Part 35

Boil the soup left in the pot, three hours longer at the back of the range; add boiling water as the liquid shrinks. At the end of that time, season well; pour, without straining, into the stock-pot, and keep in a cold place. You have now stock for three days—a good investment of time, materials, and labor.

VEAL AND HAM CUTLETS, À LA POLONAISE.

Slice cutlets of veal, of equal size, with as many slices of corned ham, previously cooked. Flatten the cutlets with a hatchet; dip in beaten egg, then in cracker-dust, mixed with minced parsley, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Fry in dripping; drain, and lay upon a dish, with alternate slices of the ham, broiled, and spread with a dressing of butter and a little French mustard.

STEWED POTATOES.

Pare, and cut the potatoes into dice. Stew, with a small onion, in enough hot water to cover them. Turn off most of the water; take out the onion; pour in a cup of cold milk, and, when this boils, stir in a little chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour. Boil up once, and serve.

CREAM SQUASH.

Mash, and press in a hot colander. Return to the fire, with a good spoonful of butter, three or four spoonfuls of milk, and a quarter spoonful of flour, wet up in the milk. Stir for five minutes; season with pepper and salt, and dish.

SCALLOPED TOMATOES.

Pare and slice. Scatter fine crumbs in the bottom of a bake-dish; cover with slices of tomatoes, seasoned with sugar, pepper, salt, and butter. Cover with crumbs, and these with tomatoes. Fill the dish in this order, covering all with crumbs, with bits of butter sprinkled upon them. Bake, covered, half an hour, and brown.

BAVARIAN CREAM.

1 pint rich milk, and the same of sweet cream; yolks of 4 eggs; ½ oz. gelatine; 1 small cup of sugar; 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla or other extract.

Soak the gelatine two hours in enough cold water to cover it. Heat the milk, and stir in the gelatine until melted. Pour this upon the beaten yolks and sugar, and heat until it begins to thicken. It should not boil. Take from the fire, flavor, and let it cool somewhat. The cream should have been whipped stiff in a syllabub-churn. Beat, a spoonful at a time, into the lukewarm custard, until it is like sponge-cake batter. Pour into a wet mould, and set on ice to form. It will be formed in a few hours, if buried in the ice.

Fourth Week. Sunday. —— Fancy Macaroni Soup. Fricasseed Chicken. Spinach à la Crême. Devilled Tomatoes. Sweet Potatoes, Browned. —— Baked Pears and Cream. Orange Cake. ——

FANCY MACARONI SOUP.

Take the fat from your soup-stock, add a pint of boiling water, and bring to a slow boil. Strain all through a colander. Pour off two quarts, through a soup-sieve, into your soup-kettle, and set over the fire to simmer clear. Pulp the vegetables left in the colander, and press the juice out of the meat into the rest of the broth. Remand this to the stock-pot. When that in the soup-kettle has boiled ten minutes, and been skimmed carefully, add a half cup of what is known as “fancy macaroni,” cut into fantastic shapes, expressly for soups. It should have been boiled twenty minutes, or until tender, in hot salted water. Simmer one minute in the soup; add seasoning, if needed, and serve.

FRICASSEED CHICKENS.

Clean, wash, and joint a pair of chickens. (Salt the giblets slightly, and keep on ice until Monday; or, should the weather be warm, boil them in a pint of water; salt it well, and set away with the giblets in it.) Scald the pieces of chicken in boiling water, leaving them in it four minutes. Lay in ice-water ten minutes, to blanch them. Add to the quart of boiling water used for scalding them, the skimmed fat, the necks, and the heads, cleaned by scalding, picking off the feathers and cutting off the beaks. Stew for one hour, or until there is but a pint of gravy. Strain, cool, and take off the fat. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a saucepan, with a very finely minced onion and a dessertspoonful of flour. When they begin to simmer, put in the joints of chicken; turn several times in the butter, and, after they begin to color, add enough gravy to keep them from scorching, and stew, covered, at least an hour. Keep the chicken hot; strain the gravy; add parsley, pepper, and salt. Have in another saucepan a half cup of hot milk. Pour upon two beaten eggs, make very hot, and add to the gravy when you have taken the latter from the fire. Stir up, and pour over the chickens.

SPINACH À LA CRÊME.

Boil in plenty of hot salted water; drain, and chop fine upon a board or in a wooden tray. Return to the saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter, and when hot, add a little sugar, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Stir until very hot, and serve in a deep dish, with sippets of fried bread laid over it.

DEVILLED TOMATOES.

1 quart fine ripe tomatoes, pared and cut in thick slices; yolks of 3 boiled eggs, pounded; 3 tablespoonfuls melted butter; 4 tablespoonfuls vinegar; 1 raw egg, beaten light; 1 teaspoonful powdered sugar; 1 saltspoonful salt, and same of made mustard; a _soupçon_ of cayenne.

Rub a tablespoonful of butter into the pounded yolks; add the seasoning, then the vinegar, and put into a tin or porcelain saucepan. Heat, and stir in the beaten egg. Set in boiling water while you heat the rest of the butter in a frying-pan, and put in the sliced tomatoes. Shake over the fire eight minutes, turning several times. Lay the tomatoes upon a hot dish. Strain the butter in which they were fried into the dressing, stir well, and pour over the tomatoes.

SWEET POTATOES—BROWNED.

Parboil, peel, and lay in a baking-pan. Baste with a little of your soup stock, then with butter, until they are baked to a nice brown.

BAKED PEARS AND CREAM.

Peel ripe pears, and cut them in half, without removing the seeds. Pack in layers in a stoneware jar. Strew each layer with sugar, and drop a pinch of nutmeg in, now and then. Put a small cupful of water in the bottom to prevent burning. Fit on a close cover, and set in a moderate oven. Bake three hours on Saturday, and leave, unopened, in the oven all night. Set upon ice for some hours before you use them. Pour into a glass dish, and eat with cream. They are delicious if the pears are of fair quality.

ORANGE CAKE.

Please see “BREAKFAST, LUNCHEON, AND TEA,” page 318.

Fourth Week. Monday. —— Giblet Soup. Brown Beef Stew. Mashed Potatoes. Lima Beans. Cucumbers and Onion Salad. —— Bananas, Oranges, and Apples. Coffee and Albert Biscuit. ——

GIBLET SOUP.

Again skim the contents of your stock-pot. Pour into the soup-kettle with the water in which the giblets were boiled. Add seasoning at discretion, and simmer, after the boil is reached, fifteen minutes. Chop the gizzards very fine, and put into the soup. Pound the livers to a paste, with a heaping tablespoonful of butter, and half as much flour; thin with a little of the boiling soup; stir into the soup; boil one minute, and serve.

BROWN BEEF STEW.

3 lbs. lean beef; 1 onion; a tablespoonful of powdered marjoram; thyme and parsley, mixed; 1 tablespoonful of browned flour; 1 teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce; 1 tablespoonful of tomato catsup; 1 glass of wine; juice of half a lemon, and a pinch of the peel; 1 cup of chopped mushrooms; dice of fried bread.

Cut the beef into strips two inches long; add the minced onion; just cover with water, and cook, at the back of the range, two hours. Add the rest of the ingredients, with the exception of the flour, catsup, sauce, lemon-juice, and wine, and let it simmer one hour longer. Then add the condiments just named, and the flour. Boil up; line a deep dish with small squares of fried bread, and pour the stew upon them.

MASHED POTATOES.

Prepare as usual, and send up without browning.

LIMA BEANS.

See Thursday, First Week in September.

CUCUMBER AND ONION SALAD.

See Monday, First Week in September.

BANANAS, ORANGES, AND APPLES.

Rub clean; arrange effectively as to color and size, put green leaves among them, and give a doily, clean plate, and fruit-knife to each person.

COFFEE AND ALBERT BISCUIT.

Have the coffee hot and strong, and be sure the biscuits are fresh.

Fourth Week. Tuesday. —— Quick Lobster Soup. Roast Lamb. Baked Squash. Green Corn cut from the Cob. Sweet Potatoes. —— Rock-work. ——

QUICK LOBSTER SOUP.

1 quart of stock, made by adding a little water to the strained remnant of yesterday’s soup. Or, if you have nothing of this sort, make a broth of coarse bits of veal and any bones you may have; 1 can of preserved lobster; 1 cup of milk, with a pinch of soda stirred in; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour; yolks of 2 eggs; minced parsley, cayenne, and salt.

Heat your broth; skim and season. Put in the lobster, picked to pieces; simmer ten minutes, then boil up sharply, once. Heat the milk in a saucepan; stir in the floured butter; pour upon the beaten yolks. Cook one minute. Pour the lobster into the tureen; stir in the thickened milk, and send to table. Pass oyster crackers and butter with it.

ROAST LAMB.

Lay in the dripping-pan. Dash boiling water over it, and cook fifteen minutes for each pound. Baste often with the gravy. Ten minutes before taking it up, dredge with flour, and baste with butter. Pour the fat from the top of the gravy; thicken with browned flour, and stir in a tablespoonful of currant jelly. Boil, and send up in a boat—salting and peppering to taste.

BAKED SQUASH.

Boil, drain, and mash in a hot colander. Season with pepper, salt, and butter; add a few spoonfuls of milk and two beaten eggs. Pour into a buttered dish, and bake to a light brown in a quick oven.

GREEN CORN CUT FROM THE COB.

Boil the corn until tender. Split each row of grains, then shave them close to the cob. Butter, pepper, and salt, and serve hot in a deep dish.

SWEET POTATOES.

Boil with the skins on; peel quickly, and lay in a baking-pan, within a hot oven, a few minutes, to dry, before piling them upon a flat dish.

ROCK-WORK.

1 quart of milk; 5 eggs; 6 tablespoonfuls of sugar; vanilla, or other essence.

Heat the milk: pour upon the beaten yolks and sugar. Cook until the custard begins to thicken. Pour out, and, when cold, flavor, and pour into a glass bowl. Whip the whites stiff with two spoonfuls of the sugar, flavor, and poach by laying, a spoonful at a time, upon boiling milk, and, carefully withdrawing the spoon from underneath, leaving the oval mass of _méringue_ floating upon the surface. Turn it over when one side is done, and, presently, take it up, and lay upon the custard. Heap them irregularly on the top, and let all get cold before serving. Pass light cakes with this custard.

Fourth Week. Wednesday. —— Julienne Soup. Cold Lamb. Tomato Sauce. Eggs and Mushrooms. Breaded Egg-plant. —— Potato Fritters. ——

JULIENNE SOUP.

4 lbs. of beef; 2 carrots; 3 turnips; ½ head of cabbage; 1 pint green corn; 1 quart tomatoes; bunch of herbs; 4 quarts of water; pepper and salt.

Put on the beef, herbs, and water early in the morning, with some well-cracked bones, if you have them, and let it boil at the back of the range, very slowly, for five or six hours. Should the water sink below two-thirds of the original quantity, replenish from the boiling tea-kettle. An hour before dinner, strain the soup; put meat and bones into the stock-pot, and season well. Pour upon them all that you can spare from the liquor, and leave enough for to-day. Set this in a cool place. Cool, and remove the fat from that meant for to-day; return to the soup-kettle, and put in the vegetables, cut into shreds, and parboiled for ten minutes. The cabbage should have been cooked in two waters. The corn must be cut from the cob, and the tomatoes pared and sliced. Simmer gently half an hour; season; cook one minute, and pour out.

COLD LAMB.

Trim the remains of your roast into a presentable shape; garnish with parsley and nasturtium-blooms.

TOMATO SAUCE.

Pare, slice, and stew the tomatoes for twenty minutes. Strain, and rub through a colander, leaving the hard and tough parts behind. Put into a saucepan with a little minced onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil; stir in a good spoonful of butter rolled in flour. Boil up, and serve.

EGGS AND MUSHROOMS.

Slice the rest of the can of mushrooms, opened for Monday’s stew, into halves. Stew ten minutes in a little butter, seasoned with pepper and salt, and a very little water. Drain; put the mushrooms into a pie-dish; break enough eggs to cover them over the top; pepper, salt, and scatter bits of butter over them; strew with bread-crumbs, and bake until the eggs are “set.” Serve in the dish.

BREADED EGG-PLANT.

Slice nearly half an inch thick; pare each slice and lay in salt and water one hour. Wipe dry, dip in beaten egg, then in rolled cracker, and fry to a fine brown in salted lard or dripping.

POTATO FRITTERS.

6 tablespoonfuls mashed potato rubbed through a colander; ½ cup rich milk, or cream; 5 eggs, beaten light; 2 tablespoonfuls sugar; 2 tablespoonfuls prepared flour; juice of 1 lemon, and half the grated peel; ½ grated nutmeg.

Work the cream into the potato; add beaten yolks and sugar, and whip to a froth. Put in lemon, flour, nutmeg, and beat three minutes before stirring in the whites. Drop, by the spoonful, into hot sweet lard, and fry to a light brown. Drain upon clean, heated paper, sift white sugar thickly over them and serve at once. Eat if you like with wine sauce, or with powdered sugar only.

Fourth Week. Thursday. —— Bread-and-Meat Soup. Braised Breast of Veal. Cauliflower with Sauce. Stewed Squash. Fried Potatoes. —— Boiled Apple Dumplings. ——

BREAD-AND-MEAT SOUP.

Take the fat from the top of your cold stock. Add a pint of boiling water to it, with a sliced onion, and cook slowly, with the meat in, for forty minutes. Strain, pressing all the strength out of the meat; stir in a tablespoonful of catsup, and as much browned flour wet up in cold water. Have ready a sweetbread, boiled and blanched, then cut into neat dice. Put these into the soup, and boil one minute; add a great handful of fried bread, cut into dice, and pour out. If you have any soup left from your “Julienne,” heat, strain, and add to this.

BRAISED BREAST OF VEAL.

Make a deep incision between the ribs and meat: stuff with a good force-meat made of crumbs, chopped salt pork, seasoning and a little onion. Skewer the flap of meat back into its place; put a layer of thin fat salt pork into a broad saucepan; lay the veal upon it. Pour in a cup of gravy—from the soup, if you have no other—cover with more fat pork, or ham, put on a close lid, and cook fifteen minutes to the pound. Take out the meat; set in a very quick oven, dredge with flour, and, as it browns, baste well with butter once. Keep hot upon a dish, while you strain the gravy in the braising-pan; thicken it with browned flour, season to taste, and stir in the juice of half a lemon, and a glass of claret. Boil up and pour a little upon the veal, the rest into a boat.

CAULIFLOWER WITH SAUCE.

See Sunday, Third Week in September.

STEWED SQUASH.

Pare, seed and quarter. Cook in boiling water salted, until soft. Mash in a colander; rub through it, and put back into a saucepan, with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour; a few teaspoonfuls of milk, pepper and salt to taste. Stir until it begins to bubble; then pour into a deep dish.

FRIED POTATOES.

Pare, slice thin, and lay in ice-water half an hour. Dry between two towels, and fry to a pale brown in hot lard, a little salt. Drain by shaking in a colander, and serve in a dish lined with a napkin.

BOILED APPLE DUMPLINGS.

1 quart prepared flour; ¼ lb. suet, powdered; 1 teaspoonful salt; cold water to make a pretty stiff paste; fine juicy apples, pared and cored.

Make the paste; roll into a sheet a quarter of an inch thick; cut into squares; put in the centre of each an apple; bring the corners together, and pinch the edges. Have ready some small square cloths, dipped in hot water, and floured on the inside. Enclose each dumpling in one of these, leaving room to swell, and tie it up, bag-wise, with a stout string. Boil one hour; turn out and serve with plenty of sweet sauce.

Fourth Week. Friday. —— Onion Soup Maigre. Baked Blue Fish. Imitation Oyster Scallops. Potato Puff à la Genève. Raw Cucumbers. —— Cream Cakes. ——

ONION SOUP MAIGRE.

3 _large_ onions, sliced; 3 boiled potatoes rubbed through a colander; 3 tablespoonfuls of rice boiled in 1 quart of milk; 2 quarts of cold water; 3 tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in one of flour; chopped parsley; pepper and salt to taste.

Parboil the onions ten minutes; throw off the water and let them cool. Then slice, and put over the fire with the cold water, and boil down to three pints. The onions should be reduced to a pulp. Strain; rub through the colander, and set over the fire. When it boils, add the mashed potatoes, the butter, seasoning, parsley, and simmer ten minutes. Have the rice boiled soft in the milk with a pinch of soda; strain it out and add to the soup in the kettle. Cook gently five minutes, and turn into the tureen. Pour in the boiling milk, and it is ready.

BAKED BLUE FISH.

Score the fish down the back, and lay in a dripping-pan. Pour over it a cup of hot water in which have been melted two tablespoonfuls of butter. Bake one hour, basting every ten minutes; twice with butter, twice with the gravy, and again twice with butter. Take up the fish and keep hot, while you strain the gravy into a saucepan; thicken with flour; add a teaspoonful of anchovy paste, the juice of half a lemon with a little of the grated peel, pepper and salt. Boil up, pour half over the fish, the rest into a boat. Garnish the fish with eggs, quartered lengthwise, lettuce hearts, and quartered lemons.

IMITATION OYSTER SCALLOPS.

Cut the best pieces from your cold roast veal, in squares about an inch long and half as thick and wide. Make a cup of rich drawn butter, and put these into it. Set over the fire in a saucepan, and add a _very_ little minced onion and parsley. Heat for ten minutes, but do not boil. Chop a pickled cucumber quite fine, stir into the mixture, season with salt and cayenne; fill scallop, or clam shells, or _paté_-pans lined with baked paste, with the scallop; cover with fine crumbs, and brown in a brisk oven.

POTATO PUFF À LA GENÈVE.

Whip mashed potatoes light and soft with milk, butter, and two raw eggs; season with pepper and salt, and beat in a few spoonfuls of powdered cheese. Pile upon a neat bake-dish, and brown nicely. Serve in the dish.

RAW CUCUMBERS.

See Friday, Second Week in September.

CREAM CAKES.

Some good puff-paste; whites of 2 eggs; ½ cup of sweet jelly; 1 cup of cream, whipped to a froth; 3 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar; vanilla, or other flavoring.

Roll out the paste as for pies. Cut into squares five inches across. Have ready well-greased muffin-rings, three inches in diameter. Lay one in the centre of each square; turn up the four corners so as to make a cup of the paste; pinch the tips upon the upper edge of the ring to keep it in place, and having prepared all, bake in a quick oven. When done, pull out the rings with care; brush the paste, outside and in, with the white of egg, and set back to brown. When cold, wash on the inside with the jelly, and fill with the whipped cream, sweetened and flavored.

Fourth Week. Saturday. —— Vegetable Soup à la Crécy. Glazed Ham. Lettuce Salad. Potatoes à la Lyonnaise. Cabbage au Gratin. —— Peach Pudding. ——

VEGETABLE SOUP À LA CRÉCY.

2 lbs. of coarse, lean beef, cut into strips; 2 lbs. of knuckle of veal, chopped to pieces; 2 lbs. of mutton bones, and the bones left from your cold veal, cracked to splinters; 1 lb. of lean ham; 4 large carrots; 2 turnips; 2 onions; bunch of herbs; 3 tablespoonfuls of butter, and 2 of flour; 1 tablespoonful of sugar; salt and pepper; 7 quarts of water.

Put on meat, bones, herbs and water, and cook slowly five hours. Strain the soup, of which there should be five quarts. Season meat and bones, and put into the stock-pot with three quarts of the liquor. Save this for days to come. While the soup for to-day is cooling that you may take off the fat, put the butter into a frying-pan with the sliced carrots, turnips, and onions, and fry to a light brown. Now, add a pint of the skimmed stock, and stew the vegetables tender; stir in the flour wet with water; and put all, with your cooled stock, over the fire in the soup-kettle. Season with sugar, cayenne and salt; boil five minutes; rub through a colander, then a soup-sieve, heat almost to boiling, and serve.

GLAZED HAM.

Soak and boil a ham twenty minutes to the pound, and let it get almost cold in the water. Skin it neatly, and coat with a paste made of a cup of cracker-crumbs, one of milk, two beaten eggs, and seasoned with pepper. Set the ham in the oven until the glazing is browned, moistening, now and then, with a few spoonfuls of cream. Wind frilled paper about the shank, and garnish with parsley.

LETTUCE SALAD.

Pull out and tear to pieces the hearts of lettuce; pile in a salad-bowl; sprinkle with white sugar, and season with oil, pepper, salt, and vinegar, in the proportions so often given. Toss up with a silver fork.

POTATOES À LA LYONNAISE.

See Saturday, First Week in September.

CABBAGE AU GRATIN.

Quarter a small white cabbage, and boil tender in pot-liquor taken from your ham. Let it get cold; chop and season with pepper, salt, a good spoonful of butter, three or four of milk, and beat smooth with two raw eggs. Put into a buttered dish; strew thickly with crumbs; wet these with pot-liquor, and bake, covered, forty-five minutes,—then brown.

PEACH PUDDING.

12 ripe peaches, pared, stoned, and stewed in a little water; 1 cup bread-crumbs; 2 cups of boiling milk; 5 tablespoonfuls of sugar; 5 beaten eggs; tablespoonful of butter.

Soak the crumbs in the hot milk; stir in the butter, the beaten eggs and sugar, at last the cooled and mashed peaches. Beat up light; put into a buttered pudding-mould; set in a pan of boiling water; cover, and cook one hour in a good oven. Turn out, and eat with sweetened cream.

OCTOBER.

First Week. Sunday. —— Tapioca Soup. Fricassee of Ducks. Tomatoes in a Mould. Sweet Potatoes. Potato Rissoles. —— Ruby’s Pudding. ——

TAPIOCA SOUP.

Remove the fat from your soup-stock; pour off two quarts; heat, and strain through coarse muslin back into the pot. Stir in half a cup of soaked tapioca—the fine-grained—simmer until clear; add half a glass of brown sherry, and serve.

FRICASSEE OF DUCKS.

Clean, wash, and cut the ducks into four pieces each. Flour, and fry them to a light brown. Drain; put into a saucepan, with a cup of gravy (a little of your soup-stock will do), a glass of claret, some chopped parsley, a small onion, minced, salt and pepper. Cover closely, and stew half an hour, or until the ducks are tender. Take them out; strain, and set the gravy in cold water to throw up the fat. Take it off; thicken with browned flour wet with water; boil up, and, having laid the ducks upon a flat dish, pour the gravy over them. This is a very fine fricassee.

TOMATOES IN A MOULD.

Peel and slice eight tomatoes. Put them in a coarse cloth, and press out most of the juice into a bowl. Save this carefully. Chop the tomatoes; mix in two tablespoonfuls of fine crumbs, pepper, salt, sugar, and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Stir up well, and put into a buttered mould. Fit on the top, and set in a pot of boiling water. Keep at a fast boil for one hour. When done, turn out upon a flat dish, and pour over them this sauce: Heat the tomato-juice; stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, season with pepper, sugar, and salt; boil one minute.

SWEET POTATOES.