Part 3

Cut up cold roast mutton into square pieces, and brown them on each side in the same pan in which you browned your vegetables; then add half a pint of hot water, salt and pepper, a few sprigs of parsley, and the sliced vegetables. Stew gently until the vegetables are tender; arrange the vegetables in the centre of the dish, with the meat as a border; pour the sauce over all, and serve.

=Mutton Pie.=—Cut into square pieces about two pounds of cold roast or boiled mutton; trim off a portion of the fat; quarter three kidneys; put the meat into a pie-dish, season with two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of powdered herbs, salt and pepper, and half an onion minced; add half a pint of light stock or water, a wineglassful of port wine; cover the dish with puff paste, brush an egg over it, and bake an hour and a half.

Cold lamb makes a very nice pie.

=Veal Croquettes.=—Remove the gristle, skin, and sinews from a pound of cold veal; mince it finely with four ounces of cold boiled beef or calf’s tongue; season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Put into a saucepan an ounce of butter rolled in flour, a wineglassful of cream; add the minced meat, and stir for twenty minutes over a slow fire. (If too dry moisten with stock.) Turn the preparation upon a round pie-board; spread it to a smooth layer about an inch thick, and set it in the ice-box to get cold and stiff. It must then be divided into about two dozen pieces, each piece rolled into the form of a cork or round ball over bread-crumbs, then dipped in beaten egg and again rolled in crumbs. Handle carefully so as not to break them. Fry in boiling fat.

=Fricassee of Veal.=—Take two pounds of lean veal free from skin and bone, and cut it into pieces convenient for serving; fry them in melted butter until the flesh is firm without having acquired any color; dredge a tablespoonful of flour upon them, add a little grated lemon-peel, and gradually as much boiling veal stock as will cover the meat; simmer until tender. Take out the meat and add to the gravy a gill of boiling cream, salt, cayenne, and a pinch of powdered mace. Beat the yolks of two eggs in a bowl; add gradually a little of the sauce (after it has cooled a few minutes), then add it carefully to the remainder. Return the meat to the sauce, and let the saucepan remain near the fire until the eggs are set. Add the juice of half a lemon and serve immediately.

=Fricassee of Lamb.=—Take a breast of lamb and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half square; season with salt and pepper. Put them into a saucepan, with a quartered onion, three cloves, a bay-leaf, and three ounces of butter. Cover the saucepan closely, and let it steam gently for half an hour, shaking it occasionally to prevent sticking. Add a pint of boiling water; cover closely once more and boil gently for one hour; then strain the sauce and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour (mix the flour smoothly with a little cold water before adding it to the sauce), boil a moment longer, and serve.

A tablespoonful of very small A. G. capers may be added before serving.

=Breast of Lamb with Asparagus Tops.=—Remove the skin and part of the fat from a breast of lamb, and cut it into neat pieces; dredge a little flour over them, and place them in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter; let them remain until nicely browned; cover the meat with warm water, add a bunch of parsley, two button-onions; simmer until the meat is cooked; skim off the fat, take out the onions and parsley, and mince the latter finely; return it to the gravy with a pint of the tops of boiled asparagus, add salt and pepper, simmer a few minutes longer, and serve. Canned asparagus may be used when the fresh vegetable is out of season.

=Fricassee of Chicken.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken, cut it into joints, make a gravy by simmering the trimmings in stock enough to cover them, with one onion, stock with three cloves, a bouquet of herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer the gravy for one hour; strain and thicken a cupful of it with a teaspoonful of flour; let this boil, then put in the chicken. Draw the saucepan from the fire a few minutes, mix a little of the sauce with the beaten yolks of two eggs and a cupful of cream. Add this last mixture to the saucepan, let it get hot, but on no account allow it to boil, or the eggs will curdle. Serve with the sauce poured over the chicken, and sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top.

=Fried Chicken.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken, place it in a pan, and simmer with an ounce of butter, a finely-chopped onion, the juice of a lemon, salt and pepper; let them simmer nearly half an hour; take the pieces out and dredge them in flour, and fry in boiling fat; turn the pieces over while cooking, and fry a deep brown.

Make a dressing of flour, mixed smoothly in a cupful of cold milk and a little chopped parsley. Add to the pan that the chicken simmered in, boil gently, strain over the chicken and serve.

=Chicken with Rice a la Maryland.=—Cut up a chicken into joints, and put it into a stew-pan with the heart, gizzard, and liver, and a slice or two of bacon; cover with warm water, and boil gently until the chicken is quite tender; then take the meat out of the stew-pan, and set it where it will be kept warm; wash half a pint of rice, add it to the gravy, season highly with salt and pepper. When done place the rice upon a dish, lay the chicken on top, and if too dry brush a little melted butter over it.

=Chicken Croquettes.=—Pound the white meat of a cold chicken with a cold boiled sweetbread in a mortar; add a little salt, beat up an egg with a teaspoonful of flour and a wineglassful of cream; mix the pounded meat with the batter, put it in a saucepan, and simmer long enough to absorb the moisture, _stirring all the time_; then turn it into a flat dish, and set it in the ice-box to get cold and stiff, roll it into balls or cones, dip in egg-batter, then roll them in crumbs or cracker-dust and fry in boiling fat.

=Chicken a l’Italienne.=—Take half a pound of La Favorita macaroni, and boil it in water with a lump of butter. When it has boiled a quarter of an hour, drain off the water and cover the macaroni with milk; add salt and pepper and a whole onion, stock with a few cloves; boil until the macaroni is tender but unbroken.

Boil a chicken in the usual manner, cut it up and lay it on a hot dish, pour the macaroni over it (remove the onion), grate a quarter of a pound of Parmesan cheese over the dish, and brown it in the oven or with a salamander.

=Chicken Patties.=—Pick the meat from a cold chicken, and cut it up into small dice; place it in a saucepan with a cupful of chicken stock, a cupful of cream, a piece of butter the size of an egg, rolled in flour, salt and pepper, and a little grated nutmeg and lemon-peel; simmer gently until it begins to thicken, remove the dish from the fire a few minutes to cool; beat up the yolks of two eggs with a half teaspoonful flour, moistened in milk or cream, and add to the saucepan, mix thoroughly, and draw towards the fire (but do not let it boil) until it thickens; before serving add the juice of half a lemon.

Fill your patty-shells with the mixture, one for each person, and serve (see Oyster Patties for patty-shells).

=Chicken Pie.=—Line the sides of a pie-dish with a good puff paste. Have your chicken cooked as for a fricassee, seasoned with salt and pepper and a little chopped parsley. When they are nearly cooked lay them in a pie-dish with half a pound of salt pork cut into inch squares, and some of the paste cut into inch and a half pieces; pour in a part of the chicken gravy, thicken with a little flour, and cover the dish with the paste cover. Cut a hole the size of a dollar in the cover, and cover it with a piece of dough twice the size of the hole (when baked remove this piece occasionally and examine the interior), brush egg over the pie, and bake in a quick oven.

Should the pie become dry pour in more of the gravy. Pigeon Pie may be made by the above recipe.

=Chicken Panada= (Invalid cookery).—Take a fresh young chicken and boil it until quite tender, in sufficient water to cover it. Strip the meat from the bones and pound in a mortar until quite smooth, with a little of the liquor it was boiled in; add salt, nutmeg, and a very little grated lemon-peel. Boil this gently for a few minutes, with sufficient liquid to make it the consistency of custard.

=Chicken with Dumplings.=—Disjoint one chicken, and put to boil in cold water until done. Make dumplings with one pint of flour, one teaspoonful of yeast-powder, and same quantity of salt. Wet this mixture with milk and put with chicken until boiled. Take them out and fry in hot fat until brown; do same with chicken afterwards. Use water in which chicken was boiled to make gravy.

M. G. H.

=Chicken Toast.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken and chop up fine, put in a saucepan, season with salt and pepper and just a little onion, with a lump of butter; break over the meat two or three raw eggs; stir all together, pour it upon nicely-buttered toast, and serve.

=Chicken Liver en Brochette.=—Wash the livers in cold water, dry them on a towel, and cut them in two; cut slices of bacon into pieces about the same size, and put them on a skewer alternately, and broil. When done brush over them a sauce of melted butter, lemon-juice, pepper and salt.

=Braise of Duck with Turnips.=—Prepare a domestic duck as for roasting. Line a small pan, just large enough for the duck, with slices of bacon; strew over the bottom a little parsley, powdered herbs, and lemon-peel; lay in the duck, and add a carrot cut into strips, an onion stuck with a few cloves, and a dozen whole peppers; cover with stock and add a table spoonful of strong vinegar; baste frequently and simmer until done. Fry some slices of turnip in butter to a light brown, drain and add them to the stew-pan after removing the duck, which should be kept hot. When the turnips are tender remove them, strain the gravy, thickening if necessary with a little flour or arrowroot; put the duck on a dish, throw the hot gravy over it, and garnish with the turnips.

=Braise of Duck with Peas.=—Prepare and cook a duck as in the above receipt, using green peas instead of carrots and onion, and fry two onions in butter till they are of a pale brown; boil them to a thick sauce with some of the duck gravy; season with salt and pepper, and serve with the peas around the duck and the gravy thrown over.

=Salmi of Wild Duck.=—Cut up the remains of two roast, underdone wild ducks into neat pieces and set them aside. Take the bones, giblets, and ragged pieces, and put them in a stew-pan with a minced onion or shallot, a salt-spoonful salt; and a very little cayenne; add a pint of stock and a glass of port wine, boil gently half an hour, strain and thicken the sauce with a teaspoonful of prepared brown flour. Put the pieces of duck in a stew-pan, pour the sauce over them, and simmer until quite hot. Add the juice of a sour orange to the dish and serve. A garnish of olives is considered an improvement by some. Soak the olives in cold water one hour; remove the stones with a small vegetable-cutter and add them to the sauce, before taking the dish from the fire.

=Salmi of Partridge, Hunter’s Style.=—Take two cold roast partridges, cut them into joints, and lay them in a saucepan with two ounces of butter, a gill of Bordeaux or port, the grated rind and juice of a large lemon, salt, and a little cayenne; thicken with a little flour if desired; simmer gently until very hot and serve.

=Venison Epicurean.=—Cut a steak from the leg or a chop from the loin of venison, about an inch and a half thick. Put a walnut of butter, salt and pepper, into a chafing-dish; light the spirit-lamp under it, and when the butter melts put in the chop or steak; let it cook on one side a few minutes, then turn it over, and add a wineglassful of sherry or port and a tablespoonful of currant-jelly. Simmer gently about seven minutes if it is to be eaten rare, and allow twelve minutes cooking if required well done.

Hot plates and a glass of Mr. Clair’s old East India Madeira are all that is requisite to make the feast Apician in character.

=Venison Chops=, broiled and served with currant-jelly, are not to be despised. Trim the ends as you would a French lamb-chop.

=Breast of Venison= may be dressed according to the receipt given for breast of mutton.

=Venison Patties.=—Make a nicely-flavored mince of the remains of cold roast venison; moisten it with a little sherry or gravy, and warm it in a saucepan; fill the patty-shells with the meat and serve. (See oyster patty for patty-shells.)

=Broiled Tripe.=—Cut up honeycomb tripe into pieces of three to four inches wide; rub a little oil or melted butter over them, dredge them in flour, and broil over a charcoal fire; squeeze a little lemon-juice over each piece, and serve.

Never broil tripe over a hard-coal fire; the gases arising from the coal spoil the flavor of the tripe, making it indigestible and unpalatable.

=Tripe Lyonnaise.=—Take a pound of cold boiled tripe and cut it into pieces an inch square. Dissolve two ounces of butter in a frying-pan, add a sliced onion to it, and fry until it is tender. Put the pieces of tripe with the onion, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of vinegar, salt, and a little cayenne; heat all gently together. Cover the bottom of a platter with tomato sauce, add the tripe and serve.

=Tripe Fricassee.=—Cut up the tripe into square pieces; put them into a stew-pan with a blade of mace, a bouquet of herbs, an onion quartered, salt, and cayenne. Cover the tripe with Rhine wine or water and a little vinegar; stew for one hour. Strain the sauce; put the tripe and sauce in a clean saucepan, with a walnut of butter rolled in flour, a gill of cream, a tablespoonful chopped parsley. Simmer ten minutes, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and serve.

=Pork and Beans.=—Wash a quart of beans thoroughly; cover them with cold water and let them soak over-night. Change the water in the morning once or twice. Then put them in a pot and simmer slowly for three hours until they begin to crack open; pour them into a colander to drain off all the water. Heat an earthen bean-pot with hot water, and wipe it dry; place a small piece of pork on the bottom of the pot and pour in the beans. Cut the rind of another piece of pork into strips, and sink it into the beans, leaving only the rind of the pork exposed at the top. Dissolve a tablespoonful of New Orleans molasses, with a teaspoonful of salt, in a pint of warm water, and add it to the pot; set it in the oven and bake slowly for three or four hours, or place the pot in a baker’s oven over-night, instructing the baker to add a little water to the pot should the beans become dry.

Serve with Boston brown bread.

=Baked Macaroni.=—For a small dish one-half pound macaroni, boiled until soft, with a little salt in the water. Drain through a colander; then put in the baking-dish, with one pint and a half of milk, a lump of butter, pepper and salt, and grated cheese (enough to suit taste), and distribute over top. Bake in a hot oven until brown.

M. G. H.

=Rice Croquettes.=—Put a quarter of a pound of Carolina “head” rice, one pint of milk, three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, a walnut of butter, and a teaspoonful of _best_ extract of vanilla into a saucepan; simmer gently until the rice is tender and the milk absorbed. It must be boiled until thick and dry, or it will be difficult to mould it into croquettes. Beat it thoroughly for three or four minutes; turn it out on a flat tin, and when cold and stiff form it into balls or cones; dip these in beaten egg, roll lightly in crumbs, and fry in hot fat or butter.

_VEGETABLE ENTREES._

=Stuffed Tomatoes.=—Take six ripe tomatoes of equal size; cut off the tops and scoop out the insides; press the pulp through a sieve and mix with it a little salt and cayenne, two ounces of butter broken into little pieces, and two heaping tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs; fill the tomatoes with the mixture, and bake in a moderate oven. Before serving them brown the stuffing by holding a salamander or a small shovel containing hot coals over them.

Any good force-meat may be used to stuff tomatoes; the remains of game or poultry minced, and mixed with herbs and bread-crumbs, seasoned and bound together with yolk of egg, will suit the most fastidious.

=Stuffed Egg-Plant.=—Cut the egg-plant in two; scrape out all the inside and put it in a saucepan with a little minced ham; cover with water and boil until soft; drain off the water; add two tablespoonfuls grated crumbs, tablespoonful butter, half a minced onion, salt, and pepper; stuff each half of the hull with the mixture; add a small lump of butter to each and bake fifteen minutes.

=Stuffed Egg-Plant, No. 2.=—Pare off the purple rind of the egg-plant and quarter it; round off the edges as neatly as possible, then place them in salt and water for an hour. Take them out of the water, scrape out the centre, and mix it with a force-meat of veal, bread-crumbs, seasoning, and yolk of egg; put the mixture in the hollow egg-plant, with a lump of butter upon the top of each, and bake a light brown.

=Stuffed Potatoes.=—Take a number of firm-skin potatoes of equal size; clean them well and bake them. When done cut off a piece of the end of each potato and scoop out as much of the inside as can be obtained without injury to the skin; mash it with cream and butter; add a little salt; set the dish on the range to keep hot. Take the whites of three eggs, whip them to a froth, and add to the potatoes; mix all together; simmer until quite hot; fill up the skins with the potato paste; fasten the covers with white of egg, and bake fifteen minutes.

=Potato Balls.=—Boil a small potful of potatoes; wash them well, and mix with them butter, salt, chopped parsley or chives, grated nutmeg, and two raw eggs; work the paste into small balls, dip in beaten egg, roll in cracker-dust or flour, and fry.

=Potato Cake.=—Take half a pound of dry mealy potatoes, either baked or boiled; mash them until they are free from lumps; mix with them three ounces of flour, salt and pepper, and as much lukewarm milk and butter as will make a smooth, firm dough; add one egg and half a teaspoonful of Royal Baking Powder. Roll the paste out with a rolling-pin till it is nearly two inches thick; dredge a little flour over it, and cut it out the exact size of the frying-pan. Rub the pan over with butter; lay the cake carefully into it; cover with a plate; shake it every now and then to prevent it burning; when it is half done on one side turn it over carefully on the other. Serve on a hot dish with plenty of good fresh butter.

Cold potatoes, if dry and mealy, may be warmed up in this manner.

Sweet potatoes make very good potato cake.

=Potato Fritters.=—Burst open four nicely-baked potatoes; scoop out the insides with a spoon, and mix with them a wineglassful of cream, a tablespoonful of brandy, two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, the juice of one lemon, half a teaspoonful of Thurber’s best extract vanilla, and the well-beaten yolks of four and the whites of three eggs; beat the batter for several minutes until it is quite smooth, and drop large tablespoonfuls of the mixture into boiling fat, and fry a light brown; dust powdered sugar over them, and send to table.

=Parsnip Fritters.=—Boil four good-sized parsnips in salted water until tender; drain them, beat them to a pulp, and squeeze the water from them as much as possible; bind them together with a beaten egg and a little flour. Shape them into cakes, and fry in hot fat.

=Oyster-Plant Croquettes.=—Wash, scrape, and boil the oyster-plant till tender; rub it through a colander, and mix with the pulp a little butter, cream, salt, cayenne, and lemon-juice; mix the ingredients thoroughly together to a smooth paste, and set the dish in the ice-box to get cold; then shape it into small cones, dip them in beaten egg and roll in crumbs, and fry crisp and brown.

=Fritters.=—The following receipt will serve for many kinds of fruit or vegetable fritters: Make a batter of ten ounces of flour, half a pint of milk, and two ounces of butter; sweeten and flavor to taste; add a glass of brandy, rum, or sherry; stir in the whites of two eggs well beaten; dip the fruit in the batter, and fry. Small fruit and vegetables should be mixed with the batter.

=Arrowroot for Batters and Sauces.=—Arrowroot may be used to thicken batters, sauces, etc., for those who object to butter, as invalids very often do. Mix a tablespoonful of Beatty’s Bermuda Arrowroot smoothly with a little cold water, and stir it into a pint of the batter or sauce.

=Omelettes.=—Numerous kinds of omelettes may be served as the last entrée, and, if properly made, they generally give satisfaction. As a rule an omelette is a wholesome, inexpensive dish, but yet one in the preparation of which cooks frequently fail owing to ignorance of detail. The flavoring and the ingredients used may be varied indefinitely, but the process is always the same. In making an omelette care should be taken that the frying-pan is hot and dry. The best way to ensure this is to put a small quantity of fat into the pan, let it simmer a few minutes, then pour it out; wipe the pan dry with a towel and put in a little fresh fat, in which the omelette should be fried; care should be taken that the fat does not burn, thereby spoiling the color of the omelette.

It is better to make two or three small omelettes than one large one. The eggs should be but slightly beaten, just long enough to mix them, and no more; a tablespoonful of cream to every two eggs will be found an improvement. Salt _mixed_ with the eggs prevents them from rising and gives the omelette a flabby appearance; without salt your omelette will taste insipid; sprinkle a little salt on the omelette just before turning out on the dish.

=Oyster Omelette.=—Stew six oysters in their own liquor; remove the oysters and thicken the liquid with butter rolled in flour; season with salt, cayenne, and mix with it a teaspoonful chopped parsley. Chop up the oysters and add them to the sauce; simmer gently until the sauce thickens. Beat three eggs lightly with a tablespoonful and a half of cream, and fry until they are delicately set; before folding over put a few spoonfuls of the mixture in the centre; turn it out carefully on a hot dish, with the balance of the sauce round it, and serve immediately.

If small oysters are used put them in the centre of the omelette, whole, fold and serve with sauce round it.

=Rum Omelette.=—Fry an omelette in the usual way; fold it with a little salt, and turn it out on a hot dish; dust sugar over it, and singe the sugar into stripes with a hot iron rod; pour a wineglassful of warm rum round the omelette, set a light to it, and send to table flaming.

=Omelette Souffle.=—Break six eggs into separate cups; beat four of the yolks, and mix with them a teaspoonful of flour, three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, very little salt, and any flavoring extract that may be preferred. Whisk the white of the six eggs to a firm froth; mix them lightly with the yolks; pour the mixture into a greased pan or dish, and bake in a quick oven. When it is well risen and lightly browned on the top it is done; take it out of the oven, dust a little powdered sugar over it carefully, and send to table immediately. It must be served in the same dish in which it is baked.