Part 15

Bend the under bill. If it is tender, the chicken is young.

PRAIRIE-CHICKEN OR GROUSE ROASTED.

Epicures think that grouse (in fact, all game) should not be too fresh. Do not wash them. Do not wash any kind of game or meat. If proper care be taken in dressing them they will be quite clean, and one could easily wash out all their blood and flavor. Put plenty of butter inside each chicken: this is necessary to keep it moist. Roast the grouse half an hour and longer, if liked thoroughly done; baste them constantly with butter. When nearly done, sprinkle over a little flour and plenty of butter to froth them. After having boiled the liver of the grouse, mince and pound it, with a little butter, pepper, and salt, until it is like a paste; then spread it over hot buttered toast. Serve the grouse on the toast, surrounded with water-cresses.

QUAILS PARBOILED AND BAKED.

Tie a thin slice of bacon over the breast of each bird; put the quails into a baking-dish, with a little boiling water; cover it closely and set it on top of the range, letting the birds steam ten or fifteen minutes. This plumps them. Then take off the cover and the pork, and put the birds into the oven, basting them often with butter. Brown them, and serve with currant-jelly.

QUAILS ROASTED.

Cover the breasts with very thin slices of bacon, or rub them well with butter; roast them before a good fire, basting them often with butter. Fifteen minutes will cook them sufficiently, if they are served very hot, although twenty minutes would be my rule, not being an epicure. Salt and pepper them. Serve on a hot dish the moment they are cooked. They are very good with a bread-sauce made as follows:

BREAD-SAUCE, FOR GAME (_Mrs. Crane_).

First roll a pint of dry bread-crumbs, and pass half of them through a sieve. Put a small onion into a pint of milk, and when it boils remove the onion, and thicken the milk with the half-pint of sifted crumbs; take it from the fire, and stir in a heaping tea-spoonful of butter, a grating of nutmeg, pepper and salt. Put a little butter into a _sauté_ pan, and when hot throw in the half-pint of coarser crumbs which remained in the sieve; stir them over the fire until they assume a light-brown color, taking care that they do not burn, and stir into them a small pinch of Cayenne pepper. They should be rather dry. For serving, put a plump roast quail on a plate, pour over a table-spoonful of the white sauce, and on this place a table-spoonful of the crumbs. The sauce-boat and plate of crumbs may be passed separately, or the host may arrange them at table before the birds are passed. This makes a dish often seen in England.

CUTLETS OF QUAILS OR OF PIGEONS.

With a sharp-pointed knife carefully cut the breasts from quails or pigeons; or, as professional cooks say, fillet them. At the small end of each breast stick in a bone taken from the leg, and trimmed. The breasts should now resemble cutlets. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over each one, dip it in melted butter, and roll it in flour or sifted cracker-crumbs. Put the cutlets one side until ready to cook, as they should be cooked only just before sending them to the table. They should then be fried in a _sauté_ pan in hot butter. They may be served without further trouble in a circle with a centre of green pease, which makes a most delicate dish for a company dinner course. However, there is a more elaborate way of finishing them, as follows: Put the carcasses into some cold water with very small pieces of pork and onion, sufficient only to produce the slightest flavoring. Simmer this about an hour; strain, thicken with a little browned _roux_, and season it with a little pepper and salt. As soon as the livers are done, take them out, mash, and moisten them with a little of the sauce. Prepare little thin pieces of toast, one for each breast; butter, and spread them with the mashed livers. Turn the cutlets over in this sauce, and use the little of it that remains for dipping in the pieces of toast. Serve the cutlets on the toast in a circle, with a centre of pease, French string-beans (_haricots verts_), potatoes _à la Parisienne_, or mushrooms; or cut the pieces of toast into the form of a long triangle, so that the points may meet in the centre, and place the bones of the cutlets to meet in the centre also. Put then a row of vegetables on the outside.

SCOLLOPS OF QUAILS, WITH TRUFFLES (_Gouffé_).

Remove the fillets or breasts of six quails. Cut each fillet in two, and trim the parts to a round shape. Cook half a pound of truffles in Madeira, and cut them into slices. Put the scollops of quails into a _sauté_ pan with some butter; fry them until they are done, then mix them with the truffles. Put a nice border on a dish; pile the centre with the scollops and truffles; pour in some Espagnole or brown sauce, flavored with a little Madeira, and serve. Truffles can be procured canned.

ESPAGNOLE SAUCE.

Melt butter the size of an egg; when hot, add to it two or three table-spoonfuls of flour. Stir this carefully over a slow fire until it has taken a clear, light-brown color. Mix in this one half-pint of stock, broth, or gravy; then put it to the side of the fire to simmer until wanted, skimming it carefully, and not allowing it to stick to the bottom of the pan. Strain it. Just before serving it with the quails, add one or two tea-spoonfuls of Madeira.

QUAILS BROILED.

Split them at the back. Broil, basting them often with butter, over a hot fire. As soon as the quails are done, add a little more butter, with pepper and salt, and place them for a moment into the oven to soak the butter. Serve them on thin slices of buttered toast, with a little currant-jelly on top of each quail.

QUAILS BRAISED.

Quails are sometimes braised in the same manner as pigeons. (See receipt.)

SNIPE AND WOODCOCK FRIED.

Dress and wipe them clean. Tie the legs close to the body; skin the heads and necks, and tie the beaks under the wing; tie, also, a very thin piece of bacon around the breast of each bird, and fry in boiling lard. It only requires a few moments--say two minutes--to cook them. Season and serve them on toast. Some pierce the legs with the beak of the bird, as in the cut.

SNIPE AND WOODCOCK ROASTED.

The following is the epicure’s manner of cooking them, not mine. Carefully pluck them, and take the skin off the heads and necks. Truss them with the head under the wing. Twist the legs at the first joint, pressing the feet against the thigh. Do not draw them. Now tie a thin slice of bacon around each; run a small iron skewer through the birds, and tie it to a spit at both ends. Roast them at a good fire, placing a dripping-pan, with buttered slices of toast under them, to catch the trail as it falls. Baste the snipe often with a paste-brush dipped in melted butter. Let them roast twenty minutes; then salt the birds, and serve them immediately on the pieces of toast.

REED-BIRDS (_Henry Ward Beecher’s Receipt_).

Cut sweet-potatoes lengthwise; scoop out in the centre of each a place that will fit half the bird. Now put in the birds, after seasoning them with butter, pepper, and salt, tying the two pieces of potato around each of them. Bake them. Serve them in the potatoes. Or, they can be roasted or fried in boiling lard like other birds.

PLOVERS

are cooked in the same way as quails or partridges.

PHEASANTS

are cooked in the same way as prairie-chickens or grouse.

VENISON.

THE SADDLE OF VENISON.

This is, perhaps, the most distinguished venison dish. Make rather deep incisions, following the grain of the meat from the top, and insert pieces of pork about one-third of an inch square, and one inch and a half or two inches long; sprinkle over pepper, salt, and a little flour. Roast or bake the venison before a _hot_ fire or in a _hot_ oven, about two hours for an eight-pound roast. Baste often. Serve a currant-jelly sauce in the sauce-boat.

A good accompaniment at table for a roast of venison is a dish of potatoes _à la neige_ (see page 192), the dark meat and white potatoes forming a pretty contrast.

ROAST OR BAKED HAUNCH OF VENISON.

Cut off part of the knuckle-bone, round it at the other extremity, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and cover the whole with a paste of flour and water or coarse corn-meal; tie firmly a thick paper around. Place it near the fire at first to harden the paste, basting well the paper to keep it from burning; then remove it a little farther from the fire. Have a strong, clear fire. It will take about three hours to roast this joint, at the end of which time remove the paste. Carême would glaze it. This is, after all, a simple operation. It is a stock boiled down to a firm jelly, the jelly melted, and spread upon the meat with a brush. Put some frills of paper around the bone, and serve currant-jelly with it. If it be baked, the paste should cover it in the same way. It would also take the same length of time to cook.

The neck of venison makes a good roast also.

TO BROIL VENISON STEAKS.

Have the gridiron hot; broil, and put them on a hot dish; rub over them butter, pepper, salt, and a little melted currant-jelly. Some cooks add a table-spoonful of Madeira, sherry, or port to the melted currant-jelly.

If one does not wish to serve the jelly, simply garnish the dish with lemon-slices.

STEWED VENISON.

Cut it into steaks; spread over them a thin layer of stuffing made with bread-crumbs, minced onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and a little pork chopped fine; now roll them separately, and tie them each with a cord; stew them in boiling water or stock. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter mixed (see roux, page 51), and add one or two spoonfuls of sherry or port wine.

RABBITS ROASTED.

Skin and dress the rabbits as soon as possible, and hang them overnight. Roast them before a moderate fire, basting them with butter and a little flour when nearly done.

RABBITS BAKED.

After they are skinned, dressed, and hung overnight, put them into a baking-pan; sprinkle over pepper and salt, and put also a thin slice of bacon on the top of each rabbit. Now pour some boiling water into the bottom of the pan, and cover it with another pan of equal size, letting the rabbits steam about fifteen or twenty minutes; then take off the cover, baste them with a little butter, and let them brown.

Rabbits are much improved by larding.

VEGETABLES.

TO PRESERVE THE COLOR OF VEGETABLES.

The French cooks very generally use carbonate of ammonia to preserve the color of vegetables. What would lay on the point of a penknife is mixed in the water in which the vegetables (such as pease, spinach, string-beans, and asparagus) are boiled. The ammonia all evaporates in boiling, leaving no ill effects. They say also that it prevents the odor of boiling cabbage. It may be obtained at the drug-stores.

POTATOES BOILED.

Choose those of equal size. They look better when thinly peeled before they are boiled; but it is more economical to boil them before skinning, as careless cooks generally pare away half of the potato in the operation, and the best part of the potato is that which lies nearest the skin. Put them into an iron pot or saucepan in just enough _well-salted cold_ water to cover them. Let them boil until they are _nearly_ done; then pour off all but about half a cupful of the water in the bottom of the pot; return the potatoes to the fire, put on a close cover, and let them steam until quite done; then remove the lid, sprinkle salt over them, and let them remain a few moments on the fire to evaporate the water. Remove them carefully, and serve immediately. They should be dry and flaky.

If one has a cook too heedless to steam the potatoes properly, it should be remembered that potatoes should never be allowed to _soak_ in the water a moment after they are done; the water should be immediately poured off, and the steam evaporated. It is important that potatoes should be done just at the moment of serving. It requires about thirty-five minutes to boil the medium-sized.

TO BOIL POTATOES (_Captain Kater to Mrs. Acton_).

Pare the potatoes; cover them with cold water; boil them gently until they are done. Pour off the water, and sprinkle salt over them; then with a spoon take each potato and lay it into a clean, warm cloth; twist this so as to press all the moisture from the vegetable, and render it quite round; turn it carefully into a dish placed before the fire; throw a cloth over; and when all are done, send them to the table immediately. Potatoes dressed in this way are mashed without the slightest trouble.

MASHED POTATOES.

Every one thinks she can make so simple a dish as that of mashed potatoes; but it is the excellence of art to produce good mashed as well as good boiled potatoes. In fact, I believe there is nothing so difficult in cookery as to properly boil a potato.

To mash them, then, first boil them properly. Put into a hot crock basin, which can be placed at the side of the fire, half a cupful or more of cream, a piece of butter the size of an egg, plenty of salt and pepper, and let them get hot. One of the secrets of good mashed potatoes is the mixing of the ingredients all hot. Now add six or seven potatoes the moment they are done, and mash them without stopping until they are as smooth as possible; then work them a very few moments with a fork, and serve them immediately. Do not rub egg over, and bake them; that ruins them. Much depends upon mashed potatoes being served at table _hot_, and freshly made. They are very nice prepared _à la neige_.

POTATOES À LA NEIGE.

These are mashed potatoes made as in the preceding receipt, pressed through a colander into a dish in which they are to be served. The potatoes then resemble rice or vermicelli, and are very light and nice. They make a pretty dish, and must be served very hot. They make a favorite accompaniment to venison, and are often served around a rolled rib roast of beef.

TO BAKE POTATOES.

The potatoes must be of equal size. Put them into a hot oven and bake until tender. The excellence of baked potatoes depends upon their being served immediately when they are just baked enough. A moment underdone, and they are indigestible and worthless; a moment overdone, and they have begun to dry. It requires about an hour to bake a large potato. This is a favorite way of cooking potatoes for lunch or tea.

POTATOES IN CASES.

The following is an exceedingly nice way of serving baked potatoes. Bake potatoes of equal size, and when done, and still hot, cut off a small piece from each potato; scoop out carefully the inside, leaving the skin unbroken; mash the potato well, seasoning it with plenty of butter, pepper, and salt; return it with a spoon to the potato skin, allowing it to protrude about an inch above the skin. When enough skins are filled, use a fork or knife to make rough the potato which projects above the skin; put all into the oven a minute to color the tops. It is better, perhaps, to color them with a salamander. They will have the appearance of baked potatoes burst open.

POTATOES BAKED WITH BEEF.

Pare potatoes of equal size, and put them into the oven in the same pan in which the beef is baked. Every time the beef is basted, the potatoes should be basted also. Serve them around the beef.

POTATOES À LA PARISIENNE.

Peel the potatoes, and with a vegetable-cutter (three-fourths of an inch in diameter) cut as many little balls as you can from each potato; throw these balls into boiling-hot lard, and fry (about five minutes) until done, when they must be skimmed out immediately. It is more convenient to fry them in a wire-basket (see page 53). Sprinkle salt over them as soon as done. It is a very good way of cooking potatoes as a garnish for beefsteak or game. The cuttings of the potatoes left after taking out the balls can be boiled and mashed. These potatoes must be served when done, or the crusts will lose their crispness.

SARATOGA POTATOES.

It requires a little plane, or potato or cabbage cutter, to cut these potatoes. Two or three fine, large potatoes (ripe new ones are preferable) are selected and pared. They are cut, by rubbing them over the plane, into slices as thin or thinner than a wafer. These are placed for a few moments in ice, or very cold water, to become chilled. Boiling lard is now tested, to see if it is of the proper temperature. The slices must color quickly; but the fat must not be so hot as to give them a dark color.

Place a salt-box on the hearth; also a dish to receive the cooked potatoes at the side; a tin plate and perforated ladle should be at hand also. Now throw, separately, five or six slices of the cold potato into the hot lard; keep them separated by means of the ladle until they are of a delicate yellow color; skim them out into the tin plate; sprinkle over some salt, and push them on the dish. Now pour back any grease that is on the tin plate into the kettle, and fry five or six slices at a time until enough are cooked. Two potatoes fried will make a large dishful.

It is a convenient dish for a company dinner, as it may be made early in the day; and by being kept in a dry, warm place (for instance, a kitchen-closet), the potato-slices will be crisp and nice five or six hours afterward. They are eaten cold, and are a pretty garnish around game, or, in fact, any other kind of meat.

FRIED POTATOES.

Fried potatoes must absolutely be served the moment they come from the fire. Nothing deteriorates more by getting cold or keeping than fried potatoes (with the exception of Saratoga fried potatoes, which are served cold). They may be sliced rather thin, and _sautéd_ in a little hot butter, pepper, and salt. The French usually cut potatoes into little rhomboidal lengths, and throw them into boiling lard, or clarified grease (see page 44).

The fat should be quite hot, and the pieces of potato skimmed out the moment they receive a delicate color, and placed on a sieve by the side of the fire. Sprinkle over salt, and serve them in a hot dish.

LYONNAISE POTATOES.

Ingredients: Half a pound of cold boiled potatoes, two ounces of onion, a heaping tea-spoonful of minced parsley, butter the size of an egg.

Slice the cold boiled potatoes. Put the butter into a saucepan, and when hot throw in the onion (minced), which fry to a light color; add the sliced potatoes, which turn until they are thoroughly hot, and of light color also; then mix in the minced parsley, and serve immediately while they are quite hot. The potato-slices should be merely moistened with the butter dressing.

POTATO CROQUETTES.

Add to four or five mashed potatoes (made according to receipt, see page 191) a little nutmeg, Cayenne pepper, and the beaten yolk of one egg. Beat the potatoes with a fork; roll them into little balls, which roll in egg and cracker-crumbs, and fry them in a wire-basket in boiling lard. For a change, a little minced parsley might be added.

At the New York Cooking-school the teacher passed the seasoned potatoes through a sieve, and then returned them to the fire, stirring them with a wooden spoon until they left the sides and bottom of the pan. He said this prevented them from _cracking_ when frying.

POTATO ROSES.

Pare carefully with a thin penknife some peeled potatoes, round and round, until all of each potato is pared to the centre. Do not attempt to cut the slices too thin, or they will break. Place them in a wire-basket, and dip into boiling lard. These potatoes are a pretty garnish around a roast, and are supposed to resemble roses.

POTATOES FOR BREAKFAST.

Slice a generous pint of cold boiled potatoes. Put into the brightest of saucepans butter the size of a pigeon’s egg, and when it bubbles add an even tea-spoonful of flour (the sauce not to be thick), which cook a moment, and then pour in a cupful of milk (or, better, cream), salt, and pepper; stir with an egg-whisk until it boils, then mix in the potato-slices. When they are thoroughly hot they are ready to be served.

POTATO PUFF.

Stir two cupfuls of mashed potatoes, two table-spoonfuls of melted butter, and some salt to a fine, light, and creamy condition; then add two eggs well beaten separately, and six table-spoonfuls of cream; beat it all well and lightly together; pile it in rocky form on a dish; bake it in a quick oven until nicely colored. It will become quite light.

SHOO-FLY POTATOES.

There is a machine which comes for the purpose of cutting shoo-fly potatoes; it costs two dollars and a half. The potatoes are cut into long strips like macaroni, excepting that the sides are square instead of round. They are thrown into boiling lard, sprinkled with salt as soon as done, and served as a vegetable alone, or as a garnish around meat.

TURNIPS.

The ruta-baga turnips are sweetest and best. Pare and cut them in pieces of equal size; put them into well-salted boiling water, and, when perfectly tender, drain them dry; let them remain a moment on the fire to evaporate the water, then mash them in a stew-pan, in which is hot butter, pepper and salt to taste. Stir them over the fire until they are thoroughly mixed, and keep them in the stew-pan until just before serving, as turnips should be served very hot.

TURNIPS IN SAUCE (_French Cook_).

Cut three good-sized turnips into slices, or parallelograms, as long as the turnip, and about half an inch thick. If they are not young and tender, they should be boiled until half done; but they should not be boiled at first if young. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into a saucepan; when hot, put in the pieces of turnips, and fry them to a light-brown color. When done, add a heaping tea-spoonful of sugar; mix, and then pour in a tea-cupful of stock (boiling water would answer, but not so well); put this at the side of the fire to simmer until they are done, adding a little pepper and salt. Now put a little more butter, the size of a walnut, into a saucepan, adding a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; mix, and add a little lukewarm water. When smoothly mixed, add the sauce of the turnips; when both are well mixed, add the turnip slices; they are then ready to serve.

PARSNIPS SAUTÉD.

Parboil them; then, after cutting lengthwise, _sauté_ them to a light-brown in a little hot butter or drippings.

PARSNIP FRITTERS.

This is undoubtedly the best manner of cooking parsnips: Scrape, and, if large, cut them; put them into well-salted boiling water, and boil until tender; then mash them, adding to four or five parsnips a heaping tea-spoonful of flour, one or two eggs well beaten, pepper and salt to taste. Form the mixture into small cakes three-quarters of an inch thick and two and a half inches in diameter, and fry them on both sides to a delicate brown in a _sauté_ pan, with a little hot butter. Serve hot.

OYSTER-PLANT FRITTERS

are best made into little cakes, as described for parsnip fritters. They may, however, be made smaller, in order to imitate fried oysters.

OYSTER-PLANTS STEWED.

As you scrape them, throw them into a bowl of cold water, in which is mixed a table-spoonful of vinegar. When all are scraped, cut them either into half-inch lengths, or lengthwise into four pieces, which again cut into three-inch lengths; throw them into boiling water, in which are half a tea-spoonful of salt and one-third of a tea-spoonful of sugar to one quart of water. When done, drain, and mix them with white sauce, either drawn butter or a simple Bechamel.

CARROTS.

The best mode of cooking carrots is to boil them with corned beef, and then serve them as a garnish around the meat. Carrots require a longer time to boil than almost any other vegetable. If large, boil them an hour and a half. It improves their appearance to cut them into shapes of balls or pears before boiling; or they may be cut into half-inch slices, and then shaped with the tin cutters (see page 55). These come in different sizes.

BEETS.