Chapter 7

Have both very fresh; cook the fairy rings until tender, set aside to get cold, then put on the ice. Take an equal quantity of puff ball raw, chop fine, mix with the rings, turn into a nest of tender young lettuce, cover with a mayonnaise dressing and serve.

SALAD OF FRESH FRUIT.

Peel and cut into dice enough fruit, peaches, tart plums, orange and banana to fill a cup and a cupful of crisp celery cut fine; have both ice cold; at serving time mix and cover with a cream dressing and garnish with celery tops.

[3]CUCUMBER JELLY.

Half a box of gelatine soaked for an hour in half a cup of cold water. Remove the seeds from a small green pepper, peel and cut into slices two large, fine, fresh cucumbers, or three small ones and a small white onion. Put in a saucepan, add a bay leaf and a bouquet of parsley, cover with boiling water and cook until tender; remove the parsley and bay leaf, add a saltspoonful of sugar, salt to taste--more than a teaspoonful will be required--and press through a fine sieve. There should be, when strained, two cups and a half. Pour it over the soaked gelatine--if it is not hot enough to dissolve the gelatine place the saucepan over the fire for a moment--then run it through the same sieve again; set aside in a bowl to cool. When perfectly cold and beginning to congeal, stir it well and pour into a pretty, round mould; set it on ice until ready to serve. Turn it out on a plate and arrange fresh, crisp, young lettuce leaves around it, into each of which put a spoonful of mayonnaise or cream dressing.

[3] This jelly may be colored a delicate green by using extract of spinach (see recipe, page 164). Its appearance is much improved thereby.

WALNUT AND CELERY SALAD.

Three cupfuls of fresh, crisp celery cut fine and two cupfuls of walnuts, carefully shelled that they may be as little broken as possible. Put the walnuts in a saucepan with a small onion sliced, a bay leaf, a clove and twelve pepper corns, cover with boiling water, let them cook for ten or fifteen minutes, remove from the fire, drain and throw the nuts into cold water, remove the skins and let them get cold; then set on the ice until it is time to serve. Mix them with the celery, add mayonnaise or cream dressing, put on a dish or in a salad bowl, garnish with the tender green celery leaves and serve.

PINEAPPLE AND CELERY SALAD.

Equal parts of celery and shredded pineapple. Have the celery of the very tenderest, using only the best of the heads. Select a perfectly ripe, fresh pineapple, pare it, removing the eyes carefully, and shred the fruit with a silver fork and cut into small pieces with a silver fruit knife; put the celery, cut fine, and the shredded pineapple, each by itself on the ice, that they may be very cold. When it is time to serve the salad, mix them together, put on the salad dish, cover with mayonnaise dressing, garnish with the green celery leaves and serve at once.

FRUIT SALAD.

Equal quantities of grape fruit or oranges, bananas, apples and celery. Peel the grape fruit or oranges, carefully removing all the bitter white skin, cut the pulp, the bananas and apples into small dice and the celery fine as for other salads; put the orange and apple together; the latter will absorb the juice of the orange. Set all on ice;--these fruit salads must be ice cold. When it is time to serve, mix the fruit and celery together, put into a salad bowl, cover with the cream dressing into which has been stirred a third as much whipped cream as there is dressing, and add a little more salt to it in mixing. Serve in a bed of tender lettuce leaves.

POTATO SALAD.

Prepare equal parts of cold boiled potatoes and fresh, crisp celery, cut in small pieces which will look attractive when mixed with the dressing; cut in dice four cold, hard boiled eggs, and mix them in lightly with the potato and celery when adding the dressing. Use mayonnaise or cream dressing with this salad, garnish with dainty celery tops and serve.

SALAD OF TOMATOES STUFFED WITH CELERY.

Select nice, smooth, firm tomatoes, one for each person; blanch them in the usual way, cut a slice from the stem end and remove the core and some of the seeds; set on the ice to get cold. Prepare some celery, shredding it fine and using only the very tender part; mix it with mayonnaise dressing, stuff the tomatoes, allowing the celery to come above the top, serve each in a leaf or two of crisp lettuce and pour some mayonnaise around them. Salads should be ice cold.

CELERIAC AND LETTUCE SALAD.

Boil two or three celery roots in water with a little salt until tender; drain and let them get cold. Cut them in thin slices, make a nest of crisp lettuce and put the celery slices in the center. Serve with a French dressing.

RAW JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES AND LETTUCE SALAD.

Wash and peel the artichokes, cut in very thin slices and put into an earthen bowl with vinegar and water with a lump of ice in it. The vinegar will prevent them from turning dark. When ready to serve, place in the center of nice, fresh lettuce and serve with a French dressing.

SALAD A LA MACEDOINE.

Take several kinds of cold boiled vegetables in equal quantities, such as green peas, string beans, flowerettes of cauliflower, asparagus points, a small potato and a French carrot cut in small dice, and a little green pepper if liked; mix together and serve in a nest of fresh, crisp lettuce with a French dressing, or mayonnaise, if preferred.

ASPARAGUS SALAD.

Select very tender asparagus, cut off all the woody part and boil until tender, set aside to get cold, and then put on ice until serving time; arrange nicely on a platter or individual plates and serve with either mayonnaise or French dressing.

CUCUMBER SALAD.

Peel and cut in very thin slices, lay in a bowl, cover with water, sprinkle a little salt over them and put a lump of ice on top, let them remain until serving time, drain off the water and serve in a glass dish with a French dressing. They should be very cold and crisp. A little green pepper, chopped very fine, is an addition; also to rub the spoon used in mixing with a clove of garlic gives a piquancy to the salad.

COLD SLAW.

Select a firm cabbage and shave very fine on a cutter that comes for this purpose. Use the cream dressing or French dressing with a little dry mustard added.

TOMATO SALAD.

The tomatoes should be blanched in the usual way, and either sliced or cut in dice or served whole; or they may be cut in quarters, not quite separating them, and arranged in a bed of lettuce with a spoonful of mayonnaise on top of each tomato and the lettuce garnished with the same.

ENDIVE

is excellent with French dressing.

EGG SALAD.

Boil three eggs hard, cut in half lengthwise, remove the yolks and mash fine. Mix together in a saucepan the third of a teaspoonful each of dry mustard, salt and white pepper, a saltspoonful of curry powder, a few drops of onion juice, a teaspoonful of vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of egg well beaten, two teaspoonfuls of olive oil and a tablespoonful of rich cream. Put the ingredients together in the order in which they are named, beat well, set the bowl over the steam of the kettle and stir constantly until thick and creamy; remove and stir in the mashed egg yolks, a little at a time, and set on the ice to get very cold. To serve, fill the whites of egg, dividing the mixture among them, put each half egg on two or three leaves of tender lettuce, with mayonnaise dressing around them.

Desserts.

APPLE BETTY.

Two cups of tart cooking apples, chopped, a cup and a half of stale bread crumbs--bakers' bread is the best; four heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar, one generous tablespoonful of butter, and the grated rind of one lemon. Butter a pudding dish, divide the ingredients into four layers, beginning with apples and finishing with bread crumbs. Sprinkle the sugar and lemon over the apples and cut the butter into tiny lumps and scatter over the crumbs. Bake three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Serve with cream or hard sauce.

APPLE CHARLOTTE.

Pare, core and quarter eight or nine good cooking apples, put them into a double boiler with two tablespoonfuls of butter, half a cup of sugar, the juice and grated rind of a lemon; cook until tender. Take a plain mould that holds three pints, butter it well, line the bottom and sides with very thin slices of home-made bread. Remove the crust, dip each slice in melted butter, fit them evenly together in the mould, fill with the apples, cover with the bread, dredge it with sugar and bake three-quarters of an hour in a quick oven. Have a hot platter, lay it over the top of the charlotte, turn it over, and lift off the mould. Serve hot with or without sauce or cream.

APPLE CROQUETTES.

Peel, core and quarter four good-sized cooking apples, cut in thin slices and put them in a granite ware saucepan over the fire with a small tablespoonful of butter, a heaping tablespoonful of sugar, the grated rind of half a lemon and a saltspoonful of cinnamon; cover tightly and cook until tender, taking care that it does not burn. When done add an even tablespoonful of Groult's potato flour, mixed with a very little water, then stir in one beaten egg, and remove from the fire. Turn into a deep plate to get cold, form in cylinders, dip in egg and dried bread crumbs and fry in boiling fat. Sift powdered sugar over them and serve hot, with or without cream.

APPLES STEWED WHOLE.

Take some nice, tart cooking apples, pare and put them into a saucepan with the juice of two lemons and the rind of one; cover with water, cook slowly until they can be pierced with a straw, take them from the water with a draining spoon. Make a syrup, allowing half a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit, use as much of the water the apples were cooked in as will dissolve the sugar; when it comes to a boil add the apples and cook until clear. Take the apples out, core them and fill with a fruit jelly, if liked, boil down the syrup and pour over the fruit. Serve very cold with whipped or plain cream. Bartlett pears may be cooked in the same manner, serving them whole.

APPLE SOUFFLE.

Seven tart, juicy apples, pared and cored, and cut fine. Put them over the fire in a double boiler without any water, steam until tender, then stir into them two tablespoonfuls of butter and one cup of sugar, remove from the fire, and turn it into a bowl to cool. When it is cold beat in the yolks of four eggs, whipped very light, a little grated lemon peel, and then add alternately the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a cup of stale bread crumbs. Beat hard for a few moments and turn into a buttered pudding dish and bake in a moderate oven about one hour. Cover it while baking until ten or fifteen minutes before it is done, so that it will not form a hard crust and become dry. Serve warm in the dish in which it is baked.

APPLE CUSTARD.--No. 1.

Grate some good, tart cooking apples--enough to measure one quart. Beat a generous tablespoonful of butter and seven tablespoonfuls of sugar to a cream, add to this four egg yolks beaten light, then the apples and the grated rind of a lemon, and lastly the whites of four eggs beaten to a stiff froth. It can be baked in puff paste or without. Serve cold.

APPLE CUSTARD.--No. 2.

Pare, core and quarter half a dozen fine, large cooking apples, put them in a double boiler with the grated rind of half a large lemon, cook until tender, and press through a sieve; there must be three-quarters of a pint of the puree. Add an ounce and a half of granulated sugar and set it away to get cold. Then beat three eggs very light and stir gradually into a pint of rich milk alternately with the apple puree, add a little cinnamon, pour it into a pudding dish and bake about twenty minutes. Serve cold with a little cinnamon and sugar sifted over it.

BAKED APPLE DUMPLINGS.

Sift a pint of flour with a teaspoonful of baking powder and half a teaspoonful of salt. Put a quarter of a pint of butter into it and chop it fine with a knife; mix it well--do not use the hands; then add milk enough to moisten it, about a quarter of a pint. Dust a pastry board with flour, take the dough from the bowl, roll lightly into a sheet about an eighth of an inch thick, cut into squares large enough to hold an apple. Pare and core medium sized cooking apples, fill with sugar and a little cinnamon, put in the middle of the square and draw the corners up over the apples, moistening them with a little white of egg or water to make them stick. Brush over the dumplings with beaten egg and bake in a good oven. The time will depend upon the apples--about half an hour. Serve with cream.

APPLE FLOAT.

Have a pint of apple puree, made from nice tart apples, sweetened to taste and flavored with the grated rind of lemon and cinnamon, or nutmeg if preferred. Set it on the ice that it may be very cold, beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth and add to the puree of apples, and serve with cream.

APPLES FRIED.

Wash and wipe some tart cooking apples, cut in slices a quarter of an inch thick, core and fry them in butter until tender and brown, dredge them with sugar and serve hot.

APPLE MARMALADE.

Two pounds of tart cooking apples, one pound of sugar, one pint of water, one lemon and some blanched almonds. Stir the sugar and water together and boil it until it strings from the spoon, then add the apples pared and cored and cut in small pieces, cook until very thick, flavor with the juice and grated peel of a small lemon. Turn into a wet mould, when cold set on the ice. Turn out on a glass dish, stick it thickly over with the blanched almonds, garnish with whipped cream and serve with cream.

APPLE MERINGUE.

Put a pint of apple sauce, made of tart cooking apples, slightly sweetened, into a pudding dish. Beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff froth and stir into it a cup and a quarter of sugar, flavor with a very little extract of lemon--a few drops only--and spread over the apple sauce, and bake twenty or twenty-five minutes. Make a custard of the four egg yolks and a pint of milk, sweeten to taste and flavor with vanilla. Serve the meringue very cold in the dish in which it is baked, with the custard as a sauce in a sauceboat or glass pitcher.

APPLE PUDDING.--No. 1.

Take some tart cooking apples, pare, core and slice them and lay in cold water for a few minutes to prevent them from turning dark. Put the apples in a porcelain lined or granite saucepan and add water as deep as the apples, but not to cover them. Cover the saucepan tightly and let the apples cook until tender, then mash well, add sugar, grated lemon peel and cinnamon to taste. Put it back on the stove, and when it comes to a boil add a tablespoonful of potato flour mixed with a little cold water, stir well and let it cook for a few minutes. Turn it into a mould and serve the next day with cream.

APPLE PUDDING.--No. 2.

Prepare the apples as for Apple Pudding, No. 1. When tender mash through a colander, and put the puree back on the stove. When it boils stir in a very heaping tablespoonful of potato flour mixed with a little cold water, and let it cook for a few minutes. Remove from the fire, stir in a wine glass of sherry. Turn into a mould, set it on the ice until the next day and serve with cream.

APPLES STEWED IN BUTTER.

Take half a dozen good, tart cooking apples--greenings or Newtown pippins; peel, cut in slices about a quarter of an inch thick and core them. Melt an ounce of butter in a spider, and lay in the slices of apples with a quarter of a pound of granulated sugar and the juice of a lemon, stew gently over a moderate fire. When done arrange them nicely on a dish, melt a generous tablespoonful of currant jelly in the spider, and when ready to serve mix with it half a glass of Madeira or sherry; pour over the apples and serve.

TO STEAM APPLES.

Pare and core some good cooking apples, place them in an earthen or granite ware dish that fits in a steamer. Have water boiling in the steamer, set the dish over it, stretch a towel over the top, put on the cover and fold the ends of the towel over it. Steam the apples until tender--about twenty minutes. Take the apples out, measure the juice in the pan and add to it an equal quantity of sugar, flavor with a little lemon juice, cook until thick, put the apples in a glass dish and pour the syrup over them. It will be a jelly when cold. Serve with cream.

SCALLOPED APPLES.

Pare, core and cut in slices some good, tart cooking apples, put a layer in a baking dish with sugar, cinnamon and a grating of lemon rind, dot with tiny lumps of butter, then another layer of apples, sugar, etc., and so on until the dish is full. Add a very little water and the juice of a lemon, and use a little more sugar and butter on top than on the other layers. Bake until the apples are thoroughly cooked. Cover until nearly done, when the cover should be removed to allow them to brown. Serve hot with cream or hard sauce.

BANANA FRITTERS.

Half a pint of sweet milk, a scant half pint of flour, two rounded teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a small pinch of salt, stir all together; this should make a batter as thick as that of cake. Roll the pieces of fruit in it with a fork, and drop quickly into boiling fat. The batter should be prepared just as it is wanted and not allowed to stand. Cut three medium-sized bananas into three pieces each and divide each slice lengthwise so that the fruit will be thin enough to cook thoroughly while the batter is browning. This recipe will make eighteen small fritters. Put them on a hot platter--do not pile up--and serve immediately with a fruit sauce.

BAVARIAN CHERRY CAKE.

Half a pound of fine, juicy black cherries, five tablespoonfuls of fine bread crumbs, five tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, five eggs and one ounce of sweet chocolate grated. Put the grated chocolate in a mixing bowl, break an egg into it and add one tablespoonful of bread crumbs and one of sugar, beat light and break another egg into it, adding another tablespoonful of bread crumbs and one of sugar. Then separate the three remaining eggs, the yolks from the whites, adding one yolk at a time alternately with bread crumbs and sugar until all are used. Add the cherries. Beat the three whites of eggs to a stiff froth and fold it in lightly. Butter thick a cake mould, sift dried bread crumbs over it, turn the cake into it and bake about three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Test it as other cake. In Bavaria it is served cold, but I think it would also be nice hot with fruit sauce.

CRANBERRY BAVARIAN CREAM.

Stew one quart of cranberries; while hot rub through a sieve; measure out half a pint, and add to it a half cup of granulated sugar. Have a quarter of a box of gelatine soaked in a quarter of a cup of water one hour, set the bowl over steam entirely to dissolve the gelatine, then add the cranberries. Turn it into an earthenware bowl, set in a pan of ice water and beat until it is perfectly cold and begins to thicken, then add half a cup of rich milk and beat again, and at the last add half a cup of whipped cream. Beat it thoroughly and turn it into a mould and set on the ice to congeal. Serve with cream. Do not use a tin mould for cranberries.

A MOULD OF FRESH FRUIT.

Take enough fresh, ripe currants and raspberries to make half a cupful of juice of each, and press through a sieve fine enough to retain the seeds; or the fruit may be strained and squeezed through cheese cloth. Take also enough ripe cherries to make a cupful of juice and mix all together. Put a quart of boiling water in a saucepan over the fire with four ounces of sugar and two ounces of almonds blanched and cut fine. Mix five ounces of arrowroot or the same quantity of potato flour with the cold fruit juices, stir it into the boiling water and let it boil about five minutes, turn it into a wet mould, and when cold set on the ice. This should be made the day before it is to be served. Serve with cream.

A DESSERT OF MIXED FRUIT.

Peel some sweet, juicy oranges, removing all the white, bitter skin, cut in thin slices and put a layer at the bottom of a glass dish, sprinkle with sugar, then put a layer of freshly grated cocoanut and a layer of bananas, cut in thin slices, and repeat, beginning again with oranges, until the bowl is full, finishing with a layer of cocoanut. Pour over it any juice that may have run from the oranges, and if liked a glass or two of sherry may be added. Serve very cold.

GOOSEBERRY PUDDING.

Use either ripe or unripe English gooseberries for this pudding, stem and pick off the flower, wash and cover with water and cook until tender, strain through a sieve. Return to the fire, let it come to a boil, sweeten to taste, flavor with cinnamon and some almonds blanched and cut fine. Stiffen with potato flour as in other fruit puddings--a tablespoonful to a quart of the puree--and mould and serve in the same way.

PINEAPPLE MERINGUE.

Half a large or one small pineapple grated, two ounces of butter, three of granulated sugar, an ounce and a half of grated bread crumbs, the yolks of three eggs and the whites of four. Cream the butter and sugar, add the yolks and one white of egg beaten well together, then the fruit and bread crumbs; turn into a pudding dish and bake twenty minutes. Beat three whites of eggs to a stiff froth and add three-quarters of a cup of granulated sugar to it, flavor with a few drops of almond extract, spread over the pudding, set the dish in a pan of warm water in the oven and bake about ten or fifteen minutes. Test with a straw; when it comes out clean it is done. Serve cold.

PRUNE SOUFFLE.

Soak three-quarters of a pound of prunes in water to cover them over night, cook until soft in the water they were soaked in, drain, take out the stones and press through a puree sieve. Add half a cup of granulated sugar and the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a pudding dish twenty minutes. Serve in the dish in which it is baked, cold, with cream.

PRUNE MOULD.

Prepare a prune puree as above and to the same quantity have a third of a box of gelatine soaked in a little of the water the prunes were cooked in, and dissolved over the teakettle. Stir quickly into the puree, then add three whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Wet a mould and pour the mixture into it; set on the ice to congeal. Turn out on a glass dish and serve with cream.

STEWED DRIED FIGS.

Wash and cut in half two dozen dried figs, slice very thin one small lemon, add to the figs, put in a saucepan and pour over them cold water almost to cover. Let them cook until the lemon is clear. Sweeten to taste.

RHUBARB MERINGUE.

Take three cups of stewed rhubarb, put in a saucepan over the fire, sweeten to taste, and when hot add two ounces of butter and three ounces of bread crumbs dried and rolled fine, the juice and rind of half a lemon. Remove from the fire and stir in three egg yolks, turn it into a pudding dish, set aside while preparing the meringue. Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, add three-quarters of a cup of granulated sugar and pour over the rhubarb. Set the pudding dish in a pan of hot water in the oven and bake ten or fifteen minutes. Test with a broom straw; when it comes out of the meringue clean it is done. Serve cold with cream.

SCALLOPED RHUBARB.

A dozen large stalks of young rhubarb, washed and scraped and cut in thin slices, half a loaf of bakers' stale bread grated, four heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, one generous tablespoonful of butter, and the grated rind of a large lemon. Butter a pudding dish, divide the ingredients into four parts, begin with the rhubarb and finish with bread crumbs. Sprinkle the sugar and grated lemon peel over the rhubarb and cut the butter in tiny bits over the bread crumbs, dredge the top with sugar. Bake three-quarters of an hour in a moderate oven and serve hot with cream or hard sauce.

RICE AND DATE PUDDING.