Chapter II: Preface

OYSTERS.
SOUPS.
FISH.
BOILING.
ENTREES.
VEGETABLE ENTREES.
ROASTING.
SALADS.
CAKES.
VEGETABLES.
TABLE ETIQUETTE.
BANQUET SERVICE.
MIXED DRINKS.
PRESERVING, ETC.
MENUS.
INDEX.

VALUABLE COOKING RECEIPTS.

_OYSTERS._

=Raw Oysters.=—Eat raw oysters as plain and as free from condiments as possible, and always on the deep shell in their own liquor. The average American orders a dozen on the half-shell and then drowns his pets in vinegar, pepper, salt, horse radish, etc., washing them down with some malt beverage, pays his check, and disappears. The next day he goes through the same performance, and the not over-conscientious oyster-man, knowing his weakness for condiments, can easily palm off on him a “Rockaway Cull” for a Blue Point or a Green Point, or he may give him a “deep-water native” for almost any particular kind or brand he may want, and he cannot detect the difference in their flavor, owing to his excessive use of condiments. A little lemon-juice is all that is necessary, if you will not eat your saline dainties natural.

The heartless oyster-fiend who opens your oysters by _smashing_ the shell should be avoided, for it is cruelty, to say the least. We can forgive him for spattering our clothing with shells, mud, and dirty water, but filling our mouths with these things is pure ugliness. Order a quart of the bivalves to be sent home, and this oyster-butcher endangers the health of your family should any of them swallow a particle of the shell. The true lover of an oyster should have some feeling for his little favorite, and patronize establishments only where they contrive to open them (Boston fashion) so dexterously that the mollusk is hardly conscious he has been removed from his lodging “till he feels the teeth of the piscivorous gourmet tickling him to death.”

=Roast Oysters on half-shell.=—Open a dozen large oysters on deep shell; add a walnut of butter, with a little salt and mixed pepper (red and black) and a pinch of cracker-dust to each. Place them on a broiler over a sharp, clear fire until done, and serve.

Families not having all the conveniences for roasting oysters “restaurant fashion” will find the above receipt acceptable; though I must confess it is quite a treat to our Western cousins to ask them down into the kitchen of an evening, and serve up a peck of oysters roasted in the shell direct from the fire, with no other tool to pick them out of the coals than the old tongs the moment they pop open. You may possibly burn a finger or two, but what of that so long as the young folks have had a good time?

=Oysters escalloped.=—In a deep yellow dish place a layer of oysters and cover them with cracker-dust (add an ounce of butter to each layer of cracker-dust); pepper and salt to taste; another layer of oysters, another of cracker-dust, and so on until the dish is full. Moisten the dish with the juice of the oysters or hot water to prevent its burning, and bake a nice brown.

=Oyster Patties.=—Roll out some very light puff paste half an inch thick; stamp it in rounds with a cutter three inches in diameter; press a small cutter two inches in diameter on the middle of each to the depth of a quarter of an inch. Place the rounds on a buttered tin, baste them lightly with egg, and bake in a quick oven. When done take them out, remove the centre-piece, scoop out a little of the inside, and fill the shells with the prepared oysters.

Parboil twenty-five oysters in their own liquor; remove the oysters and season the liquid with lemon-peel, nutmeg, and pepper; strain, and thicken with a heaping tablespoonful of flour, one and a half ounces of butter, a wineglassful of rich cream; mix, and then add the oysters. Simmer all together a few minutes, fill the shells, and serve.

Scallops and clams cut up fine, with a sauce made on the same principle, make a very nice patty.

=Oyster toast.=—Select fifteen plump oysters; mince them, and season with mixed pepper and a pinch of nutmeg; beat the yolks of four eggs and mix them with half a pint of cream. Put the whole into a saucepan and set it over the fire to simmer till thick; stir it well, and do not let it boil lest it should curdle. Toast five pieces of bread and butter them; when your dish is near boiling-point remove it from the fire and pour it over the toast.

=Fried oysters.=—Beat up the yolks of four eggs with three tablespoonfuls of sweet oil, and season them with a teaspoonful of salt and a salt-spoonful of cayenne pepper; beat up thoroughly. Dry twelve fat oysters on a napkin; dip them in the egg-batter, then in cracker-dust; shake off the loose cracker-dust, dip them again in the egg-batter, and lastly roll them in fine _bread-crumbs_. Fry in very hot fat, using fat enough to cover them. The oil gives them a nice flavor. (Private receipt of a prominent Philadelphia caterer.)

=Broiled oysters.=—Rub the bars of a wire broiler with a little sweet butter. Dry twelve large, fat oysters and place them upon the broiler _plain_. Broil them over a clear fire, and when done on both sides send to table on a piece of buttered toast, with a little melted butter in a separate dish. Should you _hanker_ after a delightful case of dyspepsia cover them with egg-batter and roll them in crumbs before broiling.

=Oysters a la Poulette.=—Blanch a dozen oysters in their own liquor; salt and remove the oysters; add a tablespoonful of butter, the juice of half a lemon, a gill of cream, and a teaspoonful of flour. Beat up the yolk of one egg while the sauce is simmering; add the egg, and simmer the whole until it thickens. Place the oysters on a hot dish, pour the sauce over them, sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top, and send to table. (This is a favorite dish of Hotel Brunswick _habitués_ in New York.)

_SOUPS._

Sir Henry Thompson says “that soups, whether clear or thick, are far too lightly esteemed by most classes. They are too often regarded as the mere prelude to a meal, to be swallowed hastily or disregarded altogether.” And the _Almanach des Gourmands_ tells us that ten folio volumes would not contain the receipts of all the soups that have been invented in the Parisian kitchen alone.

=Soup Stock.=—In making soups from raw meats break the bones apart, place them in a pot, cover them with _cold water_, and boil slowly for five or six hours; add salt to quicken the rising of the scum, which should be thoroughly removed. Cut up three carrots, three turnips, two heads of celery, and two onions; add to the stock, together with six or eight cloves, a bouquet of herbs, and a teaspoonful of whole peppers; strain into a deep saucepan, and clarify with the white of egg. It will then be ready for an indefinite variety of soups.

=Veal Stock.=—Chop up three slices of bacon and two pounds of the neck of veal; place in a stew-pan with a pint of water or beef stock, and simmer half an hour; then add two quarts of stock, one onion, a carrot, a bouquet of herbs, four stalks of celery, half a teaspoonful of bruised whole peppers, and a pinch of nutmeg with a teaspoonful of salt; boil gently for two hours, removing the scum in the meantime. Strain into an earthen crock, and when cold remove the fat. A few bones of poultry added, with an additional quantity of water or stock, will improve it.

=Veal Broth.=—Stew a knuckle of veal in about three quarts of water; add two ounces of rice, a little salt, and a blade of mace; boil until the liquor is reduced one-half.

=Gumbo Soup.=—Cut up two chickens, two slices of ham, and two onions into dice; flour them, and fry the whole to a light brown; then fill the frying-pan with boiling water, stir it a few minutes, and turn the whole into a saucepan containing three quarts of boiling water; let it boil forty minutes, removing the scum. In the meantime soak three pints of ochra in cold water twenty minutes; cut them into thin slices, and add to the other ingredients; let it boil one hour and a half. Add a quart of canned tomatoes and a cupful of boiled rice half an hour before serving.

Southern housekeepers use the leaves of the sassafras-tree as a substitute for ochra when the latter is scarce and dear. They gather the young leaves and spread them in the shade for a few days; then they dry them in the sun. When they are thoroughly dried they put them in a bag and hang them up for two or three months; they are then pulverized and bottled.

=Mock Turtle Soup.=—Take half a calf’s head with the skin on; remove the brains. Wash the head in several waters, and let it soak in cold water for an hour. Put it in a saucepan with five quarts of beef stock; let it simmer gently for an hour; remove the scum carefully, take up the head, let it get cold, and cut the meat from the bones into pieces an inch square and set them in the ice-box. Dissolve two ounces of butter in a frying-pan; mince a large onion and fry it in the butter until nicely browned, and add to the stock in which the head was cooked. Return the bones to the stock; simmer the soup, removing the scum until no more rises. Put in a carrot, a turnip, a bunch of parsley, a bouquet of herbs, a dozen outer stalks of celery, two blades of mace, and the rind of one lemon, grated; salt and pepper to taste. Boil gently for two hours, and strain the soup through a flannel cloth. Mix three ounces of Barlow’s prepared browned flour with a pint of the soup, and simmer until it thickens; then add it to the soup. Take the pieces of head out of the ice-box and add to the soup; let them simmer until quite tender. Before serving add a little Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoonful of anchovy paste, a gobletful of port or sherry, and two lemons sliced, each slice cut into quarters with the rind trimmed off. Warm the wine a very little before adding it to the soup. Keep in ice-box three or four days before using. Serve the brains as a side-dish.

=Pea Soup.=—Cut two large slices of ham into dice with a sliced onion, and fry them in a little bacon fat until they are lightly browned. Cut up one turnip, one large carrot, four outer stalks of celery, and one leek into small pieces; add these last ingredients to the ham and onion, and let them simmer for fifteen minutes; then pour over them three quarts of corned-beef water or hot water, and add a pint of split peas which have been soaked in cold water all night; boil gently until the peas are quite tender, stirring constantly to prevent burning; then add salt and pepper to taste, with a teaspoonful of brown sugar. Remove the soup from the fire and rub through a sieve; if it is not thick enough to suit your taste or fancy add a few ounces of flour mixed smoothly in a little cold milk; return the soup to the fire, and simmer for half an hour. Cut up four slices of American bread into small dice, and fry the pieces in very hot fat until nicely browned; place them on a napkin or towel, and add a few of them to each plate or tureen of soup just before it goes to table.

=Economical Pea Soup.=—Boil two quarts of green-pea hulls in four quarts of water, in which beef, mutton, or fowl has been boiled, four hours; then add a bunch or bouquet of herbs, salt and pepper, a tablespoonful of butter, and a quart of milk. Rub through a hair sieve, thicken with a little flour, and serve with croutons, as in the foregoing receipt.

=Tomato Soup.=—Cut four ounces of ham into dice; slice two onions and fry with ham in two ounces of butter; when browned turn them into a saucepan containing three quarts of stock or corned-beef water, and add three carrots, two turnips, one red pepper (lady-finger), and a dozen outer stalks of celery; simmer gently for one hour, then add a quart of canned tomatoes; boil gently for another hour, rub the whole through a sieve, and simmer again with the liquor a few minutes; add salt and serve with croutons.

=Oxtail Soup.=—Take two oxtails; cut them into joints, and cut up each joint into four pieces; put them into a pan with two ounces of butter, and fry them ten minutes. Slice two onions, one turnip, two carrots, a dozen outer stalks of celery, and fry in the same butter, with three slices of bacon cut up fine; fry to a light brown. Turn the ingredients into a saucepan with a quart of stock or ham-water, and boil quickly for half an hour; then add two more quarts of stock, a bouquet of herbs, two bay-leaves, a dozen whole peppers crushed, a few cloves, and salt to taste.

Simmer until the meat is quite tender; then take it out, strain the soup, skim off the fat, and thicken with two ounces of Barlow’s prepared flour; return the meat to the soup, add a tablespoonful of Worcestershire, a cupful of sherry, and serve with grated rusks.

=Chicken Soup.=—Take three young male chickens; cut them up, put them in a saucepan with three quarts of veal stock; a sliced carrot, one turnip, and one head of celery may be put with them and removed before the soup is thickened. Let them simmer for an hour. Remove all the white flesh; return the rest of the birds to the soup, and boil gently for two hours. Pour a little of the liquid over a quarter of a pound of the crumbs of bread, and when they are well soaked put it in a mortar with the white flesh of the birds, and pound the whole to a smooth paste; add a pinch of ground mace, salt, and a little cayenne pepper, press the mixture through a sieve, and boil once more, adding a pint of boiling cream; thicken with a very little flour mixed in cold milk, remove the bones, and serve.

=Chicken Soup, No. 2.=—Cut up one chicken; put into a stew-pan two quarts of cold water, a teaspoonful of salt, and one pod of red pepper (lady-finger); when half done add two dessert-spoonfuls of well-washed rice. When thoroughly cooked remove the bird from the soup, tear a part of the breast into shreds (saving the balance of the fowl for a salad), and add it to the soup with a wineglassful of cream.

=Beef Tea.=—Take half a pound of lean beef; cut it up into small bits; let it soak in a pint of water three-quarters of an hour, then put both into a quart champagne bottle with just a suspicion of salt; cork tightly, and wire the cork, so as to prevent its popping out. Set the bottle into a saucepanful of warm water, boil gently an hour and a half, and strain through a napkin.

Beef tea administered often to a patient without the fibrine of the meat will tend to weaken instead of strengthening the invalid. I always add about a teaspoonful of finely-chopped raw meat to a goblet of the tea, and let it stand in the tea about five minutes before serving.

_FISH._

Codfish is about the best fish that comes to our market, but it is so cheap and plentiful that we do not appreciate it quite as much as we would if the price was twenty-five cents a pound and its _season_ to last not over two months. Trout and all delicate fish lose their flavor long before they reach New York, and they should be eaten within half an hour after they are caught; while the cod improves in flavor if kept for a day or two with the addition of a little salt to give it firmness.

The “shoulder part” pleases _my_ palate the most. Have you ever tried a codfish steak for breakfast, dredged in corn meal and fried in salt pork-fat? It is splendid. A rasher of bacon served with it does no harm.

In broiling cod, haddock, bass, etc., always tie them up in a bag or towel, and lay the fish in the fish-pan, adding a little salt, a pint of Rhine wine, or cupful of vinegar, and cover the fish with _cold water_, allowing it to boil gently till done. Drawn-butter sauce with boiled fish is easy to make and pleases almost everybody.

=Baked Cod.=—When purchasing a four-pound cod ask your fish-dealer to send you three or four “codfish-heads,” and as soon as the basket comes into the house rub a little salt on the fish, chop the heads into six pieces each, and sprinkle a little salt over them. Place them in the centre of the baking-pan (to be used as supports for the fish), with two ounces of butter, one carrot, a turnip, a potato, and one onion cut into slices, two blades of mace, a teaspoonful white pepper, one tablespoonful celery-seed, six cloves, and a cupful of red wine. Set the pan in the oven while you prepare the cod.

Soak in cold water until soft a sufficiency of bread to fill the fish; drain off the water and pound the bread to a paste; mix with it two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two raw eggs, a tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce, with salt and pepper to taste. Put this stuffing inside the fish and sew it up; place the cod in the pan with two or three pieces of butter on the upper side of the fish, and baste it frequently; when it is cooked lay the fish on a hot platter, and garnish with fried oysters, if convenient. Add two tablespoonfuls of Barlow’s prepared flour to the pan, a wineglass of sherry; mix, and strain the gravy into a sauce-boat.

=Salt Codfish with Cream.=—Soak one pound and a half of salt codfish over-night. Next morning set the fish to simmer for about two hours; drain off the water and strip the fish into shreds; place it in a saucepan with a quart of milk and two ounces of butter; mix a tablespoonful of flour with two tablespoonfuls of cold milk, and add to the fish. Let the whole come to a boil, remove the dish from the fire, beat up one egg to a froth, add it to the fish, stir, and serve immediately.

=Salt Mackerel Broiled.=—Soak a No. 2 chicken mackerel in cold water over-night; pour off the water and let the fish stand in milk enough to cover it for one hour before broiling; baste the fish with butter, and broil. When done plunge the fish into hot water for one minute, and send to table with a dish of melted butter, the juice of one lemon, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley mixed together.

=Broiled Lobster (for breakfast).=—Cut the tail part of a lobster in two, rub a little sweet oil over the meat, and broil. When done brush a little butter over it, with the juice of half a lemon and just the suspicion of cayenne. Place the meat back into the shell, and send to table with a dish of broiled tomatoes and a fresh-baked potato.

=Lobster en Brochette.=—Cut up the tail of a lobster into square pieces; take a few thin slices of bacon and cut into lengths to match the pieces of lobster; place them on a skewer alternately, and broil; baste as in “broiled lobster,” and send to table on a bed of water-cress.

=Baked Shad.=—Make a dressing of bread-crumbs, butter, pepper, and salt worked to a paste; fill the shad with the mixture, sew it up, and place it lengthwise in a baking-pan with a little water and an ounce of butter. Fill the space between the fish and the sides of the pan with slices of raw potatoes one-fourth of an inch thick, and serve fish and potatoes together. Add a spoonful of Barlow’s prepared flour to the gravy, and serve.

=“Tenderloin” Trout.=—Take a large catfish and cut it up into pieces two inches in length and one inch in thickness. Beat up three eggs with a little salt and pepper and a teaspoonful of Worcestershire; dip the fish in the egg-batter, and roll in corn meal or bread-crumbs. Fry a deep brown, garnish with lemon, parsley, or celery-tops, and send to table with a cucumber salad.

=Fricasseed Eels.=—Cut up three pounds of eels into pieces of three inches in length; put them into a stew-pan, and cover them with Rhine wine (or two-thirds water and one-third vinegar); add fifteen oysters, two pieces of lemon, a bouquet of herbs, one onion quartered, six cloves, three stalks celery, a pinch of cayenne, pepper and salt to taste. Stew the eels one hour; remove them from the dish; strain the liquor. Put it back into the stew-pan with a gill of cream and an ounce of butter rolled in flour; simmer gently a few minutes, pour over the fish, and serve with a toasted milk cracker.

=Soyer’s Boiled Salmon.=—I always prefer dressing this fish in slices from an inch to two inches in thickness, boiling it in plenty of salt and water twenty minutes. The whole fish may be boiled, but it requires longer boiling. Salmon eats firmer by not putting it into water until it is boiling. Dress the fish upon a napkin and serve with lobster sauce, or plain melted butter with a few sprigs of parsley boiled a few minutes in it.

I generally boil a salmon whole, or head and shoulders in one piece, with salt, and cover the fish with equal parts of warm water and Rhine wine, two or three bay-leaves, a few cloves, etc. When done I use the water in making sauce by reducing one-half, adding butter rolled in flour to thicken, pinch of cayenne, and the juice of one lemon.

=Eel Patties.=—Take three medium-sized eels and cut them up into inch pieces. Put them in a stew-pan, add salt, and cover them with cold water. When the water comes to a boil take them off the fire, wash them in cold water, scrape off any fat that may adhere, return them to the stew-pan with just enough hot water to cover them, and add a blade of mace, a bay-leaf, a few whole peppers, a few sprigs of parsley, and one lemon cut into slices. Stew gently until the fish will separate from the bone; remove the fish from the broth, pick it into small pieces, and set them aside; reduce the broth a little, strain, and thicken with flour and butter. Return the fish to the broth, simmer a moment, fill your patties and serve; make patty-shells as directed for oyster patties.

=Drawn-Butter Sauce.=—Season a cupful of flour with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg, mix it with some water into a paste, and work in a piece of butter about the size of an egg; put the pan over the fire and boil for twenty minutes; then take it off, add some fresh butter in small portions at a time, stirring continually to prevent the butter from rising to the top. Add the juice of half a lemon before serving.

=Maitre d’Hotel Butter.=—Mix four ounces of butter with a heaping tablespoonful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and the juice of three lemons; serve with boiled fish, etc.

=Anchovy Sauce.=—An easy way of making anchovy sauce is to stir two or three teaspoonfuls of prepared essence or paste of anchovy (which may be bought at your grocer’s) into a pint of melted butter; let the sauce boil a few minutes, and flavor with lemon-juice.

=Lobster Sauce.=—Break the shell of the lobster into small pieces. Pour over them one pint of water or veal stock and a pinch of salt; simmer gently until the liquid is reduced one-half. Mix two ounces of butter with an ounce of flour, strain the liquid upon it, and stir all over the fire until the mixture thickens; do not let it boil. Add two tablespoonfuls of the lobster meat, the juice of half a lemon, and serve.

The spawn and coral mixed with double the quantity of butter, a little cayenne, and pounded in a mortar to a paste, then pressed through a hair sieve, is called lobster-butter; a spoonful of it added to the sauce will improve it; the rest of the butter may be used in garnishing and decorating cold salmon, etc.

=Caper Sauce.=—Chop up two tablespoonfuls of capers and add them to half a pint of melted butter, with the piece of one lemon, a teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce, and a pinch of cayenne; put on the fire and simmer a few minutes; mix a teaspoonful of flour with a very little cold water, and add to the sauce.

=Celery Sauce.=—Put two ounces of butter into a saucepan, melt it, and add two heads of celery cut up into inch pieces; stir the celery in the pan until it is quite tender; add salt and pepper, with a little mace. Mix a tablespoonful of flour in a cupful of stock and simmer half an hour. A cupful of cream may be used instead of the stock.

=Oyster Sauce.=—Blanch one dozen oysters in their own liquor; then take the oysters out and add two blades of mace, an ounce of melted butter, and a cupful of thickened cream; return the oysters to the sauce, let them come to a boil, and serve; salt to taste.

=Oyster Sauce, No. 2.=—Take a dozen large oysters and boil them in their own liquor two minutes; remove them from the liquid, and quarter them. Mix an ounce of butter and an ounce of flour in a stew-pan, add the oyster liquor, a pinch of cayenne or two drops tobasco pepper-sauce, with a little nutmeg and half a pint of cream. Stir the whole gently over the fire until the sauce is smooth and thick. Add the pieces of oysters, simmer a moment longer, and serve.

=Egg Sauce.=—Put two ounces of butter into a saucepan with a dessert-spoonful of flour and a very little water; simmer gently. When ready to boil take the saucepan from the fire and stir in two ounces more of butter and three cold hard-boiled eggs cut up small; sprinkle a little salt on the egg.

=Dutch Sauce.=—Blend together two ounces of butter and a teaspoonful of flour; put it into a stew-pan with equal quantities of stock and vinegar (from the bottle containing imported mixed pickles), say a wineglassful of each; stir for two minutes, and add the beaten yolks of two eggs, keeping up the stirring till the mixture thickens; if you let it boil it will curdle. Add the juice of half a lemon before serving.

=Gravy for Baked Fish.=—Brown a sliced onion in a little butter and add gradually a pint of stock; thicken with a tablespoonful of Barlow’s prepared flour, and let the mixture simmer with a bunch of parsley nearly half an hour; strain the gravy and add salt and a teaspoonful walnut-catsup.

_BOILING._

Before boiling joints of meat the cook should think for a moment whether she desires the juices to go into the water, as in soup, gravies, etc., or to be retained in the meat itself. If they are to be retained put the meat into fast-boiling water, and let it boil for ten minutes to make the outside hard and thus prevent the juice escaping; then add cold water equal in quantity to about one-half of the boiling water; this will reduce the temperature to about 160° (Liebig), at which point the meat (raw) should be kept until thoroughly done, which, however, takes a much longer time than the ordinary mode. Care must be taken to remove the scum when the water is on the point of boiling, or it will quickly sink and spoil the appearance of the meat.

If it is desired to extract the juice from raw meat, cover it with cold water and simmer slowly as before.

Salted meat requires longer boiling than fresh meat.

Dried and smoked meat should be soaked for some hours before it is put into the water. Place your meat in a saucepan sufficiently large to contain the joint easily and cover with water, and no more.

=Boiled Leg of Mutton.=—Cut off the shank-bone, trim the knuckle, and wash the mutton; put it into a pot with salt and cover with boiling water. Allow it to boil a few minutes; skim the surface clean, draw your pot to the side of the fire, and simmer until done. Time, from two to two hours and a half.

Do not _try_ the leg with a fork to determine whether it is done or not. You will lose all the juices of the meat by so doing.

Serve with caper sauce, or melted butter with a few small capers added.

The liquor from the boiling may be converted into soup with the addition of a ham-bone and a few vegetables boiled together.

English housekeepers hang up a leg of mutton from two days to at least a week before using, weather allowing.

=Corned Beef.=—Put your corned beef in a saucepan or pot and cover with cold water; boil gently until done. Allow half an hour to the pound after it has come to a boil.

The ingredients used in making a pickle for corned beef harden the fibres of the meat, so that to plunge it into hot water would not only make it tough and hard but indigestible.

=Boiled Tongue.=—Soak a smoked or dry tongue over-night. Next morning set it in a pot of water and simmer slowly for five or six hours. Remove the pot from the fire, and when the water has cooled take out the tongue, tear off the skin, and trim off the ragged end.

=Boiled Ham.=—Soak the ham over-night; scrape off the rusty spots, put into a pot, and cover with plenty of cold water; add a bouquet of herbs and a few cloves to the water, and boil very slowly until done; remove the pot from the fire, and when cold take out the ham, take off the skin, trim the fat off around the edge. Take half a cupful of brown sugar, a teaspoonful of prepared browned flour, and moisten with port wine; cover this paste over the fat of the ham, and set it in a very hot oven until the mixture froths.

=Boiled Chicken.=—Wash a chicken in lukewarm water; truss it, put it into hot water, let it come to a boil, then draw it to one side of the fire and let it simmer gently until ready; remove the scum as it rises. The more slowly it boils the whiter and tenderer it will be. Add a very little salt, and half a lemon cut into small pieces, to the water before boiling. Serve with any white or cream sauce.

=Boiled Turkey.=—Cassell’s work on cookery tells us that “there is an old proverb which says that a turkey boiled is a turkey spoiled, but in this couplet there is more rhyme than reason, as a boiled turkey forms a dainty dish, most acceptable to persons with delicate stomachs, who fear the richness of the roasted bird.” Take a plump hen-turkey, singe, draw it, and truss as you would to roast; make a stuffing of herbs, salt, pepper, bread-crumbs, a little mace and grated lemon-peel, with a few oysters chopped up, a spoonful of butter, and a raw egg; mix your dressing well together, fill the bird, and sew it up; tie up the turkey in a flowered cloth to make it white, and simmer until tender. Time, about two hours and a half.

Serve with oyster sauce.

=Boiled Capon.=—Boil a capon as you would a large chicken, add a bouquet of herbs to the water, and serve with egg sauce.

When a boiled fowl has been so far used that meat slices cannot be carved from it, the remains may be cut up for hash, seasoned with salt and pepper, moistened with hot water (or the water in which the fowl has been boiled); stir the dish while it is simmering to prevent burning; serve on a piece of buttered toast, and place two poached eggs on top of the hash for each person. Or mince the remains of fowl very fine with an equal quantity of calf’s brains or sweet-breads; season with salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg; add a little cracker-dust, two raw eggs; moisten with Rhine wine or cream, mix well together, roll into balls the size of an egg, dip into egg-batter, then into crumbs, and fry in very hot fat.

_ENTREES._

=Fillet of Beef.=—Cut the fillet (tenderloin) out of a sirloin of beef; trim off the fat and the sack or skin, and lard it with fat pork cut into narrow strips two inches long. Put each strip of pork (or bacon) into a larding-needle, and with the point of your needle take up as much flesh as will hold the strip of pork, allowing about half an inch of each end exposed after removing the needle; repeat this process as neatly and as evenly as possible and at equal distances until finished. Rub a little sweet oil and salt over the fillet; set it one side a few minutes while you prepare the roasting (baking) pan for it.

Chop up into small pieces a few beef or veal bones, and cover the bottom of your pan with them. Add three slices of bacon, two carrots, two onions, and one turnip sliced, with a pint of stock. Season with salt, bruised whole peppers, a bay-leaf, a few cloves, and a blade of mace. Place the fillet in the pan with the larded side up. Moisten it with a wineglassful of vinegar, and bake. When done remove the fillet, add a tablespoonful of Barlow’s prepared flour and a glass of sherry or port to the pan, mix, and strain the sauce on to the fillet. Chop up half a dozen button-mushrooms, sprinkle over the meat, and serve.

=Beef a la Mode.=—Take three pounds of fresh rump of beef; remove the fat and sinews. Cut fat bacon into long strips and lard the meat with it through and through. Mix together a few cloves, mace, allspice, whole peppers, salt-spoonful of cayenne, a tablespoonful of powdered herbs, and a clove of garlic, with half a pint of vinegar. Put the meat into an earthen crock or deep stew-pan, with a thin piece of bacon under it; add the vinegar and seasoning and a pint of stock, with a walnut of butter rolled in flour. Cover the crock and simmer gently until done. When preferred vegetables may be added and served with the beef, allowing plenty of stock or water for them to boil nicely.

=Beef Stew.=—Take a three pound piece of rump of beef; remove the bone, bind it up tight, and put it in a pot or stew-pan that will just hold it. Season with ground spices. Fry two large onions sliced, and add them to it, with two carrots, two turnips, a few cloves, a blade of mace, a head of celery, and a potato quartered; add stock enough to cover the meat. Simmer as gently as possible until quite tender. Remove the fat, take out the meat, and add half a pint of port, a wineglassful of vinegar, a tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce to the gravy; strain over the meat, and serve with a garnish of assorted vegetables arranged neatly around the dish.

=Beefsteak Pie.=—Cover the sides of a raised pie-mould with butter, and put a lining of paste made in the following manner neatly into it: Chop a quarter of a pound of suet; put it into a stew-pan with the same quantity of butter and a pint of water. When boiling pass them through a sieve into two pounds of flour, and stir it with a spoon until cold. When the paste is quite smooth roll it out and it is ready for the lining. Cut up two pounds of round or rump steak into pieces about two inches square; dust them with flour; season with parsley, salt, and pepper; lay them round the mould; fill it with alternate layers of potatoes cut into quarters, and meat. Make a lid for the mould with some of the paste, brush it over with beaten egg, and bake three hours. Put an ornamental centre to the cover, that it may be more easily raised to throw in some gravy as soon as it is baked.

=Calf’s Head.=—The first thing to do on receiving a calf’s head is to remove the brains, throw them into cold water for an hour, drain, then boil them in salt and water for twenty minutes, and set them aside.

Put the head into cold water and wash it well, and leave it there to draw out the blood for an hour; then take it out and dry it well with a towel.

Bone a calf’s head in the following manner: Place the calf’s head on the table with the front part of the head facing you; draw the sharp point of a knife from the back part of the head right down to the nose, making an incision down to the bone of the skull; then with the knife clear the scalp and cheeks from the bones right and left, always keeping the point of the knife close to the bone. If you have not previously removed the brains, chop the head in two and remove them as carefully as possible.

When the head has been boned wash it well, wipe it with a clean cloth, season the inside with salt and pepper, roll it up with the tongue, tie it up, and blanch it in hot water for ten minutes; then put it into cold water a few minutes, wipe it dry, and set it aside until wanted.

=Fried Calf’s Head.=—Cut the prepared calf’s head into pieces two inches wide; lay them for three hours in a pickle made of two tablespoonfuls of lemon-juice, a wineglassful of Rhine wine, salt and pepper, and a pinch of mace. Take them out, drain them, and dip each piece in egg-batter; roll in cracker-dust, fry in hot fat, and send to table with sauce tartare.

=Sauce Tartare.=—Mince two small English pickles, one-fourth of an onion, and a few sprigs of parsley together. Add them to three tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise sauce, and the juice of half a lemon. Mix and serve (see mayonnaise sauce). A few tarragon leaves will improve the sauce.

=Calf’s Head, Maitre d’Hotel.=—Cut up your prepared calf’s head into neat slices, and simmer gently for two hours; take out the pieces of meat, place on a hot dish, and cover them with Maitre d’Hotel sauce; garnish with parsley.

=Calf’s Head Broiled.=—Cut up a prepared calf’s head into pieces quite three inches wide; place them in a saucepan, cover with water. Add a wineglassful of vinegar, and simmer half an hour; then place them in cold water a few minutes, dry them on a towel, rub a little sweet oil over each piece, and broil. When done brush melted butter over them with the juice of half a lemon.

=Calf’s Head Collared.=—Bone a calf’s head carefully, wash it well, and wipe it dry; lay the head on the table, and spread on it a force-meat made of the brain and tongue, and a very little ham mixed with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of thyme, a teaspoonful of marjoram, the minced yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, a wineglassful brandy, and a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Roll the head as tightly as possible, and tie it in a cloth, binding it with tape. Put it into a saucepan with stock enough to cover it, and add a carrot, a parsnip, one onion, a sliced lemon, a few bay-leaves, salt, and a dozen bruised peppers.

Let it boil gently three hours; then take it out of the cloth and pour round it a sauce made of a pint of the liquid in which it was boiled, with a little lemon-juice, two small pickles, and four button-mushrooms chopped fine.

=Calf’s Brains en Matelotte.=—Wash the brains in several waters, remove the skin, and boil them in salt and water with a little vinegar in it for ten minutes. Take them out and lay them in cold water until wanted. Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, and mix with it a teaspoonful of flour. Add three button-onions sliced, a teaspoonful Worcestershire, a clove, a bay-leaf, half a pint of stock, and a wineglassful of Rhine wine. When these are mixed thoroughly together put the brains with them and let them stew twenty minutes.

=Calf’s Brains Fried.=—Prepare the brains as in the foregoing receipt. Cut them into slices, dip them in egg-batter, roll in crumbs, and fry in hot fat or butter; garnish with fried parsley.

=Calf’s Brains and Tongue.=—Prepare the brains as heretofore recommended, and chop them. Put them in a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, a little chopped parsley, the juice of half a lemon, salt, and cayenne pepper. Skin and trim the boiled tongue, place it in the middle of the dish and pour the sauce and brains round it, and send to table.

=Stewed Sweet-Breads.=—Soak two sweet-breads in cold water for one hour; change the water twice; put them in boiling water ten minutes till they are firm, then take them out and place them in cold water until wanted.

Place them in a stew-pan, cover them with stock, and simmer nearly an hour; take them out, place them on a hot dish, remove the gravy from the fire a minute, and add to it gradually the yolk of an egg and four tablespoonfuls of cream; put this over a fire till the sauce thickens, but do not let it boil. Before serving add the juice of a lemon, pour the sauce around the sweet-breads, and send to table with a dish of green peas.

They may be cut up and fried after dipping in egg and rolled in crumbs.

Sweet-breads are very nice broiled and served with Maitre d’Hotel butter; garnish with parsley.

=Pork Chops, Tomato Sauce.=—Broil three nice pork chops, and when well done sprinkle them with pepper and salt, place on a hot dish, and serve with tomato sauce poured around them.

=Tomato Sauce.=—Stew half a dozen tomatoes in a pint of stock, with a slice of ham cut into dice, a bay-leaf, a blade of mace, three drops of tabasco pepper-sauce, and three small pickled onions; stir the whole over a gentle fire until done, then press them through a sieve, add salt, and put the sauce again upon the fire till it is very hot.

Pork tenderloin baked or broiled is acceptable with sauce Robert.

=Sauce Robert.=—Slice two onions, and fry them in butter until they begin to turn yellow; pour over them as much brown gravy as will cover them; add a tablespoonful of French or German mustard (do not use English mustard), a teaspoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of pepper. Simmer very gently, adding more gravy, if necessary, till the onions are tender. Rub them through a fine sieve. Mix with the pulp a very little more stock or gravy, and boil once. This is a simple recipe, and one that any housekeeper can easily make.

=Pork Sausages.=—The most wholesome way to cook sausages is to bake them. Place them in a baking-pan in a single layer, and bake in a moderate oven; turn them over when they are half done, that they may be equally browned all over. Send to table with pieces of toast between each sausage. Cut the toast about the same size as the sausage, and moisten it with a very little of the sausage-fat.

They make a nice entrée by placing them on a mound of mashed potatoes and served with apple-sauce, or small apple-fritters neatly arranged round them.

About the best sausages that come to the New York market are the Deerfoot Farm sausages; fancy grocers retail them for about twenty cents a pound. Split them in two and broil them, and send to table with Boston brown bread toast, buttered. Use your sausage-fat for frying hash, etc.

=Breast of Mutton with Peas.=—Cut up two pounds of the breast of mutton into square pieces; put them into a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, and brown them nicely; then cover with hot water and stew for an hour. Take the meat from the pan and skim all the fat from the gravy; place the meat in a clean saucepan with one onion sliced, a bouquet of herbs, pepper and salt; pour in the gravy, and stew for one hour; add a quart of young peas, remove the herbs, simmer fifteen minutes, and serve.

String beans cut into dice, or boiled macaroni, may be substituted for the peas.

=Curry of Mutton.=—Put six button-onions, cut fine, and an ounce of butter into a saucepan with an ounce of curry-powder, a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of flour, and half a pint of cream; stir until smooth. Remove the bones from two pounds of mutton, cut it into neat pieces, and fry a light brown; put the meat into a saucepan, pour the sauce over it, and boil gently one hour and a half. Place the meat on a hot dish and arrange a border of broiled rice neatly round it.

Cold boiled mutton cut into slices may be used instead of the raw meat.

Veal may be used instead of mutton.

=Mutton Hash with Poached Eggs.=—Take a pound and a half of the remains of roast mutton, chop it up fine, and put it in a stew-pan with a cupful of mutton gravy or stock; season with salt, pepper, and a little grated nutmeg; add a tablespoonful of Barlow’s prepared flour, and let the meat heat gradually until hot. Do not let it boil. Simmer twenty minutes, and serve with poached eggs placed neatly round the dish.

A spoonful of Worcestershire sauce may be added to the dish, if desired.

=Ragout of Mutton.=—Slice two turnips, two carrots, and two onions; put them in a saucepan with two ounces of butter, and brown them. Dust in a little flour and stir the whole to prevent browning too quickly, and turn them out upon a hot dish until wanted.

Cut up cold roast mutton into square pieces, and brown them on each side in the same pan in which you browned your vegetables; then add half a pint of hot water, salt and pepper, a few sprigs of parsley, and the sliced vegetables. Stew gently until the vegetables are tender; arrange the vegetables in the centre of the dish, with the meat as a border; pour the sauce over all, and serve.

=Mutton Pie.=—Cut into square pieces about two pounds of cold roast or boiled mutton; trim off a portion of the fat; quarter three kidneys; put the meat into a pie-dish, season with two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of powdered herbs, salt and pepper, and half an onion minced; add half a pint of light stock or water, a wineglassful of port wine; cover the dish with puff paste, brush an egg over it, and bake an hour and a half.

Cold lamb makes a very nice pie.

=Veal Croquettes.=—Remove the gristle, skin, and sinews from a pound of cold veal; mince it finely with four ounces of cold boiled beef or calf’s tongue; season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Put into a saucepan an ounce of butter rolled in flour, a wineglassful of cream; add the minced meat, and stir for twenty minutes over a slow fire. (If too dry moisten with stock.) Turn the preparation upon a round pie-board; spread it to a smooth layer about an inch thick, and set it in the ice-box to get cold and stiff. It must then be divided into about two dozen pieces, each piece rolled into the form of a cork or round ball over bread-crumbs, then dipped in beaten egg and again rolled in crumbs. Handle carefully so as not to break them. Fry in boiling fat.

=Fricassee of Veal.=—Take two pounds of lean veal free from skin and bone, and cut it into pieces convenient for serving; fry them in melted butter until the flesh is firm without having acquired any color; dredge a tablespoonful of flour upon them, add a little grated lemon-peel, and gradually as much boiling veal stock as will cover the meat; simmer until tender. Take out the meat and add to the gravy a gill of boiling cream, salt, cayenne, and a pinch of powdered mace. Beat the yolks of two eggs in a bowl; add gradually a little of the sauce (after it has cooled a few minutes), then add it carefully to the remainder. Return the meat to the sauce, and let the saucepan remain near the fire until the eggs are set. Add the juice of half a lemon and serve immediately.

=Fricassee of Lamb.=—Take a breast of lamb and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half square; season with salt and pepper. Put them into a saucepan, with a quartered onion, three cloves, a bay-leaf, and three ounces of butter. Cover the saucepan closely, and let it steam gently for half an hour, shaking it occasionally to prevent sticking. Add a pint of boiling water; cover closely once more and boil gently for one hour; then strain the sauce and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour (mix the flour smoothly with a little cold water before adding it to the sauce), boil a moment longer, and serve.

A tablespoonful of very small A. G. capers may be added before serving.

=Breast of Lamb with Asparagus Tops.=—Remove the skin and part of the fat from a breast of lamb, and cut it into neat pieces; dredge a little flour over them, and place them in a stew-pan with an ounce of butter; let them remain until nicely browned; cover the meat with warm water, add a bunch of parsley, two button-onions; simmer until the meat is cooked; skim off the fat, take out the onions and parsley, and mince the latter finely; return it to the gravy with a pint of the tops of boiled asparagus, add salt and pepper, simmer a few minutes longer, and serve. Canned asparagus may be used when the fresh vegetable is out of season.

=Fricassee of Chicken.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken, cut it into joints, make a gravy by simmering the trimmings in stock enough to cover them, with one onion, stock with three cloves, a bouquet of herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer the gravy for one hour; strain and thicken a cupful of it with a teaspoonful of flour; let this boil, then put in the chicken. Draw the saucepan from the fire a few minutes, mix a little of the sauce with the beaten yolks of two eggs and a cupful of cream. Add this last mixture to the saucepan, let it get hot, but on no account allow it to boil, or the eggs will curdle. Serve with the sauce poured over the chicken, and sprinkle a little chopped parsley on top.

=Fried Chicken.=—Take the remains of a cold chicken, place it in a pan, and simmer with an ounce of butter, a finely-chopped onion, the juice of a lemon, salt and pepper; let them simmer nearly half an hour; take the pieces out and dredge them in flour, and fry in boiling fat; turn the pieces over while cooking, and fry a deep brown.

Make a dressing of flour, mixed smoothly in a cupful of cold milk and a little chopped parsley. Add to the pan that the chicken simmered in, boil gently, strain over the chicken and serve.

=Chicken with Rice a la Maryland.=—Cut up a chicken into joints, and put it into a stew-pan with the heart, gizzard, and liver, and a slice or two of bacon; cover with warm water, and boil gently until the chicken is quite tender; then take the meat out of the stew-pan, and set it where it will be kept warm; wash half a pint of rice, add it to the gravy, season highly with salt and pepper. When done place the rice upon a dish, lay the chicken on top, and if too dry brush a little melted butter over it.

=Chicken Croquettes.=—Pound the white meat of a cold chicken with a cold boiled sweetbread in a mortar; add a little salt, beat up an egg with a teaspoonful of flour and a wineglassful of cream; mix the pounded meat with the batter, put it in a saucepan, and simmer long enough to absorb the moisture, _stirring all the time_; then turn it into a flat dish, and set it in the ice-box to get cold and stiff, roll it into balls or cones, dip in egg-batter, then roll them in crumbs or cracker-dust and fry in boiling fat.

=Chicken a l’Italienne.=—Take half a pound of La Favorita macaroni, and boil it in water with a lump of butter. When it has boiled a quarter of an hour, drain off the water and cover the macaroni with milk; add salt and pepper and a whole onion, stock with a few cloves; boil until the macaroni is tender but unbroken.

Boil a chicken in the usual manner, cut it up and lay it on a hot dish, pour the macaroni over it (remove the onion), grate a quarter of a pound of Parmesan cheese over the dish, and brown it in the oven or with a salamander.

=Chicken Patties.=—Pick the meat from a cold chicken, and cut it up into small dice; place it in a saucepan with a cupful of chicken stock, a cupful of cream, a piece of butter the size of an egg, rolled in flour, salt and pepper, and a little grated nutmeg and lemon-peel; simmer gently until it begins to thicken, remove the dish from the fire a few minutes to cool; beat up the yolks of two eggs with a half teaspoonful flour, moistened in milk or cream, and add to the saucepan, mix thoroughly, and draw towards the fire (but do not let it boil) until it thickens; before serving add the juice of half a lemon.

Fill your patty-shells with the mixture, one for each person, and serve (see Oyster Patties for patty-shells).

=Chicken Pie.=—Line the sides of a pie-dish with a good puff paste. Have your chicken cooked as for a fricassee, seasoned with salt and pepper and a little chopped parsley. When they are nearly cooked lay them in a pie-dish with half a pound of salt pork cut into inch squares, and some of the paste cut into inch and a half pieces; pour in a part of the chicken gravy, thicken with a little flour, and cover the dish with the paste cover. Cut a hole the size of a dollar in the cover, and cover it with a piece of dough twice the size of the hole (when baked remove this piece occasionally and examine the interior), brush egg over the pie, and bake in a quick oven.

Should the pie become dry pour in more of the gravy. Pigeon Pie may be made by the above recipe.

=Chicken Panada= (Invalid cookery).—Take a fresh young chicken and boil it until quite tender, in sufficient water to cover it. Strip the meat from the bones and pound in a mortar until quite smooth, with a little of the liquor it was boiled in; add salt, nutmeg, and a very little grated lemon-peel. Boil this gently for a few minutes, with sufficient liquid to make it the consistency of custard.

=Chicken with Dumplings.=—Disjoint one chicken, and put to boil in cold water until done. Make dumplings with one pint of flour, one teaspoonful of yeast-powder, and same quantity of salt. Wet this mixture with milk and put with chicken until boiled. Take them out and fry in hot fat until brown; do same with chicken afterwards. Use water in which chicken was boiled to make gravy.