decorative break
Take four small chickens or two large ones, and cut them up as for carving. Put them into a stew-pan, with one or two large slices of cold boiled ham cut into little bits; eight or ten large tomatos; an onion sliced; a bunch of pot-herbs,(cut up;) a small green pepper, (the seeds and veins first extracted;) half a dozen blades of mace; a table-spoonful of lard or of fresh butter, rolled in flour; or a handful of grated bread-crumbs. Add a tumbler or half a pint of water. Cover the sauce-pan closely with a cloth beneath the lid; set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire; and let it stew slowly till the chickens are thoroughly done, and the tomatos entirely dissolved. Turn it out into a deep dish.
Rabbits may be stewed in this manner. Also, veal steaks, cut thin and small.
decorative break
Take the white part of some cold turkey or chicken, and mince it very fine. Mince also some cold boiled ham or smoked tongue, and then mix the turkey and ham together. Add the yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced; a very little cayenne; and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Moisten the whole with cream or fresh butter. Have ready some puff-paste shells, that have been baked empty in patty-pans. Place them on a large dish, and fill them with the mixture.
Cold fillet of veal minced, and mixed with chopped ham, and grated yolk of egg, and seasoned as above will make very good patties.
decorative break
Parboil a fine fowl, and cut it up. Boil, till soft and dry, a pint of rice; and while warm, mix with it a large table-spoonful of fresh butter. Beat four eggs very light; and then mix them, gradually, with the rice. Spread a coating of the fresh butter, &c., over the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Place on it the pieces of the parboiled fowl, with a little of the liquid in which it was boiled—seasoned with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour and a little cream. Cover the dish closely with the remainder of the rice; set the pudding immediately into the oven and bake it brown.
Cold chicken or turkey, cooked the day before, may be used for this purpose. The pudding maybe improved by the addition of a few very thin, small slices of cold ham, or smoked tongue.
decorative break
Boil half a pound of rice till it becomes quite soft and dry. Then mix with it two table spoonfuls of rich (but not strong) grated cheese, a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace, and sufficient fresh butter to moisten it. Mince very fine, six table-spoonfuls of the white part of cold chicken or turkey, the soft parts of six large oysters, and a few sprigs of tarragon or parsley; add a grated nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon. Mix the whole well, moistening it with cream or white wine. Take of the prepared rice, a portion about the size of an egg, flatten it, and put into the centre a dessert-spoonful of the mixture; close the rice round it as you would the paste round a dumpling-apple. Then form it into the shape of an egg. Brush it over with some beaten yolk of egg and then dredge it with pounded crackers. In this way make up the whole into oval balls. Have ready, in a sauce-pan over the fire, a pound of boiling lard. Into this throw the croquettes, two at a time, so as to brown them. Let them brown for a few minutes; then take them out with a perforated skimmer. Drain them from the lard, and serve them up hot, garnished with curled parsley.
decorative break
Cut up and parboil a pair of large fowls, seasoning them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. You may add some small slices of cold ham; in which case useno salt, as the ham will make it salt enough. Or you may put in some pieces of the lean of fresh pork. You may prepare a suet-paste; but for a chicken pot-pie it is best to make the paste of butter, which should be fresh, and of the best quality. Allow to each quart of flour, a small half-pound of butter. There should be enough for a great deal of paste. Line the sides of the pot, two-thirds up, with paste. Put in the chickens, with the liquor in which they were parboiled. You may add some sliced potatos. Intersperse the pieces of chicken with layers of paste in square slices. Then cover the whole with a lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a cross-slit in the top, and boil the pie about an hour or more.
Instead of ham, you may add some clams to the chicken, omitting salt in the seasoning, as the clams will salt it quite enough.
decorative break
Having skinned a pair of fine chickens, cut them into six pieces each, that is, two wings, two pieces of the breast, and two legs cut off at the joint. Put into a stew-pan two boiled onions chopped, and four ounces or four table-spoonfuls of fresh butter. Shake the pan till the contents begin to simmer; then add four table-spoonfuls of curry-powder and mix itwell in; also, four table-spoonfuls of grated cocoa-nut. Mix all well in the stew-pan, and then put in the pieces of chicken. Cover the pan, and let all stew moderately for half an hour, stirring it round occasionally; and, if getting too dry, add a little hot water. Also, towards the last, the grated yellow rind of a lemon and the juice. It should stew till the chicken is quite tender, and till the flesh parts easily from the bones. Serve it up hot, in a covered dish, and send half a pound of boiled rice in a separate dish,uncovered. This is a dish for company.
Young ducks, or a young hen turkey, or a pair of rabbits, may be cooked in the same manner. Also, lamb or veal.
For curried oysters, take a hundred large fresh ones, and proceed as above.
decorative break
Pick clean a quart of rice, and wash it well through two or three waters. Tie it in a cloth, put it into a pot of boiled milk, and boil it till perfectly soft. Then drain and press it till as dry as possible, and mix with it two ounces of fresh butter. Take a small tin butter-kettle; wet the inside, put in the rice, and stand it in a cool place till quite cold. Then turn it carefully out of the kettle, (of which it will retain the form,) rub it over with the beaten yolk of an egg, and set it in an oven till lightly browned. Cut out from the top of the mass of rice an oval lid, about two inches from the edge,so as to leave a flat rim or border all round. Then excavate the mould of rice, leaving a standing crust all round and at the bottom, about two inches thick. Have ready some hot stewed oysters or birds, or brown or white fricassee. Fill up the pie with it, adding the gravy. Lay on the lid, and decorate it with sprigs of green curled parsley, stuck in all round the crack where the lid is put on.
This pie may be filled with curried chicken.
decorative break
This is an East India dish, and a very easy preparation of curry. The term "country captain," signifies a captain of the native troops, (or Sepoys,) in the pay of England; their own country being India, they are there called generally the country troops. Probably this dish was first introduced at English tables by a Sepoy officer.
Having well boiled a fine full-grown fowl, cut it up as for carving. Have ready two large onions boiled and sliced. Season the pieces of chicken with curry powder or turmeric; rubbed well into them, all over. Fry them with the onion, in plenty of lard or fresh butter, and when well-browned they are done enough. Take them up with a perforated skimmer, and drain through its holes. It will be a great improvement to put in, at the beginning, three or four table-spoonfuls of finely grated cocoa-nut. This will be found an advantage to any curry.
Serve up, in another dish, a pint of rice, wellpicked, and washed clean in two or three cold waters. Boil the rice in plenty of water, (leaving the skillet or sauce-pan uncovered;) and when it is done, drain it very dry, and set it on a dish before the fire, tossing it up with two forks, one in each hand, so as to separate all the grains, leaving each one to stand for itself. All rice for the dinner table should be cooked in this manner. Persons accustomed to rice never eat it watery or clammy, or lying in a moist mass. Rice should never be covered, either while boiling, or when dished.
We recommend this "country captain."
decorative break
Boil six fresh eggs till they are hard enough for salad, and then set them away to get cold. Mix together, in a stew-pan, three ounces (or three large table-spoonfuls) of nice fresh butter, and three dessert-spoonfuls of curry powder. Shake them together for five minutes over a clear but moderate fire. Then throw in two boiled onions finely minced, and let them cook, gently, till quite soft, adding three ounces or three large spoonfuls of grated cocoa-nut. Cut the eggs into rather thick slices. Put them into the mixture, with a small tea-cupful of thick cream, or if you cannot obtain cream, with two more spoonfuls of butter dredged with flour. Let the whole simmer together, but when it approaches coming to a boil, take it immediately off the fire and serve it up hot. This is a nice side-dish for company.
decorative break
(French dish.)—Your partridges should be fine and fat, and of the same size. For a large dish have three or four. Truss them tight and round, and rub over them a little salt and cayenne, mixed. Cut off one of the legs and leave the other on, fill them with a nice forcemeat. Make a rich paste of flour, butter, and beaten egg, using as little water as possible. Be sure to make enough of paste to cover each partridge entirely over, and roll it out evenly, and rather thick than thin. Put a sufficient portion of paste nicely round each partridge, pressing it closely and smoothly with your hand, and forming it into the shape of a large pear. Leave one leg sticking out at the top to resemble the stem, having cut off the foot. Set them in a pan, and bake them in a dutch oven. In the mean time, make in a small sauce-pan, a rich brown gravy of the livers, and other trimmings of the partridges, and some drippings of roast veal or roasted poultry. It will be better still if you reserve one or two small partridges to cut up, and stew for the gravy. Season it with a little salt and cayenne. When it has boiled long enough to be very thick and rich, take it off, strain it, and put the liquid into a clean sauce-pan. Add the juice of a large orange, made very sweet with powdered white sugar. Set it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs. Let it boil two or three minutes longer; then take it off, and keep it hot till the partridges and their paste are thoroughly well baked. Whendone, stand up the partridges in a deep dish, and serve up the gravy in a sauce-boat. Ornament the partridge-pears by sticking some orange leaves into the end that represents the stalk. This is a nice and handsome side dish, of French origin.
Pigeons and quails may be dressed in this manner.
decorative break
(French dish.)—Having covered two large or four small partridges with very thin slices of fat cold ham, secured with twine, roast them; but see that they are not too much done. Remove the ham, skin the partridges, cut them into pieces, and let them get quite cold. Partridges that have been roasted the preceding day are good for this purpose. Cut off all the meat from the bones, season it with a little cayenne, and put it into a stew-pan. Mix together three table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, a glass of excellent wine, (either red or white,) and the grated peel and juice of an orange. Pour this gravy over the partridges, and let them stew in it during ten minutes; then add the beaten yolk of an egg, and stew it about three or four minutes longer. All the time it is stewing, continue to shake or move the pan over the fire. Serve it up hot.
decorative break
Make a stuffing of fat bacon finely minced, and boiled chestnuts or grated sweet potatoe boiled, mashed, and seasoned with pepperonly. Fill the birds with this. Cover them with thin slices of bacon, and wrap them well in young vine leaves. Roast them well, and serve them up in the bacon and vine leaves, to be taken off when they come to table. For company, have orange sauce to eat with them. If you roast pigeons, &c., without a covering of bacon and vine leaves, do them with egg and bread-crumbs all over.
If these birds have a bitter taste when cooked, do not eat them. It is produced by their feeding on laurel berries in winter, when their food is scarce. Laural berries are poisonous, and people have died from eating birds that have fed on them.
decorative break
Take two dozen reed-birds, (or other nice small birds,) and truss them as if for roasting. Put into each a button mushroom, of which you should have a heaping pint after the stalks are all removed. Put the birds and the remaining mushrooms into a stew-pan. Season them with a very little salt and pepper, and add either a quarter of a pound of fresh butter (divided into four, and slightly rolled in flour,) or a pint of rich cream. If cream is not plenty, you may use half butter and half cream, well mixed together. Cover the stew-pan closely, and set it over a moderate fire, to stew gently till the birds and mushrooms are thoroughly done and tender all through. Do not open the lid to stir the stew, but give the pan, occasionally, a hard shake. Dip in hot water a large slice oftoast with the crust trimmed off. When the birds are done lay them on the toast with the mushrooms around.
If you cannot get button-mushrooms, divide large ones into quarters.
Plovers are very nice stewed with mushrooms.
decorative break
(French dish.)—Having roasted some reed-birds, larks, plovers, or any other small birds, such as are usually eaten, mash some potatos with butter and cream. Spread the mashed potato thickly over the bottom, sides, and edges of a deep dish. Nick or crimp the border of potatoe that goes round the edge, or scollop it with a tin cutter. You may, if you choose, brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Then lay the roasted birds in the middle of the dish, and stick round them and among them, very thickly, a sufficient number of sprigs of curled or double parsley.
decorative break
(French dish.)—Rub the inside of a deep dish with two ounces of fresh butter, and spread over it two ounces of vermicelli. Then line the dish with puff-paste. Have ready some birds seasoned with powdered nutmeg, and a very little salt and pepper. Place them with the breast downward. They will be much improved by putting into each a mushroom or an oyster chopped fine. Lay them on the paste.Add some gravy of roast veal, (cold gravy saved from veal roasted the preceding day will do very well,) and cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste. Bake it in a moderate oven, and when done, turn it outcarefullyupon a flat dish, and send it to table. The vermicelli, which was originally at the bottom, will now be at the top, covering the paste like thatch upon a roof. Trim off the edge, so as to look nicely. You may, if you choose, use a larger quantity of vermicelli. The yellow sort will be best for this purpose.
decorative break
Cut a thin slice of fresh veal, and fill the bird with it, adding a bit of fat bacon. Tie a string round the body to keep in the stuffing, and roast the bird head downward. The gravy of the meat will diffuse a pleasant taste all through the bird.
After being well roasted, let it get cold, and then lard it all over the breast with lardons or regular slips of fat bacon, put in with a larding needle, and left standing in rows. It is more easy to lard poultry or game when cold, rather than warm. Lardons should be set very close and evenly.
decorative break
Take a large tender beef steak, trim off all the fat, and remove the bone. Make a large sheet of nice suet paste. Lay the beef steak upon it, seasoned with pepper and a very little salt. In the centre of the meatplace either a partridge, a quail, a plover, or any nice game, or three or four reed-birds—season with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of excellent fresh butter, dredged with flour. Inclose the birds completely in the steak, so that the game flavor may pervade the whole. Close the crust over all, so as to form a large dumpling. Tie it in a cloth. Put it into a pot of fast-boiling water, and boil it well, turning it several times with a fork. Dish it very hot.
If game is not convenient, a fine tame fat pigeon may be substituted.
decorative break
Be very careful in plucking these to pull out the feathers as carefully and handle them as lightly as possible; for the skin is very easily torn or broken. Do not draw them, for epicures have decided, that the trail, (as they call the intestines,) is the most delicious part of the bird, and should by all means be saved for eating. Having wiped the outside carefully with a soft cloth, truss them with the head under the wing, and the bill laid along upon the breast. Keep the legs bent from the knees, retaining that posture by means of a splinter skewer. Suspend the birds to a bird-spit, with their feet downward. Melt some fresh butter in the dripping-pan, and baste them with it, having first dredged the birds with flour. Before the trail begins to drop, (which it will do as soon as they are well heated,) lay a thick round of very nicetoast, (with the crust pared off,) buttered on both sides, and placed in the dripping-pan beneath, so as to catch the trail as it falls; allowing a slice of toast to each bird, with the trail spread equally over it. Continue the basting, letting the butter fall back from them into the basting spoon. When the birds are done, which will be in less than half an hour at a brisk fire—carefully transfer the toasts to a very hot dish; place the birds upon them, and pour some gravy round the toast.
Snipes require less cooking than woodcocks. These birds are very fashionable; but we do not think either of them superlative. They seldom appear except at supper parties.
decorative break
This is a very nice bird, with a peculiar and pleasant flavor. They abound near our large bays and estuaries in the vicinity of the ocean. There are two sorts, the green plover and the gray. Roast them plain; basting them only with butter. Or fill them with a forcemeat, and go entirely over the outside, first with beaten egg, and then roll each plover in finely grated bread-crumbs.
If very fat, stew them plain in butter rolled in flour. Then serve them up in their own gravy, enriched with a beaten egg. They make a nice breakfast dish, either roasted or stewed. And are excellent in pies.
decorative break
Reed birds and rice birds are the same. They are very small, (only a mouthful on each side of the breast,) but very delicious, andimmensely fatin the summer and autumn. They are brought to market with a lump of fat skewered on the outside, and are sold by the dozen strung on a stick like cherries.
To cook them, roast them on a bird-spit, basting with their own fat, as it drips. A nice way for retaining the whole flavor is to tie each bird closely in a vine leaf, and bake them in a dutch oven. Or wrap them in double vine leaves, and roast them in the ashes of a wood fire. Remove the vine leaves before the birds are dished.
decorative break
Take fine fattamepigeons, and clean and truss them nicely. Four pigeons, at least, are requisite to make a dish. Prepare a stuffing or forcemeat of finely minced veal, and an equal quantity of cold-boiled ham, seasoned with powdered mace and a very little cayenne. Also, two slices of bread and butter soaked in as much milk as they will absorb. Fill their bodies with this, (tying a string round to keep it in,) and roast the pigeons till thoroughly done; basting with fresh butter or lard.
Or you may stuff the pigeons with chopped mushrooms, seasoned with a little cayenne, and putting into each a piece of fresh butter rolled in flour.
Or you may stuff them with sweet potatos,boiled well, and mashed with plenty of fresh butter. Or with chestnuts, boiled, peeled, and mashed with butter.
Wild pigeons are generally too poor to roast. In places where they abound, it has been found very profitable to catch them in nets, clip their wings, and put them into inclosures, feeding them well with corn so as to make them fat. They will then bring as high a price as tame pigeons.
decorative chapter break
For Sauces.—This is frequently called Drawn Butter. For this purpose none should be used but fresh butter of the very best quality. It is usually sent to table with boiled fish and boiled poultry. Also, with boiled mutton, lamb, and veal. It is never served up with any thing roasted, fried or broiled. Numerous sauces are made with melted butter. If mixed with too much flour and water, and not enough of butter, it will be very poor, particularly if the water is in too large proportions. To prepare it properly, allow a quarter of a pound of nice butter, to a heaped table-spoonful of flour. Mix the butter and flour thoroughly,beforeit goes on the fire. Then add to it four large table-spoonfuls of milk, or hot water, well mixed in. Hold it over the fire in a small sauce-pan, kept for the purpose. Onelined with what is called porcelain or enamel is best. Take care there is no blaze where the sauce-pan is held. Cover it, and shake it over the fire till it boils. Then having skimmed it, add three or four hard-boiled eggs chopped small, and give it one more boil up; or season it with any other ingredient with which you wish to distinguish the sauce.
decorative break
For this purpose use none but the very best fresh butter, such as is made in summer, when the cows are well pastured. Cut up the butter, put it into an enameled or porcelain stew-pan, and melt it gently over a clear and moderate fire. When it simmers, skim it thoroughly, draw it from the fire, and let it stand five minutes, that the milk or sediment may sink to the bottom. Then pour it clear from the sediment through a muslin strainer, or a fine clean hair sieve. Transfer to jars with close covers, and keep them in a cool dry place. If well prepared, and originally very good, this butter will answer for sauces, stews, &c., and continue good a long time. In France, where they do notsaltany butter, large quantities are melted in this way for winter use.
decorative break
For Pink Sauce.Take a few chips of red alkanet root, (to be had at the druggist's.) Pick it clean, and tie it in a very thin muslin bag. Put the alkanet into the mixture, and let it infuse in the boiling drawn butter. It will communicate a beautiful pink color, which you may heighten, by pressing the bag a little. When done, take out the bag, and stir the alkanet color evenly through the sauce. The alkanet has no taste, and is very cheap. Beet juice will color a tolerable red.
For Green Sauce.—Pound some fresh spinach leaves, till you extract a tea-cup or more of the clear green juice. Stir it into the melted butter while boiling.
For Yellow Sauce.—Tie up a very little turmeric powder in a muslin bag. Let it boil in the butter. When done, take it out of the sauce-pan, and stir the yellow coloring evenly through the sauce.
For White Sauce.—Make this with cream instead of milk.
For Brown Sauce.—Stir in plenty of French mustard.
For Wine Sauce.—Stir in, just before you take the sauce from the fire, a large wine-glass or more ofvery goodwhite wine, and grate in half a large nutmeg, adding the grated yellow rind, and the juice of a lemon. The wine must be of excellent quality, otherwise it will give a bad taste to the sauce.
decorative break
(French Roux.)—Cut up a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter, and put it into a well tinned or enameled sauce-pan. Set it over a moderate fire, and melt it slowly, shaking it round frequently, and taking care to skim it well. When no more scum appearson the surface, let it settle a few minutes; then pour it off from the sediment at the bottom. Wash the sauce-pan or get another clean one. Return the melted butter to it, and set it again over the fire. Then dredge in gradually sufficient sifted flour to make it very thick and smooth, stirring it well after each addition of flour. Do not allow it to brown in the slightest degree, but keep it perfectly white to the last; simmering, but not actually boiling, and take care that there is no smoke about the fire.
To thicken white sauces, or soups, stir in a table-spoonful or two of this roux, pronouncedroo. In French cooking it passes for cream.
Browned thickening is made in the same manner; but with butter and browned flour, and is used for brown soups and gravies.
decorative break
This is to enrich the taste and improve the color of gravies, stews, and soups. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar with two ounces of fine fresh butter; and, having stirred them well together, put them into a sauce-pan over the fire, and simmer till it begins to froth; then diminish the heat a little. When its color becomes a fine dark brown, add two glasses of port wine, and three or four blades of mace, powdered. When it comes to a boil, take it off, and stir it into whatever you intend to color.
Another browning is mushroom catchup, or walnut catchup. They communicate a slightly acid taste. So also does French mustard. Stir it inat the last. Its tarragon flavor is very generally liked.
decorative break
Sift some fine flour, spread it on a large dish, or clean tin-pan. Place it before the fire, so as to brown but not to scorch or burn. It will color first at the edges; therefore watch it, and keep it evenly mixed with the white flour from the centre. When all is nicely browned, set it to cool, and then put it away for use in a large clean bottle or jar, well corked. Flour may be browned in an oven, after baking is over, taking care to stir it well.—Have two dredging boxes. One for browned flour and one for white. It is convenient also to have dredging-boxes for powdered herbs. The cost of these boxes is very trifling, and it saves time and trouble to have things ready when wanted. A small sieve for powdered white sugar is indispensable.
decorative break
This sauce is for fresh salmon or turbot, or sheep's-head fish. Also for salmon-trout, blue-fish, or the lake white-fish.
Put a large hen lobster into a hard-boiling pot of highly-salted water, that the animal may die immediately. Continue the boiling with a steady heat, and in about three quarters, or an hour, the lobster will be done. When cold, extract all the meat from the shell, and cut it into small bits. Pound the coral, or red substance, in a marble mortar, with some fresh butter, or plenty of salad oil; and a little cayenne. Add the coral to the cut-up lobster, and put the whole into a stew-pan, with some powdered mace and nutmeg, and a large table-spoonful of sweet oil. Divide into four bits a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, each bit rolled in flour. If your butter is not fresh and very good, omit it entirely and substitute a larger quantity of oil. As bad butter spoils every thing, never on any account, use it. Set the sauce-pan over the fire, and let it boil up once. Then take it off, and while very hot, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs.
Crab sauce is made in the same manner. Prawn sauce also.
decorative break
Shrimps are the smallest shell-fish of the lobster species. Put them into salted boiling water. They are done when they have turned entirely red. When cold, pull off the heads, and peel off the shells from the bodies; orsqueezeout the meat with your fingers. Have ready some nice drawn butter, and thicken it with the shrimps, either chopped or whole. Season the sauce with mace or nutmeg powdered, and give it one boil up. Shrimp sauce is eaten with salmon and other fine fish.
decorative break
Having boiled, in salted water, three quarts or more of shrimps, and taken them from the shells, boil two quarts of thebest cider vinegar, and season it well with blades of mace and pepper-corns, and pour it hot on the shrimps, in a stone jar. Cork the jar, and seal the cork with the usual red cement for pickle jars: a mixture of one-third beeswax with two-thirds powdered rosin, and some fine brickdust, all melted together.
decorative break
Take a pint of the liquor offreshoysters, and strain it into a sauce-pan. If your oysters are salt, and you can get no others, boil a pint of milk instead of the oyster liquor, seasoning with powdered nutmeg and mace, and enriching it with fresh butter dredged with flour. When it has come to a boil, put in the oysters (having removed from each the gristle, or hard part.) Let them simmer, but take them from the fire without letting them come to a boil, which will shrivel them, and render them tough and tasteless. A new fashion is to season oyster sauce with the grated yellow rind and juice of a fresh lemon. Others stir in a glass of sherry or Madeira. If you use wine or lemon, you must not make the sauce with milk, as it will curdle. Use in this case the oyster liquor, if it is fresh, thickened well with finely grated bread-crumbs. The small, highly-flavored oysters, abounding on the coast of New England, are excellent for sauce, or soups.
decorative break
Make this of half milk and half clam liquor, seasoned with whole mace, andwhole pepper. Use only the soft part of the clams, cut up small, and simmer them from the beginning; adding bits of butter dredged all over with flour Clams require longer cooking than oysters.
decorative break
Boil four eggs from eight to twelve minutes. Then lay them in a pan of fresh water, and let them remain till quite cold. Peel off the shells, and take out the eggs. Chop the yolks and whites separately; mix them, lightly, into half a pint of melted fresh butter, made in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of butter to two large table-spoonfuls of flour, and four of milk and hot water. Add some powdered mace, or nutmeg. Egg sauce is eaten with boiled fish and poultry.
Instead of milk or water, you can use for melted butter, some of the water in which chicken or turkey was boiled, or some veal gravy.
decorative break
Split and cut up into short slips a bunch of celery, having taken off the green leaves from the tops. The celery must have been well washed, and laid an hour in cold water. Take a pint of milk, and cut up in it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter that has been well dredged with flour. Set it over the fire in a sauce-pan, and add the celery gradually; also three or four blades of mace broken up. Boil all slowly together, till the celery is quite soft and tender, but not dissolved. The green tops of the celery, (strewed in, when itbegins to simmer,) will improve the flavor. Celery sauce is served up with boiled turkey, boiled fowls, and with any sort of fresh fish, boiled or fried.
decorative break
This is only used for roast lamb in the spring. When the lambs are grown into sheep, the mint is too old for sauce. But they harmonize very pleasantly when both are young.
Take a large bunch of fine fresh green mint, that has been washed well. Strip the leaves from the stems, and mince them small. Put it into a pint bowl, and mix with it gradually some of the best cider vinegar. This sauce must not be the least liquid, but as thick as horse-radish sauce or thicker. Make it very sweet, with the best brown sugar. Mix it well, and transfer to a small tureen, or a little deep dish with a tea-spoon in it. Serve it up always with roast lamb, putting a tea-spoonful on the rim of your plate.
A quart or more of mint sauce, made as above, but with a larger proportion of sugar and vinegar, will keep very well for several weeks, in a jar well corked.
decorative break
Wash clean some roots of horse-radish, wipe them dry, and scrape off the outside. Then grate the sticks of horse-radish with a large grater. Put some of the grated horse-radish into a large saucer, or small deep plate, and moisten it with good cider vinegar, but do not put so muchvinegar as will render it liquid. Send it to table with roast beef or mutton.
decorative break
Have ready some very rich good melted or drawn butter, made with milk and flavored with nutmeg. Thicken it with plenty of ready-boiled cauliflower, cut into little sprigs or blossoms. Give it one boil up after the cauliflower is in, and send it to table with any sort of boiled poultry. It will be found very nice. For a boiled turkey it is far superior to celery sauce, and well suited to dinner company.