Chapter VI: Part 6

A good disposition in winter of cold roast beef is to make with it two or three mince-pies, as by the following receipt: One cupful of chopped meat (quarter of it fat), two cupfuls of apple, one tea-spoonful of salt, one table-spoonful of ground allspice, half a table-spoonful of ground cinnamon, half a table-spoonful of ground cloves, one cupful of sugar, half a cupful of raisins, half a cupful of currants, one cupful of cider; or, if one has no cider, use the same amount of cider-vinegar and water mixed--say half of each.

A COMMON POT-PIE OF VEAL, BEEF, OR CHICKEN.

Cut the meat into pieces, and put them into enough boiling water to cover them well; add also two or three strips of pork. Cover the pot closely. Boil an hour, then season with pepper and salt to taste, and a little piece of butter.

Just before taking out the ingredients of the pot to send to table, put into it, when the water is boiling, separate spoonfuls of batter made with two eggs well beaten, two and a half or three cupfuls of buttermilk, one tea-spoonful of soda, and sufficient flour. The batter should be made just before it is cooked. It takes about three or four minutes to cook it, the water not to be allowed to stop boiling. The dish should then be served immediately, or the dumplings will become heavy.

CALF’S HEART.

If people generally knew how nice a calf’s heart is, if properly cooked, the butchers would never charge so little as ten cents for it. In France, the calf’s heart and kidneys are considered great delicacies. In America they are often thrown away.

Merely wash off the blood. One could, by soaking, extract all the flavor from the heart. Stuff it with a veal force-meat stuffing, or a common stuffing, often used for turkeys, of bread-crumbs, onion, a little thyme or sage, egg, pepper, and salt. Tie a buttered paper over the mouth of the heart to keep the stuffing in place. Put it into a small baking-pan with a little hot water, pepper, and salt. Bake nearly two hours, basting it very frequently. When done, thicken the gravy with flour; strain, skim, and season it, and pour it on the dish around the heart. Garnish the plate with onions, first boiled until nearly done, then seasoned with pepper, salt, and a little butter, and browned in the oven.

TONGUE, WITH MUSTARD PICKLE SAUCE.

Cut boiled tongue into slices; fry them in a little hot butter, with a sprinkle of minced onion thrown in. Then, for the sauce, take out the slices of tongue; put in a tea-spoonful of flour, and when brown, a tea-cupful of hot water. When done, strain, and season with salt and pepper; add a table-spoonful of chopped pickles (piccalilli is best); however, common cucumber pickles may be used, with a little mustard added; or the sauce may be flavored with capers, or with both capers and pickles. Let the slices of tongue soak in the sauce until ready to serve, then arrange the slices of tongue on a platter, one lapped over the other, and pour over the sauce. A beef tongue may be braised, and served with spinach or _sauce Tartare_, as described for sheep’s tongues.

TONGUE SLICES, WITH SPINACH AND SAUCE TARTARE.

Braise the tongue as described for sheep’s tongues (see page 158): arrange a circle of the slices around a platter, and on each slice smooth a little hill (enough for one person) of spinach prepared as described in the same receipt for “sheep’s tongues with spinach.” Put either a spoonful of _sauce Tartare_ or a slice of lemon into or on the top of each spinach-mold. This makes a nice lunch or dinner dish.

VEAL.

The best pieces of veal are the loin and the fillet. A variety of dishes can be made with veal cutlets and their different accompaniments. Veal is always better cooked with pork or ham. Professional cooks generally trim and lard their veal cutlets, serving them with tomato-sauce, pease, beans, breakfast bacon, lemon-slices, cucumbers, etc. For a cheap dish, one of the most satisfactory is a knuckle of veal made into a ragout, or pot-pie. Any of the inferior cuts may be made into a _blanquette_.

A _fricandeau_ of veal is perhaps considered the most distinguished veal dish. I would always advise the trimming of veal cutlets. It gives little trouble, but the appearance is much improved, and the trimmings should be thrown into the stock-pot. Veal should always be thoroughly cooked.

ROAST OF VEAL--THE FILLET.

Take out the bone of the joint; make a deep incision between the fillet and the flap; then fill it with stuffing made as follows: Two cupfuls of bread-crumbs, half a cupful of chopped pork, half a lemon-peel grated, a little juice, thyme, summer savory, or any herbs to taste; or it may be filled with a veal stuffing (see page 167). Bind the veal into a round form, fasten it with skewers and twine, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and cover it with buttered paper. Be careful not to put the meat too near the fire at first. Baste well and often. Just before it is done, remove the paper, sprinkle over a little flour, and rub over it a little butter. This will give a frothy appearance to the surface of the meat. When done, put the pan of gravy on the fire; add a little flour, some boiling water, and, when cooked, some lemon-juice. Strain it, remove the grease, and pour it around the roast. Fry some pieces of ham cut in diamond shape; place these in a circle around the roast, each piece alternated with a slice of lemon.

A FRICANDEAU OF VEAL.

What is called a _fricandeau_ of veal is simply a cushion of veal trimmed into shape, larded, and braised. Cut a thick slice (three or four pounds) from a fillet of veal, trim it around as in cut for “blind hare” (see page 150), and lard it on top. Put some pieces of pork into a braising-kettle, or saucepan, if you have no braising-kettle; also slices of carrot, an onion with cloves stuck in, a stick of celery, and some parsley. Put in the meat, sprinkle over pepper and salt, and cover it with well-buttered paper. Now fill the pan with boiling stock, or water enough to just cover the meat. Put on a tight lid. If it is a braising-pan, set it upon the fire, with live coals on top. If a common saucepan, cover it, and put it into a hot oven.

It will take about two hours, or two hours and a half, to cook it. A professional cook would boil down the stock in which the _fricandeau_ was cooked until reduced to a glaze, then with a brush would glaze all the top of the meat, placing it in the oven a moment to dry. However, it tastes as well without this extra trouble.

The best sauce for a _fricandeau_ is a tomato-sauce. It is as often garnished with green pease, spinach, or sorrel; or a little wine (Madeira, port, or sherry) and _roux_ (see page 51) may be added to the braising-stock for a gravy. The gravy should be strained, of course.

VEAL CUTLETS, BROILED.

The rib cutlets should always be neatly trimmed, the bone scraped at the end, so that it will look smooth and white. Broil them on a moderate fire, basting them occasionally with butter, and turning them often. Dish them in a circle with tomato-sauce.

VEAL CUTLETS, SAUTÉD AND FRIED.

These are cutlets cut from the round, although any veal cutlets may be cooked in the same way. Cut them into equal-sized pieces, beat them a little with a knife to get them into shape; season, egg, and bread-crumb them. Now, fry in a _sauté_ pan, or rather _sauté_ some thin slices of ham in a little hot lard, and when done take them out on a hot dish; fry slowly the cutlets in the same fat, and when done pour out some of the fat, if there is more than a tea-spoonful; add a little flour, then a little hot water, and, when cooked a few moments, season it well with lemon-juice, adding pepper and salt to taste; then strain it. Serve the cutlets in the centre of a dish, with the gravy poured over; and place alternate slices of the ham and lemon in a circle around them.

They are also very good _sautéd_ in a little lard, and served with a cream gravy poured over; or they are nice egged (with a little chopped parsley and onion mixed with the egg), and bread-crumbed, and fried in hot lard.

VEAL CUTLETS, BRAISED.

Professional cooks usually braise veal cutlets. They lard them (an easy matter) all on the same side, the flavor of pork particularly well suiting veal. To proceed then: Mince some onions and carrots; put them in the bottom of a stew-pan; put the cutlets on this layer; cover well with stock (add wine if you choose), and let them cook until thoroughly done.

If you wish to be particular, boil down the stock and glaze them; or make a gravy of the stock with flour, _roux_, pepper and salt, and strain it; or serve them with tomato-sauce; or make a little round hill of mashed potatoes, and put the cutlets around; or serve with them, instead, beans, pease, or flowerets of cauliflowers.

MUTTON OR VEAL CHOPS (_en papillote_).

Trim the chops; broil them in the usual way over the coals, and when done place each one in a paper (well buttered) cut in the form of Fig. 1; pour over each chop a sauce made as

follows: For three cutlets thicken a cupful of strong broth with equal quantities of either cold cooked chicken, lamb, or veal, and mushrooms (the mushrooms are a great improvement to the dish, yet they may be omitted if more convenient) with a quarter proportion of cold boiled ham added, and also one or two sprigs of parsley, all chopped very fine. Pour this hot over the hot cutlets; place a _very thin_ slice of fat salt pork over each cutlet;[B] fasten the paper as in Fig. 2, and place them in a hot oven for about ten minutes. Serve _immediately_ while the chops are steaming hot.

BLANQUETTE OF VEAL (_French Cook_).

Cut any kind of veal (say two pounds) into pieces; put it into boiling water, with a little bulb of garlic or slice of onion, and when done throw the meat from the boiling water into cold water, to whiten it. This is the rule, but I usually dispense with it. Make a drawn butter sauce, _i. e._, put butter the size of an egg into a saucepan, and when it bubbles mix in a table-spoonful of flour, which cook a minute, without letting it color; add then two cupfuls of boiling water and a little nutmeg. When the veal is done, drain it from the water, and let it simmer several minutes in the sauce, adding at the same time a sprig of parsley chopped fine. When just ready to serve, place the pieces of meat on a hot platter; stir the yolks of three eggs into the sauce without allowing them to boil; also several drops, or a seasoning, of lemon-juice. Pour the sauce over the veal, and serve.

BLIND HARE (_Mrs. Charles Parsons_).

Ingredients: Three pounds of minced veal, three pounds of minced beef, eight eggs well beaten, three stale rolls, or the same amount of bread-crumbs, pepper, salt, two grated nutmegs, a heaping table-spoonful of ground cinnamon. Mix all well together. Form it into an oval-shaped loaf, smooth it, and sprinkle bread or cracker crumbs over the top. Bake it in a moderate oven about three hours. It is to be sliced when cold.

BEWITCHED VEAL (_Mrs. Judge Embry_).

Ingredients: Three pounds of lean veal, half a pound of fat salt pork, one nutmeg grated, one small onion, butter the size of an egg, a little red pepper, and salt.

Chop all very fine, and mix them together, with three eggs well beaten, and a tea-cupful of milk; form it into a small loaf, pressing it very firmly; cover it with fine bread-crumbs; bake two hours and a half. It is intended to be eaten cold, yet is very good hot. The slices may be served in a circle around salad.

PLAIN VEAL STEW OR POT-PIE.

Cut the meat from a knuckle of veal into pieces not too small; put them into a pot with some small pieces of salt pork, and plenty of pepper and salt; pour over enough hot water to cover it well, and let it boil until the meat is _thoroughly_ done; then, while the water is still boiling, drop in (by the spoonful) a batter made with the following ingredients: Two eggs well beaten, two and a half or three cupfuls of buttermilk, one even tea-spoonful of soda, and flour enough to make a thick batter. Cover the pot, and as soon as the batter is well cooked, serve it. By standing, it becomes heavy.

TO COOK LIVER (_Melanie Lourant_), No. 1.

Put a little lard into a saucepan, and when hot throw in half an onion minced fine, one or two sprigs of parsley, chopped, and the slices of calf’s liver. Turn the liver several times, allowing it to cook well and imbibe the taste of the onion and parsley. When cooked, place it at the side of the fire. In another saucepan make a sauce as follows: Put in a piece of butter size of a large hickory-nut, and when it bubbles sprinkle in a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; stir it until it assumes a fine brown color, then pour in a cupful of boiling water, stirring it well with the egg-whisk; add pepper, salt, a table-spoonful of vinegar, and a heaping table-spoonful of capers. The sauce is very nice without the capers, but very much improved with them. Drain out the slices of liver, which put into the sauce, and let them remain at the side of the fire until ready to serve. Chopped pickle may be substituted for the capers, and stock may be used instead of the boiling water.

TO COOK LIVER (No. 2).

Fry in a _sauté_ pan some thin slices of breakfast bacon, and when done put them on a hot dish; fry then thin slices of liver in the same fat, which have previously been thrown into boiling water for only a _moment_, and then been sprinkled with flour. When well done on both sides, serve them and the bacon on the same dish, and garnish them with slices of lemon.

CALF’S BRAINS.

Before cooking, remove the fibrous membranes around them. Throw them into a pint of cold water, in which are mixed half a tea-spoonful of salt and one tea-spoonful of vinegar; boil them three minutes, then plunge them into cold water. When cold and about to be served, cut them into scollops; and when seasoned with pepper and salt, egged, and bread-crumbed, _sauté_ them in a little hot butter. Serve with tomato-sauce. Or they may be served with _spighetti_ (a small macaroni) cooked with tomato-sauce (see page 210), and placed around them, when they are called brains _à la Milanaise_.

SWEET-BREADS.

Veal sweet-breads are best. They spoil very soon. The moment they come from market, they should be put into cold water, to soak for about an hour; lard them, or rather draw a lardoon of pork through the centre of each sweet-bread, and put them into salted boiling water, or, better, stock, and let them boil about twenty minutes, or until they are thoroughly done; throw them then into cold water for only a few moments. They will now be firm and white. Remove carefully the skin and little pipes, and put them in the coolest place until ready to cook again. The simplest way to cook them is the best one, as follows:

FRIED SWEET-BREADS.

Parboil them as just explained. Just before serving, cut them in even-sized pieces, sprinkle over pepper and salt, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in hot lard. They are often immersed in boiling lard, yet oftener fried in the _sauté_ pan. If _sautéd_, when done put them on a hot dish, turn out part of the lard from the _sauté_ pan, leaving about half a tea-spoonful; pour in a cupful of milk thickened with a little flour; let it cook, stirring it constantly, and season it with pepper and salt; strain, and pour over the sweet-breads. With green pease, serve without sauce. This is the usual combination at dinner or breakfast companies, the pease in the centre of the dish, and the sweet-breads around (see cut above). Or they are often served whole with cauliflower or asparagus heads, when the cream-sauce is poured over both; or they are also nice piled in the centre of a dish, with macaroni (cooked with cheese) placed around them like a nest, and browned a little with a salamander (see cut on next page), or with a tomato-sauce in the centre of the dish, and the sweet-breads around, or with stuffed tomatoes alternating with the sweet-breads on the dish, or with mushrooms in the centre, or served on a dish made of boiled rice, called a rice _casserole_ (see page 205), or in little rice molds called _cassolettes_. To make the latter, boil the rice well, then work it to a smooth paste with a spoon; fill some little buttered patty-pans with the rice, and when it is quite cold take it out, brush the _cassolettes_ with butter on the outside, and color them a little in a hot oven; scoop out the inside, leaving the rice crust a quarter of an inch thick. Fill the _cassolettes_ with the sweet-breads cut into pieces, and pour over each a spoonful of cream dressing; or they may be _sautéd_ as described, and served with a _maître-d’hôtel_ sauce poured over.

SWEET-BREADS À LA MILANAISE.

Sweet-breads fried as in preceding receipt are placed in the centre of a hot platter. Small piped macaroni broken into two or three inch lengths is cooked with tomatoes as in receipt (see page 210), and neatly arranged in a circle around them.

SWEET-BREADS LARDED AND BRAISED (_English Lady_).

Trim all the skin and cartilage very carefully from two fine sweet-breads; lay them in cold water for an hour, and lard them; lay some slices of bacon in the bottom of a braising-pan, or any pan with a good cover (Francatelli would add also minced onions, carrots, celery, and parsley; however, they are quite good enough without); then put in sweet-breads, with slices of bacon between the pan and the sweet-breads; pour over all some stock, just high enough not to touch the larding, which must stand up free; let it simmer very gently for half or three-quarters of an hour. Look at it occasionally to see that the stock does not waste; add a little if it does. When done, hold a salamander or a hot kitchen shovel over the sweet-breads until they are a pale-yellow color on top. Serve these with tomato-sauce poured in the centre of the dish. The whole dish should look moist, the sweet-breads nearly white, and the larding transparent, standing up distinct and firm, like glass, white at the bottom, and pale-yellow on top.

BAKED SWEET-BREADS (_New York Cooking-school_).

Put a pair of sweet-breads on the fire in one quart of cold water, in which are mixed one tea-spoonful of salt and one table-spoonful of vinegar. When the water boils, take them off, and throw them into cold water, leaving them until they get cold; now lard them with lardoons about one-eighth of an inch square and two inches long. Chop rather fine one-third of a medium-sized onion (one ounce), four or five slices of carrot (one and a half ounces), half a stalk of celery, and one sprig of parsley. Put in the bottom of a baking-dish trimmings of pork; on this place the sweet-breads, and sprinkle the chopped vegetables over the top; bake them twenty minutes in a hot oven. Cut a slice of bread into an oval or any fancy shape, and fry it in a _sauté_ pan in a little hot butter, coloring it well; put this _croûton_ in the centre of a hot platter, on which place the sweet-breads. Serve pease or tomato-sauce around.

SWEET-BREAD FRITTERS.

Parboil the sweet-breads as before explained, and cut them into slices about half an inch thick; then sprinkle over them pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg, some finely chopped parsley, and a few drops of lemon-juice; dip them each into French fritter batter (see page 229); fry them a moment in boiling-hot lard. Always test the lard before frying by putting in a piece of bread or a bit of the batter; if it turns yellow readily, it is hot enough. Drain them well; pile them on a napkin neatly arranged on a platter; garnish them with fried parsley, _i. e._, parsley thrown into the lard, and skimmed out almost immediately.

SWEET-BREAD CROQUETTES (_New York Cooking-school_).

After two pairs of sweet-breads are blanched (boiled in salted water as described), cut them into dice; cut also half a box (four ounces) of mushrooms into dice. Make a _roux_ by putting one and a half ounces of butter into a saucepan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in two ounces of flour; mix and cook it well; then pour in a gill of strong stock or cream; when this is also mixed, add the dice, which stir over the fire until they are thoroughly heated; take them from the fire, add the beaten yolks of two eggs, which return to the fire a moment to set, without allowing to boil. When cool, form into _croquettes_; roll them first in cracker-crumbs, then in egg, then in cracker-crumbs again, and fry them in boiling lard.

The _croquettes_ may be cone-shaped, with a stick of parsley or celery pressed in the top for a stem just before serving; or the sweet-bread _croquettes_ may be made in the same manner as chicken _croquettes_ (French cook receipt), substituting sweet-breads for the chickens. They may be served alone, or with pease, or with tomato or Bechamel sauce, etc.

SKEWER OF SWEET-BREADS.

Parboil the sweet-breads as before described; cut them into slices or scollops about half an inch or more thick; sprinkle them with pepper and salt, and egg and bread-crumb them; now run a little skewer (see page 56) through two of these slices, alternating with two thin, square slices of bacon; fry in boiling lard; serve a tomato or cream sauce in the centre, and garnish with parsley. Serve one skewerful to each person at table.

MUTTON.

The best roasts are the leg, the saddle, and the shoulder of mutton. They are all roasted according to the regular rules for roasting. In England, mutton is hung some time before cooking. There must be something in the air of England quite different from that of America in reference to the hanging of meats and game; there, it is to be confessed, the mutton, after having hung a certain length of time, certainly is most delicious; here it would be unwholesome, simply not fit to eat. These joints of which I speak are also good braised. Serve currant-jelly-sauce with the roast, or garnish it with stuffed baked tomatoes.

BOILED LEG OF MUTTON.

This should be quite fresh. Put it into well-salted boiling water, which do not let stop boiling until the meat is thoroughly done. The rule is to boil it a quarter of an hour for each pound of meat. Caper-sauce should be served with this dish, either in a sauce-boat or poured over the mutton; garnish with parsley.

MUTTON CUTLETS.

Trim them well, scraping the bones; roll them in a little melted butter or oil, season, and broil them; or they are nice egged, bread-crumbed, and fried. They are especially nice when broiled, served around a bed of mashed boiled potatoes: the cutlets help to season the potatoes, which in turn well suit the meat. Tomato-sauce is also a favorite companion to the cutlets. They may, however, be served with almost any kind of vegetables, such as pease or string-beans, in the centre of the dish, and the cutlets arranged in a circle around.

RAGOUTS (_made of Pieces of Mutton, Veal, Beef, or Rabbits_).

Cut the upper parts, or the neck, from a fore-quarter of mutton (or take inferior cuts from any part) into pieces for a ragout; heat a heaping table-spoonful of drippings, or lard, in a saucepan, and when hot _sauté_ in it the pieces of mutton (say two pounds) until they are almost done; take them out, put in a table-spoonful of flour, brown it, add at first a little cold or lukewarm water, mix it well, then add a quart of boiling water; now add also salt, Cayenne pepper, two cloves, the pieces of _sautéd_ meat, three or four onions (not large), and six or seven peeled potatoes. Some prefer to boil the potatoes a few minutes in other water first, as the water in which potatoes are boiled is considered unwholesome; cover the stew-pan well. When the vegetables are cooked, take them and the meat out, skim off every particle of fat from the gravy, taste to see if it is properly seasoned, pour it over the ragout, and serve.

These ragouts can be made with the neck, or any pieces of veal, in the same manner, or with pieces of beef, in which case carrots might be substituted for the potatoes. A ragout of rabbits is most excellent made in the same way, adding a glassful of red wine when it is almost done.

In buying a fore quarter of mutton, there are enough trimmings for a good ragout, with a shapely roast besides.

ANOTHER RAGOUT (_of Pieces of Mutton, Veal, Beef, etc._).

Make rich pie-paste about the size of an egg (for four persons); roll it a quarter of an inch thick; cut it into diamonds, say an inch long and half an inch broad. Bake them, and put them aside until five minutes before serving the ragout. Take mutton, veal, beef, or almost any kind of meat. Any cheap cut of meat will make a good ragout, and choice cuts had better be cooked in other ways. In this instance, I will say, cut two pounds from the side of mutton. Put a table-spoonful of lard or drippings into a saucepan, and when hot _sauté_ in it the pieces of mutton; when half done, place them in a kettle. Add a heaping table-spoonful of flour to the drippings in the saucepan; stir it constantly several minutes to brown, then add gradually a pint of hot water; now pour this over the meat in the kettle, adding three small onions, two sprigs of parsley, three cloves, and a clove or bulb of garlic, if you have it; pepper and salt. Cover it closely, and let it simmer slowly for an hour, occasionally turning the kettle to one side to skim off all the fat. Five minutes before serving, add the diamonds of crust.

At the moment of serving, take out the meat, crust, and three onions, and arrange them on a hot platter. Pass the gravy through a sieve, and skim off every remaining particle of fat; taste to see if it is properly seasoned with pepper and salt, and pour it over the meat.

SHEEP’S TONGUES, WITH SPINACH.

Braise a number of sheep’s-tongues with salt pork, parsley, onion, some whole peppers, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and enough stock to cover them. Let them simmer one and a half hours. Serve with spinach in the centre of the dish, and seasoned with lemon-juice, a little of the tongue stock, some Cayenne pepper, salt, and butter. Serve the tongues around it, and diamonds or fancy cuts of fried bread (_croûtons_) around the outside circle.

SHEEP’S TONGUES À LA MAYONNAISE.

Boil half a dozen sheep’s tongues with one or two slices of bacon, one carrot, one onion, two cloves, two or three sprigs of parsley, salt and pepper (some add two table-spoonfuls of sherry or port wine, but this may be omitted), and enough boiling water (or, better, stock) to cover them. Let them simmer about one and a half hours, replenishing the boiling water or the stock when necessary. When thoroughly done, skin and trim them neatly; lay them between two plates, to flatten them. A professional cook would glaze them with the stock boiled down in which they were cooked; however, this is only for the sake of appearance. Arrange them in a circle around a dish, with a _Mayonnaise_ sauce poured in the centre.

SHEEP’S TONGUES, WITH SAUCE TARTARE.

Boil the tongues in salted water into which has been squeezed the juice of half a lemon (for six tongues). Serve with _sauce Tartare_ (see page 128).

LAMB.

The best roasts are the fore and hind quarters.

ROAST LEG OF LAMB.

Professional cooks serve a roast or baked hind quarter of lamb rather rare, or well done on the outside and pink within. It is really better, although it must be served steaming hot. Serve a caper, pickle, or mint sauce with it. If it is neatly carved through the centre, it will present a good appearance served again the next day, by stuffing the cut-out space with boiled mashed potatoes, smoothing it evenly around, and placing it long enough in the oven to become thoroughly hot.

ROAST FORE QUARTER OF LAMB.

This may or may not be partly stuffed, a common veal stuffing answering the purpose very well. It should be well seasoned with pepper and salt, thoroughly cooked, and often basted.

LAMB CHOPS.

This is a favorite dinner-company dish, generally arranged in a circle around green pease. They should be neatly trimmed, the bones scraped, then rolled in a little melted butter, and carefully broiled. When done, rub more butter over them, and season them with pepper and salt. Slip little paper ruffles (see page 61) over the ends of the bones. They may be served with a centre of almost any kind of vegetable, such as a smooth hemisphere of mashed potatoes or spinach, or with beans, cauliflowers or stuffed baked tomatoes, or with a tomato-sauce.

SADDLE OF LAMB OR MUTTON.

This is considered a delicate roast. Roast it in the usual manner. Serve caper, mint, or any of the sauces or vegetables that are used with other dishes of lamb or mutton.

LAMB CROQUETTES

are made the same as chicken _croquettes_, only substituting cold cooked lamb for the chicken. Many prefer the lamb to the chicken _croquettes_, even for dinner or lunch parties.

SHEEP’S KIDNEYS.

The best manner of cooking is to _sauté_ them. They must be perfectly fresh (they spoil soon), _sautéd_ on a quick fire, never allowed to boil in the sauce (this would spoil the gravy), and served with a little wine in the sauce.

First cut them into slices; season, and _sauté_ them in a little hot suet, clarified drippings, or butter. When done, put them on a hot plate. Now take a second stew-pan, put in a piece of butter the size of a large hickory-nut; when it is hot, throw in a tea-spoonful of minced onion, two sprigs of parsley, minced also, and a tea-spoonful of flour; when they become red, pour in one and a half cupfuls of hot water or stock. Let it simmer a few moments, then season with pepper and salt, and strain it; now add a table-spoonful of sherry or port wine, and the pieces of kidney. A few drops of lemon-juice may or may not be added. Let the kidney remain a few moments in the sauce without boiling, and serve. Professional cooks generally add minced mushrooms; but the dish is quite good enough without them.

PORK.

A little salted pork or bacon should always be kept in the house. I confess to having a decided prejudice against this meat, considering it unwholesome and dangerous, especially in cities, unless used in the smallest quantities. Yet pork makes a delicious flavoring for cooking other meats, and thin, small slices of breakfast bacon are a relishing garnish for beefsteak, veal cutlets, liver, etc. In the country, perhaps, there is less cause for doubt about its use, where the animal is raised with corn, and where much outdoor life will permit the taking of stronger food.

TO CURE BACON.

For every three hundred pounds of pork use fourteen pounds of common salt, and one pound each of brown sugar and saltpetre. Rub them into the meat, and let it lie for three weeks, rubbing and turning it occasionally. Then wipe dry, rub again with dry fine salt, wrap it in a thick cloth (canvas) or paper, and hang it in a cool, dry place.

ROAST LITTLE PIG.

I _trust_ entirely to the following receipt. Any one who fancies can cook a little pig, not I.

The pig should be three weeks old, well cleaned, and stuffed with a dressing of this proportion: Two large onions, four times the quantity of bread-crumbs, three tea-spoonfuls of chopped sage, two ounces of butter, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, one salt-spoonful of salt, and one egg. Or it may be filled with a veal force-meat stuffing, if preferred; or, it may be stuffed with hot mashed potatoes. Sew it together with a strong thread, trussing its fore legs forward and its hind legs backward. Rub the pig with butter, flour, pepper, and salt. Roast it at first before a very slow fire, as it should be thoroughly done; or, if it is baked, the oven should not be too hot at first. Baste it very often. When done (in about three hours), place a cob or a potato in the mouth, having put something in at first to keep it open. Serve it with apple-sauce or tomato-sauce.

ROAST PORK.

The roasting pieces are the spare rib, the leg, the loin, the saddle, the fillet, and the shoulder. They may be stuffed with a common well-seasoned sage stuffing. The skin, if left on, should be cut in lines forming little squares; if the skin is taken off, sprinkle a little pounded sage over all, and put over it a buttered paper. Be careful, in roasting pork, to put the meat far enough from the fire at first, as it must be thoroughly done. The rule for the time of roasting pork is twenty minutes for each pound. Baste it at first with butter, and afterward with its own drippings. A roast loin of pork is very nice (allowing it to remain well sprinkled with salt an hour or two before roasting) served with cabbage cooked with a little vinegar, or served with sauer-krout.

BROILED PORK CUTLETS (_Dubois_).

Take a fresh neck of pork (free from fat); shorten the bones of the ribs, and remove those of the chine; cut six cutlets off each neck, taking them a little obliquely; trim them, season, and roll them in melted butter and bread-crumbs. Broil them. Pour into a stew-pan four or five table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and double its volume of stock or gravy; let it boil, and thicken it with a little flour. Pass it through a sieve, and add to it pepper and some spoonfuls of chopped pickles. Dish the cutlets in a circle, and pour over them the sauce; or pork cutlets may be fried or _sautéd_ in a stew-pan, in a little hot lard, and served with the same sauce.

PORK AND BEANS.

Soak a quart of beans overnight. The next day boil them with a sliced onion, one large onion to a quart of beans (they will not taste of the onion), and when they are almost done, put them into a baking-dish, taking out the onions. Almost bury in the centre of the beans a quarter of a pound of salt pork; pour in some of the water in which the beans were boiled, and bake about an hour.

Another way is to omit the onions, and after parboiling the beans put them into the bake-pan with one large spoonful of molasses and a quarter of a pound of pork, and bake them two hours.

BOSTON BAKED BEANS.

Put one and one-half pints of medium-sized navy beans into a quart bean-pot; fill it with water, and let it stand overnight. In the morning, pour off the water, and cover the beans with fresh water in which is mixed one table-spoonful of molasses. Put a quarter of a pound of pickled pork in the centre, leaving a quarter of an inch of pork above the beans. Bake them eight hours with a steady fire, and, without stirring the beans, add a cupful of hot water every hour but the last two. Earthen pots with narrow mouths are made expressly for baking beans. Cooking them in this manner, without first boiling them, renders each bean perfectly whole and at the same time thoroughly cooked. When done, place the pork in the centre of a platter, with the beans around it.

ENTRÉE OF APPLES AND PORK.

Cut sour apples (pippins) into slices without skinning them; fry or _sauté_ them with small strips of pork. Serve both, tastefully arranged, on the same dish.

SAUSAGES (_Warne_).

“Two pounds and a half of pork, fat and lean mixed (three times as much lean as fat), one ounce of fine salt, a quarter of a pound of pepper, two tea-spoonfuls of powdered sage, a quarter of a tea-spoonful of allspice, and a quarter of a tea-spoonful of cloves. Chop the meat as fine as possible: there are machines for the purpose. Mix the seasoning well through the whole; pack the sausage-meat down hard in stone jars, which should be kept in a cool place, well covered. When wanted for use, form them into little cakes, dip them in beaten egg, then in wheat flour, and fry them in hot lard.”

Always serve apple-sauce with pork sausages. Two dishes never suited better. For breakfast, it would be well to have a centre of apple-sauce on a platter, with sausages around, or vice versâ. They are a fine garnish for a roast turkey.

It is said that sausages will keep forever, by frying them and putting them in little jars, with a cover of hot lard.

TO CURE HAMS (_Mrs. Lestlie_).

For one hundred pounds of fine pork take seven pounds of coarse salt, five pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of soda, and four gallons of water. Boil all together, and skim the pickle when cold. Pour it on the meat, which should first be rubbed all over with red pepper. Let hams and tongues remain in the pickle eight weeks. Before they are smoked, hang them up, and dry them two or three days. Then sew the hams in cases.

TO BOIL HAM.

If it is quite salt, let it soak twenty-four hours. Cut off the end of the knuckle-bone; put it into a pot with cold water at the back of the range to simmer slowly for eight hours; then take it off the fire, and let it remain in the water until nearly cold; then peel off the skin carefully, make spots at uniform distances with pepper, and wind fringed paper around the bone. Mrs. Lestlie boils her hams with a bed of hay in the bottom of the pot. Some sprinkle grated bread or crackers over the ham when trimmed, and brown it in the oven; others brush it thickly over with glaze. However well cooked, it would be utterly ruined if it were not cut into thin, neat slices for eating.

HAM AND EGGS.

The ham, cut into thin slices, can be broiled or _sautéd_. If broiled, spread over a little butter when cooked. The eggs can be fried; but they are more wholesome poached in salted water. In both cases they should be carefully cooked, neatly trimmed, and an egg served on each slice of ham.

TO FRY OR SAUTÉ HAM.

The ham should be cut into thin, neat slices, and _sautéd_ only for a minute in a hot _sauté_ pan. If it is much more than thoroughly heated, it will become tough and dry.

PORK FRIED IN BATTER, OR EGGED AND BREAD-CRUMBED.

Roll very thin slices of breakfast bacon or fat pork in fritter batter, or egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in boiling lard. Serve on toast or fried mush as a dish by itself, or as a garnish for beefsteak, fried chickens, breaded chops, etc.

MRS. TROWBRIDGE’S BREAKFAST-BACON DISH.

Soak slices of bacon or pork in milk for fifteen minutes; then dip them into flour, and fry them in the _sauté_ pan. When done, _sauté_ some slices of potato in the same hot fat, and serve them in the centre of a hot dish, with a circle of the slices of pork around them.

RASHERS OF PORK (_to serve with Beefsteak, Roast Beef, etc._).

Breakfast bacon should be cut very thin (one-eighth of an inch thick), and in strips three or four inches long. It should be fried in the _sauté_ pan only long enough to become transparent, or thoroughly hot; if cooked crisp, it is ruined. The French usually serve these strips of bacon laid over beefsteak, roast beef, game, etc.

SANDWICHES (_Mrs. Geo. H. Williams_), No. 1.

Cut some fresh bread very thin, and of square equal shapes. Chop some cold boiled ham very fine, and mix with it the yolks of one or two uncooked eggs, a little pepper and mustard. Spread some of this mixture over the buttered slices of bread; roll them, pinching each roll at the end to keep it in shape.

If there is difficulty in cutting fresh bread, use that which is a day old, then cut it in very thin slices, buttering it on the loaf before it is cut; cut the slices into little even squares or diamonds (the crust being all removed), spread with the chopped ham mixture before mentioned, and fit two squares together.

SANDWICHES (_New York Cooking-school_), No. 2.

Chop fine half a pound of boiled ham, and season it with one table-spoonful of olive-oil, one table-spoonful of lemon-juice, a little cayenne or mustard, and rub it through a sieve. Butter the bread on the loaf before cutting it, and spread the ham between the slices.

SMALL ROLLS, WITH SALAD FILLING.

Cut off a little piece of the top of a French roll, and remove carefully the crumb from the inside. Prepare a stuffing of cold chicken, tongue, and celery (cut in dice), mixed in _Mayonnaise_ dressing, and fill the roll, covering the top with the small piece cut off.

This makes a very nice lunch dish, or a lunch for traveling. The rolls may be filled with cold cooked lobster, cut into little dice, and covered with a _Mayonnaise_ dressing.

POULTRY.

If care is taken in picking and dressing fowls or birds, there is no need of washing them. In France it is never done, unless there is absolutely something to wash off; then it is done as delicately as possible. In expostulating once with an old negro auntie for soaking all the blood and flavor out of a fowl, she quickly replied, “Bless my soul, child! haven’t I cooked chickens for fifty years?”

When you buy a goose or a duck, be sure that it is young. Never buy an old duck. The first I ever bought were from a penful at market. I thought myself very clever in choosing the largest, all being one price; not so clever at dinner, when my husband tried to carve those tough and aged drakes.

ROAST TURKEY.

The secret in having a good roast turkey is to baste it often, and to cook it long enough. A small turkey of seven or eight pounds (the best selection if fat) should be roasted or baked three hours at least. A very large turkey should not be cooked a minute less than four hours; an extra hour is preferable to a minute less. If properly basted, they will not become dry.

With much experience in hotel life, where turkeys are ruined by the wholesale, I have never seen a piece of turkey that was fit to eat. Besides being tasteless, they are almost invariably undercooked. First, then, after the turkey is dressed, season it well, sprinkling pepper and salt on the inside; stuff it, and tie it well in shape; either lard the top or lay slices of bacon over it; wet the skin, and sprinkle it well with pepper, salt, and flour. It is well to allow a turkey to remain some time stuffed before cooking. Pour a little boiling water into the bottom of the dripping-pan. If it is to be roasted, do not put it too near the coals at first, until it gets well heated through; then gradually draw it nearer. The excellence of the turkey depends much upon the frequency of basting it; occasionally baste it with a little butter, oftener with its own drippings. Just before taking it from the fire or out of the oven, put on more melted butter, and sprinkle over more flour; this will make the skin more crisp and brown. While the turkey is cooking, boil the giblets well; chop them fine, and mash the liver. When the turkey is done, put it on a hot platter. Put the baking-pan on the fire, dredge in a little flour, and when cooked stir in a little boiling water or stock; strain it, skim off every particle of fat; add the giblets; season with salt and pepper. If chestnut stuffing is used, add some boiled chestnuts to the gravy; this is decidedly the best sauce for a turkey. Besides the gravy, always serve cranberry (see receipt, page 204), currant, or plum jelly with turkey. These are more attractive molded the day before they are served. The currant or plum jelly is melted and remolded in a pretty form. Roast turkeys are often garnished with little sausage-balls.

STUFFING FOR BAKED TURKEY, CHICKEN, VEAL, AND LAMB (_New York Cooking-school_).

Soak half a pound of bread (with the crust cut off) in tepid water, then squeeze it dry. Put three ounces of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot stir in a small onion minced (one and a half ounces), which color slightly; then add the bread, with three table-spoonfuls of parsley (half an ounce) chopped fine, half a tea-spoonful of powdered thyme, a little grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and a gill of stock. Stir it over the fire until it leaves the bottom and sides; then mix in two eggs.

STUFFING FOR ROAST TURKEYS, CHICKENS, DUCKS, AND GEESE.

The commonest stuffing is this: Two onions, five ounces of soaked and squeezed bread, eight sage leaves, an ounce of butter, pepper, salt, one egg, a little piece of pork minced. Mince the onions, and fry them in the _sauté_ pan before adding them to the other ingredients. Some chopped celery is always a good addition.

CHESTNUT, POTATO, VEAL, AND OYSTER STUFFINGS.

The chestnut stuffing is made by adding chestnuts to the ordinary stuffing. They are put on the fire in a saucepan or spider to burst the skins; they are then boiled in very salted water or stock; some are also put into the sauce. Or turkeys, etc., may be stuffed with boiled, mashed, and seasoned sweet-potatoes or Irish potatoes.

The great cooks make extra trouble and expense in preparing a force-meat stuffing of cold veal, cold ham, bacon, and a few bread-crumbs, mixed and seasoned with cayenne, salt, lemon-juice, summer savory, parsley, or any sweet herbs. Then they often add truffles cut into little balls; or, an oyster stuffing is made by merely adding plenty of whole oysters (not chopped) to the ordinary turkey bread stuffing. It should be well seasoned, or the oysters will taste insipid.

BOILED TURKEY.

If a boiled turkey is not well managed, it will be quite tasteless. Choose a hen turkey. If not well trussed and tied, the legs and wings of a boiled fowl will be found pointing to all the directions of the compass. Cut the legs at the first joint and draw them into the body. Fasten the small ends of the wings under the back, and tie them securely with strong twine. Sprinkle over plenty of salt, pepper, and lemon-juice, and put it into _boiling_ water. Boil it slowly two hours, or until quite tender. It is generally served in a bed of rice, with oyster, caper, cauliflower, parsley, or _Hollandaise_ sauce. Pour part of the sauce over the turkey. Reserve the giblets for giblet soup. It can be stuffed or not, the same as for roasting.

TURKEY OR CHICKEN HASH

is made like beef hash, only substituting turkey or chicken for beef.

TURKEY BRAISED.

If you have an old turkey unfit for roasting or boiling, braise it for four or five hours, adding a little wine (toward the last) to the stock, if you choose.

TURKEY GALANTINE, OR BONED TURKEY.

Choose a fat hen turkey. When dressing it, leave the crop skin (the skin over the breast) whole; cut off the legs, wings, and neck. Now slit the skin at the back, and carefully remove it all around. Cut out the breasts carefully; cut them into little elongated pieces, about a quarter of an inch square and an inch long (parallelograms); or cut them any way you like. Season them with pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, mace, pounded cloves, sweet basil, and a little chopped parsley, all mixed. Now make a force-meat, with a pound and a quarter of lean veal or fresh pork, well freed from skin and gristle. Mix this with the meat of the turkey (all but the breasts); chop it well. Then chop an equal volume of fresh bacon, which mix with the other chopped meat: season this with the condiments last mentioned. Now pound it in a mortar to a paste. Cut one pound of truffles, half a pound of cooked pickled tongue, and half a pound of cooked fat bacon, into three-quarter-inch dice. Season these also.

Spread the turkey skin on a board. Make alternate layers on it, first of half of the force-meat, then half of the turkey breasts, then half of the dice of tongue, truffles, and bacon, then, turkey fillets and dice again: save some of the force-meat to put on the last layer. Now begin at one side and roll it over, giving it a round and long shape; sew up the skin; wrap it, pressing it closely in a napkin; tie it at the extremities, and also tie it across in two places, to keep it in an oval shape with round ends.

Boil the galantine gently for four hours in boiling water (or, better, in stock), with the bones of the turkey thrown in. At the end of that time, take the stew-pan off the fire. Let the galantine cool in the liquor one hour; then drain it, and put it on a dish with a seven-pound weight on it.

When cold, take the galantine out of the napkin; put it at the end of an open oven for some minutes to melt the fat, which wipe off with a cloth; glaze it, or sprinkle it with a little egg and fine bread-crumbs, and bake it a few minutes. It is, of course, to be sliced when eaten. It is generally served placed on a wooden standard, as described for a _Mayonnaise_ of salmon.

A boned turkey, or galantine, is seen at almost all large parties. It is convenient to have one in the house, as it will keep for a long time, and is very nice for lunch or tea. It costs ten dollars to buy one, and about half of the amount to make it. Of course, it is some trouble to make; yet if one’s time is worth less than one’s money, there is plenty of time for the purpose, as it can be made three or four days before an entertainment. Chicken and game galantines are made in the same way. The figure on page 169 is a boned turkey or chicken prepared for boiling.

MIXED SPICES FOR SEASONING.

In cities, mixed spices can be purchased, which are prepared by professional cooks, and which save much trouble to inexperienced compounders. This is one of their receipts: “Take of nutmegs and mace, one ounce each; of cloves and white pepper-corns, two ounces each; of sweet basil, marjoram, and thyme, one ounce each, and half an ounce of bay leaves: these herbs should be previously dried for the purpose. Roughly pound the spices, then place the whole of the above ingredients between two sheets of white paper, and after the sides have been folded over tightly, to prevent the evaporation of the volatile properties of the herbs and spices, place them in a warm place to become perfectly dry. They must then be pounded quickly, put through a sieve, corked up tightly in bottles, and kept for use.”

A SIMPLE WAY OF PREPARING BONED TURKEY OR CHICKEN.