Part 3

CLAM PIE.--Take a sufficient number of clams to fill a large pie-dish when opened. Make a nice paste in the proportion of a pound of fresh butter to two quarts of flour. Paste for shell-fish, or meat, or chicken pies should be rolled out double the thickness of that intended for fruit pies. Line the sides and bottom of your pie-dish with paste. Then cover the bottom with a thin beef-steak, divested of bone and fat. Put in the clams, and season them with mace, nutmeg, and a few whole pepper-corns. No salt. Add a spoonful of butter rolled in flour, and some hard-boiled yolks of eggs crumbled fine. Then put in enough of the clam-liquor to make sufficient gravy. Put on the lid of the pie, (which like the bottom crust should be rolled out thick,) notch it handsomely, and bake it well. It should be eaten warm.

CLAM FRITTERS.--Put a sufficient quantity of clams into a pot of boiling water. The small sand-clams will be best. When the shells open wide, take them out, extract the clams from the shells, and put them into a stew-pan. Strain their liquor, and pour about half of it over the clams; adding a little black pepper. They will require no salt. Let them stew, slowly, for half an hour; then take them out; drain off all the liquor; and mince the clams as fine as possible, omitting the hardest parts. You should have as many clams as will make a large pint when minced. Make a batter of seven eggs, beaten till very thick and light; and then mixed gradually with a quart of milk, and a pint of sifted flour, stirred in by degrees, and made perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Then, gradually, mix the minced clams with the batter, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying pan over the fire a sufficiency of boiling lard. Put in, with a spoon, the batter so as to form fritters, and fry them light brown. Drain them well when done, and serve them up hot.

Oyster fritters may be made as above; except that the oysters must be minced raw, and mixed into the batter without having been stewed.

LOBSTER PATTIES.--Make some puff-paste, and spread it on very deep patty-pans. Bake it empty. Having boiled well two or three fine lobsters, extract all their meat, and mince it very small, mixing it with the coral smoothly mashed, and some yolk of hard-boiled egg, grated. Season it with a little salt; some cayenne; and some powdered mace or nutmeg; adding a little yellow lemon-rind grated. Moisten the mixture well with cream, or fresh butter, or salad oil. Put it into a stew-pan; add a very little water, and let it stew till it just comes to a boil. Take it off the fire, and the patties being baked, remove them from the tin-pans, place them on a large dish, and fill them up to the top with the mixture.

Similar patties may be made of prawns, or crabs.

A SEA-COAST PIE.--Having boiled a sufficient number of crabs or lobsters, extract all the meat from the shells, and cut it into mouthfuls. Have ready some fine large oysters drained from the liquor. Cover the bottom and sides of a deep dish with puff-paste; and put in a thick layer of crab or lobster, seasoned with a little cayenne pepper, and a little grated lemon-peel; and mixed with some hard-boiled yolk of egg, crumbled fine, and moistened with fresh butter. Next, put a close layer of oysters, seasoned with pounded mace and grated nutmeg. Lay some bits of butter rolled in flour on the top of the layer. Proceed in this manner with alternate layers of crab or lobster, and of oysters, till the dish is nearly full. Then pour in, at the last, a tea-cupfull of more of the oyster liquor, with an equal quantity of rich cream. Have ready a thick lid of puff-paste. Put it on the pie; pressing the edges closely so as to unite them all round; and notch them handsomely. Make a wreath of leaves cut out of paste, and a flower or knot for the centre; place them on the top-crust; and bake the pie well. While it is baking, prepare some balls made of chopped oysters; grated bread-crumbs; powdered nutmeg, or mace; and grated lemon-peel; with a little beaten yolk of egg to bind together the other ingredients. Having fried these balls in butter, drain them, and when the pie is baked, lay a circle of them round the top; between the border of paste-leaves and the centre-knot.

This pie will be found so fine that it ought to be baked in a dish which will contain a large quantity.

LOBSTER RISSOLES.--Extract the meat of a boiled lobster; mince it as fine as possible; mix with it the coral pounded smooth, and some yolks of hard-boiled eggs pounded also. Season it with cayenne pepper, powdered mace, and a very little salt. Make a batter of beaten egg, milk, and flour. To each egg allow two large table-spoonfuls of milk, and a large tea-spoonful of flour. Beat the batter well, and then mix the lobster with it gradually, till it is stiff enough to make into oval balls, about the size of a large plum. Fry them in the best salad oil, and serve them up either warm or cold.

Similar rissoles may be made of raw oysters minced fine; or of boiled clams. These should be fried in lard.

Very young Indian corn, grated from the cob, prepared in the above manner, made into balls, and fried in fresh butter, is excellent. Previous to grating it is best to boil the ears of corn.

TO DRESS A TURTLE.--The turtle should be taken out of water, and killed over night in winter, and early in the morning in summer. Hang it up by the hind fins, and before it has had time to draw in its neck, cut off its head with a very sharp knife, and leave the turtle suspended. It should bleed two or three hours or more, before you begin to cut it up. Then lay it on its back upon a table: have at hand several vessels of cold water, in which to throw the most important parts as you separate them; also a large boiler of hot water. Take off the fins at the joint, and lay them by themselves in cold water; next divide the back-shell from the under-shell. The upper part of the turtle is called the calipash--the under part the calipee. In cutting open the turtle, be very careful not to break the gall, which should be taken out and thrown away; if broken, its bitterness will spoil all around it. Take out the entrails, and throw them into a tub of cold water. When well washed, open them from end to end with a small penknife, scrape off the inside skin, and, to cleanse them thoroughly, draw them several times through a woollen cloth. Wash, also, the liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, &c., and lay them in cold water; the liver in a pan by itself. If there are eggs, put them also into cold water. Having extracted the intestines, stand up the turtle on end, to let the blood run out. Afterwards cut out all the flesh from the upper and under shells, and remove the bones. Cut the calipee (or meat belonging to the under-shell) into pieces about as large as the palm of your hand, and break the shell. The calipash, or meat next the back-shell, may be cut smaller--the green fat into pieces about two inches square. Put all the meat into a large pan, sprinkle it slightly with salt, and cover it up. Lay the shells and fins in a tub of boiling water, and scald them till the scales can be scraped off with a knife, and all the meat that still adheres to the shells easily removed, as it is worth saving. Clean the fins nicely, (taking off the dark skin,) and lay them in cold water. Wipe the back-shell dry, and set it aside. Then proceed to make the soup. For this purpose, take the coarser pieces of flesh with the bones and entrails. Put them into a pot with a pound of ham cut into pieces, and eight large calves’-feet (two sets) that have been singed and scraped but not skinned. If you cannot conveniently obtain calves’-feet, substitute a large fore-leg or knuckle of veal. Add four onions sliced thin; two table-spoonfuls of sweet-marjoram leaves; a large bunch of parsley; a dozen blades of mace; and a salt-spoon of cayenne. The ham will make any other salt unnecessary. Pour on as much water as will completely cover the whole, and let it simmer slowly over a steady fire during five hours, skimming it well. If after a while the soup seems to be boiling away too much, replenish it with a little hot water from a kettle, kept boiling hard for the purpose. When it has simmered five hours, take up the whole, and strain the soup through a sieve into a deep pan. Wash out the soup-pot with hot water, and return the strained soup to it, with the entrails cut into small pieces, and some of the best of the meat and a portion of the green fat. Have ready two or three dozen force-meat balls about the size of a boy’s marble, and made of the usual proportions of minced veal, bread-crumbs, butter, grated lemon-peel, mace, nutmeg, and beaten yolk of egg. Put them into the soup, and let it boil an hour longer; also the eggs of the turtle, or some hard-boiled yolks of eggs. After it has thus boiled another hour, add two sliced lemons and a pint of Madeira. Boil the soup a quarter of an hour longer, and it will then be ready for the tureen. It must never boil hard.

In the mean time, stew in another pot the finest of the turtle-meat, seasoned with a little salt, and cayenne, and a liberal allowance of sweet-marjoram leaves rubbed fine, and mixed with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add a pound of fresh butter, cut into quarters and rolled in flour. When the turtle-meat has stewed an hour, put in the green fat, add the grated peel, and the juice of two lemons, and a pint or more of Madeira, and let the whole stew slowly an hour longer. While the meat is stewing, take the shell off the back; wash it clean, and wipe it dry, lay a band of puff-paste all round the inside of the shell, two inches below the edge, and two inches above it. Notch the paste handsomely, and fill the shell with the stewed turtle. Have ready the oven, heated as if for bread. Lay a large iron baking-sheet or a square pan upon four bricks (one at each corner) to elevate the shell from the floor of the oven. Place on it the turtle-shell with its contents, and let it bake till well browned on the surface. Send it to table in the shell placed on a large dish. At the other end set the tureen of soup. Have ready as two side dishes the fins stewed tender in a little of the soup; and the liver fried in butter. Garnish with lemons cut in half.

This receipt is for a turtle of moderate size. A large one will of course require an increased proportion of all the articles used in seasoning it--more wine, &c. In serving up turtle at a dinner-party, let it constitute the first course, and have no other dishes on table with it. There is no need of any other fish or soup.

VEGETABLES, ETC.

AN EXCELLENT WAY OF BOILING CABBAGE.--Having trimmed the cabbage, and washed it well in cold water, (examining the leaves to see that no insects are lurking among them,) cut it almost into quarters, but do not divide it entirely down at the stem, which should be cut off just below the termination of the leaves. Let it lie an hour in a pan of cold water. Have ready a pot _full_ of boiling water, seasoned with a small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the cabbage into it, and let it boil for an hour and a half, skimming it occasionally. Then take it out; put it into a cullender to drain, and when all the hot water has drained off, set it under the hydrant. Let the hydrant run on it, till the cabbage has become perfectly cold all through. If you have no hydrant, set it under a pump, or keep pouring cold water on it from a pitcher. Then, having thrown out all the first water, and washed the pot, fill it again, and let the second water boil. During this time the cabbage under the hydrant will be growing cold. Then put it on again in the second water, and boil it two hours, or two and a half. Even the thickest part of the stalk must be perfectly tender all through. When thoroughly done, take up the cabbage, drain it well through the cullender, pressing it down with a broad ladle to squeeze out all the moisture; lay it in a deep dish, and cut it _entirely_ apart, dividing it into quarters. Lay some bits of fresh butter among the leaves, add a little pepper, cover the dish, and send it to table hot.

This receipt for boiling cabbage was obtained from a physician, and on trial has been found very superior to any other. Cabbage cooked in this manner loses its unpleasant odour, and its unwholesome properties, and may be eaten without apprehension, except by persons decidedly dyspeptic. The usual cabbage-smell will not be perceptible in the house--either while the cabbage is boiling or afterwards.

If you like it boiled with corned pork or bacon, the _second boiling_ (after the cabbage has been made cold under the hydrant) may be in the pot with the meat--skimming it well.

TO STEW RED CABBAGE.--Having stripped off the outer leaves, and washed the cabbage, quarter it, remove all the stalk, and cut the cabbage into shreds. Slice some cold ham as thin as possible, and put it into a stew-pan, alternately with layers of shred cabbage; having first laid some bits of fresh butter in the bottom of the pan. Add about half a pint of boiling water. Cover the pan closely, and let it stew steadily for three hours, till the cabbage is very tender, and the liquid all wasted; taking care not to let it burn. If you find it so dry as to be in danger of scorching, add a little more _boiling_ water. When done, press and drain it through a cullender, and serve it up with the cabbage heaped in the middle of the dish, and the ham laid round.

It may be improved by adding, before it begins to stew, a jill of red beet vinegar.

White cabbage may be stewed as above. Also cauliflower or broccoli, omitting the vinegar.

YOUNG CORN OMELET.--To a dozen ears of fine young Indian corn allow five eggs. Boil the corn a quarter of an hour; and then, with a large grater, grate it down from the cob. Beat the eggs very light, and then stir gradually the grated corn into the pan of eggs. Add a small salt-spoon of salt, and a very little cayenne. Put into a hot frying-pan equal quantities of lard and fresh butter, and stir them well together, over the fire. When they boil, put in the mixture thick, and fry it; afterwards browning the top with a red-hot shovel, or a salamander. Transfer it, when done, to a heated dish, but do not fold it over. It will be found excellent. This is a good way of using boiled corn that has been left from dinner the preceding day.

CAULIFLOWER OMELET.--Take the white part of a boiled cauliflower after it is cold; chop it very small, and mix with it a sufficient quantity of well-beaten egg, to make a very thick batter. Then fry it in fresh butter in a small pan, and send it hot to table.

FRIED CAULIFLOWER.--Having laid a fine cauliflower in cold water for an hour, put it into a pot of boiling water that has been slightly salted, (milk and water will be still better,) and boil it twenty-five minutes, or till the large stalk is perfectly tender. Then divide it, equally, into small tufts, and spread it on a dish to cool. Prepare a sufficient quantity of batter made in the proportion of a table-spoonful of flour, and two table-spoonfuls of milk to each egg. Beat the eggs very light; then stir into them the flour and milk alternately; a spoonful of flour, and two spoonfuls of milk at a time. When the cauliflower is cold, have ready some fresh butter in a frying-pan over a clear fire. When it has come to a boil and has done bubbling, dip each tuft of cauliflower twice into the pan of batter, and fry them a light brown. Send them to table hot.

Broccoli may be fried in this manner.

CAULIFLOWER MACCARONI.--Having removed the outside leaves, and cut off the stalk, wash the cauliflower, and examine it thoroughly to see if there are any insects about it. Next lay it for an hour in a pan of cold water. Then put it into a pot of boiling milk and water that has had a little fresh butter melted in it. Whatever scum may float on the top of the water must be removed before the cauliflower goes in. Boil it, steadily, half an hour, or till it is quite tender. Then take it out, drain it, and cut it into short sprigs. Have ready three ounces of rich, but not strong cheese, grated fine. Put into a stew-pan a quarter of a pound of fresh butter; nearly half of the grated cheese; two large table-spoonfuls of cream or rich milk; and a very little salt and cayenne. Toss or shake it over the fire, till it is well mixed, and has come to a boil. Then add the tufts of cauliflower; and let the whole stew together about five minutes. When done, put it into a deep dish; strew over the top the remaining half of the grated cheese, and brown it with a salamander or a red hot shovel held above the surface.

This will be found very superior to real maccaroni.

BROCCOLI AND EGGS.--Take several heads of broccoli, and cut the stalks short, paring off from the stalks the tough outside skin. Trim off the small outside shoots or blossoms, and tie them together in bunches. After all the broccoli has been washed, and lain half an hour or more in a pan of fresh, cold water, put the large heads, with a salt-spoonful of salt, into a pot of boiling water, and let them boil till thoroughly done, and the stalk perfectly tender. When the large heads have boiled about a quarter of an hour, put in the small tufts, which of course require less time to cook. In the meanwhile have ready six beaten eggs. Put a quarter of a pound of butter into a sauce-pan, and stir it over the fire till it is all melted; then add gradually the beaten eggs, and stir the mixture, or shake it over the fire till it becomes very thick. Toast sufficient bread to cover entirely the bottom of a deep dish, cutting it to fit exactly, having removed the crust. Pour the egg and butter over the hot toast. Then place upon it the broccoli; the largest and finest head in the middle, the lesser ones round it; and having untied the small sprigs, lay them, in a circle close to the edge.

FRIED CELERY.--Take fine large celery; cut it into pieces three or four inches in length, and boil it tender; having seasoned the water with a very little salt. Then drain the pieces well, and lay them, separately, to cool on a large dish. Make a batter in the proportion of three well-beaten eggs stirred into a pint of rich milk, alternately with half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, or of sifted flour. Beat the batter very hard after it is all mixed. Put into a hot frying-pan, a sufficiency of fresh lard; melt it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, dip each piece of celery _twice_ into the batter, put them into the pan, and fry them a light brown. When done, lay them to drain on an inverted sieve with a broad pan placed beneath it. Then dish the fried celery, and send it to table hot.

Parsnips, and salsify (or oyster plant) may be fried in butter according to the above directions. Also the tops of asparagus cut off from the stalk; and the white part or blossom of cauliflower. Cold sweet potatoes are very nice, peeled, cut into long slips, and fried in this way.

FRIED ARTICHOKES.--The artichokes must be young and tender. Cut them into quarters, remove the choke part, and strip off the leaves. Having washed the artichokes well, and laid them an hour in cold water, put them into a pot of boiling water, and keep them boiling steadily for a long time, till you find by trying them with a fork that they are tender all through. Then take them out immediately, and drain them. Have ready a sufficiency of batter, made in the proportion of the yolk of one egg to a large table-spoonful of milk, and a tea-spoonful of flour. The eggs must be well beaten before they are mixed with the milk; then beat in the flour a spoonful at a time. Have ready over the fire some fresh butter, or lard, in a frying-pan. When it has boiled hard, dip the artichokes into the batter, (each piece should be twice dipped,) and fry them brown. Then drain them well, and send them to table hot.

Parsnips may be fried as above. Salsify also.

Another way of frying artichokes, parsnips, and salsify, is, after they have been boiled tender, to dip each piece first in beaten yolk of egg, (without milk or flour,) and then roll it in finely-grated bread-crumbs. Then put them into the pan and fry them in butter or lard, or a mixture of both.

In boiling artichokes, observe to take them out as soon as they are tender. If they remain in the water after they are done, they turn blackish and lose their flavour.

MUSHROOM OMELET.--Take some fresh-gathered mushrooms; remove the stalks, and rub the flaps or heads very slightly with a little salt, mixed with cayenne. Then stew the mushrooms in a small sauce-pan, with barely sufficient cream or rich milk to cover them. Put in with them a small onion; and if the onion is found to turn blackish, throw away the whole; it being proof that there is among them a false or poisonous mushroom. Stir them with a silver spoon, and keep on the lid of the pan closely; unless when you are stirring. If the spoon turns black, the mushrooms should not be eaten.

After they have come to a boil, take them off the fire; drain them, and when cool, chop them small. To a pint or more of the minced mushrooms, allow six or seven eggs. Beat the eggs till very light and thick, (omitting the whites of two,) and then mix in, gradually, the mushrooms; stirring the whole very hard. Put three ounces of fresh butter into a hot omelet-pan, or a _small_ frying-pan; place it over the fire, and stir the butter as it melts. When it has boiled hard, put in the omelet mixture, and as it fries, stir it till it begins to set. Do not turn the omelet; but brown the top by holding close above it a red-hot shovel. When done, drain off the butter; fold over or double the omelet; and serve it up immediately, on a hot dish.

In gathering mushrooms, those that are fit to eat may be known by their being of a pale pearl colour, or of a grayish white, instead of what is called a dead white; and the under side of the flap or head (if good) is of a light pink, or a pinkish salmon colour. The best mushrooms grow on uplands, or in high open fields where the air is pure and good, and they should be gathered early in the morning before the dew is off. All that are found in low swampy ground, or in the woods, or under large trees are poisonous.

SCOLLOPED TOMATOES.--Take fine large tomatoes, perfectly ripe. Scald them to loosen the skins, and then peel them. Cover the bottom of a deep dish thickly with grated bread-crumbs, adding a few bits of fresh butter. Then put in a layer of tomatoes, seasoned slightly with a little salt and cayenne, and some powdered mace or nutmeg. Cover them with another layer of bread-crumbs and butter. Then another layer of seasoned tomatoes; and proceed thus till the dish is full, finishing at the top with bread-crumbs. Set the dish into a moderate oven, and bake it near three hours. Tomatoes require long cooking, otherwise they will have a raw taste, that to most persons is unpleasant.