Part 3

Soak overnight; in the morning scrub it and trim away any rusty part; wipe dry; cover the ham with a stiff paste of bread dough an inch thick and lay upside down in a dripping pan with a little water; allow in baking 25 minutes to the pound; baste a few times and keep water in the pan. When a skewer will pierce the thickest part plunge the ham for 1 minute in cold water; remove the crust and outside skin, sprinkle with brown sugar and fine cracker crumbs, and stick with cloves and brown in the oven. Serve with a mustard sauce or white wine sauce if eaten hot.

RILLETTES DE TOURS

(Cretons Canadiens)

Three lbs. shoulder of fresh pork, 3 lbs. cutlets of pork, 1 filet of pork, 2 pork kidneys, 2 lbs. of kidney fat, 1 pint of water, 3 tablespoons of salt, pepper, and 4 onions minced fine with the pork fat. Chop the meat into small dice, mince the fat and kidneys very fine; let all boil gently for 4 hours. About 1/2 hour before removing from the fire, add 1 teaspoonful of mixed spices and 1/4 lb. fresh mushrooms cut in large pieces. Line a mould with half-set aspic; when set, pour in the mixture, pour over more aspic.

This is excellent for a cold supper or can be used as _pâté de foie gras_, and it may be moulded in buttered dishes without the aspic.

A SERBIAN DISH OF RICE AND MUTTON

Cut 5 onions very fine, and 1/4 lb. of lean salt pork, in thin slices. Put these into a deep pot to cook until the onions are a golden brown. Add 2 lbs. of lamb or mutton cut in pieces, add salt, pepper, and 3 pimentos; just cover the meat with water and cook gently about an hour, then add 1/2 cup of rice; cover tightly and let it stew 20 minutes more.

BAKED EGGS

(Bonhomme)

Put in a basin 2 dessert-spoonfuls of flour, a pinch of salt (or sugar if preferred); break into it 6 whole eggs; beat them up with a pint of milk. Pour this into a buttered dish, bake in a moderate oven. When the eggs have acquired a good colour serve directly. If this dish has been flavoured with salt send grated Parmesan or Gruyère cheese to table with it.

TRIPE

(Tripe à la Poulette)

Cut in filets or small squares 2 lbs. of tripe well boiled. Chop 1 onion finely; put it in a stew-pan with 1-1/2 ozs. of butter; colour lightly; mix in a good dessert-spoonful of flour; moisten with stock and half a glass of white wine to make a thin sauce; season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the tripe; cook for an hour; the sauce must be reduced one-half. At the moment of serving thicken the ragoût with two yolks of eggs mixed with the juice of a lemon, 1 oz. of fresh butter, and chopped parsley. Garnish the tripe on the dish with six croûtons of bread cut in shape of half a heart and fried in butter.

TRIPE

(Italian)

Two pounds of tripe well cooked; cut in thin strips, put them in a stew-pan with 2 ozs. of butter, 3 ozs. of chopped mushrooms, salt, pepper, half a tumblerful of good gravy or stock; cover, and let all cook until the liquid is entirely reduced. Spread upon a fireproof dish that has been well buttered, a layer of tripe, a layer of tomato sauce rather thick; sprinkle each layer with grated cheese; finish with the tomato. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese and bread-crumbs, then pour over a little butter melted to oil. Put the dish in the oven for fifteen minutes.

TIMBALE OF PARTRIDGES

(French)

Mince the raw flesh of two partridges, season, cut some truffles in small squares, ornament with them a buttered timbale-mould, half fill it with the farce, make a hollow in the centre of it allowing the farce to cover the sides of the mould to the top. Have ready a small ragoût of partridges, with slices of foie gras or truffles; the sauce should be thick, pour it into the empty centre of the mould, cover the whole with the remainder of the farce, then with a buttered paper. Poach the timbale in a covered bain-marie for thirty minutes in boiling water. Turn it upon a dish and pour Madeira sauce round.

STEWED HARE

(Belgian)

After having emptied the hare put aside the liver, carefully separated from the gall, and the blood in a basin; add to it a few drops of vinegar to prevent it curdling. Cut the hare into pieces of medium size; warm 3 ozs. of butter in a stew-pan, add to 1/4 lb. of lean bacon cut in dice, colour them in the butter, add 3 ozs. of flour, make it all into a brown thickening, and put in the pieces of hare; moisten with a bottle of red wine and a quart of stock, salt, and pepper. Stir without leaving it, with a wooden spoon, until it boils; the sauce should cover the meat and not be too thick; add a bouquet of herbs, an onion with cloves in it. Cover the stew-pan and leave it to stew until the hare is tender. A young hare will take from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, an old one may cook for three hours without becoming tender. The sauce should by this time be reduced to half; take out the onion and herbs, taste if sufficiently seasoned; mix the blood with a teacupful of thick cream, throw over the hare; shake the stew-pan briskly to allow all to mix well, but it must not boil; at the last moment add the liver, which has been sliced and sautéd (shaken) for two minutes in hot butter over the fire. Arrange in an entree dish, pour the sauce over and garnish round with croûtons of fried bread.

NOTE.--This dish may be rendered more highly flavoured, if desired, by steeping the pieces of hare for some hours in the following marinade or pickle: a bottle of red wine, a cupful of vinegar, salt, pepper, a bouquet of herbs, and an onion stuck with cloves. Leave the hare in this preparation four or five hours, then when the thickening is made, put in the hare with this marinade, then the stock, and finish as above. Small button onions or mushrooms may be added before the hare is tender; if onions are cooked with it they must be previously boiled for a few minutes.

INDIAN PILAU

(English)

Six onions, 4 ozs. butter, 2 Indian mangoes, a chicken.

Peel and chop the onions, and put them into a stew-pan with the butter, and mangoes cut into shreds; on the top of these ingredients place the joints of a chicken previously fried in butter, and let this stew over a slow fire for about 1 hour. When done arrange the pieces of chicken on the rice lightly piled in a dish; stir the sauce to mix it, and pour it over the pilau. Serve very hot.

RICE FOR PILAU.--Wash and parboil for 5 minutes 1/2 lb. of rice, then drain it free from water; put it into a stew-pan with 2 ozs. of butter, and stir, over the fire until the rice acquires equally in every grain a light fawn colour, then add a 1/2 pint of stock, cayenne pepper, and a very little curry powder; put the lid on the stew-pan, and set the rice to boil, or rather simmer, very gently over a slow fire till done. Stir it lightly with a fork, to detach the grains. A few raisins added are an improvement.

STUFFED BEEF STEAKS

(Sicilian fashion)

Take three-quarters of a pound of beef, two ounces of ham, one tablespoon of butter, some bread, some parsley, and a piece of onion. Chop the onion fine and put it in a saucepan with the butter. When it is coloured, put in the parsley and the ham cut up into little pieces, at the same time add the bread cut up into three or four small dice, salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. Mix all together well. Cut the meat into six slices, pound them to flatten out; salt slightly, and when the other ingredients are cooked, put a portion on each slice of meat. Then roll up the meat like sausages, put them on skewers, alternating with a piece of fried bread of the same size. Butter well, roll in fresh bread-crumbs, and broil on the gridiron over a slow fire.

PODVARAK

(Serbian)

Put in a pan 3 tablespoons of lard; when it is hot add 3 lbs. of sauerkraut.

Place a piece of ribs of pork or a small turkey in the pan and bake in the oven until the meat is cooked.

RIBS OF PORK IN CASSEROLE

UYNVECHE

(Serbian)

Fry 3 sliced onions in 1 tablespoon of lard. Mix this with 1 lb. of rice. Remove the seeds and cut in halves 3 green peppers. Add these to the rice; also 3 or 4 sliced tomatoes and 2 potatoes sliced. Place this rice mixture in a casserole and put on top a piece of ribs of pork of about 2 lbs. Pour in water enough to well cover the rice. Bake in the oven.

SALMIS DE LAPIN

(French)

Cut up your rabbit into neat pieces, removing as much of the bone as possible. Have an iron saucepan ready, in which you have put a good quarter of a pound of fat bacon. Put in your pieces of rabbit, which you fry until they become a nice golden brown, and which the French call doré; just before they are this colour add 2 tablespoonsful of rum, or of cognac, according to taste, also 2 échalotes cut up into very small pieces, which you must see do not burn.

FOR THE GRAVY.--Take the trimmings of the rabbit, the head, and liver, and pound them all up in a mortar. When pounded, add a heaping spoonful of flour and pound it in. Now measure out a pint and a half of white ordinary wine (hock), to which you will add a good breakfastcupful of good bouillon, or gravy. Into this put what you have already pounded up and mix it in, then pass it all through a sieve (passoire). When ready pour it over the pieces of rabbit, now that they are become of a golden colour, and let it simmer with them in a covered saucepan by the side of the fire for a good two hours and more, so as to have it very tender. Salt and pepper to taste. Bouquet garni--which means thyme, and if one likes the flavour, a leaf of bay laurel--but for the latter just to let it be in an instant only, as it has such a strong flavour. Many prefer just the thyme, which is more delicate. Half an hour before the rabbit is cooked, add a good spoonful of vinegar[1]; two, should the vinegar not be strong. Add a piece of butter of the size of a walnut whilst it is simmering or stewing by the side of the fire.

FOOTNOTE: [1] The vinegar is quite optional.

SHEEP'S HEAD

(Scotch)

Choose a nice sheep's head, get it slightly singed, then have it sawn up the middle, steep it all night with a little soda in the water, then clean it thoroughly, take out the brains, put on with cold water, slowly bring to boil, and boil slowly for three hours. Boil the brains in a cloth for a quarter of an hour, then mince small, make a white sauce, stir in the minced brains, lay the head flat on a dish and pour sauce over. Decorate with a few small bits of parsley.

MACARONI PIE

(Italian)

Three-quarters lb. of cold beef, or mutton, 1/2 an onion, 3 or 4 tomatoes, 1/4 lb. of macaroni, bread-crumbs, grated cheese, stock, salt, pepper, nutmeg.

Cut the beef or mutton into thin slices, peel the onion and slice it thinly, slice the tomatoes, and boil the macaroni in slightly salted water until tender. Cool and drain the macaroni, and cut it up into small pieces. Line a buttered baking-dish with macaroni, and arrange the meat, onion, and tomato slices in layers on the baking-dish. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, pour over a little stock, and cover the top with macaroni. Sprinkle over some bread-crumbs, and grated cheese, and bake for about 20 minutes in a hot oven.

KIDNEY AND MUSHROOMS

(English)

Take some sheep's kidneys, skin, halve, and core them, sprinkle each piece with pepper, salt, and sauté them in butter till a good brown; have a large mushroom peeled and cored for each half kidney, fry in the same fat as the kidney; lay the mushrooms in a hot dish, on each put a piece of tomato heated in the oven, then a half kidney, put a little pat of butter on each, and serve with either a pile of mashed potatoes or spinach in centre of dish.

Curries

INDIAN CURRY

Most of the curry powder or paste to be found in this part of the world is a mixture of 1/4 of dried chilli, 1/4 coriander, 1/2 dagatafolum; but the native curry cook uses a much larger variety of spices and likes to grind them himself fresh daily between two stones. The spices commonly used are:

Red chilli (roasted) Coriander seed (roasted) " " (fresh) Cinnamon Nutmeg Baked garlic Scraped cocoanut Dagatafolum Caraway seed Yellow pimentos Red pimentos Cardamon seeds Curcuma (saffron root)

A FRICASSEE OF CHICKEN

(Ceylon style)

Cut 2 good-sized chickens in 8 pieces. Season with salt and pepper; put in a saucepan with about 1 quart of cocoanut milk; add to this a little cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon fresh coriander, 1/4 teaspoon of powdered saffron, a little red pimento, and boil until tender; at the last minute thicken the sauce with 4 yolks of eggs mixed well with 1/2 pint cocoanut cream; keep hot but do not boil, as the richness of the ingredients would make it curdle. As this curry is not hot it is served with a sambo which consists of small dishes on one tray containing such savories as plain scraped cocoanut, pimento paste, and chopped onion with a red pepper sauce.

To obtain cocoanut cream, use the same process as that for ordinary cream;--as for the milk: have 3 fresh cocoanuts scraped very fine to which you add 3 pints of water, stir together for a few moments, then strain, let this milk stand for 3 hours to obtain the cream.

A SIMPLER INDIAN CURRY

One lb. of beef, mutton, fish, or vegetables, as desired. One tablespoon of curry powder, 1 heaping tablespoon of butter, 1 onion, 1/2 fresh cocoanut, juice of half a lemon, salt to taste. Curry powder to be mixed in 2 ozs. of water. Onion to be finely chopped. Cocoanut to be scraped and soaked in a teacup of boiling water, then squeezed, and the milk (or the liquid) to be put in the curry. First cook the butter till it bubbles, put in the onion and let it brown, add the curry powder, and let that cook a few minutes; if it becomes too dry and sticks to the pan add a little hot water. Then put in the meat (raw), cut in small pieces, fish, or vegetables, and fry them, add salt, and if dry, add a little more water, let all simmer till meat is thoroughly done; when about half done, add the cocoanut milk and the lemon-juice.

If not convenient to use the cocoanut milk, ordinary milk can be used, and the mixture thickened with a little flour. Cocoanut milk thickens without flour. When the butter separates and shows itself in the gravy, the curry is ready for serving. Curry should be served with plain boiled rice. Pass rice first, then curry.

If Indian chutney is served with curry it is a great addition. A banana may be cut up in pieces about half-inch thick, and added to the curry mixture while cooking, and is a pleasant addition to the flavour.

ANOTHER CURRY SAUCE

Chop 1 onion and 1 apple and cook them in 1 oz. of butter about 10 minutes, but do not let them brown. Add 1 dessert-spoonful of mild curry powder, the grated rind and juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 pint of water or stock, some salt, and 1 tablespoonful of seedless raisins, and simmer until the onion is quite tender. Unless added to rice or paste put in 1 dessert-spoonful of flour after the onion and apple have cooked about 10 minutes.

Pastes, Cheese, Etc.

MACARONI WITH CHEESE

(Italian)

Into 2-1/2 quarts of boiling water, well salted, throw 1/2 lb. of macaroni broken up into pieces. Let it boil 25 minutes, then drain it upon a sieve; replace in a stewpan with 3 ozs. of fresh butter cut in small pieces, 2 ozs. of grated cheese, and a pinch of pepper; mix all with a fork. The macaroni must not be broken. Add 1/2 cup of cream. Serve hot.

NOTE:--Macaroni should be tender but not pasty; it should possess a certain crispness; obtain this by passing cold water over it when it is in the sieve and quickly returning it to the saucepan.

MACARONI

(Milanaise)

Break up 1/2 lb. macaroni into pieces about 1/4 of an inch long. Boil in salted water 25 minutes. Drain on a sieve. Put it back in the stewpan with a cupful of tomato sauce and 2 oz. of ham cut into dice. Let it simmer a few minutes, then add 2-1/2 oz. of butter and the same of grated cheese.

POLENTA WITH CHEESE

(Italian)

Add to 1-1/2 pints of salted, boiling water, 1/2 lb. of Indian meal, sprinkling it in a little at a time. Let it cook until thick.

With a tablespoon form it into small lumps; arrange them on a dish, sprinkle them with grated cheese, and pour over them some butter cooked brown, but not burnt. Put the dish in the oven a few minutes to melt the cheese before serving.

LENTIL CROQUETTES

Put in cold water 1/2 a cup of dried beans or lentils and let soak overnight. Boil them 1-1/2 hours or until tender. Pass them through a sieve; add 1/2 of a cup of fine bread-crumbs and 3 tablespoons of cream or butter, 1 egg, a grated onion, a pimento chopped, a little mace or nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of cayenne. Make into croquettes and roll in bread-crumbs, then beaten egg and bread-crumbs, and fry in oil or butter. If baked in the oven in a loaf, baste occasionally with oil or butter.

Serve with a tomato or horse-radish sauce.

This is a nourishing substitute for meat.

RISOTTO

Colour for an instant in butter a chopped onion, add to it 1/2 lb. of rice; stir an instant over the fire until it begins to frizzle, but do not colour; add stock to 3 times the quantity of rice, a cupful of tomato sauce, a pinch of saffron, one of pepper, let it boil, cover the saucepan, and let it cook by the side of the fire for 20 minutes. If the rice becomes dry before it is sufficiently tender add a little more stock. Place the saucepan on the corner of the stove away from the hot fire, then add to the rice 2 ozs. of grated Parmesan cheese and the same amount of butter. Arrange the rice on a dish and pour over it some good gravy and serve very hot.

The brown rice now procurable in most large cities is liked by gourmets cooked in this manner and served with partridge and other game.

RISOTTO MILANAISE

Fry a tablespoon of minced onion in a good bit of butter; when slightly browned, add 4 or 5 tomatoes and 1 pimento; after cooking pass through a sieve and replace in the casserole with pepper, salt, and a dash of cinnamon, 2 or 3 chicken livers, or some beef cut into small pieces. Add 1 cup of rice and 1 qt. of stock or, lacking stock, water will do; boil until the rice is tender, when add 1/4 lb. of cheese grated.

RAVIOLI

Prepare a paste made of 4/5 of a lb. of flour, a pinch of salt, 5 eggs, 2 spoonfuls of water. Cover with a cloth and let stand at least 15 minutes. Make a farce with cooked chicken or veal minced--about 2 cups--1 tablespoonful of finely minced cooked ham, 1/2 of a calf's brain cooked, yolks of 2 eggs, a dash of nutmeg, 1 dessert-spoon of grated Parmesan cheese. Take 1/2 the paste, roll out thin into a large square; place a ball of the farce every 2-1/2 inches apart about the size of a walnut, moisten with a brush the paste between the balls of farce. Roll the rest of the paste and place it over the farce; press edges together and between each ball. Cut with a round cutter or into squares as preferred and cook in boiling water 7 or 8 minutes, drain them and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Put on a dish and pour a tomato sauce around them.

EGG COQUILLES, WITH SPINACH

(French)

One-half lb. of prepared and seasoned spinach, 1 breakfastcupful of cream, 6 eggs, pepper, and salt.

Have 6 very small coquille or marmit pots, or china soufflé cases, butter them, and put 1 tablespoonful of spinach in each. Upon this put about 1 dessert-spoonful of cream. Break 1 egg in each, season with salt and pepper, and bake carefully in a moderately heated oven for 8 minutes. Serve quickly.

PIROG OF MUSHROOMS

Boil mushrooms until they are tender, chop them and mix them in the pan with butter, pepper and salt. Roll out the paste, put on one side of the dough cold boiled rice, then the mushrooms, hashed meat of boiled veal, chopped hard-boiled eggs, chopped onions, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. When filling is placed on half of the dough lap the other half over it, close the edges with the white of an egg, spread over some beaten egg, and bake in the oven light brown.

PASTE FOR RUSSIAN PIROG

One cup of milk, 3 eggs, 1-1/2 cups of butter, a little salt mixed with flour to make a soft dough. Knead it thoroughly, first with hands and then half an hour more with a wooden spoon.

EGGS ROMANOFF

Cover hard-boiled eggs with a stiff mayonnaise. Put a little highly flavoured aspic jelly in the bottom of individual moulds. When the jelly is firm add a spoonful of caviare and place the mayonnaised egg on the top. Pour in more jelly. When it is cold turn from the mould and serve on a garniture of lettuce. This is good for a cold supper.

OEUFS POCHÉS IVANHOE

Cook a piece of finnan haddie in milk, then add 2 tablespoons of sauce (a good cream sauce) with a few fresh mushrooms, salt, pepper, a bit of cayenne, and 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese. Put this through a fine sieve, and in nests of this paste on slices of toast, slip poached eggs. Sprinkle with grated cheese and place for a moment in a hot oven to glaze.

CHEESE PUFFS

Bring to a boil 2/3 of a cup of water, 1-1/2 oz. of butter, a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, then add 1/4 of a lb. of flour and stir to a smooth paste, then stir in, one at a time, 3 eggs, 3-1/2 oz. of grated cheese (Parmesan preferred). Add 1/4 teaspoon of English mustard; when all is well mixed, drop by tablespoonfuls on a baking tin and place on top of each a slice of Gruyère cheese. Put in a moderate oven increasing the heat gradually. Cook from 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

MOSKVA CHEESECAKES

Line tartlet moulds with short paste. Take 2 tablespoons of thick white sauce, well seasoned, add a good pinch of cayenne pepper, bring it to a boil, add 2 yolks of eggs, 4 tablespoons of grated cheese. Again bring to a boil and remove from the fire, add 1 white of egg beaten stiff. Fill the tartlet moulds with this mixture, put in a hot oven for 10 minutes, serve immediately.

CHEESE FRITTERS

Boil 1/2 pint of water, 1 oz. of butter, pinch of salt, pepper. Remove from fire and add 3 oz. flour. Stir until a smooth paste is made, then add 3 oz. of grated cheese and 1 oz. chopped cooked ham; when the mixture is half cold add 3 eggs, one by one, stirring well.

Drop by spoonfuls into hot, not boiling fat; increase the temperature of the fat, turning the fritters often.

When golden brown drain and serve.

CHEESE PUDDING

(A simple and nutritious Welsh dish)

Chop 1/2 lb. of cheese. Toast and butter four slices of bread. Put two slices in the bottom of a dish, cover with half the cheese, sprinkle a little salt and pepper, put in the dish the other two slices of buttered bread and cover with the remaining cheese.

Pour over 1 pint of milk, let it stand for five minutes, then bake in a warm oven 20 minutes.

CHICORY OR ENDIVE

Chicory or endive is scalded the same as spinach, but needs a little longer time in the boiling water. It is prepared the same in brown butter, gravy, or cream.

STEWED COS LETTUCES

(French)

Take off the outer leaves; wash them carefully, keeping them as whole as possible; boil for ten minutes in boiling salted water; pour cold water through them; drain. Extract the water from them by pressing each lettuce lightly with two hands; split them in halves lengthwise; take off the stalk; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put them in a stew-pan, placing each half lettuce partly over the other round the pan. The latter must be well buttered before putting in the lettuces, or in place of butter some very good gravy from which all grease has been taken. Add stock to half the height of the lettuces; cover and cook them gently for an hour. The lettuces should be tender and the liquid much reduced.

NOTE.--Lettuces may be cooked in the same manner with a little lean bacon, ham, or sausage; in the latter case water may be used instead of stock. They can be served as a vegetable or for garnishing.

ASPARAGUS

(French)