Cut two chickens into pieces. Reserve all the white meat and the best pieces for the fricassee. The trimmings and the inferior pieces use to make the gravy. Put these pieces into a porcelain kettle, with a quart of cold water, one clove, pepper, salt, a small onion, a little bunch of parsley, and a small piece of pork; let it simmer for half an hour, and then put in the pieces for the fricassee; let them boil slowly until they are quite done; take them out then, and keep them in a hot place. Now strain the gravy, take off all the fat, and add it to arouxof half a cupful of flour and a small piece of butter. Let this boil; take it off the stove and stir in three yolks of eggs mixed with two or three table-spoonfuls of cream; also the juice of half a lemon. Do not let it boil after the eggs are in, or they will curdle. Stir it well, keeping it hot a moment; then pour it over the chicken, and serve. Some of the fricassees with long and formidable names are not much more than wine or mushrooms, or both, added to this receipt.
Sautéa chicken (cut into pieces) with a little minced onion, in hot lard. When the pieces are brown, add a table-spoonful of flour, and let it cook a minute, stirring it constantly. Add then one and a half pints of boiling water or stock, a table-spoonful of vinegar, a table-spoonful of sherry, a tea-spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. When it is taken off the fire, strain the sauce, taking off any particles of fat; mix in the yolk of an egg. Pour it over the chicken, and serve.
After the first experience in making this chicken dish, it is not difficult to prepare, and it makes an exceedingly nice course for dinner. With a sharp penknife, slit the chicken down the back; then, keeping the knife close to the bones, scrape down the sides, and the bones will come out. Break them at the joints when coming to the drumsticks and wing-bones. These bones are left in. Now chop fine, cold cooked lamb enough to stuff the chicken; season it with pepper, salt, one even tea-spoonful of summer savory, two heaping table-spoonfuls of chopped pork, andplentyof lemon-juice, or juice of one lemon. Stuff the chicken, and sew it, giving it a good shape; turn the ends of the wings under the back, and tie them there firmly, also the legs of the chicken down close to the back, so that the top may present a plump surface, to carve in slices across, without having bones in the way. Now lard the chicken two or three rows on top. If you have no larding-needle, cut open the skin with the penknife, and insert the little pieces of pork, all ofequal length and size. Bake this until it is thoroughly done, basting it very often (once or twice with a little butter). Pour a tomato-sauce (see page 125) around it in the bottom of the dish in which it is served.
Trim the breasts of some chickens to resemble trimmed lamb chops. Stick a leg bone (the joints cut off at each end) into the end of each cutlet; pepper and salt them, roll them in flour, and fry them in asautépan with butter. Serve them in a circle in a dish with pease, mashed potatoes, cauliflowers, beans, or tomatoes, or almost any kind of vegetable, in the centre. They are still nicer larded on one side, choosing the same side for all of them. When larded, they should not be rolled in flour. This is a very nice course for a dinner company. These fillets are also nice served in a circle, with the same sauce poured in the centre as is served with deviled chicken.
The chicken is boiled tender in a little salted water. When cold, it is cut into pieces; these pieces are basted with butter, and broiled.
Sauce.—One tea-spoonful of made mustard, two table-spoonfuls of Worcestershire sauce, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; boil all together, and pour over the chicken. This dish is generally served on the Cunard steamers for supper. Or, boil the chickens, cut them into pieces, pepper and salt them, roll them in flour,sautéthem in a little hot lard, and serve cream-sauce, the same as for fried spring chickens. This makes a good winter breakfast.
Boil one chicken, with an onion and a clove of garlic (if you have it) thrown into the water, add some bones and pieces of beef also; this will make a stock, if you have not some already saved. Cut the chicken, when cooked, into small dice; mince half of a large onion, or one small one, and two sprigs of parsley together. Put into a saucepan a piece of butter the size ofa small egg; when hot, put in the minced onion and parsley and half a cupful of flour; stir well until it is well cooked and of a light-brown color; then add a cupful and a half of stock, or of the stock in the kettle, boiled down or reduced until it is quite strong, then freed of fat; the stronger the stock, the better of course. Stir it into a smooth paste, add pepper, salt, not quite half of a grated nutmeg, the juice of about a quarter of a lemon, and two table-spoonfuls of sherry, Madeira, or port wine. When all is well stirred, mix in the pieces of chicken. Mold into the ordinarycroquetteshape, or into the form of pears. When they are egged and cracker-crumbed, fry them in boiling-hot lard. If they are molded into pear shape, a little stem of parsley may be stuck into each pear after it is cooked, to represent the pear stem.
Ingredients: Two chickens and two sets of brains, both boiled; one tea-cupful of suet, chopped fine; two sprigs of parsley, chopped; one nutmeg, grated; an even table-spoonful of onion, after it is chopped as fine as possible; the juice and grated rind of one lemon; salt and black and red pepper, to taste. Chop the meat very fine; mix all well together; add cream until it is quite moist, or just right for molding. This quantity will make two dozencroquettes. Now mold them as in cut (see above); dip them into beaten egg, and roll them in pounded cracker or bread-crumbs; fry in boiling-hot lard. Cold meat of any kind can be made intocroquettesfollowing this receipt, only substituting an equal amount of meat for the chicken, and of boiled rice for the brains. Cold lamb or veal is especially good incroquettes. Cold beef is very good also. Many prefer two cupfuls of boiled rice (fresh boiled and still hot when mixed with the chicken) for the chickencroquettes, instead of brains.
These cutlets are only chickencroquettesin a different form.Prepare them like trimmed lamb chops, in the following manner: Make a shape pointed at one end and round at the other; then press it with the blade of a knife, giving it the shape of a cutlet. Egg and bread-crumb these cutlets, and fry them in boiling lard; then stick in a paper ruffle at the pointed end. Serve them, one cutlet overlapping the other, in a circle, with a tomato-sauce in the centre of it, or around a pile of mushrooms or of pease. This is considered a very palatable dish for a dinner company.
Cut the chicken into pieces; fry orsautéthem in a little hot drippings, or in butter the size of an egg; when nearly done, put the pieces into another saucepan; add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour to the hot drippings, and brown it. Mix a little cold or lukewarm water to theroux; when smooth, add a pint or more of boiling water; pour this over the chicken in the saucepan, add a chopped sprig of parsley, a clove of garlic, pepper, and salt. Let the chicken boil half or three-quarters of an hour, or until it is thoroughly done; then take out the pieces of chicken. Pass the sauce through a sieve, and remove all the fat. Have ready some macaroni which has been boiled in salted water, and let it boil in this sauce. Arrange the pieces of chicken tastefully on a dish; pour the macaroni and sauce over them, and serve; or, instead of macaroni, use boiled rice, which may be managed in the same way as the macaroni.
Ingredients: One large or two small chickens, one-quart can of tomatoes, butter the size of a pigeon’s egg, one table-spoonful of flour, one heaping tea-spoonful of minced onion, one tea-spoonful of minced pork, one small bottle of chetney (one gill).
Press the tomatoes through a sieve. Put the butter (one and a half ounces) into a stew-pan, and when hot throw in the minced onions; cook them a few minutes, then add the flour, which cook thoroughly; now pour in the tomato pulp, seasoned with pepper, salt, and the minced pork, and stir it thoroughly with an egg-whisk until quite smooth, and then mix well intoit the chetney, and next the cooked chicken cut into pieces. The chicken may besautéd(if young) in a little hot fat, or it may be roasted or boiled as for a fricassee. The chicken is neatly arranged on a hot platter, with the sauce poured over. Slices of beef (the fillet preferable) may be served in the same way with the chetney sauce.
This chetney is an Indian sauce, and can be procured at the first-class groceries.
Cut the chicken into pieces, leaving out the body bones; season them with pepper and salt; fry them in asautépan in butter; cut an onion into small slices, which fry in the butter until quite red; now add a tea-cupful of stock freed from fat, an even tea-spoonful of sugar, and a table-spoonful of curry-powder, mixed with a little flour; rub the curry-powder and flour smooth with a little stock before adding it to the saucepan; put in the chicken pieces, and let them boil two or three minutes; add then the juice of half a lemon. Serve this in the centre of a bed of boiled rice.
Veal, lamb, rabbits, or turkey may be cooked in the same way. The addition of half a cocoa-nut, grated, is an improvement.
After having boiled a chicken or chickens in as little water as possible until the meat falls from the bones, pick off the meat, chop it rather fine, and season it well with pepper and salt. Now put into the bottom of a mold some slices of hard-boiled eggs, next a layer of chopped chicken, then more slices of eggs and layers of chicken until the mold is nearly full; boil down the water in which the chicken was boiled until there isabout a cupful left, season it well, and pour it over the chicken; it will sink through, forming a jelly around it. Let it stand overnight or all day on the ice. It is to be sliced at table. If there is any fear about the jelly not being stiff enough, a little gelatine may be soaked and added to the cupful of stock. Garnish the dish with light-colored celery leaves, or with fringed celery.
Cut the stalks into two-inch lengths; stick plenty of coarse needles into the top of a cork; draw half of the stalk of each piece of celery through the needles. When all the fibrous parts are separated, lay the celery in some cold place to curl and crisp.
Chop a little onion, and fry it in butter without allowing it to color; put in the livers and some parsley, and fry orsautéthem until they are done; take out the livers, add a little hot water or stock to the onions and parsley, thicken it with some flour (roux, page 51); strain, season, and pour it over the livers.
If stale bread is cut into the shape of a small vase or cup, then fried to a good color in boiling lard, it is called acroustade. One of these is often used with chicken livers. Part of the livers are put in the top of thecroustadein the centre of the dish, and the remainder are placed around it at the base. The dish is called “croustadeof livers.”
Truss one chicken (two and a half pounds) for boiling, and cut five pounds of shoulder of mutton (boned) into two pieces, which roll into shape; put some trimmings of pork (enough to keep the meat from sticking) into a large saucepan, and when hot place in the chicken and the rolls of mutton, and brown them completely by turning them over the fire. Now make what is called a bouquet, viz.: Put a bay leaf on the table; on this place three or four sprigs of parsley, one sprig of thyme, half of a shallot, four cloves, and one table-spoonful of saffron (fivecents’ worth), and tie all together, leaving one end of the string long, to hang over the top of the saucepan for convenience in taking out the bouquet. Put the chicken, the mutton, the bouquet, and a pinch of salt and pepper into three quarts of boiling water; twenty minutes before they are done (it will require a short hour to cook them), put in five ounces of rice (soaked an hour in cold water); when done, take out the bouquet; put the chicken in the centre of a warm platter; cut the mutton into slices or scollops about half an inch thick, and form them in a circle by lapping one over the other around the chicken. Pour the hot soup (freed from grease) over the chicken; or the chicken may be cut into joints (seven pieces), and the circle around the platter may be formed of the chicken pieces and mutton scollops alternating, with the soup poured in the centre.
The goose should be absolutely young. Green geese are best,i. e., when they are about four months old. In trussing, cut the neck close to the back, leaving the skin long enough to turn over the back; beat the breast-bone flat with the rolling-pin; tie or skewer the legs and wings securely. Stuff the goose with the following mixture: Four large onions (chopped), ten sage leaves, quarter of a pound of bread-crumbs, one and a half ounces of butter, salt and pepper, one egg, a slice of pork (chopped). Now sprinkle the top of the goose well with salt, pepper, and flour. Reserve the giblets to boil and chop for the gravy, as you would for a turkey. Baste the goose repeatedly. If it is a green one, roast it at least an hour and a half; if an older one, it would be preferable to bake it in an oven, with plenty of hot water in the baking-pan. It should be basted very often with this water, and when it is nearly done baste it with butter and a little flour. Bake it three or four hours. Decorate the goose with water-cresses, and serve it with the brown giblet gravy in the sauce-boat. Always serve an apple-sauce with this dish.
Take four apples peeled and cored, four onions, four leaves of sage, and four of thyme. Boil them with sufficient water to cover them; when done, pulp them through a sieve, removing the sage and thyme; then add enough pulp of mealy potatoes to cause the stuffing to be sufficiently dry, without sticking to the hand. Add pepper and salt, and stuff the bird.
Truss and stuff them with sage and onions as you would a goose. If they are ducklings, roast them from twenty-five to thirty minutes. Epicures say they like them quite under-done, yet, at the same time, very hot. Full-grown ducks should be roasted an hour, and frequently basted. Serve with them the brown giblet gravy or apple-sauce, or both. Green pease should accompany the dish. Many parboil ducks before roasting or baking them. If there is a suspicion of advanced age, parboil them.
Wild ducks should be cooked rare, with or without stuffing. Baste them a few minutes at first with hot water to which have been added an onion and salt. Then take away the pan, and baste with butter, and a little flour to froth and brown them. The fire should be quite hot, and twenty to twenty-five minutes are considered the outside limit for cooking them. A brown gravy made with the giblets should be served in the bottom of the dish. Serve also a currant-jelly. Garnish the dish with slices of lemons.
Remains of cold roast duck, with peel of half a lemon, one quart of green pease, a piece of butter rolled in flour, three-quarters of a pint of gravy, pepper, salt, and cayenne to taste. Cut the duck into joints; season it with a very little Cayenne pepper and salt, and the yellow peel of half a lemon minced fine. Put it into a stew-pan, pour the gravy over, and place the pan over a clear fire to become very hot; but do not letthe stew boil.[C]Boil a quart of green young pease; when they are done, drain off the water, add some butter, pepper, and salt. Warm this again over the fire. Pile the pease in the centre of a hot dish; arrange the pieces of duck around them, and serve.
Cut the duck into joints. Put the giblets into a stew-pan, adding water enough to cover them for the purpose of making a gravy. Add two onions, chopped fine, two sprigs of parsley, three cloves, a sage leaf, pepper, and salt. Let the gravy simmer until it is strong enough, then add the pieces of duck. Cover, and let them stew slowly for two hours, adding a little boiling water when necessary. Just before they are done, add a small glassful of port-wine and a few drops of lemon-juice. Put the duck on a warm platter, pour the gravy around, and serve it with little diamonds of fried bread (croûtons) placed around the dish.
Roast the ducks, remove the breasts or fillets, and dish them in a circle. Pour over apoivradesauce, and fill the circle with olives.
Mince an onion; fry it a yellow color, with butter, in a stew-pan; pour on a gill of vinegar; let it remain on the fire until a third of it is boiled away; then add a pint of gravy or stock, a bunch of parsley, two or three cloves, pepper, and salt; let it boil a minute; thicken it with a little butter and flour (roux); strain it, and remove any particles of fat.
Unless pigeons are quite young, they are better braised or stewed in broth than cooked in any other manner. In fact, I consider it always the best way of cooking them. Tie them in shape; place slices of bacon at the bottom of a stew-pan; lay in the pigeons, side by side, all their breasts uppermost; adda sliced carrot, an onion, with a clove stuck in, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and some parsley, and pour over enough stock to cover them. If you have no stock, use boiling water. Now put some thin slices of bacon over the tops of the pigeons; cover them as closely as possible, adding boiling water or stock when necessary. Let them simmer until they are very tender. Serve each pigeon on a thin piece of buttered toast, with a border of spinach, or make little nests of spinach on pieces of toast, putting a pigeon into each nest.
Never roast pigeons unless they are young and tender. After they are well tied in shape, drawing the skin over the back, tie thin slices of bacon over the breasts, and put a little piece of butter inside each pigeon. File them on a skewer, and roast them before a brisk fire until thoroughly done, basting them with butter.
Split the pigeons at the back, and flatten them with the cutlet bat; season, roll them in melted butter and bread-crumbs, and broil them, basting them with butter. Or, cut out the breasts (fillets), and broil them alone. Serve them on thin pieces of toast. Make a gravy of the remaining portions of the pigeons, and pour it over them.
They are generally split open at the back and broiled, rubbing them with butter; yet as all but the breast is generally tough, it is better to fillet the chicken, or cut out the breast. The remainder of the chicken is cut into joints and parboiled. These pieces are thenbroiledwith the breasts (which, please remember, are not parboiled) after rubbing butter over them all. As soon as they are all broiled, sprinkle pepper and salt, and put a little lump of butter, on top of each piece, which then place for a few moments in the oven to soak the butter. Serve with currant-jelly. For fine entertainments the breasts alone are served. Each breast is cut into two pieces, so that one chicken is sufficient for four persons. If the dish is intended for breakfast, serve each piece of breast on a small square piece of fried mush (see receipt, page 73). If for dinner, serve each piece on a square of hot buttered toast, with a little currant-jelly on top of each piece of chicken. Garnish the plate with any kind of leaves, or with water-cresses. At a breakfast party I once saw this dish surrounded with Saratoga potatoes. The white potatoes, dark meat, and red jelly formed a pretty contrast.
Bend the under bill. If it is tender, the chicken is young.
Epicures think that grouse (in fact, all game) should not be too fresh. Do not wash them. Do not wash any kind of game or meat. If proper care be taken in dressing them they will be quite clean, and one could easily wash out all their blood and flavor. Put plenty of butter inside each chicken: this is necessary to keep it moist. Roast the grouse half an hour and longer, if liked thoroughly done; baste them constantly with butter. When nearly done, sprinkle over a little flour and plenty of butter to froth them. After having boiled the liver of the grouse, mince and pound it, with a little butter, pepper, and salt, until it is like a paste; then spread it over hot buttered toast. Serve the grouse on the toast, surrounded with water-cresses.
Tie a thin slice of bacon over the breast of each bird; put the quails into a baking-dish, with a little boiling water; cover it closely and set it on top of the range, letting the birds steamten or fifteen minutes. This plumps them. Then take off the cover and the pork, and put the birds into the oven, basting them often with butter. Brown them, and serve with currant-jelly.
Cover the breasts with very thin slices of bacon, or rub them well with butter; roast them before a good fire, basting them often with butter. Fifteen minutes will cook them sufficiently, if they are served very hot, although twenty minutes would be my rule, not being an epicure. Salt and pepper them. Serve on a hot dish the moment they are cooked. They are very good with a bread-sauce made as follows:
First roll a pint of dry bread-crumbs, and pass half of them through a sieve. Put a small onion into a pint of milk, and when it boils remove the onion, and thicken the milk with the half-pint of sifted crumbs; take it from the fire, and stir in a heaping tea-spoonful of butter, a grating of nutmeg, pepper and salt. Put a little butter into asautépan, and when hot throw in the half-pint of coarser crumbs which remained in the sieve; stir them over the fire until they assume a light-brown color, taking care that they do not burn, and stir into them a small pinch of Cayenne pepper. They should be rather dry. For serving, put a plump roast quail on a plate, pour over a table-spoonful of the white sauce, and on this place a table-spoonful of the crumbs. The sauce-boat and plate of crumbs may be passed separately, or the host may arrange them at table before the birds are passed. This makes a dish often seen in England.
With a sharp-pointed knife carefully cut the breasts from quails or pigeons; or, as professional cooks say, fillet them. At the small end of each breast stick in a bone taken from the leg, and trimmed. The breasts should now resemble cutlets. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over each one, dip it in melted butter, and roll it in flour or sifted cracker-crumbs. Put thecutlets one side until ready to cook, as they should be cooked only just before sending them to the table. They should then be fried in asautépan in hot butter. They may be served without further trouble in a circle with a centre of green pease, which makes a most delicate dish for a company dinner course. However, there is a more elaborate way of finishing them, as follows: Put the carcasses into some cold water with very small pieces of pork and onion, sufficient only to produce the slightest flavoring. Simmer this about an hour; strain, thicken with a little brownedroux, and season it with a little pepper and salt. As soon as the livers are done, take them out, mash, and moisten them with a little of the sauce. Prepare little thin pieces of toast, one for each breast; butter, and spread them with the mashed livers. Turn the cutlets over in this sauce, and use the little of it that remains for dipping in the pieces of toast. Serve the cutlets on the toast in a circle, with a centre of pease, French string-beans (haricots verts), potatoesà la Parisienne, or mushrooms; or cut the pieces of toast into the form of a long triangle, so that the points may meet in the centre, and place the bones of the cutlets to meet in the centre also. Put then a row of vegetables on the outside.
Remove the fillets or breasts of six quails. Cut each fillet in two, and trim the parts to a round shape. Cook half a pound of truffles in Madeira, and cut them into slices. Put the scollops of quails into asautépan with some butter; fry them until they are done, then mix them with the truffles. Put a nice border on a dish; pile the centre with the scollops and truffles; pour in some Espagnole or brown sauce, flavored with a little Madeira, and serve. Truffles can be procured canned.
Melt butter the size of an egg; when hot, add to it two orthree table-spoonfuls of flour. Stir this carefully over a slow fire until it has taken a clear, light-brown color. Mix in this one half-pint of stock, broth, or gravy; then put it to the side of the fire to simmer until wanted, skimming it carefully, and not allowing it to stick to the bottom of the pan. Strain it. Just before serving it with the quails, add one or two tea-spoonfuls of Madeira.
Split them at the back. Broil, basting them often with butter, over a hot fire. As soon as the quails are done, add a little more butter, with pepper and salt, and place them for a moment into the oven to soak the butter. Serve them on thin slices of buttered toast, with a little currant-jelly on top of each quail.
Quails are sometimes braised in the same manner as pigeons. (See receipt.)
Dress and wipe them clean. Tie the legs close to the body; skin the heads and necks, and tie the beaks under the wing; tie, also, a very thin piece of bacon around the breast of each bird, and fry in boiling lard. It only requires a few moments—say two minutes—to cook them. Season and serve them on toast. Some pierce the legs with the beak of the bird, as in the cut.
The following is the epicure’s manner of cooking them, not mine. Carefully pluck them, and take the skin off the heads and necks. Truss them with the head under the wing. Twist the legs at the first joint, pressing the feet against the thigh. Do not draw them. Now tie a thin slice of bacon around each; run a small iron skewer through the birds, and tie it to a spit atboth ends. Roast them at a good fire, placing a dripping-pan, with buttered slices of toast under them, to catch the trail as it falls. Baste the snipe often with a paste-brush dipped in melted butter. Let them roast twenty minutes; then salt the birds, and serve them immediately on the pieces of toast.
Cut sweet-potatoes lengthwise; scoop out in the centre of each a place that will fit half the bird. Now put in the birds, after seasoning them with butter, pepper, and salt, tying the two pieces of potato around each of them. Bake them. Serve them in the potatoes. Or, they can be roasted or fried in boiling lard like other birds.
are cooked in the same way as quails or partridges.
are cooked in the same way as prairie-chickens or grouse.
VENISON.
This is, perhaps, the most distinguished venison dish. Make rather deep incisions, following the grain of the meat from the top, and insert pieces of pork about one-third of an inch square, and one inch and a half or two inches long; sprinkle over pepper, salt, and a little flour. Roast or bake the venison before ahotfire or in ahotoven, about two hours for an eight-pound roast. Baste often. Serve a currant-jelly sauce in the sauce-boat.
A good accompaniment at table for a roast of venison is adish of potatoesà la neige(see page 192), the dark meat and white potatoes forming a pretty contrast.
Cut off part of the knuckle-bone, round it at the other extremity, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and cover the whole with a paste of flour and water or coarse corn-meal; tie firmly a thick paper around. Place it near the fire at first to harden the paste, basting well the paper to keep it from burning; then remove it a little farther from the fire. Have a strong, clear fire. It will take about three hours to roast this joint, at the end of which time remove the paste. Carême would glaze it. This is, after all, a simple operation. It is a stock boiled down to a firm jelly, the jelly melted, and spread upon the meat with a brush. Put some frills of paper around the bone, and serve currant-jelly with it. If it be baked, the paste should cover it in the same way. It would also take the same length of time to cook.
The neck of venison makes a good roast also.
Have the gridiron hot; broil, and put them on a hot dish; rub over them butter, pepper, salt, and a little melted currant-jelly. Some cooks add a table-spoonful of Madeira, sherry, or port to the melted currant-jelly.
If one does not wish to serve the jelly, simply garnish the dish with lemon-slices.
Cut it into steaks; spread over them a thin layer of stuffing made with bread-crumbs, minced onion, parsley, pepper, salt, and a little pork chopped fine; now roll them separately, and tie them each with a cord; stew them in boiling water or stock. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter mixed (see roux, page 51), and add one or two spoonfuls of sherry or port wine.
Skin and dress the rabbits as soon as possible, and hang themovernight. Roast them before a moderate fire, basting them with butter and a little flour when nearly done.
After they are skinned, dressed, and hung overnight, put them into a baking-pan; sprinkle over pepper and salt, and put also a thin slice of bacon on the top of each rabbit. Now pour some boiling water into the bottom of the pan, and cover it with another pan of equal size, letting the rabbits steam about fifteen or twenty minutes; then take off the cover, baste them with a little butter, and let them brown.
Rabbits are much improved by larding.
The French cooks very generally use carbonate of ammonia to preserve the color of vegetables. What would lay on the point of a penknife is mixed in the water in which the vegetables (such as pease, spinach, string-beans, and asparagus) are boiled. The ammonia all evaporates in boiling, leaving no ill effects. They say also that it prevents the odor of boiling cabbage. It may be obtained at the drug-stores.
Choose those of equal size. They look better when thinly peeled before they are boiled; but it is more economical to boil them before skinning, as careless cooks generally pare away half of the potato in the operation, and the best part of the potato is that which lies nearest the skin. Put them into an iron pot or saucepan in just enoughwell-salted coldwater to cover them. Let them boil until they arenearlydone; then pour off all but about half a cupful of the water in the bottom of the pot; return the potatoes to the fire, put on a close cover, and let them steam until quite done; then remove the lid, sprinkle salt over them, and let them remain a few moments on the fire to evaporate the water. Remove them carefully, and serve immediately. They should be dry and flaky.
If one has a cook too heedless to steam the potatoes properly, it should be remembered that potatoes should never be allowed tosoakin the water a moment after they are done; the water should be immediately poured off, and the steam evaporated. It is important that potatoes should be done just at the moment of serving. It requires about thirty-five minutes to boil the medium-sized.
Pare the potatoes; cover them with cold water; boil them gently until they are done. Pour off the water, and sprinkle salt over them; then with a spoon take each potato and lay it into a clean, warm cloth; twist this so as to press all the moisture from the vegetable, and render it quite round; turn it carefully into a dish placed before the fire; throw a cloth over; and when all are done, send them to the table immediately. Potatoes dressed in this way are mashed without the slightest trouble.
Every one thinks she can make so simple a dish as that of mashed potatoes; but it is the excellence of art to produce good mashed as well as good boiled potatoes. In fact, I believe there is nothing so difficult in cookery as to properly boil a potato.
To mash them, then, first boil them properly. Put into a hot crock basin, which can be placed at the side of the fire, half a cupful or more of cream, a piece of butter the size of an egg, plenty of salt and pepper, and let them get hot. One of the secrets of good mashed potatoes is the mixing of the ingredients all hot. Now add six or seven potatoes the moment they are done, and mash them without stopping until they are as smooth as possible; then work them a very few moments with a fork, and serve them immediately. Do not rub egg over, and bake them; that ruins them. Much depends upon mashed potatoes being served at tablehot, and freshly made. They are very nice preparedà la neige.
These are mashed potatoes made as in the preceding receipt, pressed through a colander into a dish in which they are to be served. The potatoes then resemble rice or vermicelli, and are very light and nice. They make a pretty dish, and must be served very hot. They make a favorite accompaniment to venison, and are often served around a rolled rib roast of beef.
The potatoes must be of equal size. Put them into a hot oven and bake until tender. The excellence of baked potatoes depends upon their being served immediately when they are just baked enough. A moment underdone, and they are indigestible and worthless; a moment overdone, and they have begun to dry. It requires about an hour to bake a large potato. This is a favorite way of cooking potatoes for lunch or tea.
The following is an exceedingly nice way of serving baked potatoes. Bake potatoes of equal size, and when done, and still hot, cut off a small piece from each potato; scoop out carefully the inside, leaving the skin unbroken; mash the potato well, seasoning it with plenty of butter, pepper, and salt; return it with a spoon to the potato skin, allowing it to protrude about an inch above the skin. When enough skins are filled, use a fork or knife to make rough the potato which projects above the skin; put all into the oven a minute to color the tops. It is better, perhaps, to color them with a salamander. They will have the appearance of baked potatoes burst open.
Pare potatoes of equal size, and put them into the oven inthe same pan in which the beef is baked. Every time the beef is basted, the potatoes should be basted also. Serve them around the beef.
Peel the potatoes, and with a vegetable-cutter (three-fourths of an inch in diameter) cut as many little balls as you can from each potato; throw these balls into boiling-hot lard, and fry (about five minutes) until done, when they must be skimmed out immediately. It is more convenient to fry them in a wire-basket (see page 53). Sprinkle salt over them as soon as done. It is a very good way of cooking potatoes as a garnish for beefsteak or game. The cuttings of the potatoes left after taking out the balls can be boiled and mashed. These potatoes must be served when done, or the crusts will lose their crispness.
It requires a little plane, or potato or cabbage cutter, to cut these potatoes. Two or three fine, large potatoes (ripe new ones are preferable) are selected and pared. They are cut, by rubbing them over the plane, into slices as thin or thinner than a wafer. These are placed for a few moments in ice, or very cold water, to become chilled. Boiling lard is now tested, to see if it is of the proper temperature. The slices must color quickly; but the fat must not be so hot as to give them a dark color.
Place a salt-box on the hearth; also a dish to receive the cooked potatoes at the side; a tin plate and perforated ladle should be at hand also. Now throw, separately, five or six slices of the cold potato into the hot lard; keep them separated by means of the ladle until they are of a delicate yellow color; skim them out into the tin plate; sprinkle over some salt, and push them on the dish. Now pour back any grease that is on the tin plate into the kettle, and fry five or six slices at a time until enough are cooked. Two potatoes fried will make a large dishful.
It is a convenient dish for a company dinner, as it may be made early in the day; and by being kept in a dry, warm place (for instance, a kitchen-closet), the potato-slices will be crisp andnice five or six hours afterward. They are eaten cold, and are a pretty garnish around game, or, in fact, any other kind of meat.
Fried potatoes must absolutely be served the moment they come from the fire. Nothing deteriorates more by getting cold or keeping than fried potatoes (with the exception of Saratoga fried potatoes, which are served cold). They may be sliced rather thin, andsautédin a little hot butter, pepper, and salt. The French usually cut potatoes into little rhomboidal lengths, and throw them into boiling lard, or clarified grease (see page 44).
The fat should be quite hot, and the pieces of potato skimmed out the moment they receive a delicate color, and placed on a sieve by the side of the fire. Sprinkle over salt, and serve them in a hot dish.
Ingredients: Half a pound of cold boiled potatoes, two ounces of onion, a heaping tea-spoonful of minced parsley, butter the size of an egg.
Slice the cold boiled potatoes. Put the butter into a saucepan, and when hot throw in the onion (minced), which fry to a light color; add the sliced potatoes, which turn until they are thoroughly hot, and of light color also; then mix in the minced parsley, and serve immediately while they are quite hot. The potato-slices should be merely moistened with the butter dressing.
Add to four or five mashed potatoes (made according to receipt, see page 191) a little nutmeg, Cayenne pepper, and the beaten yolk of one egg. Beat the potatoes with a fork; roll them into little balls, which roll in egg and cracker-crumbs, and fry them in a wire-basket in boiling lard. For a change, a little minced parsley might be added.
At the New York Cooking-school the teacher passed the seasoned potatoes through a sieve, and then returned them to the fire, stirring them with a wooden spoon until they left the sidesand bottom of the pan. He said this prevented them fromcrackingwhen frying.
Pare carefully with a thin penknife some peeled potatoes, round and round, until all of each potato is pared to the centre. Do not attempt to cut the slices too thin, or they will break. Place them in a wire-basket, and dip into boiling lard. These potatoes are a pretty garnish around a roast, and are supposed to resemble roses.
Slice a generous pint of cold boiled potatoes. Put into the brightest of saucepans butter the size of a pigeon’s egg, and when it bubbles add an even tea-spoonful of flour (the sauce not to be thick), which cook a moment, and then pour in a cupful of milk (or, better, cream), salt, and pepper; stir with an egg-whisk until it boils, then mix in the potato-slices. When they are thoroughly hot they are ready to be served.
Stir two cupfuls of mashed potatoes, two table-spoonfuls of melted butter, and some salt to a fine, light, and creamy condition; then add two eggs well beaten separately, and six table-spoonfuls of cream; beat it all well and lightly together; pile it in rocky form on a dish; bake it in a quick oven until nicely colored. It will become quite light.
There is a machine which comes for the purpose of cutting shoo-fly potatoes; it costs two dollars and a half. The potatoes are cut into long strips like macaroni, excepting that the sides are square instead of round. They are thrown into boiling lard, sprinkled with salt as soon as done, and served as a vegetable alone, or as a garnish around meat.
The ruta-baga turnips are sweetest and best. Pare and cutthem in pieces of equal size; put them into well-salted boiling water, and, when perfectly tender, drain them dry; let them remain a moment on the fire to evaporate the water, then mash them in a stew-pan, in which is hot butter, pepper and salt to taste. Stir them over the fire until they are thoroughly mixed, and keep them in the stew-pan until just before serving, as turnips should be served very hot.
Cut three good-sized turnips into slices, or parallelograms, as long as the turnip, and about half an inch thick. If they are not young and tender, they should be boiled until half done; but they should not be boiled at first if young. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into a saucepan; when hot, put in the pieces of turnips, and fry them to a light-brown color. When done, add a heaping tea-spoonful of sugar; mix, and then pour in a tea-cupful of stock (boiling water would answer, but not so well); put this at the side of the fire to simmer until they are done, adding a little pepper and salt. Now put a little more butter, the size of a walnut, into a saucepan, adding a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; mix, and add a little lukewarm water. When smoothly mixed, add the sauce of the turnips; when both are well mixed, add the turnip slices; they are then ready to serve.
Parboil them; then, after cutting lengthwise,sautéthem to a light-brown in a little hot butter or drippings.
This is undoubtedly the best manner of cooking parsnips: Scrape, and, if large, cut them; put them into well-salted boiling water, and boil until tender; then mash them, adding to four or five parsnips a heaping tea-spoonful of flour, one or two eggs well beaten, pepper and salt to taste. Form the mixture into small cakes three-quarters of an inch thick and two and a half inches in diameter, and fry them on both sides to a delicate brown in asautépan, with a little hot butter. Serve hot.
are best made into little cakes, as described for parsnip fritters. They may, however, be made smaller, in order to imitate fried oysters.
As you scrape them, throw them into a bowl of cold water, in which is mixed a table-spoonful of vinegar. When all are scraped, cut them either into half-inch lengths, or lengthwise into four pieces, which again cut into three-inch lengths; throw them into boiling water, in which are half a tea-spoonful of salt and one-third of a tea-spoonful of sugar to one quart of water. When done, drain, and mix them with white sauce, either drawn butter or a simple Bechamel.
The best mode of cooking carrots is to boil them with corned beef, and then serve them as a garnish around the meat. Carrots require a longer time to boil than almost any other vegetable. If large, boil them an hour and a half. It improves their appearance to cut them into shapes of balls or pears before boiling; or they may be cut into half-inch slices, and then shaped with the tin cutters (see page 55). These come in different sizes.
If they are winter beets, soak them overnight; in any case, be very careful not to prick or cut the skin before boiling, as they will then lose their color; put them into boiling water, and boil until tender. If they are served hot, pour a little melted butter, pepper, and salt over them. They are often served cold, cut into slices, with some vinegar over them, or cut into little dice and mixed with other cold vegetables, for a winter salad.
Trim off the outside leaves, and put the cauliflower into well-salted boiling water. Be careful to take it out as soon as tender, to prevent it dropping into pieces. Make, in a saucepan, a white sauce as follows: Put butter the size of an egg intothe saucepan, and when it bubbles stir in a scant half tea-cupful of flour; stir well with an egg-whisk until cooked; then add two tea-cupfuls of thin cream, some pepper and salt. Stir it over the fire until perfectly smooth. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower, and serve. Many let the cauliflower simmer in the sauce a few moments before serving. Thesauce Hollandaiseis very fine for cauliflower.