Cauliflower is delicious served as a garnish around fried spring chickens, or with fried sweet-breads, when the white sauce should be poured over both. In this case, it should be made by adding the cream, flour, and seasoning to the little grease (half a tea-spoonful) that is left aftersautéingthe chickens or sweet-breads. Time to cook, fifteen minutes, if small; twenty minutes, if large.
Add plenty of grated cheese (say a cupful to a pint of sauce) to the usual white sauce made for cauliflowers. Heat the sauce well, to melt the cheese thoroughly, and pour it over the cauliflowers.
Cauliflower is valuable as a salad, with theMayonnaisedressing, or, mixed with other cold vegetables, with the French dressing. See Salads.
Tie the stalks in bundles, keeping the heads one way, and cut off the stalks, so that they may be of equal length. Put them into well-salted boiling water, and cook until they are tender (no longer). While boiling, prepare some thin slices of toast; arrange the asparagus, when well drained, neatly uponit, and pour over a white sauce, as for cauliflower. Thesauce Hollandaiseis especially nice for asparagus. Time to cook asparagus, about eighteen minutes.
American mode: First boil the pods, which are sweet and full of flavor, in a little water; skim them out, and add the pease, which boil until tender; add then a little butter, cream, pepper, and salt. If they are served as a garnish, do not add the juice; but, if served alone, the juice is a savory addition. Time to cook, about half an hour.
The American canned pease should be rinsed before cooking, as the juice is generally thick. The pease are then thrown into a little boiling water seasoned with salt, and a little sugar; butter is added when done.
English mode: Throw the pease into boiling water, with some lettuce leaves and a sprig of mint in the bottom of the stew-pan. To each quart of pease allow two table-spoonfuls of butter and a lump of loaf-sugar; cover the stew-pan closely, and boil until they are tender—thoroughly done; then separate the pease from the other ingredients, sending them only to the table. This cooking of pease with mint (universally done in England) is a good way of utterly destroying the delicious natural flavor of the pea.
Having washed it thoroughly, put it into just enough salted boiling water to cover it. When it is tender, squeeze out all the water, and press it through a colander; thensautéit a few minutes, with a little butter, pepper, and salt. Serve with sliced, hard-boiled eggs on top; or, if it is used as a garnish for lamb, add a little lemon-juice and a spoonful of stock. Or, it is nice served as a course by itself, arranged on a platter as follows:
Put a circle of thin slices of buttered toast (one slice for each person at table) around the dish, and on each slice put a cupful of spinach, neatly smoothed in shape. Press the half of a hard-boiled egg into the top of each pile of spinach, leaving the cut part of the egg uppermost.
Pour boiling water over six or eight large tomatoes to remove the skin, and then cut them into a saucepan. When they begin to boil, pour away a little of the juice; add a small piece of butter, pepper, salt, and a very little sugar. Let them cook for about fifteen minutes, stirring in well the seasoning. Some add a few bread or cracker crumbs.
Choose large tomatoes. Do not skin them, but scoop out a small place at the top, which fill with a stuffing. The simplest is made of bread-crumbs, minced onion, cayenne, and salt. First fry the onions in a little butter, add the bread-crumbs, moistened with a little water (or, better, stock) and seasoned with a very little Cayenne pepper and enough salt. Fry them a moment; then fill the cavities, allowing the stuffing to project half an inch above the tomato, and smooth it over the top. Bake.
A better stuffing is this: Chop very fine some cold cooked chicken, lamb, beef, or pork. Each of these may be used, or they may be mixed. However, a very little pork mixed with any kind of meat makes a pleasant seasoning. Now fry a little chopped onion in butter, and, when just colored, throw in the chopped meat, a few bread-crumbs, very little stock, and season the whole with salt, pepper, and some parsley. When hot, and well mixed, take it off the fire; add the yolk of a raw egg to bind it together. Fill the tomatoes with this preparation, sprinkle bread-crumbs over the tops, and bake. The tomatoes are a pretty garnish around any kind of meat. If served as a course alone, pour into the bottom of the dish a tomato-sauce flavored with a little sherry.
There is no better manner of cooking onions than as follows: Put them into salted boiling water, with a little milk added, and boil them until tender (no longer). Then place them in a baking-pan with a little pepper, salt, and butter over the top of each, and a very little of the water in which they were boiled in the bottom of the pan. Brown them quickly in the oven, and serve very hot. They may be served alone in a vegetable-dish, or as a garnish around beef, calf’s heart, etc.
Boil the onions, putting them into boiling salted water, with a little milk added, until tender; drain, and put them into a stew-pan, with a white sauce made as directed for cauliflowers. Let them simmer a few moments. Serve with the sauce poured over.
String, and cut each bean crosswise into two or three pieces. Put them, with a little pork, intoboilingwater, and when boiled tender drain them. Put into a stew-pan a cupful of cream, a small piece of butter rubbed in an even tea-spoonful of flour, pepper, and salt. When hot, add the beans (say one pint), and stew them a few moments before serving.
Put a pint of the shelled beans into boiling water slightly salted, adding two or three slices of onion. When tender, drain them. Put butter the size of an egg into a heated saucepan, and when it is hot add an even table-spoonful of minced onions, which cook well; then put in the beans; add enough water (or, better, stock) to keep them moist. Keep them at the side of the fire about a quarter of an hour, as it takes them some time to soak; just before taking them out, add a small handful of minced parsley. Do not cook them much after adding the parsley, as that spoils its color.
Put a pint of the shelled beans into just enough boiling salted water to cover them, and boil them tender; then drain off the water; add a cupful of boiling milk (or, better, cream), a little piece of butter, pepper, and salt. Let the beans simmer a minute in the milk before serving.
Cut the celery into pieces three or four inches long; boil them tender in salted water; drain them. Make a batter in the proportion of two eggs to a cupful of rich milk; mix flour, or fine bread or cracker crumbs, enough to give it consistence; roll the pieces of celery in it, and fry them to a light-brown in hot lard. Serve very hot. Celery can also be cooked as asparagus, boiled tender, and served with a white sauce.
Cut the plant into slices less than half an inch thick, without paring off the skin; then sprinkle pepper and salt between the parts, and cover with a plate; let them remain an hour, then dip each slice separately first into beaten egg, then into fine bread or cracker crumbs.Sautéthem to a light-brown in hot lard or butter.
Cabbage is best boiled and served with corned beef; otherwise boil a small piece of pork with it. Always boil with it a piece of a red pepper. A little bunch of small red peppers, costing five cents, will last a long time for cooking cabbage, making pickles, etc.
Remove the outside damaged leaves, and cut the cabbage into halves (or, if very large, into quarters), so as to better cook the inside stalk; put it into the boiling water, with the corned beef or pork and the small red pepper. It will take the cabbage from half to three quarters of an hour to be well cooked. Drain the cabbage well, serving it with the meat in the centre of the dish.
Shred two small cabbages coarser than for cold slaw; parboil them with a small piece of red pepper added to the boiling water; then pour off the water, and add three or four table-spoonfuls of vinegar, a small piece of butter, and a large-sized ladleful of stock from the stock-pot; cover the saucepan closely, and let the cabbage simmer gently for half an hour; season with a little red pepper, if it needs more, and salt.
At the Saratoga Lake House there is a third specialty of good things. The first is the fried potato, the second is the fresh trout, the third is boiled corn, which is served as a course by itself. The corn is boiled in the husk. The latter imparts sweetness and flavor to the corn, besides keeping it moist and tender. The unhusked corn is put into salted boiling water, and when done, and well drained, some of the outside husks are removed, and the corn is served, with the remaining husks about it; or, the cobs may be broken from the husks just before sending them to table, which would save this trouble afterward.
Mix into a pint of grated green corn three table-spoonfuls of milk, one tea-cupful of flour, a piece of butter the size of a hickory-nut, one tea-spoonful of salt, half a tea-spoonful of pepper, and one egg. Drop it by dessert-spoonfuls into a little hot butter, andsautéit on both sides. It resembles, and has much the flavor of fried oysters. It is a good tea or lunch dish. Serve it hot, on a warm platter.
Cut corn from the cob, mix it not too thin with milk, two orthree beaten eggs, pepper and salt; bake half an hour. It is very nice.
Ingredients: One dozen ears of sweet-corn, three eggs, one pint of milk, three table-spoonfuls of sugar, a small tea-spoonful of salt, a little butter, a little flour if the corn is quite young, with a little less milk; if the corn is older, omit it; grate half of the corn, and cut the other half. Bake.
Mix grated corn with salt and pepper;sautéit in a little hot butter.
Add one tea-cupful of water to a quart of cranberries, and put them over the fire. After cooking ten minutes, add two heaping cupfuls of sugar, and cook about ten minutes longer, stirring them often. Pour them into a bowl or mold, and when cold they can be removed as a jelly. The berries will seem very dry before the sugar is added, but if more water is used they will not form a jelly.
Cut off the outside tough leaves, and trim the bottom; throw them into boiling salted water, with a few drops of vinegar. When quite done, drain, and serve with drawn butter, or, what is still better, asauce Hollandaise.
Sour apples should be selected: Pippins, Northern Spies, etc. First fry some thin slices of pork, then the slices (without peeling them) of apples in the same hot fat.
Put one ounce of butter (size of a pigeon’s egg) into a stew-pan, and when hot mix in a quarter of an onion (half an ounce), minced, and cook until it assumes a pale-yellow color; put in the washed rice (uncooked), and stir it over the fire until it has a yellow color also; then add a pint of stock. White stock ispreferable, as it preserves the light color of the rice, yet any stock may be used. Boil slowly until the rice is tender (about half an hour), when the stock will be mostly absorbed. When about to serve, add one ounce of grated cheese, stirring for a few moments over the fire, without letting it boil; sprinkle a little grated cheese over the top.
This dish can be served alone as anentremêtor as a vegetable, with any kind of meat. A brown sauce may or may not be served around it.
Mix carefully (not to break the grains) in a pint of boiled rice (see page 288) a table-spoonful of either minced parsley or shives. Put a piece of butter size of a pigeon’s egg into a saucepan, and let it color a light-brown; mix the rice in the butter, and serve as a vegetable.
For the crust, a little extra butter is added to the dough for rolls; it is made round, three inches in diameter, and two inches high, instead of an oval roll shape. When freshly baked, a slice is cut from the top of each one, the crumb is removed, and the shells are buttered and filled with mushrooms, cooked as for garnishing, and mixed with aBechamelsauce. Finely minced parsley is sprinkled over the tops. They should be served quite hot. Fresh mushrooms are required for this dish.
Sew coarse flannel around a goblet with the stem broken off; put this shapely dome upon a saucer of water; wet the flannel, and sprinkle over as much flaxseed as will adhere to it. The flannel will absorb the water from the saucer, which should be often replenished. In about two weeks the flannel will be concealed in a beautiful verdure, which will vie with any table ornament.
CASSEROLES.
Casserolesare generally made of boiled rice, or of mashed boiled potatoes. When of rice, first cook thoroughly with milk,salt, and a little butter; or they may be cooked in broth, with a little ham added, which is afterward to be taken out. Mash fine.
When of potatoes, boil, season, and mash them well. Butter thecasserolemold. First press the rice, or the potatoes, whichever used, into the figures of the mold; then fill it. In the centre bread may be substituted. Put thecasseroleaside to harden. When quite cold and firm, carefully unclasp and take off the mold; then, with a small, sharp knife and a spoon, scoop out the inside, leaving thecasserolefrom a half to an inch thick. Just before serving, with a little paste-brush, dipped in the yolk of an egg, brush the whole surface. This may be omitted if preferred. Put in a very hot oven a few moments, to heat the rice or potato, and to color slightly the egg. Fill it with vegetables, such as cauliflower, Lima beans, string-beans, artichokes, pease, etc.; or with chicken fricasseed or fried, and served with a cream dressing, or withBechamelsauce, or enblanquette; or with any kind of scollops, whether of game, poultry, sweet-breads, fish, or shell-fish.
A tastefulvariety at table is a course of something served in shells (en coquille). The natural shells (except oyster-shells) are not as pretty as silver shells. Plated silver scallop-shells are not expensive, and are always ready. You can always serve oysters in their shells, by once purchasing fine large ones; then, by cleaning them carefully every time they are used, they will be ready to be filled for the next occasion with suitable oysters from the can. Oysters, lobsters, shrimps, or cold fish of any kind, can be serveden coquillein place of fish. Chicken, or meat of any kind, should be served as anentrée. Salmon, or almost any kind of fish or shell-fish, can be serveden coquillecold, with aMayonnaisedressing, as a salad.
Boil the chickens in water or in broth; cut the meat into little dice; mix them, while hot, with a hotBechamelsauce, orwith a white sauce made with cream; sprinkle sifted bread or cracker crumbs over them; brown slightly in a hot oven. Serve immediately. Sometimes mushrooms are mixed with the chicken dice.
Prepare oysters as described forvols-au-vent; serve them in the scallop-shells, with sifted bread-crumbs (browned) sprinkled over them. Put into the oven until they are thoroughly hot.
Cut any good fish into little scollops (having boned and skinned them) half an inch wide; fry them in asautépan, with a little butter, salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice; then mix them with any of the fish sauces, and put them into the shells; sprinkle over bread-crumbs (sautédbrown in a little butter), and warm them in the oven.
Cut the lobsters into scollops or pieces; mix them with theBechamel, or cream, sauce; sprinkle over bread-crumbs, and brown slightly in the oven. Proceed in the same manner with shrimps, picking those that are mixed with the sauce, and reserving some whole, to decorate the tops.
Cut the mushrooms, if they are too large; throw them for a few minutes into boiling water, then into cold water to whiten them; wipe well, andsautéthem in a saucepan, with a little butter. When colored, and almost done, sprinkle in a little flour and a little chopped parsley; when the flour is cooked (which will require but a few moments), pour in, say, a tea-cupful of stock; let it all simmer for about fifteen minutes. Just before serving, stir in the beaten yolk of an egg, and a few drops of lemon-juice. The sauce should be rather thick. Fill each shell with this mixture; sprinkle a few sifted cracker-crumbs on the tops; brown them slightly with a red-hot shovel, or put them into a very hot oven a few moments just before serving.
InEngland, potting is an every-day affair for the cook. If there be ham, game, tongue, beef, or fish on the table one day, you are quite sure to see it potted on the next day at lunch or breakfast. It is a very good way of managing left-over food, instead of invariably making it into hashes, stews, etc. These potted meats will keep a long time. They are not good unless thoroughly pounded, reduced to the smoothest possible paste, and free from any unbroken fibre.
Mince some cold cooked ham, mixing lean and fat together; pound in a mortar, seasoning at the same time with a little Cayenne pepper, pounded mace, and mustard. Put into a dish, and place in the oven half an hour; afterward pack it in potting-pots or little stone jars, which cover with a layer of clarified butter (lukewarm), and tie bladders or paste paper over them. This is convenient for sandwiches. The butter may be used again for basting meat or for making meat-pies.
Ingredients: One pound and a half of boiled tongue, six ounces of butter, a little cayenne, a small spoonful of pounded mace, nutmeg and cloves each half a tea-spoonful.
The tongue must be unsmoked, boiled, and the skin taken off. Pound it in the mortar as fine as possible, with the spices. When perfectly pounded, and the spices are well blended with the meat, press it into small potting-pans; pour over the butter. A little roast veal, or the breasts of turkeys, chickens, etc., added to the tongue, are an improvement.
This is well-cooked beef chopped and pounded with a little butter, pepper, salt, and mace. Manage as for potted ham.
Clean pigeons, or any other birds, and thoroughly seasonthem with mace, allspice, pepper, and salt; then lay the breasts in a pan as close as possible, and put some butter over them; cover the pan with a coarse flour paste. Bake the birds well in the oven, and when cold cut them into small pieces; pound these to a paste in a mortar; pack them closely in a potting-pot, and cover with butter.
Cut out the pieces of fish; season with pepper, salt, and cloves, if you like; then put them into a dish; cover closely as for potted birds. Bake one hour. When cold, press them into the pot, and cover well with butter, etc.
Roast the chicken; take off all the meat, separating it from the sinews and skin; chop and pound thoroughly, with a pound of tongue or of ham. Let the bones of the chicken be boiled down to a glaze; moisten the pounded meat with this glaze; season with salt, Cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and a little butter. When well pounded and run through a sieve, put it into pots, and press it in hard. Now put the pots into a covered stew-pan, with some boiling water in the bottom; let them be steamed half an hour, then let them cool. Press the meat down again, wipe dry, and cover with some hot butter. It will keep for months.
Do not wash the macaroni. Throw it, broken into convenient pieces, into boiling water which is well salted; stir or shake it frequently, to prevent its adhering to the bottom of the stew-pan. The moment it is quite tender (no longer), pour it into a colander, and shake off all the water. In the mean time, melt a lump of butter the size of a large egg (two ounces) to half a pound of macaroni, in a cup on the fire, and grate a handful (four ounces) of cheese. Now, when the macaroni is well drained, place a little of it in the bottom of the dish in which it is to be served; pour over it some of the melted butter, and sprinkle over that a little grated cheese. Continue alternate layers of the three ingredients until all the macaroni is used, leaving butter and cheese on the top. Put the dish into the oven, and let it remain three or four minutes, or long enough for the macaroni to soak the butter and cheese; then take it out; brown the top with a salamander or hot kitchen-shovel, when it will be ready to be served. Aim to have it done just the moment of serving, otherwise the cheese will cool and harden.[D]It requires about twenty minutes to boil macaroni.
When the macaroni is cooked as in the preceding receipt, arrange it in the centre of a large hot platter; brown the top with the salamander; place around it, as a garnish, little diamonds of Welsh rare-bits (see page 264). This is a nice dish to serve in place of cheese.
Parboil, egg, bread-crumb, andsautéthe sweet-breads. Place them in the centre of a large hot platter; arrange macaroni (cooked with cheese) around it, and brown the top with the salamander.
Sauce.—Put butter size of an egg into a saucepan; when it is at the boiling-point, throw in an onion (minced), two sprigs of parsley (chopped fine), and a little pepper. Let it cook five or eight minutes; then throw in a heaping table-spoonful of flour and a little broth from the stock-pot (if there be no broth, use a little boiling water). Stir this well, and let it cook five or eight minutes longer. Now pour in about a coffee-cupful of tomatoes which have been stewed and strained through a colander or sieve, and stir all together.
Boil half a pound of macaroni tender in well-salted boilingwater or in stock, and drain it in the colander. Place alternate layers of the macaroni and the sauce on a hot dish, pouring the sauce over the top; put the dish into the oven two or three minutes to soak the sauce. Serve immediately.
This sauce is simple and very nice. I change it from the receipt of the “London Cooking-teacher,” which requires a few additions. His sauce is as follows: Cut a carrot and an onion into little dice, and prepare a bouquet, i. e., tie a little parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf together. Put into a stew-pan some butter (size of a large egg); when it is hot, throw into it the vegetables, bouquet, and three or four whole peppers; let them cook for eight or ten minutes. Then mix in a heaping table-spoonful of flour, and a little of thepot-au-feubroth; boil this eight or ten minutes longer; then add a cupful of cooked and strained tomatoes. Stir all together.
Ingredients: Half a pound of macaroni, four ounces of cheese, two ounces of butter, three-quarters of a cupful ofBechamelsauce.
Boil the macaroni as described in “macaroni with cheese.” When well drained, pour over it nearly all of the sauce and the grated cheese; toss it in the saucepan, mixing it well together without breaking the macaroni; put it into agratindish; pour first the remainder of the sauce over the top, then the remainder of the cheese, and over this sprinkle a table-spoonful of cracker-dust and dots of butter. Put it into a very hot oven ten minutes, coloring the top.
Soak in boiling water round crackers split in two, three inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch high (I do not know the name). Take them out carefully, so as not to break them; make layers of these slices in a littlegratindish or a deep baking-dish, each slice buttered, spread with a little made mustard, and sprinkled with pepper, salt, and plenty of grated cheese. When all is prepared, bake them in a hot oven for ten minutes.
should all be placed in a wire-basket, and put into boiling water. Boil them two minutes and three-quarters precisely.
Lord Chesterfield said it was only necessary for him to see a person at table to tell if he were a gentleman. He must have had a fine opportunity for observation when boiled eggs were served. It seems nonsense (and it is nonsense) when I say that the fashionable world abroad and their imitators here consider it insufferablygaucheto serve a boiled egg but in one stereotyped way,i. e., in the smallest of egg-cups. The top of the egg is cut off with a knife, and with a little egg-spoon, dipped into salt when necessary, the egg is eaten from the shell. I really can not see that it matters much whether an egg is eaten from an egg-glass, or in the little egg-cups from the shell, unless one prefers to be in the fashion, when it requires no more trouble.
Salt the water well; when it issimmering, drop lightly each broken egg from a saucer into it. Cook one egg at a time, throwing carefully with a spoon the water from the side over the egg, to whiten the top. When cooked just enough (do not let it get too hard), take out the egg with a perforated ladle, trim off the ragged pieces, and slip it on a small, thin piece of hot buttered toast, cut neatly into squares. When all are cooked, and placed on their separate pieces of toast, sprinkle a little pepper and salt over each one.
Some put into the boiling water muffin-rings, in which the eggs are cooked, to give them an even shape; they present a better appearance, however, cooked in the egg-poacher, illustrated among the cooking utensils. Poached eggs are nice introduced into a beef soup—one egg for each person at table; they are also nice served on thin, diamond-shaped slices of broiled ham instead of toast.
Delmonico serves poached eggs on toast, with sorrel sprinkled over the tops.
This is a favorite dish abroad. It is generally a supper-dish, yet can be served at breakfast, lunch, and even as a course for dinner. The dish consists simply of thin pieces of toast, cut of equal size, buttered, and spread with a little anchovy paste, and a poached egg placed on each piece. Anchovy paste can be purchased in little jars at all the larger groceries.
Boil the eggs hard; cut them in two lengthwise, and remove the yolks, which chop, adding to them some cooked chicken, lamb, veal, or pickled tongue chopped fine; season the mixture, and add enough gravy, or the raw yolk of egg, to bind them; stuff the cavities, smooth them, and press the two halves together; roll them in beaten egg and bread-crumbs twice. When just ready to serve, dip them in a wire-basket into boiling lard; and when they have taken a delicate color, drain. Serve on a napkin, and garnish with parsley or any kind of leaves, or serve with a tomato-sauce.
Boil the eggs hard, and cut them in two; take out carefully the yolks, which mash well, adding a little finely minced onion, chopped parsley, pepper, and salt. Mash also double the quantity of bread, which has been soaked in milk; mix bread, yolks, etc., together; then bind them with a little raw yolk of egg; taste to see if they are properly seasoned. Stuff the eggs with the mixture, so that each half has the appearance of containing a whole round yolk; smooth the remainder of the mixture on the bottom of a pie-pan; arrange the halves symmetrically in this bed; brown a little in the oven.
Ingredients: Six eggs, one ounce of cheese, two ounces of butter, one heaping tea-spoonful of flour, a little cayenne, one table-spoonful of vinegar, one and a half cupfuls of milk.
Put the eggs on the fire in cold water, and when they cometo a boil set them at the side of the fire to simmer seven minutes; then put them into cold water. When cold, remove the shells; cut them in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, taking care not to tear the whites; mash the yolks, to which add the grated cheese, vinegar, cayenne. At the cooking-school was added also a tea-spoonful of olive oil. Make arouxby putting the butter into a little saucepan on the fire, and when it bubbles mix in the flour. In another small saucepan have a wine-glassful of milk boiling, to which add enough of therouxto thicken it, and then add the yolks, and mix all together until quite hot. Now to the remainingrouxadd a cupful of milk, and stir until quite smooth for a sauce; fill the cavities of the whites of the eggs with the yolk preparation, rounding the tops to represent whole yolks; arrange them in a circle on a warm platter, and pour the white sauce in the centre.
OMELETS.
Nothing is more simple than to make an omelet, yet very few can make one. The eggs stick to the pan, or they are overdone, and tough.
Senator Riddle, of Delaware, a decided epicure, took much pleasure in his superior knowledge on this important subject. Once when breakfasting with Mrs. Crittenden, of Kentucky, a piece of omelet of doubtful appearance was presented to him. “Before we proceed with our breakfast,” said he, “let me teach you a valuable accomplishment.” They repaired at once to the kitchen range, where the senator demonstrated at once his qualifications as a first-class cook. My own first lesson was from Mr. Riddle, so of course I have the correctmodus operandi; afterward in London, however, I heard a lecture upon omelets from a cooking professor, and was astonished at the multiplicity of dishes which could be made from this simple preparation; not only breakfast dishes, but also the variety of sweet omelets for dessert.
The fire should be quite hot. All cookery-books especially expatiate on the necessity of a pan to be used for omelets alone.Any clean, smooth iron spider, orsautépan, is a good enough omelet-pan. Put the pan on the fire to become heated; break the eggs into a kitchen basin; sprinkle over them pepper and salt, and give them twelve vigorous beats with a spoon. This is enough to break all the yolks, and twelve beats was Mr. Riddle’s rule. Now put butter the size of an egg (for five eggs) in the heated pan; turn it around so that it will moisten all the bottom of the pan. When it is well melted, andbegins to boil, pour in the eggs. Holding the handle of the omelet-pan in the left hand, carefully and lightly with a spoon draw up the whitened egg from the bottom, so that all the eggs may be equally cooked, or whitened to a soft, creamy substance. Now, still with the left hand, shake the pan forward and backward, which will disengage the eggs from the bottom; then shaking again the omelet a little one side, turn with a spoon half of one side over the other; and allowing it to remain a moment to harden a little at the bottom, gently shaking it all the time, toss it over on to a warm platter held in the right hand. A little practice makes one quite dexterous in placing the omelet in the centre of the platter, and turning it over as it is tossed from the omelet-pan.
However, if one is unsuccessful in the tossing operation, which is the correct thing, according to the cooking professor, the omelet can be lifted to the platter with a pancake-turner. It should be creamy and light in the centre, and more firm on the outside.
I will specify several different omelets. A variety of others may be made in the same way, by adding boiled tongue cut into dice, sliced truffles, cooked and sliced kidneys with the gravy poured around, etc., etc.
Make the plain omelet; and just before turning one half over the other, place in the centre three or four whole tomatoes which have been boiled a few minutes previously and seasoned. When the omelet is turned, of course the tomatoes will be quite enveloped. Serve with tomato-sauce (see page 125) poured around it.
is managed as omelet with tomatoes, putting several spoonfuls of cooked green pease in the centre before the omelet is lapped, then serving with a neat row of pease (without juice) around it.
Throw into the omelet-pan fine-cut shreds of tender ham, with the butter. When the ham has cooked a moment, throw in the eggs, and proceed as for plain omelet. A little chopped parsley beaten with the eggs will improve it. The dish may be garnished with thin diamonds of ham around the omelet.
Before beating the eggs, add with the pepper and salt some chopped parsley and shives; cook a moment in the butter some thin shreds of onion, then pour in the eggs, and proceed as for a plain omelet. The shives may be omitted.
Boil the mushrooms in a little water, or stock, to which are added pepper, salt, a few drops of lemon-juice, and, when done, a little flour, to thicken it slightly. Inclose some mushrooms in the omelet in the manner explained for tomatoes; pour the remainder of the mushrooms around the omelet, with a little juice.
Inclose some picked shrimps in the centre of the omelet. Garnish the omelet with shrimps unpicked.
Scald the oysters in their own liquor; when just about to boil, plump them by throwing them into cold water; then beard them; beat them into the eggs before they are cooked, leaving a few oysters for garnishing the plate.
Brillat Savarin says: “Take the same number of eggs asguests at table. Take then a piece of goodfromage de Gruyère, weighing about one-third, and a piece of butter one-sixth this weight. Break up and beat your eggs well in a saucepan; then add your cheese and butter grated. Put your saucepan on the fire, and stir with a wooden spoon until the substance is thick and soft; put in a little salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a good sprinkling of pepper, which is one of the positive characteristics of this ancient dish. Serve up on a warm dish. Get some of your best wine from the cellar, which pass around briskly, and you will see wonders.”
Gruyère cheese is considered superior to other cheeses in this omelet; yet any kind of American cheese, if highly flavored, is most delicious also, and, I think, quite as good as the Gruyère. I would use fresh cheese, and chop it fine, rather than grate it, and also would not add so much butter. We will say, then, to six eggs add three-quarters of a cupful, or two ounces, of cheese chopped fine, a piece of butter the size of a small egg, salt, and pepper. Proceed as for plain omelet.
Add to the above receipt about two or three cupfuls of macaroni which has been boiled in salted water and drained, and is still hot.
Beat the whites and yolks of four eggs separately, and then, adding pepper and salt, put the whites over the yolks, and mix them together carefully. Put butter the size of a small egg into an omelet-pan, and when it has covered the bottom of the pan and is bubbling turn in the eggs; with a spoon lift them from the bottom until all is slightly cooked, or at least well heated; then gather up the sides to make it into omelet form; shake the pan to disengage the omelet, and at the same time to color it slightly at the bottom; turn this over into the centre of a warm platter, so that the colored part be on top.
Add a little sugar to the eggs, instead of pepper and salt;make it then as a plain omelet, inclosing in the centre any kind of preserves, marmalade, or jam; when it is turned on to the dish, sprinkle sugar over the top.
This is a most delicious omelet. Add a little sugar to the eggs, say a sherry-glassful to six eggs, and make the omelet as a plain omelet. When turned on to the dish, sprinkle a little handful of sugar over the top, and pour over five or six table-spoonfuls of rum. Set it on fire, and serve it at the table burning.
Although it is a simple thing to make an omeletsoufflé, and although in France there is not one cook in a score who can not make a delicious one for any and every occasion, I would not advise a careless cook to ever attempt it. The ingredients are: Six whites and three yolks of eggs, three ounces of pulverized sugar (three table-spoonfuls), and a flavoring of vanilla or lemon. First, beat the yolks and sugar to a light cream, and add a few drops of flavoring; then beat the whites to the stiffest possible froth. Have the yolks in a rather deep kitchen bowl; turn the whites over them, and with a spoon, giving it a rotary motion, cut the two, mixing them carefully together. Turn this on to a baking-dish, either of earthenware or tin, with sides two or three inches high and slightly buttered. Smooth over the top, sprinkle over sugar, and put it into a moderate oven. If it has to be turned or moved in the oven, do it as gently as possible. When it has risen well, and is of a fine yellow color, it is ready to be served. It should be served at once, or it will fall.
Omeletsouffléwas especially nice at the Café Vienna in Paris. This is their cook’s receipt: “For one portion,” said he, “use the whites of three eggs; beat them well; add one table-spoonful of marmalade cut into fine pieces, or little pieces of fresh peaches; mix with powdered sugar. Bake it on a dish rubbed with butter in a rather quick oven.” It seemed as if this was too simple a receipt to be so nice. In another place was a layer of marmalade on the bottom of the dish, with asouffléaccording to the first receipt, flavored with vanilla, banked over it.
Cook the vegetables first until they are done, as they will not have time to cook with the eggs. Make them in the same manner described for tomatoes; or the vegetables may be beaten with the eggs. Make a border around the omelet of the vegetables used.
Inan English book is told a story of a famous French salad-dresser who began very poor, and made a fortune by dressing salad for dinners in London. He would go from one place to another in his carriage, with a liveried servant, and his mahogony case. This case contained all the necessaries for his business, such as differently perfumed vinegars, oils with or without the taste of fruit, soy, caviar, truffles, anchovies, catchup, gravy, some yolks of eggs, etc. I confess to a lively curiosity as to how these perfumed and scientific mixtures would taste; however, we will be satisfied with the hundred and one ways of arranging our simple and delicious salads, within the comprehension of all.
A Frenchman thinks he can not eat his dinner without his salad. It would be well if every one had the same appreciation of this most wholesome, refreshing, and at the same time most economical dish. It is an accomplishment to know how to dress a salad well, which is especially prized by the fashionable world. The materials used for salads are generally those shown in the list on the following page:
or salads of mixed vegetables (salades en macédoine), selected from this list of vegetables:
Salads are also made of cold boiled fowls or fish, as follows:
There are two kinds of dressing which are the best and oftenest used: theMayonnaiseand the French dressing. Epicures prefer the simple French dressing for salads served without fish or fowl. For chicken and fish salads, and some vegetables, as tomatoes and cauliflowers, they use theMayonnaisesauce. This arrangement of dressings is almost universal in London and Paris. In America we use theMayonnaisefor all salads. I prefer the foreign custom. The simple salad with the French dressing is, after all, the most refreshing and satisfactory, if one has a heavy dinner served before it. The receipts are as follows:
Put the uncooked yolk of an egg into a cold bowl; beat it well with a silver fork; then add two salt-spoonfuls of salt, and one salt-spoonful of mustard powder; work them well a minute before adding the oil; then mix in a little good oil, which must be poured in very slowly (a few drops at a time) at first, alternated occasionally with a few drops of vinegar. In proportion as the oil is used, the sauce should gain consistency. When it begins to have the appearance of jelly, alternate a few drops of lemon-juice with the oil. When the egg has absorbed a gill of oil, finish the sauce by adding a very little pinch ofCayenne pepper and one and a half tea-spoonfuls of good vinegar; taste it to see that there are salt, mustard, cayenne, and vinegar enough. If not, add more very carefully. These proportions will suit most tastes; yet some like more mustard and more oil. Be cautious not to use too much cayenne.
By beating the egg a minute before adding the oil, there is little danger of the sauce curdling; yet if, by adding too much oil at first, it should possibly curdle, immediately interrupt the operation. Put the yolks of one or two eggs on another plate; beat them well, and add the curdledMayonnaiseby degrees, and finish by adding more oil, lemon-juice, vinegar, salt, and cayenne according to taste. If lemons are not at hand, many use vinegar instead.
Delmonico uses four yolks of eggs for two quart-bottles of oil. It is only necessary, then, to use one yolk for a pint of oil, the egg only being a foundation for the sauce. It is easier, however, to begin with more yolks: many use three of them for a gill of oil. The sauce will not curdle so easily if the few drops of vinegar are used at first, after a very little oil is used. It keeps perfectly well by putting it into a glass preserve or pickle bottle, with a ground-glass stopper. It is well to have enough made to last a week at least. The opportunity of making it may be taken, and adding it to theMayonnaisebottle, when there are extra yolks left, after the whites of the eggs are used for other purposes, such as white cake, corn-starch pudding, etc.
It requires about a quarter of an hour to make this sauce. In summer, the process of making it is greatly facilitated by placing the eggs and oil in the ice-chest half an hour before using them. Sometimes, for the sake of a change, theMayonnaisesauce is made green. It is then called
Here is Carême’s receipt for it: “Take a good handful of chervil, together with some tarragon, and a few cives. When these herbs have been washed, put them into boiling water for five or six minutes, with a little salt; after which, cool, drain, and squeeze them dry. Pound them well, adding a spoonfulofMayonnaisesauce; then pass the whole through a sieve, and mix with theMayonnaisesauce. If you find it too pale a green, add a little spinach prepared in the same way.”
It is more convenient and simple to add boiled and mashed green pease to the sauce for coloring. The greenMayonnaiseis sometimes used to spread over a cold boiled fish (marinated). The dish is garnished with lettuce heads. Sometimes, for lobster or fish salads, theMayonnaisesauce is prepared red.
Pound some lobster coral, pass it through a sieve, and mix it with theMayonnaisesauce.
Ingredients: One table-spoonful of vinegar, three table-spoonfuls of olive-oil, one salt-spoonful of pepper, one salt-spoonful of salt, one even tea-spoonful of onion scraped fine. Many use tarragon vinegar,i. e., vinegar in which tarragon has been soaked.
Pour the oil, mixed with the pepper and salt, over the salad; mix them together; then add the vinegar and mix again. Chaptal says: “It results, from this process, that there can never be too much vinegar: from the specific gravity of the vinegar compared with the oil, what is more than needful will fall to the bottom of the salad-bowl. The salt should not be dissolved in the vinegar, but in the oil, by which means it is more equally distributed through the salad.”
This is the usual mode of mixing the salad; but I prefer to mix the pepper and salt, then add the oil and onion, and then the vinegar; and, when well mingled, to pour the mixture over the salad, or place the salad over it, and mix all together. It seems to me to be more evenly distributed in this manner.
Many different combinations can be made to suit the fancy, from the list of salad materials. I will give certain combinations oftenest seen. It must be remembered that salad is never good unless perfectly fresh. It should not be mixed, or brought into the dining-room, until the moment when it is to be eaten.
When preparing lettuce salad, choose the crisp, tender, centre leaves of head lettuce. The kind seen in England and France,calledromaine, is now much used in New York; it is very crisp and tender. The seeds of this lettuce can be obtained in New York. In the East, tarragon, and endive also, are largely produced, and used to imitate these foreign salads. The tarragon leaves are chopped fine, and mixed in the French dressing (without onion) to use with lettuce. The taste for tarragon is generally an acquired one: I prefer the tarragon vinegar to the fresh leaves, as it has only a slight flavor of the plant.
Rub garlic in the dish in which lettuce, with French dressing (without onion), is to be served. Leave no pieces of the garlic—merely rubbing the dish will give flavor enough. The French often use garlic in salads. I would advise, however, the use of the simple French dressing with onion to be mixed with the lettuce leaves, and dispense with the garlic. Use the plain or the tarragon vinegar. Nasturtium blossoms have a most pleasant piquant flavor, and make a beautiful garnish for a salad.
Lettuce, with water-cresses or pepper-grass mixed, and small radishes placed around for a garnish. French orMayonnaisedressing.
Lettuce, with cives mixed, and olives placed around for garnish. French dressing.
Lettuce, with celery mixed (most excellent). Cut the celery into pieces, an inch and a half long; then slice these lengthwise into four or five pieces. Mix with lettuce. French dressing.
Lettuce and sorrel mixed. French dressing.
Lettuce, with anchovies (cut into thin strips as celery) andchopped cives. To vary this dish, prawns and shrimps are used for a garnish; or the anchovies may be left out. French dressing.
Endive alone. French dressing.
Endive, mixed with water-cress. French dressing.
Endive, with celery, beets, and hard-boiled eggs in slices. French dressing. Endive in centre, row of eggs around, then row of beets, then an edge of fringed celery.
Water-cress is good mixed with cold boiled beets. Cut the beets into little dice; garnish with olives. French dressing.
Lettuce and dice of cold boiled potatoes, and cold boiled beets. Potatoes piled in the centre, beets next, and lettuce around the edge of the dish. French dressing.
12.Potato Salad.
New small onions sliced, mixed with cold boiled potatoes cut into dice. French dressing. This potato salad is very nice.
Another way is to rub the dish with garlic in which the salad is made. Mix chopped parsley with the potatoes cut into dice. French dressing.
Sliced cucumbers, and sliced new onions. French dressing.
Cabbage alone, with French orMayonnaisedressing.
Cut the cabbage not too fine; sprinkle pepper and salt over it, and set it on ice, or in a cool place, to keep it crisp.
Dressing.—Beat the yolks of three eggs, or the whole of two eggs, with five table-spoonfuls of good strong vinegar, two heaping tea-spoonfuls of sugar (three, if the vinegar is very strong), half a tea-spoonful of made mustard, and butter size of an almond. Put these ingredients into a tin cup, and stir them over the fire until they are about to boil, or until they become a smooth paste. Put the mixture one side to become cold, and to remain until just before it is wanted at table; then mix it well with the cold cabbage, and garnish the top with slices of hard-boiled egg.
Cold slaw is especially nice served with fried oysters. Place it in the centre of the warm platter on a folded napkin (a too warm platter would injure it), then make a circle of fried oysters around it. This makes a nice course for dinner.
The salads of vegetables are generally better with the French dressing. They present a better appearance by cutting them with a small vegetable-cutter,
Mix cold boiled pease, string-beans, pieces of cauliflower, asparagus-tops, or almost any one of the small vegetables; do not cut the larger ones too fine. French dressing.
Cold boiled potatoes, Lima beans, beets, carrots. French dressing.
Cold baked navy beans, withMayonnaisesauce.
Place some cauliflowers into just enough boiling water to cover them; add a little salt and butter to the water. When cooked, let them become cold; then season them with a marinade of a little salt and pepper, three spoonfuls of vinegar, and one spoonful of oil. Let them then remain for an hour. When ready to serve, pile them on the dish to a point; then mask them with aMayonnaisesauce.
Carême finishes this dish by placing around it a border ofcroûtonsof aspic jelly. I can not think that aspic jelly is good enough to pay for the trouble of making it, and I am a particular advocate for dishes thattastewell. Gouffé arranges around the dish a border of carrots, beets, turnips, or any green vegetables which have been marinated.
This is a truly delicious dish; it would, in fact, be good every day during the tomato season.