS. 107 combs. Serve.—This is an expensive dish, and becomes even costlier when sliced truffles are added. Obs.—It is a curious fact that while the majority of French gourmets will willingly partake of “ fausse tortue,” or mock turtle, they usually regard real turtle with abhorrence. 58. Parisian Mock Turtle. Take a fat calf's head (choose the thickest skin); let it disgorge that it may be very white, bone and cut it in four pieces, and remove the ears and the fleshy parts; then stew it and drain it afterwards on a baking sheet, and lay upon it a large stew-pan cover, on which place a weight of ten pounds; when it is cold, cut it with a round iron cutter one inch in diameter, and take from each piece any flesh or fat that adheres to it. Put the head thus prepared into a sauté-plate, with twelve fine combs, twenty-four cocks' kidneys, and as many small white mushrooms; add half a pint of dry Madeira, and simmer the whole over a slow fire for ten minutes; then put it into a Spanish sauce well made and well clarified (this sauce should constitute the body of the soup, instead of the usual broth), to which add an essence thus pre- pared: Put in a stewpan two carrots, two onions, a pottle of mushrooms cut up, a little whole parsley, half a bay-leaf, a little thyme, basil, rosemary, marjoram, a little lean ham cut into dice, three anchovies washed and boned, a pinch of cayenne pepper, the same of allspice, two cloves, and a little mace; add a ladleful of broth, and half a pint of Madeira; simmer for an hour, and then rub the essence through a tammy. Add this to the soup, let it boil for a quarter of an hour, skim off the light skin from the top, and pour it into the tureen containing a plateful of small force- ineat balls of chicken, in one half of which you put a little 108 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. parsley, chopped and blanched, while in the other half a few mushrooms, chopped very fine and squeezed in the corner of a napkin, must be mingled. This is emphatically “a dish to set before a king.” It is to be remarked that none of the spices should pre- vail except the cayenne pepper; and even this should scarcely make itself felt. Many persons add a wine-glass of Madeira just before taking the soup from the stove, and others put slices of lemon; that depends on the taste. “But I never put them,” says M. Carême. 59. Sheep's Head Broth. Take a fat young head and a “gang ” of trotters, all carefully singed. Wash and scrape them well, and let them soak in cold water for an hour or two. Take out the eyes, split the head into halves and remove the brains. Shorten the jawbones where there is no flesh, and cut out the gristle inside the nose. Prepare the trotters for dressing ; wash and brush the feet once more, and leave them in water till wanted. Put the two halves of the head together and tie a string round to keep the brains and the tongue in their proper positions. Lay it in a saucepan with a pound of the scrag-end of a neck of mutton, a large cupful of barley, and about half a pint of dried peas which have been well soaked for twenty-four hours in cold water. Pour over all a gallon of water, and add a little salt; boil the contents of the stew-pan very gently, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. When the head has boiled an hour, put in the trotters, and at the end of two hours add two carrots, two turnips, and two onions, all sliced together, with a few sticks of celery if liked. Boil the head three hours or three hours and a half longer, and remember that the SOUPS. 109 more slowly it is boiled the better will be the broth, head, and soup. Serve the head on a dish with the trotters round it. I fear that this most wholesome and appetising dish will never reach the tables of the great. But, when they are satiated with Potage à la Reine, Purée d'asperges, and so forth, they might give sheep's head broth (for which, of course, we are indebted to Scotland) a trial. 60. Queen Soup (Potage à la Reine). Skin and clean two rabbits; let them be washed in warm water; stew for an hour with sufficient strong veal broth to cover the meat, and a bunch of parsley. Take out the rabbits, and soak the crumb of a penny loaf in the liquor; cut the meat off and pound the flesh in a mortar, adding the soaked crumb and the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs; rub this through a coarse sieve or tammy, and add to it a quart of nursery milk that has been previously boiled. This is the cheapest form of one of the most ancient and most delicate of soups. Why it should be known in France as Potage à la Reine has long been a mystery; but. I venture to surmise that the Sovereign in question was Mary Queen of Scots. At all events, it has long been highly popular as “Queen” soup in Scotland. 61. Another Old Scotch White Soup (Potage à la Reine). Take a large knuckle of the whitest veal that you can get; but in these days, for humanitarian reasons, calves are no longer “bled,” and the meat is two or three shades darker than was formerly the case. Let the knuckle be well broken and soaked; then take a fowl skinned, or two chickens ; a quarter of a pound of well-coloured lean undressed bacon ; 110 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. lemon-thyme, onions, carrot, celery, and a turnip, a few white peppercorns, and two blades of mace. Boil for about two hours; skimming repeatedly and carefully during that time. When the stock is well flavoured, strain it off. It should form a jelly. When to be used, take off the upper layer of fat, clear off the sediment, and put the jelly into a tin saucepan, or a stew-pan well tinned; boil for half an hour, and serve on a couple of rounds of a small French roll; or with macaroni previously soaked and stewed in the soup till perfectly soft; or vermicelli. This is an excellent plain white soup; it is promoted to an à la Reine soup as follows:- Take half a pound of sweet almonds, blanched (that is, scalded, and the husks rubbed off), the hard-boiled yolks of three eggs, and the skinned breast and white parts of a cold roast fowl; beat the almonds to a paste in a mortar, with a little water, to prevent their oiling; mince very finely the fowl and eggs, and some bread-crumbs. Add to this a pint or more of the stock; lemon-peel, and a scrape of nutmeg; bring it to the boil, and put to it a pint of boiling sweet cream and the rest of the stock. Let it for a con- siderable time be on the very verge of boiling, that it may thicken, but take care it does not boil, lest the cream curdle. Strain through a sieve. Yolks of eggs will do for half the quantity of cream. 62. Another and more artistic way :-the supreme way, in short. Put into a saucepan two quarts of water, two large onions halved, a little of the white part of some celery, thyme, and bay-leaf, two ounces of butter, and a little salt. Bring this to the boil; then put in one or two fowls, according to the amount of soup required; cover the saucepan, then boil till the ingredients are thoroughly cooked, and let it cool. SOUPS. 111 Blanch forty sweet almonds; take some bread-crumb soaked in milk, and make it into a ball; remove the flesh of the fowls from the bones, chop it very finely ; pound the almonds in a mortar, then add the meat of the fowls and the bread. crumb, and pound it all together; moisten with a little chicken broth or some white stock; skim off the fat, pass through a hair-sieve, and keep it hot without boiling. Just before serving, place some crusts fried in butter and moist- ened with bioth, a pint of boiling cream or good milk, and a little white sugar in the tureen, and pour the chicken broth on to them. Here you have a more elaborate and expensive soup. This is the potage à la Reine which Napoleon, when in exile at St. Helena, could always eat with appetite. It was served in a small silver tureen. On one occasion when in order to spite Sir Hudson Lowe) he pretended to be in pecuniary distress, although he had 140,000 francs of gold in his strong-box at the time, he sent down a quantity of his plate to Longwood to be sold. But his attendants had the thoughtful tact to reserve the soup tureen, and it was with peculiar gratification that the exile ate his potage à la Reine that evening from the accustomed silver bowl, inscribed with the initial “N” and the Imperial arms. Sirror 63. Ox-rump or Ox-tail Soup. According to Mr. Gladstone, it was the French Huguenots who took refuge in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes who taught English working people how to make ox-tail soup. I greatly doubt this. Two tails, or, if small, three, will make a large tureen of soup. Let the butcher divide them at the joints. Rub thein with salt, and soak them well in lukewarm water. Place 112 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. them in a stew-pan with four onions, a bunch of parsley, two dozen of Jamaica and black peppercorns (or half an ounce, if high peppering is wanted), a turnip and a carrot or two sliced, with three quarts of water. When the meat is tender, which will be in two hours and a half, lift it out, and cut it into small mouthfuls. Thicken the soup with a little browned flour, rubbed up with a ladleful of top-fat; strain it into a fresh stew-pan, put in the cut meat, boil up, and skim, and finish with a spoonful of mushroom catsup, and pepper to taste. Obs.-Ox-tail makes an excellent onion soup by adding to it, when strained, a dozen fried onions pulped, and thickening it with potato flour. The tails, cut in bits, may be put to boil at once. Some cooks add red wine : then no catsup is needed. For a party of gentlemen with hearty appetites you should procure only large tails with plenty of meat on them; and this meat must not be cut off the joints, but left on. Some hostesses, when they know that their guests have “hunters' appetites,” place minia- ture cheese-plates by the side of the soup-plates, and to the first-named the joints of ox-tail may be transferred with a knife and fork, a miniature mustard-pot and salt-cellar flanking each plate. There used formerly to be procurable at a well-known hotel under the Piazzas, Covent Garden, a soup known as “thick ox-tail,” which was simply ordinary ox-tail with a little thickening in the stock and a liberal quantity of various vegetables. 64. Soup and Stew à la Bouchée. By the above name the reader is to understand all soups and broths in which meat, fowl, or fish, cut in mouthfuls, is dressed and served. Such, for example, are mock-turtle SOUPS... 113 soup, lobster soup, oyster soup, and others for which I have given directions. This important section, it should be noted, comprises not only the Oriental mulligatawny and the ole- aginous ox-tail, but even the spicy and luscious turtle. Gnomo 65. Old Scotch Brown Soup. Make the stock as directed for beef broth (No. 17), but brown the meat a little more, and, when ready, put with it two pounds of rump steak, cut rather small and browned in a frying-pan, but drained from the frying-fat. Simmer the steak in the soup for an hour; strain it; add a small glassful of catsup, with salt, pepper, and a dust of cayenne; slip toasted sippets into the tureen, and skim off the fat. Serve the soup with the steak in it. Without the steak, this is plain brown soup. 66. Lord Warden Soup. Take a knuckle of veal, or two or three short shanks; boil about four hours, with some whole white pepper, a little mace, salt, two onions, and a small slice of lean ham; strain it, and, when cold, take off all the fat and sediment; beat up the yolks of six eggs, and mix them with a pint of cream or good rich milk; then pour the boiling soup upon-it by degrees, stirring well; and if the gristle is liked, add the best part of it. nim 67. Potage à la Diable. Having prepared a broth, fortify it, not with cayenne pepper or curry powder, but with whole chillies tied up in 114 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK, a silk bag, which boil up with the stock. Meanwhile, prepare as many slices, including crust, of a French roll as there are guests; plunge these circular slices of bread in the broth for a minute or two, and press out excessive moisture with the flat of a knife; butter them well on both sides, and sprinkle them plentifully with grated Parmesan cheese; then place them in a stew-pan with just enough butter to prevent them from burning, and "jump" them (to “jump” is equivalent to the French term sauter ") lightly till they begin to take colour. Then place them in the bottom of a tureen and pour the broth over them. man 68. Beef and Cabbage Soup. This is the natural soup of the whole of European Russia, eaten by all classes. There is an expensive and there is a cheap way of preparing it. You have already been told (page 3) that this soup has a name the pronunciation of which, in Russ, sounds precisely like a sneeze. Its name is “Stcht.” Prepare a good stock-pot of broth made of beef and bacon, and a duck; chop two onions, which fry with butter in a stew-pan; mix with two tablespoonfuls of flour, which fry for five minutes; dilute with the prepared broth, which you have previously passed through a tammy; then stir the liquid until boiling; remove it to a corner of the stove, skim the fat, and let it slowly cook for an hour. Meanwhile, blanch two fine crisp cabbages, cut in quarters, put into a stew-pan, the bottom of which is spread with moderately fat bacon; add a few young carrots and parsley, and a leek or two cut into oblong pieces ; let them braise together in the bacon fat. When done, drain them carefully through a sieve and put them into the tureen with the remainder of the broth, with a few fillets of duck and some little blocks of the SOUPS. 115 boiled beef and lean bacon. Skim your fat off the soup, and add three pinches of chopped green fennel; have ready a butter-boat of half-sour cream, which pour into the soup when served. If you are afraid of the cholera, you can, of course, omit the sour cream. intim 69. The Jacobin's Pottage. This sounds like an ultra-democratic dish ; but it is in reality a conventual one. Prior to the first Revolution it was a standing dish on high days and holidays at the Monastery of the Jacobins in Paris. Take the flesh of a cold capon or turkey; mince it as small as you can; then grate into the meat two or three ounces of Parmesan or old Dutch cheese ; season it with beaten cloves, nutmeg, mace, and salt; then take the bottoms and tops of four or five French rolls, dry them before the fire or in an oven; next put them into a dish ; set it upon the fire, wet your bread with a ladleful of strong broth, and a ladleful of mutton broth; then throw on your minced meat all of an equal thickness in each place, stick twelve or eighteen pieces of marrow as big as walnuts, and pour on a ladleful of mutton broth; cover your dish close, and as it stews add now and then some mutton broth; thrust your knife sometimes to the bottom, to keep the bread from sticking to the dish; let it continue to stew till you are ready to dish it up; and when you serve it, squeeze in the juice of two or three oranges. This is a dear and rather gluttonous dish. I 2 115 TIIE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 70. Hotch-Potch. This is a kind of English “ Jacobin.” Cut into dice a liberal quantity of young turnips and carrots, with one or two lettuces cut very small, the tops of some cauliflowers, and a pint of full-grown peas; boil them gently in four quarts of boiling water for two hours; cut into neat chops a loin, or the best end of a leg of mutton, add them to the vegetables, with salt, pepper, and some onions cut small; let the whole boil an hour and a half, then add three pints of green peas, and boil half an hour longer, when it is ready to serve. More 71. Ravioli Soup. Take the breast of a roast fowl, chopped and pounded with an ounce of Parmesan, a yolk of egy, a tablespoonful of the white, and a few boiled parsley leaves to colour it. Season with cayenne, a little salt, and a very small piece of garlic. Roll out a sheet of paste made of macaroni flour, about a line in thickness, and big enough to cut out with a fluted cutter a dozen and a half round pieces as big as a native oyster-shell. On each piece place a little of your stuffing, not exactly in the middle, and fold the paste over it, so that the edges come together; wet the edges and press them together; and with the point of the knife make a small hole at the top. Blanch these in broth that is boiling; they will be done in about eight minutes; after which take them carefully out, drain them on a napkin, and put them into two quarts of good brown broth, which keep for ten minutes on the stove. A plate of Parmesan is served with the soup. Giriwa 72. Mulligatawny Soup. Put into a stewpan about a quarter of a pound of butter, an onion, two apples, a few shallots, and two ounces of SOUPS. 117 ham, all sliced; fry them a little with an ounce of curry- powder, a teaspoonful of turmeric, a tablespoonful of flour, to form a thickening, which dilute with three pints of white broth; take two small chickens, which cut up as for a fricassée, and put them into your stew-pan, stirring until it boils; your soup must not be thick, or it will not throw up the scum; skim it carefully. As soon as the chickens are done, take them out and trim them; put them into another stew-pan, to which transfer the soup, rubbed through a tammy. A plate of hot boiled rice is always sent up with this soup. irtir 73. White Mulligatawny Soup.' Mix the above gradually with a liquor formed of six yolks of eggs, half a pint of cream, and the same quantity of almond milk, with a lump of butter the size of a walnut broken in small pieces. If to be kept hot, put it in the bain- marie or metal bath. 74. Another Mulligatawny Soup. Break and wash a knuckle of veal, and put it to boil in three quarts of water, with a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica peppercorns. Place skewers at the bottom of your stew-pan to prevent the meat from sticking. Add a few slices of lean bacon. ^ Skim the stock carefully when it comes to the boil, and let it simmer an hour and a half before straining it. Cut three pounds of breast of veal into small pieces, adding the trimming, bones, and gristle of the breast to the water in which the knuckle is put to boil. Fry the pieces of veal and six sliced onions in a deep stewpan to a golden brown. Put the strained stock to these ; skim carefully; and when the soup and meat have simmered 118 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. three-quarters of an hour, mix two dessertspoonfuls of curry powder, and the same quantity of lightly browned flour, mixed to a smooth batter, with salt and cayenne to taste. Add these to the soup, and stew and siinmer till the meat is quite tender. This soup may be made of fowls cut in pieces; of rabbits, or mutton cutlets; but is best when made of well-fed veal. For East Indian palates, shallots, mace, and ginger may be employed; but the quantity must be left to the discretion of the cook. Curry or Mulligatawny soup may be varied in fifty ways. Good stocks and the curry seasonings are the essentials; and next, the carefully boiled rice which should always be served with the soup. rin 75. Rabbit Soup. Cut an old rabbit into pieces, put these into a quart of water, boil it well; take out all the bones, and beat the meat in a marble mortar, as for potting; add a little salt, mace, and white pepper, to your taste; stir it into the liquor the rabbit was boiled in, with the addition of some cream. This is the cheapest form of my beloved “Potage à la Reine” (Nos. 60, 61, 62). You ought to be able to get a good enough rabbit for tenpence. 76. Ivory Soup (Potage à l'Ivoire). Remove the lungs, the heart, and the liver from a fowl; then put it into a saucepan with some white stock ; skim and put in two carrots stuck with cloves, celery, a leek, with a little salt. Boil gently for an hour and a quarter ; then drain off all the vegetables and clarify the liquor. Remove SOUPS. 119 the flesh from the bones of the fowl, pound the meat, adding a few potatoes previously boiled, and pass through the sieve. Moisten with a little of the liquor, till the soup is of the consistence of cream ; when ready for serving, with or without crusts, add a good-sized piece of fresh butter. This, you will perceive, minus the potatoes, is only another form of the ancient “ Queen soup” or “Potage à la Reine" (Nos. 60, 61, 62). 18 77. Purée of Fowl à la Monglas. (So named from the Inventor.) I have abstained, as much as I possibly could, from using French terms in this work; but I am absolutely compelled to employ the French word “purée;" because “purée” means a thick, in contradistinction to a clear soup. This soup is prepared precisely as “Potage à la Reine” (Nos. 60, 61, 62) is made. Serve it with a scollop of fat livers, prepared as follows: Disgorge a fat liver from Strasburg, blanch it for a second ; when cold, dry it and surround it with slices of fat bacon, and dress it in a “mirepoix.” (Now, both the General Reader, the Lady of the House, and Mrs. Cook may ask what a "mirepoix ” may be. The word is rarely found in Anglo-French dictionaries. A “mirepoix” is simply rich gravy of white and brown stock thickened with herbs and seasoned with condiments in which meat is slowly stewed. “Mirepoix” is not a technical culinary term. It was mani- festly coined under the Ancien Régime by a chef in the service of the Duc de Mirepoix.) Simmer it for half an hour, and let it cool in the mirepoix ; then drain, and trim it neatly into scollops, one inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch in thickness, which lay in the tureen with a very little boiling broth, and five minutes after pour in the purée of fowl, with which you have mixed the consommé of fowl. 120 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 78. Purée of Hare Soup. Cut up the remains of a hare that has been roasted for a former dinner; put a few slices of ham into a stew- pan, then the hare, two whole onions, a blade of mace, two quarts of stock, and a faggot composed of a sprig of thyme, parsley, a little basil, and two cloves; set it on a stove to simmer two hours or more; strain it off, pull all the meat from the bones, and pound it with a lean ham boiled with it, and the crust of two French rolls which have been soaked in broth; rub the whole through a tammy, with a pint of boiled claret or port, and enough broth to bring it to the consistence of creain ; put it in a stew-pan surrounded by a larger one of boiling water. Work a little butter into it, and serve with sippets. 79. Purée of White Beans. Chop some onions and fry them lightly in a little butter and flour, and moisten with a teaspoonful of broth; let the onions be done; boil the beans in this for half an hour, season them well, use white pepper, and strain them through a tammy; reduce the purée over a brisk fire, take off the white scum, and before you serve refine it with a morsel of fresh butter and two teaspoonfuls of thick cream; garnish it with fried crusts of bread. 80. Purée of Game. Roast either partridges or pheasants, or both may be used together, they should not be too much roasted, and while they are warm, take off the meat from the bones and pound it immediately in a marble mortar; put the bones into a stew-pan, cover them with consommé (No. 2), put in . 121 : SOUPS. two onions, a carrot, and a turnip; boil all together for half an hour, then strain it through a silk sieve, skim off the fat, mix it by degrees with the pounded meat, and rub it through a tammy; it is then to be put into a clean soup pot, and the soup warmed in a bain-marie, to prevent it boiling. Obs.- No spice should be used, but preserve as much as possible the flavour of the game. Linn 81. Purée of Partridges, Pick the meat from the remains of partridges, and chop and pound it; make a brown sauce (p. 328), and moisten it, half with white wine and half with bouillon. Add the bones of the birds, a bunch of mixed herbs, pepper, salt, and nut- meg, and stew the whole an hour; pass it through a tammy or sieve. With this sauce dilute the purée, strain it, keep it hot without boiling, and serve it with poached eggs above. The purée is also served in small croustades of bread, prepared as follows:-Cut some large crusts of bread round with a knife, hollow them out, and fry them; and when done, fill them with the purée. iran 82. Purée of Game-Hunter's Mode (Potage de Purée de Gibier à la Chasseur). Roast four partridges, surrounded with slices of fat bacon ; take off all the meat, and thoroughly pound it; then mingle it with one ounce of rice dressed in broth, and two ounces of the crumb of a French roll; beat these together, and add two spoonfuls of Béchamel sauce (p. 327), one of Spanish (p. 347), and eight of stock; make the soup hot over 122 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. a slow fire, and rub it through a tammy. When serving, mingle the broth by degrees, to which broth, being masked as usual, the carcases of the partridges should have been added, and put into the soup a plateful of crusts in small dice, and fried of a light brown colour in butter. 83. Game Soup. In the game season it is easy for a cook to prepare a really good soup at a very small expense by taking the meat off the breasts of any cold birds which have been left the preceding day, pounding them in a mortar, beating to pieces the legs and bones, and boiling the whole in some broth for an hour. Then boil six turnips, mash them, and strain them through a tammy with the meat that has been pounded; strain your broth, and put a little of it at a time into the tammy to help you to strain all of it through. Put your soup-kettle near the fire, but do not let it boil. When ready to dish, have six yolks of eggs mixed with half a pint of cream; strain through a sieve, put your soup on the fire, and, as it is coming to the boil, put in the eggs and stir well with a wooden spoon; do not let it boil, or it will curdle. do not" put in thoup on re 84. Game Soup à la Rossini. (So named from the celebrated Composer, who was famous as a gourmet.) Dress in a braising pan twelve quails ; let them get cold in it; then raise and trim the fillets, which put in the tureen with some middling-sized cocks' combs, sheep's kidneys, a dozen small inushrooms, and as many truffles turned as olives ; pour upon these a purée of pheasants. SOUPS. 123 85. Scotch Hare Soup. Skin the hare, taking care to preserve the blood; cut the hare in pieces, wash it clean, cut off the fleshy parts of the back and hind legs; put all the rest in a stew-pan with a tablespoonful of butter; keep the cover on close, and let it stew half an hour; stir it now and then. In another sauce- pan put about two ounces of butter, and three tablespoonfuls of flour; brown it nicely. Mix the blood with four quarts of cold water, strain it, and, with the rest of the meat, put it to the hare which is stewing, and add one carrot, one head of celery, and three large onions cut sinall; season with pepper and salt. Let it boil froin two hours to two hours and a half, according as the hare may be young or old. Just before serving, pick out all the bones, the carrots, and celery. I do not think that either the French or the Americans are very partial to hare. Among the five thousand recipes in Mrs. Ellet's “ Practical Housekeeper" (U.S.A.) there are not more than three for dressing a hare-roasted, jugged, and potted. 86. English Hare Soup. Cut down the hare into nice pieces and stew them with four onions, stuck with four cloves, four blades of mace, a bay- leaf or two, a faggot of parsley, with two or three sprigs of basil, thyme, marjoram, and a head of celery. Simmer slowly in a little strong stock-broth, and when the juices are well drawn out, put more broth, till the whole quantity required is in. Simmer for another hour at least, and strain the soup. Take the best of the meat from the bones, pound it, moistening with a little of the soup. Pound also some soaked crumb of bread or the dry mealy part of potatoes and put this to the soup, which must now be seasoned 124 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. to your taste with pepper, salt, cayenne, and catsup. Or keep the best pieces, if the hare be large, to serve whole in the tureen, cut into mouthfuls, and pound and pulp the others, which will make the soup have quite enough of consistence. The best pieces to serve are the fillets cut off along the backbone, which need not be boiled so long as the other parts, if they are to be thus served. -irtan 87. Grouse Soup. Roast for a quarter of an hour two fine grouse; then take the best parts and lay them aside; break up the bones and put them with what is left into a pot with two quarts of good veal (No. 2) or beef stock (No. 1) unseasoned. Stew gently for three hours, then strain and rub through a sieve. Skin the meat laid aside, pound it in a mortar, add two tablespoonfuls of hard toasted bread-crumbs; put this paste, made into little balls, to the soup, together with a tablespoonful and a half of salt, a drachm of Nepaul pepper, and serve. Lirian 88. Poacher's Soup, or Soup à la Meg Merrilies. This savoury and highly relishing stew-soup (our great grandmothers would have called it a “cullis ”) may be made of anything or everything known by the name of game. Take from two to four pounds of the trimmings or coarse parts of venison, shin of beef, or shanks or lean scrag of good mutton—all fresh. If game is plentiful, then use no meat. Break the bones and boil them with celery, a couple of carrots and turnips, four onions, a bunch of parsley and a quarter of an ounce of peppercorns—the larger proportion Jamaica pepper. Strain this stock when it has boiled for SOUPS. 125 three hours. Cut down and skin a blackcock or woodcock, a pheasant, half a hare or a rabbit, a brace of partridges or grouse, and season the pieces with mixed spices. These may be floured and browned in a frying-pan; but as this is a process dictated by the eye as much as by the palate, it is not really necessary. Put the game to the strained stock with a dozen of small onions, a couple of heads of celery sliced, half a dozen peeled potatoes, and, when it boils, a small white cabbage quartered; black pepper, allspice, and salt to taste. Let the soup simmer till the game is tender, but not overdone ; and that it may not be, the vegetables may be put in half an hour before the flesh. This soup may be coloured and flavoured with red wine and two spoonfuls of mushroomn catsup, and enriched with forcemeat balls. Soups in which catsup is mixed should not be salted till that ingredient is added, as catsup contains so much salt itself. sinan 89. Vermicelli Soup. A pound and a half of lean veal cut into dice; a turnip, a faggot of vegetables, and about two ounces of ham ; a head of celery, an onion stuck with cloves, a few white peppercorns, a blade of mace, and a quarter of a pound of butter; let the whole sweat over a brisk stove; then thicken with three spoonfuls of semolina flour diluted with two quarts of white broth. This must be done by degrees, so that the soup be not lumpy. Add a handful of mushroom-trimmings; as soon as it boils, draw it to the corner of the fire, that the scum and fat may rise, which carefully remove. Strain this through a tammy on the vermicelli. On serving, you may throw in a few chervil leaves well blanched and very green, but I prefer that this soup should be only so much broth or white stock, as clear as sherry and well-boiled vermicelli. 126 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 90. Sweet Milk Soup. (4 favourite German Dish, and very nice for Children.) Three pints of milk, the yolks of two eggs, a table- spoonful of semolina flour, a couple of peach leaves or some lemon-peel, a little salt, and sugar to taste. Keep these stirred over the fire till on the point of boiling over. Have the whites of the eggs whisked to a stiff snow, with a little sugar. When the soup is poured into the tureen, take dessertspoonfuls of the snow, sprinkle powdered cin- namon over, throw them into the soup, and serve directly. ruire 91. Macaroni Soup. Boil four ounces of the macaroni till three-fourths cooked. Have prepared strong gravy soup; take care that the macaroni does not get into lumps. Boil up. Serve rasped Parmesan in a glass dish or on a plate. Many strew it on the soup. This may be made a sort of white soup by thickening it with white sauce, and adding hot cream gradually when to be served, giving it first a boil up. There are at least half a dozen soups made from dif- ferent kinds of “ Italian 'paste;" and the rules which I have given for macaroni soup will apply to them all. Let me hint that there will be no harm in mixing the grated Parmesan with a little Gruyère, or even double Gloucester. rin 92. Spaghetti. Boil this small macaroni just to the point; drain ; mix with butter, grated Parmesan, pepper, and salt, and moisten with Liebig's Extract or any kind of gravy you like to use, Please remember this :-All forms of macaroni and risotto SOUPS. 127 must be served very hot, and must be eaten directly they are ready. 93. Nouille Soup. “Nouilles”-any English cook can pronounce the name- are simply a paste of any kind of very fine flour “ bound” with yolks of eggs; the ingredients most carefully incor- porated and rolled out thin and flat on a pieboard. The paste is then cut into ribands or any other attractive shapes, or folded up, with mincemeat or minced herbs between, for boiling or stewing purposes. For nouille soup roll a sheet of paste out very thin, which cut in strips about a sixth of an inch broad, and these cut in pieces three-fourths of an inch long; you may fold your paste, lightly dusted with flour, which will enable you to cut several at a time ; blanch them in boiling water, after which drain and cool them; put them into a stew-pan with a ladleful of broth, to stew on a slow fire twenty minutes; strain, and add as much broth as may be wanted. Grated Parmesan should be handed round. retina 94. Rice Soup. Wash and blanch three ounces of Carolina rice; stew it in some broth with two ounces of fresh butter and a pinch of pepper, but leave it firm; then mix with it two ounces of Parmesan cheese grated, and three yolks of eggs; when cold, form it into balls as large as filberts; ten minutes before serving, roll these in a sauté-plate containing two eggs well beaten up; drain them, and put one by one into a stew-pan of clean hot lard to give them a fine colour ; drain them on a napkin; put them in a tureen containing 128 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. the broth prepared and thickened with an “alliance” of eggs and Parmesan. 95. Bread Soap. Cut up the bread (stale) in pieces; put it into cold water, and let it come to the boil, with some salt and a little butter. Boil slowly for half an hour. At the moment of serving, put three yolks of eggs into the tureen with two ounces of fresh butter, more or less, according to the quantity of soup. Pour in the bread on the eggs, stirring all the time. 96. Sago Soup with Turnips. Prepare a purée of turnips, then put into it six ounces of sago, picked and washed, stirring it that it may not be lumpy; boil for nearly an hour. Skim perfectly and serve. Sago, tapioca, and Italian paste may equally be added to the purées of lentils, of red or white haricots, of roots, turnips, or dried peas, giving the soups their names, as, for example: “Potage de Tapioca à la Créci,” etc. If a quarter of a pound of the crumb of a French roll, or two spoonfuls of four, be mixed into a thin paste with some cold stock and added to the purées, they will acquire a remarkable smoothness. - 97. Scotch Barley Broth with Boiled Mutton or Beef. To from three to six pounds of beef or mutton, according to the quantity of broth wanted, put cold water in the pro- portion of a quart to a pound; a quarter of a pound of Scotch barley, more or less, as may suit the meat and the water; and a spoonful of salt. To this add a large cupful of soaked SOUPS. 129 white peas, or split grey peas. Skim very carefully as long as any scum rises; then draw aside the pot, and let the broth boil slowly for an hour; after which time add to it two young carrots and turnips cut into dice, and two or three onions sliced. A quarter of an hour before the broth is ready, add a little parsley picked and chopped; or the bottom part of three leeks may be used instead of onions, and a head of celery sliced, instead of the parsley seasoning; but celery requires longer boiling. If there is danger of the meat being overdone before the broth is properly completed, it may be taken up, covered for a half-hour, and returned into the pot to heat through before it is dished. Garnish with the carrots and turnips boiled in the broth; or with nasturtiums heated in melted butter or in a little clear broth. Serve the broth in a tureen, removing any film of fat that may gather upon the surface. Sirene 98. Chestnut Nesselrode Soup. The broth being prepared as usual, take fifty chestnuts, boil them for a few minutes in salt and water, and as soon as the under-skin quits with the pressure of the finger, skin them; simmer them gently with some broth, a little butter, and a pinch of sugar; after boiling two hours, run them down to a glaze, and put them into the tureen with crusts dried as usual. Add the broth, in which you have boiled an onion cut into dice and previously fried of a light colour in fresh butter. Add blanched parsley and a little pepper. It is necessary to add a little sugar to soups of roots and vegetables, to mollify their sharpness, and to render them more agreeable. To such soups as this many others may be added, according to fancy, such as those of leeks, radishes, endive, artichoke bottoms, etc.; but they are very 130 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. rarely served, and when asked for, their favour is given by boiling them gently in some broth, and pouring it afterwards into the tureen, garnished with crusts as usual 99. Cocoa-nut Soap. Scrape or grate the inside of a couple of ripe cocoa-nuts very fine, place it in a saucepan, adding to it a couple of quarts of clear white stock, with a blade of mace; set it to simmer gently for half an hour, and then strain it through a fine sieve; have ready beaten the yolks of four eggs, with a little stock and sufficient arrowroot or ground rice to thicken the soup; mix this into a smooth batter, adding it by degrees to the soup, and let simmer gently, stirring it carefully till it is done. It should not be allowed to boil, or it may curdle. Half a pint of cream may be used instead of eggs. inom 100. Macaroni and Cheese Soup. Boil macaroni in plenty of salted water until quite soft. Drain and cut it into smaller lengths, and throw it into good soup. To give additional richness, have the yolks of two or three eggs in the tureen, and stir them as the boil- ing soup is poured in. Hand grated cheese at table. Gran 101. Cheese Soup à la Biberon. Peel and slice six onions, cut half a pound of lean ham in slices, and two ounces of butter; put them into a stew- pan over the fire, and rub with a spoon till the onions become a little brown; add half a pound of bread-crumbs, SOUPS. 131 and three pints of good broth, a little cayenne pepper, and a blade of mace; let this boil for half an hour, then add a quarter of a pound of grated Parmesan cheese, and pass the soup through a tammy, put it into a clean soup pot, make the soup hot without boiling, and thicken it with the yolks of six eggs, mixed with a little broth, putting this in at the last moment. This is a good winter soup. Unless you are giving a dinner-party you need not put“ à la Biberon ” on your bill of fare. The soup, I should say, derived its name from some cook or cook’s patron, since the word “ biberon” means merely a feeding-bottle. fi- 102. German Cheese Soup. Take about half a pound of bread-crumbs, sifted through a colander, and a quarter of a pound of grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese ; simmer them together in a stew-pan with some vegetable broth until the bread and cheese are well stewed. Mix three or four yolks of eggs in a saucepan with as many spoonfuls of broth, stir it over a slow fire or stove till well mixed, without boiling ; when the soup is taken off the fire, stir in the egg, and serve it immediately with toasted bread on a dish, in small squares. Add pepper and salt, or any other seasoning, according to taste. Jules Gouffé, in his “Livre des Soupes," seems to be under the impression, as I have said in my "chat" about Cheese, that we English have only one soup, and for this he gives a recipe—“Soupe au Fromage.” With amused amaze- ment I read that a quarter of a pint of old ale is to be added before the soup is dished up; that is, its consistency was to be very thick, and that it is to be served on squares of soft toast and eaten with mustard. The poor dear man had mistaken our “Welsh rarebit” for a soup! As a matter of fact, I claim, as British soups, kale brose, cock-a-leekie, J 2 132 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. mutton broth, ox-tail and giblet, split pea, mulligatawny (Anglo-Indian), and grouse. anon 103. Puchero. Puchero is the Spanish analogue for that French pot- au-feu which was once so unjustly maligned in the “ English Wives” correspondence in a London daily newspaper. Two pounds of lean beef placed in the stock-pot with a pig's ear, the giblets of a fowl—if you can eat giblets; I cannot—six ounces of blanched ham or salt pork, and three handfuls of well-soaked garbanzos, or chick-peas. Moisten your meat with a sufficiency of water; put your pot on the fire; skim carefully, and when it comes to boiling point set it on the hob. Let it simmer for two hours ; then add two leeks, a bunch of chervil, a little wild mint, and a large carrot or a head of cabbage-lettuce. A large slice of puinpkin, freed from the peel and seed, will be also very succulent in the soup. At the expiration of another hour, add little pork sausages, called by the Spaniards chorizos, and continue to simmer. Before serving, pass the soup through a sieve into a stew-pan, and then pour it into a tureen. Take the leeks and lettuces, however, from the sieve, and garnish the meat with them, together with some slices of fried toast. The soup is served in the tureen, and the meat, which now corresponds with the French bouilli, on a dish separately. “Puchero,” radically, is the pot in which the beef soup is concocted, and preferably the pot should be an earthen one. irin 104. Mexican Puchero. This does not differ much from the Spanish dainty, save in the circumstance that for the garbanzos, or chick- SOUPS. 133 peas, are substituted frijoles, or kidney-beans, with shining black skins; and, again, the Mexicans, who are very fond of highly spiced dishes, are accustomed to stew whole chillies in the puchero. nain 105. Calabrian Sonp. Chop up an onion ; fry to a golden colour in a stew-pan; add four ounces of lean raw ham, grated ; a bunch of parsley stuck with cloves and peppercorns; two minutes afterwards, add six tomatoes sliced, and freed from the skins and pips. As soon as the tomatoes have lost their moisture in the pan, pour over a little melted glaze and some reduced brown sauce; boil for a few minutes, and pass all through a sieve. Have ready a pound and a half of Naples macaroni, cooked as directed above; pour it into the pan and mix with six ounces of butter; keep rolling the pan so that the butter and the macaroni shall get well mingled; finish with a pinch of pepper, dress it in a deep dish or a tureen by layers, sprinkling each layer with grated cheese, and pour over it a little of the sauce previously prepared; more sauce and more Parmesan must crown the whole; and you may serve separately a tureen of well-clarified broth. The maca- roni without the broth will be found quite as tasty. A most enjoyable summer soup, and a cheap one. Sauce previo the whole ; . The maca 106. German Soup. Take veal-stuffing and make it into small circular puddings; boil them in water, and drain them on a sieve ; then cut the hearts of two cabbages fine, and blanch them in salt and water for ten minutes; squeeze the water from them, and put them into a stew-pan with a piece of butter, a little salt 134 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and sugar, and simmer the cabbages for an hour over a slow fire; then put as much broth as may be required to make the mixture of a good consistence; let it boil, skim off the fat, and rub it through a tammy; then boil up the soup, and put into it the small puddings. This may be highly seasoned. 107. Flemish Soup. Slice six onions, cut six heads of celery into small pieces, and slice about twelve potatoes. Put about a quarter of a pound of butter with two ounces of ham into a stewpan, with a little white stock; set it to stew slowly for half an hour; then fill up with broth ; let it boil on gently half an hour more, or until the potatoes are dissolved ; then rub it through a tammy with the crumb of half a French roll soaked in the broth, and add half a pint of cream that has been boiled, and a mixture of four yolks of eggs. Work a little fresh butter in the soup previous to serving. Sev 108. Austrian Soup. Cut a fat chicken in pieces; fry in butter with sweet herbs; boil in clear broth, and then roll in cruinbs of bread and Parmesan cheese; colour with the salamander; lay thin slices of bread with grated cheese on them; then a layer of cabbages with more slices of bread; add the broth, and stew till it catches a little at bottom; grate on a little more cheese, brown it; add a little more broth, and serve the pieces of chicken on the top. SOUPS. 135 109. Minestra Soup (Italian). Cut up all together into fine pieces two carrots, half a turnip, two leeks, a quarter of a cabbage, half an onion, and a stalk of celery, and steam them in about two ounces of butter for about ten minutes in a covered saucepan ; moisten with three pints of white broth; season with half a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of pepper, and add one tablespoonful of raw rice. Let it simmer until half- cooked, then throw in one ounce of pieces of macaroni and half a tomato. Boil again for ten minutes, and serve with two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese separately. 18+ 110. Minestrone. (Milan Fashion.) Chop six or eight ounces of bacon, put it into a stew-pan with a piece of raw ham, a savoy cabbage shredded large, and two or three handfuls of fresh haricot beans, either white or green; moisten all these vegetables with three quarts of broth, and place the stew-pan on a brisk fire. After it has boiled ten minutes, add to the liquid four tablespoonfuls of tender celery roots cut into small dice, the same of cabbage, and again the same of haricot beans, cut in pieces. Eight or ten minutes after, add two handfuls of fresh broad beans, the same of green peas and asparagus heads, a chopped tomato, twelve or fourteen ounces of Piedmont rice (not washed), as well as two or three smoked Milan sausages. Continue boiling until the rice be done: twelve or fourteen minutes will be long enough. At the last moment, add to the soup a handful of grated Parmesan ; then take out the ham and sausages ; pour the broth and vegetables into the soup tureen ; cut the sausages and put them into the soup, which serve. 136 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. The Milanese, be it remarked, are undoubtedly the best cooks in Italy. non 111. German Wine Soap. Put some water, some sugar, and some cinnamon-bark into a saucepan. Boil, and add wine equal in quantity to the water. As soon as the soup gets very hot, but not boiling, pour it into the tureen on some fried bread or some biscuits. sroom 112. Currant Juice Soup for Children. Put into a saucepan as much water as you require soup. When the water boils, throw in some vermicelli and a little salt. Mix a small quantity of potato flour in some cold water; when quite smooth, pour it into the sauce- pan, stirring slowly. As soon as the vermicelli is cooked, add the currant-juice and the necessary amount of sugar. nin 113. A Simple Soup with Eggs. This extremely primitive soup is made of garlic fried in olive oil or beef-dripping, and moistened with beef- stock, or, on fast days, simply with water. Just before serving, as many eggs as there are guests are mingled raw with the soup, which is then boiled up, seasoned with pepper and salt, and served with sippets of toasted bread. Or, if the guests are exceptionally fond of garlic, put in large slices of bread, to be soaked in the soup, which, it will be clear to culinary experts, bears a certain resemblance to the fundamental seasoning of the Provençal Bouillabaisse. SOUPS. 137 114. Cold Soap. Allow to blanch, separately, in a pan, four handfuls of spinach and two handfuls of sorrel ; drain and pass through a sieve, inix the vegetables and place in a pan, diluting with a quart of very well clarified veal or chicken stock. The Russians use as stock“ kvas,” a beverage made of partially fermented rye or barley; but this I do not think English people would like any more than they do the German “ beer- soup.” Put your stock and vegetables into a large pan; cut into thin slices some cooked and cold salmon, or any other fish that comes handy. Prepare and cut into dice a small cucumber, slightly salted; also pare a few crayfish; add a small quantity of grated horseradish, and keep your pan on the ice till it is time to serve. Then mix in the soup some pieces of Wenham Lake ice. If you will only take care to have your stock so thoroughly clarified as to be altogether free from fat, you will find this cold soup in summer most refreshing and most palatable. Our chief culinary sin is that we do not suit our dishes to our seasons. 115. A Pepper-Pot. This is now understood in England to be a sort of clear soup—a highly seasoned Saturday's dinner dish, composed of all sorts of shreds and patches. It ought properly, if fine cookery is attempted, to be an “olio," composed of a due admixture of meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, and roots. For so-called West Indian Pepper-Pot, to three quarts of water put two pounds of whatever vegetables are plentiful (a good proportion being onions), and two pounds of mutton scrag, cut into three or four pieces ; or a fowl, or veal, or a piece of lean bacon; and a little rice. Skim it, and, when nearly finished, add the meat of a lobster or crab, cut in bits, 133 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. or the soft part of a few oysters or hard-boiled yolks of eggs. Take off all the fat that rises, and season highly with pepper and cayenne. Serve in a deep dish. I happen to be on my mother's side of West Indian parentage; and I must fain say something of the genuine tropical dish. The fundamental ingredient in real West Indian Pepper-Pot is casaripe, the inspissated juice of the bitter cassava, or manioc. “Inspissated” means thickening a liquid by boiling, or by evaporation. All kinds of vegetables and meats may be put into pepper-pot (which is best made in an earthen pipkin); and through its very high seasoning with casaripe and other condiments, it may in the tropics (with occasional replenishment) be kept “going ” for months. For a very old form of this dainty (“Manners and Customs in the West India Islands," 1888) I find this recipe : “A small piece of pork or beef, sliced ; a fowl dissected; ochras, yams, plantains, calilvo,' and plenty of fire-balls' or red pepper.” (See under ENTREMETS, p. 319.) Soon 116. Sharp Soup. Cut up soine mutton into pieces the size of small walnuts; wash and put them in a stew-pan, with sufficient salt, and as much water as the quantity of soup required; put the pan on the fire. When boiling, skim it well, and let it simmer until the pieces of meat are tender, and skim off the fat; then put in a basin sufficient flour, which mix with water to form a smooth batter, but not too thick, and add to it the broth by degrees, stirring at the same time, so as to prevent it froin getting lumpy ; let it simmer till the smell of flour has dispersed, and take it off. Then beat up the yolks of three eggs in a sinall saucepan with sufficient wine-vinegar or lemon-juice, set it on a small charcoal fire, and keep it stirring with a wooden spoon SOUPS. 139 until a little thick; take it off, and add it gradually to the soup, stirring it quickly at the same time, to prevent the eggs from curdling; then pour it in a tureen, sprinkle a little pepper and cinnamon over, and serve. son 117. “Crusts” for Thick Soups. Cut up some bread-crumb into small dice. Melt and clarity two ounces of butter. Fry the dice in the butter till of a nice light brown. If you wish to garnish spinach or an entrée of game, cut a slice of bread a quarter of an inch thick; divide it in two, lengthwise. Cut away the crust, then cut the crumb in zig-zag pieces either in cubes or lozenges, and fry in butter till of a nice brown colour. 140 SECTION II.-FISH. -- - - 1. Forcemeat for Stews of Fish, etc. BEAT the flesh and soft parts of a boiled lobster in a inortar, with a boned anchovy, the yolks of three eggs hard- boiled, and a head of boiled celery chopped. Put to this a handful of bread-crumbs, cayenne, mace, a spoonful of mush- room catsup, a quarter-pound of melted butter, a large spoon- ful of oyster liquor, or some oyster pickle, and two or more eggs well beaten, to cement the composition. Mix it well, and form into small egg-shaped balls, which fry, or brown in a Dutch oven. Or the fish that makes the stock for soups may bo pounded for forcemeat. pickle, anà a large sp. ment the 2. Fish Forcemeat, or Quenelles. Take dressed or undressed fish of any sort, chop it fine, and beat it well in a mortar with the yolks of some hard- boiled eggs; then add an equal quantity of bread-crumbs soaked in hot milk and well drained, with as much fresh butter as forcemeat. Next, a little salt, grated nutmeg, the yolks of three or four eggs, one by one, and a little chopped parsley. Beat the whites of the eggs to snow, taking one white less than you have yolks. This forcemeat may be used to stuff anything you please, or to make quenelles for soup. Take a teaspoon, or a dessertspoon, according to the size you wish the balls to be, fill this with forcemeat, shape it with a knife dipped in warm water, so that the upper side has the same form as that in the spoon ; take it out with another spoon dipped in water, and put it on a paper well FISH. 141 buttered. When you have made them all, slip the paper gently into the saucepan of soup; as soon as they are detached, withdraw the paper; they must have plenty of room to swim in. If you have no soup, boil them in water, with a little piece of butter and salt, for ten minutes over a gentle fire. They may be used to garnish dishes, or you may roll them in four or bread-crumbs and fry them; but flour injures their delicacy. Girona 3. To Fry Parsley, Herbs, Bread-crumbs, etc. Fill the frying-pan with very hot dripping or lard. Have young parsley nicely picked, washed, drained, and then rubbed lightly between the folds of a cloth to dry. It must be fried quickly, to get crisp. The moment it is done, lift it with a slice, and place it before the fire on a sieve reversed, to drain and become more crisp; or it may be crisped in a Dutch oven before the fire. This is used for garnishing not only fish, but also lamb chops, liver, and anything to which the flavour of parsley is suitable. Many things are served on fried parsley. Bread-crumbs are fried and drained in the same inanner, taking care that the fat is perfectly clear, and the bread not burned. Sippets may be cut in the form of stars, the Maltese cross, triangles, diamonds, etc. etc., and nicely fried and drained before the fire to serve for garnishing. Fried bread is a most useful article for garnishing, as it never fails to be eaten with the dish it is employed to ornament. 4. To Collar Salmon. Split, scale, and bone as much of the fish as will make a handsome collar of about six inches diameter. Season it 142 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. highly with beaten mace, cloves, pepper and salt, and having rolled it firmly up and bandaged it, bake it with vinegar and butter; or simmer it in vinegar and water. Serve with melted butter and anchovy sauce. The liquor in which the collar was boiled or baked may be boiled up with salt, vinegar, and a few bay-leaves, and poured over the fish to preserve it. 5. To Roll Salmon. Take a side of salmon, split, the bone taken out and scalded. Strew over the inside some pepper, salt, nutmeg, mace, a few chopped oysters, parsley, and crumbs of bread. Roll it up tight, put it into a deep pot, and bake it in a quick oven. Make the common fish sauce, and pour over it. 6. Salmon Cutlets. French cooks dress slices of fresh salmon as cutlets “in curl paper,” by seasoning them with mixed spices, dipped in salad oil, and broiling them. 7. Cutlets of Salmon à la Maitre d'Hôtel. Cut some slices of salmon into the shape of chops. Put them into a sauté-pan with some clarified dripping or butter, pepper, and salt, and“ toss” them, when dinner-time is come, over an equal fire. Drain the butter well, and dish the slices of salmon in a pyramid. For salmon you must not use any cream, as this fish is already heavy for the stomach. Put into a stew-pan three spoonfuls of brown sauce well reduced ; add to it a FISH. 143 thickening of one egg, and refine with a quarter of a pound of butter, some salt, a little cayenne, the juice of half a lemon, and some parsley chopped very fine; work the sauce very fine, and use as wanted. intim 8. To Pot Salmon. Split, scale, and clean by wiping, for water must not touch it. Rub with salt; drain off the moisture, and season the salmon with pounded mace, cloves, and black pepper. Cut it into shapely pieces, lay them in a pan, and cover them with oiled butter. Bake them ; drain off the fat, and put them into potting cans, which must then be covered with clarified butter. Siretom 9. Caveach Salmon. Boil, in two quarts of vinegar, three heads of shallots, half an ounce of black pepper, three cloves, two blades of mace, and a little salt. Cut the fish in slices, and fry these of a light brown colour in fine oil, or clarified dripping; put them, when cold, into a pan; pour over them the vinegar and spices, and put on the top eight or ten spoonfuls of oil. 10. Salmon à la Génevoise. Put into a stew-pan a good slice of salmon, with mush- rooms, shallots, and parsley chopped fine, salt, and spice; add a little red wine and some broth. When stewed put into another stew-pan a piece of butter, rolled in two spoonfuls of flour, which moisten with the liquor of the salmon, and 11+ TIIE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. let it boil till reduced; pour it over the fish, and serve. A little anchovy butter will improve this sauce. Sirom 11. Slices of Crimped Salmon Broiled, with Caper Sauce. Marinade or soak your slices of salmon in a little olive oil, with salt and pepper. Three-quarters of an hour before you send up, broil them on a very slow fire, on both sides. When they are done, take off the skins and drain them on a clean towel to draw out all the oil. Dish, and cover with the caper sauce. Let it be understood that your gridiron must be put on a slope, with a false bottom under the fore-feet to receive the oil, for if this should fall into the fire, the smoke would spoil the fish, besides filling the kitchen with stench. Girom 12. Crimped Salmon au Naturel. Have two quarts of water boiling in a stew-pan, with six ounces of salt, in which place two slices of crimped salmon ; if more than two are wanted, a proportionate addition must be made to the water. Boil quickly for eighteen ininutes ; try the bone in the middle, and if it leaves easily, your fish is done; don't leave it soddening in the water after it is done, or it will lose its aroma; but if you are not quite ready to dish it up, cover it with a wet unstarched napkin and stand it in your hot-closet. Dish it up prettily garnished with fresh parsley; but if I were you, I would dish it up neither on a starched napkin nor on paper. I don't like starch in a dissolved or sticky form. The fish looks quite as well on a strainer. You can serve either lobster or shrimp sauce with it. I have given one of the simplest recipes for dressing this I dont up neit. ky form. piper: FISH, 145 splendid fish, because, as a rule, you will begin to eat salmon about the end of April, and your taste will then be innocent enough to enjoy it in its most unadorned form. But if you dine out, or give dinners frequently during the season, your palate will become more and more cloyed, until about the beginning of July you will get satiated with and sick of salmon altogether. 13. Salmon au Bleu. Put some slices of salınon in a fish-kettle with half a pint of port wine, carrots cut in slices, onions also sliced, four cloves, a couple of bay-leaves, a handful of parsley, a few sprigs of thyme, salt, and pepper; let it boil very gently; it is done when the flesh will easily leave the bone. It must be covered by the liquor in which it is boiled. If served as an entrée, take off the skin when the fish is done, and mask it with a good butter sauce, in which put capers, sliced gherkins, and a little anchovy butter. -noir 14. Salmon Fritters. Cut some cold boiled salmon; pound some boiled potatoes, moistened with cream, and the yolk of an egg beaten; mix all together and make it into small fritters, and fry these of a light brown in fresh lard, or beef-dripping; serve them with hard-boiled eggs, cut in quarters. For sauce, melt two ounces of butter, with a little cream and flour mixed, and add, when it is hot, a dessertspoonful of soy, and two of mushroom catsup. 146 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 15. Baked Salmon. Clean, and cut the fish into slices; put it in a dish, and make the following sauce :-Melt an ounce of butter, kneaded in flour, in a pint and half of gravy, with two glasses of port wine, two tablespoonfuls of catsup, two an- chovies, and a little cayenne. When the anchovies are dis- solved, strain and pour the sauce over the fish, tie a sheet of buttered paper over the dish, and bake in an oven. Trout answer well dressed in this way. 16. Roast Salmon. Get a sufficient quantity of salmon in one piece, remove the bones, and cut it in pieces the size of an egg; sprinkle sufficient salt and pepper over, with a handful or two of parsley chopped fine, and let them remain for about an hour, then pass them on skewers with a bay-leaf between each piece, put them before a moderate fire, and turn until they are nicely browned ; dish up tastefully, with some parsley and one or two lemons cut in quarters round them, and serve hot. Other fish may be cooked in the same way. rom 17. Salmon, Matelote Sance. Make a marinade, in which stew the salmon. When it is done, pick off the scales carefully. Pour the marinade over the salmon to keep it hot. Then make a sauce in the following manner :-Put a good bit of butter and two spoonfuls of flour in a stew-pan, and make a brown sauce. When it begins to colour, throw four or six onions into your sauce, and let them melt; keep stirring with a wooden spoon. Then moisten with a pint of red wine; add a few spoonfuls FISH. 147 of the marinade in which you have stewed the salmon, some trimmings of mushrooms, a bunch of parsley and green onions well seasoned, and a small piece of glaze ; season the whole, and put a little sugar to correct the acidity of the wine ; skim the grease, and keep the sauce thick. In case it should not be thick enough to cover the fish, add a small bit of butter kneaded with flour, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, some essence of anchovies, the juice of a lemon, and some salt and pepper. Drain your fish, and cover it with the sauce, after having strained it through a tammy. Lauan 18. Salmon with Sweet Herbs. Mix a piece of butter with some chopped parsley, shallots, sweet herbs, mushrooms, pepper and salt. Put some of this in the bottom of the dish you intend to send to table; then some thin slices of salmon upon it, and the remainder of the butter and herbs upon the salmon. Strew it over with bread- crumbs, then baste it with butter and bake it in the oven. When it is done, drain the fat from it, and serve it up with a clear relishing sauce. with a nis done, dra with butter -roin 19. Salmon à la Tartare. Marinade and broil the salmon ; mix six yolks of eggs in a round-bottomed basin, with half a tablespoonful of made mustard and a little salt; place it on ice, and work in gradually about a pint of the finest olive oil: this would serve for two or three slices; add by degrees a table- spoonful of tarragon vinegar, and one of Chili vinegar, with cayenne pepper and lemon-juice. This sauce should be very sharp, but, above all, do not let it be thin, as it must be worked on the ice till it is sufficiently stiff to bear the weight K 2 143 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. of the salmon; cover the dish about half an inch thick with the sauce, within half an inch of the edge all round; glaze the salmon as you take it from the gridiron, place it on the sauce, and serve. Bear in mind that the dish must be kept cold. Sinan 20. Salmon à la Braise. Slit a large eel open, take out the bone and remove the meat from it. Chop the meat fine with two anchovies, some leinon-peel cut fine, a little pepper and grated nutmeg, with some parsley and thyme cut small, and the yolk of an egg boiled hard. Mix them all together, and roll them up in a piece of butter. Then take a large piece of fine salmon, or a salmon trout, and put this forcemeat into the belly of the fish. Sew it up, and lay it in an oval stew-pan that will just hold it. Next put half a pound of fresh butter into a stew- pan, and when it is melted shake in a little flour. Stir it till it is a little brown, and put to it a pint of fish broth and a pint of Madeira. Season with pepper, salt, mace, and cloves, and put in an onion and a bunch of sweet herbs. Stir all together and put it to the fish ; cover it very close, and let it stew. When the fish is almost done, put in some fresh and pickled mushrooms, truffles, or inorels, cut in pieces, and let them stew till the fish is quite done. Take up the salmon carefully, lay it in a dish, and put the sauce over it. Lirin 21. Salmon Souchet. Scale and wash the fish in cold water with a little salt, then cut it in slices about a quarter of an inch thick, place them in a saucepan and cover with good fish stock. Put to them some sliced onions and a bunch of herbs, and FISH. 149 simmer gently for eight or ten minutes. Strain the liquor, and boil it down to half the quantity; then clarify it, and add aspic, also a little carrot and turnip, cut as if for Julienne soup (p. 80). Blanch them till tender, and mask the fillets with them. Then sprinkle with chervil and tarragon, and dish on a border of aspic jelly. The best salmon souchet in the world is served at the Ship Hotel, Greenwich. irano 22. Salmon Pudding. Take a pound and a half of salmon, pound and pass through a sieve. Have ready mixed some bread-crumbs, two ounces of butter, three eggs; add this to the pounded fish; also half a pint of cream; season, and place in a buttered mould. Steam for twenty minutes, turn out, and serve with a good sauce, and garnish with prawns. nam 23. Fillets of Turbot à la Crême. This is a splendid entrée of desserte. When your turbot is returned from table, immediately take up the fillets and skin them ; you must do this while they are hot, as it will occasion a great waste to trim them when cold. The next day you must scollop your fillets as equally as possible. Have a white cream quite hot; put the fillets into it, keep them hot, and in due time send them up in a dish garnished with a bordering of puff paste, or in a vol-au-vent. The cream sauce may be made in two different ways: First, if you have Béchamel in the larder, put into a stew-pan three spoonfuls of it, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, two spoonfuls of very good cream, some salt and a little Nepaul pepper ; inix the whole well, and put either the sauce 150 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. over the fish or the fish into the sauce, if it is for a vol. au-vent. If you have no Béchamel, put into a stew-pan a tablespoonful of flour, a quarter of a pound of butter, two or three spoonfuls of cream, a little pepper, and a small bit of glaze. Do not let this sauce boil—only heat it till it is thick. 24. Gratin of Fillets of Turbot. Cut a few slices of bread, one inch broad and a quarter of an inch thick. Dip them into an omelette of a single egg. Stick them on the border of a dish, which lay on the corner of a little stove. Turn the dish when you have completed the circle, put a spoonful or two of smooth brown sauce, and let it “gratin " in the centre of the dish. Next take more of the same sauce, to which you add a quarter of a pound of butter, and mix this on the stove without boiling. Keep this sauce thick; pour into it a little thick cream ; season it well; put your scollops into the sauce, and the whole into the dish in which you have “gratined” the sauce. Now level with your knife, and strew crumbs of bread over the scollops equally; heat a bored ladle, put a lump of butter into it, and baste the scollops with it; give them another coat of crumbs of bread, baste them again, and let them get a good colour with the salamander. When the “gratin" has got a good colour, take off the slices of bread that you had previously stuck round the dish, to make room for others that have been fried in butter of a fine colour. If you have a deep dish, the first border will not be wanted: only the second, which makes the dish look better. If you trim and fry your bread nicely, it makes a handsome entrée. FISH. 151 25. To Dress a Turbot with Capers. Having washed and dried a small turbot well, put into a stew-pan some thyme, parsley, sweet herbs, and an onion sliced. Then lay the turbot in a stew-pan, which should be just large enough to hold it, and strew over the fish the same herbs that are under it, with some chives and sweet basil. Then pour in an equal quantity of white wine and white-wine vinegar, till the fish is covered. Strew in a little bay-salt with some whole pepper, and set the stew-pan over a gentle stove, increasing the heat by degrees till the fish is done. Then take it off the fire, but do not take out the turbot. Set a saucepan on the fire with a pound of butter, two anchovies split, boned, and washed, two tablespoonfuls of capers cut small, some whole chives, pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, a little flour, a spoonful of vinegar, and a small quantity of water; keep shaking the saucepan round for some time. Having then put on the turbot to make it hot, place it in a dish and pour some of the sauce over it. Lay horseradish round it, and pour what sauce remains into a boat. In the same way you may dress soles, flounders, large plaice, or dabs. 26. Vol-au-vent d'Escalopes de Turbot au Bon Beurre. A long name, suited only for the bill-of-fare at a very “smart” dinner party. In plain English it is scollops of turbot on puff paste. This is an excellent entrée of desserte. Be particular to skin the fillets of the turbot when returned from table, as directed in No. 23. Cut them in scollops and put them into a stew-pan, well covered, to prevent their getting dry. With regard to the sauce, take six spoonfuls of “turned” sauce, which reduce with two spoonfuls of broth. When the sauce is reduced, thicken it with the yolks of two eggs, and 152 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. refine it with at least a quarter of a pound of the best butter. If you should have any thick cream, introduce a little, as it will make the sauce mellower. Lastly, season well; put the scollops with the sauce, keep them hot, and send up the whole to table in a vol-au-vent. nar 27. Petites Timballes of Fillets of Turbot à la Vénétienne. This is an entrée of desserte held in high estimation. It requires but very little fish to make it. Cut what- ever is left of the turbot into dice, as small as possible. For the sauce take three spoonfuls of Béchamel, to which add a good lump of butter, salt, white pepper, a little parsley chopped very fine, and well squeezed in a napkin, that it may not give a green colour to the sauce. Then put a little cavice—that of Mackay's, which is the best, is the composition which agrees the most with all fish sauces, particularly when kept many years. Keep stirring your sauce, which is generally called “working” it. The French call it vanner-taking up the sauce in a ladle, and pouring it perpendicularly into the stew-pan, repeating the operation frequently and very quickly, to make the liquid transparent. When it is mellow and of a good taste, throw in the small dice of turbot, keep them hot, and when ready to send up to table, garnish the little timbales with the turbot. Let them lie for a moment in the oven, and serve them up hot. If you have no Béchamel, you must make use of melted butter enriched with a little cream. 28. John Dory Boiled with Lobster Sauce. John Dory is boiled exactly the same as turbot, and the process in either case is so simple that I need not describe it. Put parsley round the fish, particularly in the opening of the head. FISH. 153 29. Fillets of Soles à l'Orlie. Fillet two soles, and cut them in halves, lengthwise; then lay them in a basin with an onion cut in slices, a little parsley, thyme, bay-leaf, two wine-glasses of vinegar, and a little pepper and salt; let them reinain thus two hours, then dry them in a cloth; flour, egg, and bread-crumb them, and fry in oil; dish them round without a napkin; then put four tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce in a stew-pan with one of Harvey sauce and two of good stock; boil three minutes; finish with a little sugar, and pour it in a dish, but not over the fish. This sauce requires to be rather thin. I have never been able to discover the meaning of “ Orli,” “Orlie,” or “ Orly.” The great French lexicographer, Littré, is wholly silent on the subject. Perhaps “Orli” or “ Orly” was a French grand seigneur. ritare 30. Fillets of Soles au Gratin. Fillet two soles, egg-and-bread-crumb, and fry as above; dish then on a thin border of mashed potatoes, pour the following sauce over them, and cover with bread-crumbs :- Put twelve tablespoonfuls of brown sauce in a stew-pan, and, when it boils, add a tablespoonful of chopped mush- rooms, one ditto of Worcester sauce, and one of essence of anchovies ; let it boil five minutes, season with a little sugar; add two yolks of eggs, put it in the oven for ten minutes, pass the salamander over it, and serve very hot. iran 31. Fillets of Soles Fried. Cut off the fins of the sole and dip it in flour, then egg- and-bread-crumb it, but do not put it in the lard unless 154 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. it is quite hot, which you may easily ascertain by throwing a drop of water in it: if it is hot enough you will hear a hissing sound; allow the sole ten minutes to fry, or less, according to the size ; dish it upon a napkin (a strainer is better), garnish with parsley, and serve with shrimp sauce. 32. Fillets of Soles à la Maitre d'Hôtel. Fillet a pair of soles (but neither cut them nor egg-and- bread crumb them); rub an ounce of butter into a sauté-pan, lay in the fillets, the skin-side downwards, and sprinkle chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and the juice of a lemon over them; then place them over a slow fire ; turn them when about half done (they must be kept quite white). When done, lay the fillets on a cloth, cut them in halves slantingly, dish them round without a napkin, and place them in the hot closet. Then put ten tablespoonfuls of melted butter and two ditto of white sauce into the sauté-pan, with a little more lemon-juice and chopped parsley; boil it two minutes ; add two pats of butter, a little sugar and salt, and four table- spoonfuls of milk ; pour over the fillets, and serve directly. 33. Mayonnaise of Fillets of Soles. Simmer the fillets of two soles in a sauté-pan with a little butter, lemon-juice, pepper, and salt; and when done, put them in a press between two dishes; when cold, divide each fillet into collops two and a half inches long; trim them neatly, season them with vinegar, oil, pepper, and salt, and dish them in pyramidal rows on a bed of shredded lettuce, or any other salad; cover them with mayonnaise sauce (see p. 338) coloured with some spinach greening, or merely with plenty FISH. 155 of very finely chopped tarragon and chervil ; garnish round the base of the salad with a border of hard-boiled eggs, and serve. L-irin 34. Sole à la Colbert. Make an incision in the back of a sole from the head nearly to the tail ; then break the bone in three pieces; bread- crumb, and fry as in No. 31. When done, take out the pieces of bone and fill with the following :-Lay two ounces of butter on a plate with half a teaspoonful of chopped tarragon and chervil, two ditto of lemon-juice, and a little pepper and salt; put about three parts of it into the sole, and mix the remainder with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, pouring this round the fish, which is dished without a napkin; put in the oven a few minutes, and serve very hot. Gintar 35. Sole à la Meunière. Cut the fins off a sole and crimp it on each side by making incisions across it; then rub half a tablespoonful of salt and chopped onions well into it; dip it in flour and broil it over a slow fire. Have ready four pats of butter mixed with the juice of a lemon and a little cayenne pepper; rub this over the sole, which is previously dished up without a napkin, turn the sole over once or twice, put it in the oven a minute, and serve very hot. 36. Soles à la Française. Skin and clean a pair of soles, and put them into an earthen dish, with a quart of water, and half a pint of vinegar. 156 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Let them lie two hours, and then take them out and dry them with a cloth. Next place them in a stew-pan with a pint of white wine, a quarter of a pint of water, a very little thyme, a little sweet marjoram, winter savoury, and an onion stuck with four cloves. Put in the soles, sprinkle in a very little bay-salt, cover them close, and let them simmer very gently till they are done. Then take them out, and lay them in a warm dish before the fire. Strain the liquor, put into it a piece of butter rolled in flour, and let it boil till of a proper thickness. Lay the soles in a dish, and pour the sauce over them. In the same manner you may dress a small turbot, or any flat fish. ruan 37. Fried Soles, Tartar Sauce. As a postulate, please to remember, Madame Housekeeper and Mrs. Cook, that one sauce should never be followed by another of the same colour. To do so is as false blazonry as it is in heraldry to put tincture on tincture or metal on metal. Your sole should be plainly fried. It is perhaps better to fry it in a mixture of lard and oil, since the milk remaining in the butter is sure to burn. The only way to use butter for frying is to clarify it, but that costs money. Lard by itself is quite good enough ; but be careful that it is entirely clean, and that it does not burn. If you will get over your prejudices you can fry your sole, and indeed, any kind of fish, in oil, as the Italians and the Jews do. The Jews, by the way, fry fish better than any other people in the world. They turn out, fried, not only soles, but dabs, plaice, whiting, brill, smelts, etc., of a beautiful golden tint. Be careful to procure the very best Lucca salad oil from a first-class Italian warehouse. Begin by cutting off the fins of your sole, and dipping it FISH. 157 in flour; then egg-and-bread-crumb it, but don't put it in grease until this is boiling hot; allow the sole ten minutes to fry or less, according to size. (For the Tartar Sauce, see p. 348.) 38. To Stew Soles. Take the flesh from the bones of your soles, and cut each of them into eight pieces. Put a quart of boiled gravy into a stew-pan, a quarter of a pint of any white wine, some white pepper pounded, grated nutmeg, and a piece of lemon-peel. Stew these together nearly an hour, and add some cream, and a piece of butter mixed in flour. Keep the sauce stirring till it boils, put in the fish, and stew it a quarter of an hour. Take out the lemon-peel, and squeeze in some lemon-juice. The fish may be stewed whole in the same sauce; or it may be cut as before directed, and a little gravy made with the bones and head. - now 39, Sole Pudding. Split a pair of soles from the bone, and cut the fins close ; season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and pounded mace, and place the whole in layers, with half a hundred of oysters. Put the liquor of the oysters in the dish, with two or three spoonfuls of broth and some butter. Add a little thick cream, on this place a layer of mashed potatoes, and bake for about half an hour. 40. To Boil a Cod's Head. Wash it clean; tie it up and dry it with a cloth. Allow for every three measures of water one of salt; when it 158 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. boils, take off the scum, put in the fish, and keep it boiling very fast for twenty-five minutes. Serve with it the roe cut into slices and fried with the chitterlings; garnish with curled parsley and horseradish. Sauces: Oyster, melted butter, or anchovy and butter. When the cod is to be kept for two or three days, cleanse it thoroughly and sprinkle it with nearly equal proportions of salt and sugar; and before it is boiled, cut it into slices three inches thick ; lay these in salt and water for two hours, changing the water once; tie them in a cloth, and keep thein in boiling salt and water for fifteen minutes. rin 41. Cod's Head and shoulders. Wash the head and shoulders well; cut off the fins ; lay it on a dish ; pour some boiling water over part of the fish, and instantly scrape off all the black scales, taking care not to break the skin; repeat this till every part of the fish looks white, and then wash it in cold water. Put it on in boiling salt and water, and boil it for a quarter of an hour; then lay it on a dish, rub it all over with the yolks of two or three beaten eggs, and strew it thickly with grated bread-crumbs mixed with pepper and minced parsley; stick it all over with little bits of butter, and put it in an oven to brown. Mix a tablespoonful of flour with a quarter of a pound of butter, a quart of gravy, a teacupful of white wine, some pepper, salt, and a little grated nutmeg. Mince the white meat of a lobster; slightly brown three dozen oysters in a frying-pan, and put them with half the liquor and the lobster to the gravy and the other things; heat it up, and pour it round the fish. Garnish with cut lemon. It is not necessary to have oysters and lobsters, but the dish is the better for both. To dress the same dish with a white sauce, the stock FISH. 159 should be made of veal, or of an old fowl, and seasoned with white pepper and inace. intim 42. To Bake Cod, or Haddock. Take the middle piece of the fish, and skin it; make a stuffing with a little of the roe parboiled, a piece of butter, the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, some grated bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, grated lemon-peel, and nutmeg ; bind this with the beaten white of an egg; put it into the fish, and sew the latter up. Place the whole in a tin dish, with bits of butter over the top of it, and bake it for an hour in a Dutch oven; turn and baste it frequently. Garnish with fried roe, or oysters. Sauces :-Melted butter, oyster, or shrimp sauce. iftar 43. To Stew Cod. Season some slices of cod with grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, a bunch of sweet herbs, and an onion stuck with cloves. Put them into a stew-pan, with half a pint of white wine and a quarter of a pint of water. Cover them close, and let them simmer five or six minutes. Then squeeze in the juice of a lemon, put in a few oysters, with their liquid strained, a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a blade or two of mace. Cover them close, and let them stew gently. Shake the pan often, to prevent from burning. When the fish is cooked, take out the onions and sweet herbs, lay the cod in a warm dish, pour the sauce over it, and send it up to table. 160 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 44. Cod with Oyster Sauce. After having emptied the cod, you inust open the sound or white skin of the belly and wash it carefully all along the bone, that there may be no blood left; be sure that the fish is absolutely white. Then lay it on a fish-plate, and put it into the kettle with salt and boiling spring water; as soon as you see the fish boiling fast, slacken, and let it boil more gently, or else the outside will be done and the middle will be raw; as it is not easy to fix the time that it ought to remain in the water, you must judge according to the size of the fish ; when done, drain it, and serve it on a napkin garnished with green parsley. For the Oyster Sauce, you will find a recipe on p. 340. -intan 45. Cod with White Sauce (Cabillaud à la Béchamel). Boil two nice, well-cut slices of cod; dish them without a napkin, and have ready the following sauce :-Put nearly a quart of Béchamel in a stew-pan, with a quarter of a pint of white stock; stir it over the fire, to reduce, ten minutes; then add two teaspoonfuls of essence of anchovies, a little cayenne pepper, and sugar; finish with a gill of whipped cream, and pour over the fish. wn 46. Salt Cod à la Maitre d'Hôtel. The black-skinned ones are generally reckoned the best. Be particular to have the salt well soaked out, put the fish into cold water, and place on the fire. Let it be cooked in a large vessel, that it may have plenty of room. The moment it is beginning to boil, take it off the fire, and keep it in the water well covered ; it will then be tender, but if it should boil, it will be tough and thready. Make a Maître d'Hôtel, FISH. 161 with half a pound of butter, a spoonful of flour, four or five spoonfuls of water, and a little salt. When the sauce begins to thicken, work it well, that it may be more mellow. Have some parsley chopped very fine, mix a pinch of it with a little glaze, and the juice of a lemon; then taste the sauce. If it be too brown in colour, a little thick cream will make it both whiter and more mellow. Take away the skin and bones of the fish, and put them into the sauce, shaking it gently for fear of breaking them. Send it up either in a vol-au-vent or in a deep dish with crusts. of puff paste. 47. Salt Cod à la Provençale. After having drawn out the salt by soaking, and done the fish as above, pound two or three heads of garlic, which throw into a stew-pan with two spoonfuls of oil, a quarter of a pound of butter, a little salt, and some coarse pepper. Continue shaking the stew-pan with its contents. Put in the salt fish quite hot, and keep shaking till the whole is well mixed together. If you should find that it is not mellow enough, add a little oil, and, if you like, a spoonful or so of smooth white sauce. Such entrées as this require to be highly seasoned, and will induce the guests to send the bottle round freely. Iron 48. Salt Cod à la Bonne Femme. This is nearly the same thing as the foregoing, only boil some potatoes, and let them stand until they are cold ; turn them into corks, and then cut them into round slices much about the size of a half-crown piece, which put with the sauce and salt fish. Taste, and season well. 162 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 49. Salt Cod with Parsnips. Let your fish remain in water all night to soak, and if you put a glass of vinegar to it, this will draw out the salt and make it eat fresh. Boil it the next day, and when it is done, break it into flakes on the dish. Pour over it parsnips boiled and beaten fine with butter and cream. Egg sauce, however, is more generally used, and the parsnips are treated as an independent vegetable. 50. Scollops of Cod. This is a good entrée. If you have any cod left, take up all the flakes, being careful to leave no skin nor bones. Have a cream sauce ready, or else take three spoon- fuls of Béchamel and a good bit of butter; work these over the stove, and season with pepper and salt. When the sauce is well mixed with the butter, put in the scollops and stir them well, that they may absorb the sauce properly. Let the fish stand a minute till it is cold, then make a bordering round the dish with slices of fried bread. Dish the scollops, level them smooth with your knife, dust them over with crumbs of bread, and baste them with butter; repeat both these operations; use the salamander to give the fish a colour, and serve up with toasts of bread, one round, one oblong, alternately, for the sake of ornament. Giron 51. Cod with Cheese. Prepare some Béchamel sauce (p. 327) for the cod, add some Gruyère and Parmesan cheese, grated; dress the fish on the dish, and spread over it grated cheese and bread; moisten it with butter in little pats, and brown it in the Dutch oven. FISH. 163 52. Whiting Pudding. Cut up in pieces a pound of fish, free from skin and bones, and pass through a sieve; mix with eight ounces of rice flour a little salt, and an ounce of butter. This mixture should be added by gentle degrees to the fish; and the whole should be well pounded in a mortar, adding, meanwhile, two ounces of butter and the yolks of three raw eggs. Then turn out; season in a basin with pepper and salt; press your puddings into as many small moulds as you require, or knead them into egg form. Steam or poach in a bain-marie pan, which is simply a large, rectangular, deepish pan, filled with water, which you put on the hot stove while you poach or steam the contents of smaller stew-pans. Sprinkle the tops of your puddings lightly with the coral of a lobster. Serve with a white, creamy Béchamel, omitting the ham, and using a fish-stock instead of a veal one. This is a famous dish at the “Ship,” Greenwich. ruan 53. Puddings of Whitings à l'Ude. Take the spawn of a lobster, which pound well with a little butter, and strain through a sieve. Mix the whole well with forcemeat. Then mould two puddings of the diameter of your dish. Poach them. When they are done, drain them on a clean towel, then have the tail of a very red lobster and scollop it into several pieces. Next slit the puddings, cover them with white Béchamel, and intro- duce the pieces of lobster, taking care to put the red part upward. When the puddings are equally decorated, lay them in a dish, cover them hermetically, and put them for a moment in the hot-closet to keep them hot. The sauce may be made as follows:- Take two spoonfuls of white sauce, which reduce with an equal quantity of broth L 2 164 THE THGROUGH GOOD COTE and a thickening of two yolks of ErZS Work a quarter of a pound of bitter, barn with a very little carende, some salt, and a little lesson-juice. Keep it ra:her liquid, in order to cover the intervals between the slices of lotster. If you pay proper attention to the making of this dish, it will not merely afford a pleasing appearance, but will also be found a relish for the epicure. 54. Broiled Whitings. Empty the whitings, scale them, but mind that you preserve the liver, which is very delicate. When you have washed and wiped them clean, slit the back, on both sides. Beat the yolk of an egg with a little salt and pepper, and rub some of it over the whitings with a brush. Then dip the fish into crumbs of bread, next into clarified butter, and then into crumbs of bread again. Broil them of a fine colour, and serve up. The sauce is to be sent up separately in a boat, whether it is a Maître d'Hôtel, anchovy sauce, or melted butter; for if you were to pour it over the fish, the whiting would not prove palatable, and the sauce would get too thick, mm 55. Whiting an Gratin. Have the whitings skinned, with their tails turned into their mouths; butter a sauté-pan, and put in the fish, with a tablespoonful of chopped onions and four table- spoonfuls of brown sauce over each ; sprinkle bread-crumbs over them, and a little clarified butter, and put them in a moderate oven half an hour; take them out and dress them on a dish without a napkin; then put twelve tablespoonfuls more of brown sauce into a sauté-pan, with a teaspoonful of · FISH. 165 chopped mushrooms, one ditto chopped parsley, one ditto essence of anchovy, a little pepper, salt, and sugar; boil ten minutes, pour round the fish, and pass the salamander over them. Girar 56. Quenelles (Forcemeat Balls) of Whitings. The same process as for other quenelles. The mixtures are the same. You may make a vast number of entrées with quenelles of whitings, such as “Quenelles à l'Allemande," in a vol-au-vent, a “casserole au ris,” and “ boudins," either à l'Ude or à la Richelieu, which you have poached and cooked. Brush then over with crumbs of bread, and fry them. Serve under an Italian sauce, refined with a good lump of butter. All entrées of fish require some additional butter in the sauce. intain 57. Fillets of Whiting Broiled à la Maître d'Hôtel. Take up the fillets of four whitings, after having washed them clean. Cut each fillet in two, brush them with yolks of eggs, season with pepper and salt, and dip them into crumbs of bread, and next into clarified butter. Broil them of a fine brown, dish them en miroton, and sauce them with the Maître d'Hôtel. Fillets of whitings never answer when sauté, as they have not substance enough; and indeed I do not in any sense approve of their being dressed in that style. 58. Whitebait. Strew some four on a cloth, and nothing else. Eggs are vanity. Take the “ bait” out of the water with your 166 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. hands and drain them. Never mind fingering them. When well drained, roll them on the floured cloth, of which take up the corners successively, and shake your fish as though they were so many tiny Sancho Panzas that were being tossed in a blanket. Shake them again over a sieve, to relieve them of the superfluous flour. Put them in a wire basket and dip into a frying-kettle full of very hot fat. Let them remain two minutes on the fire. Then give the pan a shake, and let it cook for another half minute, and so on. At the end of two and a half minutes the “bait ” ought to be done. They must be grey, not brown, when they come to table. Of course, towards August, when the “ bait" run large, they will take a little longer time to fry. You may crisp them before the fire before serving, but don't let them get too brittle. Broken whitebait might just as well be so much sawdust. Sprinkle lightly with salt; pepper, not too highly, with white pepper, and serve with thin brown bread and butter, and lemons cut in quarters. Cooks have a pernicious habit of over-frying whitebait, which indeed can never be had at home in the perfection in which you get them at Greenwich, where they are dressed as soon as caught and by persons in constant practice. -nar 59. Devilled Whitebait. This is simply the previous whitebait re-heated for a minute or two, and sprinkled either with red or black pepper. 1raine 60. Red Mullets à l'Italienne. Of all fish this is one of the most sought after by male epicures, who consider it a “game” fish, and affectionately style it “the woodcock of the ocean.” It is not customary FISH. 167 to “ draw” or gut it. When in good order, it is of a nice red colour, and the eyes look very bright. Make a paper box the length of the fish, then oil the box and lay in the fish, season them with a little pepper, salt, chopped parsley, and lemon-juice, and pour two tablespoonfuls of white sauce over each, then put them on in a moderate oven, and bake twenty minutes or half an hour, according to the size, and when done slightly brown them with the salainander; serve them in the paper boxes, with a rich brown sauce poured over them. 61. Red Mullets with Sweet Herbs. Place the mullets in a pan with an ounce of butter, a little “A 1” sauce, anchovy, and a glass of port wine ; bake them in the oven, or else covered up over a slow fire; and when done, remove the fish on to the dish ; add to their liquor some finely chopped mushrooms, parsley, a little shallot, nut- ineg, the juice of half a lemon, and a little four; stir these ingredients together over a slow fire for a few minutes; pour the sauce over the mullets, and serve very hot. 62. Red Mullets à la Ravigote. Put the mullets in boxes and make the sauce thus:- Place a quarter of a pound of fresh butter on a plate with a tablespoonful of chopped tarragon, one ditto of chopped chervil, one ditto of lemon-juice, and a little pepper, salt, and sugar. Mix all well together; have ten tablespoonfuls of white sauce boiling in a stew-pan, and throw the other ingredients into it, stir it over the fire till quite smooth, 168 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and pour it over your mullets in the paper boxes. If too thick, add a little milk. 63. Brill. This is a very delicate and very luscious eating fish, for which caper sauce is suitable. It is cooked like turbot, and is almost as good. When very fresh, you may use it for fillets (see No. 23). - e- 64. Dublin Bay Haddock, Baked. Fill the belly of the fish with stuffing, sew it up with pack-thread, and truss it with its tail in its mouth ; rub a quarter of a pound of butter over it, set it on a baking- sheet, put it in a warmish oven and bake it three-quarters of an hour; when done, dress it on a dish without a napkin, and pour a sharp sauce round it. 65. Haddock Pudding. Take a haddock weighing four pounds, one quart of milk, two tablespoonfuls of flour, one of butter, one small slice of onion, two sprigs of parsley, salt, and pepper. Put the fish on in boiling water-enough to cover, and containing one tablespoonful of salt. Cook gently twenty minutes, then lift out of the water, but let it remain on the tray. Now carefully remove the top skin and the head, then turn the fish over into the dish in which it is to be served (it should be stone china), and scrape off the skin from the other side. Pick out all the small bones. You will find them the whole length of the back, and a few in the FISH. 169 lower part of the fish, near the tail. They are in rows like pins in a paper, and if you start all right it will take but a few minutes to remove them. Then take out the backbone, starting at the head and working gently down towards the tail. Great care must be taken that the fish may keep its shape. Cover with the cream (for which a recipe is given below), and bake about ten minutes, just to brown it a little. Garnish with parsley or little puff paste cakes, or you can cover it with the whites of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and then slightly browned. This is a most excellent dish; and haddock is cheap. It would be more esteemed if it were dearer. intim 66. To Prepare Cream for Haddock Pudding. Put the milk, parsley, and onion on to boil, reserving half a cupful of milk to mix with the flour. When it boils, stir in the flour, which has been mixed smoothly with the milk. Cook eight minutes. Season highly with salt and pepper ; add the butter, strain on the fish, and proceed as directed. iran 67. Herrings with Mustard Sauce. Having gutted and wiped your herrings quite clean, melt some butter and add to it chopped parsley, shallots, green onions, pepper, and salt. Dip the herrings in this, and roll them in bread-crumbs. Then broil them and serve them with a sauce made of melted butter, flour, broth, a little vinegar, pepper, and salt. When done, put to them as much mustard as you think proper. This is a thoroughly English dish, for the reason that English mustard is the very best procurable. All foreign 170 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. mustards are feeble, and have to be fortified with other condiments. 68. Flounders Water-Souchet (or Zootje). A Dutch dainty, for which we are indebted to Williain III. You rarely get it good, save at Greenwich. Why, I cannot say. Read the following recipe, and you will find that it is by no means difficult to make :—Put a pint of water into a deep sauté-pan, with half a tablespoonful of salt and a little pepper, and forty small sprigs of parsley; when nearly boiling, have ready six small flounders (cut in halves in a slanting direction), and put them into the sauté-pan ; let them simmer for about twelve minutes ; take them up and dress them on a dish without a napkin ; then add a little sugar to the liquor they were boiled in, reduce it five minutes, and pour over the fish. Half broth may be used, with half a pint of water instead of a pint. Girar 69. Another Water-Souchet. Take some parsley roots, and cut them into thin strips about an inch long. Put your roots into water, with a bunch of parsley, a few young onions, and a moderate quantity of salt. Let this liquor stew for an hour. Then put in your fish, and stew till done. Have ready leaves of parsley (without the stalks), which have been blanched separately in salt and water. Drain your fish; and take care to preserve the parsley roots cut in slips as above. Then put the fish in a deep dish (not a tureen), with some of the liquor in which they have been stewed, and which you strain through a silk tammy. Throw in your parsley roots, and the leaves as well; and send up the souchet with thin slices of brown bread and butter, and in a separate plate. FISH. 171 Fish for water-souchet: Salmon, soles, whiting, flounders, or char. The salmon should be cut in small blocks; the other fish in pieces of convenient size. The fish broth should be rather salt. re 70. Fricasséed Flounders and Plaice. Having cleaned the fish, and taken off the black skin but not the white, cut the flesh from the bones into long slices, and dip these into yolk of egg. Strew over them some bread raspings, and fry them in clarified butter. When they are cooked lay them upon a plate, and keep them hot. To make your sauce: Take the bones of the fish, and boil them in some water. Then put in an anchovy, some thyme, parsley, a little pepper, salt, cloves, and mace. Let these siminer till the anchovy is dissolved, and then take the butter the fish was fried in, and put it into a pan over the fire. Shake some flour into it, and keep stirring it mean- while. Then strain the liquor into it, and let it boil till it is thick. Squeeze some lemon-juice into it, put the fish into a dish, and pour the sauce over them. 71. Alose (Shad). This fish is held in high estimation in France, and espe- cially in Paris: it is also frequently served at American tables. It must be scalded, emptied, and nicely washed. Next it is to be marinaded in a little oil, with pepper and salt. It is necessary to split it, that the salt inay pene- trate. Broil it on both sides over a slow fire. When it is done, let it be served with caper sauce, or with sorrel—not purée, but what is called farce. 172 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 72. Shad, Broiled Maître d'Hôtel. Pare and cut a small shad in two, scale it and remove the backbone; lay it on a dish, sprinkling it over with a pinch of salt, and baste with one tablespoonful of oil. Leave it for a few moments, then broil it on a slow fire in a double broiler for about fifteen minutes on the flesh side, and for one minute on the skin side, leaving the roe inside. Put it on a hot dish, spread a gill of good Maître d'Hôtel sauce (p. 348) over, and serve with six slices of lemon. Sretan 73. Mackerel with Brown Butter. Broil the fish; dish it up; put some butter into the frying-pan, fry in it some parsley, and pour the whole upon the mackerel. Then warm in the pan a spoonful of vinegar, some salt, and pepper; pour this also upon the fish, and .serve hot. 74. To Bake Mackerel. Clean them; cut off the heads and tails; put them into a deep dish, and pour over them equal quantities of water and vinegar, some whole black pepper, a little mace, salt, one or two bay-leaves, and a small quantity of port wine; tie over the dish a sheet of thick white paper which you have buttered. Another way is to season them with pepper, salt, and mace, all finely powdered, putting bits of butter into the bottom of the dish, and a little more upon the mackerel. They may be eaten hot or cold; if cold, with vinegar; if hot, serve with parsley and butter, or melted butter with catsup and soy. FISU. 173 75. To Broil Mackerel. First clean your mackerel well, then split it down the back, and season it with pepper, salt, some mint, parsley, and fennel, all chopped very fine. Flour it, and fry them of a fine light brown, and put them on a. dish and strainer. Use fennel and butter for sauce, and garnish with parsley. 76. Mackerel à la Maitre d'Hôtel. Clean the mackerel and wipe it dry; then split it down the back and marinade it at least half an hour-or an hour or two, if there be time—in a little oil, seasoned with pepper and salt; broil it, and baste it with the marinade. Dish it up; garnish the inside with fresh butter rolled in parsley, salt, and pepper; slightly warm the dish, and serve with lemon-juice, or with a dash of vinegar over it. In order to prevent the mackerel from breaking while it is being boiled, you had better wrap it with the marinade in good oiled paper. 77. Mackerel à la Maitre d'Hôtel: Another Way. Choose a large fresh mackerel with a soft roe; cut out the gills; cut off the fins; make an incision an inch deep down the back, lay the fish on a dish, strew salt and pepper over with an ounce of butter, an onion cut in rings, and whole parsley. Roll the butter from time to time in this mixture; and half an hour before serving rub your gridiron with butter, wipe your mackerel, dust it with a little salt, and lay it on the gridiron until of a good colour; then turn it till it is of an equally good colour on the opposite side. Lay the fish on its back for five minutes, then dish it and open 174 THE TIOROUGH GOOD COOK. the flesh of the back with a spoon and introduce your Maître d'Hôtel butter, which is only butter worked up with salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and the juice of a lemon. Gintar 78. Mackerel au Beurre Noir. Open your mackerel at the back, season with pepper and salt, butter all over, and lay quite flat on the grid- iron; broil it about a quarter of an hour over a moderate fire, and lay it in a dish without a napkin. Then put half a pound of butter in a stew-pan, place it over a sharp fire till it becomes black (but not burnt); throw in half a handful of picked parsley, fry it crisp, and pour it over the fish. Next put four tablespoonfuls of common vinegar into the stew-pan, boil it half a minute, season with pepper and salt; and pour likewise over the fish. All that you have now to do is to put the whole into the oven for five minutes, and serve very hot. Concerning “ black butter," see p. 147. - tam 79. Forcemeat of Eels. Take two fine eels, boil them till they are nearly done enough; then put them into cold water ; broil a perch ; when it is nearly done, lay it to cool ; take the meat from the bones of both fish and mince it, and add to it the liver of a cod, minced also; then season it with pepper and salt; add sweet herbs, picked from the stalks, some small onions minced, some scraped bacon, a little veal suet, a few bread- crumbs, and a piece of butter; put the whole into a mortar and beat it to a paste. It is used for fish pies, and adds a fine relish to all made dishes of fish. It may also be rolled up into balls, and fried or stewed. FISH. 175 A most assuringly appetising concoction. Almost as great a favourite as potted shrimps with my dear deceased friend, Montagu Williams, Q.C. 80. Fried Eels. If your eels are small, they should be curled round and dipped into egg, and then carefully fried. If of a good size, cut them into pieces ; season them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg; flour them; fry them in butter. Some people are prejudiced against eels. Combat the prejudice; subdue it. Consult Sir Henry Thompson. Conger- eel, in particular, is as nourishing as turtle. bin 8. Fricassée of Eels. Skin three or four large eels, and notch them from end to end. Cut each of them into four or five pieces, and lay them for half an hour to crimp in spring water; dry them in a cloth and put them in a pan, with a bit of fresh butter, a green onion or two, and a little chopped parsley. Set the pan on the fire, and shake them about for a few minutes ; put in half a pint of white wine, and the same quantity of stock, with pepper, salt, and a blade of mace; stew all together about half an hour; then add the yolks of four or five eggs; beat smooth a little grated nutmeg and some chopped parsley. Stir all well together, and let it simmer for a few minutes; then squeeze in the juice of a lemon, give the whole a good shake, pour it into the dish, and serve very hot. Garnish your dish with lemon. 176 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 82. Eel Pie. Skin and clean the eels; cut them in pieces about two inches in length; pass them with chopped parsley and shallots, a little grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and lemon-juice, for five minutes; then lay a little light forcemeat at the bottom of a deep dish ; put the eels over it; cover it with puff paste; bake it, and put into it either Béchamel sauce (p. 327) or brown gravy. re 83. Larded Eel. Lard an eel along the back with small pieces of bacon; roll, and tie it up; put it into a pan with a cooked marinade. When it has lain some time in this, cover it with bread- crumbs and bake it. 18 84. Matelote of Eels. Skin a pound and a half of eels, and cut thein into pieces two inches in length. When well washed, put them in a stew-pan with a tablespoonful of batter; fry them for two minutes ; add a glassful of red wine, a third of a pinch of nutmeg, half a pinch of salt, and a third of a pinch of pepper ; also a faggot of herbs, a glassful of fish stock, or white broth, and three tablespoonfuls of mushroom liquor. Add six small glazed onions, and six mushroom buttons. Cook for thirty minutes, then put in a tablespoonful of brown gravy; stir well while cooking two minutes longer, and serve with six fried pieces of bread garnished with onion sauce (p. 339). I do not know an English synonym for “ matelote,” but Mrs. Cook can pronounce the word, even as she can pronounce “purée.” Still, there is no rule without an exception. We once had a cook who always called a “purée” a “pleurey." FISH. 177 85. Entrée of Eels. Take two large eels, bone them, and lay them flat; put light forcemeat, well seasoned, upon each ; roll them up separately; bind them round with tape; put them in a stew- pan with a gill of sherry, one clove of garlic, half a bay-leaf, four peeled shallots, a little thyme, and a pint of veal broth. Let them stew till done, then strain the liquor, skim it free from fat, season to the palate, thicken with flour and butter, reducing it to half a pint ; put the eels into a deep dish, glaze the tops, and serve them up with the sauce under, and pieces of fried bread round the dish. Once for all, “The Thorough Good Cook” is written for abstainers as well as non-abstainers. In culinary inatters I am Catholic. If you object to alcohol in your cookery, leave it out. Exactly the same observation will apply to garlic. Many English ladies have an absolute abhorrence of garlic (one of the four pillars of cookery—the others being the lemon, the anchovy, and the egg) in consequence of its offensive odour. But garlic, cooked, is wholly inoffensive. rretor 86. Another Entrée of Eels. Skin and cleanse your eels, bone them, and cut them into pieces about a finger in length; pass them over a slow fire in a small quantity of sweet herbs, shallots, pepper, salt, butter, and lemon-juice. When they are three-parts done, put them on a dish; dip each piece in the liquor; bread-crumb them, and broil over a clear fire. Serve with anchovy sauce. 87. Broiled Eels. Skin and cleanse your eels, rub them with the yolk of an egg; strew bread-crumbs over them, chopped parsley, M 178 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. sage, pepper, and salt. Baste them well with butter, and put them in a dripping-pan. Roast or broil them, and serve them up with parsley and butter. now 88. Broiled Eels à l'Italienne. If for an entrée, choose two moderate-sized eels, take off the skin, wash, bone and dry them thoroughly; toss them in an egg beaten up with pepper and salt; then fry them of a good brown colour. Serve with a good Italian sauce under them. _inin 89. To Spitchcock Eels. Having skinned, gutted, and washed your eels, dry them with a cloth. Sprinkle them with pepper, salt, and a little dried sage; turn them backwards, and skewer them. Rub your gridiron with beef suet, broil them of a good brown; put them on your dish with melted butter, and garnish with fried parsley. ar 90. Another way to Spitchcock Eels. Skin, slit up the eel, and bone it: wash and dry it, cut it in pieces three or four inches long; dredge these with flour, which is to be wiped off so as to leave all dry. Dip the pieces in a thick batter made of melted butter, yolk of eggs, minced parsley, sage, shallot (very little shallot), pepper, and salt. Roll them next in fine bread-crumbs. Dip them in the batter again, and roll them again in the bread-crumbs. The pieces may now, to justify the name of spitchcock, be impaled on small spits. But whether thus impaled or not, they are to be broiled on or before a clear fire to a light. 180 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Pound the whole well; then rub gently one or two spoonfuls of fine Lucca oil and a little vinegar. Pass this sauce through a fine tammy, and add the yolk of a raw egg, to prevent it turning oily. If you wish the sauce to be green, use extract of spinach (see p. 352), and some scented vinegar, such as tarragon or elder. Lusteri 93. Collops of Eels à la Poulette. There are some people who cook eels “à la poulette” in the same manner as a fricassée of chickens; it is better, however, to stew them in a marinade, and then to make the sauce separately. On taking them from the marinade, drain them, put them into the sauce, and keep them there for ten minutes before you send the dinner up to table. If you should have no “turned” sauce, make a little white stock; moisten with either water or broth, to which add a bunch of parsley, and green onions, pepper, salt, a small white onion, a few mushrooms, and a little glaze. When the mixture has been boiling for half an hour (this is none too long if the flour is to be well done), take out the parsley and onions, skim the sauce, mix a little chopped parsley and the juice of a lemon with the thickening, and serve up hot. irt 94. Eel en Canapé. Cut an eеl into pieces about two or three inches long, and take out the backbone for use. Make a farce with some of the meat cut into small dice, with mushrooms and carp-roes (if any), a little butter, chopped parsley, shallots, pepper, and salt. Make likewise a fine forcemeat with some of the flesh and bread-crumbs soaked in cream, parsley and mushrooms chopped fine, pepper, and salt, mixed with the yolks of two FISH. 181 or three eggs. Cut bread-crumb and the backbone into pieces of equal length and about two inches wide; lay some of the fine forcemeat upon the pieces of bread, and on these place the pieces of backbone covered with the other farce; then some of the fine farce again, laid smoothly over with a knife dipped in egg; now strew with crumbs and small bits of butter; bake in a moderate oven or under a braising-pan cover, and serve with any sauce you may like best. 95. Eel Pudding. Skin and cleanse three good-sized eels, which cut into pieces about two inches in length; put a good-sized bunch of parsley, thyme, and three bay-leaves, all tied together, into a stew-pan, with an onion into which you have stuck four cloves), a glass of port wine, and a pint of broth ; lay in the pieces of eels, and set them upon the fire to simmer for ten minutes; take them out, laying them upon a cloth to drain ; skim off all the fat from the stock the eels were cooked in, to which add rather more than half a pint of brown sauce; let the whole boil until reduced to three parts of a pint, when dress the pieces of eels up in a pie-dish, strain the sauce over a sieve, and let stand till cold. Place over the fish a thick layer of mashed potatoes ; put the dish back in a slow oven and bake for about an hour. Cover the pie with a sheet of notepaper, so that it may not brown before being thoroughly cooked through. Iran 182 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 96. Conger Eel. Wash the fish in several waters, and dry it in a cloth; cut it into slices, rather thick, and sprinkle them with salt; broil them over a slow fire, and serve them with a Tartar sauce, or with black butter, as you do with skate; also, with white caper sauce or sliced gherkins. 97. Oyster Loaves, Cut off the top of some small French rolls, take out the crumb, and fry them brown and crisp with clarified butter; then fry some bread-crumbs, stew the requisite quantity of oysters, bearded and cut into two, in their own liquor, with a little white wine, some gravy, and seasoned with grated lemon-peel, pounded mace, pepper, and salt ; add a bit of butter; fill the rolls with the oysters, and serve them with the fried bread-crumbs in the dish. 98. Fried Oysters. Make a batter as for pancakes, seasoned with grated nut- meg, white pepper, and salt, and add some finely grated bread-crumbs, dip in the oysters, and fry them of a light brown in beef dripping. nar 99. Fried Oysters: Another Way. Dip them into the white of an egg beaten up, roll them in finely-grated bread-crumbs, seasoned with grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and proceed as directed above. FISH. 183 ::: 100. Stewed Oysters. With a quart of oysters and their liquor strained, put a glass of white wine, one anchovy bruised, seasoning with white pepper, salt, a little mace, and a bunch of sweet herbs ; let all stew gently for a quarter of an hour. Pick out the bunch of herbs, add a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, kneaded in a tablespoonful of flour, and stew the oysters ten or twelve minutes. Serve them garn- ished with bread sippets and cut lemon. Or they may be stewed simply in their own liquor, seasoned with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg, and thickened with cream, flour, and butter. Line 101. Roast Oysters. Large oysters, not opened. A few minutes before they are wanted, put them on a gridiron over a moderate fire. When done, they will open ; do not lose the liquor that is in the shell with the oyster. Serve them hot on a napkin. pan 102. Broiled Oysters. Dip twenty-four large and freshly opened oysters in half bread-crumbs and half biscuit powder; flatten them with the hand, and broil them on a well-greased gridiron for two minutes on each side ; then salt them slightly, and serve on six pieces of toast ; lightly glaze them with Maître d'Hôtel sauce (p. 348) on the top. ran 103. Oyster Hâtelets (a Polish term for Skewers). Cut into small pieces a sweetbread and a slice or two of bacon; beard some large oysters, and season all highly with chopped parsley, a shallot, a little thyme, pepper, and 184 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. salt. Then fasten them upon wire skewers (silver ones are best); put sifted bread-crumbs over them, and broil or fry them of a light brown colour. Take them off the skewers and serve them with some rich gravy, to which add a little catsup and lemon pickle. 104. Hatelets : Another Way. Fry some sweet herbs in butter, with a little flour and oyster liquor; season this sauce well; reduce and thicken it with the yolks of three eggs. Have ready some oysters blanched in their own liquor; place them on skewers, and, the above sauce being cold, spread it completely over the oysters; roll them in bread-crumbs, dip them in beaten eggs, bread- crumb them a second time, and fry them of a nice colour. 105. Oyster Sausages. Take half a pound of lean beef or mutton, three-quarters of a pound of beef suet, two score of oysters bearded and scalded in their own liquor, then dried; chop all together, adding bread-crumbs and yolks of eggs to " bind.” Season well with salt, white pepper, mace, and a grate of nutmeg; or if you wish to make the mixture very savoury, leave out the mace and nutmeg, but add a little cayenne, with a minced shallot and a spoonful of garlic vinegar. The mince inay be either made into sausages or fried in shapes. iron 106. Little Oyster Soufilés. Beard a dozen sauce oysters, and cut them into little square pieces ; strain their liquor into a cup. Put two ounces FISH. 185 of fine flour into a stew-pan with two ounces of butter, a tiny dust of cayenne pepper, a pinch of salt, three raw yolks of eggs, and barely half a pint of cold milk; mix well together, and stir over the fire until it boils ; add the cut-up oysters and their liquor. Whip four whites of eggs and a pinch of salt till very stiff, and put this to the above; mix well together, and fill some little paper cases which have been oiled and dried (china cases can be used if liked); put a few browned bread-crumbs on the top of each soufflé, and a tiny piece of butter to keep it moist, and bake in a moderate oven for about fifteen minutes. -nar 107. Rissoles of Oysters. Prepare two dozen of blanched oysters as directed for scolloped oysters (No. 111), but cutting each oyster into six pieces; turn them out upon a dish, where leave them until quite cold; then have the trimmings of some puff paste, which roll very thin; put the pieces of oysters upon it, fold them over with the paste, which cut out with a round cutter, giving each of the rissoles the shape of a turnover; egg with a paste-brush and throw them into bread-crumbs ; cover well; have ready a stew-pan in which there is some very hot lard, and in this fry your rissoles of a light brown colour; dress upon a napkin in a plate; garnish with fried parsley, and serve to be handed round the table. sirom 108. Oysters à la Villeroi. Blanch twenty-four large oysters in their own liquor for two minutes, then drain them; take some chicken forcemeat, spread it over both sides of the oysters, dip them in egg and fresh bread-crumbs, then fry them in hot lard for three minutes, and serve with fried parsley. 186 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 109. Angels on Horseback. Cut some little round pieces of bread about a quarter of an inch thick and two inches in diameter; fry them in clarified butter to a golden brown, then spread over them a purée of anchovies, and on this purée place a little slice of crisply fried bacon; on the bacon put a bearded oyster which has been simply warmed in the oven between two plates, with a little butter and its liquor, and seasoned with a tiny dust of nutmeg; then sprinkle over the top a little chopped parsley, and dish the crusts up in a row ; pour the oyster liquor round them, and serve for a savoury or breakfast dish. Toast can be used instead of the “ crusts.” im 110. Bearded Oysters. Scoop out the crumb from a small loaf, or some small rolls, and place in the cavity oysters stewed with butter and mace, and a little of their liquor, with two or three spoonfuls of rich milk added as they are done. Place on the top of the rolls the pieces sliced off; set thein in the oven a few minutes, and serve on a dish, hot. -10 111. Scolloped Oysters. Beard the oysters; wash in their own liquor; steep bread- crumbs in the latter ; put these with the oysters into scollop shells, with a bit of butter and a seasoning of salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg; make a compost of bread-crumbs and butter, cover, and roast before the fire or in an oven. ret FISH. 187 112. Pickled Oysters. Procure four dozen of the largest sort of oysters, and wash them in their liquor ; wipe them dry, strain the liquor off ; add to it a teaspoonful of pepper, two blades of mace, three tablespoonfuls of white wine, and four of vinegar, and if the liquor is not very salt, you may put one tablespoonful of salt; simmer the oysters for a few minutes in this liquor, then put them into small jars and boil up the pickle, skim it, and, when cold, pour it over the oysters; keep them closely covered. Sretan 113. Oyster Fritters. Having blanched the oysters in their own liquor, soak them for some time in vinegar and water, with salt, shredded parsley, and small white onions, sliced; then dry them well, dip each in batter, and fry them. Loan 114. Oysters and Eggs. Put into a stew-pan half a pound of fresh butter, some parsley, scallions, and morels, shredded small; season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg; when the butter is melted, put in about four dozen oysters with their liquor, make them quite hot, and add to them five or six hard-boiled eggs cut in slices; let the whole simmer for a quarter of an hour, and fill the oyster shells with it; cover each with raspings, and colour them in the oven or with a salamander. iron 115. Oyster Patties. Take twenty.four medium-sized oysters, put them in a stew pan with their own liquor, and add half a pinch of 188 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. pepper; cover, and let cook for two minutes. Then take half the liquor out, and add to the oysters three-quarters of a pint of Béchamel (p. 327), and a very little grated nutmeg ; simmer for two minutes, but do not let boil. Take six hot patties, fill them up with four oysters each, pour the sauce over, and place the covers on top. Serve on a dish with a folded napkin. 116. Oyster Pudding. In opening the oysters, take care of the liquor. Strain, beard and parboil the fish; soak and parboil sweetbreads, which must be cut in slices and disposed with the oysters in layers in a buttered mould, and lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, and mace. Put half a teacupful of the liquor, and as much gravy, into the mould, and steam for half an hour. On turning out the pudding, pour over it a sauce made of a teacupful of cream, some more oyster liquor, and a cupful of white gravy, warm, but not boiling. 117. Oyster Pie. Open your oysters, being careful to save the liquor; Pota strain, beard, and parboil them. hao sam 94. Then soak and parboil sweetbreads, cut them in slices, and place them and the oysters in alternate layers in a dish, with a slight seasoning of mace, salt, and pepper, together with half a teacupful of gravy and the same quantity of the liquor; cover with crust, and bake the pie in a slow oven. On taking it out, add a teacupful of cream, some more oyster liquor, and a cupful of white gravy, warm, but not boiling. now FISH. . 189 118. Mock Oysters. Boil a calf's sweetbread in salted water. Wash some lower oyster shells in cold water, and on each one lay a little finely minced herring—the Dutch herring is the best. Cut the sweetbread into small pieces, and dip these in bread-crumbs seasoned with salt, ample pepper, and a little nutmeg. Lay each piece in a shell. Sprinkle sufficient of the crumbs over them, with here and there a tiny piece of herring, and put a little butter on each. Give them a delicate browning before the fire. ron 119. Crab Omelette. Make your omelette thus :-Break six eggs in a basin, season with salt and pepper, and beat with a fork. Put two ounces of butter in an oval-shaped pan; and as soon as the butter melts pour in your eggs, stirring lightly with a fork, and taking care that the eggs do not catch the pan. While “ doing,” add a due proportion of the finely shredded flesh of a crab, with a touch of vinegar, a little more salt, and a dust of cayenne. Some cooks add a little minutely minced parsley. When your omelette is half set, toss or turn it till fully set. Don't let it take a brown colour. It must be pale gold. There are two ways of turning out the omelette on the dish. Either slant your pan down- wards from the handle and roll the omelette downwards till it takes the shape of a long oval, and so slide it gently on to the dish; or simply fold over the omelette on both sides to the proper elliptical shape. In any case, when you beat your eggs before pouring them into the pan, be very careful that the operation does not take longer than one minute. If you are longer about it your eggs will cook "watery” instead of “marrowy." And if anybody tells you that either milk or flour should be added to an omelette- 190 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOK. there are twenty ways of spelling the word, and nobody has found the right one-tell him he doesn't know what he is talking about. If a female, beg her pardon, and ask her to amend the evil of her ways. You should avoid both the one and the other as you would avoid strychnine or Greek acid. Obs.-Crab omelette should be served with a rich crayfish sauce, coloured with lobster coral. ran 120. Lobster Pie. Boil two large or three small lobsters, remove the tails, cut the fish in two, take out the gut, divide each into four pieces, and lay them in a small dish; then put in the meat of the claws, and that which has been picked from the body. Clear the latter of the furry parts, and take out the substance; beat the spawn in a mortar, do the same by the shells; set these on to stew with some water, two or three spoonfuls of vinegar, pepper, salt, and pounded mace, and add a piece of butter rolled in flour; when the goodness of the shells is extracted give the whole a good boiling, and strain it into the dish, strew some crumbs over it, and cover it with a paste. Bake it slowly, but take it out as soon as the crust is done. 121. Lobster à la Braise. Pound the meat of a large lobster very fine with two ounces of butter, and season it with grated nutmeg, salt, and white pepper; add a little grated bread; beat up two eggs; reserve part to put over the meat, and with the rest make the meat up into the form of a lobster. Pound the spawn and red part, and spread it over the meat; bake it a quarter of an hour, and just before serving lay over it the FISH. 191 tail and body shell, with the small claws put underneath to resemble a lobster. Linu 122. To Fricassée Lobster. Break the shells and carefully take out the meat; cut it, and the red part, or coral, into pieces, adding the spawn; thicken with flour and butter some white stock, with which the shells have been boiled; season it with white pepper, mace, and salt; put in the lobster and heat up. Just before serving, add a little lemon-juice, or lemon pickle. The stock may be made with the shells only, boiled in a pint of water, with some white pepper, salt, and a little mace, thickened with cream, flour, and butter. -reme 123. Lobster Balls. A choice “Greenwich” dish. Chop up fine the meat of a lobster, to which add the coral. “Red as a rose” should be the amalgamated mince. Add, in the proportion of one- fourth, bread crumbled very fine, with a tablespoonful of cream, and season with a little anchovy sauce, pepper, a “point” of nutmeg, and the juice of half a lemon. Heat the whole in a stew-pan. Remove it from the fire; stir in the yolk of an egg ; lay it out on a plate to cool, roll it into balls, brush it over with egg, dip in bread-crumbs, fry in hot fat, and garnish with parsley fried very crisp. No sauce. retime 124. Lobster à la Soulevard. Line small walnut moulds with aspic jelly and cover over with a little brown chaudfroid sauce (for which I have given a recipe on p. 329); let them set; then fill them with a purée of lobster, and have ready a little salad garnish. n 192 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 125. Lobster Mayonnaise with Aspic Jelly. Remove the meat from a fresh lobster ; cut the back into neat pieces—the claws may be left whole or cut up as preferred; place the pieces on a dish or tin, and sprinkle half of them with chopped parsley or tarragon and chervil, and the other half with the lobster coral; lightly cover the pieces with liquid aspic jelly, and when it is set, dish up the pieces, with the coral and parsley alternating, on a border of aspic jelly; tastefully arrange on the dish some fresh crisp lettuce, a little tarragon and chervil, French capers, turned olives, filleted anchovies, quarters of hard-boiled eggs, and garnish the whole with thick, smooth mayonnaise sauce (see p. 338). G row 126. Crayfish Pudding. Take half a hundred crayfish and boil them in broth; remove the shell from the claws and tail, and suppress that of the bodies; dry the former, pound and make a butter of it. Cut the tails into dice, put them into a stew-pan with the spawn ; take the white of a fowl minced fine, panada of cream very dry, some roasted onions, some fat livers cut in slices and also into dice; mingle with the butter some spoonfuls of rich gravy, fine spices, and salt; mix all well together; tie up, and cook as white puddings (p. 238). 127. Broiled Carp with Caper Sauce. You must never use fresh-water fish unless it is alive, and you kill it yourself. When you have given a few strokes on the carp's head with a large knife, thrust your knife under the scales, beginning at the tail, and proceed to cut right and left. All the scales on one side must come off at once, in FISIT. 193 a piece. Then do the same on the other side, and about the belly. When the scales have been taken off properly, and none are left, the carp will be white; then take off the gills, without damaging the tongue, which is one of the most delicate parts of the fish. Make a small incision in the neck, as if you were going to cut off the head ; make another in the belly, but in a contrary direction, and as small as possible. Then with your forefinger draw out the roe, intestines, etc. Wash the carp till there is no blood left, and wipe it well; slit both sides of the back, and let it marinade in a little oil, salt, and pepper for about an hour, or rather longer. Now lay it on a gridiron over a very slow fire, that it may have time to be well done through. When broiled on both sides, serve it with caper sauce, into which you have put a spoonful of essence of anchovies. If the carp has a soft roe put it back into the body with a little chopped parsley, mixed with a small lump of fresh butter, salt, pepper; then sew the belly up, for fear the contents should drop out, and broil all together. When the carp is done, cut off the thread and mask the fish with caper sauce. There are plenty of carp at Hampton Court Palace and in the fishponds of many country houses, but the fish is not much sought after by modern epicures. It has sometimes a muddy flavour. However, I have given the recipe for the benefit of fresh-water fishermen. Roach, dace, tench, perch, and all other fresh-water fish are dressed as a kind of “bouillabaisse," or stew, omitting the oil and the garlic; but with plenty of small onions and high seasoning to suppress the possibly muddy taste. room 128. Carp au Bleu au Court Bouillon. Take a very fine carp: cut off the gills, but keep the tongue; then make as small an opening as possible to 194 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. empty it, and wash it well till no blood is left. Now boil some vinegar, and when boiling-hot pour it over the fish, that the scales may crisp. Next wrap the carp up in a cloth, and stew it in brown broth. When done, drain it, and serve it with anchovy sauce and capers. 129. To Stew Carp. Scale and clean a brace of carp, reserving the liver and roe; pour over the fish in a deep pan a pint of vinegar, which may be elder vinegar, if the flavour is preferred, with a little mace, three cloves, some salt and Jamaica pepper, two onions sliced, a faggot of parsley, basil, thyme, and marjoram; let the fish soak an hour, then put them in a stew-pan with the vinegar and other things, the liver chopped, a pint of Madeira, and three pints of veal stock; stew them an hour or two, according to their size; take them out and put them over a pan of hot water to keep warm while a sauce is made thus :-Strain the liquor, and add the yolks of three beaten eggs, half a pint of cream, a large spoonful of flour and a quarter of a pound of butter; stir it constantly, and just before putting it over the carp, squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Boil or fry the roe. This sauce may also be served with plain boiled carp dished in a napkin. 130. Roast Pike. Wash, clean, and scrape off the scales, cut off the fins, and carefully take out the inside; stuff the fish with the crumb of two rolls, a quarter of a pound of butter, pepper, FISH. 195 salt, grated nutmeg, and lemon-peel, with an egg to bind it; baste it well with butter. When dished, stick upon the back oblong bits of fried toast, and serve with the following sauce : - Dissolve an anchovy in some highly seasoned gravy, thicken it with butter mixed with flour, and a tablespoonful of cream; add a little coratch, cayenne, vinegar, walnut catsup, and soy. Lobster sauce may also be served with roast pike. ron 131. Baked Pike. Scrape the scales off a large pike, take out the gills, and clean it, without breaking the skin. Stuff the fish with a forcemeat made of two handfuls of grated bread, one of finely minced suet, some chopped parsley, and a little fresh butter, seasoned with pepper, salt, mace, grated lemon-peel and nutmeg, pounded all together in a mortar, with two whole eggs. Fasten the tail of the pike into its mouth with a skewer, and then dip it, first into a well- beaten egg, and then into grated bread, which repeat twice, baste it over with butter, and bake it in an oven. If two of them are to be served, make one of them of a green colour by mixing a quantity of finely minced parsley with the grated bread. When the fish is browned, cover it with paper until it is done. Serve with a Dutch sauce (p. 332) in a tureen. Limano 132. Baked Pike. (French Way.) Prepare the pike as usual, but, instead of stuffing it with the farce prescribed in No. 131, stuff it with forcemeat balls. Be careful to bind the head, which is liable to break. Make N 2 196 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. a marinade- a small quantity will do, as it is improper that pike should be smothered in it: indeed, there will be quite enough if it reaches the middle of the fish. Baste the fish fre- quently with some of the moistening, that it may take a fine colour, which is not easily obtained, as you are not using crumbs of bread. When it is done, drain it. Take some of the marinade to make a butter sauce in this way :—Put a good lump of butter and a spoonful of flour into a stew-pan; moisten with the marinade, but do not allow the sauce to boil. Add to this a spoonful of essence of anchovies and the juice of a lemon. Serve the sauce under the fish without masking it. If the pike is not of a good colour, you should add some fine capers to the sauce: and in this case, mask the fish with it. 133. To Cook Trout. This is the method of the woods, and in the woods I learned it. The trout must be cooked in the open air by a wood fire on the ground, or a charcoal fire in a small Boston furnace. Clean and scale your fish ; open, clean, and wash the inside ; then take two small skewers, say of red cedar wood; upon each thread a piece of fat salt pork, half an inch square; with these fix the belly of the fish asunder; annex it by the tail to a twig of pliant wood, which suffer to bend over the fire so as to bring the fish opposite to the blaze; place a large biscuit or a thin slice of dry toast under the drip of the gravy; cook quickly. For a two-pound fish ten minutes will suffice; dish with the biscuit under it, and eat with salt and lemon- juice, or with shrimp or lobster sauce, or a dash of Worcester or of Harvey's. FISH. 197 134. Haddock Pudding. Bone and skin two raw fresh haddocks, pound them in a marble mortar, and rub them through a hair sieve; then put the fish again into the mortar with two eggs, a little parsley, and an onion cut small, some white pepper and salt, a slice of bread in crumbs, and a quarter of a pound of veal suet, or marrow. Pound all well together, put it into a shape and boil it an hour. The veal suet, or marrow, may be omitted. iran 135. Little Fish Puddings. Bone and skin two haddocks : pound them smooth. Boil the same quantity of bread and milk as there is of fish, with a little parsley, mix it with the fish, and rub through a sieve; put in two eggs and the yolk of a third, some salt and pepper; stir all well together, and add the white of the third egg well beaten; roll into the form of small sausages, flour these, and boil fifteen minutes in boiling salt and water. Have ready the following brown sauce to serve in the dish with them :-In a pint and a half of water boil the heads, fins, and bones of the haddocks, with a bunch of parsley, an onion, salt and pepper, and a bit of toasted bread; when it has boiled nearly an hour, strain it, and thicken it with flour and butter; add a tablespoonful of catsup, half a tablespoonful of soy, and a little cayenne. 136. Dried Fish Pudding. Boil the fish, remove the skin, and take out the bones; pound it, and add to it an equal quantity of mashed potatoes inoistened with good milk and a bit of butter ; put it in a dish, smooth it with a knife, stick here and there little 198 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. bits of butter, and brown it in a Dutch oven; serve it with egg sauce; round the edge of the dish may be put a potato paste. 137. Fish Cake. Take the meat from the bones of any kind of cold fish, and put the bones with the head and fins into a stew-pan with a pint of water, a little salt, pepper, an onion, and a faggot of sweet herbs, to stew for gravy. Mince the meat, and mix it well with crumbs of bread and cold potatoes (equal parts), a little parsley and seasoning. Make into a cake, with the white of an egg, or a little butter or milk; egg it over and cover with bread-crumbs, then fry a delicate brown. Pour the gravy over, and stew gently fifteen minutes, stirring it carefully twice or thrice. Serve hot, and garnish with slices of lemon or with parsley. Groom 138. Salt Fish Pie. The thickest part must be chosen, and put in cold water to soak the night before wanted; then boil it well, take it up, remove the bones and skin, set it on a fish-drainer to get cold; in the meantime, boil four eggs hard, peel and slice them very thin; the same quantity of onions sliced thin; line the bottom of a fish pie-dish with fish forcemeat, or a layer of potatoes sliced thin—then a layer of onions, then of fish, and of eggs, and so on till the dish is full; season each layer with a little pepper; then mix a teaspoonful of made mustard, the same of essence of anchovy, a little mushroom catsup in a gill of cold water, place in the dish, on the top an ounce of fresh butter broken in bits, cover with puff paste, and bake for one hour. FISH. 199 139. Salt Fish Pudding. One pint of finely chopped cooked salt-fish, eight good- sized potatoes, three-fourths of a cupful of milk or cream, four eggs, salt, pepper, and two generous tablespoonfuls of butter. Pare the potatoes and boil thirty minutes. Drain the water from them, and mash very fine; then mix thoroughly with the fish. Add the butter, seasoning, and milk or cream. Have two of the eggs well beaten, which stir into the mixture, and heap this in the dish in which it is to be served. Place in the oven for ten minutes. Beat the whites of the two remaining eggs to a stiff froth, and add a quarter of a tea- spoonful of salt; then put in the yolks. Spread this over the fish, return to the oven to brown, and serve. A good and cheap dish. Salt fish should not (for hygienic reasons) be eaten very often; and the same, in degree, may be said of all salted meats, with the exception of fat bacon. But the use which we inake at present of salt fish is simply ridiculous. We eat it with boiled parsnips and egg sauce on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday: and there an end! votom 140. Mock Anchovies. To a peck of perfectly fresh sprats just taken out of the water, and neither washed nor wiped, allow the following quantity of ingredients, all to be finely pounded, and well mixed together:-Two pounds of common salt, a quarter of a pound of bay-salt, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of prunella salt, and a small portion of cochineal. Place alter- nately in a earthenware pan, till it be full, a layer of the sprats and a layer of the prepared mixture; press the whole well down, and cover the pan closely. They will require to stand six months before they are used. FISH. 201 144. Baked Sprats. Having rubbed your sprats with salt and pepper, to every two pints of vinegar put one pint of red wine. Dissolve a pennyworth of cochineal, and lay your sprats in a deep earthen dish. Pour in as much red wine, vinegar, and cochineal, as will cover them. Tie a paper over them, and set them in an oven all night. They will keep some time, and eat well. 145. Roast Gurnet. Fill the belly of the fish with stuffing, sew it up with packthread, and truss it with its tail in its inouth; butter a sauté-pan, and put two tablespoonfuls of chopped shallots and a glass of sherry into it; egg the fish with a paste- brush, bread-crumb, and lay a few pieces of butter upon it; then put it in the sauté-pan and place it in the oven for half an hour, or longer if required. When done, dish it without a napkin, first drawing out the packthread; then put twelve tablespoonfuls of brown sauce in the sauté-pan, with four ditto of broth, a quarter ditto of sugar, and a half ditto of essence of anchovy; boil this five minutes, pour it round the fish, pass the salamander over, and serve. iran 146. Skate with Liver Sauce. Crimp or cut the skate into pieces, boil, and serve on it a sauce made as follows:-Put into a saucepan parsley, chibbols, mushrooms, a clove of garlic, all finely minced, and a little butter; give it a turn or two on the fire, and add a good dust of flour, then a bit of butter, capers, and a minced anchovy, with the liver of the skate, first boiled and bruised, and pepper and salt; moisten with gravy or water, and thicken on the fire. Leave out the garlic, if you like. 202 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. , beurre noir” is, 1 butter, direction butter is e 147. Skate au Beurre Noir. Boil the skate as above, drain it well and dish it with- out a napkin. Put half a pound of butter in a stew-pan, and set it on the fire till it gets quite black; then fry in it half a handful of parsley (that has been well washed and picked) quite crisp, and pour over the fish; put five tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with a little pepper and salt, into the same stew-pan, boil it a minute, pour over the fish, put into the oven five minutes, and serve very hot. “Beurre noir" is, literally, “ black” butter. It should be darker than the “burnt” butter, directions for making which I have given you below (No. 148). Black butter is easy to make, and is far from expensive; yet, in the course of more than fifty years' dining out in London, I have rarely, if ever, met with " black” or “burnt" sauce for white fish at middle- class English dinner-tables; or, for the matter of that, at aristocratic dinner-tables, either. If you want “ beurre noir" you must go to a second-rate French or Italian restaurant in Soho. Why? Because the eternal melted butter is still the prevailing curse of the English kitchen. “Fifty religions and one sauce!” retorno 148. Crimped Skate with Burnt Butter. Boil the skate in water, with vinegar and salt added, and a few slices of onions. Only let it just boil up. When done, serve it with burnt butter made thus :—Boil two good spoon- fuls of vinegar, with salt and pepper ; at the same time fry some butter till it becomes very brown, and pour it on the vinegar. Garnish with fried parsley. roton 149. Fresh Sturgeon. The best mode of dressing the fish is to cut it in thin slices like veal cutlets and broil it. Serve very hot, and eat with a ve FISH. 203 squeeze of lemon juice. Great care, however, must be taken to cut off the skin before it is broiled, as the oil in the skin, if burnt, imparts a disagreeable flavour to the fish. The flesh is very fine, and comes nearer to veal, perhaps, than does even turtle. I prefer this mode of dressing it to the more savoury one of stewing it in rich gravy. This "royal” fish is, I believe, occasionally to be met with at a few West-End fishmongers', and is sold at a reasonable price; but although I have repeatedly partaken of sturgeon (“sterlet”) in Russia, I do not remember to have ever seen it in the bill-of-fare of an English dinner-party, public or private. 204 SECTION III.-ENTRÉES. In orthodox French cookery the “pièce de resistance” —the joint or big poultry—should come immediately after the soup and fish. The idea was that the guests should “ take the edge off their appetites” on the joints and big poultry, and subsequently be enabled to trifle at elegant leisure with the entrées. The Duke (when Earl) of Fife once made a gallant effort to revive the orthodox inode of serving; but his guests preferred to devour the entrées and trifle with the joint. To the same distinguished nobleman belongs the honour of having been the benefactor who pro- vided his guests with “elevated soup plates." Only those persons who are short-sighted, or who have “two left hands," can understand the agony of having to dip your spoon into a plate a long way down at the risk of horribly staining your shirt front. It is all very well to say “Tuck a napkin under your chin,” but the napkin has an uncomfortable habit of slipping off. Lord Fife put his soup-plates on silver plateaus on legs, within convenient distance of the lips of his guests. -nin 1. Forcemeat Balls. Cut fine half a pound of veal and the same quantity of suet, and beat them in a mortar. Shred fine a few sweet herbs, a little dried mace, a small nutmeg grated, a little lemon-peel cut very fine, some pepper and salt, and the yolks of two eggs. Mix all well together, then roll t, and half a pounat comeat Ball - -- ----- ENTRÉES. 205 some of it into small balls, and some into long pieces. Roll both in flour, and fry them of a nice brown. If they are to be used with white sauce, instead of frying them pour a little water into a stew-pan, and when it boils put them in, and they will be done in a few minutes. 2. Sausage-Meat (Plain). Take any quantity of lean beef or pork, with half the quantity of fat, and having freed the lean of every particle of skin, sinews, and gristle, mince both it and the fat as fine as possible, adding for each pound of meat a large teaspoonful of pepper and the same quantity of salt; strew this on the meat and mix the whole thoroughly together, as a stock for further seasoning. roman Another Way. To the meat of a leg of pork of about four pounds weight, add two pounds of fat from the fore loin; chop both very fine; then add two nutmegs grated, twenty cloves, a teaspoon- ful of pounded or grated lemon-peel, two or three blades of mace pounded, one ounce of the best salt, and half an ounce of black pepper; mix all together. This sausage-meat would be much improved by pounding the meat, and mixing it with one-third of its bulk of white bread soaked in milk and also pounded, blending the whole together with beaten egg. vrtom 3. Batter for Frying. Moisten twelve ounces of sifted flour with lukewarm water in which you have melted two ounces of butter. 206 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Pour in enough water to form a rather thin paste without lumps; then add enough water to form a batter. It should be sufficiently thick to cover whatever is dipped into it, but should run freely. Add a little salt, and two whites of eggs, well whipped. soon 4. Fricassée of Fowl. Pick, draw, and singe a fowl; cut it into pieces and soak them for one or two hours in cold water, to whiten the meat; then drain them. Put into a saucepan a piece of butter and a spoonful of flour; stir it till the butter is melted, when moisten it with a glass of water; add salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, a sprig of parsley, and chives; put in the fowl, and let it stew three-quarters of an hour; thicken the sauce with the yolks of three eggs, and add some lemon-juice, and also a dash of vinegar. When two-thirds done, put in some mushrooms, and add, if you like, some button onions and bottoms of artichokes at the same time that you put in the fowl. A few cray- fish may be placed round the dish, as well as some crusts and cocks'-combs. To keep the meat white, it is neces- sary to rub it with the lemon-juice, and cover it during the cooking with some buttered paper placed on the fricassée, inside the saucepan. iro 5. Fowl, Country Captain. Cut a fowl in pieces ; shred an onion small and fry it brown in butter ; sprinkle the fowl with fine salt and curry- powder, and fry it brown with fried butter; then put it into a saucepan with a pint of broth; stew slowly down to a half, and serve with rice. ENTRÉES. 207 6. Braised Fowl. Bone the breast, and fill it with forcemeat. Lay the bones and the other poultry trimmings in a stew-pan, and the fowl on them. Put to them an onion, a bundle of herbs, three blades of mace, a pint of stock, and a glass of sherry. Mask the fowl with slices of bacon, and sprinkle with white pepper; cover the whole close, and put it on a slow stove for an hour. Then take it up; strain the braise, carefully skim off the fat, and set it on to boil very quickly to a glaze, which put over the fowl with a brush. Before glazing, put the fowl into the oven for a few minutes, to give a little colour. If you are an abstainer, leave out the sherry; but practically there is no harm whatever in using a little wine in cookery. All the alcohol evaporates in boiling, and only the flavour remains. 7. Chickens with Macédoine of Spring Roots. Prepare for boiling two fat chickons of an equal size, and rub the breasts over with butter; slice a lemon without the rind, lay a few pieces on the breasts of the chickens, and completely cover them with slices of fat bacon, tied closely round; place them in a stew-pan, fill up with poêlé; let them boil for half an hour; when you dish them, shake the water out and wipe off the fat. They should be served with a delicate Macédoine, made thus:-Boil some very young carrots, cut them of a neat shape ; also some turnips, cut the same; a few French beans, cut; and some asparagus points boiled quite green; have boiling a very clear rich Spanish sauce, and a few minutes before you serve the chickens throw these roots into the sauce ; let them boil up, then skim the sauce, and add a little sugar and salt. boileá lew French Leat shape ; ala 203 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 8. Epigram of Chicken Cutlets (Epigram do Poalet). Why “Epigram” I know not. Take the fillets out of a chicken, flatten and pare them neatly, remove small bones of the pinions, scrape it clean and force it into the pointed end of the fillets; lay them on the dresser and shake a little pepper and salt over both sides, brush them over with the yolk of egg, dip them into bread-crumbs, and then into clarified butter, and again lightly into bread-crumbs; they are to be broiled in a double gridiron, but not till the last moment. Cut the inside fillets into scollops, place them on a sauté-pan, fry as lightly as possible, and put them into a Béchamel sauce (p. 327), with some mushrooms which have been passed; dish the cutlets, and serve the scollops in the centre. wroom 9. Chicken in Savoury Jelly. Choose a very small spring chicken, which is to be boiled as white as possible, then put it away to get cold; melt some aspic jelly, pour a little into a mould that will just hold the chicken, cut some garniture with whites of hard-boiled eggs and truffles, decorate the bottom, set the mould on ice, and add by degrees a little aspic to set the decoration; when it is perfectly secure, lay in the chicken, the breast downwards, and pour a little more aspic, which should not be warm, only just in a liquid state; continue pouring in the aspic at intervals till it comes up level with the back of the chicken; keep the mould surrounded with ice till it is to be dished, then dip it in hot water and turn it out on the dish. 10. Chicken Patties with Purée à la Reine. Take eight or ten dariole moulds and line them with paste, fill them with trimmings of paste, cut tops of the ENTRÉES. 209 1 same paste, rub them over with the yolks of eggs, bake them and then take out the inside. Cut off all the white meat from two roasted fowls, pound in a mortar until it can be passed though a fine hair-sieve; then reduce some Béchamel, or white sauce, which should be well flavoured with mushrooms, mix the chickening with the sauce, and season it before you fill the patties. Do not suffer the purée to boil, which would totally spoil it. 11. Compote of Quails. Six quails will be required for this entrée. Truss them in the same way as chickens for boiling; place them in a stew-pan sufficiently large to hold them; put in a piece of butter, a small bunch of green onions, a little parsley, a sprig of marjoram, a few cloves, and a leaf of mace; set the stew-pan over the stove for ten minutes, throw in a tablespoonful of flour, and shake it about in the pan until mixed ; add as much good broth as will cover the birds, and keep moving the stew-pan over the stove until the sauce boils; then remove it to the corner, and throw in some parings of mushrooms, and a glass of Madeira wine; try the birds occasionally, and when they are tender put them into a clean stew-pan, and should the sauce not be thick enough reduce it a little more; skim off all the grease, and pass it through a tammy to the quails ; have ready some button mushrooms and some small forcemeat balls, throw them in and give the whole a boil up; dish the quails, and pour the sauce over them. For garnish you may put between each quail a piece of bread cut and fried, or a small pudding of forcemeat. 210 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 12. Scollops of Rabbits. Take three rabbits (or any number, according to the number of guests: this recipe will serve as well for one as for six rabbits); detach the fillets, tear off the sinews; then scollop the fillets, keeping your knife on a slope; flatten them with the handle of your knife; put the scollops into a sauté pan with some clarified butter; have ready some truffles peeled and cut into slices of the same size as the scollops; mix them with the rabbits in the butter, with salt and pepper. “Toss” the whole a little while before dinner-time, drain the butter, and put the scollops into the sauce, in order that the truffles may give their flavour to it, and likewise to the meat. You may procure preserved truffles in bottles at any good Italian warehouse; still, I am rather chary of prescribing them. Unless they are forwarded directly from abroad, and cased in the earth from which they have been dug, they rarely possess any distinctive flavour. Garnish the edges of the dish with sippets. 18. "Kickshaws” of Rabbit, Italian Sance. Roast lightly three or four young rabbits, and pick off all the white meat; mince it very finely with a sharp knife, that it may not be ragged; reduce four spoonfuls of white sauce with a spoonful of cream, season it with a little cayenne pepper and salt; throw in the rabbit while the sauce is hot, set it to cool, then beat up six yolks of eggs with a teaspoonful of cream; pass the eggs through a colander to the rabbit, and mix thoroughly; butter eight or ten small moulds, and put a piece of white paper at the bottom of each ; fill each mould with mince, and half an hour before dinner set them in a stew-pan; pour boiling water round them, about half the height of the mould, ENTRÉES. 211 cover the stew-pan close, set it over a stove, and put some lighted charcoal on the cover; when done, turn the “kick- shaws” on the dish, and put over them a clear brown Italian sauce. Why “kickshaws ” ? you may ask. Well; turn to Justice Shallow's instructions to William the cook in the second part of “ King Henry IV.” (Act V., Scene 1), and you will see that at any rate the word is an old one. French cooks call the above dish “Paupetons de Lapereau,” an exceptionally com- manding phrase ; but I prefer “kickshaws,” which is at least Shakespearian, although it is manifestly a corruption of the French quelque chose. Inom 14. Rabbit Pudding. Roast a young rabbit; take off the flesh and pick out the sinews ; hash it with the liver very fine. Break the bones and put them into a stew-pan, moisten with rich stock; let it boil to draw the flavour, and use for the panada. Pound the meat and panada together; add a third of the bulk of butter, that is to say use an equal part of the three elements; add also fine minced onions that have been stewed in gravy, six raw yolks of eggs, reduced cold cream, as much as is necessary; bring the whole to the consistency of pudding. Before finishing add fine spices, salt, and nutmeg. Grain 15. Rabbit Galantine. Bone a rabbit entirely (except the head); take away the meat of the thick part of the thighs; lard with seasoned bacon tips; mince the meat taken off with the fillets of two other rabbits; take an equal quantity of bacon, ninced, mix the minces together, add salt, pepper, and pounded spice; lay the rabbit open on a cloth; season, and spread a layer of the forcemeat all over it; on this place o 2 212 THE THOROUGH. GOOD COOK. red tongue and bacon tips, in small pieces; proceed thus alternately until the rabbit is quite full; then form it as well as you can ; tie slices of bacon all over it, wrap it in the cloth, and tie it again; lay slices of bacon in a braising-pan, put in the rabbit, a knuckle of veal, the bones of the rabbit, two carrots, three onions (one stuck with cloves), two bay-leaves, a little thyme, parsley, scallions, half a bottle of white wine, a ladleful of stock, and a little salt; set the pan on the fire to simmer for two hours, then remove from the fire, and in half an hour's time care- fully withdraw the rabbit. When quite cold, take it out of the cloth, glaze and serve it.—A superb dish, but pretty dear. Liron 16. Turban of Fillets of Rabbits. Take four young rabbits; detach the fillets, also the inside fillets; the eight large ones should be neatly larded with bacon, and the eight smaller garnished with truffles, according to fancy, or thus :-Lay them on the table, and with a very sharp knife make slanting incisions from one end to the other; then take a round cutter the width of the fillet, and scoop some pieces out of large truffles, and with a sharp knife slice them as thin as possible; place in each incision a round piece of truffle, and press the flesh close—the truffle will then remain in place. Make a farce of the flesh of the legs of the rabbit; then cut a piece of bread for the centre of the dish, cover the bread with slices of fat bacon-it will be more easily removed, when the turban is done, if the bread is divided into four pieces; raise the farce equally round the bread on the dish it is to be served on, form it into the shape of a turban, then place the eight large fillets in a slanting form all round the turban, equally divided, and between each a small fillet with truffles; press them lightly to make them secure, cover the whole with layers of bacon ENTRÉES. 213 and thin white paper, and tie string round the paper; then bake in an oven, not too hot. When you think the farce is sufficiently set, remove the bread which is inside (before you take off the bacon) by taking out one quarter at a time, and then take off the outside covering; glaze the fillets, and insert a ragoût of cocks'-combs, truffles, and mushrooms in the opening where the bread was taken out. Laiptain 17. Young Rabbits in Carl Papers. Take off the legs of tender young rabbits, and put them to soak some hours with parsley, chives, mushrooms, half a clove of garlic, the whole chopped fine and mixed with salt, pepper, a little tarragon vinegar, and a table- spoonful of Lucca oil; wrap up each piece with a portion of this seasoning, and a small slice of bacon, in white paper, well buttered inside ; broil them over a gentle fire, and serve them quite hot in the paper. If you are squeamish touching oil and garlic, leave out those ingre- dients, but season a little inore highly. irtin 18. Galantine of Turkey. Bone the turkey, draw the skin of the legs and wings inside ; spread the boned bird flat upon the table; season with pepper and salt and a little aromatic spice; spread a layer of sausage - meat an inch thick upon this, add some long squares of red tongue or ham, some small black truffles, and a few pistachio kernels; repeat the sausage- meat, the seasoning, and the tongue, etc.; and having sufficiently filled up the galantine, sew it up with twine, roll it in a buttered napkin, fasten the ends with string, 214 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and set it to braise in some well-seasoned veal and calf's- foot stock for about an hour and a half. When done, the galantine must be allowed to become partially cold in its own stock, in order that it may thus preserve its mellowness and flavour. It must then be put in press between dishes, with a fourteen-pound weight on the top, and when quite cold, removed from the napkin; lastly, glaze it, and the string taken out, place it on its dish, and ornament it with aspic jelly. 19. Gratin of Pigeon à la Périgord. Bone six small pigeons; cut a piece of bread about two inches high, surround it with a thin slice of fat bacon, then cover it with forcemeat, sloping off to the edge of the dish ; season the pigeons with pepper and salt, fill them with the stuffing, so as to give them their original shape ; place them with the breasts upwards on the forcemeat, put a little more stuffing on the birds, so as to leave the breasts only bare; cover these with a thin slice of fat bacon, and bake in a moderately heated oven for about three-quarters of an hour. When done, take out the bread, and with a napkin soak up all the fat; filling the cavity with whole truffles, mushrooms, and Spanish sauce. 20. Potted Hare. Cut up the hare into joints or pieces, and set them aside on a plate; next, cut up two pounds of streaky bacon into square picces about the size of walnuts, and fry these in a stew-pan; add the pieces of hare, and fry them with the bacon; add also a handful of mushrooms, two bay-leaves, some ENTRÉES. 216 thyme, basil, and winter savoury, two cloves of garlic, twenty cloves, three blades of mace, a teaspoonful of black pepper- corns, a tablespoonful of salt, a pint of sherry (strict abstainers may leave out the wine), and a pinch of Nepaul; put on the lid, and set all to simmer very gently in the oven for an hour and a half. The hare must then be strained from its liquor; all the meat removed from the bones, chopped, and pounded; all the grease and bacon added and the whole pounded into a smooth pulp, then rubbed through a wire-sieve on to a dish, and afterwards put into a large kitchen pan to be mixed up with the liquor from the hare. If the liquor or stock from the hare measures more than a pint, it should be boiled down to that quantity, and about four ounces of good glaze added. Fill some ordinary preserving pie pans with the preparation, cover them over with common flour and water paste; set the pans in deep sauté-pans, or baking-sheets, with a little water at the bottom, and put them to bake in an oven of moderate heat for about an hour. They must now be taken out, the meat pressed down level with a spoon, and some clarified butter or lard poured over the top in sufficient quantity to cover the ineat. As soon as they become cold, let the pans be covered with strong white paper, moistened on one side with white of egg; and when perfectly dry, oil the surface of the paper over with a brush and put the potted hare in a very cool place, to be kept for use as occasion requires. -Ion 21. Venison Pie à l'Americaine. Have three pounds of venison cut into small squares ; place them in a saucepan with an ounce of butter; brown them well for six minutes, then add one tablespoonful of flour; stir well, and moisten with a quart of white broth; throw in six small glazed white onions, (a bouquet, two pinches 216 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. of salt, one pinch of pepper, and the third of a pinch of nutmeg. Let cook on the stove for forty-five minutes with the lid on, and when done, lay the stew in a deep dish; cover with a good pie-crust, carefully wetting the edges; egg the surface with beaten egg, make two incisions on each side and a small hole in the centre, then bake in the oven for forty minutes. Prepare a dish with a folded napkin, lay upon this the dish containing the pie, and serve cold. 22. Sweetbread Pie. Lay a puff paste, half an inch thick, at the bottom of a dish, and forcemeat round the sides. Cut the sweetbreads in pieces according to the size of the pie, place them in first, then some artichoke bottoms cut into four pieces each ; next some cocks’-combs and morels, tops of asparagus, and fresh mushrooms, yolks of hard eggs, and forcemeat balls. Season the whole with pepper and salt. Put in plenty of water, cover the pie, and bake it two hours. On taking it out, pour in some rich veal gravy, thickened with cream and flour. retuin 23. Scollops of Sweetbreads with Green Peas. Take four sweetbreads, let them disgorge, and blanch them thoroughly. Next cut them into scollops, as large as possible. Cover them in a frying-pan with clarified butter and a little salt. A quarter of an hour before you send up, "toss” them over a stove with a clear fire, turn them round, and when done, drain the butter, and put a little glaze into the sauté-pan. Keep stirring the sweetbreads in the glaze; dish them in a circle, and send up the peas in the middle. ENTREES. 217 When you have some remains of sweetbreads, cut them into scollops, make them hot in a little light glaze, and after having dished them in circular form cover them with the peas. Scollops of sweetbreads are easier to dress when you put between them a slice of fried bread, cut round, and the green peas in the middle; without the fried bread they will not keep the shape in which you have dished them. cintain 24. Scollops of Sweetbreads in Cases. Let the sweetbreads disgorge and be blanched. When they have been lying for a time in cold water, make some small scollops of them, and mix them with a preparation which is to be made in the following way :- Take half a pint of mushrooms, four or five shallots, a little parsley, and chop the whole very fine, separately. Next rasp a little fat bacon, to which add a small lump of fresh butter. Stew the herbs over a slow fire, and put the scollops with them, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little pounded spice. When done, drain all the fat; put the scollops into small paper cases fried in butter, and add a liberal amount of herb seasoning. Then strew over them a few crumbs of bread fried in butter. Lay the paper cases for a moment in the oven, and when you are going to serve up, pour into each of them a little thin brown gravy, and squeeze over the juice of a lemon; drain off all the fat. irton 25. Sweetbreads "Dauphin” Fashion. Select good-sized sweetbreads. Pare off the sinews and the fat; throw them into warm water to draw out the blood, and blanch. When thoroughly disgorged, blanch them again a little in boiling water to make them firm, in order 218 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. to lard them with great facility. As soon as they are larded, rub the inside of a stew-pan all over with butter; cover this with thin slices of fat bacon; lay the sweet- breads on the bacon ; sprinkle with salt, and braise them with plenty of red-hot ashes on the top of the pan, and very little fire beneath. When they are of a fine brown, cover them with a round of paper, and lessen the fire on the top. Being large, they will require three-quarters of an hour to do. If they are too much done, they become soft, and are not so palatable. When properly cooked, drain them, and place them in a pan with some glaze, and the bacon beneath. Leave them in the glaze till dinner-time; then drain them afresh, and glaze them of a fine brown. Serve them up with sorrel or endive sauce. drain are not they are the 26. Red Ox Tongue (à l'Ecarlate). Wash the tongue thoroughly, and leave it to soak during two days, after which rub it with saltpetre and a little brown sugar; season it with whole pepper, and add a little cold salted water; leave it to soak in this four days, taking care to turn it every day; then put it on to boil in water, to which you may add a little of the brine, an onion, a carrot, a bay-leaf, and a little parsley. When the tongue is done, skin it, place it in a deep dish, and pour the liquor over it, after passing the latter through the tammy. The tongue is of a better flavour when left to get cold in the gravy. retire 27. Tongues with Stewed Endive. Take sheeps' tongues that have been slightly pickled; boil them till tender, and remove the skin; for the centre of the dish you are to serve them in cut a piece of bread in the form ENTRÉES. 219 of a vase, which is to be fried of a nice colour ; then make it firm on the dish by a little paste of flour and white of egg mixed, of which you put a little between the bread and the dish, and set it over the stove to fix the bread; have ready fried some bread, cut in the shape of cocks’-combs, and secure these also in the same way round the dish, leaving room between each for a tongue, the point of which is to rest upon the bread in the centre of the dish. Glaze the tongues, and serve a purée of endives round them. i intam 28. Minced Beef. Take some cold roasted fillet of beef; cut out all the fat and suet, then chop the meat as fine as possible, and put it into a reduced Spanish sauce (p. 347) made boiling hot; when ready to serve, add a bit of butter. Serve your mince with soft-boiled eggs round it, or with pieces of toasted bread. 29. Minced Beef with Cucumbers. Take a rump steak undressed, and with a sharp knife shred it very fine. Put it into a stew-pan with a little clarified butter and some salt; stir it over a quick fire for some minutes, then add half a pint of beef gravy; let it boil gently till it becomes of a proper thickness. Cut two large cucumbers in slices the thick- ness of a crown piece, and put them into a stew-pan with an onion sliced, some clarified butter, a little vinegar, a lump of sugar, and fry them of a bright brown colour; add some plain sauce ; let simmer gently till sufficiently done; then lay the mince in the dish, and proceed to pour the cucumber over it. You may, if you please, thicken the ENTRÉES. 221 brown in a little butter and flour; put this into the stew- pan with the gravy, stew gently twenty minutes, and strain ; lay the mince in the stew-pan, pour over it the strained gravy; add a dessertspoonful of walnut catsup, or any pre- ferred sauce, with seasoning; simmer until the meat is hot through. Serve with sippets round the dish, and with a poached egg in the centre of the mince, if you like. noir 82. Bacon Fraise. Beat eight eggs into a batter, with a little cream and flour; fry thin slices of bacon, and dip them in it; then lay them in a frying-pan, and pour a little batter over them; when one side is done, turn and pour more butter over them. When both sides are of a good colour, lay them on a dish and serve hot. iron 33. Beans and Bacon. Windsor beans should be served young, and fresh gathered. Boil them in salt and water; when done, drain them, and lay the bacon over the beans without any sauce. The bacon should be fat, and nicely boiled. Send up separately, in a sauce-boat, chopped parsley in melted butter. Beans are likewise an excellent garnish to a ham ; serve them plain around it. Duffin beans are a very good sub- stitute for Windsor, only skin them before boiling. re 34. Peas and Bacon. Cut half a pound of bacon or ham into dice, and parboil them; put some butter into a saucepan, and fry the bacon 222 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. in it to a brown colour. Put a quart of green peas into a deep dish, with a piece of butter the size of a walnut; roll them with the hand, and pour over them some water, in which leave them for twenty minutes, that they may become tender; drain them in a colander, put them into a stew-pan, and gently cook them on the fire. While very green, moisten them with broth gravy, and add the pieces of bacon or ham, a bunch of parsley and chives; let them just boil together, and then finish the cooking over a mild fire; skim off the fat, put in a little sugar if they be too salt, and serve. Or the peas may be dressed much more simply by stewing the bacon in the butter, adding the peas, moistening them with water, and letting them cook with a bunch of herbs and seasoning. intim 35. York Ham with Spinach (Jambon d'Yorck aux Epinards). Scrape and trim the hain, and put it in a large pan or pot with enough cold water to make it swim. Add a .couple of carrots, onions, celery, a dozen cloves, mace, thyme, and bay-leaves, and boil the ham very slowly indeed for about four or five hours, according to size and weight; and when it is done, allow it to become cold in its own liquor. When cold, remove the rind by gently slipping the ends of the fingers of both hands under the skin of the round, thick end of the ham, and by this means detach it gradually without displacing any of the fat. Trim the surface of the fat smoothly with a knife. When wanted hot, place it in a baking-dish covered with a greased paper; add just enough of its own liquor to reach up to the edge of the fat, bake it for about half an hour, glaze, and garnish with spinach. ENTREES. 223 Some cooks are allowed to boil the ham in champagne. This process is to me simply senseless. The alcohol neces- sarily evaporates in the boiling, and the saccharine residuum may be easily (and cheaply) replaced by a little sugar. There is no harm, however, in serving a champagne sauce with the dish. rreon . 36. Veal and Ham Patties Are prepared by chopping small six ounces of lean dressed veal, three of ham ; put this into a stew-pan, with an ounce of butter rolled in flour, half a gill of cream, and the same quantity of veal stock, a little grated nutmeg and lemon-peel, some cayenne pepper and salt, a spoonful of the essence of ham, and lemon-juice. Stir the whole over the fire some time, and then make the patties as before directed (p. 208). The white meat of the breasts of chickens or fowls may be substituted for the veal. irrin 37. Veal and Ham Pie. Take two pounds of veal cutlets, divide them into small pieces, and season with pepper and salt. Then take a pound of raw or dressed ham, cut it into slices. Lay both alternately in the dish, and put some forcemeat or sausage meat over all, with stewed mushrooms, the yolks of three hard eggs, and a glass of water. The best end of a neck of veal cut into chops is the most approved part for a pie. - retain 38. Raised Ham Pie. Lay a small ham to soak four or five hours, then wash and scrape it well; cut off the knuckle, and boil it half an hour. 224 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Take it up and trim it neatly, clear the rind, and put it into a stew-pan with a pint of Marsala or sherry, and a sufficient quantity of veal stock to cover it. Stew for two hours, or until it is three parts done, then take it out and set it to cool. Raise a crust large enough to receive the ham, round which put some forcemeat, and bake it in a slow oven. When done, remove the cover, glaze the top, and pour in a sauce made as follows :—Take the liquor the ham was stewed in, skim it clear, thicken it with flour and butter, add a little browning and some cayenne pepper. intom 39. Hottentot Pie. Bone two calf's feet; boil and chop small some chitter- lings; take two chicken, cut them up as for eating; put all into a stew-pan, with two sweetbreads, a quart of veal gravy, half an ounce of morels, cayenne pepper, and salt; stew over a gentle fire for an hour, then add six or eight forcemeat balls that have been boiled, and the yolks of four hard eggs; lay the whole in a good raised crust, previously baked for the purpose. Strew over the top some green peas or asparagus tops, and send to table without a cover. 40. Lamb and Pork Chops Are both fried in the same manner-either plain, or egged, rolled in bread-crumbs, and, when dished, garnished with slices of lemon or crisped parsley. I have dealt with chops elsewhere (see pp. 300-1), and will only say in this place that, like steaks and cutlets, they should be neatly trimmed when they are not cut into a good shape. non ENTRÉES. 225 41. Veal Cutlets. Veal cutlets should be cut from the neck in the same shape as mutton cutlets—as many cutlets as there are guests, but let them be very small. They must be prettily larded on one side, like a sweetbread; braise them—don't fry them until they have become quite tender; glaze lightly, and salamander to the colour of old gold. Have ready boiled a pint of green peas (fresh ones, if you can afford them ; but peas are capitally preserved nowadays); put them in a stew. pan with two pats of butter, a little salt, and, if your guests are accustomed to Continental cookery, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar. When boiled, finish with an“ alliance” of one yolk of egg mixed with a tablespoonful of cream ; pour into the dish, and dress the cutlets neatly in an oval ring. You may have a little mould of mashed potatoes, if you like, in the middle. These tasty cutlets, braised and larded, may be served quite as advantageously with “sauce à la jardinière," with turnips browned, with asparagus tips, with cucumbers, or with tomatoes. The plain English way is to fry them in egg and bread-crumbs, with a slice of bacon to each in little rolls, and the dish is served with brown sauce. 42. Pork Cutlets and Tomato Sauce. Take a neck of pork—it should be young meat, with small bones—flatten the cutlets, and trim them, lay them on the table, and season them on both sides with pepper and salt. Clarify some fresh butter, and mix a little of it with two yolks of eggs; dip the cutlets in, one at a time, and then into bread-crumbs, until they are all done; pour the remainder of the clarified butter into a cutlet-pan, and shape the cutlets with a knife; wipe the bone free from 226 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. crumbs, and lay them on the sauté-pan, the curve of each bone the same way. At dinner-time fry them over a brisk fire, and serve with tomato sauce. 43. Catlets in Aspic. Braise the neck of nutton or lamb whole, then set it aside to cool. When quite cold cut off the cutlets, trim neatly, and glaze. Have ready some nicely-made aspic, set them in it in a sauté-pan, shape them with a cutter, and when set, dish with a Macédoine of vegetables, -noir 44. Queen Blanche Stew. Cut as much as is wanted of mutton in pieces the size of walnuts, wash and place them in a stew-pan with a little salt and pepper; cover them with water, put on a slow fire, and let boil for about twenty minutes; skim well ; add half a pint of chick-peas, previously scalded in water, two or three onions sliced, and a pint of milk or cream, and let it simmer until it forms a nice thick gravy at the bottom of the pan, and the meat and peas are tender; then dish it up with two or three slices of toasted bread on the bottom of the dish, and serve whilst hot. This is really a fricassée, and the recipe is applicable to veal, rabbit, and poultry. 45. Kidneys Stewed. Cut a fresh ox kidney into slices the eighth of an inch in thickness; soak them for a few minutes in lukewarm water, drain and dry them thoroughly in a cloth. Season ENTRÉES. 227 them with a little pepper, dredge flour thickly over them, and fry them in three ounces of hot butter, until they are brightly browned. Pour the third of a pint of boiling water or stock over them, and add a dessertspoonful of vinegar in which onions have been pickled, or, if this is not at hand, plain vinegar or lemon-juice; a finely minced shallot, a table- spoonful of chopped parsley, and a little salt and cayenne. Thicken the gravy before serving, and garnish with fried parsley. Half a teaspoonful of mixed mustard may be stirred into the sauce before it is taken from the fire, if this is liked. The stewing will take about two hours. Sheep's kidneys can be cooked in the same manner. rolna 46. Rissoles. Take half a pound of puff paste, give it three turns or folds, roll it out to the thickness of a penny piece. Place small balls of forcemeat at distances of about two inches from each other; moisten the paste round these with a brush dipped in water; fold the flap of the front part of the paste over the balls; press all round them with the edge of the thumb, or dot them with the blunt end of a thin pencil; cut them out with a fluted round tin cutter, and, as you do so, place them upon a toured dish. Having thus cut out a sufficient number for your purpose, fry them in hot fat, dish them up with crisp fried parsley, on a napkin, and serve hot. Another Way. Pick from the bones the flesh of any kind of cold poultry, and skin it; weigh it, and add one-third of grated bread- crumbs, a little cold melted butter, a small onion (previously boiled and finely minced), pepper, salt, and the yolks of two eggs, to bind it together. Roll out thin some trimmings of P 2 ENTRÉES. 229 49. Vol-au-Vent of Lambs' Tails. Cut out of puff-paste a “vol-au-vent” to correspond with the chartreuse, bake it of a nice colour, and take out the inside (the soft part). Have scalded half a dozen lambs' tails, cut them about an inch in length, put them into a stew-pan, with a bunch of green onions, parsley, a blade of mace, and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or white fat of veal; cover them with boiling water, and let them stew till quite tender; then take them upon a napkin, wipe all the grease from them, and put them into a little clear Béchamel (p. 327); give them a boil up, and just before serving them put into the sauce two yolks of eggs, and beat up with a spoonful of cream. Put the “vol-au-vent” on the dish, lay the tails in, and pour the sauce over them. Have some sprigs of parsley boiled particularly green, and put into the sauce the last moment before serving. rin 50. Wild Boar's Head. If you are out of wild boars, tame pig's-head will do quite as well. Cut the head, with the neck, as long as possible; when it is clean, bone it and split it underneath ; leave it in salt for four days; after which drain it, steep it in cold water, and put it into a marinade or mild pickle of vegetables, spices, and any cheap red wine, for three days longer. Then drain the head, which stuff with a forcemeat of fat bacon, sausage-meat, pounded spices, and cooked fine herbs; when this is done, sew it up; close the opening of the neck with a large piece of fresh pork rind; tie the head with string to give it the right form ; wrap it up tightly in a cloth, keeping the ears upright; wall it up with three thin pieces of wood, one underneath and two on the sides, so as to keep it straight; then place it in a braising-pan; moisten liberally with vinegar and water ; let it boil five hours; drain it on a dish ; take it out of the cloth, in which 230 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. wrap it again to cool; when cool, unpack it, pare, glaze, and dish it up; set round with aspic jelly. This is a famous dish for luncheons and suppers. The only forms in which we dress pig's-head are as “ brawn,” as “ Bath-chap,” and as “collared.” Try this Russian recipe. 51. Braised Beef, Parsley Sauce. Take a piece of thin flank weighing about eight pounds- it should be cut as nearly square as possible-lay it out flat, and strike it all over with a cutlet bat. Next roll it up tightly and tie; place the roll in a braising-pan, with carrots, onions, celery; a bunch made with parsley, thyme, and bay-leaf; six cloves, a bit of mace, and stock or water sufficient to cover the meat; simmer gently over a slow fire for about four hours; and when done tender, take it up, without undoing the string, and put the roll of beef in press between two dishes, with a fourteen-pound weight on the top. When the beef is nearly cold, remove the string, trim it free from any rough or discoloured parts, and set it to warm in a baking-pan with a little of its own stock. When ready to serve, pour over it parsley sauce, and garnish round the base with glazed carrots and onions. 52. Kromeskies à la Monglas. Chop neatly any kind of meat, tongue, ham; mushrooms or truffles may be added; put this into a sauté-pan with a small portion of white sauce, three yolks of eggs, nutmeg, pepper and salt, and a pinch of chopped chives or shallot; stir over the fire for a few minutes so as to set the eggs in the croquet meat; and then spread it out an inch thick upon ENTRÉES. 231 a plate, and set it in a cool place to get cold and firm. It must next be divided into parts resembling large walnuts, rolled in bread-crumbs to enable you to shape them into the form of corks or balls ; again dipped in bread-crumbs, placed in a wire frying-basket, fried in hot frying fat of a light colour, and served with Monglas sauce (p. 339). 53. Shoulder of Veal à la Bourgeoise. Bone the veal, and season it with salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg; roll and shape it into an oblong form, then tie it up; put it into an oval braising-pan, with a piece of butter, and stew it over a slow fire; let it take a fine light colour, then add a glass of water, sprinkle it with a little salt, and add a bay-leaf; place fire above and below till a glaze is formed. Dress the shoulder on the dish, and drain the butter which is in the stew- pan; detach what remains with a spoonful of broth, and pour this gravy over the veal. Take off the string before serving noun 54. Sheep's Trotters, with Cheese. Bone some boiled sheep's trotters, cut them in two, and put them into a stew-pan; mix in some butter, mushrooms, parsley, chives, and a clove ; pour over them some broth, and add pepper and salt; let the whole simmer till the sauce is much reduced ; add a dash of vinegar, and dress your trotters on the dish ; cover them with a forcemeat of the thickness of a crown-piece; spread them half with bread-crumbs and half with grated Gruyère cheese ; let them brown in a Dutch oven, and serve. Pigs' feet may be served in the same way. 232 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 55. A Neat's-Foot Pudding. Take a pound of neat's-foot finely shredded, three-quarters of a pound of suet shredded as small, a whole nutmeg grated, candied orange minced, some salt, and some currants, a little grated bread, and seven eggs (leave out half the whites); flour the bag, and boil two hours and a half at least. The sauce is sherry, sugar, and melted butter. irtan 56. Aspic, or Savoury Jelly. This is a most important item in the dressing of cold entrées. Boil a handful of burnet, chervil, and tarragon in white vinegar till this is well impregnated with the aroma of the herbs; then pour into the stew-pan some chicken- stock reduced. When your jelly is well seasoned, beat the whites of four eggs with a whisk in an earthen pan, into which throw the aspic; put the whole in a stew-pan, and place it on the fire ; continually beat and stir the jelly till it becomes white; it then nearly boils. Now draw it to the corner of the stove, and on the stew-pan put a cover, with some red embers upon it; when perfectly transparent, strain it through a napkin or jelly-bag, a sieve being too coarse. When to be used for decorations, such as borders, etc., the aspic must be sufficiently stiff. For this purpose take two or more ladlefuls of strong brown stock, well seasoned with roots and aromatic herbs. Put this in a stew-pan, with two spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar, a little isinglass, and four whites of eggs, some salt and pepper; whisk the whole on the fire till it nearly curdles, then draw it to the corner of the stove, covered with a few red embers on the top. When perfectly clear, strain it for use as an aspic; otherwise omit the vinegar, as jelly for a pie or galantine requires no acid. ENTRÉES. 233 57. Another Aspic. Take a knuckle of veal, a knuckle of ham, a thick slice of beef, and if these will not make your jelly stiff enough, add two calf's feet; put them into a saucepan with a pint of rich stock, and sweat over a stove till reduced to a glaze, then moisten with stock, boil, and skim well. Add two onions, two carrots, salt, parsley, four cloves, two bay-leaves, and a clove of garlic; let the whole stew for seven hours, then strain off the liquor. Break four eggs into a stew-pan, and put to them the broth when cold, the juice of two lemons, and two spoonfuls of tarragon, and beat the whole with a whisk over the fire till near boiling, then remove your stew-pan to a smaller fire, and place fire on the lid for half an hour; now pass it through a jelly-bag, or wet napkin doubled, taking care to return back to the bag the jelly that first runs out. If the jelly is not sufficiently clear, clarify it a second time. Put a layer of this jelly, about half an inch thick, at the bottom of an aspic mould, garnish it with truffles, whites of eggs, sprigs of parsley, etc., according to your taste, pour in another half-inch of the jelly, while liquid, with great care, so as not to discompose your garnish, then put either calf's brains, breasts of fowls, veal sweetbreads, cocks'-combs, kidneys, fat livers, or game. Be sure, whatever you may use, to lay it as equally and smoothly as possible. Then fill up your mould with jelly, and let it stand till set. When wanted, dip the mould in hot water an instant; place your dish on the top, and turn over.—A splendid lunch and supper dish. intiin 58. Aspic (Clear). Put a little mirepoix, a glass of vinegar, a little whole pepper, and a handful of tarragon into a saucepan ; boil 234 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. them to a jelly, and then dilute it with two ladlefuls of fowl broth ; set it by the side of the stove, taking off the fat; clarify it with an egg and a little cold water, and pass it through a double napkin. Put the aspic in a bain-marie. Serve it with blanched tarragon leaves cut in lozenges. It is used as a sauce for fowls, fried fish, etc. Iran 59. Scotch Beef Collops with Onions. Cut the meat rather thinner than for broiling; make the butter hot, and place the collops in the pan, with sliced onions—two middle-sized ones for each half-pound. If the butter be salt, pepper alone is used, without any additional salt. Cover the pan with a close lid, or plate reversed. When done, the collops may be drawn aside, and a little oyster pickle or walnut catsup and boiling water added to the onion-gravy sauce in the pan. Dish, and serve hot. Ten minutes will be long enough to dress them. This is too heavy for luncheon, but forms a first-rate supper dish, in winter. ran 60. Scotch Minced Collops. Put two ounces of fresh butter into a stew-pan, and inix a tablespoonful of flour smoothly with it; keep stirring the paste till it is lightly browned, then add a little pepper and salt. When nicely browned, put with it a pound and a half of steak finely minced. Move it about with a fork to prevent its getting lumpy, and when it is quite hot, pour into it a breakfast-cupful of boiling water. Simmer very gently for ten minutes. Before serving, add a tablespoonful of mush- room catsup ENTRÉES. 235 61. Brewis. Cut some bread in thin slices (toasted, if preferred) into a basin; pour boiling water upon it, and cover it with a plate; let it remain a few minutes, and then stir in a piece of butter and a little salt. Oat-cake toasted and cut in pieces is frequently used. 62. Scots Kail Is chiefly made of inutton, either fresh or salted; beef is only used when mutton cannot conveniently be had. Three or four pounds of meat should be put to a gallon of cold water, along with two ounces of pearl barley, with leeks or onions, and allowed to stew until tender (if salted, put the meat into water overnight, changing it once before boiling). Then have ready the hearts of two cabbages cut small, or greens if cabbages are not in season; put these into the broth, which must be allowed to boil up uncovered until reduced to two quarts. It should only be seasoned with pepper and salt, but will be much improved by the addition of a couple of onions fried in butter; indeed, both carrots and turnips are also sometimes used, but their addition deprives the soup of the title of “kail,” which is derived from the greens usually employed. The meat is served with the soup, and, like the “olla” of the Spaniards, or the “pot-au-feu” of the French, is the standing household dish among the middle-classes in Scotland. Gintar 63. A Scotch Haggis. Take the stomach of a sheep; wash it with cold water until perfectly clean ; turn it inside out, scald it; scrape it with a knife quickly, and then put it into cold salt and water 236 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. till wanted. Take the liver, lights, and heart, and parboil them ; grate the liver, and mince the other parts quite fine ; mince also half a pound of suet and three or four onions; toast half a pound of oatmeal cakes before the fire, and pound them into powder, which is to be thickly sprinkled over the mince ; mix all well together ; season with pepper and salt ; then fill the bag, and before sewing, it up, introduce a large tea- cupful of any kind of broth or gravy. Put the bay into a pan with enough of boiling water to cover it, and a small plate under it; prick it over with a needle to prevent its bursting, and let it boil four or five hours, keeping it con- stantly covered with boiling water. A haggis should be sent to table as hot as possible, and neither sauce nor gravy should be served with it. Some Scottish epicures use wheaten biscuit-powder instead of pulverised oat-cake. name 64, Punshki. I give this dish its Russian name because I cannot invent another designation for it. Chop and fry one onion ; add to it the meat of sliced fillet of veal; fry, season, take it off the fire to cool; then chop it fine, and add two or three chopped hard-boiled eggs and a pinch of parsley. Thicken the preparation with a little reduced sauce, portable soup, or glaze. Roll out a pound and a quarter of light pie-paste; cut out of the flat, with a cutter an inch and a half in diameter, as many rounds as you want. Make your patties, press them all round, and place them on a floured napkin to let the paste rise to the temperature of the kitchen. A few minutes before serving, plunge them in hot lard, and fry a nice brown. Dish on a folded napkin. ENTRÉES. 237 65. Omelette, Plain. Break six eggs into a bowl, season them with pepper and salt, and beat them with a fork. Put two ounces of butter into an omelette-pan, and as soon as it melts, pour in the eggs. When half set, toss the omelette, and keep stirring it till it is all set. The finishing operation is performed in one of two ways. Practised hands slant the pan downwards from the handle, taking care, however, that the best of the fire is beneath the upper or handle hand; they then roll the omelette downwards till it takes the form of an elongated oval. A more simple plan is to fold over the omelette on both sides to the proper shape. In either case the operation must be performed rapidly. Gintain 66. Omelette with Bacon. Cut into dice some streaky bacon which has been boiled for half an hour, and fry with a bit of butter. When it begins to get crisp, pour into the frying-pan a dozen eggs (previously beaten), stir them well with the bacon, gather up the edges of the omelette, to keep it of a proper thickness, and season with pepper. Linares 67. Omelette with Kidneys. Cut up a couple of kidneys into dice, or into thin slices. Put them into the omelette-pan with butter and some of the kidney fat. When the butter and the fat are melted, and the pieces of kidney are quite hot, pour in the beaten eggs (No. 65) and proceed as in No. 66. finns 68. Omelette with Fine Herbs. Beat the eggs (see No. 65) with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and, if the flavour is admired, with a chopped shallot 238 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. A little gravy added to this which has been blanched. makes a pleasant change. 69. White Padding in Skins. After washing half a pound of rice in warm water, boil it in milk till tender; then put it into a sieve to drain. In the meantime beat up half a pound of sweet almonds very fine, with rosewater, wash and dry a pound of currants, cut a pound of hog's lard small, beat up six eggs, half a pound of sugar, a nutmeg grated, a stick of cinnamon, some mace, and salt. Mix this with the rice, put it into the skins, and boil them. Another Way. Take four pounds of beef suet shredded fine, three pounds of grated bread, and two pounds of currants picked and washed ; a quarter of an ounce each of cloves, mace, and cinnamon finely beaten; salt, a pound and a half of sugar, a pint of wine, a quart of cream, some rosewater, and twenty eggs well beaten with half the whites. Mix these well, half fill the skins, boil them a little and prick them, take them up when done, and lay them to dry. on 70. Casserole of Rice. Boil one pound of rice tender, with one quart of milk and a quarter of a pound of butter; let it come to a stiff paste, stirring it frequently over a slow fire; form this paste in a mould, or on a dish, leaving a hole in the middle for a ragoût of any sort. If wanted brown, bake it in a mould. When done, take out enough of the inside to admit the ragoût. ENTRÉES. 239 (the Team one middline.co (Neapolitan 71. Risotto (Neapolitan way). Chop one middling-sized onion, which fry in dripping (the Italians use oil) in a stew-pan. When it gets slightly coloured, add a pound of rice, which must be moistened to three times its height with veal stock; add a chopped tomato, pepper and salt, and boil for twenty ininutes ; then take it off the fire, add butter and grated cheese, just as you would for macaroni. It should be a light grey in colour; and, if you choose, you may put it in a mould and serve it in a handsome shape. non 72, Meagre Risotto. This excellent dish is for fast days; and, take my word for it, whichever day of the week you elect to abstain from animal food, you will be all the better for it. For Meagre Risotto, proceed as in the last recipe; but use water-zootje -a fish broth—instead of meat stock. When you have added your grated cheese, pour over a nice sauce made of crayfish tails, oysters, and mushrooms, all of which have been cut into dice and carefully stewed; or instead of the somewhat costly crayfish, oysters, and mushrooms, make your sauce of shrimps and little pieces of dried haddock. 73. Timbale of Macaroni. Boil one pound of macaroni tender in two quarts of milk and water, and a quarter of a pound of butter; when tender, dry it with a cloth ; line a mould with slices of fat bacon, mix a couple of eggs (well beaten up) with the macaroni, and some pepper and salt; put some in the mould, and a ragoût of sweetbreads in the middle; fill up with macaroni and bake or boil the timbale for an hour. Serve it with white or brown sauce, and take the bacon off. 240 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 74. Leghorn Macaroni. Put a pound of macaroni into two quarts of boiling water with a little salt; drain when sufficiently soft. The cook must use her own judgment as to the exact time re- quired for boiling; twenty minutes, under ordinary circum- stances, should be enough; but beware of letting your macaroni get too “pappy," and don't break it into short pieces, as it would then be likely to stick together. Now place your macaroni in a stew-pan, and moisten with a few tablespoonfuls of Béchamel (p. 327); season with white pepper and a point of nutmeg; take the stew-pan off the fire, and add to it three ounces of fresh butter, in little bits, and four ounces of grated Parmesan cheese. A smaller quantity of Parmesan will do if eked out by Cheddar. When well thickened and creamy, arrange your macaroni in layers in a deep dish ; cover each layer with a purée of tomatoes, which purée is simply tomatoes stewed in beef or veal stock; but you may save yourself the trouble of additional cooking by heating some “made” tomato sauce. rar 75. Italian Macaroni. This is the simplest form of dressing macaroni, and is common all over the Peninsula. Simply boil your macaroni in very long pieces, as directed in the foregoing recipe. Then put in your butter in little bits; season with a little salt and pepper, and mix in your grated cheese; carefully and tenderly lifting the mass upwards and from side to side with a wooden fork and spoon, as though you were dressing a salad. Every stick of the macaroni should be well indued with butter and cheese. This dish may be rendered much more appetising, if you want a change, by serving it au gratin–that is to say, browned in the oven or with a salamander. ENTRÉES. 241 76. Vegetable Hash. Chop, not very fine, the boiled vegetables left from dinner, and season them with salt and pepper. To each quart of the chopped vegetables, add half a cupful of stock and one tablespoonful of butter. Heat slowly in the frying- pan. Turn into a hot dish when done, and serve imme- diately. If vinegar is liked, two or more tablespoonfuls of it can be stirred into the hash while it is heating. - retom 77. German Toast. Take the remainder of any fricassée or ragoût-any quantity will do; chop it fine, add a little chopped parsley, and a little bit of shallot or chive, mix it up with one or two eggs beaten, according to the quantity. Put the whole with its gravy into a stew-pan, and let it reduce and thicken on the fire. Remove it, and when it is cold, cut pieces of bread, toast them, and lay the mixture thickly upon them. Boil an egg hard, cut it into small pieces, and stick them on the top; brush the whole with an egg beaten up, sift bread-crumbs over, and bake in the oven; squeeze a little lemon-juice on the top. 78. French Panada. Cut a stale penny roll in pieces; put it in a saucepan with just sufficient water to cover the bread; stir it well over the fire, allowing it to boil five minutes; then add half a teaspoonful of salt and one ounce of fresh butter; mix, and take it from the fire ; beat the yolk of an egg with two tablespoonfuls of milk or water, and pour it into the panada, stirring very quickly half a minute. Any 242. THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. other nice light bread would answer the purpose. Panada should be rather thicker than gruel, and may be made of milk, but water is on the whole preferable, being lighter and more digestible. I have already had something to say of this economical dish in my chat on “ What shall we do with the Scraps ?” but I return to it here in order to give a more formal recipe. ro 79. Pudding Français. To make this pudding it is necessary to have a dome- shaped mould, four inches deep and six in diameter, and a cover to fit the top, completely lined with a thin layer of paste, which must turn over its edges. Take two pounds of very round truffles, and cut them into circular pieces a quarter of an inch thick ; fry these lightly in a quarter of a pound of warm butter, with a large spoonful of fowl glaze, half a glass of Madeira, a pinch of fine herbs, a little grated nutmeg, and a proper quantity of salt. Then arrange the truffles in your lined mould, pour in all the ingredients, turn the edges of the paste over them, and cover it besides with a layer of paste; put on the lid of the mould, tie it in a cloth, and boil it for an hour and a half. The saucepan should be quite full of boiling water. Serve the pudding as quickly as possible after it is taken up. [For other ENTRÉES, see Index to RECIPES.) 243 SECTION IV.-ROASTS, ETC. 1. Roast Sucking Pig. Fill the paunch of the sucking pig with stuffing prepared as follows, viz. :-Chop fine four onions and a dozen sage leaves; fry these with two ounces of butter over a slow fire for a few minutes, then add half a pound of bread- crumbs, two yolks of eggs, pepper, and salt. The pig thus being stuffed, and the paunch sewn up securely roast it before a brisk fire for about two hours, basting it frequently by means of a paste-brush dipped in salad oil. When it is done, and before removing it from the spit, cut off the head, and divide the pig into halves by sawing it straight down the spine. Dish up the pig with brown gravy; to some of the stuffing add the brains, and a few spoonfuls of melted butter, and serve this sauce separately. Or the pig may be served whole. Some people, however, prefer to cut it up before bringing to table, as they declare the expression on poor little piggy's face is too harrowing to their feelings, since he invariably appears with two big, fat tears, partially congealed, rolling down his visage. nan of melted buttifting add the the pig with 2. Leg of Mutton : Polish Way. Choose a good leg, hung till tender, pare the thin-end bone, and lay it in an earthen pan, just deep and large enough to hold it. Mince two or three onions, the same of carrots and celery roots; fry with clarified fat, moisten with three glassfuls of vinegar, and the same of water; let Q2 244 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. the liquid boil, add to it some sprigs of aromatics, thyme, bay-leaf, basil, two cloves of garlic, parsley, cloves, and peppercorns; continue boiling for twenty minutes. Then take the stew-pan off the fire, let the marinade stock become nearly cool, pour it over the leg of mutton, which macerate therein for twenty-four hours, turning several times. Drain the leg, wipe it on a cloth, put into a roasting-pan with a good piece of butter, and place in an oven not too hot ; half an hour afterwards baste with two gills of the marin- ade stock and a pint of sour cream ; finish cooking the leg, basting frequently; then place it on a dish, strain the cooking stock, reduce it at the fire until nearly thick- ened, then pour it over the leg, and put a little ruffle to the bone. sinin 3. Loin of Matton, Rolled and Stuffed. Remove any superfluous fat from the joint, and take out the bones ; lay it on the table, and beat it out; season inside with black pepper, salt, some herbs, and a finely-chopped onion, with a little chopped lean ham or raw bacon. Place a layer of herbs on the seasoning, and roll up the meat, fasten- ing it securely with a string; then put it in the oven, with greased paper, in a baking tin with a little fat, for about half an hour; take up, and remove the paper ; brush over with a whole egg beaten up, and roll it in browned bread-crumbs ; put it into the oven again for about three-quarters of an hour, keeping it carefully basted. When cooked, draw out the string, place the meat on a dish, and serve with brown caper sauce. -nin 4. Roast Neck of Venison. Saw off the spine bone, and remove the small flat bones which cover the fillet part of the neck; shorten the ROASTS, ETC. 245 ribs by sawing them across without cutting through the fat, which, after the upper bones are removed, must be rolled over the ribs; wrap your neck, thus trimmed, in greased paper, and then cover it with a crust of paste of flour and water; finally, envelop it in greased paper securely tied on with a string, and roast it in a cradle-spit before a moderate fire for about an hour and three-quarters. When you take it up from the fire, carefully remove the paste and the paper. Sprinkle salt over it, dredge it with dissolved butter, and froth it by means of a red-hot sala- mander or the kitchen shovel. Dish up with a rich brown gravy, and serve currant jelly in a sauce-boat. French beans are the only vegetables that should be eaten with venison. Giron ander or the currant jelly should be eat 5. Fillet of Beef, Roasted and Larded. Trim your fillet; lard it fine, and let it soak for twelve hours in a marinade made of good oil, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sweet herbs, a bay-leaf, and an onion cut in slices. After it has soaked, take it out, and put it on the spit before a quick fire. It must not be too much done, but should be taken off the spit with the gravy in it. Serve it with a sauce made of its own gravy, a little vinegar, shallots, salt, and pepper, put into a sauce-boat. ran 6. Roast Ham. After partially boiling a good ham, strain it and let it get cold; put a skewer right through it and wrap it in an oiled sheet of paper. Then place on it a layer of cut-up carrots and onions, a few cloves and a bay-leaf, and roll the whole into a second paper; tie up firmly with string, roast, and serve with any sauce you like. 246 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 7. Roast Tripe. Cut the tripe into two oblong pieces; make a forcemeat of bread-crumbs and chopped parsley, seasoned with pepper and salt; bind this with the yolks of two eggs, and spread it upon the fat side of the tripe; then roll very tightly, and tie up with packthread. Roast, and baste it with butter; it will take an hour or an hour and a half to do. Serve it with melted butter, into which put a table- spoonful of catsup and one of lemon pickle. [For ROAST POULTRY, GAME, etc., see Index.) 247 SECTION V.-POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 1. Pigeons à la Crapaudine. Pick the pigeons, cut off the claws, truss them with the legs inwards, and then with your left hand press on the breast, and scollop one half of the flesh of the breast; turn this down on the table, flatten it with your knife, dust it over with salt and pepper; break the yolks of two eggs into a plate, brush the pigeons all over with them, then dip them into crumbs of bread, next into melted butter, then into crumbs of bread again, which you level as smooth as possible. Now broil the pigeons on a slow fire, that they may get thoroughly done without being burnt. Ascertain when they are done enough by thrusting the point of your knife into the fleshy part of the leg. If no blood issues, then they are done. Serve under them an Italian (p. 336), or some rich gravy. Your sauce may be prepared in the following way:- Chop a dozen of shallots, and put them into a stew-pan with two spoonfuls of vinegar; boil them till there is no vinegar left; then put in a little broth or gravy of roast meat, with raspings of bread, salt, pepper, etc. Let this boil for a short time, pour it over the pigeons, and send up hot. If you put to it a small bit of glaze or portable soup, it will improve the flavour. 248 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 2. To Roast Pigeons. Let them be cropped and drawn as soon as killed, and wiped inside as well as possible. They will be ready for the spit in from twelve to forty-eight hours, according to the weather; and are in full season from June to November. If kept too long, they lose their flavour. When they are to be dressed, they must be well washed in several waters. Then stuff with parsley parboiled and chopped, and butter about the size of a nutmeg for each bird, a few bread- cruinbs, and the liver chopped if it is liked. Season rather highly with pepper and salt. Twenty to twenty-five minutes will roast them. Dust with flour, and froth with fresh butter. Parsley and butter, or plain melted butter, is served in the dish, and is more suitable for mild-flavoured birds of all kinds than meat gravy, which has so strong a predominat- ing flavour of its own. Garnish with fried bread-crumbs, or slices of bitter orange. Bread-sauce, orange gravy sauce, or rice sauce. Serve with dressed French beans, or asparagus, or cucumber. 3. Pigeons on the Skewer. Take as many pigeons as you require to be cooked, and after properly cleaning them, being careful to remove the entrails, salt and pepper them inside ; then encase them in slices of fat bacon; roll round them sage leaves; tie each pigeon up tightly with string; put them on the skewer and roast them.' par 4. Pigeon Pie. Put a few thin slices of beef into a dish, and the pigeons over them, well seasoned with salt, pepper, and spices, the POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 249 yolks of a few eggs within the intervals, and a spoonful of broth; cover the whole with plain paste, or with puff paste, etc. 5. Pigeon Pudding. Line a basin with rich paste half an inch thick; put in three pigeons, with about half a pound of beef-steak from well-hung meat, the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, salt, pepper, and spices; and pour in gravy from the bones or trimmings, with brown stock as a foundation, to half the depth ; cover with paste, and tie in a cloth. The pudding will require about three hours' boiling. 6. Cutlets of Fillets of Fowl, with Crumbs of Bread à la Maréchale. Take four small fowls ; cut off the fillets without injuring the small fillets; cut the merry-thoughts in two. Take off the small fillets; pare them into the shape of hearts; stick the merry-thought bones into the point of the hearts, to give them the appearance of chops; and do the same with the other fillets. Season them with pepper and salt; then brush them over with yolks of eggs, and dip them into crumbs of bread; next dip them into clarified butter, and then into crumbs again. Use your knife to level the bread, and broil the fillets over a brisk fire. The fillets, being very thin, require only to be lightly browned. Serve under them some thin Spanish sauce, well seasoned. . I must here observe to young or inexperienced cooks that when they have something thin to broil, the fire must be very sharp; and when something thick, the fire must be moderate, as the flesh takes more time to be done through. 250 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 7. Scollops of Pat Pullets à la Conti, with Truffles. Prepare the scollops in the ordinary way, but at the moment when you throw the scollops into the butter, the truffles must be ready, peeled and cut of the same round form and dimensions as the scollops. Season with a little salt; “ toss” the truffles and scollops a few moments before dinner- time; put them into a smooth sauce (p. 347), to which you have added a little reduction of truffles, made as follows :- The trimmings of truffles are to be reduced in a little broth; introduce some of this glaze into the scollops, and as it is always brown, add three or four spoonfuls of thick cream to the sauté to make the sauce white; season it according to your palate. Do not forget to put the sauce through a tammy, to have it very bright. rain 8. Fowl à la Cardinal. Take a nice white fowl, singe it, and cut out the bones without destroying the skin. Next have a farce into which you have introduced a little lobster spawn, well pounded, to make it very red. This farce, being made rather liquid, is to be injected, first between the skin and the flesh of the fowl, and then inside the body. Now mould the fowl into an agreeable shape ; put it into an oval stew-pan well trimmed with slices of bacon, and pour some poêle (see No. 10) over it; leave it on the fire for an hour and a half. As it has no bones left, it requires more time before it is done. Serve it up with a German sauce (p. 333), to which you add some of the lobster spawn, or a little tomato sauce. num POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 251 9. Hachis, or Minced Fowl à la Polonaise. If you have any remnants of fowl, mince them, and put the mince into a good Béchamel (p. 327), without suffer- ing it to boil. Sometimes you may put the whole into a vol-au-vent, at another time into patties; or you may sur- round it with a bordering of paste, with poached eggs over the minced meat. By these means you obtain a variety of dishes. You may likewise send it up in croustades, but these croustades bear the appearance of a dish of the second course. 10. Fowl à la Villeroi. Take a fine fowl, which may be known to connois- seurs by a skin of bluish hue marbled with grey. Having been emptied and singed, let it be trussed, the legs turned down outwards; inside the body introduce a small quantity of butter kneaded with salt and lemon-juice. Put the fowl into an oval stew-pan, with a layer of fat bacon ; next pour some poêle over it. Things which are poêlé, requiring to preserve their whiteness, are not to be kept on the fire so long as others. It requires only three-quarters of an hour for a fowl to be done in this style. A capon, however, would require fully an hour. Observation, to be particularly attended to by the cook. As a poêle has no translation, I retain the name. It is indispensable in fine cookery, and is made as follows :- Take one pound of beef suet, one pound of quite fresh butter, and one pound of very fat bacon; cut the suet and the bacon into very large dice; put them into a stew- pan with two pounds of veal cut in the same manner; fry till the veal becomes very white, and then moisten with about three pints of boiling water, a handful of salt, one bay-leaf, a few sprigs of thyme, one onion stuck 252 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. with three cloves, and a great bunch of parsley and green onions ; let the whole boil gently till the onion is done, then drain it through a hair sieve, and use for anything that may want poêle. The use of poêle is to make every- thing boiled in it very white and tasty. In the winter it keeps for a week, and is very useful in the larder. Obs.—This is almost the same operation as braising ; the only difference is that what is poêle must be underdone, and a braise must be done through. -star 11. Fowl à la Tartare. Take a fine fowl, turn in the legs as usual, then cut it in two ; take the bones off from the back, cut off the breast- bones, break those of the legs, flatten the fowl with the back of your knife, and season it with salt and pepper; then dip it into clarified butter, and next into crumbs of bread, equally on all sides. Now broil it up to a fine colour, on a slow fire, that it may be done thoroughly. Thrust your knife into it to ascertain if it is well done; it requires an hour, or at least three-quarters, to be done properly. . 12. Fowl à la Dubaril. This must be a fowl of desserte, but yet very white. Begin by taking off the breast. Then take the fleshy part of a second nice white roast fowl, which you cut into small square pieces of an equal size; you also cut some tongue the same; put these slices of fowl and tongue into a pretty thick Béchamel. Keep your fowl very hot. The moment you are going to serve it, pour the mince inside the body of the fowl. Thin slices of tongue, cut, of the shape of POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 253 cocks’-combs, should be put round the mince on the top of the fowl; serve under it a ragoût à l'Allemande, and poached eggs on the top of the mince. 13. Fowl à la Turque. Empty a fine fowl, and be particular in washing the inside of it with very hot water; if you leave any blood in it, the rice will be full of scum. Your rice having boiled a sufficient time in rich broth, season it with salt, and introduce some into the body of the fowl, which you next roast, well wrapped up in layers of bacon and in paper; it requires an hour to be sufficiently done. Send it up with rice round the fowl, like that you have used to put inside, only add to it two spoonfuls of very good Béchamel, well seasoned-do not let it be too thin, and pour a little smooth sauce over the bird. Take particular care to keep the fowl white. inom 14. Fowl à la Monglas. This is another cold fowl of desserte. Take off the breast, as in No. 12. You must have ready either a mince or a salpicon pretty thick, which is to be introduced, cold, into the body of the fowl. Beat the yolks of two eggs with a little fresh melted butter; then cover the breast of the fowl only with crumbs of bread, basted with clarified butter; next give it a colour with the salamander, but you must be careful to see that it does not get brown too soon ; now baste it with a little butter again; take the red-hot shovel to give the fowl a good brown colour on all sides; serve a brown sauce under it if you have applied a salpicon, 254 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and a smooth sauce if you have used a mince. It may also be called a “poularde en surprise.” The mince or the salpicon may be made with the same sauce. Salpicon is a composition of different ingredients, and mince (émincé) is all of one sort. Salpicon.-Cut into small dice some mushrooms, tongue, truffles, and fillets of fowl; the truffles and mushrooms inust be ready done, as well as the tongue and fowl; put all this into a very reduced Béchamel, and when cold use as directed. Emincé is only the fleshy part of either fowl or game minced and put into some well-seasoned Béchamel. When you have a short allowance of meat you are obliged to mince, as this requires no shape. Salpicon is in general brown; minced fowl always white. nov 15. Fowl with Olives. Singe and prepare a fine fowl; then take some olives, which are to be blanched till they are no longer briny. Next boil them in a thin Spanish sauce. Skim the sauce, add a little lemon-juice, and pour it under the fowl. Serve up with some stuffed olives, which you have turned with your knife, so as to take out the stones and leave the olives whole. now 16. Fowl with Tarragon. Chop finely some tarragon, and roll it in butter; place this in the carcase of a fowl, sew it up and truss it, put it into a saucepan half filled with water, with salt, carrots, two large onions, bacon, a clove, a very little thyme, a very small sprig of tarragon without leaves, as long as a finger ; POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 255 let the whole stew till the fowl be very white. Then take some of the liquor, and reduce it to a glaze, to make a brown sauce; add a little water to the rest of the liquor; thicken it with a little flour; put in some leaves of tarragon cut into quarters, and boil up. Serve the fowl very white, the sauce over it very brown, and garnish the sides of the dish with leaves of tarragon. irroir 17. Ragoût of Fowl. Put into a stew-pan a dessertspoonful of flour, fine herbs, and mushrooms chopped finely; warm it five minutes; add a glass of white wine; let it simmer a quarter of an hour, and then warm in it some limbs of roast fowl. Toast some slices of bread, with which line the dish. Just before serving, add to the sauce two spoonfuls of olive oil, which pour into the saucepan, taking care to let the sauce warm without boiling; then pour it over the toasted bread, and place the limbs of fowl upon the bread. ruar 18. Forcemeat Balls of Fowl. According to the quantity of forcemeat that you wish made, take of undressed fowl meat; remove all the fibres, chop and pound it; add the same quantity of calf's udder, boiled and cold; or, instead, some butter, and the same quantity of bread-crumbs soaked in milk, well drained, and pressed in a linen cloth. Beat the whole well together, adding the yolk of an egg; then two other yolks, with pepper, salt, and a little grated nutmeg. Strain the force- meat in a quenelle-tammy; incorporate with it the whites of two eggs beaten to snow. Mould a small quenelle on a table sprinkled with flour; boil or poach it in a little broth 256 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. or water; taste it, to know if it be well seasoned. These quenelles may be poached in the spoon instead of rolled on the table. They serve for garnish, and they may also be made of meat, veal, or game. If a little of the flesh of conger-eel be added, it will give them a very delicate flavour. now 19. Chicken à la Marengo. Cut up some young fowls as for a fricassée; put them into a frying-pan with some rasped fat bacon and a slice of ham ; add to this some slices of onion ; season with salt and pepper; fry till the fowls and onions are of a nice colour; remove the fat, add a little lemon-juice, and serve. Sinan 20. Chicken à la Girenflot. Prepare the bird for roasting; when on the spit baste it constantly with butter, into which you have mixed bacon and shallot, both chopped fine. When the chicken is of a fine golden colour, put one or two good slices of toast into the dripping-pan. Dish the bird on the toast, and serve with all the savoury contents of the dripping-pan. -iro 21. Capons à la Turque. Take two white capons, empty them, and put them into warm water that they may disgorge the blood. Have ready some rice which has boiled till soft in rich broth; put this rice, well seasoned, into the bodies of the capons; then truss them, cover them with layers of bacon, wrap them up in paper, and spit them; they must be an hour roasting. POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 257 When done, dish them with a garnish of soft rice, and a smooth sauce. cromo 22. Capon à la Nantaise. Make a farce with the liver, a dozen roasted chestnuts, a piece of butter, parsley, green onions, a very little garlic, two yolks of eggs, salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Roast the capon, after having filled it with the farce, and cover it with buttered paper; when it is done, brush it over with the yolk of an egg diluted in a little lukewarm water; sprinkle bread-crumbs all over it; let it brown well, and serve it with a sharp sauce. intan 23. To Boil a Capon Larded with Limins. Truss a fairly good capon ; boil it by itself in water, with a little oatmeal. Then take mutton broth and half a pint of white wine, a bundle of herbs, whole mace; season with verjuice; put marrow and dates; season with sugar. Cut up preserved limins; with a larding-pin lard them in; put the capon in a deep dish ; thicken your broth with almonds, and pour it on the bird. irrin 24. Chicken Paddings à l'Ude. Make these puddings with forcemeat-balls, like those à la Richelieu (No. 25); dip them into crumbs of bread, and fry them of a light brown; make at the top an oblong opening, empty the puddings, taking care to preserve, however, a coat thick enough to admit a salpicon of chickens, truffles, and mushrooms, cut into small dice and thrown into a well- seasoned Béchamel; take six small fillets, three being 258 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. wanted for each pudding; give them the shape of a handle of a basket, after having larded them with bacon and decorated them “en conti,” as it is called. Then take a very large carrot, cut it of the same size as the puddings, wrap it up in thin layers of bacon, put the small fillets over the carrot, and dust a little salt over them; place the whole in an oven; do not let it be too much done, but of a light brown only. Glaze them when ready to send up to dinner; pour the salpicon into the puddings, with the sham basket handles at an equal distance over the puddings; and see that the fillets are not thrust in too far, that they may really look like basket handles. This dish is for a grand dinner, when common dishes are not to make their appearance. inom 25. Chicken Puddings à la Richelieu. These puddings are the same thing as a farce à quenelles, made of either veal, fowl, rabbits, whitings, carp, etc. Sweat some white onions that are cut into small dice; when well done, drain them in a hair-sieve, in order that there may not be the least particle of butter; work the farce with a wooden spoon before you put them in, to prevent them from breaking, for it is requisite that they should remain entire. Let this farce stand to cool. When it is quite cold, roll it into the shape of puddings of the length of the dish, and poach them in the following manner :- Rub with butter a stew-pan which is large enough to contain the puddings with ease; lay them over the butter; pour some boiling water with a little salt into the stew-pan and let them boil gently, till you see they are properly swelled ; then drain, and let them cool. When cold, mould them cf an equal size, dip them into yolks of eggs well beaten, with a little salt, and then slightly into crumbs of bread ; fry them on a clear fire until they are of a fine colour; drain POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 259 them with a clean towel; dish them, and pour over them an Italian sauce (p. 336). Some people make use of the Sauce Hâtelets (p. 335); in this case it must be poured hot over the puddings. When they are cold and the sauce begins to cool, put an equal quantity on each square with your knife, taking care that they are made into regular squares. Dip them into crumbs of bread. Then prepare an omelette, by which is meant yolks and whites of eggs, beaten up with a little salt. The puddings are to be dipped only once into this preparation ; give them a good colour by frying in very hot dripping. You may serve them sometimes with crumbs of bread, and some- times white, without the crumbs, just at the instant they are poached. room 26. Soufilé of Chickens à la Crême. This dish is made of the remnants of roasted chickens. Take off the white flesh and mince it very small, pound it in a inortar with a little Béchamel (p. 327), a good lump of fresh butter, and salt and pepper; with this mix the yolks of four eggs. Strain the whole through a tammy, or a hair-sieve; then beat the whites of five eggs till they form a single body; mix these with the former preparation, and put the whole in a dish " à souffler," or in a croustade that has been raised like the crust of a pâté chaud. It will be done in a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, according to the quantity. It is to be observed that if the oven is too hot, the outside of the soufflé will be burnt, although the inside is not done enough. This, therefore, must be carefully attended to. Sirusin 27. Financière pour Vol-au-vent. Cut up in small pieces a cooked chicken, and put them into a smooth sauce with some mushrooms, sweetbreads, R 2 260 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. forcemeat-balls, cocks’-combs and cocks-kidneys. When you have to boil a fowl so as to garnish the financière, use the liquor to make the smooth sauce, with a little clarified gravy and the juice of mushrooms, in 28. Fricassée of Chicken in Ten Minates. Warm the limbs in a stew-pan with butter; then take them out, and put into the butter remaining in the stew-pan some mushrooms, parsley, shallots chopped up, salt, and spice; set this over the fire; pour in some white wine, and reduce the sauce over a brisk fire. Put in the chickens, to keep them hot, without letting the sauce boil, and dress them on the dish. intor into very come greed togethe 29. Brown Fricasséed Chicken or Rabbit, You must take your young rabbit or chicken and skin it; then cut it into very small pieces, and rub these with yolks of egg. Have ready some grated bread, a little beaten mace, and a little grated nutmeg mixed together; roll the meat in it. Place a little butter in your stew-pan, and when it is melted, put in your meat; fry it to a fine brown colour, and take care that none sticks to the bottom of the pan; then pour the butter away, and introduce half a pint of gravy, a glass of red wine, a few mushrooms, a little salt, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. When the whole is of due thickness, dish it up and send it to table. 30. White Fricasséed Chicken or Rabbit. Take your chicken or rabbit, skin it, and cut it into small pieces; place them in warm water to draw out the POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 261 blood, and then lay them in a clean cloth to dry. Put them into a stew-pan with milk and water, stew them till they are tender. Then take a clean pan, put in half a pint of cream and a quarter of a pound of butter; stir it together till the butter is melted—you must be sure to keep it stirring all the time, or it will be greasy. Then with a fork take the chicken or rabbit out of the stew-pan, and put it into a saucepan with the butter and cream. Have ready a little inace, dried and beaten fine, a very little nutmeg, a few mushrooms; shake all together for a minute or two, and dish up. Lamb and veal may be done in the same way. 31. Chicken Padding. Take of the flesh of rabbits or capons, two pounds; of suet, one pound. Add parsley, thyme, marjoram, cloves, mace, and nutmeg. Chop all very fine on a chopping-board; then put in four spoonfuls of grated bread, mixed with cream and the yolk of an egg; mix all well together, and therewith fill the bodies of chickens (not too full, lest they break in boiling), which boil in milk and water, with a blade or two of mace, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a little salt. Make the sauce with sweet butter and juice of oranges, beaten well together. _iran 32. Chicken Pie. Cover the bottom of a pie-dish with slices of raw ham or veal; season with salt and pepper; over this place two young raw chickens; cut each into four parts; season likewise with pepper and salt; add six yolks of eggs, boiled hard, and moisten with a gill of gravy; cover the pie with a flat of puff paste ; adorn it, egg it, and bake it in a moderate oven 262 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. for one hour and a half. If the pie is to be eaten cold, you can mix in the gravy two leaves of dissolved gelatine. +1 33. Chicken Pot-Pie. Take a fine chicken, from three to four pounds, draw, wipe well, and cut into twelve pieces. Put these in a pan, and cover them with cold water; leave them for thirty minutes, then wash well, drain, and return them to the saucepan. Cover again with fresh water, season with two pinches of salt, one pinch of pepper, and a third of a pinch of nutmeg ; add a bunch of six small onions, and four ounces of salt pork, cut into square pieces. Cook for three- quarters of an hour, taking care to skim well; then add one pint of raw potatoes and three tablespoonfuls of flour diluted with a cupful of water. Stir until it boils, then let cook for ten minutes. Remove the bouquet, and transfer the whole to a deep baking-dish; moisten the edges slightly with water, and cover the top with a good pie-crust. Egg the surface, make a few transverse lines on the paste with a fork, and cut a hole in the centre. Bake in a brisk oven for twenty minutes, and when quite cold, serve. Snow 34. Capilotade of Duck. If you have any roasted ducks left, and are called upon for one entrée more, cut them up as for eating; flay them, and let them simmer in a thin Italian sauce. Fry a few slices of bread cut into the shape of a kite, and send up with the juice of a lemon. If you should not have any Italian sauce ready, mince a few shallots, boil them in vinegar; make a little browning (roux), which you moisten with broth, or POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 263 even water, and mix a little glaze seasoned with salt and pepper; put the shallots into this sauce; let it boil a few minutes; then put the duck into the sauce to heat, but without boiling, and give it a high seasoning. Such common dishes are always to be highly seasoned. Siretor 35. Duck with Olives. This entrée is admired only by the Italians. Poêle the ducks (see No. 10). Pour over them olive sauce, which, in my humble opinion, is no very great treat. Take a bottle of French or Italian olives, cut the kernel out, but preserve the shape of the olive; blanch them in boiling water to take off the salt; if they are not too briny put them into a very good Spanish sauce, with the juice of a lemon and a little cayenne. Serve this sauce with duck only. 36. Duck with Turnips. After having emptied, trussed, and singed the duck, mask it between layers of bacon, and moisten either with å poêle (No. 10) or broth, with a little salt. Stew the duck for three-quarters of an hour if it is a young one; if old or tough, for an hour; when done, drain it, and let it simmer in turnip sauce to take the taste of turnips. (When ducks begin to grow old, by keeping them a few days they become tender.) Roast the bird to a nice colour. When underdone, cut it in five parts: the two wings, the two legs, and the breast. Now cut six turnips in the shape of olives, fry them in butter with a little powdered sugar, to give them a good colour, mix a tablespoonful of flour with them ; moisten with half broth and half gravy of veal ; season with 264 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. salt and a little pepper, a bundle of parsley and green onions ; skim; when the turnips are done, put them into a stew- pan separately, and add to them a very little sauce. In the remainder of the sauce boil the duck till well done; then skim off the fat, reduce the sauce, and serve all together. Kroon 37. Canvas-Back Ducks, Roasted. • Procure two fine fat canvas-back ducks, pick, singe, draw, and wipe carefully; throw a light pinch of salt inside, run in the head from the end of the neck to the back, truss nicely, and place in a roasting-pan. Sprinkle a little salt over, put them in a brisk oven, and let cook for eighteen minutes; arrange on a very hot dish, untruss, throw two tablespoonfuls of white broth into each duck, and serve with six slices of fried hominy and currant jelly. rean 38. Wild Ducks à la Chasseur. Truss the ducks by twisting each leg at the knuckle and resting the claws on each side of the breast, fixing them with a skewer run through the thighs and pinion of the wings. Rub the liver over the breast, and roast underdone. Cut the breast in slices without detaching them, catching in a saucepan the gravy that escapes ; add a piece of glaze the size of a walnut, place on the fire, and when hot add four pats of butter, half a glass of port wine, a little mignonette pepper, and the juice of half a lemon; shake all over the fire, and when the butter is melted, sauce over, and serve when perfectly cold. POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 265 39. Hot Raised Pies of Larks. Bone the larks; dress the pie-crust; put the farce in the bottom and the birds over the farce; then fill the paste with farce, close the pie, but leave a little hole at the top to prevent the crust from breaking. Let it be cooked of a light-brown colour. When done, take it out of the oven, take off likewise the top crust or cover; then pour a financière ragoût into the pie, after you have drained the fat, if there is any. Do not put the top crust on again ; send up hot with high seasoning, which brown entrées require more than white ones. 40. Caisses of Larks. Bone the larks, and stuff them with fine farce. Have ready small paper cases dipped into warm oil. Give the larks a round shape, put into the cases some of the farce, and place over this the larks. Next, put them on a false bottom with some buttered paper over them, for fear they should dry while baking. When baked enough, dish them. If there is room enough, pour into the cases a little Spanish sauce (p. 347) and lemon-juice. You must be very careful to drain out all the fat. rom 41. Larks in Croustade. This dish would find few admirers, as birds in croustade, and even hot raised pies, are very seldom called for. The gentry of this country like to see what they are eating; they fear to meet with something they do not like in a hot raised pie, which they seldom touch. The reason of it is obvious, and justifies their aversion : the aforesaid hot pies being generally economical entrées, made of legs or other 266 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. inferior parts of either fowl or game, and not of the fillets. Larks for croustades must be done beforehand. Put the birds into croustades fried of a light brown, the inside part of which take out with a cutter; into the vacuity put first a little farce, and the lark over it. Keep the birds hot till you serve up. Ioan 42. Larks au Gratin. Take eighteen larks, as fat as possible; pick and bone them; next, season them with salt and pepper, and stuff them with a farce fine, or a farce à quenelles; the former, however, is preferable. Dish them nicely, and put some of the farce into the dish. Insert slices of fried bread, cut whimsically, between the birds. When the larks are laid all round the dish, put into the middle any that may be left; these latter are to be raised higher than the rest. Cover the whole with layers of bacon, and leave it in the oven for twenty minutes. Then take off the bacon, drain the fat, and serve up with a Spanish sauce (p. 347) of a nice colour, and well seasoned. inn 43. To Roast Larks and Wheatears. When well cleaned, dip them in yolk of egg, and roll them in bread-crumbs. Put a small bit of butter in each bird. Spit on a lark-spit, and fasten that to the spit. Baste with plenty of good butter, which is most essential in roasting all the smaller birds. Strew sifted bread-crumbs over the birds as they roast. From twelve to fifteen minutes will do them. Serve fried bread-crumbs, and garnish with fried crumbs or crisp parsley. Some good cooks put a thin, small slice of bacon between the birds when they are spitted, to nourish them. This is a good practice. POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 267 44. Stewed Quails. Put a little butter, worked up with flour, and a few green onions, into a stew-pan ; when brown, put in some quails, a glass of wine, the same of stock, some parsley, more small onions, a bay-leaf, and two or three cloves ; stew these till the quails are sufficiently done; garnish your dish with cocks’-combs, artichoke bottoms, fried bread, etc. 45. Quails à l'Espagnole. Mix the juice of a lemon with some butter, salt, and pepper; pick and prepare eight quails; stuff them well with the above mixture ; then fasten the legs to the body, leaving the claws free ; truss them a good shape, and put them into the saucepan on slices of bacon, cover them with more slices, add a poêle (No. 10), moisten with equal portions of white wine and stock, set them on the fire for half an hour; then take them out, drain, and untie them; place each on a piece of fried bread the size of the quail, and serve with clear Spanish sauce, with the addition of a little glaze. 46. Quails à la Chasseur, Put the quails in a saucepan with a little butter, a bay. leaf, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper; set them on a fierce fire and keep shaking them until they are tender, then add a dessertspoonful of flour, half a glass of white wine, and a little stock; when this is thick, and quite hot without boiling, take from the fire and serve. POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 269 50. Partridge Sauté, with Mushrooms. Take two young partridges, each of which cut in halves, and lay in a convenient sized stew-pan (into which you have previously poured two or three tablespoonfuls of salad oil), first seasoning them lightly with a little white pepper and salt, and a sprinkle of chopped shallots; put a cover upon the stew-pan, place this over a moderate fire until one side of the partridges is brown, then turn them over, and continue until they are browned on both sides. Now pour off part of the oil, and add half a table- spoonful of flour, which well mix in; then a glass of sherry, half a pint of broth, and twenty small button mushrooms (previously blanched); let simmer, skimming off all the oil which rises to the surface, until the partridges are tender, and the sauce is thick enough to adhere to them ; season the sauce a little if required; dress the partridges upon a dish, sauce over, and serve. retnine 51. Braised Partridge, with Celery Sauce. Singe, draw, wipe, and truss two partridges with their wings inside. Lay a piece of pork-rind in a saucepan, adding one carrot and one onion, both cut in slices, two bay-leaves, one sprig of thyme, and the two partridges. Season with one pinch of salt and half a pinch of pepper. When they have assumed a good golden colour on the hot stove, moisten with half a pint of white broth, then put the saucepan in the oven, and let cook for twenty minutes. Dress them on a serving-dish, untruss, pour a pint of hot celery sauce over, and serve. iran 270 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 52. Partridges, Stewed. Truss them with the wings over the back and the legs drawn in; cut a piece of pork or bacon in long strips, and put these into a stew-pan with a piece of butter the size of a walnut. Fry the bacon brown, and when quite done put in the partridges, and keep turning them until they are very brown, taking care that the bacon shall be as much on the breast as possible; then add about a teacupful of gravy and some trimmings of meat and vegetables. Have ready a large cabbage boiled; when you have well drained it, slice it in, adding butter, pepper, and salt; let the whole stew gently for an hour, turning the birds frequently. Serve up with the bacon underneath, the cabbage round them, squeezed dry, and the sauce, which must be very carefully skiinmed. 53. Partridge, Roasted. Singe, draw, and wipe two fine young partridges; truss them neatly, and cover the breasts with a thin layer of lard, tying twice round. Lay them in a roasting-pan, spread- ing a little butter over each, and moistening with half a cupful of water. Put the pan in a brisk oven for twenty- five minutes, basting the birds occasionally. Dress each one on a bread canapé, removing the strings. Decorate the dish with a little watercress. Strain the gravy into a sauce- bowl, and serve it separately, with half a pint of bread- sauce in another bowl. cirtan 54. Partridge, Broiled. Cut the bird down the back, break the merry-thought, which will allow it to be made quite flat; cut off the feet POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 271 at the joint, and skewer it like a fowl to broil; dry flour and egg it, and sprinkle it with chopped herbs and bread-crumbs, well seasoned; broil, and serve with a little good gravy, with a mushroom or two chopped up small. -nan 55. Partridge au Gratin, Cut off the legs of roast partridges ; put on the dish you intend to serve them in, a piece of butter rolled in bread raspings, with parsley, chives, shallots chopped finely, salt and pepper; place the dish in a Dutch oven before the fire, and make a gratin of the contents; add the partridge warmed in a little broth (p. 77), and salt, pepper, parsley, and a dash of vinegar ; serve it on the gratin, covered with raspings. rom 56. Chartreuse of Partridge. Take two old partridges ; singe, draw, and wipe them well; truss them with their wings turned inside, and lay them on a roasting-pan with half a pinch of salt, and a little butter well spread over the breast, and put them on to roast for six minutes. Take a Charlotte mould which will hold three pints; butter lightly, and decorate with small pieces of cooked carrot and turnip, cut very evenly with a vegetable-tube. When ready, fill the bottom with a layer of cooked cabbage; cut the partridges into pieces, put a layer of them on the cabbage, covering the hollow spaces with more cabbage; lay on the top six slices of salted pork, add the rest of the partridges, and finish by covering the surface with cabbage, pressing it down carefully. Place the mould on a tin baking-dish, and put it in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes, leaving the oven-door open during 272 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. the whole time. Have a hot dish ready, turn the mould upside down on it, and carefully draw off. Serve with a little half-glaze sauce (p. 353). re 57. Salmi Chaudfroid of Partridges. Cut up two roast partridges into small joints, and use their trimmings to prepare a stiffly reduced salmi sauce; add thereto aspic jelly in the proportion of one-third; mix to- gether, and use the sauce to mask the joints of the partridges, which, after the sauce has set firm upon them, are to be dished up in a pyramidal form, garnished with aspic jelly and a few truffles, or prepared white cocks'-combs. resi 58. Partridges à la Chipolata. Brown some bacon cut into dice. Make a browning, into which you put the limbs of partridges; pour over thein some broth (p. 77) and a glass of white wine; add mushrooms, the bacon, some button-onions fried in butter, and some boiled sausage-meat with the skin removed; add a score of grilled chestnuts, and let all stew together, with a bunch of inixed herbs. When the fat is skimmed off and the sauce is properly reduced, serve with fried slices of bread. Truffles may also be added. It is necessary to pay great attention as to the time at which the several articles are put in the ragoût (such as button-onions, mushrooms, etc.), each being added accordingly as it takes more or less time in cooking. som : POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 273 59. Partridge aux Choux, plus Distinguée. Pick, clean, singe, and truss two partridges; put them into a stew-pan with some butter and a pinch of flour; pour in three glasses of broth (p. 77), add a quarter of a pound of bacon cut into dice, with a bunch of mixed herbs; leave the whole to stew. Put into another stew-pan a cabbage, with three-quarters of a pound of salt pork and two spoonfuls of fat; fill up with water, and let it boil till three-parts done. Cut up a red carrot into round pieces about the size of half- a-crown, and then a paler carrot and a saveloy, in a similar fashion. Butter a saucepan and place the slices of carrot at the bottom in circles, mixing their colours with those of the saveloy. Cut up the pork, boiled with the cabbage, into slices of the breadth of two fingers and the length of one, making six pieces, which place upright at equal distances round the second stew-pan. Drain the cabbage, and put a layer of it over the carrots; place some also between the upright pieces of pork and the two partridges in the middle, and cover them again with cabbage, if there be any remain- ing. Dilute with gravy or broth the liquor in the stew-pan in which the partridges were stewed; strain it, and pour it into the pan containing the partridges, and set the whole to stew half an hour, taking care that it does not adhere to the pan. When done, place a dish upside down over the stew-pan, and turn up the latter. If the ragoût be not equally browned, colour it with a little gravy or caramel. wton 60. Minced Pheasant. Put one or two pheasants, as required, on the spit; take them down when three-fourths roasted. When pheasants are plentiful, the legs are kept back for purées. Put the other parts, nicely cut up, skinned, and trimmed, into a stew- POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 275 a pie-dish with a layer of game forcemeat, on which place the pieces of grouse; sprinkle over a little cooked fine herbs; fill the cavities between the pieces with a few yolks of hard- boiled eggs, and place on the top of the grouse a few slices of raw ham; pour in good gravy, to half the height; cover the pie with paste, egg it, and put it in a moderate oven for one hour and a half; when done, set it on another dish. 63. Grouse, Roasted à la Sam Ward. Take two fine fat grouse-pick, singe, draw, and dry them well; then truss them nicely. Place them in a roasting-pan, putting inside of each bird a piece of broiled toast four inches long and two wide. Drip in on each toast, with a spoon, a small glassful of good Madeira or sherry; season the grouse with a pinch of salt; spread a little butter over. Put them in a brisk oven, and let cook for eighteen minutes, taking care to baste them frequently. Lay them on a hot dish, untruss, strain the gravy over, and decorate with a little watercress. Serve with a little red currant jelly, separately. niin 64. Grouse, Roasted Plain. Singe, draw, wipe, and truss two fine fat grouse. Place them in a roasting-pan with half a cupful of water; spread a little butter over each, and season with a pinch of salt. Put them into a brisk oven and cook for eighteen minutes, taking care to baste frequently with their own gravy; then untruss. Have a hot serving-dish ready, place two bread canapés (see No. 69) on it, arrange the grouse over, and decorate the dish with a little watercress. Strain the gravy into a sauce-bowl, and serve separately. s 2 POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 277 67. Salmi of Grouse à la Parisienne. Singe, draw, wipe, and truss, two fine fat grouse; season with a pinch of salt, spread a few small bits of butter on the birds ; then place in a toasting-pan, and put them in a brisk oven to cook for eight minutes. Untruss, and cut away the wings, legs, and breasts. Put an ounce of good butter into a saucepan with half a medium-sized carrot cut in very small pieces, half an onion cut the same, a sprig of thyme, two bay-leaves, and six whole peppercorns. Reduce to a good golden colour for about five minutes, then hash the bodies of the two grouse, and add them to the other in- gredients. Moisten with a pint of good sauce, half a glassful of good sherry, half a cupful of mushroom liquor, and the zest of a lemon ; season with half a pinch of salt, half a pinch of pepper, and a third of a pinch of nutmeg; let cook for twenty minutes. Now put the wings, legs, and breasts into a separate saucepan, and strain the above sauce over the parts, adding six minced mushrooms and two ininced truffles. Let cook for three minutes, then dress neatly on a hot dish, and serve with crusts on top, and paper ruffles. 68. Salmi of Grouse with Claret. Cut up two roast grouse in joints; skin them, and throw the trimmings and skin into a stew-pan, with two sliced shallots, a few mushroom parings, a clove, half a blade of mace, a little allspice, and a few peppercorns; heat the whole in a little broth at the side of the fire ; pour in half a pint of brown sauce; having boiled and clarified it, add two or three glasses of reduced claret, let the whole boil down rather thick, and strain it over the joints of grouse. You may ornament the dish with a few pieces of bread, fried and glazed. 278 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 69. Canapés for Grouse. Cut off a loaf of bread two slices about an inch and a half thick ; trim neatly, pare off the crusts, then cut out a piece in the centre of each, from end to end, so that the cavity will hold the bird nicely when sending to the table. Spread a little butter over them, place on a tin plate, then brown in the hot oven until they obtain a good golden colour. Remove them from the oven, arrange them on a hot dish, and they will be ready to serve. nii 70. Grouse Braised with Cabbage. I have given you numerous recipes for cooking grouse, but to these I may add one for grouse braised with cabbage. Draw the legs as you would those of chickens for boiling; cover the bottom of your stew-pan with fat bacon, a few shallots, a bunch of thyme, parsley, a few blades of mace, two or three bay- leaves ; moisten with a pint of stock, and then put in your grouse. Blanch two cabbages cut in quarters, boil till half done, press them in a cloth, tie each bundle up separately, and put them in the pan with the birds. They will take about an hour over a slow fire; when done, strain off the liquor and skim the fat, lay a little butter in the pan, put it over the fire, and as soon as it is melted, throw in as much flour as will absorb it. Then put in, little by little, the liquor in which the grouse was cooked ; keep stirring while on the fire, and when it has boiled for a few minutes strain it off into another pan. Season it by putting in a little cayenne and lemon-juice. Dish your grouse with the cabbage round it, and the sauce poured over all. The French garnish this braise of grouse with carrots; but I prescribe only cabbage. If you do not see your way to dressing grouse in this fashion, keep this recipe for the time when partridge shoot- ing begins. Partridge with cabbage is a perfectly lovely dish POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 279 (see No. 59); but please not to run away with the notion, inculcated by some heterodox cook, that an old and tough bird is good enough for braising. Your partridge should be as young and tender as “Little Billie” in Thackeray's ballad. I cannot pass on without remarking that although “the way of an eagle in the air” was among the four things which the Wise Man owned were too wonderful for him, yet Solomon, had he studied grouse, might have been fain to admit that the ways of this bird were even more wonderful, in the sense of being mysterious, than those of the eagle. The very etymology of “grouse” is doubtful, although the learned Wedgwood thinks it is derived from the English “grice," a moor-fowl. But then a grice means also a little pig just one year old, and a grouse has certainly nothing porcine about it. The French have no term for a grouse more specific than “cock of the heath," and the Italians call the bird “mountain cock.” The well-known moor-fowl or red grouse of Britain is now often classed by naturalists with the ptarmigan, apart from the members of the genus tetrao, or true grouse ; although it is a species to which the name is exclusively applied by British sports- men, who are superbly ignorant of the fact that the tetrao genus includes the capercailzie, the black cock, and the prairie-hen of the Rocky Mountains. In America I have often met with the ruffed grouse, which was known sometimes as a partridge and sometimes as a phreasant. On the whole, it is perhaps quite sufficient to know that the grouse is one of the most delicious of edible birds, and that grouse- shooting begins on the 12th of August. -noin 71. Salmi of Woodcock. The same operation is required as for the salmi of par- tridges (No. 57). Instead of boiling the trimmings in the 280 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. sauce, take off the members, and pound the remainder, to- gether with the trimmings, in a mortar until you are able to strain it through a tammy. When you have skimmed the fat from the sauce and given a good seasoning, inoisten the pounded meat with it; then strain it through a tammy, and put it over the legs in a metal bath. The salmi must be made hot, but without boiling. Serve up with slices of fried bread cut into hearts and glazed. 72. Woodcocks and Snipe. Woodcocks, like snipes, are only good when they are fat. The most favourite parts are the legs and the intes- tines. The fillets of woodcocks, for those persons who do not like their meat underdone, are tough and without savour. They are held in high estimation when roasted, or en salmi. A purée of woodcock is also served occasionally. Although woodcocks and snipes are cooked in but very few ways, they may be dressed in as many modes as young partridges. French cooks stuff woodcocks with chopped truffles, and either roast them or stew them with fire under and over the pot. The trail is sometimes cooked in gravy and butter, and poured over the toast. irar 73. To Roast Woodcocks, Snipes, Rails, and Ortolans. Keep them till tender. They must not be drawn, as the intestines are considered a delicacy. (This rule admits of exceptions. The proverb says: “What is one man's meat is another man's poison.") Tie them on a bird-spit, which fix to the spit, and lay down to a clear, brisk fire. Place slices POULTRY, GAME, ETC. 281 of toast in the dripping-pan to catch the trail. These birds, like moor-game, require to be deluged with butter in basting. Dish them on the toasts, pour clear brown beef gravy, very hot, into the dish. They will take from twenty- five to thirty minutes, in proportion to the size. Sauce : Pleydel's sauce for wild fowl. Garnish with slices of bitter orange, or lemon, and fried bread-crumbs. 282 SECTION VI.-ENTREMETS. 1. Rabbits and Onions. As this dish is of the English school, it will not require many observations; but I shall recommend that old rabbits be never used, as they always spoil both the taste and the look. Take one or two rabbits, skin them and skewer them as for boiling; put them into warm water in order to extract all the blood; when they are very white, boil them in boiling water and a little salt, to prevent them from skimming. An hour is sufficient to boil them if they are young. The sauce as follows:-Peel a dozen white onions, take the tops and the tails off, then cut them into six pieces, put them to boil in boiling water, with a little salt; when nearly done, drain them on a sieve, put them into a clean towel, squeeze out the water, then chop them very fine on the table; put them into a stew-pan, with half a quarter of a pound of butter; let them fry, to drain the water away; then put half a spoon- ful of flour, mix well together, and moisten with cream or milk, according to your means—cream is preferable. Next, let this sauce reduce on a sharp fire, put some salt and pepper to it, and make it rather thick. Drain the rabbits, and cover them with the sauce. -noir 2. Fillets of Rabbits à la Pompadour. Take the fillets of four young rabbits; cut each fillet into two, lengthwise, and keep them as long as possible. 284 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 4. Rabbits à la Vénétienne. Take three nice young rabbits; skin and empty them; then cut them into pieces in the following manner :- Take off the shoulders, separate the head from the neck, and divide the back into four parts; take off the legs also, and cut each of them into two pieces. Have ready half a pottle of mushrooms chopped very fine, with parsley and shallots, also chopped fine. Put a small lump of butter into a stew-pan with a little rasped bacon ; add the sweet herbs, etc., with a little salt, pepper and allspice ; let them stew for a short time on a slow fire. When these are sufficiently fried, put in the rabbits, and keep them on the fire till they are sufficiently done. Then take the limbs out from the seasoning, and lean the stew-pan sideways, to skim the fat that comes uppermost ; put a spoonful of “turned” sauce, or, if you have none, a small teaspoonful of flour, moistened with a spoonful or two of broth ; let it boil a few minutes, and make a thickening of the yolks of four eggs; put the juice of a lemon and a little cayenne pepper; stir the sauce well ; if it happens to be too thick, make it thinner with a spoonful of broth; keep it quite hot, throw the members into the sauce again, and send up quite hot. This sauce must be rather highly seasoned. 5. White Gibelots of Rabbits. Take two young rabbits and make a gibelot, but after having dredged with flour and moistened with broth, let the whole stew for about an hour. Next take off all the scum and fat; shift the members into another stew-pan ; reduce the sauce, strain it through a tammy over the members, lay the gibelot on the fire, and when it boils, thicken it with the yolks of four eggs and the juice of a lemon. This sauce, although white, must be highly seasoned. ENTREMETS. 285 Obs.—If you want to make the gibelot whiter, disgorge the rabbits, and blanch them. 6. Mince of Rabbits au Fumet. Take the fillets of rabbits that have been roasted, and pare the sinews; then make a mince, but hold your knife on the slope, that the thin slices may curl like shavings; put the mince into a reduced smooth sauce mixed with some glaze of game. Do not forget to pour into the mince a little thick cream, to give it a white colour and make it mellower. You may put the mince either in a border of puff-paste, a vol-au-vent, a rice casserole, a turban, a grenade, a gratin, patties, etc. 7. Croquettes of Rabbits. Cut the meat of young roasted rabbits into dice, which throw into a smooth sauce reduced, adding a little glaze of game. Let this cool, then roll it into whatever shape you please; but, in my opinion, those that are the least handled are the best. Fry them and send up like other croquettes, garnished with fried parsley in the middle of the dish. ran 8. Rabbit Pie. Take a young rabbit, three-quarters of a pound of real cutlet a quarter of an inch thick, and three ounces of bacon cut very thin. Cut up the rabbit, each joint making two or three pieces. Season with the rind of half a lemon, two saltspoonfuls of white pepper, a little nutmeg, a dash of 286 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. cayenne, and a teaspoonful of salt. Cover it with a paste, which make out of a pound of flour, half a gill of cold water, and the juice of half a lemon; knead it out flat; lay in half a pound of good butter; roll it out four times, fold it into a bolster form, and let it stand in a cool place for a little. When you have covered the pie with it, you must bake in a moderate oven for two hours and a quarter, or thereabouts. Lirir 9. Fillets of Young Rabbits à l'Orlie. Take your rabbits; detach the fillets and little fillets ; cut the large fillets of an equal size, marinade all in lemon- juice, a little parsley, a shallot cut into slices, a little thyme, a bay-leaf, salt, pepper, etc. ; leave them in the marinade for two hours. Drain, and dip them into the white of an egg which has been well beaten, and then into some flour mixed with a few crumbs of bread. Fry them of a fine brown, and serve under them a Spanish sauce of game. You must observe particularly that the fillets are to be underdone. iran 10. Croquettes of Sweetbread. Take such sweetbreads as have already been served, cut them into as small dice as possible. Have a good smooth reduced sauce ready. Throw the dice of sweetbreads into the sauce and give them a boil, that they may taste of the sauce. Then lay them on a plate to cool. When cold, roll them into any shape you like, oval or long. Serve up with parsley, fried green, in the middle. Sometimes you may spread a very thin puff paste, and wrap some of the meat of croquettes in it; put some crumbs of bread over it, and fry it of a very good colour. This is ENTREMETS. 287 what is called rissole. The rissole differs from the croquette in this particular only—that the latter is wrapped up in crumbs of bread and the former in paste. Girona 11. Beef Kidney Pie. Cut some kidneys into thin slices and place a layer of them in the bottom of your pie-dish; on the top put chopped sweet herbs, such as parsley, thyme, shallots, with mushrooms, pepper, and salt; continue until the dish is full, then cover the whole with slices of bacon ; finish your pie, and bake it in the oven. When it is done, pick out the bacon and skim off the fat; take a glass of white wine and a tolerable quantity of cullis, and reduce to the consistence of a good sauce; then squeeze a Seville orange into it. Serve the pie hot. now 12. Sheeps' Kidneys, Broiled. Wash and dry some nice kidneys; cut them in half, and with a small skewer keep them open in imitation of two shells; season them with salt and pepper, and dip them into a little fresh melted butter. Broil first the side that is cut, and be careful not to let the gravy drop in taking them off the gridiron. Serve them in a hot dish, with finely chopped parsley, melted butter, the juice of a lemon, pepper, and salt, putting a little upon each kidney. This makes an excellent breakfast for a company of sportsmen. 1 13. Kidneys, “Tossed” in White Wine. Cut up a beef kidney very fine, throwing aside the cord or sinewy part; put in a sauté-pan with a piece of butter 288 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and place the pan over a brisk fire, adding a spoonful of flour and half a glass of white wine, pepper, salt, parsley, and chives, chopped small. When the sauce is reduced to its proper thickness, serve immediately. Indeed, you cannot send up too promptly, if the kidneys are not to harden. Veal and mutton kidneys are prepared in the same way. Linn 14. Liver and Bacon. Cut half a pound of bacon into thin rashers, and one pound of calves' liver into slices the third of an inch thick. Fry both sides of the bacon brown; place it round a dish before the fire. Dredge flour on both sides of the liver; fry it slowly till brown. Place it on the dish. Pour away the fat; dredge a dessertspoonful of dry flour into the frying-pan; pour in a gill of boiling water; add a dash of pepper and half a saltspoonful of salt; shake the pan till the gravy thickens and browns; pour it over the liver and bacon, and serve at once. ir 15. Venison. The haunch of venison is usually roasted ; cover it with fat bacon, and moisten it occasionally while roasting. Those who like garlic can add a little. The fore-quarter is also roasted, but after covering it with fat bacon, spit it and baste frequently. When ready for serving, almost sever the shoulder from the rest, and pour between a Maître d'Hôtel sauce (p. 348). -rom 16. Jagged Venison. This is composed of the shoulders and the breast. Make a sauce well browned; put to it a small quantity of sugar; ENTREMETS. 289 thin it with water ; put in the pieces of venison, some shallots chopped fine, a large glass of good red wine, fat bacon cut into small squares, some salt, and a little pepper and thyme; stew the whole together. Just before serving, skim off the fat; set the pieces of meat on the dish, and if you like, add a few chopped truffles to the sauce, which serve in the middle; the darker the sauce is, the better. In serving, put in a piece of sugar the size of a nut. 17. Jugged Hare, In two and a half quarts of water put half a pound of scrag of mutton, half a pound of gravy beef, half a pound of a shank of veal, and half a slice of ham, all cut small; one turnip, one carrot, an onion and a half chopped, a little mace, salt, and pepper; stew these ingredients for one and a half or two hours, and strain the soup. The next day cut a hare into small pieces, season them with pepper, salt, a quarter of a grated nutmeg, and half the peel of a small lemon. Place them in a stone jar, and fill it up with the prepared soup; put a bung in the jar, tie a bladder and a bit of linen over, and set it in a pot of hot water; as the water wastes, fill up with more boiling water, and let boil for an hour and a half. When cold, take off the fat, and pick out the lemon-peel. This quantity will make one tureen full. When to be used it is thickened with a tablespoonful of flour, kneaded with a small bit of butter, and a quarter of a pint of port wine. It will keep perfectly good for a fortnight. are 18. Hare Pâté, en Terrine. Bone a hare ; take one pound of fillet of veal, one pound of fresh lean pork, a little beef fat, parsley, chives, thyme, a 290 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. bay-leaf, garlic, pepper, and clores; chop them all up very fine; line a small, wide-mouthed dish (the lid of which shuts closely) with slices of bacon that entirely cover it; put in the hare, etc., mixed with half a pound of bacon cut up into pieces ; pour over it a glass of brandy; cover it with slices of bacon, and close up the lid carefully with paste. Let it bake four hours. 19. Hare Pie. With a pound of flour, half a pound of butter, salt, and water, prepare some short paste, and lay it aside for an hour. Skin a tender hare, draw it, slip off the shoulders and legs from the body, and bone them. Pare the meat, and cut it in squares, chop it with its weight of fat fresh bacon and six ounces of raw ham ; when the whole is well chopped, pound, season, and add to it a few tablespoonfuls of cooked fine herbs, mushrooms, parsley, and onion. Lard the loins, cut them up in pieces, put them into a stew-pan with melted bacon and half cook them ; remove the meat from the bones, and put them by. With all the bones and the neck of the hare, a few trimmings of ham, vegetables, aromatics, and a little wine, prepare soine good gravy; when it is passed and skimmed of fat, reduce it to a half-glaze with a few tablespoonfuls of Madeira, and thicken it with a little sauce; then keep it in the metal-bath. Mask the bottom of a large pie-dish with a layer of prepared raw mince, whereon place a layer of good sauer-kraut, cooked with six ounces of streaky bacon and cooled; cut up the bacon in squares, which mix with the pieces of hare and a few raw black truffles cut up in slices; place the meat in a dome-like shape on the sauer-kraut, mask it with the remainder of the mince; now moisten the rim of the ENTREMETS. 291 dish, lay on a strip of paste, moisten the paste, and cover the pie with a large thin flat of short crust. Bake it for an hour and a quarter in a moderate oven. When the pie is taken out of the oven, pour in through a hole which should be left in the top the prepared sauce, and dish up. Girone 20. Boned Hare. Bone a hare entirely, lard it with large pieces of bacon, season with spice. Roll it up in such a manner that, the thinner parts being under the back, it forms a kind of ball, which tie up. Put it into a stew-pan with onions, carrots, and a bunch of mixed herbs, which tie up with the bones of the hare. Cover the hare with slices of bacon, adding two glasses of white wine, the same of broth, and a little salt; put a sheet of buttered paper over it, and let it stew. Serve it cold or hot, with the gravy skimmed of its fat and passed through a sieve. ren 21. Neck of Veal à la Mirepoix. Make a mirepoix with rasped bacon, butter, a bit of ham, thyme, bay-leaves, pepper, salt, etc. Fry the whole on a slow fire. When that is done, put with it the neck of veal, fried; stew it a little, and let it cool. When it is cold, take two sheets of white paper, butter one of them, and trim it with layers of bacon. Then lay the mirepoix over the bacon, and carefully close the paper. Wrap the whole up in several sheets of paper, and bake it in an oven, which, however, must not be too hot. It will take an hour and a half to do. When done, remove the paper, and send up with a Spanish (p. 347) or Italian (p. 336) sauce. Mirepoix is T 2 ENTREMETS. 293 over it, and with which you baste it till the sauce adheres all round. Then serve up with a smooth sauce under it. 24. Veal Cutlets à la Mayonnaise. Trim the cutlets; lard then with cooked ham and truffles cut in even little squares, alternately, chequer-like; put them into a stew-pan, and let them stew; then glaze the cutlets, place them on a dish and cover with aspic (pp. 232-33). When all is cold, trim the cutlets again, neatly. Lay some aspic in the bottom of an entrée dish, place the cutlets on it in a circle; garnish the dish with crusts of jelly, and pour into the centre of the dish a mayonnaise à la Ravigote (pp. 338 and 342). 10 > 25. Fillet of Veal à la Bourgeoise aux Petits Pois. » Put into a saucepan a little bacon cut into dice, or a piece of butter; lay in the fillet, from which remove the centre-bone; lard with slices of bacon seasoned with sweet herbs; then powder both sides with four; let simmer slowly ; season with sweet herbs, a carrot, a little parsley, and half a bay-leaf; brown the meat nicely on both sides, and moisten it with some broth or some boiling water. When half cooked add some peas, and let it simmer till done. 26. To Dress a Fillet of Veal the Italian Way, Take a young, tender fillet of veal, and pick away all the skins in the fold of the flesh; after you have picked it out clean so that nothing hard is left, put to it some 294 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. good white wine (that is not too sweet) in a bowl, and wash it and crush it well in the wine; do so twice, then strew upon it a powder that is called tamara in Italy, and as much salt as will season it well; pour to it as much white wine as will cover it when it is thrust down into a narrow pan; lay a trencher on it and a weight to keep it down; let it lie two nights and one day. Put a little pepper to it when you lay it in the pan, and after it is soused so long, take it out and put it into a pipkin with some good beef broth; you must not use any of the pickle but only beef broth that is sweet and not salt, flavoured, however, with a few whole cloves and mace; cover it close and set it on the embers, and let it stew till it be done. If you follow these directions you will find it to be very tender, and of an excel- lent taste. It must be served with the same broth-as much as will cover it. To make the sauce, take of coriander seed two ounces, aniseed one ounce, fennel seed one ounce, cloves two ounces, cinnamon one ounce. These must be beaten into a gross powder, putting into it a little winter savoury, if you like it; keep this in a close-stopped vial for use. ru 27. Breast of Veal à la Poulette. Cut the veal in square pieces and blanch them; put them into a saucepan with a little butter, pepper, and salt; when the butter is melted, add a pinch of four and some parsley, and pour in some water or broth; stew for an hour and a half, and then add a dash of vinegar, with the yolks of two eggs beaten up. The pieces left may be fried. ENTREMETS. 295 28. Minced Veal à la Catalan, Mince two pounds of lean veal, and brown it in a sauce- pan with three tablespoonfuls of sweet-oil, one onion cut in quarters, and half a pinch of green pepper. When of a fine colour, add two tablespoonfuls of flour, and mix thoroughly. Moisten with one pint of white broth, and season with a heaped tablespoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of pepper; stir briskly, add a bunch of herbs, three cloves of crushed garlic, and a gill of tomato sauce. Cook well for twenty-five minutes, then serve, sprinkling chopped parsley over the mince. ar 29. Boiled Knuckle of Veal. Put enough water over the meat to cover it. Let it boil gently, and when it reaches boiling-point, add as much salt as will fill a dessertspoon; keep it well skimmed, and boil until tender. Serve with parsley and butter. If you find it insipid, serve with slices of boiled bacon. Allow twenty minutes for each pound of meat. Three-quarters of a pound of rice may be boiled in it, or green peas, cucumbers, turnips, or small spring onions, allowing them as much time from the cooking of the veal as they require. -resi 30. Calves' Feet. Stew a few calves' feet, and when they are done, drain them. Then take a little fine stuffing-namely, a farce made of all sorts of dressed meat, etc., eggs excepted, which would make the whole stick together. When you have stuffed the middle of the calves' feet with the farce, give them a round shape, then dip them into an omelette seasoned with pepper and salt, and into crumbs of bread, twice over, and fry them till they are of a fine brown. Serve them 296 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. up with fried parsley very green, and send up brown sauce in a boat. Intre 31. Calves' Feet au Naturel. Bone the calves' feet, remove the fat; wash them thoroughly; tie them together with string and blanch them in boiling-water ; then put them into a saucepan or a jar; cover them with water and a thin, broad slice of bacon. Add a carrot, an onion, half a bay-leaf, some slices of lemon, and a little salt. Let boil for three hours. Before cerving, mince separately a little parsley and some shallots. In lieu of the shallots you can use an onion. ru 32, Sheep's Trotters, Fried. Clean some nice sheep's trotters; scald and wash them in hot water, stew them in the sauce in which calf's head, plain (p. 228), is Loiled, and bone them. Fiy, but not till brown, in a little butter, some carrots, onions, a little parsley-root, all cut small, thyme, a shallot, a small bay-leaf, and a clove. When they begin to colour, inoisten them with water and vinegar, mixed in equal parts, and let stew till the vegetables are quite tender; season with pepper and salt, and strain over the sheep's trotters through a silk sieve. Then fry the trotters in this batter:—Put nearly four tablespoonfuls of four into an earthen pan, with a little salt, a little olive oil, and as much good beer or water as will moisten the paste; when well mixed, add the beaten whites of two eggs; dip the trotters into this, and fry them instantly. The marinade, or pickle, in which the trotters are laid, and the paste in which they are fried, may be used for beef and other ments. The same recipe may be followed exactly for calves' feet. ENTREMETS. 297 33. Sheep's Tail à l'Anglaise. Put the sheep's tail into a saucepan to boil; take it out when cooked; egg-and-bread-crunb it and broil it till it is of a nice colour. This dish is served also as a hors-d'ouvre. 34. Ox-Tails à la Saint Lambert. Wash the tails in warm water, and put them into a saucepan with some slices of bacon, salt, pepper, spice, two carrots, two turnips, a head of celery, some onions, and a bunch of mixed herbs. When boiled tender, take out the tails, strain the sauce, make a purée of the vegetables, pour the whole over the tails, and serve. Loraine 35. Ox-tail, Crumbed and Grilled, Cut the tail into large pieces, boil them in a saucepan and let them get cold; season them with salt and pepper, and having warmed some butter, soak them in it, and then cover them with crumbs of bread; repeat the soaking and the crumbing; then broil the pieces on a gridiron, and serve them on a sharp sauce (p. 346). Sinan 36. Neat's Tongue au Gratin. Having cut up a boiled or roasted tongue into thin slices, put into the dish in which you mean to send it to table a little broth, a dash of vinegar, some capers, parsley, chives, shallots, and chervil (all chopped very fine), salt, whole pep- per, and the raspings of bread; arrange the slices of tongue neatly on this seasoning, and put inore over it, finishing with bread raspings; bake it in a Dutch oven. When served, pour a little more broth over it. 298 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 37. Sheep's Tongues à la Saint Lambert, Slice three onions, three carrots, three turnips, a head of celery, and some mushrooms; brown them in butter, then add salt, spice, a bunch of mixed herbs, two or three spoonfuls of broth, and a glass of white wine. Put the tongues into this sauce; when done, take them out and skin them. Strain the sauce, add a purée of any vegetables, and pour it over the tongues. - 10 38. To Boil Tripe. Clean it extremely well, and take off the fat; let it lie a night in salt and water; again wash it well, and let it lie in milk and water for the same length of time; then cut it into small pieces; roll and tie them with thread; put them, with a clean-washed marrow-bone, into a linen bag; tie it up, and put it into a stew-pan that has a cover to fit quite close; fill this up with water, and let it boil gently for six hours. Take the tripe out of the bag, put it into a jar, and pour over it the liquor in which it has been boiled. When to be dressed, boil soine whole small onions in a part of the liquor, add a little salt, then put in the tripe, and heat it thoroughly. Or it may be fried in butter, fricasséed, or stewed in a brown sauce. Instead of being boiled in a bag, the tripe may be put, with some salt and whole pepper, into a stoneware jar, which must have a piece of linen tied over it, and a plate laid upon the top. The pot should always be kept full of boiling water and care should be taken that it does not boil into the jar. ENTREMETS. 299 39. Tripe à la Bourgeoise. . First boil the tripe, then cut it into pieces two inches long. Put them in a saucepan with a slice of ham and a little bacon cut up in small pieces; seaso2 with an onion, a little garlic, and a bay-leaf; moisten with a very small quantity of the water in which the tripe has been boiled and let it simmer gently on a slow fire. したい​~ 40. Lamb Cutlets à la Soubise, Trim the cutlets; lard them cross-wise and cook them. When they are done, scrape the ends of the bones white and place them on a dish. Serve with them Soubise sauce, of which the ingredients are onions, cream, consommé, thick Béchamel, salt, and peppercorns. ri 41. Lamb Cutlets en Salpicon. Fry the cutlets lightly, or stew them ; take some salpicon (see p. 254) of chicken or of game; cover the cutlets with this, and serve with Spanish sauce (p. 347). inte 42. Resurrection Cutlets. Take some fine, tender cabbage-leaves, throw boiling water over them, and allow them to cool. Chop up some cold meat of any or all kinds you may have left over ; season with pepper, salt, and mixed herbs and onions ; inoisten with a little meat-jelly or thick brown gravy, add a little lump of butter, and then cut the stalks of the cabbage- leaves ; put into each leaf a tablespoonful of mincemeat; fold 300 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. into a flat, round shape, place in a stew-pan with a little butter, and cover up the saucepan with a napkin. Let the contents stew until done. If you cannot get cabbage-leaves, vegetable-marrow leaves will serve as well. Serve ne mot get cann. Let the D Pepper. 43. Lamb Chops, Maison d'Or. Pare neatly six lamb chops, make an incision in each one, and insert therein a slice of truffle. Season with a pinch of salt and half a pinch of pepper. Dip the chops in beaten egg, then in fresh bread-crumbs. Fry them in a stew-pan with two ounces of clarified butter for four minutes on each side, and serve with six heart-shaped pieces of fried bread, each one covered with some pâté de foie gras and a gill of hot Madeira wine sauce. Arrange a curled paper on the end of each chop fresh brea with two , 44. Mutton Chops. These must never be batted or beaten ; season with pepper and salt; broil over a clear tire; turn them frequently, so that they may retain their own gravy, and serve each chop on a separate hot plate. The addition of a little chopped shallot and a bit of fresh butter, placed under each chop, is no bad thing by way of relish. (See also p. 55.) 45. Mutton Chops, Bretonne. Pare six nice muttɔn chops, season with a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of pepper, and pour a few drops of oil over each. Broil four minutes on each side. Arrange them on a dish, and serve with half a pint of purée of white ENTREMETS. 301 beans mingled with two tablespoonfuls of good hot neat glaze. Intro 45. Mutton Chops, Bread-crambed. Trim the chops; season with pepper and salt ; pat closely some bread-crumbs on each, and then, having dipped them separately in some clarified butter, bread-crumb them again ; broil the chops on both sides over a clear fire ; dish them up, and serve with plain gravy under them. They may be served also with thick purées of peas, asparagus, turnips, chestnuts—in fact, all kinds of dressed vegetables, and with tomato (p. 349), Italian (p. 336), or Robert (p. 343) sauce. 47. Chops Soyer, with Potatoes. Take five pounds of saddle of mutton, cut and saw it into six pieces, crosswise. Flatten, pare, and trim. Season with one tablespoonful of salt, and a teaspoonful of pepper. Broil the chops for six minutes on each side, place them on a hot dish, and serve with a garnishing of one pint of fried potatoes round the dish. nan 48. Pork Chops, Broiled. Pork chops are cut from the neck or loin. They require a great deal of the fire. They must be served broiling hot and with a hot gravy, with which a teaspoonful of made mustard and a little dry sage, pulverised, may be mixed. Robert sauce possesses still more gusto for thoroughbred pork-eaters. Stewed cabbage may be served with the chops. 302 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. I may here remark that bacon may be nicely broiled over a slow fire in a sheet of paper, tucked up in form of a small dripping-pan. -nin 49. Beef Steak, Sauté, with Madeira. Pick out the skin and nerves from your steaks and cut them into equal scollops; beat them and trim them into the form of a round; melt some butter in a sauté-pan, and lightly cook the steaks in it. When they are done of a nice light colour, arrange them on a dish in the forın of a crown, drain the butter from the pan, and put the liquor by; then add a glass of Madeira, and reduce with a little veal glaze and a little Spanish sauce (p. 347), adding also a small quantity of pimento butter. When your sauce is of a nice dark colour, strain it through a sieve, and serve it with the steaks. . . Laipaine . : . 50. Chateaubriand Steak. Cut the fillet of beef one and a half to two inches thick; trim off all unnecessary fat, and skin; season with salt, pepper and salad oil, and let it lie in the seasoning for at least one hour before cooking; then put it on oiled straws, between two thin slices froin the neck of beef, which can afterwards be used up in other ways, and cook for twelve or fifteen minutes over a bright fire; dish it up, and serve with fried potatoes, and a sauce prepared thus :-Put a glassful of white wine in a stew-pan; then mix into it one ounce of glaze and four tablespoonfuls of brown sauce (p. 329); boil up together, and add by degrees two ounces of fresh butter, working it in bit by bit; when the butter has dis- solved, mix in a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, half the 304 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 53. Beef Olives. Cut the beef into long thin steaks. Prepare a forcemeat made of bread-crumbs, minced beef suet, chopped parsley, a little grated lemon-peel, nutmeg, pepper, and salt; bind it with the yolks of beaten eggs. Put a layer of it over each steak; roll and tie them with a thread; fry them lightly in beef dripping; put them in a stew-pan with soine good brown gravy, a glass of white wine and a little cayenne, and thicken with a little flour and butter; cover the pan closely, and let them stew gently for an hour. Before serving, add a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup; garnish with cut pickles. irtan 54. Beef à la Mode. Take a piece of beef, either off the round or off the flank; beat it, lard it with large pieces of bacon; add half a calf's foot, an onion, a carrot, a bunch of sweet herbs, a bay-leaf, thyme, a head of garlic, a few cloves, salt and pepper. Pour over the whole a glass of water, half a glass of white wine, or a spoonful of brandy, and let it stew till the meat is very tender. Then strain the sauce through a tammy, take off the fat, and serve. It requires at least four hours to stew beef à la mode, and it must be done over a gentle fire. Be sure that the saucepan lid fits close. Another Way. Take the bone out of a small round of fine ox-beef. Cut some fat bacon in long strips; dip them into common and shallot vinegar mixed, and roll them in the following scasoning :-Grated nutmeg, black and Jamaica pepper, one or two cloves, and some salt, parsley, chives, lemon-thyme, knotted marjoram, and savoury, shredded quite small. Lard the beef very thickly, bind it firmly with tape, and rub the ENTREMETS. 305 outside with the seasoning. Put it into a saucepan, with the rind of a lemon, four large onions, the red part of three or four carrots and two turnips cut into dice, a teacupful of strong ale and one of vinegar. Let it stew for six or eight hours, turning it two or three times. Half an hour before serving, take out the beef and vegetables, skim off the fat, strain the sauce, and thicken it with a little flour and water mixed smooth. Add a teacupful of port wine, return all into the pot, and let it boil. Siran 55. Short or Spiced Beef. (To be eaten cold.) Hang up ten or twelve pounds of the middle part of a brisket of beef for three or four days; then rub well into it three ounces of finely-powdered saltpetre, and, if spice is approved of, one ounce of allspice and half an ounce of black pepper. Let it stand all night; then salt it with three pounds of well-pounded bay-salt with half a pound of treacle, in which let it remain ten days, rubbing it daily. When it is to be boiled, sew it closely in a cloth ; let the water only simmer (upon no account allowing it to boil) for nine hours over a slow fire or upon a stove. When taken out of the water, place two sticks across the pot, and let the beef stand over the steam for half an hour, turning it from side to side; then press it with a heavy weight. It must not be taken out of the cloth till perfectly cold. por 56. Beef à la Braise: Take two or three ribs of beef, cut away only the fleshy part that is next the chine, and remove all the fat; lard 306 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. it with pretty large pieces of bacon; season with spices, sweet herbs, parsley, young onions, a small quantity of mushrooms, and truffles, shredded very small. Then tie it into a neat form with packthread and put it into a stew- pan, having previously lined the bottom of the pan with thin slices of fat bacon; over these lay slices of lean beef about an inch thick; beat them well, and season with spice, sweet herbs, onions, bay-leaves, salt, and pepper. In putting in your beef, lay the fleshy side downwards, that it may the better take the relish of the seasoning; season the upper part as you did the lower, and lay over it slices of beef, and over them slices of bacon, as you did at the bottom; mask the whole with broth, then cover the stew-pan and close it well all round; put fire on the cover of the stew-pan as well as underneath. When the beef is sufficiently stewed, take it up and let it drain a little; then lay it in a dish and pour upon it a ragoût made thus:- Take veal sweetbreads, livers of capons, mushrooms, truffles, tops of asparagus and bottoms of artichokes; “ toss” these with some melted bacon, moisten them with good gravy, and thicken with a cullis made of veal and ham. -nin 57. Fillet of Beef à l'Intendante. Make a forcemeat with fowls' livers, grated bacon, a little butter, parsley, shallots, mushrooms, three yolks of eggs, and fine spices. Cut a fillet of beef into two, and flatten it with the cleaver ; lard it through with middling slices; then lay the forcemeat upon it, tie it in a cloth, and boil it in broth, a glass of white wine, and a faggot of sweet herbs. When done, serve it with a ragoût of sweetbreads, or truffles. ENTREMETS. 307 58. Stewed Beef. Stew in five quarts of water the middle part of a brisket of beef, weighing ten pounds; add two onions stuck with two cloves, one head of celery, one large carrot, two turnips cut small, a handful of sorrel leaves, half an ounce of black pepper, and some salt. Stew gently for six hours. Make a strong gravy with carrots and turnips, the turnips to be scraped and fried of a brown colour in butter; add pepper, salt, and a little cayenne; thicken it with flour and butter and pour it over the beef, with the carrots and turnips. -18v 59. Beef Bonilli. Put on three pounds of a leg or shin of beef in three quarts of water; when it boils, skim well ; add half a table- spoonful of whole pepper, one and a half large red onion, and half a carrot; let simmer for three or three and a half hours; when the meat is tender, cut off a piece of it and lay it aside. Wash and thoroughly clean an ox-foot; blanch it in cold water for six hours, and boil it in fresh water about two and a half hours. The next day, take off the fat from the strained soup, boil the soup, and add the piece of beef, and the gristles of the ox-foot cut small, and let all boil together for a few minutes. Serve with dry toast cut into dice. 60. Gratin of Boiled Beef. Take a little butter, or fat-if of poultry the better ; rub it on the inside of a baking disk, and sprinkle with bread raspings; lay around the dish slices of boiled beef, cut very thin ; strew over them finely chopped parsley and pieces of butter; pour in some broth, and bake the whole gently in a Dutch oven. U 2 308 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 61, To Boil a Ramp of Beef after the French Fashion. Parboil a rump of beef, or the little end of the brisket, for half an hour; then take it up and put it into a deep dish; slash it in the side, that the gravy may come out; throw a little pepper and salt between every cut; then fill up the dish with good claret, put to it three or four pieces of mace, set it on the coals, closely covered, and boil it above an hour and a half, but turn it often in the meantime; then with a spoon take off the fat and fill up with claret; add six onions, sliced, a handful of capers or broom buds, half a dozen hard lettuces, sliced, three spoonfuls of wine-vinegar and as much verjuice, and set the meat a-boiling till it be tender. Serve it up with brown bread and sippets fried with butter, and be sure there is not too much fat in it. Linear 62, Vinaigrette of Beef. Cut thin slices of dressed beef; put them into a salad bowl, with a layer of anchovies, or red herrings, free from bones; add some parsley, chervil, and chives, chopped fine, and a few sliced pickled gherkins; season with pepper, salt, and vinegar, and serve without stirring. · 63. Scarlet Beef. Mix together a little mace, cloves, allspice, black pepper, and saltpetre; rub it well into two pounds of tender lean beef; let this lie six days, turning it daily and rubbing it with pickle; then roll and tie it firmly with tape; put it and the pickle into a small jar, with a slice or two of beef suet under it and over it; tic it closely, and bake it ENTREMETS. 309 an hour. It is eaten cold, cut in thin slices and garnished with parsley. If kept long, the colour fades. Ginawa 64. Mutton Ham. Cut a hind-quarter of good mutton into the shape of a ham ; pound one ounce of saltpetre with one pound of coarse salt and a quarter of a pound of brown sugar; rub the ham well with this mixture, and let it lie for a fortnight, rubbing it well with the pickle every two or three days. Then take it out, and press it with a weight for one day; smoke it with sawdust for ten or fifteen days, or hang it to dry in the kitchen. If the ham is to be boiled soon after it has been smoked, soak it one hour; if it has been smoked any length of time, it will require to be soaked several hours. Put it on in cold water, and boil it gently for two hours. It is eaten cold at breakfast, luncheon, or supper. Obs.—A mutton ham is sometimes cured with the above quantity of salt and sugar, with the addition of half an ounce of white pepper, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and one nutmeg. Login 65. Carbonnade of Mutton. After having removed the middle bone, beat the meat thoroughly with a kitchen chopper; add a slice of bacon, season with sweet herbs, and lard the carbonnade length- wise. Then powder it lightly with flour, and put it into a saucepan with some melted lard or butter; brown it on both sides; then add the bacon and seasoning, and let it stew gently over a slow fire. The carbonnade should be browned quickly, or the juice of the meat will be dried up. 310 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 66. To Stew a Shoulder of Mutton. Bone a shoulder of mutton with a sharp knife, and fill the space with the following stuffing :-Grated bread, minced suet, parsley, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; bind with the yolks of two well-beaten eggs; sew or fasten with small skewers ; brown in a frying-pan, with a bit of butter. Break the bone, put it into a saucepan with some water, an onion, pepper, salt, and a bunch of parsley ; let it stew till the strength be extracted; strain and thicken with butter rolled in flour; put this with the mutton, and a glass of port wine, into the saucepan, which cover closely, and let stew gently for two hours. Before serving, add two tablespoon- fuls of mushroom catsup. Garnish with pickles. rain 67. To Kebob a Loin of Mutton. Bone a good-sized loin of mutton, and take off all the fat; cut or draw off the inside skin nearly to the bottom. With grated bread mix parsley, thyme, and shallot, finely minced ; season with pepper and salt, pounded mace, grated lemon-peel and nutmeg; rub the beaten yolk of an egg over the mutton and the skin; put a layer of the stuffing, turn the skin over, and sew it at the sides and top; rub more egg, and strew some of the stuffing over the outside. Baste it with butter while roasting, and dredge it three or four times with the stuffing. Serve it with a rich gravy, to which add a glass of port wine and some catsup. iren 68. Skewer Kebob. Cut five pounds of loin or leg of mutton in pieces the size of an egg; then chop four middle-sized onions, and sprinkle 312 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. into a stew-pan with some fresh butter, and partly fry them ; add the minced mutton, with half a handful of skinned pistachios, the same of currants, a little salt, pepper, and cinnamon; stir round with a spoon until the minced meat also is partly fried; then cut a caul-fat in pieces about the size of vine-leaves, divide the mincemeat among them, and wrap each up in the form of a small cup, or any shape you fancy; lay them on a baking-tin, place it in a hot oven till nicely browned; dish up tastefully, and serve. 71. Breast of Matton, Grilled. Stew a breast of mutton gently with broth, salt, pepper, parsley, chives, thyme, and a bay-leaf; when it is done, put it into oil with parsley and chives minced, salt and pepper; cover it with bread-crumbs, grill it, and serve it with a sharp sauce (p. 346). Instead of stewing it as above directed, you may simply put it into a saucepan, and when boiled, crumb and grill it. intim 72. Leg of Mutton Braised for Seven Hours. Take out the chump and thigh bones, but without tearing the meat; lard it with pieces of bacon rolled in salt and spice, but do not let the larding project beyond the meat; tie it together, slit the joint in order to bend it back; cut off the knuckle, that the leg may take less room; put it into a stew-pan, with six onions, four carrots, a bunch of parsley and sweet herbs, salt and spice, the bones you have taken from the meat, as well as any other trimmings you may have; also two slices of bacon, and two glasses of water or broth. Set on the fire, and when it ENTREMETS. 313 boils put some cinders on the lid. When it is done, take it up, skim off the fat, and strain the gravy over the joint. To give it a better appearance, reduce some of the gravy, and with it glaze the meat. Sretan 73. Haricot Mutton. Cut the best end of a neck or loin of mutton that has been kept till tender, into chops of equal thickness; you may cut two chops to one bone, but it is more convenient to help when there is only one; trim off some of the fat and the lower end of the chine bone, scrape it clean, and lay it in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter; set it over a smart fire; if your fire is not sharp, the chops will be done before they are coloured: the intention of frying them is merely to give them a very light browning. While the chops are browning, peel a couple of dozen of young button onions, and boil them in three pints of water for fifteen or twenty minutes; set them by, and pour the liquor they were boiled in into the stew-pan with the chops; if that is not sufficient to cover them, add as much boiling water as will ; remove the scum as it rises, and be careful they are not stewed too fast or too much; take out one of thein with a fish-slice and try it; when they are tender, which will be in about an hour and a half, pass the gravy through a sieve into a basin and place it in the open air, that it may get cold. You may then easily and completely skim off the fat. In the meantime, set the meat and the onions by the fire to keep hot, and pour some boiling water over the latter to warm them again. Have about six ounces of carrots and eight ounces of turnips peeled and cut into slices, or shaped into balls about as big as a nutmeg ; boil the carrots for half an hour, and put them on a sieve to 314 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. drain, and then place them round the dish, the last thing. Thicken the gravy by putting an ounce of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted, stir in as much flour as will stiffen it; pour the gravy to it by degrees, stir together till it boils; strain it through a fine sieve into a stew-pan, put in the carrots and turnips to get warm, and let it simmer gently while you dish up the meat; lay the chops round a dish, put the vegetables in the middle, and pour the thickened gravy over. Some put in capers, minced gherkins, etc. Loan 74. English Mutton-Pie. Cut up in slices, not too thick nor too large, the thickest, fleshiest part of a leg of mutton, or a loin (about a pound and a half). Trim away the bones and sinewy skin, slightly beat the slices, and season with pepper and salt. Arrange on the bottom of a pie-dish a layer of these slices, continue filling the dish alternately with the meat and with potatoes ; pour over it a gill of good cold gravy, moisten the rim of the dish all round, and apply to it a thin strip of half puff-paste of the same size; moisten this likewise, and cover meat and dish to the rim with a flat of the same paste ; apply it with- out drawing, and cut off the surface, holding the knife a little to the outside ; then channel it all round with the back of a knife, pressing the paste with the thumb. Adorn the top, make a hole in the centre of it, egg the pie, and bake it in a moderate oven for an hour and a quarter, being careful to cover the paste with paper as soon as it takes colour. Gintam 75. Fieldfare Pasties. Fieldfares, snipes, woodcocks, quails, and young plovers should be drawn for pasties, the gizzard opened to take out ENTREMETS. 315 any grit, and all the inside put into a stew-pan with butter to steam a little while. Then take out, and lay the birds in to brown delicately in the butter; when they are done, take thein out. For a pasty of half a dozen birds, make forcemeat of a pound and a half of veal, half a pound of fat bacon, and half a pound of calf's liver, all finely minced. Add more butter to that in which the birds were cooked. Beat three eggs with a teacupful of milk, and stir this into the butter; then stir in the mince, add salt, white pepper, and very little spice. Spread a layer of the forcemeat in the bottom of the dish, sprinkle salt, pepper, and lemon- juice over the birds and their trails ; arrange them on the forcemeat, lay the rest of this over them ; put on the paste lid, and, when baked, pour in a little rich gravy. intar 76. Beef and Oyster Sausages. Scald three-quarters of a pint of oysters in their own liquor; take them out and chop them fine; mince one pound of beef and mutton, and three-quarters of a pound of beef-suet; add the oysters, and season with salt, pepper, mace, and two cloves pounded; beat up two eggs, and mix them well with the other ingredients, and pack closely into a jar. When to be used, roll it into the form of small sausages, dip them in the yolk of an egg beaten up, strew grated bread-crumbs over them, or dust with flour, and fry them in fresh dripping. Serve them upon fried bread, hot. ipin 77. Hessian Stew. Cut the root of a tongue into large pieces; lay it in a deep pan; rub well into it a handful of salt; pour over 316 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. it some hot water, and stir it round. When cool enough, scour it well with the hands, and wash it thoroughly in cold water; when perfectly clean, dust it with flour; fry it of a light brown with a good quantity of small white onions; put it into a digester with a teacupful of strong beer; rinse out the pan with boiling-water; put this to the meat, with three quarts more of hot water, a bead or two of garlic, some sliced carrots and turnips ; season with ground black Jamaica and cayenne pepper, three cloves, and some salt; let it stew three or four hours. Half an hour before serving take out the meat and some of the soup for gravy; add more spices, and of mushroom catsup, soy, walnut-pickle, and coratch, a tablespoonful each, and three of port wine; boil all together, thicken the sauce with butter rolled in flour, and garnish with sippets of thin toasted bread cut into a three-cornered shape. The soup left over may be strained, and served clear, or, if preferred, with vegetables that have been previously boiled. nar 78. Irish Mutton Stew. Take two pounds of mutton chops, put them in a stew- pan, and cover with boiling water. Add three dessert- spoonfuls of salt and a teaspoonful of pepper; also two carrots, two turnips, all cut up, and six small onions. Let this cook for twenty minutes, then add half a pint of potatoes cut in quarters, and a little more water, and let, all stew slowly for about twenty minutes more. Now stir all together thoroughly, and serve very hot. creare 79. Navarin Stew. Bone a small leg of mutton, and cut the meat into middling-sized squares; season with salt and spices, add a ENTREMETS. 317 bunch of aromatics, pour over half a glass of Madeira, and let it macerate for seven or eight hours. Then drain it, and wipe it on a cloth. Mix six ounces of fat bacon in a stew-pan ; stir it, add to it the squares of meat and half a pound of streaky bacon, blanched and cut in squares ; fry over a good fire, then drain the fat off, and pour into the stew-pan the Madeira in which the meat was macer- ated; two minutes after, moisten to height with light-brown sauce. Cover the stew-pan, cooking the stew on a moder- ate fire, with hot ashes on the lid. The meats being about done, skim the fat off the sauce, dilute it with a glass of white wine, and mix with a garnish of good turnips, cut in balls with a vegetable spoon, and previously coloured in a frying-pan over a sharp fire, and seasoned. Continue boiling gently; remembering that meats and turnips must be done at the same time. When ready to serve, dish the stew, the meats taking the centre and the turnips placed all round. ren 80. Hashed Calf's Head. Take any of the head and tongue that remains, and cut into squares or slices; sprinkle over the meat salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and dredge or powder it with a little fine flour or arrowroot. If any soup of the previous day remains, make it up to a pint with good mutton broth, adding a glass of red or white wine, with three tablespoon- fuls of mushroom catsup; put the meat into this and give it a boil up; when it is ready, squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Obs.—A good cook will judge how much flour is neces- sary to thicken the gravy; much must depend upon the remains of the calf's head. 318 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 81. Foreign Hash. Take the meat off any cold joint, cut it in even-sized pieces. Cut up in slices two Spanish onions, four car- rots, two tomatoes, two large apples, fry them in dripping or butter, and when tender add, according to the meat, a pint or a quart of stock, poured over them. Take two heaped-up tablespoonfuls of flour, mix into a smooth paste with a little water; add salt, pepper, and one teaspoonful of brown sugar, a few herbs, fresh or dried, and a clove of garlic. Let all boil together for three hours; then place the saucepan beside the fire, add the meat, stir well; put in a teaspoonful of jam, and after ten minutes serve very hot. If you cannot get tomatoes, two tablespoonfuls of tomato-sauce will do. irar 82. Corned-Beef Hash. Chop rather fine some cold corned-beef. To each pint add one pint and a half of cold boiled potatoes chopped fine, one tablespoonful of butter, and one cupful of stock, or, if no stock is on hand, two-thirds of a cupful of hot water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put the mixture into a frying-pan, and stir over the fire for about eight minutes, being careful not to burn it. Spread smoothly. Cover the pan, and set back where the hash will brown slowly. It will take about half an hour. When done, fold it like an omelette, and turn on to a hot dish. Garnish with points of toast and parsley. Serve hot. If there are no cold potatoes, the same quantity of hot mashed potatoes may be used. ENTREMETS. 319 83. Provençal Hotchpotch—"Cassoulic.” Any remains of cold meat; but be careful to add some fat bacon and some onions, minced small. Cut up your meat into small dice. Add haricot beans which have been well soaked and cooked the previous day in gravy. Place meat, haricots, and gravy, properly seasoned, in a well- buttered mould; strew bread-crumbs and little bits of butter on top, and brown in the oven for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Turn out and serve hot. You may substitute carefully boiled rice or cold boiled potatoes for the haricots, if you like. This is a very economical and toothsome dish, and one of the safeguards against explosions of conjugal temper. The observant housekeeper will not fail to note that “cassoulic” is a species of Southern arabesque of the English “ bubble and squeak.” Girin 84. West Indian Pepper-Pot. Procure a bottle of casaripe sauce. This sauce is sent from the West Indies. It is thick and dark in appear- ance, and is sold in quart bottles. Take whatever remains of meat or poultry you have, cut them into convenient pieces, trim them neatly, put them into a pan, and cover them with the sauce. Make the whole hot over the fire, and take out as much as is required for immediate use. Further supplies of game or poultry must be covered with additional sauce, and warmed up each time it is used. The sauce will keep the meat quite good. non 85. Toad-in-a-Hole. Beat two eggs; stir in three tablespoonfuls of baked flour, add half a saltspoonful of salt and a pint of milk ; 320 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. beat the batter for fifteen minutes. Grease the interior of a pie-dish; put in the batter, with a pound and a half of cutlets of mutton or beef in moderate-sized pieces; season with salt, pepper, and chopped onion, and bake in a fairly hot oven for an hour and three-quarters. Any remains of cooked meat, poultry or game, cut in pieces and seasoned, may be used in making a “toad-in-a- hole.” ruar 86. Bubble and Squeak. Chop small some boiled white cabbage; season it with pepper and salt, and fry it with a little butter; pepper and broil some slices of cold boiled salted beef (by preference, underdone); put the fried cabbage into a dish, lay round it the slices of boiled beef, and serve very hot. Sinan 87. A Cake of Pork. The pork must be minced very fine and mixed with chives or a little onion, salt, pepper, a little lemon-peel, and an egg. Dredge in enough flour to bind the mince. Form a thick round cake. Melt butter in a stew-pan; lay in the cake; brown it on one side. Take it out, and slice onions into the stew-pan, with more butter to thin the sauce; season it to taste, and lay it in the cake to get hot through. retorn 88. To Make an Outlandish Dish, Take the liver of a hog, and cut it in pieces about the bigness of a span; then take aniseed or French seed, pepper and salt, and season them therewithal; lay the pieces severally round in the caul of the hog, and so roast them on a bird-spit. 322 SECTION VII.-CURRIES. 1. Carried Sole. Fry (not broil) the soles delicately, overnight. At the same time carefully boil the rice, as directed in No. 7. In the morning, against breakfast-time, pile the rice in the middle of the dish, and lay around it from the rim, converging to the centre, the slices of cold sole, gently veneered with a thin layer of Auckland curry-paste, diluted, if too stiff, with oil or butter. Gorm 2. Lobster Curry, Pick the meat from the shell of a lobster and cut it into small oblong pieces. Fry two onions to a golden-brown in an ounce of butter; stir in one tablespoonful of curry-powder or paste and half a pint of meat stock, and simmer till it thickens; then put in your lobster-flesh, stew the whole for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally; serve boiled rice with it. son 3. Oyster Curry. Blanch and beard your oysters, leaving them in their own liquor; then cut two middling-sized onions into small dice, and “toss” them in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter; when done, mix in two teaspoonfuls of curry powder and one of curry paste, and pass all through a tammy-it ought to be thick; then add the oysters with their liquor, and keep stirring over the fire until they become enveloped in a thick CURRIES. 323 sauce, which they should simmer in for two minutes. Then turn out on your dish, and serve with rice separately. - Lion 4. Dressed Salmon, Carried. Take a large onion, cut it into small pieces, and fry it in an ounce of butter till of a light-brown colour; put it into three-quarters of a pint of strong stock, with a table- spoonful of curry-powder, one tablespoonful of Harvey's sauce, and a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce, the juice of half a lemon, cayenne and salt to taste; siinmer all gently till the onion is tender, stirring it occasionally. Cut the remains of any boiled salmon into small pieces, carefully taking away all skin and bone, lay them in the stew-pan, and let them gradually heat through, but do not allow the curry to boil. Serve with rice separately. Giron 5. Curried Fish or Meat. If fish is to be curried, clean and cut it into slices; it prawns, add them whole; crab or lobster must be picked from the shells; fowls or chicken carefully cut up into shreds; and butchers' meat similarly. Never send up your meat cut in joints or slices. Place either of these in cocoa-nut water, with a clove of garlic, and one or two onions shredded, a dessertspoonful of turmeric pounded, six green chillies divided in half, and a few slices of green ginger, with a moderate portion of salt, and let it boil; as the meat, fowl, or fish is nearly dressed, add two spoonfuls of fresh butter, stirring all together. When the dressing is nearly finished, add, lastly, some more cocoa-nut water, and as the curry boils, squeeze in the juice of a lemon to give it a proper acidity. In India a few slices of green mangoes, if in season, may be boiled in the curry. In England, use a V 2 324 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. zest of green apples; a few-a very few-green gooseberries are also allowable. If the gravy appears too thin, it may have a little flour rubbed up with the butter. Serve with rice separately. -lain 6. A Dry Curry Hash. Cut one pound of beef steak or fowl into shreds, slice one large onion, and fry in butter till of a light brown ; then add one tablespoonful of curry-powder and the meat, and fry all until of a dark brown; put into a stew-pan with a teacupful of milk, the juice of a lemon, and a little salt. Stew gently for an hour, stirring occasionally. The rice should be served on a separate dish. Grain 7. How to Prepare Rice for Curry. Wash your rice, so as to have it thoroughly clean, and then cover it to excess with either cold or boiling water, and place upon a brisk fire, either covered or uncovered. The main point to be considered is, neither to under- nor to over-do the boiling. Test the rice now and again by press- ing a grain or two between the finger and thumb. As soon as the “bone in it” disappears, and neither sooner nor luter, pour in a quart of cold water, and strain or pour off what the Hindoos call the “cunjee water," which can be used for making a meagre coup. Then place the rice in a colander in the oven for a few minutes, or drive off the superfluous moisture by placing the pan, shaken occasionally, on the fire for a short time; your rice will now be in free separate grains. To whiten it, a squeeze of lemon or a pinch of alum added during the boiling stage will suffice. Always use the thick broad-grained rice for boiling. The slender-grained varieties ars the best for puddings and sweets. 325 SECTION VIII.-SAUCES. 1. À la Diable. Misce half a dozen shallots very small, wash, and press out all the moisture; then put them into a saucepan, with a glass of vinegar, a clove of garlic, a bay-leaf, and some veal glaze; reduce it nearly to a jelly; moisten it with a little good gravy, add pimento butter and a teaspoonful of olive oil. non 2. À la Madeleine. Put a few bread-crumbs, two shredded shallots, a bit of butter, half a spoonful of vinegar, and two spoonfuls of consommé (p. 77) into a stew-pan; set on the fire, and boil up together; season with pepper and salt. This sauce should not be too thick. Sinin 3. À la Parisienne. This sauce is composed of Béchamel sauce (No. 8), into which are put mushrooms, blanched, and cooked truffles cut up in very small pieces; also the tails of shrimps peeled. Heat this, without boiling it, in a metal-bath, and see at the moment of serving that it is well seasoned. 326 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 4. À l'Aurore. Mix two dessertspoonfuls of lemon-juice with some smooth sauce (No. 63), season with pepper and nutmeg; put the mixture into a saucepan, make it quite hot. In the meantime, rub the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs through a colander, which put into the sauce just before serving ; take care not to let it boil after the eggs are in. 5. Au Révérend. Chop up some lemon-peel and two or three pickled cucumbers; put this into a stew-pan with two spoonfuls of cullis, a little butter rolled in flour; season with salt and pepper; put it on the fire and make it quite hot without boiling, stirring all the time. Make an “alliance” with the yolks of eggs, and serve. 6. Anchovy Batter. Pick and wipe half a dozen anchovies, which pound with two ounces of fresh butter, and rub through a fine hair-sieve. Inn 7. Béarnaise. Mix half a teaspoonful of flour with a little butter. Moisten with mushroom juice, and let it boil for a few minutes; thicken with the yolks of one or two eggs beaten up in cream. Add a few mushrooms, truffles chopped up fine, some essence of anchovy, and the juice of a lemon. SAUCES. 327 8. Béchamel. Put six ounces of four in a basin; moisten with half a pint of cold milk; pour into a stew-pan, stir it on the fire ; as soon as the mixture becomes a smooth paste, take it off the fire and work it well with a spoon. Then add three-quarters of a pint of boiled milk, two small onions, a bunch of parsley, salt, peppercorns, and four ounces of raw ham in small dice; bring it to the boil; put it back on a very slow fire, and cook it for twenty minutes, stirring carefully from time to tiine; pass all through a tammy. If you think the sauce too rich for macaroni, you can serve with the gravy of roast meat, thickened with a little flour, and rendered more relishable with a little burnt onion. S retan 9. Black Butter. Put some butter into a small saucepan or frying-pan and let it brown; when thoroughly hot add half a glass of vinegar, with pepper and salt. -noir 10. Blanche. Put into a saucepan a dessertspoonful of good flour and four ounces of butter. Mix these two ingredients carefully without heating them. Season with pepper and salt, and add a pint of hot or cold water. Put the sauce- pan on the fire, taking care to stir all the time. Let it boil for two minutes, then remove it. Mix with it the juice of one lemon and a little fresh butter. Stir till the butter is melted. If the sauce is too thick—which happens when it is a success—pour in water till it is of the right consistence, and keep it hot without letting it boil. 328 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 11. Blanche à l'Estragon. Boil a handful of tarragon in salt water for two ininutes; cool it with cold water, drain it and chop it up. At the moment of serving put it into a Sauce Blanche (No. 10). -ray 12. Bread. Put a large piece of crumb from a stale loaf into a sauce- pan, with half a pint of milk, an onion, a blade of mace, and a few peppercorns in a bit of cloth. Boil them a few minutes, then take out the onion and spice, mash the bread very smooth, and add to it a piece of butter and a little salt. Grein 13. Bretonne. Cut in halves four or five large onions, so as to be able to remove the part adhering to the root, which gives a bitter taste. Chop up these onions, lightly fry them in butter, and moisten with a glass of beef broth or water, adding a little thyme and bay-leaf. Let these simmer gently until thoroughly done, then pass them through the sieve. Put into this purée of onions two small spoonfuls of thickened sauce, and season with pepper, salt, and a little lemon. When you have no thickened sauce, put a pinch of four into the onions when they are slightly browned, and moisten with a little stock or water. -101 14. Brown. Take a pound or two of steaks, two or three pounds of veal, lean ham, some pickings of fowl, carrots, and onions ; SAUCES. 329 put all these into a saucepan with a glass of water, and set it on a brisk fire. When scarcely any moisture remains, put it on a brisk fire, that the jelly may take colour without burning, and as soon as it is brown, moisten it with stock (or water), add a bunch of parsley and green onions, two bay-leaves, two cloves, and some champignons; salt it well, and set it on the fire for three hours, then strain. Dilute a little browning with your liquor, and boil it an hour over a gentle fire; take off all the fat, and run it through a tammy. 15. Brown Chaudfroid. Three-quarters of a pint of aspic, quarter of a pint of tomato sauce, a few drops of carmine, half a wineglassful of sherry, half an ounce of glaze ; reduce to a quarter of the amount, keeping it well skimmed while boiling; then pass it through the tammy, and use when somewhat cool. 16. Brown Gravy. Put a piece of butter, about the size of a hen's egg, into a saucepan, and when it is melted shake in a little flour, and let it brown. Then by degrees stir in the following in- gredients:—Half a pint of water and the same quantity of ale or small beer that is not bitter, an onion and a piece of lemon-peel cut small, three cloves, a blade of mace, soine whole pepper, a dessertspoonful of mushroom pickle, the same quantity of catsup, and an anchovy. Let the whole boil together a quarter of an hour, then strain it off, and it will be a good sauce for various purposes. 330 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 17. Brown Italian. Chop a shallot, pass it in a stew-pan with a spoonful of oil or a little butter, a clove, a blade of mace, a few peppercorns, a little ham, and a small piece of bay-leaf; when fried a little, add two tablespoonfuls of mushroom chopped very fine, which pass also a few minutes; add two ragoût-spoonfuls of Spanish sauce (No. 64), and one of brown broth (p. 77); stir the whole over the fire till it boils; draw it to the corner and let it simmer fifteen or twenty ininutes; skim it, and strain it through a colander-spoon. Linare 18. Brown Poivrade, or Sharp Sauce. Put into a small stew-pan a few slices of carrot, four shallots sliced, a sprig of parsley or a little sliced parsley- root, half a bay-leaf, a sprig of thyme, a clove, half a blade of mace, and about twenty peppercorns, with a small piece of ham, and a piece of butter as large as a walnut; stir these on the fire till lightly tinged with brown; add half a pint of Spanish sauce (No. 64) and a ragoût-spoonful of consommé (p. 77); stir till boiling. Draw it to the corner of the stove till your herbs are done; skim well; add a little sugar, to counteract any bitterness from the roots, and pass through a tammy. (See also No. 60.) ram 19. Cardinal. Pound some spawn of lobster with butter, and stir it into some “turned” sauce (No. 70), and work it well over the stove until it becomes sinooth; season it with cayenne pepper and salt, the juice of a lemon, and a glass of Madeira wine; rub it through a tammy. SAUCES. 331 20. Carrier. Scrape a small stick of horseradish, cut an onion or two in thin slices; put these into a sauce tureen with a little vinegar and whole pepper, set the tureen in the dripping-pan under a shoulder of mutton while it is roasting. Serve this sauce quite hot with the meat. 21. Champagne. Cut an onion, half a pottle of mushrooms, and a small carrot, in slices, which put into a saucepan with two ounces of butter, a few sprigs of parsley, a sprig of bay-leaf, a very little thyme, a couple of blades of mace, two cloves, about thirty peppercorns, and an ounce of ham cut in pieces; let the whole sweat well over a brisk fire; do not leave off stirring; add about two tablespoonfuls of flour; stir it two minutes longer, bearing in mind that it must be as white as you can make it; dilute with consommé (p. 77); bring it gradually to the consistence of “turned ” sauce. When it is well clarified at the side of the stove, skim it, then add three parts of a bottle of boiling champagne. Reduce your sauce, on a quick fire, to the consistence of melted butter; strain it through a tammy, and finish with a piece of anchovy butter as large as a walnut, cayenne, and lemon-juice. _iran 22. Dutch. A little scraped horseradish, a button onion sliced, a little parsley or sliced parsley-root, a few peppercorns, and half a bay-leaf. Stew these at the side of the tire, to get out the Hlavour, in tarragon, elder, or plain vinegar, to your taste, three dessertspoonfuls of either, with as much consommé (p. 77). When this is done, pour the liquor into a basin 332 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. on the yolks of four or five eggs, stirring all the time; return them to the stew-pan, which put on the fire ; keep the sauce stirring with a whisk-it must not boil. When as thick as double cream take it off, strain it through a tammy, and work a little piece of fresh butter into it; add a little lemon- juice and salt. This sauco is for immediate use. 23. Fish Gravy (Coulis de Poisson). Put into a saucepan a piece of butter, a few slices of onion, a carrot cut in pieces; then add the heads, the remains, and the bones of any fish ; let the vegetables simmer without burning, moisten with a vegetable gravy, and when it boils, thicken in the same fashion as a meat gravy, and use it in the same way, arredor 24. Garlic, Bruise in a stone mortar three or four heads of garlic, together with a few pistachio nuts and four or five blanched almonds; then add two boiled potatoes—or, if you do not like potatoes, soaked bread will do; pound all well together, adding a little salt and pepper, stir vigorously all the ingredients, and the while pour in some olive oil and vinegar; but be very careful not to pour in too heavily or too fast, or you will turn your sauce sour. This sauce can be used with almost any kind of fish or poultry. retorn 25. Geneva. Take a few mushrooms, onions, carrots sliced, parsley, a sprig of thymc, a bay-leaf, two ounces of ham, two cloves, SAUCES. 333 a blade of mace, and peppercorns; pass the whole over the fire with a little butter. When it becomes clear, add a tablespoonful of flour, stir it well over the fire a few minutes, and add good consommé (p. 77) to bring it to the consistence of cream; with this put half a bottle of sherry or Madeira. Let the whole simmer until the roots are done; skim it well, and strain it over whatever fish you have occasion to dress. When the fish is done, take it carefully up with a slice, drain it, and put the sauce into a stew-pan; boil it, and skiin off the fat. The moisture from the fish will thin your sauce; you will, therefore, reduce it by boiling. Add a little flour and butter kneaded ; finish with a little anchovy butter, lemon-juice, and cayenne, and mask the fish with it. 26. German Sauce (Sauce Allemande). To make this sauce, the remains of the liquor in which fowls have been boiled, or chicken consommé, or indeed anything which has a flavour of chicken, should be added to an equal quantity of smooth sauce (see No. 63) and set to siinmer till reduced; after which skim, remove the fat, add the yolks of two or three eggs, a piece of fresh butter of the size of a walnut, and pass tlırough a sieve. iran 27. Gipsy. Put two ounces of truffles, chopped very fine, to a glass of Madeira or sherry, with half a bay-leaf and a little garlic; fill up with brown Italian sauce (No. 17). When it has sufficiently boiled, take out the garlic and bay-leaf, skim, and pass through the colander-spoon. SAUCES. 335 with a teacupful of gravy. Set it over a slow fire, and keep stirring it to prevent its sticking to the bottom. When it has been on some time, put in a bunch of sweet herbs, half a pint of beef gravy, and some pepper. Cover it close, let it stew over a gentle fire, and when it is done strain it off. This is a very good sauce for any kind of veal. 31. Hâtelets. Put some smooth sauce (No. 63) on a bit of butter into a stew-pan, with some parsley, shallots, and champignons, all shredded small; set them on the fire, and when they begin to fry, add a little stock, browning, pepper, nutmeg, a bay-leaf, and salt; reduce the whole to the consistence of a beef broth, take out the bay-leaf, put in the yolks of three eggs, and stir till sufficiently thick. Be careful not to let it boil. Ini 32. Hollandaise. As in the Sauce Blanche (No. 10), mix a dessertspoonful of flour and four ounces of butter. Moisten with two- thirds of the water necessary to inake the sauce. Let it boil for a few minutes, and take the saucepan off the fire. Mix, while stirring, five yolks of eggs well beaten with a little water. Put the sauce back on the fire, so as to cook the eggs, and as soon as these are done, take the saucepan off again. Then you must proceed as when making the Sauce Blanche, adding the juice of one or two lemons, eight ounces of butter, and the rest of the 336 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. water. To make this sauce well, you must prepare it in a shallow saucepan which holds double the quantity which you need, so as to be able to stir quickly. When the sauce is ready, you shift it into a smaller saucepan to keep it warm, leaving the spoon in it, so as to stir from time to time. At the moment of serving, if too thick, add a little water and fresh butter. re 33. Hot Horseradish. Fry together in a stew-pan two ounces of butter and two ounces of four, without discolouring them; then mix in half a pint of well-flavoured chicken stock, and half a gill of cream, and stir all together till it boils ; add the juice of one lemon, and two raw yolks of eggs, and stir orer the fire again till it thickens, but do not let it boil; put in a teaspoonful of mixed English mustard, wring through the tammy, add a tablespoonful of French vinegar, a dust of castor sugar, and four large tablespoonfuls of freshly- grated horseradish sauce; mix well, and use. Gintar 34. Italian. Put some lemon, parsley, thyme, and mushrooms, shredded small, into a stew-pan with a little butter and a clove of garlic. Set on a moderate fire; as soon as the butter begins to fry, pour in a little consommé (p. 77), and let stew till pretty thick; then take out the garlic, add some butter sauce and a little lemon-juice. (For Brown Italian, see No. 17.) SAUCES. 337 35. Lemon. Pare the rind off a lemon, cut it into slices, take the pips out, and cut into small square bits. Blanch the liver of a fowl and chop it fine. Mix the lemon and liver together in a boat, pour on some hot melted butter, and stir up. Giron 36. Lobster. Cut up your lobsters into good-sized dice. Pound the spawn with a piece of butter as large as a walnut, and rub it through a sieve; put it into a stew-pan, adding as much melted butter as required for the sauce; season with a teaspoonful of essence of anchovy, a little lemon-juice, cayenne, pepper, and salt; stir it on the fire till nearly boiling, and strain it through the tammy over your lobster. Add a small piece of glaze. 37. Lyonnaise. Slice three onions, which pass in a little butter with a small piece of ham ; when nicely browned, add Spanish sauce (No. 64), according to the quantity wanted, and a ragoût- spoonful of consommé (p. 77); let it boil; draw it to the corner of the stove to throw up the fat; skim well, and pass it through a tammy; put it into another stew- pan with button onions cut in rings, fried brown, and drained in a cloth; let it boil five minutes. Take off any butter which may rise, and keep your sauce hot in the metal bath. Some call this Bretonne sauce. 338 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 38. Matelote. Cut up twelve or eighteen small white onions, and as many mushrooms; fry them in butter, but do not let them brown; add two dessertspoonfuls of flour, pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, with half a pint of broth and a glass of white wine. Let the whole boil gently ; beat up the yolks of three eggs, and stir in. Add the juice of a lemon just before serving 39. Mayonnaise. Take a round-bottomed basin, place therein three yolks of eggs, a little pepper and salt, and with a wooden spoon proceed to work therein, by turning the spoon round quickly, about half a pint of salad oil and half a gill of tarragon vinegar; these must be incorporated by degrees, almost drop by drop; and in order to produce the sauce in perfection, it must present the appearance of a firm, creamy substance. This cold sauce is especially adapted for chicken and lobster salads. Girone 40. Mirepoix, Cut two pounds of fillet of veal, one pound of fat bacon, one pound of lean ham, four carrots, four onions, all into dice; pass off the whole with one pound of fresh butter, some whole parsley, a handful of mushrooms, two shallots, the least particle of garlic, a bay-leaf, a little thyme and basil, two cloves, a blade of mace, and a little pepper. The whole drawn over a slow fire, add the flesh of two lemons sliced thin (removing the pips), three ladlefuls of consommé (p. 77), and half a pint of good white wine; simmer the mirepoix for two hours, and squeeze it through a tammy. Use this for entrées directed to be prepared “à la mirepoix.” SAUCES, 339 41. Monglas. Mix till quite smooth a small spoonful of flour with butter, and moisten with the liquor in which you have boiled the joint with which the sauce is to be served. Add some juice of mushroom, and let it boil for ten minutes. Remove the saucepan from the fire. Thicken with three yolks of eggs beaten up with milk. Then bring it to the boil again, taking care to stir all the time. To be really good, this sauce should be thick. Add the juice of a lemon, some truffles cut in shreds, the tails of cray-fish or a few shrimps, and a little parsley. S torm 42. Montpelier Butter, Well wash a small handful of chervil, the leaves of a dozen sprigs of tarragon, as much burnet, and a few small green onions ; blanch and cool them. Boil four eggs hard ; drain and squeeze your herbs dry, pound them with ten anchovies, boned and wiped, a tablespoonful of capers, the yolks of the eggs; scrape a little garlic with the point of your knife and rub it into your butter, with a little whole pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg; the whole well pounded. Add two tablespoonfuls of fine olive oil and a teaspoonful of elder or tarragon vinegar. Colour it, when thoroughly pounded, either with spinach green (p. 352), or with red lobster spawn pounded and mixed with it. Rub it through a hair-sieve, and set it in ice till wanted to ornament meat or fish salads. Let it be observed that no flavour should predominate. rom 43. Onion. Cut four or five large onions in slices. Simmer these gently with four ounces of butter and four ounces of W 2 SAUCES, 341 clean, and take off the beards. Put them into a stew-pan, and pour the liquor over them. Add a large spoonful of anchovy liquor, half a lemon, two blades of mace, and thicken with butter rolled in flour. Then put in half a pound of butter, and boil it up till the butter is melted. Now take out the mace and lemon, and squeeze the lemon- juice into the sauce. Give it a boil, stirring it all the time, and pour it into your sauce-boat. retour 47. Poor Man's Sauce. Put a dessertspoonful of chopped shallots into half a gill of vinegar with a blade of mace, a clove, fifteen or twenty peppercorns, a small piece of ham, a small piece of bay-leaf, a sprig of thyme, and a little parsley ; reduce this three-fourths; add two ragoût-spoonfuls of Spanish sauce (No. 64), and one of consommé (p. 77); stir it on the fire till boiling, and draw it to the corner of the stove to imbibe flavour. Skim it, and pass it through a colander spoon. This sauce should be kept very thin. -inom . 48. Portuguese. Put into a saucepan a quarter of a pound of butter, the yolks of two raw eggs, a dessertspoonful of lemon-juice; salt and pepper according to taste. Set it on a moderate fire, stirring constantly till hot. Then vannez or mill it rapidly to unite the butter and eggs. Should it be too thick, put a very little water to it. This sauce ought not to be made till just as it is wanted. 342 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 49. Provençale. Chop finely some shallots, a small leek, let these slightly brown in a small quantity of olive oil. Then add a little flour, and moisten with a mixture of broth and Chablis. Chop some mushrooms (raw, or lightly fried in butter) with some parsley. Put this into the sauce, with a pinch of pepper and salt. Let it boil for ten minutes, and just before serving add the juice of a lemon. Grow 50. Ravigote Butter. Take equal proportions of parsley, tarragon, and chervil ; chop them very fine, season with a little pepper and salt; rub a tablespoonful in with a quarter of a pound of fresh butter; put it on the ice to set. If used for breakfast, or served at the side-table, cut it with a warm cutter in pieces of whatever shape you please. This butter may always be used as a garnish for salads. 51. Richelieu. Chop up very fine six ounces or so of mushrooms lightly fried in butter, and one or two truffles peeled. Put into a saucepan two small spoonfuls of smooth sauce (No. 63); reduce it slightly, then take it off the fire and mix in the mushrooms and the truffles; add three yolks of eggs, and boil the sauce for some two or three minutes, stirring it all the time. It is best to make this sauce in a shallow saucepan and to pour it afterwards into a smaller one. Just before serving mix in a piece of butter, but do not let it boil again. This sauce should be thick ; but if it be too thick, thin it with the juice of mushrooms or with broth. SAUCES. 343 52. Robert. This is one of the most ancient of sauces, and also one of the most appetising, only you must clear your head of the nonsensical notion that a cuisine into which onions enter must be of necessity a vulgar one. Indeed, the whole Temple of Cookery, as far as flavouring is concerned, may be said to rest on four pillars—the onion and its congeners, the lemon, the anchovy, and the faggot of sweet herbs. The dome of the edifice is the spice-box, and it is flanked on each side by smaller cupolas, the salt-box and the pepper-box. Now for Sauce Robert. Peel and cut up four middling-sized onions into very small cubes, which place in a stew-pan with two ounces of butter; stir over a moderate fire till slightly brown, then add a tablespoonful and a half of malt vinegar, and let it boil; add half a pint of brown sauce (No. 14) with half a pint of consommé (p. 77); simmer beside the fire for ten minutes; skim well ; stir over a brisk fire, reduce until it is as thick as the apple-sauce usually served with pork; finish with two tablespoonfuls of made mustard and a little sugar and salt, if Mrs. Cook thinks them requisite. Some prefer French mustard ; but when Sauce Robert goes with pork, I prefer the English. In the South of France, Sauce Robert is made in the Provençal fashion—two tablespoonfuls of salad oil are used instead of the two ounces of butter, and the finishing touch is given with a piece of scraped garlic the size of a pea. I merely cite the dish, as there are a multitude of English ladies who abhor the very idea of what Charles Lamb calls “the rank and guilty garlic”—although they eat a great deal more of it than they wot of when they dine at French restaurants. 346 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. put in a good pinch of pepper, and let the whole boil for ten minutes, stirring all the time. ain 60. Sharp Sauce (Sauce Piquante). Chop up some shallots and boil them for ten ininutes with two or three teaspoonfuls of vinegar, a little water or broth, a good pinch of pepper and salt. Pour in some thick sauce. Just before serving, add a gherkin chopped up very fine. (See also No. 18.) Another Sharp Sauce (in a hurry). Boil vinegar down to two-thirds of its bulk, with onions and shallots chopped very fine, salt and pepper. Moisten with Liebig's Extract; thicken with a little flour worked up with butter, and after the first boil-up add minced gherkins. A capital sauce for a cutlet, if an extra friend or two come to luncheon. 61, Shrimp. Put half a pint of shrimps washed very clean into a stew. pan, with a teaspoonful of anchovy liquor, and half a pound of butter melted thick. Boil it up for five minutes, and squeeze in half a lemon. Toss it up, and pour it into a sauce-boat. aroom 62. Sicilian. Bruise half a teaspoonful of coriander seeds and four cloves in a mortar. Put three-quarters of a pint of good gravy, and a quarter of a pint of essence of ham, into a stew- SAUCES. 347 pan. Peel half a lemnon, cut it into very thin slices, and put it in with the coriander seeds and cloves. Let them boil up, and then add three cloves of garlic whole, a head of celery sliced, two bay-leaves, and a little basil. Let these boil till the liquor is reduced to half the quantity. Then put in a glass of white wine, strain it off, and if not thick enough, put in a piece of butter rolled in flour. This is a good sauce for roast fowl. noin 63. Smooth (Veloutée). Mix quite smooth a dessertspoonful of flour with a piece of butter. Moisten with a little consommé (see p. 77) and a little gravy, or with the liquor in which you have boiled a fowl, or with some clarified jelly, also mixed with a small quantity of gravy. Moisten so that the sauce remains thick. Stir it round, take it off, and add the yolks of three eggs beaten in boiling milk; then place it again on the fire for three minutes. If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little beef broth, the juice of mushrooms, and some boiled milk. Salt according to taste. Add a small pinch of pepper, and a piece of butter, which you should stir into the sauce so that it holds together. Then pour into a jar ready for use. noun 64. Spanish (Espagnole). Put into a saucepan four ounces of butter and two small spoonfuls of flour. Warm these till the butter is melted; then moisten with a little gravy and boil for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, stirring all the while Pass the sauce through a sieve, if necessary; leave the spoon in it, so as to stir from time to time until it has cooled. 348 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. This sauce is the basis of all brown sauces. The evening before a grand dinner it is as well to prepare a sufficieat quantity of it, so as to have plenty for mixing purposes. now 65. Steward's (Maitre d'Hôtel). Take three ounces of fresh butter and a teaspoonful of flour, which knead well together in a stew-pan; add two ragoût-spoonfuls of consommé (p. 77), and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Put it on the fire, and stir it till it nearly boils, after which take it off, and work in a small piece of fresh butter and a little lemon-juice, seasoned with pepper and salt. Garrot 66. Sweet. Put some cinnamon into a saucepan with as much water as will cover it; set it on the fire, and when it has boiled up once or twice, add two teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar, a quarter of a pint of white wine, and two bay-leaves; give the whole one boil, then strain it for table. Larruan 67. Tartar. Rub the yolk of a cold, hard-boiled egg through a hair- sieve into a basin, and add the yolks of two raw eggs, with a little salt and pepper. Most carefully mix together with a wooden spoon; have a pint of good salad oil—you must have oil in this case—in a bottle ; hold it in your left hand over the basin, dropping it in very, very gradually, and with your right continue stirring till the mixture becomes a thick paste; then moisten with a little tarragon vinegar, still stirring, stirring, stirring. Then more oil, and so forth, SAUCES. 349 till you have used all the oil; still keeping the sauce rather thick, but not stiff. Add a teaspoonful of gherkins, chopped fine, half a dozen chopped capers, the same of chopped shallots and parsley; two teaspoonfuls of French mustard of the lightest colour, a dust of cayenne pepper, a tiny bit of sugar, and more salt if required. As for salt and pepper, I conceive it to be impertinent and useless to prescribe the exact quantities to be used. A cook who knows her business is quite aware of what is meant by a “ dust” or a “pinch” of this or that condiment. If she does not know her business, let her go and excel somewhere else. I need only say that tartar sauce should be rather highly seasoned. If, Lady Housekeeper, you are rebellious against oil, as many ladies are, send up your fried fish with shrimp sauce, which will be pink and light enough to present a contrast to the black butter, or any dark sauce, which may precede it. arretan 68. Tomato. Crush half a dozen (more or less, as required) very ripe tomatoes, and put them into a stew-pan over a quick fire, so as to sweat the water from them; then put them on a sieve, that the water may drain from them; slice three or four shallots, and put them into the stew-pan with an ounce of ham and a dozen peppercorns; fry these a few minutes, then add the tomatoes; stir over a brisk fire till the moisture has evaporated; then add half a pint of brown sauce (No. 14), with a little consommé (p. 77); let this simmer a quarter of an hour; rub it through a tammy and put it into a stew-pan, thinning it sufficiently with consommé for the scum and butter to rise. When well skimmed, season with a little glaze and a little lemon-juice. 352 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Another Thickening (Brown Roux). As above, observing that you use six tablespoonfuls of flour, as this must not be so thick as the other. Make it on a rather stronger fire, and let it take a nut-brown colour very gradually; be careful that it does not burn, for the slightest burning would cause it to be speckled with dark spots and embitter your sauce. To Colour Sauces or Purées Green. Take two or three handfuls of fresh spinach, thoroughly wash and pound it, and squeeze the juice through a cloth, as it discolours the tammy and makes it unfit for delicate sauces. Put the juice in a stew-pan on the fire with a little salt, stirring without leaving it, and the moment it curdles take off the pan and put cold water into it. Drain your spinach green on a hair-sieve and put it between two cloths to extract the moisture from it. If for colouring sugar and sweetmeats, mix it well with a little sugar passed through a silk-sieve. It will then, with a damp paper on the top, keep two or three weeks.. Green extract of parsley (“Verd de Persil ") is prepared precisely in the same way as spinach green; parsley retains a flavour required in many sauces, whereas extract of spinach is without savour. 353 SECTION IX.-VEGETABLES. 1. Half-Glaze for Vegetables. Put two quarts of brown sauce (p. 329) into a stew-pan with a quart of consommé (p. 77), one ounce of glaze, four table- spoonfuls of tomato-sauce; put it over the fire, and when boiling place it at the corner, let it simmer very fast, skim it well, and reduce it to a clear light glaze, with sufficient consistence to adhere lightly to the back of a spoon; then put it in a basin for use when wanted. Licor 2. Glased Onions for Garnish. Peel ten full-sized onions, taking care to keep them whole; put them into a saucepan in which you have previously melted some butter; add half an ounce of sugar, salt, à glass of broth; let boil over a slow fire until the gravy be reduced to a jelly. When done and well coloured, serve the onions with a piece of beef or some entrée; mix the glaze in the saucepan with a little broth, and pour it over the onions. non 3. Cauliflowers. Of cauliflowers in general, it may be remarked that they require great care in cleaning. The best way is to throw VEGETABLES. 355 Make a stuffing with a fillet of veal, beef suet, parsley, scal- lions, mushrooms, all chopped small, salt, pepper, and three eggs; when these are well mixed together, put the stuffing into the open spaces of the cauliflower, pressing it in with the hand; season it well, and stew it with some stock. When the sauce is consumed, turn the cauliflower out care- fully on the dish, take away the bacon, and pour over it some cullis, with a little butter, and serve. 6. Cauliflowers, Genoan Fashion. After the cauliflowers are boiled and are cold, sprinkle them with Gruyère and Parmesan cheese grated; put them into a dish that has been buttered and strewn with cheese. Sprinkle bread-crumbs on this, pour butter over, then more bread-crumbs. Put the dish on hot ashes and brown the tops. Anton 7. Cauliflowers à la Reine. Make a sauce with a little ham and a fillet of veal cut into dice, a little butter, chopped parsley, shallots, and a clove of garlic; let it stew over the fire a little while, then add a few teaspoonfuls of jelly-broth and half a pint of cream; reduce it to a good thickness, strain part of it into your dish, and place the cauliflower, properly prepared, therein; pour the remaining sauce over that; garnish with bread- crumbs and small bits of butter, and brown in the oven. reom 8. Cauliflowers à la Mayonnaise. The cauliflowers, thoroughly washed and cleared of their leaves, must be put into boiling water, butter, and salt; when x 2 356 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. they are firm, take the saucepan from the fire and let them cool in the water. When they are cold, drain them, and put them into oil, vinegar, salt, and a mignonette to soak for two hours. Dish them in the form of a pyramid as high as you can make it; mask them with a white mayonnaise, and place round them a border of aspic jelly, cut in triangles. --18 ra 9. Cauliflower au Gratin. To make a gratin of a cauliflower, you must take a cold one, carefully divide it, plentifully endue each separate sprig with butter; build together again ; do the top with pieces of butter, plentifully sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and a few brown crumbs; place in a baking-dish, heat in the oven, and brown of a rich golden hue with a salamander; or if you have not got a salamander, let the oven do the browning. There is a cheap as well as a dear way of preparing this delicious dish. The expensive way is to make a sauce in a stew-pan with cream, pepper, salt, and cayenne, reducing it over a sharp fire till it begins to get thick, adding grated Parmesan mixed with half its weight of Gruyère cheese, and stirring in two yolks of eggs. Then pour your sauce over the cauliflower, garnish with egg and bread crumbs, place in a warm oven for a quarter of an hour, salamander and serve. For the cheap, the very cheap, and quite as savoury way, treat your cauliflower with dripping instead of butter, and sprinkle not with expensive Parmesan but with Dutch or any other cheese that comes handy, which you may grate down to the very rind. 358 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. when it is boiled just tender, throw it into a sieve to drain. Then chop it with a knife, beat up six eggs, and mix them with half a pint of cream and a stale roll grated fine, a little nutmeg, and a quarter of a pound of melted butter. Stir all well together, put it into the saucepan in which you boiled the spinach, and keep stirring it all the time till it begins to thicken. Then wet and flour your cloth well, tie it up, and boil it an hour. When the pudding is done, turn it into the dish, pour melted butter over it, with the juice of a Seville orange, and strew on it a little grated sugar. --12am 14. Purée of Spinach. Put the spinach in plenty of boiling water; when done, throw it into cold water; squeeze it dry, and chop it fine. Put it in a stew-pan with a little clarified butter, in which you have fried bread, cut in triangles if for a second course; if not, the shape is immaterial, as you only wish to flavour your butter with the bread. Stir it about ten minutes, that the moisture may evaporate; add a ladleful of Spanish sauce (p. 347), season with pepper and salt; a small piece of glaze may be added. For entrées, rub this through the hair-sieve. Sinan 15. Brussels Sprouts and Cucumbers. Make a turban of cucumbers, cut and dressed in the following manner :-Cut them in pieces about two inches long, peel each separately, then cut the outside into three slices, leaving the seeds in one piece in the middle. Trim off all the edges neatly; put half a tablespoonful of sugar into a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, a little chopped shallot, and the pieces of cucumber; pass them over a moderate 360 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. pepper, and sliced onions. When they have lain in this a sufficient time, take them out and press them dry in a cloth ; put them into a saucepan with butter, smooth sauce (p. 347), and stock, if your ragoût is to be white, with Spanish sauce (p. 347) without butter and nutmeg if brown; add a bunch of sweet herbs. When done, thicken with yolks of eggs; put in a little lemon-juice, and serve. if brown ; herbs. When donde eggs; put in intim 19. Another Ragoût of Cucambers. The cucumbers inust be pared, the inside taken out, and then cut in pieces; lay these in a dish singly, with half a teaspoonful of vinegar and a little salt, for two hours, turning them frequently; by this means the juice, which is so cold to the stomach, will be drawn out of them; then press them in a cloth, and put them in a saucepan with some butter; shake them over the fire; add a pinch of flour, and moisten them with vegetable broth; let them simmer on a slow fire till they are done enough, then put in a thickening of yolks of eggs and a little milk; set them on the fire again, but not to boil. 20. “Steward's" Potatoes (à la Maitre d'Hôtel). Boil the potatoes ; before they are quite done take them up, place them aside, and let them get cold; cut them in slices of a moderate thickness; put into a stew-pan a lump of fresh butter and a teaspoonful of flour; let the butter boil, and add a teacupful of broth; boil again and add the potatoes, which you have covered with parsley, chopped fine, and seasoned with pepper and salt; stew them five minutes, remove them from the fire, and beat up the yolk of one egg with a tablespoonful of water and a little lemor-juice. The sauce will set ; then dish up the potatoes and serve. VEGETABLES. 361 21. Potato Staffing. Cut up raw potatoes into little dice; drain them dry, and put them in a stew-pan with butter, shredded onion or shallot, also parsley, salt and pepper, and a grate of nutmeg, if approved. Cover the stew-pan close and let steam, shak- ing it now and then. The potatoes must not be suffered to get soft enough to mash. Have some sausages fried, and when cold take off the skins and cut them into thin little slices. Mix these with the potatoes; or, instead of sausages, mince fine the raw liver of a goose, or some pig's liver, and stir it among the potatoes a few minutes before the stuffing is used. - 22. Potato Pudding. Boil two pounds of potatoes, pound them fine in a mortar, and beat in half a pound of melted butter; boil half an hour; pour melted butter over, with a glass of white wine or the juice of an orange, and throw sugar all over the pudding and dish. Gry 23. Potato Cake. Pare half a pound of steamed or well-boiled dry potatoes and pound them in a mortar; add butter and milk in which sugar has been dissolved; when the potatoes are well-beaten and mixed, set the paste on the fire and boil it; stir it into a basin to cool; then put to it the yolks of eight eggs, a sufficient quantity of sugar, the whites of four eggs beaten to a snow, and two spoonfuls of orange-flower water. Take a mould, butter the inside well, sprinkle the sides over with bread-crumbs, and pour in the above preparation ; bake till nicely coloured, when it may be turned on to a dish. Serve with some sauce. 362 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 24. Potato Soufilé. Take any number of large potatoes—the less eyes and the firmer the skin the better. Clean them thoroughly, and then bake them; after which cut a round piece not quite so large as a half-crown out of each potato, and remove as much of the inside as can be obtained without damage to the skin. Mash the potato with cream, adding a little butter, sprinkle over a little salt, and put to it half a pint of milk; give it all a boil ; take the whites of three eggs, whip them until they froth, add them to the potato while it boils, and then make the potato into a paste ; return this through the orifice in the skin until each skin is full; bake them, and serve. 25. Potato Rissoles. Boil the potatoes floury; mash them, seasoning with salt and a little cayenne; mince parsley very fine, and work up with the potatoes, adding shallot, also chopped fine; bind with yolk of egg; roll into balls, and fry with fresh butter over a clear fire. Meat shredded finely, including bacon and ham, may be added. 26. Potato Omelette. This may be made with a mashed potato and four eggs, seasoned with pepper and salt and a little nutmeg. It should be thick, and, being rather substantial, a squeeze of lemon will improve it. Fry a light brown. VEGETABLES. 363 27. Potato Fritters. Wash and pare some potatoes ; cut them into thin slices, which soak for half an hour in a little brandy, with the rind of a lemon; then drain, dip them in good batter, and fry them of a nice colour; drain them again, place the fritters in a dish, sprinklo sugar over, and serve them hot. Lina 28. Potato Cheese-Cakes. Pare and boil thoroughly half a pound of the best kind of potatoes; when quite done, rub them through a sieve, and mix with them two eggs, well beaten, a sufficient quantity of milk to make into a paste, a few currants, a little spice, and grated bread. Lay this on puff-paste, like other cheese- cakes, and bake. arro 29. To Ragoût French Beans. Boil some beans till tender, then take your stew-pan and put in a piece of butter; when it is melted, dredge in flour; then peel a large onion, slice and fry it brown in the butter; next put in the beans, with a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg; boil up, and add the yolk of an egg and some cream ; stir all together for a minute or two, and dish up. intimo 30. French Beans in Black Butter, When the beans are scalded, drain thein well; season them with salt and pepper, and having placed them in your dish, pour sone black butter over them, and serve. 564 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 31. French Beans à la Française. Boil the beans in salt and water over a large fire, that they may retain their colour. Drain them and lay them in a stew-pan on the fire, to dry up all the water. When entirely dry and quite hot, add to them a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, a little pounded pepper and salt, and the juice of a lemon; keep moying the stew-pan without using a spoon, as that would break the beans. Serve hot. 32. “Steward's" French Beans (à la Maitre d'Hôtel). Prepare your beans for boiling; put into a stew-pan a piece of butter, shredded parsley, and fresh onions; when the butter is melted, add the French beans, previously boiled, turn them a few times over the fire, shake in some flour, and moisten with a little good stock, well seasoned. Boil till the sauce is consumed; then put in the yolks of three eggs, beaten up with some milk, and, lastly, add a little vinegar or verjuice. Cullis or veal gravy may be used instead of the eggs. 33. French Beans, Brittany Fashion (à la Bretonne). Cut an onion or two into dice, and put them with some butter into a saucepan over a stove; when they begin to brown, add some Spanish sauce (p. 347), or a pinch of flour; as soon as the whole is sufficiently browned, moisten with a ladleful of good gravy, season with salt and whole pepper; reduce this sauce, and having boiled the beans, put them into it and simmer all together. VEGETABLES. 365 34. Purée of French Beans. Take full-sized beans, string them; put them into boiling water, with a little salt, for a quarter of an hour; strain and throw them into cold water to preserve their colour; drain them a second time; put a good piece of butter into a saucepan, with salt, pepper, a tablespoonful of flour; add the beans, and moisten them with broth; put in a bunch of parsley and chives ; let them simmer, and rub them through a sieve to make a purée; warm this with a little butter, and serve. ni 35. White Haricot Beans, Brittany Fashion (à la Bretonne). Take one quart of fresh-shelled beans, have also two quarts of boiling water, in which you have placed two ounces of butter and a little salt; put in your beans and boil them about half an hour or till tender, drain quite dry upon a sieve, then put them into another stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter and a little pepper and salt,“ toss” them a few minutes over the fire, and when very hot turn them out upon your dish, and serve. Girona · 36. Beans à la Poulette. First boil the beans, and then put them into a stew-pan with some butter, parsley chopped, green onions, and a little savoury; shake them over the fire, add a little flour, a lump of sugar, and a little stock. When done, put in the yolks of three eggs, beaten up with a little milk. -naire 37. Baked Beans. Soak a quart of dried beans overnight in cold water ; drain off the water in the morning, and stew them for balf an hour 366 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. of salt porki The pork sake for three in a little water; put them in a deep dish with one pound of salt pork ; cut the rind in stripes, and place in the centre of the dish. The pork should be sunk a little below the surface of the beans. Bake for three hours and a half. A lump of saleratus should be thrown in while the beans are stewing, and a pint of water added when they are put into the baking-dish. Lavrino 38. Parsnips with Beans. Take two large parsnips, scrape them clean, and boil them in water. When tender take them up, scrape all the soft into a saucepan, add to them four teaspoonfuls of cream, a piece of butter the size of a hen's egg, chop them well in a saucepan, and when they are quite thick, heap them up in the middle of the dish, with a ragoût of French beans all round. nan 39. Parsnip Fritters, Boil, peel, and grate to a pulp two parsnips; beat it up with four yolks and two whites of eggs, two tablespoonfuls each of cream and white wine, with a little grated nutmeg. Beat the whole till the batter is very light, then fry it, and serve the fritters up with orange- or lemon-juice and sugar, or with melted butter, white wine, and sugar. nie 40. Carrot Pie. Grate half a pound of the best part of a raw carrot and double the quantity of bread; mix eight beaten yolks of eggs and four of the whites with half a pint of new milk, and melt half a pound of fresh butter with half a VEGETABLES. 367 pint of white wine, three large spoonfuls of orange-flower water, a grated nutmeg, and sugar. Stir it, and if too thick, add more milk. Lay a puff-paste over the dish, and bake it an hour. Serve it with grated sugar. This pie will be made more delicious by substituting Naples biscuits and cream for the bread and milk, and by adding a glass of ratafia to the orange-flower water. Some cooks boil the carrot, but thereby its saccharine virtue is lost. na 41. Marrow Pie. Grate as much bread as will fill a large breakfast-cup quite full. Put it into a jug and pour nearly a quart of boiling sweet milk or thin cream over it, and let it swell and soak while you shred half a pound of marrow or suet, and beat up four large or six small eggs. Have two ounces of raisins stoned, and two ounces of currants plumped. Sweeten the pudding to taste, and season it with a very little grated nutmeg and a teaspoonful of cinnamon in powder. Cover a stoneware flat dish on the edge with stripes of puff-paste, and mark neatly as leaves. Bake the pie in this dish, or plainly in a deep dish. Grosir 42. Pumpkin Pie. Take a ripe pumpkin, and chip off the rind or skin; halve it, and take out the seed and puffy part in the centre, which throw away. Cut the pumpkin into small, thin slices; fill a pie-dish therewith; add a teaspoonful of spice and å tablespoonful of sugar, with a small quantity of water. Cover with a nice light paste, and bake in the ordinary way. Pumpkin pie is greatly improved by being eaten with 368 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. clotted cream and sugar. An equal quantity of apples will make it a still more delicious pie. Siretor 43. Purée of Pumpkin. Cut a pumpkin into pieces, and boil it in salt and water; throw away the water, and pass the pumpkin through a colander; put into the saucepan a piece of butter, with a tablespoonful of flour: but do not let it brown; add the purée, some pepper, and a little sugar, and boil five minutes; beat it up with the yolks of two eggs, and a tablespoonful of cream, if you have any; serve in a dish surrounded with fried crusts of bread. rain 44. Vegetables in a Mould. Line the inside of an oval mould with rashers of bacon ; then set upright alternately slips of cooked turnip, carrots, celery, asparagus heads, and pickled cucumbers. Lay a forcemeat at the bottom of the mould and round the inside of the vegetables; fill the centre with stewed beef tails with the bones taken out, or with small pieces of mutton or veal passed with sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and lemon-juice. Cover with forcemeat, wash over with egg, and bake. When it is to be served, turn it gently out of the mould upon a dish, take off the bacon, inake a little hole at the top and pour in some good cullis. 45. Vegetable Pie. Cut celery heads two inches long, turnips and carrots into shapes, some peeled small onions, or two Spanish VEGETABLES. 369 BES onions, artichoke bottoms cut into quarters, pieces of cauli- flower or heads of broccoli, heads of fine asparagus, and any other vegetable you may think proper. Wash all these thoroughly clean ; then boil each kind separately in just sufficient water to cover them, and as they get tender strain the liquor into one stew-pan and put the vegetables into another. Then add to the liquor half a pint of consommé (p. 77), thicken it with flour, and season it with cayenne, salt, and lemon-juice; boil it for ten minutes, strain it to the vegetables, and let the whole simmer together. Serve in a raised pie-crust, or in a pie-dish with a raised crust baked round it. Sipan 46. Stewed Peas. Three pints or two quarts of peas are sufficient for a second-course dish. Peas for stewing must be quite young. Throw them into a large pan of cold water, with two cabbage lettuces cut up, and two ounces of fresh butter; work the peas and butter, etc., together; take them out of the water and put them into a clean stew-pan; tie up a bunch of green onions with a little parsley and mint, and put with them; cover the stew-pan close, and about an hour before dinner set it over a stove, frequently giving the pan a toss lest any should stick to the bottom; when the peas are tender, and the juice nearly reduced, take out the bunch of onions, toss up the peas with a little more butter, a little sugar and salt, and at last pour in a dessertspoonful of cold water, and dish them immediately. Flour in stewed peas, though many cooks use it, is not admissible, nor is it requisite if proper care and attention be paid at the moment they are served. iron 370 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 47. Asparagas, Italian Fashion, Take the asparagus, break the tops in pieces, then boil them soft, and drain the water from them; take a little oil, water, and vinegar, let it boil; season it with pepper and salt; throw in the asparagus, and thicken with the yolks of eggs. - 48. Forced Asparagus in French Rolls. Take out the crumb of three French rolls by first cutting a piece of the top crust off, and be careful that the crust fits again the same place. Fry the rolls brown in fresh butter; then take a pint of cream, the yolks of six eggs beaten fine, a little salt and nutmeg ; stir these well together over a slow fire till the mixture begins to thicken. Have prepared a hundred of small grass boiled, but save tops suffi- cient to stick in the rolls; cut the remainder small and put into the cream, filling the loaves with them. Before frying the balls, make holes thick in the top crust, and stick in the tops you have reserved; then lay on the piece of crust, and make the grass look as if growing. Januar 49. Asparagas in Croustade. Mix up the yolks of four eggs in some paste made of macaroni flour, then form it into an under-crust, cut it into a band nineteen inches long and two inches and a quarter wide. With the cuttings of your paste form a circle ten inches in diameter, and around this put your band in form of a crous- tade, pinch up your paste into proper shape, and ornament it lightly round; glaze it, and put it to dry in a slow oven. This done, take a fine head of asparagus and place it, standing upright, in the middle of your croustade; surround this with VEGETABLES. 371 six more heads of asparagus nine inches in length, and en, circle these with twelve more eight inches in length. Add two more rounds of asparagus heads, the one six inches and the other five inches in length. int: 50, Asparagus in Cream, Choose the finest asparagus, and dress it as usual; parboil half a pint of cream and a little butter and flour, shake it about, and when the butter is melted, season moderately, and pour over the asparagus. 51. Ragoût of Asparagus. Take one hundred grass, scrape and clean them, and throw them into cold water; cut them as far as they are good and green; pick and wash clean and cut very small two heads of endive; take also a young lettuce, clean washed and cut small, and a large onion, peeled and cut small. Put a quarter of a pound of butter into a stew- pan, and when it is melted, throw in the above ingredients. Toss them about, and fry them ten minutes. Season them with a little pepper and salt, shake in a little flour, again toss them about, and pour in half a pint of gravy. Let them stew till the sauce is very thick and good, and then pour all into your dish. You may make use of a few of the small tops of the grass for garnish. Siriam 52. Artichokes à la St. Cload, Trim and boil them till the chokes come out; then drain and let them cool; have ready as many small pigeons Y 2 372 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. stewed and well-seasoned as you have artichokes, each of which must be stuffed with a pigeon; dip them in good batter made of flour, eggs, a spoonful of oil, and a little salt; fry in a very hot pan with plenty of dripping. 53. Artichokes, Bordeaux Fashion. Trim your artichokes and blanch twenty ininutes, place them in cold water, then scoop out the interior with the handle of a spoon, taking out every particle from the in- side, and have ready the following sauce :-Peel thirty large button onions and cut them in rings, put them in a stew- pan with a little oil, and fry of a light yellow colour; add half a pint of white sauce and two tablespoonfuls of bread- crumbs, mix well, then add eighteen stoned olives and the fillets of four anchovies well washed; stew until all is well cooked, then season with a little pepper, sugar, and a piece of scraped garlic the size of a pea. Pour this into the artichokes, and when done serve with a little white sauce in each. ram 54. Artichoke Pie. Boil twelve artichokes, break off the chokes and leaves and take the bottoms clear from the stalks; line the dish with puff-paste, and lay on this four ounces of fresh butter. Place a row of artichokes; strew over them pepper, salt, and beaten mace; then another layer of artichokes; strew on more spice and a quarter of pound of butter cut in small pieces. Boil half an ounce of truffles and morels, chopped small, in a quarter of a pint of water, and pour into the pie, with a gill of white wine. Cover your pie and bake. VEGETABLES. 373 55. Jerusalem Artichokes. Take about thirty of the best-shaped ones, as nearly as possible of the same size; turn them into the shape of pears, boil in salt and water, with which you have put a quarter of a pound of butter; when tender, take them out, drain them upon a cloth, and dress in the form of a dome; saụce over with melted butter or tomato-sauce. -nie 56. Grilled Mushrooms. The mushrooms should have “ broad-brimmed hats.” Pluck out the stalks and fill the orifices with a well- seasoned veal stuffing, in which you have mixed the finely- minced stalks of the mushrooms. Spread your stuffing over the whole concavity or under part of your mushrooms. Wrap them in buttered writing-paper, and place them on a gridiron over a gentle fire. Take care that the paper does not catch. Eight or ten minutes will suffice to cook them. ini 57. Mushroom Pie, Rass Fashion. Get large and fleshy mushrooms; trim their stalks away, as these are generally hard; pare, and cut them in two; put the pieces in a frying-pan with butter or oil, season with salt and pepper, fry them on a brisk fire for a few minutes only, diminishing their volume, and then take them off the fire. Spread the bottom of a pie-dish with a few slices of raw ham, whereon place the mushrooms by layers, alternating with chopped onion, parsley, and a little fennel ; press close together, inask the top with slices of ham, and then baste with two tablespoonfuls of brown sauce; cover the pie with short crust, and bake for one hour. 374 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 58. Essence of Mushrooms, Pick some mushrooms, and put them into a bowl, sprink- ling them with fine salt; leave them till the next day. Press them to extract the moisture, and set them aside; press them again, and even a third time. Make three kinds out of these three qualities, or mix them into one. Add pepper, spices, cloves, crushed into small pieces; let it boil, and skim it till no more scum rises. Strain it, put it into bottles with two cloves and a peppercorn; cork it up, and preserve it for use as required. : 59. Purée of Celery. Peel and wash some full-sized roots of celery ; let them boil, and make them into purée by passing through a colander. Put some fresh butter into a saucepan, and add the purée, with salt, a tablespoonful of flour, some cream, or some beef broth and gravy, and a piece of sugar as large as a hazel nut; then serve. -nin 60. Purée of Onions. Blanch onions in boiling-water, if you wish to take away their acridity, which renders them indigestible and turns the cream with which they are mixed; peel and cut them asunder; put them into a saucepan with a piece of fresh butter; simmer gently, that the purée may preserve its whiteness. When the onions are tender, add some salt, a large spoonful of flour, and thin with cream. No broth is necessary. Put in a piece of sugar as large as a walnut. Strain, and serve with meat, etc. 376 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 64. Fricassée of Beetroot. . After boiling the beetroot in salt and water, put some slices into a saucepan with some butter, parsley, chives, or sweet leeks, chopped, a little garlic, a pinch of flour, salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste; let the whole boil a quarter of an hour. 377 SECTION X.-SALADS. 1. Partridge Salad. Boil eight eggs hard, shell them, throw them into cold water; cut a thin slice off the bottom to facilitate the proper placing of them in the dish; cut each one into four, lengthwise; make a very thin, flat border of butter about one inch from the edge of the dish you are going to serve them on; fix the pieces of egg upright, close to each other, the yolk outside, or alternately the white and yolk; place in the centre a layer of fresh salad that may be in season, and having previously roasted a young partridge rather underdone, which you cut into eight or ten pieces, you prepare sauce as follows :-Put a table- spoonful of shallots, finely chopped, in a basin, one ditto of pounded sugar, the yolk of an egg, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, tarragon, or chervil, and a quarter of an ounce of salt; mix in by degrees, with a wooden spoon, four spoonfuls of oil and two of Chili vinegar; when all is mixed, put it on ice or in a cold place; when ready to serve up, whip a gill of cream rather thick, lightly mix this with it, lay the inferior parts of the partridge on the salad, sauce over so as to cover each piece, then lay over the salad and the remainder of the partridge ; again sauce over, and serve. 2. Grouse Salad. Roast your grouse, and with the trimmings prepare a salmi sauce (for which a recipe is given on p. 277); reduce this 378 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. stiffly, and having mixed in a third portion of aspic jelly, use it to mask the joints of grouse with a rather thick coating of the sauce, and set them upon a dish on rough ice to set firm. Place a thick bed of seasoned shredded lettuce on the centre of the dish, and upon this foundation build up the joints of grouse ; garnish round the base with a border of curled celery, and an outer border of quarters of hard- boiled eggs. Pour 'some white mayonnaise sauce round between the bottom parts of the joints of grouse and the celery, place an ornament of aspic jelly on the top, and serve. 3. Chicken Salad. This is justly claimed as an American delicacy, and is best made in the State of Massachusetts, where there are certain negro “caterers ” who have acquired fame and fortune by their dexterity in preparing and mixing the dish. In reality, it is as simple as it is succulent, being merely a salad of such herbs as are in season, moistened with a mayonnaise sauce, and made substantial by the addition of pieces of cold boiled chicken. Take a young, tender chicken of not more than two and a half pounds; boil in stock for one hour; when cooked let it get thoroughly cold. Bone your chicken, cut it up into small pieces, put it into a deep dish, season with a pinch of salt, half as much pepper, one tablespoonful of vinegar, and six leaves of chopped lettuce, with a few leaves of the white celery cut up. Mix carefully, lightly, and thoroughly. Place your mixture in a salad-bowl and cover with half a table-cupful of mayonnaise. Decorate the top with hard-boiled eggs cut in rings, capers, stoned olives, and, if you choose, “thread ” anchovies. As for the mayonnaise, it is tartar sauce (p. 348) made of yolks of 380 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. in the juice of two lemons, but be sure none of the lemon- seed is left in the salad. A very ancient recipe. Indeed, some of our very best culinary formulas are hundreds of years old. Give salads of smelts a trial. You will not regret it. iftir 6. Herring Salad. Ingredients: Four or six salted herrings that have been steeped in cold water to draw out some of the salt; a little cold meat—veal, mutton, or beef; three eggs boiled hard, some boiled potatoes, two apples, some pickled cucumbers and small pickled onions, sugar, pepper, vinegar, and cream. Take the herring from the bones, mince it, and lay it aside. Take the cold meat, as well as a little beetroot, potato, apple, and cucumber (all this together should not be more than the herring alone, so you must judge your quantities accordingly), add it to the herring. Put a little cream, sugar, vinegar, and pepper in a cup together, mix, and then add them to the meat, herring, etc. All should be of the consistency of a paste, which lay smoothly on a flat dish and cover with minced beet- root. The whites and yolks of the eggs mince separately, and garnish the dish with them, some in the middle and some as a border all round. Outside of this border is laid a fringe of small pickled onions. The salad is served with a sauce made of cream, vinegar, mustard, and sugar, or with oil, vinegar, and pepper. om 7. Potato Salad. For Potato Salad I have already given a recipe in my chat on German Cookery (p. 15). 381 SECTION XI.- HORS - D'EUVRES AND SAVOURY DISHES. 1. Anchovies, Norwegian Fashion. SCRAPE, wipe, and bone twelve or more Norwegian an- chovies; trim the fillets neatly; have ready two hard-boiled eggs, chop the whites and yolks separately, cover the bottom of one or two sinall round glass dishes with a layer of the chopped egg, forming a neat design ; sprinkle and season with a little chopped parsley, chervil, a little sweet oil and vinegar, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Place the anchovy fillets over the top in the shape of lattice-work, ornament with fancifully cut slices of lemon and hard-boiled egg round the sides, sprinkle with a little chopped parsley, and serve. 2. Anchovy Canapés. Procure a number of farthing rolls (any baker will make them to order). Cut these rolls into equal halves, scoop out all the crumb, and place the crust to dry in the screen. Meanwhile, chop fine hard-boiled eggs sufficient for the number of canapés to be filled; chop also some tarragon, chervil and chives; and prepare some fillets or strippets of cleaned anchovies. Put the chopped eggs and herbs into a basin, season with salad oil and tarragon vinegar, pepper and salt; mix together, and with this fill up the prepared crusts; ornament them by placing the fillets of anchovies over their surface in the fashion of lattice-work; dish up the canapés on a napkin. 382 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 3. Tunny. This is a fish caught only in the Mediterranean, and it comes to this country preserved in oil ; its flesh somewhat resembles veal, and possesses a full sweet flavour-something between the flavour of game and salmon. Tunny is served cut in thin slices and dished up in rows, surrounded with chopped parsley and capers, and a little salad oil. It is a capital hors-d'æuvre, to be eaten before your soup; and is procurable at most Italian warehouses in the metropolis. IC 4. Sardines à la Royale. Take some sardines, remove the outer skins with a sharp pointed knife, and cut out the bones. Close the fillets up, and take some crisp leaves of chervil; place them both on a glass dish, and garnish with strips of gherkin and hard-boiled egg. 5. Sardines à la Provençale. Cut some neat fingers of toasted bread, large enough to hold a sardine, butter them slightly, wipe as many sardines as may be required, put one on each finger of toast, dish them up on a round dish in the form of a lattice-work, keep the dish in a hot oven long enough to get the sardines thoroughly hot. Have ready a sauce made as follows:-Put three well- beaten eggs into a small saucepan, add a pat of butter, a tablespoonful of cream, a teaspoonful of anchovy essence, and a tablespoonful of finely-chopped boiled onions; season with pepper and salt; stir over a fire until it thickens, pour quickly over the dish of prepared sardines, sprinkle with HORS-D'EUVRES AND SAVOURY DISHES. 383 a few drops of dissolved meat-glaze, dust with a pinch of cayenne pepper, and serve. Lintain 6. Crusts of Sardines, Make croûtons of toast by frying them in oil; then prepare the sardines and place them on the toast, sprinkle cayenne pepper on them, bake in the oven till very hot, and serve. 7. Herring Roes on Toast. Grill your herrings, take the roes out and break them up, adding pepper and salt to taste, and spread this mixture on neat little pieces of hot buttered toast. Serve as a savoury. 8. Canapés à la Turbigo. Procure five small round dinner rolls (farthing rolls), cut each in equal halves, scoop out the crumb, and set them to dry. Mince coarsely about twenty prawns, together with the white part of a small head of celery, a tablespoonful of mixed pickles, and two small truffles; season this mix- ture with some stiff mayonnaise sauce, into which a little parsley, fennel leaves, tarragon leaves, and a small shallot (all finely-chopped) have been introduced; stir gently, and add a dessertspoonful of tomato purée and a teaspoonful of prepared mustard. Put this mixture into the prepared rolls, finishing with a layer of aspic or savoury jelly on each, and garnishing the surface with strips of hard-boiled white of egg, strips of truffles, and parsley. Serve on small round dishes. 384 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 9. Italian Sausage. Mince two pounds of lean pork with one pound of fat pork. Season the mixture with salt, mixed spice, coriander- seed, and bruised aniseed. When the ingredients are thoroughly blended, moisten the mixture with pig's blood and white wine sufficiently to bind it together, but be careful not to render it too moist. Cut some narrow strips from the best part of a calf's head, mix these with the mince, and put the preparation into sausage-skins. Tie the ends securely, plunge the sausages into boiling water, and boil them gently until done enough. Afterwards dry them in a smoke-house, or in a chimney over a wood fire, till they become hard. Time to boil, half an hour. 10. Tranches Viennoises à la Tomate. Cut some small slices of stale brown bread about an inch and a half square, stamp these out with a neat shape by means of a round fancy cutter. 'Next pound in a mortar the following ingredients :--Two ounces of cooked white meat (veal, chicken, or rabbit), two yolks of eggs, one ounce of fresh butter, a little each of chopped parsley, tarragon, and chervil, and one tablespoonful of Béchamel sauce; season to taste, work well, and pass all through a wire-sieve. Spread the round slices of bread thinly with butter, cover the surface of each with a thin layer of the prepared paste, on this lay a thin slice of cooked ox-tongue, cut a trifle smaller than the bread with a similar-shaped cutter; on the tongue place a slice of fresh tomato not larger than the tongue slices. Sprinkle the slices with salt and pepper, work up the remainder of the sauce with a tablespoonful of very stiff tomato sauce, put it in a small 386 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 13. Little Crusts of Caviare (Petites Croûtes de Caviar). Cut out eight round or square pieces of bread about an inch in diameter and three-quarters of an inch thickScoop out the centre a little ; fry them in clarified butter, and drain on a cloth. Mix carefully with a wooden spoon two ounces of Hygienic Caviare with a teaspoonful of finely-chopped shallots, a squeeze of lemon, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. When the croûtes are perfectly cold, fill into the hollow parts the caviare thus prepared, dish up on dish. paper or folded table-napkin, and garnish with sprigs of parsley. Be careful never to touch caviare with any kind of metal utensils, as it injures the flavour. Hygienic Caviare is slightly pressed, containing less oil and less salt than the caviare in general use. 14. Croquettes of Macaroni. Stir half a pint of any kind of good sauce over the fire until reduced to half its original quantity; then add the yolks of three eggs, nutmeg, pepper, a pinch of chopped shallot, a pinch of sugar, and the juice of half a lemon; stir this again over the fire to set the eggs in the sauce, and then add the following ingredients, mixed small and neatly:-A handful of boiled Genoa macaroni, two ounces of roast game, one ounce of lean ham, truffles, mushrooms; incorporate these with the sauce, and when set cold and firm, divide the preparation into equal small portions; mould these in the form of eggs; egg-and-bread- crumb, and fry them in hot lard, and, being dished up with fried parsley, serve hot. now HORS-D'EUVRES AND SAVOURY DISHES. 387 15. Curled Butter. To an iron hook in the wall tie two corners of a strong napkin, make a knot with the other two ends, so as to be able to pass a stick through it; put into this napkin half a pound of butter, and twist it tightly over a dish into which the butter will fall in small and pretty strings. To serve as a hors-d'oeuvre. non 16. Hazel-Nat Batter. Knead some butter with parsley, chives, tarragon, chopped small, and some hazel-nuts reduced to a paste in a mortar. This forms a very delicate hors-d'oeuvre. 17. Devilled Biscuits. Butter biscuits on both sides, sprinkle cayenne pepper on the top, and send them to be grilled. This may be varied by the addition of chopped anchovies or curry paste. Iron 18. Langtry Sandwiches. Cut up chicken and cooked ham in the form of small squares and dice, in the proportion of two-thirds of chicken to one-third of ham. Stir two tablespoonfuls of sauce with one of Crosse and Blackwell's curry paste in a stew-pan, and when it boils, add the chicken and ham; mix, and with this preparation make the sandwiches in the manner following :-Cut some thin slices of stale bread-crumb, stamp out these with a plain round tin cutter the size of a crown piece, and fry them with clarified butter of a light golden brown; between two of these crusts place a thick z 2 389 SECTION XII.-EGGS. • 1. Eggs and Broccoli.. WHEN you boil your broccoli, which will be cooked enough as soon as it is tender, save a large bunch for the middle and six or eight little sprigs to stick round. Toast a bit of bread, of what size you please, but pro- portion it to the size of your dish. Take as many eggs as you have occasion for, beat them well, and put them into a saucepan with a good piece of butter and a little salt. Keep beating them with a spoon till they are thick enough, and then pour them on the toast. Set the largest bunch of broccoli in the middle and the other little pieces round them, and garnish the dish with sprigs of broccoli. 2. Curried Eggs, Bengal Fashion. Peel three onions, cut them in very thin slices, and put them into a stew-pan with two ounces of fat or butter, two ounces of chopped bay-leaves, and a sprig of chopped thyme ; fry these all together for about fifteen minutes till of a nice golden brown; then lightly sprinkle in a tablespoon- ful of fine four, add a teaspoonful of cardamoms, one small scraped clove of garlic, a saltspoonful of ground allspice, curry powder, and salt, a pinch of ground ginger, three- quarters of a pint of any light stock or milk, and boil all together till the mixture is almost dry. Add to it twelve 390 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. sliced hard-boiled eggs, then serve on a hot dish in a border of plainly boiled rice, garnished with little bunches of hard- boiled yolk of eggs that have been rubbed through a wire- sieve, and shredded green capsicums. no 3. Eggs with Burnt Butter. Put into a frying-pan two ounces of butter, which melt; as soon as it is on the point of browning, put in the eggs, which have been previously broken in a basin and seasoned with pepper and salt; when well set, serve, with a tea- spoonful of vinegar over the eggs. 4. Randalled Eggs. Twelve eggs boiled hard and halved; cut a piece from the ends of half of them to allow them to stand ; take out the yolks, chop them, mix with them chopped boiled ham or tongue, seasoned with nutmeg and mace and moistened with butter, and introduce this into the egg. Put the halves together, and stand the joined eggs on end in the dish. 5. Eggs à la Tripe. Take some eggs that have been boiled for seven minutes, and shell and slice them. Butter the dish in which they are to be served, place a thin layer of creamy Béchamel sauce on the bottom, and on this place a layer of the sliced eggs, sprinkling lightly with a little finely-chopped shallot and fresh parsley; add another layer of the sauce, and then the eggs as before, and continue in like manner until EGGS. 391 the dish is nearly full. Let the sauce be on the top, and sprinkle over this a few browned bread-crumbs and about half an ounce of butter broken in tiny pieces; set the dish in a tin containing boiling water, and stand in a hot oven for about fifteen or twenty minutes ; then take up, remove the dish from the tin, and sprinkle the top over with the hard-boiled yolk of egg (that has been passed through a fine sieve) and a little chopped parsley. 6. Eggs Brouillés. Break four or six eggs; beat them and put them into a saucepan with a piece of butter, a little salt, and a spoon- ful of gravy, which will make them softer; stir them over the fire until sufficiently thick; serve on a plate garnished with toasted bread. To eggs dressed in this way truffles, ham, mushrooms, etc., minced, may be added. In Ireland, where the dish is in general use, the eggs are usually served upon hot buttered toast, and are there called " buttered eggs.” It is also very common in France, where it is generally served for breakfast. 7. Eggs Fricasséed. Boil your eggs pretty hard, slice them ; then take a little veal gravy, a little cream and flour, and a bit of butter, nutmeg, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and a few pickled mushrooms. Boil this up and pour it over the eggs. Put a hard yolk in the middle of the dish, with toasted sippets, 392 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 8. Eggs Hashed. Boil eggs hard, slice them, fry an onion, sliced in butter; put in the eggs, a little good gravy, chopped parsley, pepper, and salt. Serve them hot. now 9. Eggs Frothed. Beat up the yolks of eight eggs and the whites of four (set aside the remaining whites) with a dessertspoonful of water, some salt, sugar, and the juice of a lemon; fry this, and then put it on a dish; whip the whites to a froth with sugar, and place it over the yolks; bake in a Dutch oven. roton 10. Eggs in Cases. Cut up a sheet of paper into pieces three inches square, turn up half an inch all round so as to form a kind of square case; there will then remain but two inches square in the inside. Take a small piece of butter, a pinch of fine bread- crumbs, a little finely-chopped parsley, spring onions, salt and pepper, and mix them together; put a little into each case, then break one egg into each; put them on a grid- iron, over a slow fire, and do them gently, or place them in a dish in an oven; when well set, serve. Small, round paper cases may be procured very cheap. retour 11. Eggs with Black Butter. Put one ounce of butter in a frying-pan on the fire or the gas stove; let it heat well, but not become too brown; break carefully into a dish six very fresh eggs ; slide carefully into the pan, with a pinch of salt and half a pinch of white pepper; cook slowly for three minutes. Slide the eggs EGGS. 393 into a hot flat dish ; deal with them gently, without turning them over or breaking them. Then put two more ounces of butter into the same pan; place it on the fire or gas- stove, and let the butter get a good rich, vandyke brown colour for three minutes, dropping in two teaspoonfuls of tarragon vinegar. Remember that this black butter is an adınirable sauce, not only for eggs but for all white fish, especially for skate. Do you call this a costly sauce ? inom e 12. Gratin of Eggs with Cheese, Take some grated bread, Parmesan cheese, also grated, a small piece of butter, the yolks of two eggs, nutmeg and pepper; mix these together, and spread them over the bottom of the dish; set it over a gentle fire to make a gratin, on which break ten eggs; sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the surface, finish cooking it, and brown it with a salamander. 13. Eggs, Piedmont Fashion (à la Piémontaise). Put a couple of anchovies and a little gravy into a saucepan, and when they are dissolved, add the yolks of eight and the whites of two eggs (well beaten); season them with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; beat them well whilst they are doing. Serve them with fried bread, grate Parmesan cheese over, and brown it with a salamander. Sinton 14. Hen's Nest Eggs. Boil six or eight eggs quite hard ; when cold and firm, cut the whites from the yolks in long thin slips; set them 394 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. aside to warm in a slow oven,, taking care every now and then to liberally butter them. Pound up in a mortar any cold chicken or remains of mix fish; with this the yolks of the eggs, a little parsley, and pepper and salt to your taste. When you have reduced all to a fine smooth paste, mould it with your hands into egg-shaped balls. Heap these in the centre of a dish, arrange the shredded egg around them in imitation of a nest; put back into the oven for a few minutes to warm, and just before serving pour over a hot rich brown sauce. 15. Ragoât of Eggs and Mushrooms. Take some large finushrooms, peel them and scrape them clean, put them in a saucepan with a little salt, cover them, and let them boil a little, then put in a gill of milk, an ounce of butter rolled in four, seasoned with mace and nutmeg ; boil the whole till it is of a good consistence. Have ready six hard-boiled eggs, take out the yolks whole. Put some toasted sippets in a dish, and the yolks upon them; then pour over them the whole of your ragoût. 16. Eggs with Onions and Mushrooms. When you have boiled the eggs hard, take out the yolks whole, and cut the whites in slips, with some onions and mushrooms. Fry the onions and mushrooms, then add the whites, turn them about a little, dredge them with flour, and add a little mushroom catsup. Boil this up, then put in the yolks, and add pepper and salt. Let the whole simmer for about a minute, then serve it up. EGGS. 395 17. Plovers' Eggs in Aspic. When the eggs are boiled, take off the shells, and cut off a small slice at the broad end of the eggs, that they may stand upright; have some aspic jelly that is very firm, turn it out on a marble slab, and cut it in half-diamond shapes or rings, and place these round the dish you intend to serve the eggs on; put chopped aspic in the centre, and the eggs on the top. Plovers' eggs may also be served in a mould of aspic jelly, garnished with truffles and white of eggs. 18. "Surprise” Eggs. When I was young culinary “surprises” were common: at present one scarcely ever meets with one; which fact induces in my mind the conclusion that the England of sixty years ago was a much merrier England than the ex- isting prim, overdressed, Mrs. Grundy-ridden country of my birth. At all events, the culinary “surprises” were as innocent as they were clever. They made us laugh; and every wise doctor will tell you that laughter helps digestion. Good digestion means happiness and virtue. One-third of the crime in this world springs from congenital causes : the sins of the fathers are literally visited on the children. Another third is due to the direct, although inscrutable, instrumentality of the Devil. For the rest indigestion is mainly responsible. Indigestion had quite as much to do as had Madame de Maintenon in inducing the superstitious glutton, Louis XIV., to revoke the Edict of Nantes. The digestion of Napoleon the Great was normally deplorable; and I should not be in the least astonished if indigestion were, au fond, the cause of the murder of the Duc d'Enghien. Thackeray told me that he was suffering from an atrocious attack of indigestion when he wrote that bullying letter to 398 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK, of strong ale, and when it boils put in the cheese; let boil for a minute or two; then stir in a teaspoonful of mustard; when the whole becomes a liquid, toast a thick slice of bread, cut off the crust, butter it well and set it before the fire to keep hot. When it is wanted, have a dish and cover very hot, put the cheese on the toast, and send to table iinmediately. 18+ 4. Potted Cheese. Add to a pound of grated Parmesan or Cheshire cheese, in a mortar, three ounces of cold fresh butter, a little sifted mace, and a teaspoonful of unustard. Mix all well, put it into small pots, cover it with clarified butter, and set the pots in a cold, dry place. 5. Another Potted Cheese. Scrape and pound cheese with a piece of butter, cayenne pepper, a few grains of pounded mace, a teaspoonful of sifted sugar, a glass of white wine, and a little salt; press it into your potting-jar for shape. It may be potted with brandy. ororo 6. Cheese à la Montmorency. Boil a pint of cream with two ounces of sugar; when it boils, take it off the fire and let it cool ; when cool, put in half a teaspoonful of orange-flower water. Whip the cream, and as the cream thickens take it off with a skimmer and put it on a basket (with a fine cloth laid over it); continue to whip until there is no longer any cream remaining ; let it drain, and serve it on a plate. CHEESE. 399 7. Cheese as Iced Butter. . Boil for a few minutes a pint of cream with rasped lemon- peel and a good teaspoonful of orange-flower water; when taken off the fire, add a dozen yolks of eggs well beaten up, and mix together without boiling ; pass through a sieve and put into an icing-pot to freeze, working it in the same way as ices. It must be iced in such a manner that you may take it with a spoon to serve, like pats of butter stamped with bits of clear ice between to appear like crystals. inner without boilinolks of eggs we put into an Garotom 8. Cheese Imps. Put a gill of milk into a stew-pan, with two ounces of butter; when boiling, stir in two spoonfuls of flour, and keep stirring over the fire until the bottom of the pan is dry, then add by degrees four eggs, half a pound of Gruyère and half a pound of grated Parmesan cheese; mix well in, season with pepper, salt, and cayenne rather highly; mould the paste into little balls with the forefinger against the side of the stew-pan containing it; drop them into hot lard; fry of a nice light brown, dress in a pyramid upon a napkin, and serve very hot. Half of this quantity may, of course, be made. 9. Cheese Straws. Mix two ounces of grated Parmesan cheese, two ounces of fresh butter, two ounces of finely-grated bread-crumbs, and two ounces of flour, into a paste. Flavour the mixture with cayenne, salt, and a very little pounded mace. Roll this out rather thinly, cut it into fingers about four inches long and half an inch wide, bake thein for a few minutes in a quick oven, and serve cold. They should be piled on a dish in transverse rows. 400 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 10. Macaroni and Cheese Croquettes. Put two quarts of water, with a little salt and a small piece of butter, into a stew-pan, and when boiling add half à pound of macaroni, which boil until tender, drain upon a sieve, and when cold cut into pieces a quarter of an inch in length, putting them into a stew-pan with half a pint of Béchamel (p. 327), a little cayenne pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg; let simmer a few minutes until rather thick, stir- ring it gently occasionally; then add half a pound of grated Parmesan and Gruyère cheese (or good common cheese may be used), turn gently a few minutes longer over the fire, take it off, stir in the yolks of four eggs quickly, stir another minute over the fire to set the eggs, and pour it out upon a dish. When it is quite cold, make it into shaped pieces rather larger than walnuts, or into pieces, in the form of pears, the thickness of your finger; have three eggs well beaten up on a plate; into this dip the croquettes, roll them over, then throw them into a dish of bread- crumbs, pat them gently with your knife, dip again into egg and bread-crumbs, place them in a wire basket, and fry in very hot lard. 11. Cheese Ramequins. Put in a stew-pan a gill of water, to which add two ounces of Gruyère and the same quantity of Parmesan cheese grated, two ounces of butter, a little cayenne pepper, and salt if required; set it upon the fire, and when boiling stir in two or three spoonfuls of flour; keep stirring over the fire until the paste becomes dryish and the bottom of the stew-pan quite white, then add three or four eggs by degrees, until forming a paste; butter a baking sheet well, and lay the paste out in pieces upon it with a table-spoon, making them long, and half the size of the bowl of the spoon; egg over, and lay a small piece of Gruyère upon 402 SECTION XIV.-SWEETS. 1. Almond Cheese Cakes. BLANCH and pound a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds and eight bitter ones, with a wineglass of common or orange- flower water. Add four ounces of sugar, a quarter of a pint of cream, and the whites of two eggs beaten to a froth. Mix and fill small patty-pans. Or these almond cheese-cakes may be made by merely mixing a few beaten almonds with common cheese-cakes. motor 2. Almond Paste. Blanch and pound one pound of Jordan almonds very fine; add a spoonful of water in the pounding to keep them from oiling, and three-quarters of a pound of fine sifted sugar; stir all together over a gentle fire to dry off the moisture. As it leaves the pan and becomes a stiff paste put it in pots. Obs.—You may add half an ounce of gum tragacanth, soaked in water, thick. artono 3. Almond Padding. Take a quarter of a pound of blanched Jordan almonds, pounded fine; four whole eggs, the whites of two; a pint of cream, and a quarter of a pound of butter melted in it; two ounces of flour, and the same quantity of sugar; 404 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 6. Amber Pudding. Lay a pound of fresh butter in a stew-pan, with three quarters of a pound of lump sugar finely pounded; melt the butter and mix the whole well; then add the yolks of fifteen eggs beaten, and as much candied peel as will give it a colour and flavour, first reducing it to paste. Line the dish with a fine crust, and cover it as you would a pie. Bake it in a slow oven. It is equally good cold or hot. 7. Another Amber Pudding. Take one dozen cooking apples, a cupful of sugar, six eggs, four tablespoonfuls of butter, the rind and juice of two lemons, and sufficient puff-paste to line a dish. Pare and quarter the apples and pare the lemons, taking off the thin yellow rind only: the white would make the pudding bitter. Put this rind, with the apples, butter, and lemon-juice, into a stew-pan with half a cupful of water. Cover and simmer for three-quarters of an hour; pass it through a sieve, add the sugar, and let it cool, and then stir in the yolks of the eggs well beaten ; put it all into a dish lined with a good but thin paste; bake in a gentle oven for half an hour. While it is cooking, whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth; beat into them three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, cover the pudding with this; return to the oven for ten minutes, leaving the door open. This pudding may be served hot or cold. rom : ; 8. Angelica Tart. Pare and core some golden pippins or nonpareils; then take an equal quantity of the stalks of angelica, peel them, and cut them into small pieces. Boil the apples in water enough to cover them, with Temon-peel and fine sugar. SWEETS. 405 Do them gently, till they produce a thin syrup, and then strain it off. Put it on the fire, together with the angelica, and let both boil ten minutes. Make a puff-paste, lay it at the bottom of the tin, then a layer of apple and one of angelica, till full. Pour in some syrup, put on the cover, and bake moderately. Sinon 9. Apple Biscuits. • Add to two pounds of apple pulp, two and three-quarter pounds of fine sugar, three whole eggs, and a portion of essence of cloves; stir all well together in a pan over a moderate fire, adding three and a quarter pounds of flour and half a pound of corn starch in powder; when the mixture is hot, lay it out with a large screw funnel, ice the biscuits, and bake them. -roton 10. Apple Charlotte. Stew a dozen apples; butter a plain mould; take a new loaf, the crumb of which cut in thin slices about two inches broad and the depth of your mould, and cut two round pieces, one for the top and the other for the bottom of the mould. Then begin by dipping the round piece in good clarified butter, laying it at the bottom; the thin slices place on the side, one against the other until they meet all round; put your apples in the mould, cover the top well over with the other round piece, and bake for nearly an hour. A little lemon-juice may be added to the apples if liked. Girone 11. Apple Pudding. Pare, core, and stew the apples in a small stew-pan, with cinnamon, two or three cloves, and the grated rind of a SWEETS. 407 15. Bakewell Pudding. As may be gathered from the name, this dish hails from Derbyshire. First, line a pie-dish with a good and light paste; on this place a layer of any preserved fruit you may prefer - apricots are especially good—then on this spread, in the thinnest slices, some candied citron-peel. Make a custard with six eggs, omitting the whites of three, six ounces of sifted sugar, four ounces of clarified butter, and three spoon- fuls of lemon brandy—that is, brandy in which lemon-peel has been soaked, and mixed with lemon-juice. If other flavouring be preferred, mix that instead of lemon with the brandy. Pour the custard over the jam, and bake in a moderate oven for three-quarters of an hour. Grow 16. Banbury Cake. Take a peck of pure wheat-flour, six pounds of currants, half a pound of sugar, two pounds of butter, half an ounce of cloves and mace, a pint and a half of ale yeast, and a little rose-water; then boil as much new milk as will serve to knead it, and when it is almost cold, put into it as much sherry as will thicken it, and so work it alto- gether before a fire, pulling it two or three times in pieces; afterwards, make it up. Sarrero 17. Barley Pudding. Beat up the yolks of six eggs and the whites of three, and put them into a quart of cream. Sweeten, and add a little orange-flower or rose-water, with a pound of melted butter, and six handfuls of French barley that has been boiled tender in milk. Butter a dish, pour it in, and send it to the oven. 408 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 18. Brown Bread Pudding. · Half a pound of stale brown bread grated; ditto of currants; ditto of shredded suet; sugar and nutmeg; mix with four eggs, one tablespoonful of brandy and two of cream; boil in a cloth or basin that exactly holds it for three or four hours. 19. Buns, Little. Beat six ounces of butter to cream. Add the yolks of six eggs, two ounces of butter, the grated peel of a lemon, an ounce of dried yeast mixed in a cup of warm milk, and a pound of flour, with enough sour cream to mix the whole into a dough of light bread consistence. Put little lumps the size of a walnut on a buttered tin, and set them to rise. When they are light, put in the centre of each an almond, a raisin, or a dot of dried fruit, brush them over with egg and sugar mixed, or with egg and coarsely-pounded sugar, and bake them in a quick oven ten or twenty minutes. 20. Buttered Loaves. Take the yolks of twelve eggs and six whites, and a quarter of a pint of yeast; when you have beaten the eggs well, strain them with the yeast into a dish, add a little salt, and two races of ginger beaten very small; then put flour to it till it comes to a high paste that will not cleave; next you must roll it upon your hands, and afterwards put it into a warm cloth, and let it lie there a quarter of an hour; then make it up in little loaves and bake it again; against it is baked, prepare a pound and a half of butter, a quarter of a pint of white SWEETS. 409 wine, and half a pound of sugar; this being melted and beaten together with the loaves, return them to the oven for a quarter of an hour. 21. Cake, Plain Fruit. One loaf of bread dough, half a cupful of butter, the same of sugar, a little syrup if liked, half a cupful of butter- milk, half of currants, one of raisins, three eggs, and some lemon-peel. Mix all well together, adding some spice to taste, and bake. iran 22. Chantilly Basket. Stick ratafia biscuits round the dish, or make it over a mould, with caramel sugar; have different sizes of biscuits, and ornament with comfits or dried fruits ; fill the inside with four sponge biscuits, six macaroons soaked in wine ; pour over a custard, and fill up with syllabub cream. A “ basket” may be made of almond paste, macaroons, or small almond biscuits, and served in the same way. 23. Cheese-Cakes. Put a spoonful of rennet into a quart of milk; when turned, drain the curd through a coarse sieve, gently break the curd, and rub in a quarter of a pound of butter, a quarter of a pound of sugar, nutmeg, and two Naples biscuits grated, the yolks of four eggs and the white of one, half an ounce of almonds, half bitter and half sweet, well beaten in a mortar, with two teaspoonfuls of rose water, four ounces of currants; put in the curd, and mix together. 410 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOK. 24. Cheese-Cakes, Lemon or Orange. Grate the rind of three lemons, and squeeze their juice over three sponge biscuits soaked in a glass of cream. Add to this four ounces of fresh butter, four of fine sugar, and three eggs well beaten. Season with cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix all these ingredients thoroughly, and bake in small pans lined with a light thin paste. Lay a few long thin slices of candied lemon-peel upon the top. Another Way. Take a large lemon or Seville orange, grate the rind, squeeze the juice, and sweeten to taste with pounded lump sugar; a quarter of a pound of clarified butter put in when the thickness of cream, five eggs-only three whites; one tablespoonful of brandy; mix well together; have good puff-paste, and bake in patty-pans. non 25. Cheese Fritters. Put some milk, butter, mild Brie or Gruyère cheese, into a saucepan; add to these ingredients flour, and afterwards eggs and sugar; make them into a paste, of which form your fritters; fry them of a nice colour, and serve them sprinkled with sugar. A small quantity of orange-flower may be added. 26. Chestnut Pudding. Put a dozen and a half of chestnuts in a saucepan of water, boil them a quarter of an hour, then blanch and peel them, and beat them in a marble mortar, with a little SWEETS. 411 rose-water and sherry, till they are a thin fine paste; now beat up twelve eggs with half the whites, and mix them well; grate half a nutmeg and a little salt, mix this with three pints of cream and half a pound of melted butter, sweeten to your palate and mix all together. When you can- not get cream, take three pints of milk, beat up the yolks of four eggs and stir into the milk; set it over the fire, stirring it all the time till it is scalding hot; then mix it in in the place of the cream. Another Way. Put twelve ounces of chestnut farina into a stew-pan, add six ounces of pounded sugar, a teaspoonful of vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, four ounces of butter, and a pint of milk. Stir this over the fire until it thickens, and then quicken the motion of the spoon until the paste leaves the sides of the pan; it must next be removed from the fire, and the yolks of six eggs incorporated therewith; now mix in gently the whites, whipped firm, and use this preparation to fill a mould spread inside with butter. Place this on a baking-sheet, and bake it. in an oven of moderate heat for an hour or thereabouts. As soon as it done, turn it out on its dish, pour some diluted apricot jam round it, and serve. Snow 27. Chocolate Puffs. Beat and sift half a pound of double-refined sugar, scrape into it very fine an ounce of chocolate, and mix the two together. Beat up the white of an egg to a froth, and strew into it the sugar and chocolate. Keep beating it till it is as thick as paste, then sugar the paper, drop the puffs on about the size of a sixpence, and bake them in a slow oven. 414 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. whisk it over the fire till it boils and strew till it is cold, straining it through a sieve. Another Way. Have a pint of clear jelly of calves’-feet free from blacks and fat. Clear a large cupful of strong coffee with isinglass till bright and deeply brown. Mix it with the jelly, add a pint of good cream, and fine sugar to taste; and after mixing well, boil up for a few minutes till you have a weak jelly. 36. Cream, Devonshire or Clotted. This is made by putting the milk into a large metal or earthenware (I prefer earthenware) pan, and allowing it to stand without moving it for some hours—twenty-four in winter, twelve in summer. The pan is then placed on a stove, so that it will heat without boiling or even simmering until a solid mass forms on the top. The pan should then be taken to a cool dairy, and the cream lifted off when it has become quite cold. The more slowly this is done the better 37. Cream, Italian, Melt an ounce of isinglass in as little water as possible ; take one pint of double cream, whip this very lightly, adding by degrees one of Madeira, two tablespoonfuls of brandy, and the rind of one lemon rubbed on sugar; add also sufficient sugar to sweeten the cream. Mix in the isinglass when nearly cold, and immediately pour it into the mould, which should previously be rubbed over with sweet oil. The mould does not require to be dipped in warm water to turn it out; for, if carefully oiled, it will deliver without and the dish will have a much smoother appearance. SITEETS. 415 38. Cream, Orange, without Cream. Rub the rind of six China oranges on sugar, and scrape it off; add the juice of three lemons, a quarter of a pound of sugar, fourteen yolks of eggs, one wineglass of water; whisk all together over the fire till it begins to thicken, but not to boil, and continue to whisk till cold.-Lemon cream is done the same way. intim 39. Cream, Pineapple, with Jam. Pound six ounces of preserved pineapple, one teaspoon- ful of the pine syrup, a quarter of a pint of clarified sugar, the juice of two lemons, a pint and a half of cream ; rub through a sieve, and add four slices of preserved pine, cut into small dice. 40. Card Pudding, Rub the curd of two gallons of milk, well drained, through a sieve; mix it with six eggs, a little cream, two tablespoonfuls each of flour and bread-crumbs, half a pound of currants, and the same of raisins, cut and stoned. Boil for an hour in a thick floured cloth. 41. Curd Star. Set a quart of new milk upon the fire with two or three blades of mace; and when ready to boil, put to it the yolks and whites of nine eggs, well beaten, and as much salt as will lie upon a small knife's point. Let it boil till the whey is clear; then drain it on a thin cloth or hair-sieve; season it with sugar, and a little cinnamon, rose-water, orange-flower water, or white wine, to your SIVEETS. 417 45. Custard, Lemon. Beat the yolks of eight eggs, as well as if for a cake, till they are like strong cream. With this mix gradually a pint of boiling water, and the grated rind and juice of two lemons. Sweeten to taste, and stir it one way over the fire till it thickens, but do not let it boil. Add a little wine and brandy when the custard is almost ready. Stir till cool. Serve in cups; to be eaten cold. Garoin 46. Derbyshire Pudding. Take a pint of milk and two tablespoonfuls of flour; mix by degrees, boil till thick, and set by till cold; then add three ounces of butter, beaten to a cream, a quarter of a pound of fine sugar, a little salt, the rind of a lemon grated, the yolks of five and whites of three eggs; mix thoroughly, put a paste round the dish, and bake in a quick oven. This pudding is very good cold. 47. Devonshire White-Pot. Take a pint of cream and strain four eggs into it; add a little salt and a little sliced nutmeg, and season with sugar till somewhat sweet; then take fine bread sliced very thin, and put it into a dish. The cream and the eggs being put to it, add a handful of raisins of the sun that have been boiled, and a little sweet butter; so bake it. 48. Duke of Cumberland's Padding. Mix, in equal proportions, grated bread, shredded suet, chopped apples, loaf-sugar, and cleaned currants, with six BB 420 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. well with the rice and milk. Add thereto a pint of cream, set it over a stove, and stir it well. Put in some pow- dered sugar, candied lemon-peel cut small, and some fresh grated lemon-peel. Cut off the white meat of a roasted chicken, pull it into small shreds, and add it to the other ingredients, stirring the whole together. This will make a rich paste, which must be rolled out, cut into fritters, and fried in boiling lard. Strew the bottom of the dish with powdered sugar, put in the fritters, and throw some more sugar over them. ran 55. Fritters, German. Pare, core, and quarter some apples, and cut them into round pieces. Put a quarter of a pint of brandy, a tablespoonful of fine sugar pounded, together with some cinnamon, into a pan. Add the apples thereto, and set the whole over a gentle fire, stirring them often, without breaking them. Set on another pan with lard, and when it boils, drain the apples, dip them in flour, and put them into it. Strew sugar over the dish, and place it on the fire, lay in the fritters, throw some sugar over them, and glaze them with a red-hot salamander. raine 56. Fritters, Plain. These may be made of the same kind of batter as pan- cakes by pouring a small quantity into the pan, or by grating some crumb of bread and putting it into a pint of milk, mixing it smooth, and, when cold, adding the yolks of five eggs, three ounces of sifted sugar, and some grated nutmeg. Fry the fritters, and when done pour thereon melted butter, wine, and sugar. SWEETS. 421 57. Gauffres. Put into a warm basin half a pound of butter, and beat it with a wooden spoon till it becomes like thick cream; mix six yolks of eggs, one by one, beating them well, and add three tablespoonfuls of four, with a little sugar rubbed on a lemon; take half a pint of double cream well beaten up; also whip the six whites of eggs very firm, and mix all together very lightly. Make the gauffre irons hot on both sides, pour in a little clarified butter for the first baking, bake the gauffres quickly, serve them as hot as possible, and at the last moment throw over them a little pounded cinnamon, inised with fine sugar. 58. Gauffres, French. Ingredients required are eight ounces of flour, four ounces of powdered sugar, one pint of whipped cream, eight eggs, one stick of vanilla, a little salt, and a glass of curaçao. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a basin, then add the yolks of the eggs, the (pounded) vanilla, and the curaçao, and mix these well together, gradually adding the whipped cream just before using the batter; add the whipped whites of eggs, and mix them in lightly, so as to thoroughly incorporate them with it. Bake these gauffres in irons made for the purpose, and which must have been moistened with a little clarified butter. Fill one side of the irons with some of the batter, handling it gently with a spoon; close the irons, and then turn them upside down (that the batter may run into the opposite side) and set them over the fire. Observe, however, that the irons be very carefully heated, and the superfluous heat allowed to go off previously to filling them with the batter, for, owing to the presence of sugar, the gauffres readily acquire colour. s, and mix 17e the batten..y adding 422 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. When done, shake some vanilla sugar over them, and send them to table. These gauffres may be spread with some kind of preserve, such as apricot, currant, jelly, etc. Gram 59. German Puddings. A pint of cream, two tablespoonfuls of flour, the yolks of five eggs, two ounces of almonds, beaten a little; the crumb of a French roll grated, with sugar to your taste; the peel of two lemons, grated or shredded small; and lastly, a quarter of a pound of butter, clarified and put in cool : pour into buttered cups, and bake as custards; when you turn them out, pour over them melted butter, wine, and sugar. ren 60. Green Pudding. Of mutton and beef suet, shredded very small, three- quarters of a pound each ; bread-crumbs, a pound and a half; mix with a sufficient quantity of cream, and the yolks of four and the whites of two eggs, well beaten. Parsley chopped fine, one handful; juice of spinach, one pint; season with salt, sweeten with loaf-sugar to taste; add grated nutmeg and one pound of currants, with a little flour. Mix the ingredients well together, roll up in a sheep's caul, and bake. pain 61. Grateful Pudding, Take fine flour and grated bread, of each an equal quantity; four whole eggs and four yolks, well beaten; well sweeten with fine loaf sugar, as much cream as will make the whole the thickness of batter; then add raisins of the sun, stoned, and currants, of each one pound, more SWEETS. 423 or less, according to the size of the pudding; nutmeg, cinnamon, candied-peel at pleasure; bake three-quarters of an hour in a dish well buttered; when done, grate fine sugar over the pudding, and serve it with wine sauce or sugar and lemon-juice. 62. Grateful Pudding, Another. Take the crumb of white bread, slice thin into a dish to a quart of cream; set it over a chafing dish of charcoal till the bread grows dryish ; put in a piece of sweet butter, take it off and let it get cold; beat together four yolks and one or two whites with a little rose-water and sugar to your palate, and add this to the former with a grated nut- meg. Put all (being well mixed) into another dish, and so bake it. intim ose. 63. Hanover Cake or Pudding. Take half a pound of almonds blanched and beaten fine with a little rose-water, half a pound of sifted sugar, twelve eggs, leaving out half the whites, the rind of a lemon grated very fine; put a few almonds in the mortar at a time, and introduce by degrees about a teacupful of rose- water; keep throwing in the sugar; when you have done the almonds and the sugar together a little at a time till they are all used up, put the mixture into your pan with the eggs, beating them well together. In half an hour the dish will be baked; it must be a light brown. ram 64. Hanting Padding. Beat eight eggs, and mix them with a pint of good cream and a pound of flour; when beaten well together, add 424 TAE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. a pound of beef suet chopped very fine, a pound of currants well-cleaned, half a pound of raisins stoned and chopped small, a quarter of a pound of sifted sugar, two ounces of candied citron, the same of candied orange, cut very small ; grate a large nutmeg, and mix all well together with half a gill of brandy; put the pudding in a cloth, and tie it up close; it will take four hours to boil. irtir 65. Italian Pudding, An. Take a pint of cream, and slice therein as much French roll as will make it thick ; beat up five eggs; butter the bottom of a dish, slice eight pippins into it, and add thereto some orange-peel, sugar, and half a pint of port wine. Pour in the cream, bread, and eggs, lay a puff-paste over the dish, and bake half an hour. Vintain 66. Lady Sunderland's Pudding. Beat up the yolks of eight eggs with the whites of three, add five tablespoonfuls of flour and a grated nutmeg, and put the whole into a pint of cream. Butter some small basins, fill them half way, and bake them an hour. When done, turn the puddings out, and pour on melted butter, wine, and sugar. ol 67. Lemon Puffs. Beat and sift a pound and a quarter of double-refined sugar, grate the rind of two lemons, and mix the same with the sugar; then beat the whites of three new-laid eggs, add them to the sugar and peel, and beat for an 426 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. new milk, with the addition of such sweetmeats as may be agreeable. The dish may be lined with puff-paste; but care must be taken that it is not baked too much. 70. Macaroni Pudding. Take an ounce and a half of the best macaroni, and simmer it in a pint of milk with a little cinnamon till tender; put it into a dish with milk, three eggs (but only one white), some sugar, and a little nutmeg. -noir 71. Meringues. Whisk the whites of six eggs till they are as white as snow, add twelve ounces of powdered sugar and some grated candied lemon-peel; whisk well together; take it by spoon- fuls and put them on a sheet of white paper powdered with sugar, and then in a gentle oven. When they begin to swell and take a good colour, detach them from the paper, hollow them a little, and fill them with cream. Put one on the other, stick them together with white of egg, and let them dry. 72. Mille Feuilles (Italian Pyramid). A good puff-paste, rather thick, must be stamped out with tin stamps or any ingenious substitutes into a number of pieces, each less than the other, the base being of the size of the plate in which the pyramid is to be served, and the others gradually tapering to the top. Bake the pieces of paste on paper laid on tins, and ice them. Pile them up with raspberry and other jams of different colours, laid SWEETS. 427 on the edges, and a bunch of small preserved fruit or some other ornament on the top. 73. Mince Pies. Take of neat's tongue or heart parboiled one pound and a half, chopped very fine; add to it one pound and a half of beef suet and an equal weight of currants, minced; one large nutmeg, cloves, and blades of mace, beaten fine; a little salt, four minced pippins, and half a pound of raisins, stoned and chopped small; half a pint of sherry, quarter of a pint of best brandy, quarter of a pint of verjuice, one pound of loaf-sugar pounded; a little rose-water, the rind of a large lemon minced small, with the juice; also candied lemon and citron peel—of each two ounces, shredded small. The crust should be very rich and flaky, and the meat entirely covered above and below. 74. Mince Pies: Another Way. Rub with salt and mixed spices a flat bullock's tongue. Let it lie three days, and parboil ; skin, mince, or scrape it. Mince separately three pounds of Zante currants picked, plumped, and dried ; a dozen lemon pippin apples pared and cored ; and a pound of blanched almonds. Mix together, and add half a pound of candied citron and orange-peel, minced, and an ounce of beaten cinnamon and cloves, with the juice and grated rind of three or four lemons, half an ounce of salt, the same quantity of allspice, and a quarter of a pound of fine sugar pounded, a pint and a half of Madeira, and half a pint of brandy. Line the pans with rich puff-paste, and serve the pies hot with burnt of finale quantito! Madeira 428 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. brandy. The brandy is best when burnt at table as it is used. Though the mincemeat will keep for some time, it is better when not old. The fruit, suet, and wine may be added when the pies are to be made (as the suet and raw apples are apt to spoil), also the dried fruits. 75. Muffin or Cabinet Pudding. Cut three muffins in two; pour a pint and a half of boiling milk over them; let them stand till cold. Make a custard of eight yolks and four whole eggs beaten up with one pint of cream, and one glass of brandy; a quarter of a pound of sugar, one nutmeg, and one lemon-peel, grated; butter a mould, place some dried cherries and custard to cover alternately with the muffins till the mould is full ; boil it in a stew-pan, with a little water for the mould to stand in, one hour and a half ; serve wine sauce with it. Obs.-French plum pudding is made in the same way. Another Way. Boil a small piece of lemon-peel, a little cinnamon, and sugar, for eight or ten minutes in a pint of milk. Put three muffins into a large basin, strain over them the milk, and when cold, mash the whole with a wooden spoon. Pound about an ounce of blanched almonds, mix them well in with about a quarter of a pound of any dry pre- served fruit, as apricots, cherries, or plums, a little grated nutmeg, three yolks of eggs beaten, and two tablespoon- fuls each of brandy and orange-flower water. Bake the pudding, with puff-paste round the dish; or you may boil it, tied up in a basin. Currants may be substituted for the preserved fruit. SIPEETS. 429 76. Nelson Paddings. Put into a Dutch oven six small cakes called Nelson- balls, or rice cakes made in small teacups. When quite hot, pour over them boiling melted butter, white wine, and sugar; and serve. non 77. Nesselrode Padding. Peel forty chestnuts, blanch them in boiling water for five minutes, peel off the second skin, and put them in a stew-pan with a quart of syrup and a stick of vanilla. Simmer gently till the chestnuts are done ; drain, and press them through a fine hair-sieve. Put eight yolks of eggs in a stew-pan with half a pound of pounded sugar, and a quart of boiled cream ; stir over the fire without boiling till the egg begins to thicken; add the chestnut purée, press the whole through a tammy cloth into a basin, and add a gill of maraschino. Stone a quarter of a pound of raisins, and wash and pick a quarter of a pound of currants; cook both together in one half-gill of syrup and one gill of water; drain, and let them cool. Put a freezing-pot on the ice, pour in the chestnut cream, and work it with the spatula ; when it is partly frozen, add three gills of whipped cream, and continue working with the spatula until the cream is quite frozen; then add the currants and raisins, and put the pudding into an ice mould; close it, place some butter on the opening to prevent any salt or water penetrating inside the mould, and let it remain in ice for two hours. To make the sauce :-Put three gills of boiled cream in a stew-pan, with eight yolks of eggs, and about four ounces of pounded sugar; stir over the fire without boiling till the egg begins to thicken; take off the fire and stir for three minutes more; strain the custard through a tammy 430 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. cloth, and add half a gill of maraschino. Put the sauce on the ice until it is very cold, but not freezing. Turn the pudding out of the mould on to a napkin on a dish, and serve, with the sauce in a boat. nar 78. Noddy Paddings. Beat blanched almonds very fine, add one or two table- spoonfuls of rose-water or cream, strain through a sieve, boil it, and set it to cool. Then thicken it with beaten eggs, sweeten with fine lump-sugar dissolved in rose-water, and tie it up in different bags; boil the puddings half an hour in a small saucepan, and melt butter with rose- water and sugar for the sauce. These curious puddings may be coloured with spinach- juice, saffron, beet, or other articles. Another Way. Take two small white loaves, pare off the crust; slice them into a dish; put to them a quart or three pints of cream, set the dish over a chafing dish of charcoal till the bread grows dryish; then stir in a good piece of butter, and gradually mix in the yolks of half a dozen eggs and the whites of three; well beat with rose-water, and sugar, and some nutmeg grated; mix all together, and when baked, strew fine sugar over. inowe 79. Northumberland Paddings. Make a thick batter by boiling and sweetening milk and flour. When cold and firm, mash it up, and add to it four ounces of melted butter, the same weight of currants, SWEETS. 431 two ounces of candied lernon and orange-peel, sliced, and a little brandy if liked. Butter teacups, and bake the puddings in them for fifteen minutes. Turn them out on a dish, and pour wine sauce over them if to be eaten hot. If to make a cold ornamental supper dish, omit the wine sauce. irrores 80. Omelette, Sweet. Many things go to make a good omelette, but the first is —the eggs must be absolutely fresh; then the yolks and whites must be beaten separately. Your pan must be per- fectly clean, and absolutely free from damp; for this reason some cooks never wash their omelette pans, but clean them thoroughly with bread. Beat up the yolks of your eggs- six make a good-sized omelette—with three ounces of butter in your pan, which must have been warmed for a minute over the fire before the butter goes in. Mix the whipped whites with the other ingredients, and pour into the pan, shaking it all the time. As soon as the under side is nicely browned, sift powdered sugar over the top, fold it over-remember, an omelette must never be turned-put it for five minutes in a brisk oven. Serve immediately, before it has time to sink. (See also p. 189.) iltainen 81. Orange Pudding. Take the yolks of six eggs, or as many as you like, beat them well with half a pound of melted butter, grate in the rind of two Seville oranges, beat in half a pound of fine sugar, two dessertspoonfuls of orange-flower water, two of rose-water, a gill of sherry, half a pint of cream, two Naples biscuits, or the crumb of a halfpenny loaf (soaked in the cream), and mix well all together. Make a thin puff- 432 THE THOROUGII GOOD COOK. paste, and lay all over the dish and round the rim; pour in the pudding and bake it. It will take about as long baking as a custard. Line a she the followin weight of sugranges till 82. Orange Tart. Line a shallow tart dish with a good puff-paste, and upon it pour the following mixture :—Take four Seville oranges, and double their weight of sugar; squeeze all the juice from the pulp, then boil the oranges till tender; then pound them into a paste, adding the sugar, a tea- spoonful of butter, the juice from the oranges, and a few drops of essence of lemon ; bake till the crust is done, and then cover with custard or cream. 83. Pancakes, Berlin, Stir three tablespoonfuls of yeast, or an ounce and a half of dried yeast, into half a pint of lukewarm milk; mix this with half a pound of flour, and set it to rise. Have a pound of flour warming in another pan; add to this the grated peel of half a lemon, half an ounce of bitter almonds, blanched and pounded fine, a quarter of a pound of sifted sugar, a little nutmeg grated, a little salt, and the yolks of three eggs. When the yeast batter has risen, add to it the other ingredients, and use lukewarm milk enough to make the whole as thick as a light bread dough. Now add half a pound of warmed butter, and beat the mass at least a quarter of an hour, until it is so smooth and light that bubbles appear, and it drops from the spoon. Cover, and let it partly rise, then slightly work it together again. Take a part of it at a time on a paste-board, roll it out a bare half-inch thick, and with a round cutter, two inches SWEETS. 433 and a half in diameter, cut out cakes. On half of these put a teaspoonful of some nice thick preserve, such as plum, raspberry, or apricot, leaving a good half-inch margin of paste round the preserve. Moisten this round, and lay another cake on the top. Press them round, and if spread at all, cut them out again with the same cutter. Lay them on a floured tin, and set them in a warm place to rise, but not too high, or they will absorb the friture in frying. The frying-pan must be very hot, and well supplied with butter or sweet lard. Fry as many cakes at a time as you can conveniently turn in the pan; both sides must be done a clear yellow brown, not dark. Lay them on a napkin when done, that no friture may hang about them. When they are cold, sift sugar over them, or ice them with the white of an egg or two whisked to a snow with a little lemon- juice, and sifted sugar enough to form a creamy icing, which must be laid on with the paste-brush. Set the pancakes in a cool oven or before the fire to dry a little. Gnom 84. Pancakes, Cream. Mix the yolks of two eggs with half a pint of cream, two ounces of sugar, some beaten cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg. Fry them as quickly as possible, and grate over them some lump-sugar. -nin 85. Pancakes, Irish. Take a pint of cream, eight yolks and four whites of eggs; beat the eggs with some grated nutmeg and sugar; then melt three ounces of butter in the cream, mix it with the rest, and add thereto about half a pint of flour smoothed fine. Rub the pan with some butter, and fry the cakes thin without turning. Serve several, one on another. CC SWEETS. 439 99. Raspberry Tart. Select fresh, well-ripened raspberries, and place them in layers on a tart dish, sprinkling over each of these layers a handful of powdered sugar. Erect the fruit in a dome- like shape above the level of the dish. Cover the dish with a large round of paste, ornament nicely, and bake for forty-five minutes; then let it cool. Snow 100. Rice and Apples. Core as many nice apples as will fill the dish; boil them in light syrup; prepare a quarter of a pound of rice in milk, with sugar and salt; put some of the rice into the dish, add the apples, fill up the intervals with rice, and bake in an oven till of a fine colour. Liam 101. Rice Custard. Take a quart of milk, with a small cupful of rice, and let it simmer on a slow fire until it boils ; add sugar to taste, and when the rice boils, beat up two yolks of eggs with the hot milk, and pour slowly into the boiling milk and rice, mixing the whole together, until it gets the colour of custard. Turn it into a flat glass dish, sprinkle with fine ground cinnamon, and serve either cold or hot. 102. Rice Flammery. Mix two tablespoonfuls of rice flour with a little cold milk, and add to it a large pint of boiled milk, sweet- ened and seasoned with cinnamon and lemon-peel. Two 442 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. butter to mix with the egg, and as soon as the mixture is cool, pour into the centre of the flour and form the paste. Roll it thin, make up the tarts, and on setting them in the oven, wet them over with a little water and grate on them a small quantity of sugar. Sinton 109. Trifle. Take some sponge-cakes, steep them in white wine, to which add a glass of brandy. When the cakes are quite soaked, put them into your trifle dish, and on them place a layer of ratafia cakes, each dipped into the wine in which the other cakes were steeped. On the cakes put a layer of jam rather thick, and cover this with a rich custard, made thus :—Boil half a pint of cream and a glass of milk with a stick of cinnamon, till it has a nice flavour; sweeten to taste. Boil also the thin rind of a lemon with the cream, or add four or five bitter almonds pounded. Beat the yolks of four eggs and a little cream, put this into a basin, and hold it in your left hand; taking the boiling cream in the other hand, pour it on the eggs quickly, then pour it back, and continue to pour it back- wards and forwards as quickly as possible to mix without curdling. When nearly cold, put the custard again on the fire, stirring it till it nearly thickens and boils; take it off at once and continue stirring till cool. When quite cool, put it on your fruit. Then take cream whipped to a froth with what you please, and put it on the trifle, prop it up, and garnish with comfits. S tov 110. Vacherin with Cream. Take half a pound of sweet almonds and half a pound of white sugar. Blanch, peel, and pound the almonds, add SIVEETS. 443 the sugar, and moisten the mixture to a stiff paste with white of egg. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on a pastry- board, and roll the almond paste upon it a quarter of an inch thick. Take a plain mould about six inches in diameter, line the sides with a band of paste one and a half inches deep, and join the ends securely together with white of egg. Stamp out a round of the paste a little larger than the bottom of the mould. Bake both in a gentle oven, remove the band from the mould, and stick it upon the round. Put the case again into the oven; keep it there till it becomes slightly coloured, then let it get quite cold. When wanted, fill it with any nicely flavoured whipped cream, piling the cream as high as possible. 111. Vermicelli or Sago Pudding. Boil to a paste two ounces of sago or vermicelli in a pint and a half of milk; when cold, add one ounce of butter, melted in half a pint of cream, six yolks and two whole eggs, one lemon-peel, and half a nutineg, grated; two dessertspoonfuls of orange-flower water, and half an ounce of citron, cut; line a dish with paste, bake it half an hour. 112. Welsh Pudding. Melt half a pound of butter by setting it in a basin floating in hot water, and gradually mix with it the beaten yolks of eight eggs and whites of four. Sweeten with finely-pounded sugar, and season with the grate of a lemon and a little nutmeg. Bake in a dish with an ornamented paste border; and when ready, stick slices of citron or candied orange-peel round the edges. 446 TAE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. 2. Lemon-Water Ice. Put in a vessel half a pound of powdered sugar, with one quart of cold water, grate in the rind of a large lemon, or of two small ones, squeezing in the juice of three good- sized ones, or of four if small, and with your spatula beat well together for five minutes. Have a syrup-weigher, place it in the centre of the preparation, and if it be twenty-one degrees it is correct, if not, add a little more powdered sugar; remove the weigher, mix a little more, and then strain through a sieve into the freezer, putting on the cover, and proceed to freeze it precisely as for vanilla cream ice (No. 1), serving it in the same way. -rom 3. Lemon Cream Ice. Take from six lemons the rind, as thin as possible, and free from pith. Squeeze the juice of the lemons into a sugar- pan, with half a pound of sugar and half a pint of water. Place it upon the fire and reduce it to a rather thick syrup. Have a pint and a half of milk upon the fire, into which, when boiling, throw the rind of the lemons; cover over, and let remain till half cold. In another stew-pan have the yolks of twelve eggs (to which you have added an ounce of sugar), with which mix the milk by degrees, and stir over the fire until it adheres to the back of the spoon, when stir in the syrup and pass through a tammy. When cold, freeze (see No. 1), adding a pint of whipped cream when half frozen. 4. Orange Cream Ice. . Proceed precisely as in the last, but using the rind and juice of ten oranges instead of six lemons, as there directed. 448: THE THOROUGHI GOOD COOK. degrees a little rose-water. Boil them gently in a pint of cream till you find that it is highly flavoured with them. Then pour the cream into a bowl, stir in half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, cover it, and set it away to cool gradually, When it is cold, strain it, and then stir it, gradually but hard, into three pints of cream. Freeze it twice. It will be found very nice. som grad, adualis "Peeze in 8. Apricot Cream Ice. Procure a dozen and a half of fine ripe apricots, which cut in halves; take out the stones, break them and extract the kernels, which blanch in very hot water, and skin. Then put them with the apricots into a sugar-pan, with half a pound of sugar and half a glassful of water. Let them boil until almost forming a marmalade, when put them by in a basin. Have the yolks of twelve eggs in a stew-pan, with which mix by degrees a pint and a half of milk. Set over the fire, keeping it stirred until thick enough to adhere to the back of a spoon. Then pass it through a tammy into a basin. Add the syrup and apricots, and when cold three glasses of noyau. Freeze as in the recipe for vanilla cream ice (No. 1), and when half frozen add a pint of good whipped cream. voor 9. Chocolate Cream Ice. This is made like vanilla cream ice (No. 1), but omitting the vanilla, in the place of which scrape a quarter of a pound of chocolate; place this in a stew-pan over the fire, and keep stirring until melted. Then have ready boiling a quart of milk, which mix with the chocolate by degrees; finish with eggs and sugar, and freeze as in No. 1. ICES AND DRINKS. 449 10. Punch à la Française, Hot. Put in a saucepan on the hot range one pint of Jamaica rum with twelve ounces of granulated sugar; stir continually with the spatula until reduced to half the quantity. Add the juice of three lemons and of four sweet oranges, then set the pan on the corner of the stove to keep hot. Put in a tea-pot one ounce of green tea, pouring over it a pint of boiling water, and let infuse for ten minutes, then strain into the preparation; return this to the middle of the stove, and when about to boil, skim thoroughly with a skimmer. Take it from the fire, pour it into a punch-bowl, and serve. Siroir 11. Cider Cap. Put a slice of toasted crumb of bread at the bottom of a large jug; grate half a small nutmeg over it, and place on it two or three slices of thin lemon rind and half a dozen lumps of sugar. Pour over this two wineglassfuls of sherry, one of brandy, the juice of a lemon, a bottle of soda-water, and, last of all, a quart of cider. Mix well, put a sprig of borage or balm into it, and add a few lumps of pure ice. This should be used as soon as it is made. 12. Capillaire Syrup. Take an ounce of capillaire leaves, and put them to a pint of boiling water; let them infuse twelve hours on a hot hearth, then strain the liquor through a tammy, and add to it a syrup made with a pound of sugar and a large glass of water. Do not let it boil till all is mixed; take it off, pour it into a jar, cover this closely, and let it stand on a hot hearth for three days; then bottle for use. DD 450 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK, 13. Lemon or Orange Shrub. - Take two lemons and six Seville oranges, or, if preferred, eight sweet oranges without lemons, grate off the rinds and squeeze out the juice, then for each quart of juice add three pounds of powdered loaf-sugar. Stir the sugar till it is dissolved, and add two quarts of best Jamaica rum for each quart of juice. Pour the mixture into a cask, and shake it three times a day for three weeks. Let it stand in a cool place till clear. Then filter, and bottle for use, -ipon 14. Lemon Syllabub. Strain the juice of five lemons over the rind of two. Add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and let remain for an hour or two. Add a pint of thick cream and half a pint of sherry or raisin wine, strain, and then whisk until the mixture is well frothed. Pour the syllabub into glasses, and let it stand ten or twelve hours before being served. The whisking takes thirty or forty minutes. arron 15. Lemon Whey. Put a quart of milk into a saucepan. When it boils, pour in four tablespoonfuls of lemon-juice; add more if this does not effectually turn the milk. Let it boil up, then put it in a bowl to settle; strain and sweeten, and add a little hot water if the whey is too acid to be agree- able. - Inom 452 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Flavour the mixture with thirty drops of the essence of lemon, and add two or three drops of any slight perfume. Keep the powder in a closely-stoppered bottle. When wanted for use, mix a teaspoonful in half a tumbler of water. 19. Turkish Sherbet. Boil two pounds of loaf-sugar with a pint and a half of water to a clear syrup. Skim carefully, and pour it into a bowl. When cold, stir it into a pint and a half of strained lemon-juice, and one quart of white veal stock, clear and strong. Serve in glasses. 20. Coffee, Francatelli's Way. The simplest, the easiest, and the most effectual means to produce well-made coffee is to procure a percolator. Put the coffee in the well, place the perforated presser upon it, and then pour in the boiling water gently and gradually, until the quantity required is completed; put the lid on the percolator, and set it by the fire to run through. By strict attention to the foregoing instructions, excellent coffee will be produced in a few minutes—the proportions being one ounce of coffee to a large breakfast- cup of water. (See also p. 68.) Som 21. Coffee, Soyer's Way. Choose the coffee of a very nice brown colour, but not black (which would denote that it was burnt, and impart a bitter flavour); grind it at home, if possible, as you may then depend upon the quality ; if ground in any quantity, 456 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK, not get lost in the using. If to be sliced raw, the sausages must hang a few weeks first. If to be cooked, put them on the fire in cold water, and let them come slowly to a simmer, which does not require to be continued longer than an hour. They may then be hung to dry, and may be cut in a day or two. Keep white paper tied over the cut ends. In many parts these sausages are made to look a deeper red thus:-Catch the blood at killing time, and while it is warm, stir enough salt in it to salt it well, and keep stirring till it is cold. Add any approved quantity to the lean while mincing. The blood gives firmness, colour, and richness to the sausages. 3. Lyons Sausages, Take six pounds of lean pork from the chine, three pounds of lean veal from the fillet, and three pounds of pork fat. Mince the lean meat fine, pound it in a mortar till smooth, and cut the fat into dice. Mix thoroughly, and season the whole with ten ounces of salt, a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre, three or four bruised shallots, half an ounce of ground pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of peppercorns. Leave the mixture for twenty-four hours. Pro- cure some sausage skins, and carefully examine them to see that they are thoroughly cleansed; press the meat tightly into them, and fasten the ends securely with string. Lay the sausages in an earthen pan with salt, with a small portion of saltpetre under and over them, and let them remain for a week; take them out, and dry them in a smoke-house or in a chimney over a wood fire. Boil three or four bay-leaves, a sprig of thyme, and a few sage leaves in some wine-lees, if procurable. Dip the sausages into this, tie the ends with fresh string, and again dry them. Wrap them in paper, and store in a dry cool place till wanted. MISCELLANEOUS. 457 4. St. Germains Pudding. Cut eight or ten onions into dice, and simmer them slowly in a quarter of a pound of lard ; when done, take them from the fire, add to them half a pint of cream, a pint of hog's blood, the yolks of some eggs, two pounds of bacon cut into dice, salt, and spices; mix these ingredients together well, put them into skins, and finish like black-puddings. 5. Italian Cheese. Chop up together three pounds of calves' or pigs' liver, two pounds of bacon, half a pound of fat of bacon, some parsley, chives, salt, pepper, spice, thyme; a bay-leaf, sage, and garlic chopped up separately. Line the bottom of the saucepan or mould with thin slices of bacon or of pork; cover these three fingers deep with forcemeat, then with slices of bacon, and so on till the mould is nearly full; then cover the whole with slices of bacon and bake it three hours; let it get cold, then warm the mould that you may take it out whole. Dress and garnish it with jelly, sweet herbs, the yolks of some eggs chopped up, etc. raine 6. American Breakfasts. The following articles are popular in spring and summer for breakfast on the other side of the Atlantic :—Veal cutlets ; stewed or fried clams; cold boiled ham or tongue; clam fritters ; broiled shad; broiled and fried fish; stewed or broiled chickens; minced veal ; pickled salmon; fried sweet pota- toes; fried egg-plant; green corn fritters; stewed pigeons; broiled or sliced raw tomatoes; fish-balls; cucumbers; pepper grass ; cresses; robins on toast; eggs; omelettes of all kinds; 458 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. tongue or ham toast ; rice cakes; batter cakes; ripe fruits ; jam and marmalade; buckwheat cakes, piled one on the other till a miniature Eiffel Tower is formed, with plenty of butter between each layer, and maple syrup poured over the whole. Mem.-Americans at home generally begin breakfast with a glass of iced water and a large Havana orange. 7. Mexican Omelette. Have half a pound of smooth sauce (p. 347) in a saucepan, place it on a moderate fire, add a piece of butter the size of half an egg, twelve shelled and cooked shrimps, and season with a little salt and a very little pepper. Let it cook for two minutes, stirring it lightly; then add a quarter of a good-sized emptied and peeled green pepper, finely mashed; cook for one minute longer, then let it rest on the corner of the stove. Make an omelette with six eggs, fold up the opposite side, pour half of the preparation into the centre, fold the other end up, and garnish both sides with more shrimps, pouring the balance around the dish; then send to the table. 8. Stuffed Egg Fruit. Take a few of the egg fruits, cut off the ends, divide them in halves, scoop out the interior, salt them, and let them remain for an hour.' Chop up some onions and fry them nearly black, add garlic and sage leaves, a couple of minced tomatoes, pepper and salt, and let the whole brown in the oven. Stuff the “eggs” with this mixture, having first washed the salt from them, and dip them in oil. Then place them in a stewpan with a little 460 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. over a very slow fire. Eat it with butter and molasses, or with sugar and milk. It is considered extremely whole- some food, especially for children and delicate persons. Another Way. Take one pint of hominy, three pints of milk, and a quarter of an ounce of salt. Steep the hominy in water twelve hours; then pour off the water not absorbed; add the milk and salt, and set the whole in a slow oven for two hours, till all the milk is absorbed; pour into saucers and serve with treacle and milk. vantar 13. Lentil Porridge. Take three tablespoonfuls of lentil flour, one saltspoonful of salt, and one pint of water. Mix the four with the water and salt, and boil ten minutes, stirring all the time. -Iron 14. Milk Porridge. To a pint and a half of new milk put half a pint of water; set it on the fire, and when just ready to boil, stir in about a dessertspoonful of oatmeal and a little salt mixed to a paste with water; cut some bread into small pieces, put it into basins, and pour the boiling milk upon it. Coton 15. Oatmeal Porridge. Twelve ounces of meal, half an ounce of salt, and three pints of water. Dissolve the salt in the boiling water; add MISCELLANEOUS. 461 the meal, previously rubbed smooth in a little cold water, and allow the whole to boil gently all over the surface about twenty minutes; pour it into soup plates, and serve with sweet milk, cream, or syrup. 16. Sago Porridge. Take four tablespoonfuls of sago, one saltspoonful of salt, and one quart of water. Soak the sago in cold water a few minutes, and boil it gently about an hour, adding the salt; pour into soup plates, and serve with molasses or sugar. 17. Sago and Rice Porridge. This you make the same way as sago porridge, but using half the quantity of sago, with as much rice. 18. Wheatmeal Porridge. To one quart of boiling water add a teaspoonful of salt; stir in gradually half a pound of wheatmeal; boil ten minutes, and serve with milk or treacle. inimo 19. Sowins. One pound and a half of fine oatmeal, one tablespoonful of white sugar, and a little salt. Steep the oatmeal in cold water twenty-four hours, then pour off the water; add the same quantity of fresh water, and let it remain the same length of time; strain through a fine hair-sieve; put the meal 464 TIIE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. and salt, and fry the mixture brown, browning the top with a hot shovel. If fried in small cakes, with a little flour and milk stirred in to form a batter, green corn is very nice. ro 25. Green Corn Pudding. Twelve ears of green corn, grated; a quart of milk; four ounces of butter; the same of sugar; four eggs beaten lightly. Bake in a buttered dish, and eat with butter and sugar sauce. The corn may be previously boiled, when the pudding will bake more quickly. irtir 26. Corn Pie. This recipe comes from the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, and it will serve as a very nice English breakfast dish. Four ears of cold boiled corn (canned Indian corn can be procured at a well-known establishment for comestibles in Piccadilly), two eggs, one tablespoonful of butter, one of four, some milk, half a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper. Cut the corn from the cobs; mix the milk gradually with the pepper; beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, and add them and the other ingredients to the flour and milk. Bake twenty minutes in a shallow pie-dish. non 27. Succotash. Succotash is made by boiling young Lima beans with green corn cut from the cob. A slice of fat pork may be boiled with the mixture, and it must have a lump of butter stirred in before serving. The beans should be boiled before the corn is added, as they take longer to cook. INDEX TO RECIPES. . 471 Calf's Head, Boiled, 228 Hashed, 317 Calves' Feet, 295 » au Naturel, 296 Fried (see Sheep's Trotters, Fried) Canapés, Anchovy, 382 for Grouse, 278 , Madison, 44 , à la Turbigo, 383 Canvas-Back Ducks, Roasted, 264 Caper Sauce, White, 351 Capillaire Syrup, 449 Capilotade of Duck, 262 ,, of Plovers, 268 Capon, Larded with Limins, to Boil, 257 » à la Nantaise, 257 , à la Turque, 256 Carbonnade of Mutton, 309 Cardinal Sauce, 330 Carp au Bleu au Court Bouillon, 193 ,, Broiled, with Caper Sauce, 192 to Stew, 194 Carrier Sauce, 331 Carrot Pie, 366 » Soup, Young, 85 Casserole of Rice, 238 Cassoulic, 319 Cauliflower au Gratin, 356 Green Broccoli, and Parsley Soup, 94 Loaf, 354 Soup, 94 Cauliflowers, 353, 354 and Butter, 354 Genoan Fashion, 355 à la Mayonnaise, 355 à la Reine, 355 Caveach Salmon, 143 Caviare, Little Crusts of, 386 Celery Porridge, 459 . Purée of, 374 Champagne Sauce, 331 Chantilly Basket, 409 Chartreuse with Beef Palates, 220 Chateaubriand Steak, 302 Chaudfroid of Partridges, Salmi, 272 CHEESE : Cakes, 64, 402, 409, 410 Potato, 363 and Eggs, 401 Cod with, 162 Fondue of, 401 Fritters, 410 as Iced Butter, 399 Imps, 399 Italian, 457 and Macaroni Croquettes, 400 CHEESE (continued): à la Montmorency, 398 Potted, 398 Ramequins, 400 Soup, 65 ,, à la Biberon, 130 , German, 131 Stewed, 397 Straws, 399 Toasted, 397 Welsh Rarebit, 397 Cherries, Preserved in Syrup, 466 Chestnut Nesselrode Soup, 129 Pudding, 410, 411 Chicken Broth, 79 , for the Consumptive, 80 Brown Fricasséed, 260* Cutlets, Epigrain of, 208 Fricassée of, 260 Fritters, 419 à la Girenflot, 256 à la Marengo, 256 Pattieswith Purée à la Reine, 208 Pie, 261 Pot-Pie, 262 Pudding, 261 Puddings à la Richelieu, 253 , à l'Ude, 257 Sala'à, 378 in Savoury Jelly, 208 White Fricasséed, 260 Chickens with Macédoine of Spring Roots, 207 ,, Soufflé of, à la Crême, 259 Children, Currant Juice Soup for, 136 Chocolate Cream Ice, 448 » Puffs, 411 Chops, Lamb, Maison d'Or, 300 Lamb and Pork, 221 Mutton, 300 Mutton, Bread-Crumbed, 301 Mutton, Bretonne, 300 Pork, Broiled, 301 Soyer, with Potatoes, 301 Chowder, Fish, 105 Cider Cup, 419 Clear Aspic, 233 Clotted Cream, 414 Cock-a-Leekie, 92 Cocoa Biscuits, 412 Cocoa-nut Soup, 130 Cod, to Bake, 159 , with Cheese, 162 with Oyster Sauce, 160 ,,Scollops of, 162 ,, to Stew, 159 with White Sauce, 160 ,, Salt, à la Bonne Femme, 161 » » à la Maitre d'Hôtel, 160 474 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. ENTREMETS (continued) :- Beef, Stewed, 307 » Vinaigrette of, 308 Bubble and Squeak, 320 Calf's Head, Hashed, 317 Calves' Feet, 295 » , au Naturel, 296 Cassoulic, 319 Chateaubriand Steak, 302 Chops, Soyer, with Potatoes, 301 Corned-Beef Hash, 318 Fieldfare Pasties, 314 Foreign Hash, 318 Hare, Boned, 291 , Jugged, 289 Pâté, en Terrine, 289 , Pie, 290 Haricot Mutton, 313 Hessian Stew, 315 Irish Mutton Stew, 316 Kidneys, “ Tossed” in White Wine, 287 ENTRÉES (continued): Quenelles of Whitings, 165 Rabbit Galantine, 211 , Gratin of, 283 5. “Kickshaws" of, 210 Pudding, 211 Rabbits, Mince of, au Fumet, 285 Scollops of, 210 » Turban of Fillets of, 212 Young, in Curl Papers, 213 Raised Ham Pie, 223 Rice, Casserole of, 238 Risotto, 239 Meagre, 239 Rissoles, 227° Salmon au Bleu, 145 Salt Cod à la Provençale, 161 Sausage-Meat, 205 Scollops of Cod, 162 Scots Kail, 235 Sheeps' Trotters, 231 Sweetbread Pie, 216 Sweetbreads “Dauphin" Fashion, 217 Scollops of, 216, 217 Tongues with Stewed Endive, 218 Turbot, Gratin of Fillets of, 150 Turkey, Galantine of, 213 Veal Cutlets, 225 , and Ham Patties, 223 , Pie, 223 5 Shoulder of, 231 Vegetable Hash, 241 Venison Pie, 215 Vol-au-Vent d'Escalopes de Tur- bot, 151 of Lambs' Tails, 229 White Puddings in Skins, 238 Wild Boar's Head, 229 York Ham with Spinach, 222 ENTREMETS:- Baked Mincemeat Kebob, 311 Battalia Pie, 321 Beef Balls, 303 Boiled, Gratin of, 307 à la Braise, 305 Bouilli, 307 Fillet of, à l'Intendante, 306 Kidney Pie, 287 à la Mode, 304 Olives, 304 and Oyster Sausages, 315 Rump of, to Boil, 308 Scarlet, 308 Short, 305 Spiced, 305 Steak Pie, 303 ; „ Sauté, with Madeira, 302 Lamb Chops, Maison d'Or, 300 Cutlets en Salpicon, 299 , à la Soubise, 299 Liver and Bacon, 288 Milk Kebob, 311 Mutton, Breast of, Grilled, 312 Carbonnade of, 309 Chops, 300 Bread-crumbed, 301 , Bretonne, 300 Ham, 309 Haricot, 313 Loin of, to Kebob, 310 Leg of, Braised, 312 Pie, English, 314 Shoulder of,'to Stew, 310 Navarin Stew, 316 Neat’s Tongue au Gratin, 297 Outlandish Dish, 320 Ox-Tail, Crumbed and Grilled, 297 Ox-Tails à la Saint Lambert, 297 Pepper-Pot, West Indian, 319 Pork Chops, Broiled, 301 y Cake of, 320 Provençal Hotchpotch, 319 Rabbit Pie, 285 Rabbits, Croquettes of, 285 Fillets of, à la Pompadour, Gratin of, 283 Mince of, 'au Fumet, 285 and Onions, 282 à la Vénétienne, 284 White Gibelots of, 284 Young, Fillets of, 286 Resurrection Cutlets, 299 Sheep's Kidneys, Broiled, 287 282 . . INDEX TO RECIPES. 475 ENTREMETS (continued) :- Sheep's Tail à l'Anglaise, 297 Tongues à la Saint Lambert, 298 , Trotters, Fried, 296 Skewer Kebob, 310 Sweetbread, Croquettes of, 236 Toad-in-a-Hole, 319 Tripe, to Boil, 298 à la Bourgeoise, 299 Veal, Breast of, à la' Poulette, 294 Cutlets à la Mayonnaise, 293 Fillet of, à la Bourgeoise aux Petits Pois, 293 , to Dress, 293 Knuckle of, Boiled, 295 Minced, à la Catalan, 295 , Neck of, à la Crême, 292 à la Mirepoix, 291 1 with Sweet Herbs, 292 Venison, 288 , Jugged, 288 Epigram of Chicken Cutlets, 208 Essence of Mushrooms, 374 F Fieldfare Pasties, 314 Fig Tart, 418 Fillet of Beef à l'Intendante, 306 ,, Roasted and Larded, 245 of Veal à la Bourgeoise, 293 Italian Way, 293 Fillets of Fowl, Cutlets of, 218 , of Rabbits à la Pompadour, 282 , of Soles, Fried, 153 e au Gratin, 153 à la Maitre d'Hôtel, 154 » Mayonnaise of, 154 , a l'Orlie, 153 of Turbot à la Crême, 149 of Young Rabbits, 286 ;; of Whiting, Broiled, 165 Financière pour Vol-au-Vent, 259 Fiss:- Alose, 171 Anchovies, Mock, 199 Angels on Horseback, 186 Brill, 168 Carp, au Bleu, 193 » Broiled, 192 » Stewed, 194 Cod, to Bake, 159 » to Stew, 159 ,, with Cheese, 162 Oyster Sauce, 160 1White Sauce, 160 FISH (continued): Cod, Scollops of, 162 ,, Salt, à la Bonne Femme, 161 » » à la Maître d'Hôtel, 160 » » with Parsnips, 162 , à la Provençale, 161 Cod's Head, 157 . and Shoulders, 153 Crab Omelette, 189 Crayfish Pudding, 192 Curried Fish, 323 Eel, Larded, 176 ,, Pie, 176 ,, Pudding, 181 Eels, Broiled, 177 à l'Italienne, 178 , en Canapé, 180 is Collops of, Broiled, 179 ,, à la Poulette, 180 Conger, 182 Entrée of, 177 Forcemeat of, 174 Fricassée of, 175 Fried, 175 Matelote of, 176 ,, to Spitchcock, 178 to Stew, 179 Flounders Water Souchet, 170 and Plaice, Fricasséed, 171 Gurnet, Roast, 201 Haddock, to Bake, 159 Dublin Bay, Baked, 168 Puddings, 168, 197 , Cream for, 169 Herrings with Mustard Sauce, 169 John Dory, Boiled, 152 Lobster Balls, 191 à la Braise, 190 to Fricassée, 191 , Pie, 190 à la Soulevard, 191 , Mayonnaise, 192 Soup, 99-101 Mackerel, to Bake, 172 to Broil, 173 with Brown Butter, 172 à la Maitre d'Hôtel, 173 au Beurre Noir, 174 Oyster Fritters, 187 Hâtelets, 183, 184 Loaves, 182 Patties, 187: Pie, 188 Pudding, 188 » Rissoles, 185 , Sausages, 184 , Soufflés, 184 Oysters, Bearded, 186 Chowder, 105 476 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. FISH (continued) :- Oysters, Broiled, 183 and Eggs, 187 Fried, 182 Mock, 189 Pickled, 187 Rissoles of, 185 Roast, 183 Scolloped, 186 Stewed, 183 à la Villeroi, 185 Pike, Baked, 195 ,, Roast, 194 Puddings, Dried Fish, 197 Little Fish, 197 Salt Fish, 199 Quenelles, 140 Red Mullets à l'Italienne, 166 » » à la Ravigote, 167 with Sweet Herbs, 167 Salmon, Baked, 146 au Bleu, 145 à la Braise, 148 Caveach, 143 to Collar, 141 Crimped, 144 Slices of, 144 Cutlets, 142 Fritters, 145 à la Genevoise, 143 Matelote Sauce, 146 to Pot, 143 Pudding, 119 Roast, 146 to Roll, 142 Souchet, 148 with Sweet Herbs, 147 , à la Tartare, 147 Shad, 171, 172 Skate, au Beurre Noir, 202 , Crimped, with Burnt Butter, 202 ,, Liver Sauce, 201 Smelts, 200 Sole Pudding, 157 Soles à la Colbert, 155 , à la Française, 155 Fillets of, 153, 154 , Fried, 156 à la Meunière, 155 Stewed, 157 Sprats, Baked, 201 , Broiled, 200 Sturgeon, Fresh, 202 Trout, to Cook, 196 Turbot, to Dress, 151 Fillets of, 149 , Gratin of Fillets of, 150 Timbales of Fille FISH (continued) :- Turbot, Vol-au-Vent d'Escalopes de, 151 Whitebait, 165 Devilled, 166 Whiting, Broiled, 164 Fillets of, 165 au Gratin, 164 Pudding, 163 : Puddings of, à l'Ude, 163 Quenelles of, 165 Fish Cake, 198 » Forcemeat, 140 , Gravy Sauce, 332 , Pie, Salt, 198 ,, Pudding, Salt, 199 ,, Quenelles, 140 ,, Sauce, White, 351 ,, Soup, 97 » à la Parisienne, 98 » Soups, The Basis of, 97 , Stews, Forcemeat for, 140 Fisherman's Soup, 102 Flemish Soup, 131 Floating Island, 418 Flounders Water Souchet, 170 , and Plaice, 171 Flour Porridge, 459 Forced Asparagus in French Rolls, 370 Forcemeat Balls, 204 of Fowl, 255 of Whitings, 165 of Eels, 174 Fish, 140 for Stews of Fish, 140 Foreign Hash, 318 Fowl, Braised, 207 à la Cardinal, 250 Country Captain, 206 Cutlets of Fillets of, 249 à la Dubaril, 252 Emincé, 254 Forcemeat Balls of, 255 Fricassée of, 206 Minced, à la Polonaise, 251 à la Monglas, 253 with Olives, 254 Purée of, à la Monglas, 119 Ragout of, 255 Salpicon of, 254 with Tarragon, 254 à la Tartare, 252 à la Turque, 253 à la Villeroi, 251 Fowls, Pea, 268 Français Pudding, 242 French Beans in Black Butter. 363 , Brittany Fashion, 364 , à la Française, 364 , INDEX TO RECIPES. 477 French Beans, Purée of, 365 , to Ragoût, 363 , “Steward's,” 364 Brown Soup, 81 Gauffres, 421 Panada, 241 Paste, 419 Pudding, 419 Split Pea Soup, 88 Fresh Sturgeon, 202 Fricassée of Beetroot, 376 ,, of Chicken in Ten Minutes, 260 y of Eels, 175 ,, of Fowl, 206 Fricasséed Eggs, 391 , Flounders and Plaice, 171 Lobster, 191 Fried Bread-crumbs, 141 Eels, 175 Egg Plant, 459 Fillets of Soles, 153 Herbs, 141 Oysters, 182 Parsley, 141 Potatoes, 43 Sheep's Trotters, 296 Smelts, 200 Soles, Tartar Sauce, 155 Fritters, Cheese, 410 Chicken, 419 German, 420 Oyster, 187 Parsnip, 366 Plain, 120 Potato, 363 Salmon, 145 Fromage de Crême à la Glace, 447 Frothed Eggs, 392 Fruit Cake, Plain, 409 ,, to Prepare for Children, 467 ,, Puffs, Preserved, 436 Frumenty, 463 Frying, Batter for, 205 G Galantine, Rabbit, 211 y of Turkey, 213 GAME (see Poultry, Game, etc.) Game, Purée of, 120 , Hunter's Mode, 121 Soufflés, Small, 388 , Soup, 122 Garlic Sauce, 332 12. à la Rossini, 122 Gauffres, 421 , French, 421 Geneva Sauce, 332 German Cheese Soup, 131 German Fritters, 420 Puddings, 422 Sauce, 333 Soup, 133 Toast, 211 Wine Soup, 136 Gipsy Sauce, 333 Glazed Onions, for Garnish, 353 Grande Sauce, 334 Grateful Pudding, 422, 423 Gratin of Boiled Beef, 307 ,, of Eggs with Cheese, 393 ,, of Fillets of Turbot, 150 of Pigeon à la Périgord, 214 of Rabbits, 293 Green Asparagus Soup, 88 Corn Omelette, 463 ,, Pudding, 464 Pea Soup, 83 ,, Pudding, 422 Greengages, Bottled, 465 Grilled Breast of Mutton, 312 Mushrooms, 373 Grouse, Braised, with Cabbage, 278 Broiled with Bacon, 276 Canapés for, 278 à la Gun-Room, 276 Pie, 274 Roasted, Plain, 275 , à la Sam Ward, 275 Salad, 377 Salmi of, with Claret, 277 à la Parisienne, 277 Soup, 124 Gumbo, 375 Gurnet, Roast, 201 Η Hachée Sauce, 334 Hachis, or Minced Fowl, 251 Haddock, Baked, 159 Dublin Bay, Baked, 168 Puddings, 168, 197 Cream for, 169 Haggis, Scotch, 235 Half-Glaze for Vegetables, 353 Ham or Bacon, Bean Soup with, 94 ,, Pie, Raised, 223 » Roast, 245 » Sauce, 334 5 York, with Spinach, 222 Hanover Cake (or Pudding), 423 Hare, Boned, 291 Jugged, 289 Pâté, 289 Pie, 290 Potted, 214 Purée of, Soup, 120 Soup, English, 123 INDEX TO RECIPES. 479 "Ki" for Breakfast, 200 Kebob, Mincemeat, Baked, 311 » Mutton, 310 Skewer, 310 Kedgeree, 462 “Kickshaws” of Rabbit, 210 Kidney Pie, Beef, 287 Kidneys, Omelette with, 237 * Sheeps, Boiled, 287 Stewed, 226 "Tossed " in White Wine, 287 "Klossen," 31 Knuckle of Veal, Boiled, 295 Kromeskies à la Monglas, 230 Lady Morgan Soup, 101 Lady Sunderland's Pudding, 424 Lamb Chops, Maison d'Or, 300 , Cutlets, en Salpicon, 299 , à la Soubise, 299 . Entrée of Boiled, 228 , and Pork Chops, 224 Lambs' Tails, Vol-au-Vent of, 229 Langtry Sandwiches, 387 Larded Eel, 176 Lark Pies, Hot Raised, 265 Larks, Caisses of, 265 ' » in Croustade, 265 , au Gratin, 266 and Wheatears, to Roast, 266 Leek Soup, 92 Leg of Mutton, Braised, 312 ng Roasted (Polish Way), 243 Leghorn Macaroni, 240 Lemon Cream Ice, 416 Custard, 417 Pudding, 425 Puffs, 421 Sauce, 337 Shrub, 450 Syllabub, 450 Water Ice, 446 Whey, 450 Lemonade, Effervescing, 451 Still, 451 Lentil Porridge, 460 „ Soup, 96 Lettuce, Soup, Braised, 93 Little Buns, 408 Crusts of Caviare, 336 , Fish Puddings, 197 . Oyster Soufflés, 184 Liver and Bacon, 288 Loaves, Oyster, 182 Lobster Balls, 191 , à la Braise, 190 Lobster Curry, 322 to Fricassée, 191 Mayonnaise with Aspic Jelly, 192 Pie, 190 Sauce, 337 à la Soulevard, 19! Soup, 99, 100, 101 Loin of Mutton, to Kebob, 310 ,, Rolled and Stuffed, 244 Lord Warden Soup, 113 Lyonnaise (or Bretonne) Sauce, 337 Lyons Sausages, 456 M Macaroni and Cheese Croquettes, 400 , Soup, 130 Croquettes of, 386 Italian, 210 » Leghorn, 240 Pudding, 426 Soup, 126 Timbale of, 239 Macaroon Custard Pudding, 425 Mackerel, to Bake, 172 au Beurre Noir, 174 to Broil, 173 with Brown Butter, 172 à la Maître d'Hotel, 173 Maigre Soups, 89, 90, 91 Maitre d'Hôtel Butter, 174 , , French Beans, 364 » Potatoes, 360 , Sauce, 348 Marrow Pie, 367 Matelote Sauce, 338 of Eels, 176 Mayonnaise of Fillets of Soles, 154 Sauce, 338 Meagre Risotto, 239 Meat, Curried, 323 Meringues, 426 Mexican Omelette, 458 Puchero, 132 Milk Kebob, 311" » Porridge, 460 ,, Soup, Sweet, 126 Mille Feuilles (Italian Pyramid), 426 Mince Pies, 427 Minced Beef, 219 „ with Cucumbers, 219 Collops, Scotch, 234 Fowi å 'la Polonaise, 251 Mutton, 220 Pheasant, 273 Rabbits au Fumet, 285 Veal à la Catalan, 295 Mincemeat Kebob, Baked, 311 Minestra Soup, 135 .. INDEX TO RECIPES. 481 Ox-Tail Soup, 111 Ox-Tails à la Saint Lambert, 297 Ox Tongue à l'Écarlate, 218 Oyster Curry, 322 Fritters, 187 Hâtelets, 183, 184 Loaves, 182 Patties, 187 Pie, 188 Pudding, 188 Sauce, 340 Sausages, 184 , Soufflés, Little, 184 Soup, 103 Oysters, Bearded, 186 Broiled, 183 and Eggs, 187 Fried, 182 Mock, 189 Pickled, 187 Rissoles of, 185 Roast, 183 Scolloped, 186 Stewed, 183 à la Villeroi, 185 P Panada, 31 French, 241 Pancake Pudding, 434 Pancakes, Berlin, 432 Cream, 433 Irish, 433 New England, 434 Pink-Coloured, 434 Rice, 434 Parisian Mock-Turtle Soup, 107 Parmentier Soup, 85 Parsnip Fritters, 366 Parsnips with Beans, 366 Parsley, to Fry, 141 "Green Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup, 94 Partridge, Braised, with Celery Sauce, 269 Broiled, 270 aux Choux, plus Distinguée, 273 au Gratin, 271 Roasted, 270 Salad, 377 Sauté with Mushrooms, 269 Partridges, Chartreuse of, 271 'à la Chipolata, 272 Purée of, 121 Salmi Chaudfroid of, 272 Stewed, 270 Paste, French, 419 Pasties, Fieldfare, 314 FF Patties, Chicken, with Pureé à la Reine, 208 , Oyster, 187 Veal and Ham, 223 Pea Fowls, 268 „ Soup, French Split, 88 ? » Green, 83 , Old-fashioned, 86 Peas and Bacon, 221 ,, Stewed, 369 Pease Pudding, 87 Pepper-Pot, A, 137 , West Indian, 319 Petites croutes de Caviar, 386 , Timballes of Fillets of Turbot à la Vénétienne, 152 Petits Soufflés de Gibier, 388 Persian Sherbet, 451 Pheasant, Minced, 273 Pickled Oysters, 187 PIES AND PUDDINGS, SAVOURY :- Artichoke Pie, 372 Battalia Pie, 321 Beef-Kidney Pie, 287 , Steak Pie, 303 Cabbage Pudding, 357 Carrot Pie, 366 Chicken Pie, 261 ,, Pot Pie, 262 » Pudding, 261 'à la Richelieu, 258 à l'Uảe, 257 Corn Pie, 464 Crayfish Pudding, 192 Dried Fish Pudding, 197 Eel Pudding, 181 Français Pudding, 242 Green Corn Pudding, 464 Grouse Pie, 274 Haddock Puddings, 168, 197 to prepare Cream for, 169 Hare Pie, 290 Hasty Pudding, 465 Hottentot Pie, 224 Lark Pies, 265 Little Fish Puddings, 197 Lobster Pie, 190 Marrow Pie, 367 Mushroom Pie, 373 Mutton Pie, 314 Neat's Foot Pudding, 232 Oyster Pie, 188 » Pudding, 188 Pease Pudding, '87 Pigeon Pie, 248 , Pudding, 249 Potato Pudding, 361 482 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. sienPuddings, 199 99 PIES AND PUDDINGS, SAVOURY (con. | PIES AND PUDDINGS, SWEET (cena tinued): tinued) :- Pumpkin Pie, 367 Quaking Pudding, 438 Rabbit Pie, 285 Queen's Pudding, 438 » Pudding, 211 Raspberry Tart, 439 Raised Ham Pie, 223 Sago Pudding, 443 St. Germains Pudding, 457 Swiss Pudding, 440 Salmon Pudding, 1499 Tapioca Puddings, 441 Salt Fish Pie, 198 Transparent Pudding, 441 Vermicelli Pudding, 443 söle Pudding, 157 Welsh Pudding, 414 Spinach Pudding, 357 Yam Pudding, 444 Sweetbread Pie, 216 Pigeon, Gratin of, à la Périgord, 214 Veal and Ham Pie, 223 » Pie, 248 Vegetable Pie, 368 5 Pudding, 249 Venison Pie, 215 Pigeons à la Crapaudine, 247 White Pudding in Skins, 238 y to Roast, 247 Whiting Puddings, 163 on the Skewer, 248 » , à l'Ude, 163 Pike, Baked, 195 PIES AND PUDDINGS, SWEET :- (French Way), 195 , Roast, 194 Almond Pudding, 402, 403 Pineapple Cream, 415 Amber Pudding, 404 Angelica Tart, 404 Ice, 447 Pink-coloured Pancakes, 434 Apple Pudding, 405, 406 Plain Boiled Calf's Head, 228 Apricot Pudding, 406 Fritters, 420 Bakewell Pudding, 407 Fruit Cake, 409 Barley Puddi Omelette, 237 Brown Bread Pudding, 408 . Sausage-Meat, 205 Cabinet Pudding, 428 Chestnut Pudding, 411 Capilotade of, 268 Curd Pudding, 415 Plovers' Eggs in Aspic, 395 Delicious Pudding, A Very, 437 Plum Puddings, 435 Derbyshire Pudding, 417 Plums, Preserved, 466 Duke of Cumberland's Pudding, 417 Poacher's Soup, 124 Dutch Pudding, 418 Pomeranian Sauce for Wild Ducks, 14 French Pudding, 419 Poor Man's Sauce, 341 German Puddings, 422 Pork Chops, Broiled, 301 Grateful Puddings, 422, 423 Lamb and, 224 Green Pudding, 422 5. Cutlets and Tomato Sauce, 225 Hanover Pudding, 423 » Cake of, 320 Hunting Pudding, 423 Italian Pudding, 424 Porridges: Lady Sunderland's Pudding, 425 Celery, 459 Lemon Puddings, 425 Flour, 459 Macaroni Pudding, 426 Hominy, 459, 460 Macaroon Custard Pudding, 425 Lentil, 460 Milles Feuilles (Italian Pyramid),426 Milk, 460 Mince Pies, 427 Oatmeal, 460 Muffin Pudding, 428 Sago, 461 Nelson Puddings, 429 , and Rice, 461 Nesselrode Pudding, 35, 429 Wheatmeal, 461 Noddy Puddings, 430 Portuguese Sauce, 341 Northumberland Pudding, 430 Potage à la Clermont, 89 Orange Pudding, 431 à la Diable, 113 Pancake Pudding, 434 , à l'Ivoire, 118 Plum Puddings, 435 aux Pointes d'Asperges, 89 Pudding à la Parisienne, 436 de Poisson à la Marinière, 102 Pumpion Pie, 438 » Printanier, 82 Plovers, 268 484 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK. Preserved Strawberries, 467 Provençal Hotchpotch, 319 Provençale Sauce, 342 Puchero, 132 Mexican, 132 Pudding, A French, 419 Puddings. (See Pies and Puddings, Savoury; also Pies and Puddings, Sweet) Puff Paste, Light, 437 Pullets, Scollops of Fat, 250 Pumpion Pie, 438 Pumpkin Pie, 367 Purée of, 368 Soup Maigre, 91 Punch à la Française, Hot, 449 Punshki, 236 Purée of Celery, 374 ,, of Fowl à la Monglas, 119 of French Beans, 365 n of Game, 120 , Hunter's Mode, 121 of Hare Soup, 120 of Onions, 374 of Partridges, 121 , of Pumpkin, 368 of Spinach, 358 of White Beans, 120 Purées, to Colour, 352 Rabbit, White Gibelots of, 284 , 'Young, in Curl Papers, 213 Ragoût of Asparagus, 371 of Cabbages, 357 of Cucumbers, 359, 360 „ of Eggs and Mushrooms, 394 , of Fowl, 255 of French Beans, 363 Rails, to Roast, 280 Raised Ham Píe, 223 Lark Pies, 265 Randalled Eggs, 390 Raspberry Tart, 439 Ravigote Butter, 312 Ravioli Soup, 116 Red Mullets à l'Italienne, 166 » à la Ravigote, 167 with Sweet Herbs, 167 Remoulade Sauce, 179 Resurrection Cutlets, 299 Rice and Apples, 439 Casserole of, 238 for Curry, 324 ,, Custard, 439 → Flummery, 439 , Pancakes, 434 » Soup, 127 Richelieu Sauce, 342 Risotto, 239 M. Meagre, 239 Rissoles, 227 of Oysters, 185 , Potato, 362 of Sweetbread, 286-287 Roast Beef, Larded, 245 Canvas-Back Ducks, 264 Gurnet, 201 Grouse à la Sam Ward, 275 Ham, 245 Larks and Wheatears, 266 Mutton, Leg of, 243 ,, Loin of, 244 Ortolans, 280 Oysters, 183 Partridge, 270 Pea Fowls, 268 Pigeons, 247 Pike, 294 Plain Grouse, 275 Plovers, 268 Rails, 280 Salmon, 146 Snipes, 280 Sucking-Pig, 243 Tripe, 246 Venison, 288 ,, Neck of, 244 Woodcocks, 280 Robert Sauce, 343 Quails à la Chasseur, 267 , Compôte of, 209 5 à l'Espagnole, 267 Stewed, 267 Quaking Pudding, 438 Queen Blanche Stew, 226 ,, Soup, 109 Queen's Puddings, 438 Quenelles, 140 » of Whitings, 165 Qu cen's PP 10g Cew, 226 R Rabbit, Brown, Fricasséed, 260 Croquettes of, 285 Fillets of, à lá Pompadour, 282 » Young, à l'Orlie, 286 Galantine, 211 Gratin of, 283 “Kickshaws" of, 210 Mince of, au Fumet, 285 and Onions, 282 Pie, 285 Pudding, 211 Scollops of, 210 Soup, 118 Turban of Fillets of, 212 à la Vénétienne, 281 White, Fricasséed, 260 I INDEX TO RECIPES. 485 Sausages, 455' Romaine Sauce, 344 - Sardines à la Provençale, 382 Roux, Brown, 352. „ à la Royale, 382 9 White, 351 SAUCES, (alphabetically arranged), 325- Rump of Beef, to Boil (French Fashion), 352 308 Sauces, to Colour, 52 Sausage, Italian, 384 Sago Porridge, 461 Sausage-Meat, Plain, 205 » Pudding, 443 ,, and Rice Porridge, 461 Beef and Oyster, 315 * Soup with Turnips, 128 Bologna, 455 St. Germain Soup, 83 Lyons, 456 St. Germains Pudding, 457 Oyster, 184 Savoury Dishes. (See Hors-d'Euvres) SALADS :- Jelly, 232 Chicken, 378 Scarlet Beef, 308 Grouse, 377 Scolloped Oysters, 186 Herring, 380 Scollops of Cod, 162 Partridge, 377 of Fat Pullets, 250 Potato, 15, 380 of Rabbits, 210 of Salmon, 379 , of Sweetbreads in Cases, 217 of Smelts, 379 „ Salmi Chaudfroid of Partridges, 272 with Green Peas, 216 ,, of Grouse with Claret, 277 Scotch Barley Broth with Boiled Mutton , à la Parisienne, 277 or Beef, 128 Sauce, 314 Beef Collops with Onions, 234 5 of Woodcock, 279 Brown Soup, Old, 113 Salmon, Baked, 146 Hare Soup, 123 au Bleu, 145 Haggis, 235 à la Braise, 148 Kale Soup, 92 Caveach, 143 Minced Collops, 234 to Collar, 141 Shortbread, 440 Crimped, au Naturel, 144 Sowins, 462 , Slices of, Broiled with White Soup, 109, 110 Caper Sauce, 144 Scots Kail, 236 Curried, 323 Shad, 171 Cutlets, 142 ., Broiled Maître d'Hôtel, 172 of, à la Maitre d'Hôtel, Shallot Sauce, 345 142 Sharp Sauce 330, 346 Fritters, 145 Soup, 138 à la Génevoise, 143 Sheep's Head Broth, 108 Matelote Sauce, 146 Kidneys, Broiled, 287 to Pot, 143 Tail à l'Anglaise, 297 Pudding, 149 , Tongues à la Saint Lambert, Roast, 146 298 to Roll, 142 , , with Stewed Endive, Salad of, 379 218 Souchet, 148 , Trotters with Cheese, 231 with Sweet Herbs, 147 _, Fried, 296 à la Tartare, 147 Sherbet, Persian, 451 Salpicon of Fowl, 254 ,, Turkish, 452 Salsafies with Beef Marrow, 375 Short (or Spiced) Beef, 305 Salt Cod à la Bonne Femme, 161 Shortbread, Scotch, 440 , , à la Maitre d'Hôtel, 160 Shoulder of Mutton, to Stew, 310 » , with Parsnips, 162 , of Veal à la Bourgeoise, 231 ,, à la Provençale, 161 Shrimp Sauce, 346 * Fish Pie, 198 Sicilian Sauce, 346 ,, Pudding, 199 Simple Soup with Eggs, A, 136 Sandwiches, Langtry, 387 Skate au Beurre Noir, 202' Sardines, Crusts of, 383 i. „ Crimped, with Burnt Butter, 202 INDEX TO RECIPES. 487 ,, SOUPS (continued) :- Ox-Tail, 111 Oyster, 103 Parmentier, 85 Pea and Cucumber, 92 , French Split, 88 , Green, 83 5, Old-fashioned, 86 Pepper-Pot, 137 Poacher's, 124 Potage à la Clermont, 89 , à la Diable, 113 » Printanier, 82 , •à la Reine, 109, 110" Potato, 85 Pot-au-Feu, 77 Puchero, 132 Mexican, 132 Pumpkin Maigre, 90 Purée of Fowl, 119 „ of Gamé, 120, 121 , of Hare, 120 » of Partridges, 121 ,, of White Beans, 120 Queen, 109 Rabbit, 118 Ravioli, 116 Rice, 127 Sago, with Turnips, 128 St. Germain, 83 Scotch Barley Broth, 128 » Hare, 123 » Kale, 92 Sharp, 138 Sheep's Head Broth, 108 . Sorrel, 83 Spaghetti, 126 Spring, 82 Sweet Milk, 126 Tomato, 95 Turnip, 95 Turtle, Mock, 105-107 Veal Tea or Broth, 79 Vermicelli, 125 White Stock, 77 Young Carrot, 85 Sowins, 461 Scotch, 462 Spaghetti, 126 Spanish Crusts, 385 Spiced Beef, 305 Spinach Pudding, 357 *, Purée of, 358 Spitchcocking Eels, 178 Sprats, Baked, 201” » Broiled, 200 Spring Soup, 82 Stcht Soup, 114 Steak, Beef, 302 » Chateaubriand, 302 Stew à la Bouché, 112 » Hessian, 315 Mutton, Irish, 316 » Navarin, 316' „ Queen Blanche, 226 “ Steward's" French Beans, 364 1 . Potatoes, 360 Sauce, 348 Stewed Beef, 307 Carp, 194 Cheese, 397 Cod, 159 Cucumbers, 359 Eels, 179 Kidneys, 226 Oysters, 183 Partridges, 270 Peas, 369 Quails, 267 Shoulder of Mutton, 310 Stock, Consommé, 77 Strawberries, Preserved, 467 Stuffed Egg Fruit, 458 Sturgeon, Fresh, 202 Succotash, 464 Sucking Pig, Roast, 243 “Surprise Eggs, 395 “Surprises" in Ice Creams, 72, 73 Sweet Milk Soup, 126 » Omelette, 431 » Sauce, 348 SWEETS (alphabetically arranged), 402- Sweetbread, Croquettes of, 286 'Pie, 216 Sweetbreads, "Dauphin” Fashion, 217 Rissoles of, 236-287 Scollops of, in Cases, 217 with Green Peas, 216 Sweetmeat Tarts, 440 Swiss Pudding, 440 т Tapioca Puddings, 441 Tart, Angelica, 404 » Fig, 418 , Orange, 432 _ Raspberry, 439 Tarts, Sweetmeat, 440 » Transparent, 441 Tartar Sauce, 348 Terrapin, 9, 10 Thickenings, 351, 352 Timbale of Macaroni, 239 Toad-in-a-Hole, 319 Toast, German, 241 444 Spanis“ Sauce, 347 INDEX TO RECIPES. 489 walaues with Beef Marrow, 375 VEGETABLES (continued):- Pumpkin Pie, 367 1. Purée of, 368 Salsaties w Spinach Pudding, 357 , Purée of, 358 Veloutée Sauce, 347 Venison, 288 Jugged, 288 Pie à l'Americaine, 215 Roast Neck of, 244 Vermicelli Pudding, 443 , Soup, 125 Vinaigrette of Beef, 308 Vol-au-Vent d'Escalopes de Turbot au Bon Beurre, 161 » „ of Lambs' Tails, 229 W Wafers, Almond, 403 Water Ice, Lemon, 446 ,, Zootje (or Souchet), 170 Welsh Pudding, 443 , Rarebit, 397 West Indian Pepper-Pot, 319 Wheatears, to Roast, 266 Wheatmeal Porridge, 461 White Beans, Purée of, 120 Cakes, 414 Caper Sauce, 351 Coffee, 454 1. Fish Sauce, 351 Fricasséed Chicken, 260 Rabbit, 260 | White Gibelots of Rabbits, 284 Haricot Beans, 365 y Mulligatawny Soup, 117 . Pudding in Skins, 238 1. Roux, 351 · Soup, Old Scotch, 109, 110 ... Stock, 77 Whitebait, 165 Devilled, 166 Whiting, Fillets of, Broiled à la Maitre d'Hôtel, 165 au Gratin, 164 Pudding, 163 Whitings, Broiled, 164 Puddings of, à l'Ude, 163 Quenelles of, 165 Wild Boar's Head, 229 ,, Duck, Fillets of, Sauce for, 345 Ducks à la Chasseur, 264 „ Pomeranian Sauce for, 14 Fowl, Sauce for, 345 Wine Soup, German, 136 Woodcock, Salmi of, 279 Woodcocks, to Roast, 280 " and Snipe, 280 Yam Pudding, 444 Yaourt, 2, 444 York Ham with Spinach, 222 Zootje (or Souchet), Flounders Water, 170 492 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK.. Potato Salad, 24 Soup-plates, Elevated, 204 Potatoes, 44-46; Cobbett on, 44; care Soups made from Italian paste, rules required with new, 44; a French • for, 126 mode of dressing, 45 Spanish Cuisine, The, 16-18; Don Puddings, Old-fashioned, 35-37; recipe Quixote's menu, 16, 17 for Nesselrode pudding, 35; an old Sucking-pig a' favourite Russian dish, recipe for chestnut pudding, 36 Purée of Fowl à la Monglas so named Sweet milk soup a favourite German from the inventor, 119 dish, 126 Sydney Śmith on salads, 24 R Risotto, 26 T Rossini a famous gourmet, 122 Tarts, 39 Russian Cuisine, "The, 3-5; a Russian Thackeray on Oysters, 48 dinner, 4; cold boiled sucking-pig Tide-water Tortoises, 9 a favourite dish, 5 Tit-Bits (see Savouries and Tit-Bits) Tomato Salad, 24, 25 Tortoises, Fresh-water or Tide-water, 9 Turtle, Real, disliked by French gourmets, Salads among the Germans, 15; Sydney 107 Smith on, 24; potato salad, 24; tomato salad, 24, 25; lettuce salad, 25 Salpicon of fowl, 254 Vol-au-Vents, 41 Savouries and Tit-Bits, 42-44 Scottish Kitchen, The, 18-20; two · mighty expositors of Scottish cuisine, Welsh Rabbit, or Rarebit, mistaken for 18, 19 soup, 131 Scraps, 30-32; how they may be Whelks or periwinkles, for soup, 104 utilised, 31, 32 | Wild Ducks, 14 W PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C. AUG 29 1932