CUCUMBER FILLED WITH NUT FORCEMEAT
One and a half ounces of onion (peeled), 1¹⁄₂ oz. butter, 3 ozs. pine kernels, 2 mushrooms, 1 oz. crumb from a milk loaf, ¹⁄₂ gill milk, 1 egg, seasoning, 1 large cucumber, soup vegetables for braising, brown vegetable stock, brown sauce.
One and a half ounces of onion (peeled), 1¹⁄₂ oz. butter, 3 ozs. pine kernels, 2 mushrooms, 1 oz. crumb from a milk loaf, ¹⁄₂ gill milk, 1 egg, seasoning, 1 large cucumber, soup vegetables for braising, brown vegetable stock, brown sauce.
Method.—Wash the pine kernels thoroughly in boiling water, changing it two or three times, then pass them through a nut-mill, or mincer; boil the onion for six minutes; drain it and chop it very finely; cleanse, peel, and mince the mushrooms. Melt one ounce of butter in an omelet (or sauté) pan, and fry the kernels, onion, and mushrooms together for ten minutes, stirring constantly. Melt half an ounce of butter in the milk; add the breadcrumb and cook gently until it is reduced to a paste, then mix it with the fried ingredients and pound all together in a mortar until thoroughly blended and very light; season with salt, pepper, and a little powdered mace, and after pounding an egg into the forcemeat pass it through a wire sieve. Peel the cucumber carefully, so that not a piece of skin is left (as this would give a bitter taste), and cut itthrough the middle with a sharp knife; remove the seeds with a large apple-corer and partly cook the cucumber in boiling, salted water, to which an atom of soda has been added. Then drain it very thoroughly on a soft cloth and fill the hollow space in the middle with the prepared forcemeat; put the pieces together neatly, wrap the cucumber in buttered muslin, securing it with narrow tape at the ends and in the middle, and place it in a stewpan which has been buttered and prepared with a layer of sliced soup vegetables; fry over a gentle heat for six minutes, then add two and a half gills of vegetable stock; cover the pan closely and braise the cucumber in the oven until it is tender. When done remove the muslin and serve the cucumber with chopped parsley sprinkled over it and surrounded by brown sauce flavoured with sherry.