Chapter I: Part 1

A
HANDBOOK OF COOKERY

THE ART AND PRACTICE OF INNKEEPING.

By ALEXANDER F. PART.

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A GUIDE TO MODERN COOKERY.

By A. ESCOFFIER.

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THE COMPLETE INDIAN HOUSEKEEPER AND COOK.

By FLORA ANNIE STEEL and GRACE GARDINER.

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THE COOK’S DECAMERON.

By Mrs. W. J. WATERS.

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THE BELGIAN COOK BOOK

Edited by Mrs. BRIAN LUCK.

Cr. 8vo. 2s. 6d. net.

_London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, Ltd._

A
HANDBOOK OF COOKERY
FOR A SMALL HOUSE

BY
JESSIE CONRAD

_With a preface by_
Joseph Conrad

London
WILLIAM HEINEMANN, Ltd.

_First published, February, 1923._

_Printed in Great Britain_

PREFACE

Of all the books produced since the most remote ages by human talents and industry those only that treat of cooking are, from a moral point of view, above suspicion. The intention of every other piece of prose may be discussed and even mistrusted; but the purpose of a cookery book is one and unmistakable. Its object can conceivably be no other than to increase the happiness of mankind.

This general consideration, and also a feeling of affectionate interest with which I am accustomed to view all the actions of the writer, prompt me to set down these few words of introduction for her book. Without making myself responsible for her teaching (I own that I find it impossible to read through a cookery book) I come forward modestly but gratefully as a Living Example of her practice. That practice I dare pronounce most successful. It has been for many priceless years adding to the sum of my daily happiness.

Good cooking is a moral agent. By good cooking I mean the conscientious preparation of the simple food of every-day life, not the more or less skillful concoction of idle feasts and rare dishes. Conscientious cooking is an enemy to gluttony. The trained delicacy of the palate like a cultivated delicacy of sentiment stands in the way of unseemly excesses. The decency of our life is for a great part a matter of good taste, of the correct appreciation of what is fine in simplicity. The intimate influence of conscientious cooking by rendering easy the processes of digestion promotes the serenity of mind, the graciousness of thought, and that indulgent view of our neighbours’ failings which is the only genuine form of optimism. Those are its titles to our reverence.

A great authority upon North American Indians accounted for the sombre and excessive ferocity characteristic of these savages by the theory that as a race they suffered from perpetual indigestion. The Noble Red Man was a mighty hunter but his wives had not mastered the art of conscientious cookery. And the consequences were deplorable. The Seven Nations around the Great Lakes and the Horse-tribes of the Plains were but one vast prey to raging dyspepsia. The Noble Red Men were great warriors, great orators, great masters of outdoor pursuits; but the domestic life of their wigwams was clouded by the morose irritability which follows the consumption of ill-cooked food. The gluttony of their indigestible feasts was a direct incentive to counsels of unreasonable violence. Victims of gloomy imaginings, they lived in abject submission to the wiles of a multitude of fraudulent medicine men--quacks--who haunted their existence with vain promises and false nostrums from the cradle to the grave.

It is to be remarked that the quack of modern civilisation, the vendor of patent medicine, preys mainly upon the races of Anglo-Saxon stock who are also great warriors, great orators, mighty hunters, great masters of outdoor pursuits. No virtues apparently will avail for happiness if the righteous art of cooking be neglected by the national conscience. We owe much to the fruitful meditations of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen--the kitchen of the small house, the abode of the preponderant majority of the people. And a sane view of life excludes the belief in patent medicine. The conscientious cook is the natural enemy of the quack without a conscience; and thus his labours make for the honesty and favour the amenity of our existence. For a sane view of life can be no other than kindly and joyous, but a believer in patent medicine is steeped in the gloom of vague fears, the sombre attendants of disordered digestion.

Strong in this conviction I introduce this little book to the inhabitants of the little houses who are the arbiters of the nation’s destiny. Ignorant of the value of its methods I have no doubt whatever as to its intention. It is highly moral. There cannot be the slightest question as to that; for is it not a cookery book?--the only product of the human mind altogether above suspicion.

In that respect no more need, or indeed can, be said. As regards the practical intention I gather that no more than the clear and concise exposition of elementary principles has been the author’s aim. And this too is laudable, because modesty is a becoming virtue in an artist. It remains for me only to express the hope that by correctness of practice and soundness of precept this little book will be able to add to the cheerfulness of nations.

JOSEPH CONRAD.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE v

A FEW INTRODUCTORY WORDS 1

ON KITCHEN REQUISITES 4

TREATMENT OF VEGETABLES 8

BREAKFAST DISHES, ENTRÉES, SAVOURIES,
STUFFINGS, SAUCES, HORS D’ŒUVRES, SANDWICHES 25

SOUPS AND STOCKS 63

BEEF 71

MUTTON 78

VEAL AND PORK 84

FISH 89

FOWLS AND GAME BIRDS 96

VEGETABLES AND SALADS 102

PASTRIES, SWEETS AND CAKES 115

_A Handbook of Cookery_

_For a Small House_

A FEW INTRODUCTORY WORDS

Cooking ought not to take too much of one’s time. One hour and a half to two hours for lunch, and two and a half for dinner is sufficient, providing that the servant knows how to make up the fire in order to get the stove ready for use. Most girls will quickly learn to do that and how to put a joint properly in the oven. For my part I never went into the kitchen before half-past eleven for a half-past one lunch of three dishes. But once the cooking is begun one must give all one’s attention and care to it. No dish, however simple, will cook itself. You must not leave the kitchen while the cooking is going on--unless of necessity and only for a very few minutes at a time.

The bane of life in a small house is the smell of cooking. Very few are free from it. And yet it need not be endured at all. This evil yields to nothing more heroic than a simple but scrupulous care in all the processes in making food ready for consumption. That is why your constant presence in the kitchen is recommended. Unremitting care should be directed to the following points:

No saucepan should be allowed of course to boil over.

No frying pan should ever be put on the fire without the butter or lard being first placed in it, and that not before the pan is required for use.

No joint should be placed in the oven so high as to allow the fat to splutter against the roof of the oven.

No joint should be baked in a tin which is too small for it.

No vegetables should be cooked without a sufficient amount of water in the saucepan and no green vegetables should be cooked with the lid on.

No frying pan while in use should be allowed to remain on the fire with only the fat in it. A piece of whatever you are frying, bacon, fish, fritters should be left in till another piece is placed in the fat.

The pan must be removed directly finished with.

No fat once used for frying should be kept for future use. The economy is not worth making. The fat, for instance, in which potatoes have been fried will always contain a certain amount of moisture and the next lot of potatoes fried in it will turn out greasy and flabby. Fried potatoes should be crisp and melting in the mouth and if properly prepared make a delicate dish for a discriminating palate.

In the same way the fat used for fish however finely strained will contain particles of fish or breadcrumbs which will be certain to catch and cause an offensive smell. And the fish fried in such second-hand fat may perhaps be eatable but will certainly not be worth eating.

The above recommendations are founded on personal experience. The author advances them with the greater confidence because she had to find them out for herself. They present no difficulties in practice. If they are exactly followed, and due regard is paid also to incidental remarks of the same nature contained in the body of the book, your little house need never be invaded by the smell of cooking, generally so offensive and always unnecessary, which too often meets one in the hall and in nine cases out of ten--if not in every case--means simply that good food is being spoiled in the kitchen.

The recipes in this book are calculated for a household of four persons.

GENERAL REMARKS ON KITCHEN REQUISITES AND THEIR CARE

This small book may be called the A. B. C. of cookery and the writer is mainly anxious to give her experiences as a general guide and help both for cooking and the preparing of an appetizing meal.

Take for instance either a small flat in town or a cottage in the country with one maid. It is quite possible to have two dishes for breakfast with toast, tea or coffee, and to vary those dishes for every day in the week. Easy breakfast dishes will be found in the body of the book. All the statements in the book will justify themselves if the directions are carefully followed.

To begin with let us furnish our kitchen with those most necessary utensils which should always be kept either in a drawer in the dresser or in a dry cupboard. We shall need several enamelled basins of various sizes, a fish slice, vegetable slice, wire salad basket, one or two wooden spoons, two large iron ones, a good toasting fork; a small Dutch-oven to hang in front of the fire (either to cook bloaters, or chops, or even a steak if one prefers that form of cooking to frying); an apple corer, a potato ricer, one or two enamelled frying pans of various sizes and depth. It is best to keep the pan that is to be used for omelettes for that purpose alone, also the one that is to be used for making pancakes. Care should be taken in purchasing these articles as you will often find that some frying-pans will be deeper in the middle while others will be found to rise and be deepest round the edges. These are serious defects because the one that rises in the centre will be useless for either omelettes or pancakes; the one that sinks in the middle would be equally unsatisfactory as both will be found to catch.

A double saucepan will be needed either for boiling milk or making porridge. We must not forget a fish kettle and a steamer. The care of the tea-kettle is also important. Once the tea is made and the kettle not needed for a time, the water should be turned out and the kettle removed from the stove. If it is allowed to remain boiling or nearly empty on the stove it will quickly become coated on the inside and the water thick and cloudy. We will need an enamelled cullender, a large cheese grater, a nutmeg grater, some cake tins of different sizes, and pie-dishes. Our choice of saucepans should also be carefully considered; it should contain at least two large iron ones and the rest may be enamel. We need two or three baking tins, some china and block-tin moulds for jellies and a selection of fire-proof earthenware of various shapes and sizes; wire strainers, to put under fish or fried vegetables to drain them; an egg poacher, an egg-boiler which is so much more reliable than even the best memory or the most accurate clock. There is this golden rule that must always be observed: Never attempt to make an omelette unless your fire is hot enough to cook it with the top ring of the stove on. This rule of course applies also to the pancakes, fritters, or to any form of frying. For if you are frying a steak or cutlets, fish, potatoes or bacon, you will require to put the top of the stove on after the first few minutes. Otherwise your meat or fish will be liable to burn on the surface and remain raw inside.

All the utensils must be washed in hot soda water and thoroughly dried before putting them away. Having regard to the fact that soda is most injurious to one’s hands, and whether for the mistress or maid the care and appearance of one’s hands is of great importance, it is best to place the saucepans, pans, etc. (not earthenware) on the stove with a certain amount of water and a good piece of soda, and let them stand to soak on the side of the hot stove, together with such articles as ricer, poacher, strainer, etc. When ready to wash them up scour well with a long-handled pot brush, pour off the soda water, rinse in clean hot water, and dry with a cloth. They can then be placed on the rack above the stove to dry thoroughly. In this way the hands need not come in contact with the soda water at all.

We shall also need a nice smooth pastry board, a rolling pin, and a small board for chopping parsley or mint. The meat chopper and the mincer and the meat-saw will require to be kept perfectly clean and dry to avoid rust, and should always be carefully wiped with a dry cloth before being used. Should earthenware cooking-vessels or pie-dishes become burnt, as is sometimes unavoidable, a little rough cooking salt, or a little ashes rubbed on the burnt surface will be found effective.

ON THE TREATMENT OF VEGETABLES

_With a Few Illustrative Recipes_

Great care should be taken in the use of an onion. One often finds that if by accident a knife used for cutting an onion has been overlooked and it comes in contact with any article of food the flavour of the onion will spoil everything. It is also a fact that if an onion is cut before it is put into soup or sauce, the soup at once becomes cloudy, while on the other hand if it is merely peeled and put in whole, soup or sauce will remain perfectly clear. Then again for onion sauce or soup which would be made with milk, you must never put in any salt or any other ingredient till _after_ the milk has boiled. If the onion is added before, the milk will curdle and be spoilt.

If you want to fry onions for steak, etc., have some good beef dripping already melted in a baking tin and when it is boiling put in the quantity of onions you may wish to cook cut in thin slices (cut always round the onion) then add salt and pepper to taste and bake in a steady oven, turning them once or twice with the blade of a knife.

For stuffing for either meat or poultry never put the onions in water. Cut thin as above directed (never chop) and _boil_ in a deep frying pan in butter. By boiling I mean using a larger quantity of fat and not allowing the onions to be browned: one-fourth lb. will be quite sufficient for stuffing intended for a goose. Have ready on the board the crumb of a stale white loaf rubbed through a cheese-grater, and from four to five large sage leaves chopped fine. Mix the two together with pepper and salt to taste, turn the whole contents of the pan into the crumbs and chop finely all together. In this way the stuffing will be found moist and will not repeat after eating.

In cooking green vegetables use common soda not bi-carbonate. They should be always put into _boiling_ water.

Fresh peas should never be shelled over night and should be kept in a covered dish after shelling till it is time for them to be cooked. Peas will become quite tough if exposed to the air for any length of time. Always put into boiling water, never add salt or soda till the peas are boiling. Scarlet runner beans should only be cut in strips in time for boiling as the edges become hard and dry if left for more than an hour. These are best kept in cold water. Dwarf beans should be treated in the same manner, but can be served with only the ends and edges removed.

All salads should be put into a bowl of cold water with a good piece of salt for not more than ten minutes before needed. A wire basket swung round vigorously will be found the best mode of drying all salads before dressing.

If lettuce is to be cooked, cos-lettuce will be found better than the cabbage variety. It will become greatly reduced in the cooking and is much improved by being lightly sauté in a frying pan in which a finely shredded spring onion has been lightly fried in a little butter. Form into small mounds with a tablespoon, and serve very hot.

Cabbage and cauliflower should be put for awhile before cooking into a bowl of cold water with a good piece of salt, head down and the stump cut four times across.

Spinach requires washing in several waters with a liberal quantity of salt. But the last water without salt. Have ready a large saucepan at least half full of boiling water. If, as some people direct, you put spinach into a nearly dry saucepan on the assumption that it has absorbed enough water to be cooked in, there will be an unpleasant smell. Add salt and a piece of ordinary soda about as big as a large pea. Boil with the lid off till quite tender. The spinach should then be a beautiful shade of green. Treat sorrel the same way; only it will be noticed that it will change colour directly it is put into the boiling water, becoming a greeny yellow, and is slightly acid in taste. It is usually eaten with veal, with poached eggs served on it, or as a dish by itself served with fried bread round the edge.

Tomatoes are always very useful and can be accommodated in many different ways. For a breakfast dish--take, for two persons, four nice sound tomatoes. Place in a large basin and scald with boiling water over them. The skin will then peel off quite easily leaving the tomatoes perfectly whole. Cut into slices and put into a cold pan with a piece of butter about the size of a tablespoon and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place on the fire and break the tomatoes in the butter as they cook. Let them fry frequently and serve under poached eggs. Another way: Take four or more tomatoes, remove the stalk but not the skin. Cut the top off, scoop the fruit out leaving a wall, have ready some chopped lean ham, chicken or other meat, add a little onion to the inside which has been taken out of the tomatoes, pepper and salt. Put into a small frying pan, and fry lightly, put the mixture into the tomato, have a little dripping melted in a baking tin, place the tomatoes into it, when hot put the top on the tomato to form a lid and bake from 15 to 20 minutes.

In preparing mushrooms, peel carefully the skin, gently pull the stalk out and lay them dark side down in a little cold water with a good knob of cooking salt, this will remove any grit or insects. Have ready a flat frying pan large enough to take the mushrooms lying flat; lay each one dark side down and boil in butter gently for about seven minutes, turn them over with the blade of a knife and let them continue cooking for another ten minutes to a quarter of an hour; pepper and salt to taste. Or in another way, take a large flat frying pan; put into it about an ounce of butter, two tablespoonfuls of best malt vinegar, place over a quick fire and let it burn slightly. That is to say it is ready when it smokes. Lay the mushrooms as before directed, proceed in the same way, adding only a little finely chopped onion in the centre of each mushroom, place dark side up either on toast buttered or on a flat dish, pour over the butter from the pan and serve very hot. Sprinkle thinly with chopped onion after the mushrooms are in the dish.

Mushroom rissoles make an excellent breakfast dish and may be served in little stone marmites instead of pastry. Carefully wash mushrooms as directed above. Take a little strong beef gravy (not bovril or other meat essence) cut the mushrooms into lengths, each one into four or five, put them into a small saucepan with pepper and salt and enough gravy to cover, stew for an hour. Thicken with a little flour mixed smoothly with water. This can be kept over night and warmed in the morning.

Turnips make a very good dish with roast pork, treated as follows: Carefully peel ten or twelve nice firm turnips, reject the woolly as they are not worth cooking (except for flavouring); cut into slices, then into lengths, then into small squares (the appearance of a dish is as important as the taste); boil gently for about half an hour or until tender, strain and serve very hot with a little melted butter poured over them, pepper and salt to taste.

Carrots, if very young, must on no account be peeled, but only lightly scraped and then cooked in a covered saucepan till tender. Serve very hot with a little melted butter and a little finely chopped parsley sprinkled over them. Care should be taken not to boil too long as these tender young vegetables are apt to become soft and tasteless. When the carrots are older and bigger they should be carefully peeled and cut in rings about one-eighth of an inch thick. There is also this pretty and appetising way to serve carrots. Cook them as above directed and have ready the following in a lined saucepan (double saucepan): a half pint of boiling milk with salt to taste, one and a half level tablespoonfuls of household flour mixed smoothly in a basin with a half ounce of butter. Should the butter be hard and difficult to mix smooth, place the basin on the stove till the butter is soft enough to handle with a firm spoon. When mixed pour the boiling milk straight into the flour and butter stirring all the time, and always the same way; put back into the double saucepan and stir till it boils, add the cooked carrot and serve very hot as an additional vegetable or as a separate dish. Should the sauce be sticky or too thick judgment which will come with experience will quickly show the error to be a little too much flour or careless mixing. This sauce is also useful to compose a lunch dish with, by adding to it some chopped roast chicken and a thin slice of onion instead of carrots. Serve in a rather deep dish with croutons of fried bread or dry toast round the edge. A tin of prawns can be used instead of chicken in which case a small teaspoonful of anchovy sauce may be added at the last, instead of salt, as the prawns may be already a little salt.

Potatoes are to my mind one of the most ill-used vegetables we have. They require simple care to make them a useful and welcome addition to at least two meals in the day. Too often I have found the greatest carelessness in the cooking of a simple potato. Often at an English inn potatoes are impossible, even more so than other vegetables, and yet we English people have the best potatoes in the world! It is indeed a fact that in the case of the poor potato, God sends the food, and the devil the cooks! One common error is to peel the potatoes hours before they are to be cooked and to leave them in water; another to peel them (because the weather is cold) in quite hot water, or, worse still, then shut them down in a saucepan on the side of the stove ever so long before they are required. In this way the potato is spoilt before it has even boiled. It is quite possible to use up even cold potatoes in an appetising manner. None need ever be wasted if the following hints are taken and the sound advice of many years’ experience is followed. For new potatoes pick out those as much of a size as possible, carefully scrape them, remove any eyes, rinse in clear cold water and put into enough boiling water to cover well; add a sprig of mint (in one piece) and a piece of salt put in a saucepan preferably not iron and boil gently till tender which can easily be found by trying them with a fork. When cooked, strain, remove the mint, put into the saucepan a knob of butter while the potatoes are there and serve as quickly as possible with a little finely chopped parsley on them. The object of the butter is not only to improve the taste and appearance but it also helps to prevent the sort of preserved taste one so often gets in hotel cooking. As the potatoes get older it is better to put them to boil into cold water, and directly they are too old to scrape freely, no mint is necessary or advisable. Some potatoes are best strained before they are quite cooked and then shut down in the saucepan to finish in their steam. If the potatoes are not to be used at once (say when a meal is delayed longer than expected for some reason), it is a good idea either to rice them in a ricer or to mash them. In that way they will not have an unpleasant taste and can be kept hot for some time and still be quite palatable.

Often one has some cold potatoes left say from lunch, cut them into slices, put about ½ an oz. of butter into a frying pan and when melted and hot lay each slice of potato flat in the hot butter, fry quickly over a brisk fire till they attain a golden-brown colour. Care must be taken that they do not burn.

Cold potatoes can also be used for hot cakes as follows: Take the remains of any boiled potatoes, break them into a bowl, take a breakfast cup and a half of flour (for this quantity of flour about the value of eight potatoes would be necessary) rub them smoothly into the flour, add two ounces of butter, salt, a little baking-powder (unless self-raising flour is used) mix as for pastry with a little milk (sour will do) and if possible an egg beaten into it, form into small cakes and bake on larded paper in a quick oven, serve hot with sugar and butter to be spread on them.

For fried potatoes care should be taken to follow these directions carefully: Peel your potatoes and cut them into slices about one-half an inch thick, then into strips, each slice let us say into four, let them lay in a bowl of cold water till wanted for frying. Take a large deep frying pan in which you have melted one-fourth pound of best tub lard, place over a quick fire taking care not to let it burn, and when it is ready (which is easily found out by dropping one piece of potato into the fat--it should sizzle at once), take the potatoes out of the water by hand and drop straight into the boiling lard. Turn carefully from time to time with a knife blade. Remove them with a slice into a vegetable dish in which there is a strainer (stone for preference), and place in the oven with an open door till required; but serve as soon as possible. Never put the cover on the dish or allow the oven door to be shut as the potatoes would not then keep quite crisp. Never add salt till ready in the dish, when a little should be sprinkled over the potatoes.

For straw potatoes proceed in the same way; only these will require less time for cooking and will need to be cut very much thinner and smaller.

For soufflé potatoes cut them into thin slices and dry them on a clean cloth. Lay them in a little milk for a moment and then put them into the boiling fat straight out of the milk. If these directions are carefully followed there should be a crisp brown bubble on each side of the slice of the potato. These also must not be covered or have the oven door closed on them.

There is also another simple way of treating an old potato. Often toward the end of the year when one’s potatoes run large and we are anxious to give a dish a dainty appearance we find that the large potato served whole looks clumsy. If the potatoes are carefully peeled and any unsightly blemishes are removed such as the eye or as so often happens there are bluey patches due to a bruise perhaps on the potatoes otherwise perfectly sound, the following hint may be found both useful and economical. Take a stout teaspoon and scoop spoonfuls from the _outside_ of a big potato. (The broken remains can be used in soup say either beef or mutton stock. Recipe for this with soups.) When you have sufficient potatoes ready you can either fry in dripping (in which case do not attempt to make them crisp) or boil them very gently, or bake them under a joint, etc. They will be best baked or fried. They can then be served laid round a dish of fish (fried or boiled) or round a dish of roast meat previously carved and laid down the centre of a dish or with kidneys and bacon or with liver and bacon.

Celery used as a vegetable will be found very palatable cooked in the following manner. Take two or three heads of celery, wash carefully in fresh cold water and a little salt, have ready any little beef, veal, or chicken stock, bring this to a boil and cook the celery in it. From 30 to 40 minutes should be long enough to render the celery soft. Serve in a vegetable dish with the gravy poured over it, sufficient only to just cover, having previously stirred a teaspoonful of cornflour mixed with cold water into it.

Beet-root may be prepared either cold to serve with cold beef or as a hot vegetable dish best served with roast mutton.

For cold, have four or five round small beet-roots washed, handling them carefully and taking the greatest care not to break off any tender shoots, and avoiding cutting the leaf-end too near the top of the beet-root. Have a saucepan large enough to take the beet-root without breaking it. Boil gently with a good piece of salt from 40 minutes to an hour, or even a little longer, according to the size. Prick with a carving fork to see if quite tender, then lay them on a strainer and when cool enough to hold in the fingers remove the peel and cut into thin rings. Lay them in a dish of vinegar (a deep glass dish is best), dust over two teaspoonfuls of powdered sugar, and allow to get thoroughly cold before serving. The object of the sugar in the vinegar is to draw the colour out of the beet-root and to remove the sourness. More or less sugar may be used according to individual taste but the proportion given is generally right.

The beet-root already boiled may be used for the following dish:

Cut into a little thicker slices, then into strips, then into little squares. Have ready in a deep enamel frying pan a quantity of melted butter, put the diced beet-root into it with a pinch of salt and a little cream (or, if not available, a little milk) and bring the mixture to a boil, taking care not to break the vegetable when stirring with a knife blade. Mix a teaspoonful of cornflour with a little milk, stir into the beet-root while on the stove, serve round the dish of sliced mutton or separately very hot.

Leeks can often be made to take the place of onions and are a very useful vegetable cooked in either of the following ways. Take from twelve to twenty leeks, wash well in cold water, being careful to remove all grit. It will be found necessary nearly always to split them, to be sure that they are quite clean. Stew them in beef stock till quite tender. (This vegetable does not require any soda in the cooking and is best cooked in stock.) Strain and serve when quite tender. Another way is to cut each leek into four, lengthwise, and bake in dripping, as directed to do with the onion.

The Drumhead or white cabbage has no appearance if cooked only as a cabbage, but a useful dish may be made in the following manner. Take a large cabbage, remove the white stiff stalk running down the leaf with a sharp knife. Put the leaves into a large saucepan of boiling water, cook as for ordinary cabbage except that the leaves will all be separate. When tender spread on a large dish to cool. Prepare some finely minced meat, beef, ham, veal or mutton, chicken or lamb, about half a teacup of freshly boiled rice salted to taste. (The value of two tablespoonfuls of rice will be enough to make half a teacup.) The rice to have been boiled in water and not too soft. Mix with the minced meat and having spread each cabbage leaf open, fill with the mixture, leaving enough of the leaf clear to roll round the meat. Have a deep frying pan on the fire half full of either beef or mutton stock, bring to a boil and place each stuffed leaf in the stock and cook for ten minutes; remove with a slice on to a deep dish and serve at once very hot.

RECIPES

BREAKFAST DISHES, ENTRÉES, SAVOURIES, STUFFINGS, SAUCES, HORS D’ŒUVRES, AND SANDWICHES

_General Remarks_

Small savouries are useful to lengthen a lunch or dinner without making the whole meal too heavy.

Their materials are often what is left over of various dishes. Therefore the remnants that are kept should be always put away with care and separated from each other.

Cut onion should never be kept in the safe containing butter or milk.

Raw bacon should be laid in the dish on the rind.

A tin of sardines should never be left open more than twenty-four hours.

Tinned salmon must be used at once.

Bottled tomatoes may be partly used and re-corked for a few days.

Bottled olives must be re-corked tightly after use. Take care that the liquid covers the olives. The same for capers, chillies, and anchovies.

The salad basket and potato ricer should be dried on the shelf over the stove after being wiped.

When boiling milk enters into the composition of any dish the saucepan should be first wetted inside with cold water.

_1. Omelettes_

_Plain._ Break four new laid eggs into a basin and beat lightly with a fork. Add a pinch of salt and a dessertspoonful of milk. Have ready in an enamelled frying pan about half an ounce of hot butter, tilting the pan to cause the butter to run all over it. Place the pan over the fire with the stove top on. Pour the beaten eggs into it. Run the knife round the rim of the omelette. Cook not more than seven minutes. Sprinkle over a few fine herbs or a little chopped parsley and fold it over twice on a very hot dish. The omelette when dished should be moist in the centre.

_Truffled._ Prepare the eggs as above. Chop finely three truffles and beat into the eggs. Cook in the same manner as the plain omelette and serve with the rest of the bottle of truffles cut in thin slices and laid down the centre of the omelette after it is folded.

_Savoury._ Take the livers of two fowls, one rasher of bacon, a slice of onion and a pinch of mixed herbs. Melt in the frying pan a piece of butter about the size of a walnut. Put the livers, bacon, and herbs into the hot butter. Fry very gently for about seven to ten minutes and when cooked chop very fine. Cook the omelette as above and spread the mixture along the middle while still in the pan. Turn the omelette sides over and serve on a hot dish.

_Cheese._ Prepare the eggs as above. Rub on a cheese grater a piece of Gruyère cheese to make about four tablespoonfuls. Turn the eggs into the pan. Dust three parts of grated cheese over the omelette whilst still in the pan. Dish with a slice and dust over it the remainder of the cheese; fold and place it in the oven for one minute.

_Green Peas._ Prepare the eggs as above. Take a teacup of cold cooked green peas and stir them into the basin with the eggs. Pour into the hot butter in the pan as for a plain omelette, fold over with the slice and serve on a hot dish. It will be noticed that sometimes the omelette will rise in a bubble and smoke. Directly this is noticed pass the blade of the knife under from the sides and let the air out, otherwise it will burn.

Cold potatoes cut into discs can be used instead of the peas for the omelette.

_2. Eggs and Bacon_

This dish is perhaps the most appetising breakfast dish and yet often the most unpleasant on account of the smell. Cooked in the following way there should be no smell at all. Take the rashers of bacon and carefully remove all the rind. Use preferably an enamelled frying pan in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut has been made hot. Lay the bacon in this. The stove should be hot enough to cook the bacon with the top on. Turn the bacon twice and cook for eight to ten minutes. Dish on a hot flat dish. Allow an egg for each rasher, breaking the eggs lightly without breaking the yolks into a cup one at a time and turn into the pan. Allow the boiling fat to run round the eggs. Cook for three minutes and dish with a slice placing one egg on each rasher of bacon. The pan when removed from the stove must not be put into the sink as the cold water there will cause it to smell unpleasantly.

_3. Boiled Bacon_

Take not less than two pounds cut out of the small back. Plunge in a saucepan three parts full of boiling water. Boil briskly for one hour.

When put on a dish the rind will tear off quite easily. Remove it and dust the part over thickly with baked breadcrumbs.

_4. Sausages_

Prick the sausages well with a fork. Lay in a flat meat dish and cook for twenty to twenty-five minutes not on the stove but in a fairly quick oven. This prevents all smell and they will be well cooked.

_5. Sausage Rolls_

Prick one pound of best pork sausages and bake in the oven for twenty minutes on a flat dish. Cut each sausage lengthwise, roll round each half a thin rasher of raw bacon, put into a paste (as for meat pie, rec: 156), wrap in hot buttered paper and bake for another twenty minutes.

_6. Eggs in Gravy_

Boil two or three eggs for not longer than three minutes, drop them for a few seconds into a bowl of cold water to chill them sufficiently to be held with the fingers. Carefully remove the shell without breaking the shape of the egg. Lay each carefully in a buttered dish side by side. The eggs if properly cooked will immediately acquire a flat shape. Pour over them a little good meat gravy and serve at once. The eggs thus prepared should not be hard; but it is difficult sometimes when removing the shell to leave the egg whole. Great care is required.

_7. Eggs with Chicken Livers_

Put into a little stone marmite dish (fire-proof) a little butter and half the liver of a good sized fowl. (Two fowls’ livers would make four or five little dishes.) When the liver is nearly cooked (the little dishes having been placed each on the hot top plate of the stove), drop a whole egg without breaking the yolk into each and allow to cook from three to five minutes. Serve in the dishes in which they have been cooked.

Eggs can be also poached in marmite dishes but instead of butter you must half fill each dish with fresh cream and add a pinch of salt and a pinch of chopped parsley at the last moment on top of each egg.

_8. Herring Roes on Toast_

Take the roes from the tin or glass box, gently part with a knife, put them into a shallow pie-dish with a little pepper and butter. Cover with dish cover and stand in the oven for ten minutes. Have ready hot buttered toast and lay the roes on the toast. Put a little white pepper on them and a tiny scrap of butter and replace in the oven for a moment before serving.

_9. Poached Eggs on Anchovy Toast_

Butter several good slices of toast and spread with a little anchovy paste. Take an egg poacher and put over the fire to boil. Turn an egg into each ring, being careful not to break the yolk. Cook for three minutes lightly. Pass the blade of the knife round each rim of the egg, pinch the machine to open it, the eggs then remaining on the flat slice. Run the knife under each one and it is easy then to place them on the toast.

_10. Poached Eggs and Tomato Toast_

Scald four tomatoes and remove the skin, slice them into a small enamelled frying pan in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut has been made hot, a little pepper and salt. Chop them with a knife whilst frying, thus reducing them to a paste. Spread this over the hot buttered toast and put a poached egg on the top.

_11. Breakfast Dish_

Have the paste made ready as for meat pie, take six thin rashers of bacon and cut them in halves. Roll the paste thin on the board and lay half a rasher of bacon on each piece of paste. Cut the paste a little bigger than the bacon. Dust a little finely chopped onion and a tiny pinch of sweet herbs over each piece of bacon. Roll paste and bacon together (paste outside) and cook on hot buttered paper for fifteen minutes in a quick oven.

_12. Haricot Breakfast Dish_

Put to soak for twelve hours a pint of small haricot beans. Strain them and pick out the brown ones which are not needed. Turn them into a saucepan three parts full of boiling water with salt and a little pinch of soda. Boil gently for two hours, or until quite soft but whole; strain and put into a stone jar. Cover them with good beef stock. Add three cut rashers of bacon, fat and lean together, with one slice of very finely chopped onion and some tomato sauce (made after the recipe given with skinned tomatoes). Leave in the oven all night and make it hot in the morning before serving.

_13. Devilled Drumsticks_

Take four drumsticks of fowls, put half an ounce of fresh butter in an enamelled frying pan, make it hot and lay the drumsticks in it. Dust over them a little red pepper and about half a flat teaspoonful of some good curry powder. Roll them over and over in the butter and dish with a strainer.

_14. Devilled Sheep’s Kidneys on Toast_

Remove the skin from say two sheep’s kidneys and cut them in halves. Put into an enamelled frying pan about half ounce of fresh butter and make it hot. Lay the kidneys in the butter the cut side down. Cook over a brisk fire with the stove top off for five minutes. Turn once. Then replace the stove top and stand the frying pan again on it for five to ten minutes more. Have ready enough buttered toast to take half a kidney on each slice of toast. Dust the kidneys with a little red pepper before placing on the toast. Put on each kidney a little fresh butter about the size of a pea, place on the toast and serve very hot. Ox kidney may be used in the same way cut into slices.

_15. Croquettes_

Chop with a mincer very fine any remains of cold chicken or any cold meat with one ring of Spanish onion and a tiny pinch of salt and a drain of meat juice. Stir all this well in a plate, break into the mixture a freshly beaten egg, add a teaspoonful of finely rubbed breadcrumbs or rusk crumbs. Roll a tablespoonful at a time into another freshly beaten egg and then into the rolled rusk crumbs. Form into short sausage shapes or balls and fry in boiling lard or dripping for seven to ten minutes. Dish with a slice and serve hot, garnished with a little parsley.

Fish croquettes are made in the same way using any fish that may be left over, after carefully removing all the bones, and adding a little cold boiled potato.

_16. To Dress Cold Fowl_

Cut into small pieces, leg generally in two. Put into a saucepan and cover with milk, first putting a little water in the saucepan to prevent the milk burning. Grate half a nutmeg, add pepper and salt. When it has boiled, but not before, slice half of a fairly large Spanish onion into the saucepan. Boil for three-quarters of an hour. Thicken before serving with a little flour and butter, which should be mixed very smooth with a little of the boiling milk out of the saucepan. Bring to a boil and serve in the saucepan with a napkin wrapped round it.

_17. Shepherd’s Pie_

Cut the remains of any cold roast beef into small pieces and place in a dish. Slice about a quarter of a Spanish onion finely on the top, add two tomatoes cut very small, pepper and salt, half a teaspoonful of Worcester sauce, half a teaspoonful of bovril stirred in half a teacupful of water, or a little meat juice. Place in the oven uncovered for a quarter of an hour. Then take out and fill up the dish with mashed potatoes. Place a few thin slices of onion on the top, a piece of butter, and replace in the oven for three-quarters of an hour so as to brown the top nicely.

_18. Tripe and Onions_

Wash in cold water and remove all fat from two pounds of fresh tripe and cut into narrow strips about two inches long. Melt in an enamelled frying pan about two ounces of fresh butter turning the tripe into it. Fry lightly, not allowing to brown. Dish with a slice into a stone saucepan, leaving the butter in the pan. In the same butter fry lightly one and a half Spanish onions sliced and add to the tripe in the saucepan, with a little salt and a glass of sherry, one piece of loaf sugar, and a finely cut up carrot. Add enough water to cover and stew gently for one and a half hours. Thicken with a little flour mixed smooth with cold water and serve in the stone saucepan with a table napkin tied round it.

_Note._ Pig’s trotters may be added to this dish but in this case they must be soaked for two hours before cooking and added to the tripe when cooked.

_19. Haricot Mutton_

Soak a pint of small haricot beans overnight, carefully pick out the brown ones and rinse through three waters in the morning. Have ready a metal saucepan with about three pints of water. When boiling, pour the haricots into it with a good pinch of salt and a small piece of soda. Boil gently for two and a half hours. They are then ready to be added to the mutton. Cut into small pieces two or three pounds of best end of neck of mutton, remove the fat and put the meat into a stone saucepan, cover with water, add one turnip cut into long pieces, one Spanish onion, pepper and salt and a pinch of fine herbs. Remove the scum as it rises and cook for two hours. Add then the beans which should be quite soft and peel of their own accord when exposed to the air. Thicken with a little carefully mixed flour and water and serve in the stone saucepan with a table napkin wrapped round it.

_20. Sweetbreads_

Soak for half an hour two sweetbreads in cold water with a pinch of salt. Drop them in boiling water. After twenty minutes take them out, remove the skin and roll them first in a well-beaten egg and then in rolled rusk crumbs. Bake in a tin in a quick oven for three-quarters of an hour with a large piece of butter or dripping. Place on a dish and after turning the fat out of the tin put in a little good meat juice and bring it to a boil over the fire. Add then a little smoothly mixed flour and water and when thickened sufficiently strain through a gravy strainer over the sweetbreads. Serve very hot.

_21. Sweetbreads--Another Way_

Soak for half an hour in cold water with a pinch of salt, then drop them into boiling water. At the end of twenty minutes take out and, after removing the outer skin, cut into slices. Have ready some fresh butter in an enamelled frying pan. Fry the sliced sweetbreads lightly for a quarter of an hour. Lay on a dish and squeeze a little lemon juice on each slice allowing a quarter of a lemon for the whole of the sweetbread.

_22. Steak and Kidney Pudding_

Take one and a half pounds of thick steak and cut into pieces of about an inch. Have an ox kidney cut into small pieces and a basin well buttered. With half a pound of beef suet, chopped fine, and two and a half to three breakfast-cups of self-raising flour, make a stiff paste, mixing with tepid water. Line the basin with the paste. Put the steak and kidney in, add about half a teaspoonful of salt, sprinkle a little dry flour over the meat, put the crust on and cover the basin with a wet cloth which should be tied securely with string. Boil for three and a half hours. At the end of that time take the cloth off and serve in the basin (stood in a dish) with a fluted paper collar round it. Make a small hole in the top of the pudding and pour in about half a teacupful of hot gravy made from any small pieces of meat left over before serving.

_23. Calf’s Kidney on Toast_

Skin and split in two a calf’s kidney. Melt in a frying pan about an ounce of fresh butter, and place the kidney in this with one very thin slice of Spanish onion for each half of kidney--one rasher of bacon, chopped very fine, to be put in the pan also. Cook as for sheep’s kidneys, but without the red pepper. Prepare some hot toast, lay upon it the slice of onion, which should be kept whole if possible, and then the kidney. Dust a little portion of the bacon over it with a little pepper and salt. Turn the butter out of the pan, put a little meat juice from under the dripping (about an egg-cupful) and half a tablespoonful of white wine, the juice of a quarter of a lemon (half a teaspoonful of vinegar will serve if the lemon is not available), thicken with a little flour and water (first mixed smooth), and pour through a gravy strainer over the kidney. Serve very hot. The best way to prepare the toast is as follows:--

Take as many pieces of dry bread as required and fry quickly in a little good dripping to a crisp brown. It should then remain quite crisp even when the gravy is turned over it.

_24. Bacon Pudding_