Chapter VIII: , but increase the ingredients to three or four times the (1)

quantity, according to the size of the joint. Lay over the veal, or not, as is most convenient, thin slices of half-boiled bacon, or of ham; press the forcemeat into the form of a short compact _rouleau_ and lay it in the centre of one side of the breast; then roll it up and skewer the ends closely with small skewers, and bind the joint firmly into good form with tape or twine. When thus prepared, it may be slowly stewed in very good veal stock until it is tender quite through, and which should be _hot_ when it is laid in; or embedded in the usual ingredients for braising (see Chapter IX., page 180), and sent to table glazed, sauced with an _Espagnole_, or other rich gravy, and garnished with carrots _à la Windsor_ (see page 335), or with sweetbread cutlets, also glazed.

Footnote 192:

This is very easily done by cutting through the skin down the centre
of each.

BREAST OF VEAL. SIMPLY STEWED.[193]

Footnote 193:

We give here the English receipt of an excellent practical cook for
“Stewed Breast of veal,” as it may be acceptable to some of our
readers, After it has been boned, flattened, and trimmed, season it
well, and let it lie for an hour or two (this, we do not consider
essential); then prepare some good veal forcemeat, to which let a
little minced shalot be added, and spread it over the veal If you have
any cold _tongue_ or lean of ham, cut it in square strips, and lay
them the short way of the meat that they may be shewn when it is
carved. Roll it up very tight, and keep it in good shape; enclose it
in a cloth as you would a jam-pudding, and lace it up well, then lay
it into a braising-pan with three onions, as many large carrots
thickly sliced, some spice, sweet herbs, and sufficient fresh
second-stock or strong veal broth to more than half cover it, and stew
it very gently over a slow fire for three hours: turn it occasionally
without disturbing the _braise_ which surrounds it. Glaze it before it
is sent to table, and serve it with Spanish sauce, or with rich
English brown gravy, flavoured with a glass of sherry; and garnish it
with stewed mushrooms in small heaps, and fried forcemeat balls.

Omit the forcemeat from the preceding receipt, and stew the joint tender in good veal broth, or shin of beef stock. Drain, and dish it. Pour a little rich gravy round it, and garnish it with nicely fried balls of the forcemeat No. 1, Chapter VIII., or with mushroom-forcemeat (No. 7). Mushroom-sauce is always an excellent accompaniment to a joint of veal. The liquor in which the breast is stewed or braised is too fat to serve as sauce until it has been cooled and cleared. The veal can be cooked without boning, but will have but an indifferent appearance. It should in that case be slowly brought to boil, and very gently simmered: about two hours and a half will stew it tender. The sweetbread, after being scalded, may be stewed with it for half the time, and served upon it.

_Obs._—The breast without the gristles, boned and filled with forcemeat, makes a superior roast. It may also be boiled on occasion, and served with balls of oyster-forcemeat in the dish; or with white mushroom-sauce instead.

COMPOTE DE PIGEONS (STEWED PIGEONS.)

The French in much of their cookery use more bacon than would generally be suited to a very delicate taste, we think. This bacon, from being cured without saltpetre, and from not being smoked, rather resembles salt pork in flavour: we explain this that the reader may, when so disposed, adapt the receipts we give here to an English table by omitting it. Cut into dice from half to three quarters of a pound of streaked bacon, and fry it gently in a large stewpan with a morsel of butter until it is very lightly browned; lift it out, and put in three or four young pigeons trussed as for boiling. When they have become firm, and lightly coloured, lift them out, and stir a large tablespoonful of flour to the fat. When this thickening (_roux_) is also slightly browned, add gradually to it a pint, or something more, of boiling veal-stock or strong broth; put back the birds and the bacon, with a few small button-onions when their flavour is liked, and stew the whole very gently for three quarters of an hour. Dish the pigeons neatly with the bacon and onions laid between them; skim all the fat from the sauce, reduce it quickly, and strain it over them. The birds should be laid into the stewpan with the breasts downwards.

The third, or half of a pottle of small mushrooms is sometimes added to this dish. It may be converted into a _compote aux petits pois_ by adding to the pigeons when the broth, in which they are laid, first begins to boil, a pint and a half of young peas. For these, a pint and a quarter, at the least, of liquid will be required, and a full hour’s stewing. The economist can substitute water for the broth. When the birds can be had at little cost, one, two, or more, according to circumstances, should be stewed down to make broth or sauce for the others.

_Obs._—Pigeons are excellent filled with the mushrooms _au beurre_, of page 329, and either roasted or stewed. To broil them proceed as directed for a partridge (French receipt), page 290.

MAI TRANK (MAY-DRINK).

(_German._)

Put into a large deep jug one pint of light white wine to two of red, and dissolve in it sufficient sugar to sweeten it agreeably. Wipe a sound China orange, cut it in rather thick slices, without paring it, and add it to the wine; then throw in some small bunches or faggots of the fragrant little plant called _woodruff_; cover the jug closely to exclude the air and leave it until the following day. Serve it to all _May-day visitors_. One orange will be sufficient for three pints of wine. The woodruff should be washed and well drained before it is thrown into the jug; and the quantity of it used should not be _very_ large, or the flavour of the beverage will be rather injured than improved by it. We have tried this receipt on a small scale with lemon-rind instead of oranges, and the mixture was very agreeable. Rhenish wine should properly be used for it; but this is expensive in England. The woodruff is more odorous when dried gradually in the shade than when it is fresh gathered, and imparts a pleasant fragrance to linen, as lavender does. It grows wild in Kent, Surrey, and other parts of England, and flourishes in many suburban gardens in the neighbourhood of London.

A VIENNESE SOUFFLÉ-PUDDING, CALLED SALZBURGER NOCKERL.

At the moment of going to press, we have received direct from Vienna the following receipt, which we cannot resist offering to the reader for trial, as we are assured that the dish is one of the most delicate and delicious soufflé-puddings that can be made.

(A) Take butter, four ounces; sugar in powder, three ounces; fine flour, one ounce and a half or two ounces; and the yellow of eight eggs; beat these together in a convenient sized basin till the mixture gets frothy. (The butter should probably first be beaten to cream.)

(B) Beat to snow the whites of the eight eggs.

(C) Take three pounds (or pints) of new milk, put it in an open stewpan over a gentle fire, and let it boil.

(D) Next, prepare a china casserole (enamelled stewpan—a copper one will do) by greasing its internal surface.

As soon as the milk boils, mix gently A and B together, and with a small spoon take portions of this shape and size and lay them over the surface of the boiling milk till it is entirely covered with them. Let them boil for four or five minutes to cook them; then put them in convenient order on the ground of the greased _casserole_ (stewpan). Go on putting in the same manner small portions of the mixture on the surface of the boiling milk, and when cooked, place a new layer of them in the stewpan over the first; and continue the same operation until the mixture is all consumed. Take now the remainder of the milk, and add it to the beaten yellow (yolks) of two eggs, some sugar, and some powdered vanilla. Pour this over the cooked pastry in the stewpan, and set it into a gently heated oven. Leave it there until it gets brown; then powder it with vanilla-sugar, and send it to the table.

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_Author’s Note._—The preceding directions were written by a physician of Vienna, at whose table the dish was served. It was turned out of the casserole, and served with the greatest expedition; but we think it would perhaps answer more generally here, to bake it in a _soufflé_ dish, and to leave it undisturbed. We would also suggest, that the yolk of a third egg might sometimes be needed to bind the mixture well together. A good and experienced cook would easily ascertain the best mode of ensuring the success of the preparation.

We must observe, that the form of the enamelled _stewpans_ made commonly in this country prevents their being well adapted for use in the present receipt: those of copper are better suited to it.

Half the proportion of the ingredients might, by way of experiment, be prepared and baked in a tart-dish, as our puddings frequently are; or in a small round cake mould, with a band of writing paper fastened round the top.

The vanilla sugar is prepared by cutting the bean up small, and pounding it with some sugar in a mortar, and then passing it through a very fine sieve.

The “cooked portions” of which the soufflé is principally composed are the shape, and about half the size of the inside of an egg-spoon. If somewhat larger, they would _possibly_ answer as well.

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INDEX.

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