Chapter 1

JOE TILDEN'S RECIPES FOR EPICURES

1907

Introductory Note

* * * * *

Major Joseph Tilden was in his time one of the most famous Bohemians and epicureans of the Pacific Coast. Ever since his death his many friends have been trying to learn the culinary secrets which made a repast of his devising so delicious. He had given his recipes to but few, and those few his most intimate friends and fellow spirits. One of the most favored of his old companions has given this complete collection of his recipes for publication.

San Francisco, May, 1907.

SOUPS AND CHOWDERS

Onion Soup

Place six ounces of butter in a large saucepan over the fire, and stir into it four large white onions cut up, not sliced. Stew this very slowly for one hour, stirring frequently to prevent its scorching. Add salt, pepper, cayenne, and about one quart of stock, and cook one hour longer. Then stir into the mixture one and a half cups of milk and simmer for a few minutes. Have ready a soup tureen. In it beat the yolks of four eggs with two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Stir the hot soup into this, beating until it thickens a little. A slice of toasted French bread should be placed in each plate, and the soup poured over it.

* * * * *

Palestine Soup

Slice two or three Jerusalem artichokes and place in two quarts of boiling water. Cook for one and one-half hours. Then rub the artichokes through a colander and add to them one pint of the water in which they were boiled. Stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into the same amount of butter. Add two cups of milk and boil for ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with croutons.

* * * * *

Black Bean Soup

Soak over night one quart of black turtle beans in water to cover them. In the morning strain and boil them in four quarts of water for one hour, skimming frequently. Then put into the liquor two white onions sliced, two stalks of celery cut into bits, salt, pepper, cayenne, and one teaspoonful each of cloves and allspice. Boil for three hours. Remove from the stove and add enough stock to thin the mixture to the consistency of a cream soup. Pour into it nearly a tumbler of sherry and add a thinly sliced lime. Place over the fire to boil for five minutes. Just before serving stir into the soup three hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped. Force meat balls may be added.

* * * * *

Parker House Tomato Soup

Put into a saucepan five pounds of tomatoes, either fresh or canned, with one quart of water, salt, pepper, cayenne, one and one-half tablespoonfuls of sugar, and three ounces of butter, rubbed into one heaping tablespoonful of flour. Cook slowly one hour. Remove from the fire and rub through a sieve. Place over the fire again and add one and one-half tablespoonfuls of rice flour which has been dissolved in a little water. Let it come to a boil, when it is ready to serve.

* * * * *

Celery Soup

Boil one small cupful of rice in three pints of milk, or two pints of milk and one of cream, until it is tender. Then rub it through a sieve and add one quart of veal stock, salt, cayenne, and three heads of celery (the white stalks only) which have been previously grated. Boil until the celery is tender.

* * * * *

Bisque of Prawns or Shrimps

Boil three dozen prawns twenty minutes in salted water to cover them. Meanwhile in two small tablespoonfuls of butter, fry an onion and a carrot sliced, and a small piece of salt pork chopped. Take the prawns out of the boiling water and add to it the fried mixture with salt, pepper, a bunch of sweet herbs and one-half the prawns added again. Simmer one hour. Pound the shells of the prawns in a mortar with a little butter, to form a smooth paste. Stir this into the soup and boil twenty minutes. Strain through a sieve. Add one quart of milk and one teaspoonful of cornstarch stirred into a little of the cold milk. Let it boil up, and serve. It should be as thick as rich cream.

* * * * *

Lobster Soup

Pick the meat from a five pound lobster and pound it in a mortar, adding from time to time a little milk or cream. When perfectly smooth, add two teaspoonfuls of salt, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley (if liked), cayenne and mace. Take out enough to make a dozen small balls, mix this with the yolk of an egg and fry it in butter. Mix the rest of the pounded lobster with two quarts of milk and rub through a sieve. Put this in a saucepan and simmer ten minutes. Add two ounces of butter and stir until melted and smooth. Pour over the fried balls in the tureen and serve very hot.

* * * * *

Venison Soup

Cut six pounds of lean venison into medium sized pieces and place in a soup kettle with two gallons of cold water, to which add two dozen cloves and four blades of mace. Boil slowly three hours. Then add two pounds of venison, cut into pieces about an inch square and one dozen force meat balls. Boil for thirty minutes. Then season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and half a glass of lime juice, letting the soup cook ten minutes longer. It should be served in hot bowls in each of which is poured a half glass of port before serving. Crisp croutons may be added.

* * * * *

Puree of Venison

Cut up the remains of venison that had been roasted for a former dinner, put a few slices of ham into a stew pan, then the venison, two whole onions, a blade of mace, two quarts of stock, and a small piece of a sprig of thyme, parsley, and two cloves. Set it on the stove to simmer, two hours or more. Strain it off, and pull all the meat to pieces. Pound it with the lean ham that was boiled with it, the crust of two French rolls which has been soaked in consomme. Rub the whole through a colander with a glass of claret or port and enough consomme to bring it to the consistency of cream. Put it back on the fire in a double boiler. Stir a little butter into it, and serve with bread fried in dice.

* * * * *

Clear Soup Stock

To four pounds of beef add six quarts of cold water and place over the fire. Just before it boils, skim it carefully. Then add two cups of cold water and skim again, repeating this for a third skimming. Allow it to simmer slowly for three hours. Then add the vegetables; eight ounces each of cut up carrots, onions and turnips, and three ounces of celery, with salt and pepper. Simmer three hours longer. The stock should be strained before using, and while cooking it should not be allowed to boil.

* * * * *

Daniel Webster's Chowder

Fry with some slices of pork, four tablespoonfuls of sliced onions, to a light brown. Put them in a deep iron pot with six pounds of cod sliced, one quart of boiled mashed potatoes, one pound and a half of broken sea biscuit, fifty oysters, one teaspoonful of thyme, one teaspoonful of summer savory, one-half a bottle of mushroom catsup, one bottle of port or claret, one-half a nutmeg, one dozen cloves, a little mace and allspice, one half a lemon sliced, pepper and salt. Cover with one inch of water and cook slowly until done.

* * * * *

Scott's Chowder

Cover the bottom of a deep pot with slices of pork cut very thin. Add a layer of fish sliced and seasoned with salt and pepper, a layer of onions parboiled and quartered, a layer of tomatoes sliced and seasoned, a layer of thickly sliced potatoes and a layer of broken sea biscuit. Repeat the layers until the pot is filled. Just cover the fish with water and cook one hour very slowly. Add one pint of claret, cook one-half hour longer and serve.

* * * * *

Marblehead Chowder

Cut half a pound of salt pork into dice and place two-thirds of it in a deep saucepan; fry a light brown. Remove it and in the fat fry two large onions sliced. Cover the bottom of the pot with slices of raw cod or bass mixed with some of the fried pork and onions. On this place another layer of sliced fish mixed with a few pieces of raw pork, and slices of raw onion, salt and pepper; over this a layer of sliced raw potatoes. Repeat these layers until the pot is about two-thirds full, when the mixture should be covered with warm water, or preferably a stock made of the heads and tails of the fish. After the chowder comes to a boil, let it cook for forty-five minutes. Then add some broken sea biscuit, and boil fifteen minutes longer. In another saucepan place a quart of milk and heat it to the boiling point. Then stir into it two ounces of flour rubbed into two ounces of butter. When it thickens a little, pour it over the chowder and serve.

The recipe will take about four pounds of fish, half a pound of pork, six onions, six potatoes, four sea biscuits, two ounces each of butter and flour and a quart of milk.

* * * * *

Clam Chowder I

Have one hundred clams still in the shell. Boil them in a quart of water until the shells open. Take the clams out of the kettle, saving the water in which they were boiled. Remove them from the shells, discarding all but the soft part. Take six slices of salt pork and cut into dice. Fry until crisp and a light brown. Remove from the saucepan and in the fat fry four onions sliced. Then add the water strained from the clams and the fried pork. To this add six potatoes cut in small pieces and two green peppers chopped or finely sliced. Boil the mixture fifteen minutes before putting in the clams and four sea biscuits, broken into pieces. Then boil for fifteen minutes longer and add a quart of milk. Have half a cup of bread crumbs rubbed into four ounces of butter. Stir this in as the chowder heats after the milk has been added. When it boils, it is ready to serve.

* * * * *

Clam Chowder II

In a saucepan fry two slices of salt pork and when brown, add four potatoes and four onions cut up. Fry ten minutes and add three pints of water, salt and pepper. Boil for half an hour. Then add one quart of clams from which the tough portions have been removed. Also two sea biscuits which have been soaked until they are soft. Cook ten minutes. For this recipe, canned clams may be used.

* * * * *

Force Meat Balls for Chowder

Take the meat of a good sized crab, a tumblerful of shrimps and a clove of garlic. Chop all very fine and make into small force meat balls with a beaten egg. Fry them a light brown in butter, and serve in any fish chowder or soup.

FISH

Oysters a la Marechale

Stew very gently in four ounces of butter some thinly sliced truffles and mushrooms. After cooking ten minutes add salt, white pepper, cayenne and mace. Stir in four large tablespoonfuls of flour and mix well together while it thickens. Put in the liquor of the oysters which has been scalded and skimmed. Then add milk (boiling) enough to make it as thick as cream. Take from the fire and stir in the yolks of four eggs beaten well with the juice of a lime and a tablespoonful of water.

Cover each oyster thickly with some of the mixture and allow it to cool. Then roll twice in beaten egg and bread crumbs. Fry to a light brown in butter and serve very hot.

* * * * *

Toasted Angels

Sprinkle cayenne and a few drops of lime juice over as many large oysters as are required, then wrap each oyster in a thin strip of bacon or fat salt pork. Fasten with a wooden tooth-pick and broil until the bacon is crisp. Serve very hot on squares of buttered toast.

* * * * *

Oyster Patés

Rub together one ounce of butter and one teaspoonful of flour. Melt this in a saucepan and add salt, mace and cayenne. Stir gently a few minutes, until smooth. Then add slowly four tablespoonfuls of cream. Strain two dozen oysters and add the liquor very slowly, stirring all the time. When it boils up, put in the oysters, cook three minutes and fill the paté shells. Serve very hot.

* * * * *

Scalloped Clams

Wash clean one hundred clams. Use soft part whole and the tough part chopped fine. Put a layer on the bottom of a buttered baking dish. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne and a little mace and sprinkle over plenty of stale bread crumbs and a quantity of bits of butter. Repeat the layers until the dish is full. Put plenty of butter on top and pour in a cup of the water from the clams. Bake in a moderate oven one hour, and when half done pour in a tumbler of sherry.

* * * * *

Shrimp or Oyster Curry

Melt four ounces of butter and fry in it four young onions and a clove of garlic chopped. Add the juice of two limes. Stir into this one teaspoonful of corn starch, two tablespoonfuls of curry powder and half a cup of cream with salt, pepper and cayenne. Stir this rapidly over the fire until very thick. Thin with milk until it is the proper consistency, then add a large cup of picked shrimps, and as many oysters. Cook two minutes after it boils.

* * * * *

Shrimps a la Bordelaise

Place two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour in a saucepan and brown over the fire. Stir into this one cup of stock, and add two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped raw ham, a slice of onion, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Simmer for ten or fifteen minutes. Strain the same and add to it a cup of shrimps. Simmer again for a few moments and add a teaspoonful of tomato or mushroom catsup. Season with, salt and pepper, and serve in timbale cases.

* * * * *

Shrimps with Tomato

Stew half a dozen large tomatoes with a tablespoonful of anchovy sauce, a piece of butter, salt, pepper and cayenne. Put this through a sieve until it is very smooth. Fill a baking dish with picked shrimps, pour the tomato over them, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake until brown.

* * * * *

Saute of Shrimps

Melt a piece of butter in a stewpan with a little flour, salt and cayenne. Just as it turns dark, put in a glass of white wine, a pound of picked shrimps, a little lemon juice, and if liked, a bit of anchovy sauce. Take from the fire and stir in the well-beaten yolks of two eggs. Pour into cup-shaped pieces of fried bread, and serve very hot.

* * * * *

Crab a la Creole

Fry in four ounces of butter, four young onions, one clove of garlic and two green peppers, all chopped fine. Cook until soft and add one tomato cut up, salt, pepper and cayenne. Stew until smooth, and add one teaspoonful of flour, a little cream or rich milk, and the meat picked from two crabs. Boil a few moments and serve with buttered toast.

* * * * *

Sole a la Normandie

Take a large sole (one without a roe). Remove the back skin and with a sharp knife very carefully cut out the side fins, lay it on the dish in which it is to be served, one that may be placed in the oven. Brush the fish with melted butter. Insert in the flesh of the fish some small slices of truffle. Sprinkle it with salt, white pepper, a very little mace and dust it all over with fine crumbs. Pour around it a tumbler of good white wine. Place in a moderate oven and cook until nearly done, twenty minutes or longer, if the fish be large. Take it out and put around the edge of the dish a row of croutons, brushing them with the white of an egg to make them adhere to the dish. Then scatter over and around the fish, a small can of mushrooms, sliced, oysters, mussels, picked shrimps and some quenelles. Add a little more melted butter and a few more crumbs, add more white wine and put back in the oven for five minutes.

* * * * *

Filet of Sole a la Bohemian

Cut a sole or flounder into four filets. Roll each one up, stuffing with a mixture of sal piquant sauce. Roll around each a thin slice of pork and fasten with a skewer. Stand on end in a baking pan and put a small piece of butter and a slice of lemon on each and bake until done.

Fry together for five minutes, chopped eschalots, parsley, chevril, herbs, butter, salt and cayenne. Take from the fire and stir in a little lime juice and anchovy sauce.

* * * * *

Baked Sole

Skin the slack side of the fish and lay in a baking pan. Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with bread crumbs and pour over them some melted butter. Cover the fish with a layer of thin slices of pork or bacon. Add one-half pint of water and bake half an hour. To make the sauce, take the liquor from the baking pan, add to it salt, pepper, cayenne, the juice of one lime, a wine glass of sherry, a tablespoonful of mushroom or walnut catsup, and a piece of butter the size of an egg with a little flour rubbed into it. Allow it to boil once and pour over the fish.

* * * * *

Flounders a la Magouze

Place several fish into a baking pan with a glass of white wine, salt, pepper, and an ounce of butter. While they are cooking break three eggs into half a pint of cream, and beat until it is light. When the fish is done remove them from the pan and stir the eggs and cream into the gravy. Simmer for two minutes, and pour over the fish, serving at once.

* * * * *

Salmon a la Melville

Put slices of salmon into a baking pan with a little white wine and water. Sprinkle with salt and bits of butter. Place in the oven and bake for fifteen minutes.

For a sauce, blanch some very finely chopped young onions. Put them in a saucepan with a wine glass of white wine, salt, cayenne, a cup of picked shrimps, a lemon cut in thin slices, and a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce. Then add a piece of butter the size of a walnut, rolled in a very little flour. Remove from the fire and stir in the yolks of two eggs. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

* * * * *

Stewed Haddock

Lay pieces of fish in a pan with the skin side up. Sprinkle with salt and cayenne, and cover tightly, allowing the fish to stew in its juice for twenty minutes. Then add a quarter of a pound of butter rolled in flour, and a quarter of a glass of wine. Stir the liquor and simmer for a few moments, when it is ready to serve. No water should be used.

* * * * *

Bacalas a la Viscaina

Soak half a salt codfish over night. Put in a saucepan one-half cup of olive oil, and two large onions cut in bits. When browned add two large tomatoes cut up. Stew slowly fifteen minutes, adding a little black pepper. Put in the fish picked to pieces and cook slowly half an hour. Serve on a platter, with some fried whole green peppers on top.

* * * * *

Baked Sardines

Remove the skins from large boned sardines and heat in the oven on strips of toast. Make a sauce as follows: Pour the oil from the sardines into a saucepan and heat it well. Then stir in an ounce of flour, adding a small cup of hot water. Season this with a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, salt and paprika. Beat the yolk of an egg with a teaspoonful of vinegar and one of mustard. Stir this into the sauce after it is removed from the fire. Pour over the sardines and serve.

* * * * *

Sardines with Cheese

Drain the sardines and lay them on strips of toast or crisply fried bread. Cover thickly with Parmesan cheese and bake in a hot oven until light brown in color. Remove and sprinkle with chopped parsley and pour over all plenty of lemon juice. Serve very hot.

* * * * *

Scalloped Fish Roe

Boil three large roes in water with, a very little vinegar for ten minutes. Remove from the fire and plunge into cold water, wipe the roe dry and break into bits without crushing. Have ready the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs. Mash them into a cup of drawn butter with salt, pepper, chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of anchovy paste, the juice of half a lemon and a cup of bread crumbs. Mix very lightly with the broken fish roe. Place in a baking dish, cover with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and brown in the oven.

* * * * *

Kedgeree

Boil two tablespoonfuls of rice and drain it as dry as possible. Have ready a cupful of cooked fish of any sort broken into pieces. Mix it thoroughly with the rice and heat over the fire; season with salt and pepper. Beat an egg lightly and stir into it. Serve at once.

* * * * *

Bouillabaise

The fish used for bouillabaise may be any kind of firm white fish, and for the following recipe, about two pounds are required. Heat in a soup kettle four tablespoonfuls of olive oil and fry in it two large onions sliced, and two cloves of garlic. Add the fish cut into bits and just cover the mixture with warm water. Then add salt, pepper, half of a bay leaf, two large tomatoes, peeled and chopped, the juice of half a lemon and one cup of white wine. Cook over a brisk fire twelve minutes, or until the liquor is reduced one-third. Add one tablespoonful chopped parsley and a pinch of saffron. Cook two minutes. Pour the bouillabaise over slices of French bread.

ENTREES

Sweetbreads with Mushrooms

Lay half a dozen sweetbreads in cold water for twelve hours, changing the water several times. Then boil them five minutes, drop into cold water, remove the skin and lard with fat bacon. Put them in a saucepan with a pint of stock, two small onions and one carrot chopped, a teaspoonful of minced parsley, salt, pepper, cayenne, and a little mace. Stew until tender.

Serve with a mushroom sauce, made as follows: Take a small bottle of mushrooms or one dozen fresh mushrooms sliced and boil them five minutes in water and lime juice. Drain and place in a stew pan with two ounces of butter, one ounce of flour and a pint of well seasoned stock or gravy. Cook until the sauce is reduced one-half. Pour over the hot sweetbreads.

* * * * *

Terrapin

Boil the terrapin for one hour, and clean carefully. Rub into a paste the yolks of six hard-boiled eggs, half the white of one egg chopped, one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of flour, three whole cloves, salt, pepper, cayenne and mace. Place the terrapin into a stewpan with a glass of sherry or madeira and the prepared paste. Cook slowly for twenty minutes. Add three glasses of sherry and madeira and allow it to boil once, when it is ready to serve.

* * * * *

Frogs a la Poulette

Joint the hind legs and backs of twelve frogs; put in a closely covered saucepan with some truffles, a small can of mushrooms sliced, a glass of white wine, salt, white pepper, cayenne, mace and four ounces of butter. Stew gently fifteen minutes, stirring once or twice. If then tender, add one teaspoonful cornstarch rubbed into one ounce of butter. Let it cook two minutes, take from the fire and stir in the yolks of six eggs beaten well with one-half cup of cream. Place this mixture where it will keep hot without cooking. Cut the crust from a loaf of bread, scoop out the center, brush with butter and brown in the oven. Pour the frogs legs and sauce into the bread cup, garnish with mushrooms and truffles.

* * * * *

Calves' Head en Tortue

Simmer a calves' head for two hours. Tie the brains in a cloth, put them in the saucepan with the head and cook two hours longer. Then extract the bones and cut the meat in pieces, return it to the saucepan without the brains, adding two ounces of butter, two dozen stoned olives, one dozen cloves, salt, pepper, cayenne, and a cup of white wine. Cook for one hour, then add the brains cut in bits, the shaved peel and piece of one lemon and three hard-boiled eggs sliced. Cook thirty minutes. Thicken the sauce with flour rubbed into butter and serve with the calves' head.

* * * * *

Chops a la Reine