Chapter V: Part 5

Butter a platter, on which spread the lobster mixture half an inch deep. When cold, form it into the shape of chops, pointed at one end; bread-crumb, egg, and crumb them again, and fry them in boiling lard. Stick a claw into the end of each lobster chop after it is cooked.

Place the chops in a circle, overlapping each other, on a napkin. Decorate the dish by putting the tail of the lobster in the centre, and its head, with the long horns, on the tail. Around the outside of the circle of chops arrange the legs, cut an inch each side of the middle joints, so that they will form two equal sides of a triangle.

A GOOD WAY TO PREPARE A LOBSTER.

Put into a saucepan butter the size of a small egg, and a tea-spoonful of minced onion. When it has cooked, sprinkle in a tea-spoonful of flour, which cook also; then stir in one cupful of the water in which the lobster was boiled, one cupful of milk, one cupful of strong veal or beef stock, pepper, and salt: add the meat of the boiled lobster, and when quite hot pour all in the centre of a hot platter. Decorate the dish with the lobster’s head in the centre, fried-bread diamonds (_croûtons_) around the outside; or in any prettier way you choose, with the abundant resources of lobster legs and trimmings.

FROGS.

Frogs are such a delicacy that it is a pity not to prepare them with care.

The hind legs only are used. They may be made into a broth the same as chicken broth, and are considered a very advantageous diet for those suffering with pulmonary affections.

FROGS FRIED.

Put them in salted boiling water, with a little lemon-juice, and boil them three minutes; wipe them; dip them first in cracker-dust, then in eggs (half a cupful of milk mixed in two eggs and seasoned with pepper and salt), then again in cracker-crumbs. When they are all breaded, clean off the bone at the end with a dry cloth. Put them in a wire basket and dip them in boiling lard, to fry. Put a little paper (see page 61) on the end of each bone; place them on a hot platter, in the form of a circle, one overlapping the other, with French pease in the centre. Serve immediately, while they are still crisp and hot.

SAUCES.

The French say the English only know how to make one kind of sauce, and a poor one at that. Notwithstanding the French understand the sauce question, it is very convenient to make the drawn butter, and, by adding different flavorings, make just so many kinds of sauce. For instance, by adding capers, shrimps, chopped pickles, anchovy paste, chopped boiled eggs, lobster, oysters, parsley, cauliflower, etc., one has caper, shrimp, pickle, anchovy, egg, and the other sauces. The drawn-butter sauce is simple, yet few make it properly, managing generally to have it insipid, and with flour uncooked. If a housekeeper has any pride about having a good table, she will be amply repaid for learning some of the French sauces, which are, at last, simple enough. We are often frightened to see many items in a receipt; we shake our heads dubiously at the trouble and extravagance of one receipt mentioning thyme, nutmeg, bay-leaf, mace, shallot, capers, pepper-corns, parsley, and, last of all the horrors, stock. As far as the herbs are concerned, an investment of twenty-five cents will purchase enough mace, thyme, bay-leaves, and pepper-corns for a year’s supply of abundant sauces, to say nothing of their uses for braising, _blanquettes_, etc. Five cents’ worth of shallots should last a long time; they are sold in all city markets, being only young forced onions. Capers would be extravagant if a bottleful, costing sixty cents, would not last a year in a small-sized family. I have already said enough about stock to show that one must be very incompetent if a little of it can not be at hand, made of trimmings and cheap pieces of meat and bones.

The use of mushrooms and truffles, which are comparatively cheap in France, can not be extensively introduced here. A little tin can, holding about a gill of tasteless truffles, costs three or four dollars: however, mushrooms are much less expensive, and infinitely better. A can of mushrooms costs forty cents, and is sufficient for several sauces and _entrées_.

Some persons raise mushrooms in their cellars. A small, rich bed in a dark place where the soil will not freeze, planted with mushroom spawn, will yield enough mushrooms for the family, and the neighbors besides, with very little trouble and expense.

The French white sauces differ from the English white sauce, as they are made with strong white stock, prepared with veal, or chickens, or both, and some vegetables for a basis. If one would learn to make the _sauce Bechamel_, it will be found an easy affair to prepare many delicious _entrées_, such as chicken in shells (_en coquille_), or in papers (_en papillote_), and mushrooms in crust (_croûte aux champignons_).

For boiled fish the _sauce Hollandaise_ is a decided success. In Paris every one speaks of this delicious sauce, and bribes the _chef de cuisine_ for the receipt. It is made without stock, and is very simple.

For fried fish the perfection of accompaniments is the _sauce Tartare_--a mere addition of some capers, shallots, parsley, and pickles to the _sauce Mayonnaise_.

When tomatoes are so abundant, it is unpardonable that one should never serve a tomato sauce with a beefsteak, and a score of other meat dishes.

For a chicken or a lobster salad, learn unquestionably the _sauce Mayonnaise_.

In the thickening of sauces, let it be remembered that butter and flour should be well cooked together before the sauce is added, to prevent the flour from tasting uncooked. In butter sauces, however, only enough butter should be used to cook the flour, the remainder added, cut in pieces, after the sauce is taken from the fire. This preserves its flavor.

DRAWN-BUTTER SAUCE.

Ingredients: Three ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, half a pint of water (or, better, white stock), and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Put two ounces of the butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles, sprinkle in the flour; stir it well with a wire egg-whisk until the flour is thoroughly cooked without taking color, and then mix in well the half-pint of water or stock. Take it off the fire, pass it through a sieve or gravy-strainer, and stir in the other ounce of butter cut in pieces. When properly mixed and melted, it is ready for use. This makes a pint of sauce.

Some persons like drawn-butter sauce slightly acid, in which case add a few drops of vinegar or lemon-juice just before serving.

PICKLE SAUCE.

Make a drawn-butter sauce; just before serving add two or three table-spoonfuls of pickled cucumbers chopped or minced very fine.

BOILED-EGG SAUCE.

Add to half a pint of drawn-butter sauce three hard-boiled eggs, chopped not too fine.

CAPER SAUCE.

Make a drawn-butter sauce--or, say, melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan; add a table-spoonful of flour; when the two are well mixed, add pepper and salt, and a little less than a pint of boiling water. Stir the sauce on the fire until it thickens, then add three table-spoonfuls of French capers. Removing the saucepan from the fire, stir into the sauce the yolk of an egg beaten with the juice of half a lemon.

ANCHOVY SAUCE.

Add to half a pint of drawn-butter sauce two tea-spoonfuls of anchovy extract, or anchovy paste.

SHRIMP SAUCE.

To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add one-third of a pint of picked boiled shrimps, whole, or chopped a little. Add at last moment a few drops of lemon-juice, and a very little Cayenne pepper. Let the sauce _simmer_, not boil. Some add a tea-spoonful of anchovy paste; more, perhaps, prefer it without the anchovy flavor.

Shrimps are generally sold at market already boiled. If they are not boiled, throw them into salted boiling water, and boil them until they are quite red. When cold, pick off the heads, and peel off the shells. Always save a few of the shrimps whole for garnishing the dish.

LOBSTER SAUCE.

Before proceeding to make this sauce, break up the coral of the lobster, and put it on a paper in a slow oven for half an hour; then pound it in a mortar, and sprinkle it over the boiled fish when it is served. To prepare the sauce itself, chop the meat of the tail and claws of a good-sized lobster into pieces, not too small. Half an hour before dinner, make half a pint of drawn-butter sauce. Add to it the chopped lobster, a pinch of coral, a small pinch of Cayenne, and a little salt. An English lady says: “This process seems simple, yet nothing is rarer in cookery than good lobster sauce. The means of spoiling it are chiefly by chopping the lobster too small, or, worse, pounding it, inserting contents of the head, or using milk, or anchovy, or any sauces. It should not be a half-solid mass, or thin liquid, but the lobster should be distinct in a creamy bed.”

OYSTER SAUCE.

Make a drawn-butter or white sauce; add a few drops of lemon or a table-spoonful of capers, or, if neither be at hand, a few drops of vinegar; add oysters strained from their liquor, and let them just come to a boil in the sauce.

This sauce is much better made with part cream, _i. e._, used when making the drawn-butter sauce, instead of all water. In this case, do not add the lemon-juice or vinegar. Some make the white sauce of the oyster liquor, instead of water.

This sauce may be served in a sauce-boat, but it is nicer to pour it over the fish, boiled turkey, or chicken.

PARSLEY SAUCE (_for Boiled Fish or Fowls_).

To half a pint of hot drawn-butter sauce add two table-spoonfuls of chopped parsley. The appearance of the sauce is improved by coloring it with a little spinach-green (see page 87).

CAULIFLOWER SAUCE (_for Boiled Poultry_).

Add boiled cauliflowers, cut into little flowerets, to a drawn-butter sauce made with part cream.

LEMON SAUCE (_for Boiled Fowls_).

To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add the inside of a lemon, chopped (seeds taken out), and the chicken liver boiled and mashed fine.

CHICKEN SAUCE (_to serve with Boiled or Stewed Fowls_).

Put butter the size of an egg into a bright saucepan, and when it bubbles add a table-spoonful of flour; cook it, and add a pint, or rather less, of boiling water; when smooth, take it from the fire, and add the beaten yolks of two or three eggs, and a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt. Or, Stock can be used instead of boiling water, when two or three small slices of onion are placed in the butter after it begins to bubble, and then allowed to cook yellow; after the flour is cooked, stock is added instead of water, and when smooth, it is taken from the fire, a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt are added, and the sauce is strained through the gravy-strainer or sieve, to remove the pieces of onion.

MAÎTRE-D’HÔTEL BUTTER (_for Beefsteak, Broiled Meat, or Fish_).

Mix butter the size of an egg, the juice of half a lemon, and two or three sprigs of parsley, chopped very fine; pepper and salt all together. Spread this over any broiled meat or fish when hot; then put the dish into the oven a few moments, to allow the butter to penetrate the meat.

MINT SAUCE (_for Roast Lamb_).

Put four table-spoonfuls of chopped mint, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar into the sauce-boat. Let it remain an hour or two before dinner, that the vinegar may become impregnated with the mint.

CURRANT-JELLY SAUCE (_for Venison_).

A simple sauce made of currant jelly melted with a little water is very nice; yet Francatelli’s receipt is much better, viz.:

“Bruise half a stick of cinnamon and six cloves; put them into a stew-pan with one ounce of sugar and the peel of half a lemon, pared off very thin, and perfectly free from any portion of white pulp; moisten this with one and a half sherry-glassfuls of port-wine, and set the whole to gently simmer or heat on the stove for half an hour; then strain it into a small stew-pan containing half a glassful of currant jelly. Just before sending the sauce to the table, set it on the fire to boil, in order to melt the currant jelly, and so that it may mix with the essence of spice, etc.”

TOMATO SAUCE (No. 1).

Stew six tomatoes half an hour with two cloves, a sprig of parsley, pepper, and salt; press this through a sieve; put a little butter into a saucepan over the fire, and when it bubbles add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; mix and cook it well, and add the tomato-pulp, stirring until it is smooth and consistent.

Some add one or two slices of onion at first. It is a decided improvement to add three or four table-spoonfuls of stock; however, the sauce is very good without it, and people are generally too careless to have stock at hand.

TOMATO SAUCE (No. 2).

Ingredients: One-quart can of tomatoes, two cloves, one small sprig of thyme, two sprigs of parsley, half a small bay-leaf, three pepper-corns, three allspice, two slices of carrot (one and a half ounces), one-ounce onion (one small onion), one and a half ounces of butter (size of a pigeon’s egg), one and a half ounces of flour (one table-spoonful).

Put the tomatoes over the fire with all the above ingredients but the butter and flour, and when they have boiled about twenty minutes strain them through a sieve. Make a _roux_ by putting the butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in the flour, which let cook, stirring it well; then pour in the tomato-pulp; when it is well mixed, it is ready for use.

SAUCE HOLLANDAISE, OR DUTCH SAUCE.

As this is one of the best sauces ever made for boiled fish, asparagus, or cauliflower, I will give two receipts. The first is Dubois’; the second is from the Cooking-school in New York. None should call themselves cooks unless they know how to make the _sauce Hollandaise_, and simple enough it is.

1st. “Pour four table-spoonfuls of good vinegar into a small stew-pan, and add some pepper-corns and salt; let the liquid boil until it is reduced to half; let it cool; then add to it the well-beaten yolks of four or five eggs, also four ounces (size of an egg) of good butter, more salt, if necessary, and a very little nutmeg. Set the stew-pan on a very slow fire, and stir the liquid until it is about as thick as cream; immediately remove it. Now put this stew-pan or cup into another pan containing a little warm water kept at the side of the fire. Work the sauce briskly with a spoon, or with a little whisk, so as to get it frothy, but adding little bits of butter, in all about three ounces” (_I_ would say the size of half an egg). “When the sauce has become light and smooth, it is ready for use.”

2d. “Put a piece of butter the size of a pigeon’s egg into a saucepan, and when it bubbles stir in with an egg-whisk an even table-spoonful of flour; let it continue to bubble until the flour is thoroughly cooked, when stir in half a pint of boiling water, or, better, of veal stock; when it boils, take it from the fire, and stir into it gradually the beaten yolks of four eggs; return the sauce to the fire for a minute, to set the eggs, without allowing it to boil; again remove the sauce, stir in the juice of half a small lemon, and fresh butter the size of a walnut, cut into small pieces, to facilitate its melting, and stir all well with the whisk.”

MUSHROOMS, FOR GARNISH (_Gouffé_).

Separate the button part from the stalk; then peel them with a sharp knife, cutting off merely the skin. Put them into a stew-pan with a table-spoonful of lemon-juice and two table-spoonfuls of water. Toss them well, to impregnate them with the liquid. The object of the lemon-juice is to keep them white. Then put them on a sharp fire in boiling water, with some butter added. When they are boiled tender they are ready for use, _i. e._, for garnishing and for sauces.

MUSHROOM SAUCE (_to serve with Beefsteaks, Fillets of Beef, etc._).

Having prepared the mushrooms by cutting off the stalks, and if they are large, by cutting them in halves or quarters, throw them into a little boiling water, or, what is much better, stock. Do not use more than is necessary to cover them. This must be seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little butter. Boil the mushrooms until they are tender, then thicken the gravy slightly with a _roux_ of butter and flour. Add a few drops of lemon-juice. It is now ready to pour over the meat.

MUSHROOM WHITE SAUCE (_to serve with Boiled Fowls or with Cutlets_).

Prepare the mushrooms as for garnishing; boil them tender in rich white stock, made of veal or chicken; thicken with a _roux_ of butter and flour, and add one or two table-spoonfuls of cream.

MUSHROOM SAUCE (_made with Canned Mushrooms_).

Put a piece of butter the size of a walnut into a small stew-pan or tin basin, and when it bubbles add a tea-spoonful (not heaping) of flour; when well cooked, stir in a cupful of stock (reduced and strong), and half a tea-cupful of the mushroom-juice from the can; let it simmer for a minute or two; then, after straining it, add half or three quarters of a can of mushrooms, pepper, salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice. When thoroughly hot it is ready to pour over the meat.

A SIMPLE BECHAMEL SAUCE.

Put butter the size of a walnut into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles stir in an even table-spoonful of flour, which cook thoroughly without letting it take color. Mix into the _roux_ a cupful of strong hot veal stock (_i. e._, veal put into cold water and boiled four or five hours), a cupful of boiling cream, and one grating of nutmeg; let it simmer, stirring it well for a few minutes, then strain, and it is ready for use. The sauce would be improved if the usual soup-bunch vegetables were added to the stock while it is being made.

BECHAMEL SAUCE.

Ingredients: One pint of veal stock (a knuckle of veal put into one gallon of cold water, boiled five hours, skimmed and strained), half an ounce of onion (quarter of a rather small one), quarter of an ounce of turnip (quarter of a turnip), one ounce of carrot (quarter of a good-sized carrot), half an ounce of parsley (two sprigs), quarter of a bay-leaf, half a sprig of thyme, three pepper-corns, half a lump of sugar, a small blade of mace.

Put one ounce (size of a walnut) of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot add to it all the above ingredients but the stock and the mace; fry this slowly until it assumes a yellow color; do not let it brown, as the sauce should be white when done; stir in now a table-spoonful (one ounce) of flour, which let cook a minute, and add the blade of mace and the stock (boiling) from another stew-pan. After it has all simmered about five minutes, strain it through a sieve without allowing the vegetables to pass through; return the strained sauce to the fire, reduce it by boiling about one-third, when add three or four table-spoonfuls of good thick cream, and the sauce is ready.

SAUCE AUX FINES HERBES.

Ingredients: Half a pint of good stock, three table-spoonfuls of mushrooms, one table-spoonful of onions, two table-spoonfuls of parsley, and one shallot, all chopped fine. Fry the shallot and onion in a little butter until they assume a light-yellow color, then add a tea-spoonful of flour and cook it a minute; stir in the stock, mushrooms, and parsley, simmer for five minutes, then add a little Worcestershire sauce, and salt to taste. If no Worcestershire sauce is at hand, add pepper to taste in its place.

SAUCE TARTARE (_a Cold Sauce_).

To a scant half pint of _Mayonnaise_ sauce (made with the mustard added) mix in two table-spoonfuls of capers, one small shallot (quarter of a rather small onion, a poor substitute), two gerkins (or two ounces of cucumber pickle), and one table-spoonful of parsley, all chopped _very_ fine. This sauce will keep a long time, and is delicious for fried fish, fried oysters, boiled cod-fish, boiled tongue, or as dressing for a salad.

* * * * *

By making the following simple sauce, one can produce several by a little variation.

A SIMPLE BROWN SAUCE.

Put into a saucepan a table-spoonful of minced onion and a little butter. When it has taken color, sprinkle in a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; stir well, and when brown add half a pint of stock. Cook it a few minutes, and strain. Now, by adding a cupful of claret, two cloves, a sprig of parsley, and one of thyme, a bay-leaf, pepper, and salt, and by boiling two or three minutes and straining it, one has the _sauce poivrade_.

If, instead of the claret, one should add to the _poivrade_ sauce a table-spoonful each of minced cucumber pickles, vinegar, and capers, one has the _sauce piquante_.

By adding one tea-spoonful of made mustard, the juice of half a lemon, and a little vinegar to the _poivrade_, instead of the claret, one has the _sauce Robert_.

BEEF.

For a roast of beef, the sirloin and tenderloin cuts are considered the best. They are more expensive, and are no better than the best cuts of a rib roast: the sixth, seventh, and eighth ribs are the choicest cuts. The latter roasts are served to better advantage by requesting the butcher to remove the bones and roll the meat. Always have him send the bones also, as they are a valuable acquisition to the soup-pot. As the rolled rib roasts are shaved evenly off and across the top when carved (the roasts are to be cooked rare, of course), they present an equally good appearance for a second cooking. I have really served a roast a third time to good advantage, serving it the last time _à la jardinière_. Of course, in summer large cuts should not be purchased.

If the animal is young and large, and the meat is of clear, bright-red color, and the fat white, the meat is sure to be tender and juicy.

There is no better sauce for a good, juicy roast of beef than the simple juice of the meat. Horse-radish sauce may be served if the beef is not particularly good.

If a sauce is made by adding hot water, flour, pepper, and salt to the contents of the baking-pan after the beef is cooked, do not serve it with a half-inch depth of pure grease on top in the sauce-boat. This is as absurd, when it can be allowed to stand a moment and simply _poured off_, or taken off with a spoon, as to serve wet salt at table, which can easily be placed in the oven a few moments to dry, before sifting. Also, this kind of baking-pan sauce would not be so very objectionable, if cooks generally knew that it does not require a scientific education, nor a herculean effort, to strain it through a gravy-strainer.

TO ROAST OR BAKE BEEF.

A few rules for roasting and baking beef: Allow nine minutes to the pound for _baking_ a rolled rib-roast; for _roasting_ it, allow ten minutes to the pound. Sirloin roasts require eight minutes to the pound for baking, nine minutes for roasting.

To bake, have the oven very hot. Before putting in the meat, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and dredge with flour. Pour a little boiling water into the pan before baking. Baste frequently.

To roast, have a bright fire. Hang the joint about eighteen inches from it at first, put a little clarified dripping into the dripping-pan, baste the meat with it when first prepared to cook, and every fifteen minutes afterward. Twenty minutes before the beef is done, sprinkle with pepper and salt, dredge with flour, baste with a little butter or dripping. Keep the fire bright, and turn the meat before it. It should be well browned and frothed. The cut, a rolled rib roast, with mashed potatoes.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING.

Ingredients: Six large table-spoonfuls of flour, three eggs (well beaten), one salt-spoonful of salt, enough milk to make it of the consistency of soft custard (about one and a half pints).

Add enough milk to the flour and salt to make a smooth, stiff batter; add the eggs, and enough more milk to make it of the proper consistency. Beat all well together, pour it into a shallow pan (buttered); bake three-quarters of an hour.

Some empty the dripping-pan three-quarters of an hour before baked beef is done, and put the pudding into the empty pan, the beef on a three-cornered stand over it, that its juice may drop on the pudding. If beef is roasted, the pudding may be first baked in the oven, then placed under the beef for fifteen or twenty minutes, to catch any stray drops. It is as often served, though, baked in the oven in the ordinary way.

It is cut into squares and served on a hot plate, to be eaten with roast beef. It is a favorite English dish.

BEEF À LA MODE.

Six or seven pounds from a round of beef are generally selected; however, there is a cut from the shoulder which answers very well for an _à-la-mode beef_. If the round is used, extract the bone. Make several deep incisions into the meat with a thin sharp knife; press into most of them lardoons of pork about half an inch square, and two or three inches long; in the other cuts, and especially the one from whence the bone was extracted, stuff almost any kind of force-meat, the simplest being as follows: Mix some soaked bread with a little chopped beef-suet, onion, any herbs, such as parsley, thyme, or summer savory; a little egg, Cayenne pepper, salt, and cloves. Press the beef into shape, round or oval, and tie it securely.

Put trimmings of pork into the bottom of a large saucepan or iron pot, and when hot put over the meat; brown it all over by turning all sides to the bottom of the pot, which should now be uncovered. This will take about half an hour. Next sprinkle over a heaping table-spoonful of flour, and brown that also. Put a small plate under the beef, to prevent burning, and fill the pot with enough boiling water to half cover the meat; throw over a saucerful of sliced onions, carrots, some turnips, if you like, and some parsley. There are iron pots, with tight iron covers, which are made expressly for this kind of cooking; but if you have none of this description, you will now have to cover the one used with enough covers, towels, etc., to make it tight as possible, so that the meat may be cooked in the steam. Let it cook for four or five hours, never allowing the water to stop boiling. Watch it, that it may not get too low, and replenish it with boiling water. When the meat is done, put it on a hot platter; strain the gravy, skim off every particle of fat, add two or three table-spoonfuls of port or sherry wine, also pepper and salt, if necessary, and pour this gravy and selected pieces of the vegetables over the meat.

Baked onions (see page 201), placed around the beef as a garnish, complete the dish for a course at dinner.

BRAISED BEEF (No. 1).--_New York Cooking-school._

Ingredients: Six-pound loin of beef, half a pound of pork, three-fourths of a cupful of flour, two-ounce onion (one small onion), three-ounce carrot (half a large carrot), one-ounce turnip, one-third of a bunch of parsley, one sprig of thyme, two cloves, three allspice, six pepper-corns, half of a bay-leaf.

Trim the beef into a shapely piece; stick a knife quite through different portions of it, in which apertures press slices or lardoons of pork, half an inch square, and three or four inches long. Tie the beef into shape with twine. Lay scraps of pork on the bottom of a saucepan, place it on a brisk fire, and when hot put in the beef; brown it all over by turning the different sides to the bottom of the uncovered saucepan. It will take about half an hour to brown it. Now sprinkle over the beef three-fourths of a cupful of flour (three ounces), also the vegetables and spices; and brown all this by again turning the meat over the fire. When they are of fine color, pour over a tumblerful of claret, which reduce to half; then fill the saucepan with boiling stock or water; cover it tightly, and place it in a hot oven for two and a half hours. When done, put the beef on a hot platter.

Strain the sauce in which the beef was cooked, take off every particle of fat, season with more salt, if necessary; pour about half a cupful of it over the beef in the platter, and serve the remainder in a sauce-boat.

The beef may be surrounded with green pease, prepared as follows: Wash a can of American pease in cold water, then put them over the fire with half a cupful of boiling water, salt, pepper, one ounce of butter, and one salt-spoonful of sugar. When the pease have simmered a minute, strain them from their liquor, and place them in the platter around the beef.

BRAISED BEEF (No. 2).

The same cut which is used for an _à-la-mode_ beef may be braised in the same manner as is described for a fillet of beef braised. This may be served with the gravy, as is there described, or with the addition of the _jardinière_ of vegetables.

BRAISED BEEF, WITH HORSE-RADISH SAUCE.

Braise five pounds of fresh beef (not too lean), with an onion and a carrot sliced, two or three sprigs of parsley, four or five cloves, a little celery, if you have it, pepper, salt, and about a quart of boiling water. Cover it tightly, and let it cook about three hours, replenishing with a little boiling water, if the steam escapes too much.

_Sauce._--Simmer together for quarter of an hour half a cupful of grated cracker, half a cupful of grated horse-radish, one cupful of cream, a table-spoonful of the fat from the top of the water in which the beef is cooked, salt, and pepper.

Place the beef on the platter in which it is to be served, and pour the sauce around it. Garnish with parsley.

FILLET OF BEEF.

I will be very specific about the fillet of beef, as it is easily managed at home, and is very expensive ordered from the _restaurateur_. His price is generally ten dollars for a dressed and cooked fillet of beef for a dinner for ten or twelve persons. To buy it from the butcher costs a dollar a pound when dressed; three pounds are quite sufficient for ten or twelve persons. To lard it (an affair of ten minutes) would cost ten cents more; a box of French canned mushrooms, an additional forty cents; a little stock, five cents.

One sees a fillet of beef at almost every dinner party. “That same fillet, with mushrooms,” a frequent diner-out will say. I hope to see it continued, for among the substantials there is nothing more satisfactory.

A good butcher will always deliver a fillet of beef already dressed; if, however, it is necessary to have it dressed at home, the _modus operandi_ is as follows:

TO TRIM A FILLET OF BEEF.

The fillet is the under side of the loin of beef. The steaks cut from this part are called porter-house-steaks. This under side, or fillet, is covered with skin and fat. “All the skin and fat must be removed from the top of the fillet, from one end to the other; then the rib-bones are disengaged. The fat adhering to the side opposite the ribs is only partially removed. Now the sinewy skin covering the upper meat of the fillet must be removed in strips, proceeding by slipping the blade of the knife between the skin and the meat. This operation is very simple; yet it requires great precision. The upper part of a trimmed fillet must be smooth, _i. e._, must not be furrowed by hollows occasioned by wrong movements of the knife. The skin being removed, both extremities of the fillet are rounded. The fat inside the rib is the only portion of fat allowed to adhere to the meat. The larding of the meat is applied to its upper surface.”

TO COOK A FILLET OF BEEF.

After it is trimmed and larded, put it into a small baking-pan, in the bottom of which are some chopped pieces of pork and beef-suet; sprinkle some salt and pepper over it, and put a large ladleful of hot stock into the bottom of the pan, or it may be simply basted with boiling water. Half an hour (if the oven is very hot, as it should be) before dinner, put it into the oven. Baste it often, supplying a little hot stock, if necessary.

French cooks often braise a fillet of beef. I do not like it as well as baking or roasting, as the vegetables and wine destroy the beef’s own flavor.

TO MAKE THE MUSHROOM SAUCE.

Take a ladleful of stock, free from grease, from the stock-pot; add to it part of the juice from the can of mushrooms; thicken it with a little flour and butter mixed (_roux_); add pepper, salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice; now add the mushrooms--let them simmer a few minutes. Pour the sauce over the fillet of beef, and serve.

At small dinner companies, where the host carves, or has a good carver, the fillet can be served entire, decorated as elaborately as one wishes. If, however, the dinner is served from the side, it is convenient to have it carved as shown in cut on preceding page. The centre of the fillet is disengaged, then carved, and returned to its place. It has then the appearance of being whole.

TO GARNISH A FILLET OF BEEF.

As I have mentioned before, a fillet of beef is generally served with mushrooms; sometimes with different vegetables _à la jardinière_; sometimes with French pease; sometimes with potatoes cut into little round balls, and fried in boiling lard, called potatoes _à la Parisienne_ on a French bill of fare; sometimes with stuffed tomatoes; sometimes skewers are put in stuck through a turnip carved into a cup, and this cup holds horse-radish. But some people say skewers remind them of steamboat cooking; then some people are not easily pleased, anyway; and who remembers of having seen so many skewers on steamboats, after all? Not that I am particularly advocating skewers, but I think dishes _taste_ better, as a general thing, when they are decorated in almost any manner. I once saw at a dinner in Paris hot slices of roast or baked fillet of beef, tastefully arranged on a platter, with _sauce Hollandaise_ (rather thick) poured over each slice in the form of a ring. It was a success.

The manner of garnishing a fillet of beef _à la Godard_ and _à la Provençale_, etc., with truffles, _quenelles_, livers, olives, etc., all stewed with wines, stocks, etc., I will not explain. It is enough to make one groan to think of learning to make them, and more than ever to eat them.

TO ROAST A FILLET OF BEEF.

Lard it, and bind it carefully to the skewer with a small wire; cover the fillet with sweet salad-oil and a little lemon-juice. Do not place it too near the fire at first, as it would scorch the larding. Baste it frequently.

A professional cook would glaze the fillet two or three times with a glazing-brush, beginning the first time about five minutes before taking it away from the fire, then glazing it again when it is on the dish to be served.

Glaze is merely strong stock boiled down until it is almost a thick jelly. When the fillet is carved at table, the little juice which falls into the dish should be poured over each of the slices.

TO BRAISE A FILLET OF BEEF.

Put the larded fillet into a braising-pan or stew-pan; put in trimmings of pork, onions (with some cloves stuck in), carrots, a little celery (all cut in thick slices), and a bunch of parsley. Salt the meat slightly. Pour in stock and white wine, so that it may reach to half the height of the beef. If a braising-pan is used, cover the meat with a well-buttered paper, as in that case live coals are put on top of the pan. If you use a stew-pan, simply cover it as tight as possible. Let it simmer, replenishing it, when necessary, with more boiling stock. It will require an hour or an hour and a half to cook. When done, drain it: a professional cook would glaze it. Put it into the oven a moment to dry the larding. Pass the cooking-stock through a sieve; skim off the fat; add some tomato sauce; let it boil until it is reduced to the degree requisite. Serve the fillet whole, or carved in slices ready to serve. Generally only the middle part of the fillet is used, as the whole fillet is quite large--weighing from eight to ten pounds.

TO TRIM WITH VEGETABLES (_à la Jardinière_).

Every kind of vegetable is used, such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, small onions, cauliflower-blossoms, asparagus-heads, French beans, pease, etc. The larger vegetables are cut into little fancy shapes with a vegetable-cutter or a fluted knife, or with a little plain knife, into little balls, olives, squares, diamonds, or into any form to suit the taste. Each kind of vegetable should be boiled separately in salted water or stock. The vegetables are piled into little groups, each pile being of one kind of vegetable.

FILLET OF BEEF CUT INTO SLICES OR SCOLLOPS.

This is a good way of managing the beef that is left from the roast or baked fillet of beef to be served the second day. Cut the fillet, after reheating it in the oven, into slices about three-fourths of an inch thick, and two inches wide. Form a circle in a dish by lapping each of these scollops partly over the other. Fill the centre with a tomato sauce, or potatoes _à la Parisienne_, or mushrooms, or with any of the small vegetables, such as pease, beans, little balls of carrots, potatoes, etc., in different little piles; or with truffles (they can be procured canned) sliced, with Madeira sauce; or with mushrooms and truffles mixed, with Madeira sauce.

BEEFSTEAK.

The porter-house and tenderloin steaks are best. Of course, there is great difference in the different cuts of these steaks. For a cheap steak, a good cut of what is called chuck-steak is best. It has more flavor and juice, and is more tender than the round-steak, costing the same price.

Have the choice steaks cut half an inch thick at least; they are even better three-quarters of an inch thick. Grease the gridiron well with pork or beef-suet. Have it quite hot. Put on the steak over a hot, clear fire; cover it with a baking-pan. In a moment, when the steak is colored, turn it over. Watch it constantly, turning it whenever it gets a little brown. Do not stick the fork into the middle of the steak, only into the sides, where it will do least harm by letting out the juice. It should be quite rare or pink in the centre, though not _raw_. When cooked enough, put it on a hot platter; sprinkle over plenty of salt and pepper--mind not to put on the salt and pepper before the steak is cooked; then spread over the top some sweet, fresh butter. Set the platter in the oven a few moments, to let the butter soak a little in the steak; then serve it immediately. Do not use too much butter; there should be none at all, or at least only a few stray drops, in the bottom of the platter. There should be no gravy. The juice of a properly cooked steak is supposed to be in the inside of the steak, and not swimming in the dish.

A steak is much improved by a simple addition, called by professional cooks _à la maître d’hôtel_.

When the steak is cooked, it is placed on the hot platter. First, then, salt and pepper are sprinkled over; then comes a sprinkling of very finely chopped parsley; then some drops of lemon-juice; lastly, small pieces of butter are carefully spread over. Place the steak into the oven for a few moments until the butter is well melted and soaked into the steak.

For extra-company breakfasts, only the fillets, _i. e._, the tender parts of the porter-house or tenderloin steaks, are used. They are cut into little even shapes, round or oval, one for each plate. They are cooked, then served in a hot dish, surrounded with Saratoga potatoes, or fried potatoes in any form, or with water-cresses, or with mushrooms, or stuffed tomatoes, or green pease, etc.

CORNED BEEF.

A good piece of beef well corned, then well boiled, is a most excellent dish.

Put it into the pot with enough cold water to just cover it. When it comes to a boil, set it on the back of the range, so that it will boil moderately. Too fast boiling renders meat tough, yet the water should never be allowed to cease boiling until the meat is done; skim often. Let it boil at least four or five hours, according to its size. It must be thoroughly done. In England, where this dish is an especial favorite, carrots are always boiled and served with the beef. The carrot flavor improves the meat, and the meat improves the carrot. Do not put the carrots into the pot, however, until there is only time for them to become thoroughly cooked before serving (about three-quarters of an hour). Serve the carrots around the beef.

In America, cabbage is oftener boiled with corned beef. This is very nice also. If cabbage is used, add at the same time one or two little red peppers. When about to serve, press out all the water from the cabbage, adding little pieces of butter. Serve the meat placed in the centre of the cabbage.

Little pickles are a pretty garnish for corned beef, with or without the vegetables.

CORNED BEEF TO SERVE COLD (_Mrs. Gratz Brown_).

If it is too salt, soak it for an hour in cold water, then put it over the fire, covered with fresh cold water, four or five cloves (for about six pounds of beef), and three table-spoonfuls of molasses. Boil it slowly. In an hour change the water, adding five more cloves and three more table-spoonfuls of molasses. In two hours more, press the beef, after removing the bones, into a basin rather small for it; then, turning it over, place a flat-iron on top. When entirely cold, the beef is to be sliced for lunch or tea.

BEEFSTEAK STEWED.

Never use a choice steak for a stew. Stewing is only a good way of cooking an inferior steak. The meat from a soup-bone would make a very good stew.

Put ripe tomatoes (peeled and cut) into a stew-pan; sprinkle over pepper and salt. Let them cook a little to make some juice; put in the pieces of beef, some little pieces of butter mixed with flour, two or three cloves, and no water. Let it stew until the meat is quite done. Then press the tomatoes through a sieve. Serve all on the same dish.

BEEFSTEAK ROLLED.

Procure a round steak, spread over it a layer of almost any kind of force-meat. An ordinary bread, onion, thyme, or parsley dressing, used to stuff turkeys, is very good. Begin, then, at one end of the steak, and roll it carefully; tie the roll to keep it in shape. Bake it in the oven as you would a turkey, basting very often. Make a gravy of the drippings, adding water, flour, and a little butter mixed; season with pepper and salt, strain, skim off the fat, and pour it around the meat when served. Slice it neatly off the end when carving.

BEEF ROLL (_Cannelon de Bœuf_).

Chop two pounds of lean beef very fine; chop and pound in a mortar half a pound of fat bacon, and mix it with the beef. Season it with pepper and salt (it will not require much salt), a small nutmeg, the grated rind of a lemon, the juice of a quarter of it, a heaping table-spoonful of parsley minced fine; or it can be seasoned with an additional table-spoonful of onion; or, if no onion or parsley is at hand, with summer savory and thyme. Bind all these together with two eggs. Form them into a roll; surround the roll with buttered paper, which tie securely around it. Then cover it with a paste made of flour and water. Bake two hours. Remove the paper and crust. Serve it hot, with tomato-sauce or brown gravy. This may be made with raw or under-dressed meat. If the meat is not raw, but under-dressed, surround the roll with pie-crust. Bake, and serve with tomato-sauce, or any of the brown sauces, poured in the bottom of the dish. Potato _croquettes_ may be served around it.

WHAT TO DO WITH COLD COOKED BEEF.

There is a good-sized book written on this subject. When there are about two hundred ways of utilizing cold cooked beef, one should not regard it contemptuously. I studied this treatise, and practiced from it, but soon considered the few old ways the best, after all. _Croquettes_ are very good, and there are beef-sausages, or cakes, seasoned in different ways; beef rolls, meat pies, and mince-pies, made from a few scraps of cold cooked beef, are all exceedingly nice when properly made.

BEEF HASH.

Notwithstanding this distinguished dish is so much abused, I particularly like it; not swimming hash, nor onion hash, nor Southern or Western hash, nor yet hash half cooked, but New York hash. I know a New York family who set a most expensive and elaborate table, which table is especially noted for its good hash. Large joints are purchased with special reference to this dish. Cold corned beef is generally considered best. The hash to which I have referred, however, is generally made of cold roast beef.

Chop the cold cooked meat rather fine; use half as much meat as of boiled potatoes (chopped when cold). Put a little boiling water and butter into an iron saucepan; when it boils again, put in the meat and potatoes well salted and peppered. Let it cook well, stirring it occasionally--not enough to make a _purée_ or mush of it. It is not done before there is a coating at the bottom of the saucepan, from which the hash will free itself without sticking. The hash must not be at all watery, nor yet too dry, but so that it will stand quite firm on well-trimmed and buttered slices of toast, and to be thus served on a platter. _Voilà!_

Chicken or turkey hash should be made in the same way.

MEAT PIE (_French Cook_).

Cut cold cooked meat into quite small dice; add pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, and two or three sprigs of chopped parsley; also a little thyme and a piece of bay-leaf, if you have them, but the two latter herbs may be omitted. Put a little butter into a saucepan, and when hot throw in a table-spoonful of flour, which brown carefully; pour in then several table-spoonfuls of hot water, or, better, stock; mix well; then introduce the meat dice; stir all well over the fire, cooking it thoroughly. Just before taking it up, mix in one or two eggs. It should be quite moist, yet consistent. Put a thin pie-crust into a pudding-dish. Fill in a few table-spoonfuls of the mixture; then lay on it a thin strip of bacon; continue these layers until the dish is filled. Now fit a piece of crust over the top; turn the edges in a fancy manner, and make a cut in the centre. Take a strip of pie-paste, form it into a tie or knot, wet the bottom, and place it over the cut in the centre of the pie, so as not to obstruct the opening.

The proper way to make a meat pie is with a pie-mold (see page 58). Butter the mold, press the crust neatly around in the inside and bottom, and continue, as explained for the pudding-dish. When baked, the wire holding the sides of the mold is drawn out, and the mold removed from the pie. This pie can be made with veal or lamb, in the same manner.

MEAT RISSOLES.

For _rissoles_, cold beef, chicken, veal, tongue, or lamb may be used, separately or mixed. The meat should not be chopped, but cut into quite small dice. It is well to add to it a slight flavoring of chopped pork, and a little finely chopped parsley. As the meat can be prepared in different ways, the addition of a superfluous mushroom or two, cut into dice, would not be amiss.

Put a small piece of butter, size of a pigeon’s egg, into a saucepan, and when it begins to boil add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; stir for a minute to cook the flour, then add three or four table-spoonfuls of boiling water, or, what is much better, stock, gravy, or brown or white sauce if you happen to have it; when well mixed, add about two cupfuls of the meat dice, heat well, and just before taking from the fire stir in an egg.

The scraps of puff-paste are generally preferred, yet any kind of pie-paste may be used for _rissoles_. Roll the paste quite thin (one-sixth of an inch); wet it about three inches from the edge, and place upon it little balls (a generous tea-spoonful in each one) of the prepared meat, at distances of four inches apart; now lap over the edge of the paste, quite covering the balls of meat; press the side of the hand between each one, and, with the edge of a tumbler or muffin-ring, press the paste close to the meat; with a biscuit-cutter (scolloped one prettier) cut out each enveloped ball of meat into half circles. Now cut off the rough edges of the remaining paste, and proceed to make other rows of the _rissoles_ in the same manner. With a brush wet all the tops with the yolk of an egg. Bake the _rissoles_ in a hot oven, and serve them hot on a folded napkin. If they get cold, they may be reheated just before serving.

BEEF OR ANY COLD-MEAT SAUSAGES.

Chop cold cooked beef very fine; add a fifth as much pork, also chopped fine; pepper, salt, a little sage, or any herbs preferred, lemon-juice, and a few sprinkles of flour; mix all together with an egg, or eggs; form into little balls, fry in butter or lard in a _sauté_ pan. These sausages are good for breakfast served around a centre of apple-sauce. Or,

FOR RICE AND MEAT CAKES,

make as in last receipt, adding a very little butter. Stir in a quarter or half of its quantity of boiled rice; or, on another occasion, bread-crumbs may be substituted for rice.

BEEF CROQUETTES.

There is no more satisfactory manner of using cold cooked beef than for _croquettes_, which may be served with tomato or any of the brown sauces, or may be served without sauce at all, as is generally the case. They are made in the same manner as is described for chicken _croquettes_ (see page 175), merely substituting the same amount of beef for the chicken, and of rice for the brains.

A CHEAP ARRANGEMENT.

Purchase two soup bones (twenty cents). Boil them four or five hours with a few vegetables (as described for stock, see page 79). The stock will make two or three soups. Cut up the meat for _croquettes_. Of course the _croquettes_ are better made with the best of meat, yet may be excellent when made of the soup meat.

MINCE-PIES (_made from Remnants of Cold Beef_).