Wash a fine lettuce, and tie it up with a string passed several times
round it, to keep the leaves together. Put it in boiling water, with a
little salt. When the lettuce has boiled, take it out and press it to
squeeze out the water, but be careful not to break it.
Having mixed, in a stew-pan, a large spoonful of butter with a spoonful
of flour, add half a pint of cream or rich milk; put in the lettuce,
with a very little salt, half a nutmeg grated, and two lumps of sugar.
Let it boil ten minutes. Take out the lettuce, stir the yolks of two
beaten eggs into the sauce, and serve all up together.
Take young spinach, and throw it into boiling water with some salt. When
it has boiled, take it out, drain it, and lay it in cold water for a
quarter of an hour. Then drain it and squeeze it. Cut it small, and put
it into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter. After it has stewed
slowly for a quarter of an hour, add a spoonful of flour, with a little
salt, sugar, and nutmeg. Moisten it with cream or milk, and let it
simmer again over a slow fire for another quarter of an hour. Then serve
it up, and lay on it slices of toasted bread dipped in melted butter.
Lay your cucumbers in cold water for half an hour; then pare them, and
cut them into slips about as long as your little finger; take out the
seeds; then boil the cucumbers a few minutes, with a little salt. Take
them out, and drain them well.
Put into a stew-pan some butter rolled in flour, and a little cream.
Stew your cucumbers in it for ten minutes. When you take them off, stir
in the yolks of two beaten eggs; and if you choose, a tea-spoonful of
vinegar.
Boil some beets. Then peel and cut them into slices. Stew them for a
quarter of an hour with a piece of butter rolled in flour, some onion
and parsley chopped fine, a little vinegar, salt and pepper, and a clove
of garlic.
Scrape and wash your carrots. Scald them in boiling water; then drain
them, and cut them into long slips. Stew them in milk or cream, with a
little salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. When done, take them out, stir
into the sauce the yolks of one or two eggs, and a lump or two of
loaf-sugar, and pour it over the carrots.
Having washed your cabbage, cut it in four, and throw it into boiling
water with some salt. When it has boiled till quite tender, take it up,
squeeze out the water, and put the cabbage to drain. Then lay it in a
stew-pan with butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a spoonful of flour, and
half a pint of cream. Stew it a quarter of an hour, and pour the sauce
over it when you send it to table.
Cauliflowers may be stewed in the same manner.
Take two quarts of green peas; put them into a stew-pan with a quarter
of a pound of butter, a bunch of parsley, and the heart of a fine
lettuce cut in pieces, a bunch of mint, three or four lumps of sugar,
some salt and pepper, and a very little water. Stir all together, set it
on coals and let it stew gently for an hour or an hour and a half.
Having taken out the parsley, add a piece of butter rolled in flour; and
stir in the yolks of two eggs just before you send it to table.
You may, if you choose, put in the lettuce without cutting it in pieces;
tie it up with the bunch of parsley and two onions, and withdraw the
whole before you dish the peas. Serve up the lettuce in another dish.
Put into a stew-pan some parsley and some chives or little onions
chopped fine, some mushrooms (if you have them) chopped also, and a
large piece of butter rolled in flour. Add a glass of white wine and a
little water. Stir all together, and then put in as many beans as will
fill a quart measure when strung and cut small; having first soaked them
a quarter of an hour in cold water. Let them stew gently on hot coals
till quite tender. Just before you serve them up, stir in the yolks of
two eggs. You may substitute for the wine a tumbler of cream, but it
must be stirred in at the last.
Boil some small onions with salt, and then drain them. Lay them in a
stew-pan with a piece of butter, and sprinkle them with flour, pepper
and salt. Pour on them some cream, and then turn every onion with a
spoon. Stew them ten minutes, and serve them up.
Boil twenty or thirty onions a quarter of an hour with a bunch of sweet
herbs, some salt, a few cloves, and a laurel leaf. Then take out the
onions, and put them into a stew-pan with some salt, a piece of butter
rolled in flour, and a pint of red wine. Stew them another quarter of an
hour, and serve them up garnished with pieces of toast dipped in the
sauce.
Having peeled and washed your mushrooms, drain them, and stew them with
butter, pepper, salt, and a little chopped parsley, adding a little
flour and warm water. When they are done, stir into the sauce the yolks
of two or three eggs, and some cream. Toast and butter a slice of bread.
Lay it on the dish under the mushrooms, and pour the sauce over them.
Put in a small onion with the mushrooms, that you may know by its
turning almost black, whether there is a poisonous one among them. If
the onion turns black, throw away all the mushrooms.
Boil eight or nine large potatoes with a little salt, and then peel and
cut them in slices. Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, a
spoonful of flour, some salt, and half a grated nutmeg. Add a half-pint
of cream, and mix all together. When this sauce boils, put in your
sliced potatoes, and let them stew a quarter of an hour.
Pare and boil an equal quantity of turnips and potatoes. When done,
drain and mash them. Melt some butter in a stew-pan, and add to it a
little mustard. Stew the mixed potatoes and turnips in it, with a small
quantity of hot milk, for about ten minutes.
Wash and boil four or five bundles of asparagus. Have ready a pint of
cream, or a pint of milk, with the yolks of six eggs stirred into it.
Take four large rolls of bread, and cut a round piece out of the top of
each. Scoop out the crumb from the inside of the rolls, and put it into
the cream with the heads of the asparagus, of which you must save out a
sufficient number (with a small piece of the stalk left on each) to
stick the rolls with. Make holes in the top-pieces of the rolls.
Fry the rolls in butter. Put the most of the asparagus heads into the
cream mixed with the crumb of the rolls, and simmer it awhile over a
slow fire. When the rolls are fried, fill their cavities with the
mixture. Stick the tops with the remainder of the asparagus, and lay
them on the rolls.
Asparagus may be simply boiled with salt, and served up on toasted bread
dipped in oil, and eaten with oil sauce.
Boil two dozen small new potatoes, with some salt. Put into a stew-pan a
piece of butter rolled in flour, half the peel of a lemon grated, half a
nutmeg grated, some salt, two or three lumps of sugar, and three
tea-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Lay the potatoes in this mixture, squeeze
over them the juice of a lemon, and let them stew gently about ten
minutes.
Make a batter with the yolks of three eggs, a little salt, a
table-spoonful of oil, a table-spoonful of brandy, and sufficient flour
or grated bread to thicken it. Have ready some large cold potatoes cut
in slices. Dip each slice in the batter, and fry them in butter.
Wash a fine large cauliflower, and cut it into quarters. Having boiled
some water with salt, throw the cauliflower into it, and boil it till
you can nip it easily with your fingers. Take it out and drain it. Then
put it into a pan with salt, pepper and vinegar, and let it lie half an
hour, turning it frequently.
Make the following batter, which must be prepared half an hour or more
before it is wanted, that it may have time to rise. Take three
table-spoonfuls of flour, three beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of butter
melted in a little warm water, a spoonful of sweet oil, and a spoonful
of brandy. Stir all together; and if you find it too thin, add a little
more flour; cover it, and let it set half an hour. Then beat to a stiff
froth the whites of the eggs, and stir them hard into the batter. Dip
your quarters of cauliflower into this mixture, and fry them of a fine
light brown.
When the cauliflower is done, let it remain in the pan a quarter of an
hour before you send it to table. Lay fried parsley round it.
Broccoli may be fried in the same manner.
Take ten or twelve fine stalks of celery. Cut them into pieces about six
inches long, and lay them an hour in salt and water. Drain them, spread
them on a dish, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Make a batter of
eggs, milk, and grated bread; allowing four eggs to a pint of milk. Dip
each piece of celery into the batter, and fry them in butter.
Peel, wash, and drain your mushrooms, and then cut them in pieces. Make
a square case of white paper, and butter it well. Fill it with the
mushrooms mixed with butter, salt, and pepper. Broil them on the
gridiron over a clear fire, and serve them up in the paper.
If you choose, you may mix with the mushrooms some chopped onion and
sweet-herbs.
Take a large cabbage, with a hard full head; put it into boiling water
with some salt, and let it boil from five to ten minutes. Then take it
out and drain it. Cut off the stalk close to the bottom, so that the
cabbage may stand upright on the dish, and then carefully take out the
inside leaves or heart; leaving the outside leaves whole.
Chop fine what you have taken out of the inside, and chop also some cold
ham and veal, or cold chicken. Likewise four eggs boiled hard. Mix
together the chopped eggs, the ham and veal, the cabbage heart, and some
grated bread, adding salt and pepper. Fill the cabbage with this
stuffing, and tie tape round it to keep the outside leaves together.
Then put it into a deep stew-pan, with a quarter of a pound of butter
rolled in flour, and an onion stuck full of cloves. Let it simmer over a
slow fire for two hours or more.
When it is done, take off the tape, set the cabbage upright in a dish,
and pour melted butter over it.
Lettuce may be done in the same manner.
Take eight very large potatoes, wash and pare them. Make a small slit or
incision in each of them, and scoop out carefully with a knife as much
of the inside as will leave all round a shell about the thickness of two
cents. Then make a force-meat of the substance you have taken out of the
inside, mixing it with two minced onions, a small piece of minced cold
ham or pork, about two ounces of butter, and a little parsley; adding
the yolks of two or three beaten eggs. Mix the stuffing thoroughly, by
pounding it in a mortar.
Butter the inside of the potatoes, and fill them with this mixture. Then
having buttered a large dish, lay your potatoes in it separately. Bake
them half an hour, or till they are of a fine brown.
When you mash potatoes, moisten them with milk or cream, adding a little
salt. Heap them up on the dish in the form of a pyramid. Smooth the
sides of the pyramid with the back of a spoon, and brown it by holding
over it a red-hot shovel.
Cut off one end of each of the cucumbers, and scoop out all the seeds
with a fork. Then pare them. Prepare a stuffing made of bread crumbs,
cold meat minced, salt, pepper, and sweet-herbs. Fill your cucumbers
with it, and fasten on with a skewer the pieces you have cut off from
their ends. Sow up every one separately in a thin cloth. Put them into a
pan with butter, flour, a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a little warm water.
Let them stew very slowly for about two hours, and then take them out.
Remove the cloths, and serve up the cucumbers with the sauce under them.
Scoop out the inside of a dozen large tomatas, without spoiling their
shape. Pass the inside through a sieve, and then mix it with grated
bread, chopped sweet-herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stew it ten
minutes, with a laurel leaf, or two peach leaves. Remove the leaves, and
stuff the tomatas with the mixture, tying a string round each to keep
them in shape. Sprinkle them all over with rasped bread-crust. Set them
in a buttered dish, and bake them in an oven. Take off the strings, and
serve up the tomatas.
Egg-plants may be cooked in the same manner.
Having washed and boiled your cauliflowers in salt and water, drain them
well. Make a white sauce in a small pan, with butter rolled in flour,
and a little milk. Pour some of this sauce into the bottom of a dish
that will bear the fire. Chop your cauliflower, and spread a layer of it
on the sauce. Then cover it with a layer of rich cheese, grated and
slightly sprinkled with pepper. Then spread on the remainder of the
cauliflower, and then another layer of peppered cheese, and so on till
your dish is nearly full. Pour over it the rest of the sauce. Prepare
two or three handfuls of grated bread, mixed with a little of the grated
cheese. Spread it all over the surface of the last layer of cauliflower,
and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Allow a quarter of a pound of
cheese to each cauliflower.
Put the dish in a slow oven about a quarter of an hour before you serve
it up, and bake it till a brown crust forms on the outside. Clear off
the butter from the edges of the dish, and send it to table hot.
Broccoli may be done in the same manner.
Wash a fine savoy cabbage, and boil it for half an hour in salt and
water. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it for ten minutes in cold
water. Afterwards squeeze and drain it well, and take out the stalk.
Chop the cabbage slightly, and put it into a stew-pan with a quarter of
a pound of butter, and add two table-spoonfuls of flour. Season it with
salt and pepper, and moisten it with a little water. Let it stew slowly
for an hour, and then serve it up.
Cauliflowers or broccoli may be done in the same manner.
Take a pint of fresh mushrooms. When they are peeled and the stalks cut
off, put the mushrooms into a stew-pan with two table-spoonfuls of
vinegar, a sprig or two of parsley, a small onion, a few chives chopped
fine, some salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Let it boil gently for a
quarter of an hour. Before it goes to table, stir in the yolks of two
eggs.
If the onion has turned blue or black, throw the whole away, as it is
evident that some poisonous ones are among the mushrooms.
The word Purée cannot be exactly translated, as there is nothing in the
English language that gives precisely the same idea. In French it is
generally applied to a certain manner of cooking vegetables that
converts them into a substance resembling marmalade, which, when the
coarser parts are strained out, leaves a fine smooth jelly.
It is served up with meat.
Wash and pare some of the finest turnips. Cut them into small pieces,
and let them lie for half an hour in cold water. Then take them out and
drain them. Put them into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter and
some salt and pepper. Moisten them with a little broth or boiling water.
Let them stew over a very slow fire, for five or six hours, stirring
them frequently. Then rub them through a sieve, and serve up the jelly
with roast meat.
Wash your celery, peel it, and stew it slowly for three or four hours,
with salt, and a very little water. Then pass it through a sieve, and
season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.
Take thirty onions; cut them in slices and put them into a stew-pan,
with a little salt, pepper, and a grated nutmeg. Let them stew slowly
till they are of a fine brown color, and then add a table-spoonful of
broth or warm water.
When it has attained the proper consistence, strain it and serve it up.
Peel a pint of mushrooms, cut them in pieces, and put them in a pan with
as much cold water as will keep them from burning. Throw in with them a
small onion to test their goodness; as, if there is a bad or poisonous
one among them, the onion will turn of a bluish black while cooking. In
that case, throw them all away.
Stew them slowly till they have lost all shape and have become an
undistinguishable mass. Then strain them.
Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, or a spoonful of flour, and
two lumps of sugar. Add your purée, and let it stew again for about five
minutes. When you take it off the fire, stir in the yolks of two eggs
slightly beaten, and a spoonful of cream or rich milk. Put it in the
middle of a dish, and lay round it thin slices of fried bread or toast.
Having strung and cut your beans till you have a quart, throw them into
boiling water, with a little salt. Let them remain a quarter of an hour.
Then drain them, and throw into cold water to green them. After they
have lain half an hour in the cold water, take them out and drain them
again.
Put a large piece of butter into a stew-pan with some pepper, a little
salt, and a spoonful of flour. Add your beans, and cover them with broth
or warm water. Put in a bunch of sweet-herbs cut small, and stew the
whole very slowly till it has dissolved into a mass. Then strain it. Put
a piece of butter into the purée, and serve it up.
Take a quart of shelled green peas. Wash them, and put them into a
stew-pan with water enough to cover them, a little salt and pepper, a
piece of butter the size of a walnut, a laurel leaf or a couple of
peach-leaves, and a bunch of mint.
Let them stew very slowly; and if necessary moisten them occasionally
with a little warm water or broth. Stir them frequently, that they may
not stick to the pan. When they become of the consistence of marmalade,
strain it. Chop an onion fine, fry it in butter, and have it ready to
mix with the purée.
Dried split peas may be made into a purée in the same manner.
Purées may be made in a similar manner of different sorts of meat,
poultry &c. seasoned, stewed slowly to a jelly, then strained through a
cullender or sieve, and taken as soups.
In choosing eggs, hold them up against the light, and if you see that
the yolk is round, and the white thin and clear, you may suppose them to
be good. But if the yolk appears to be broken and mixed with the white,
giving it a thick cloudy look, you may be sure that the egg is bad. Eggs
may be preserved by keeping them in a keg of lime-water, or by greasing
each egg all over with dripping, and putting them into a tight vessel
filled with wood-ashes, placing them all with their small ends
downwards. You may also keep them by burying them in salt. Still they
are never so good as when quite fresh.
When you break eggs for use, do every one separately, in a saucer. If
you find the egg good, throw it into the pan in which they are to be
beaten. If you meet with a bad one, throw it away and wash the saucer or
get a clean one. A single bad egg will make the whole mixture heavy,
spungy, and of an unpleasant taste.
When the water boils hard, put in the eggs, and let them boil exactly
three minutes. Then take them out, and cover them up for about a minute,
which will greatly improve them. Send them to table wrapped in a napkin,
and laid in a deep dish.
Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan. When it ceases to hiss, put in
the yolks only of your eggs. Season them with pepper and salt. When
fried, color them by holding over them a red-hot shovel.
Melt some butter in a dish that will bear the fire. Add to it salt, and
nutmeg, and a little milk in the proportion of a table-spoonful to each
egg. Mix them well together. Then lay over it the yolks of your eggs,
first ascertaining that they are all good. Let it stew over a slow fire
for a few minutes; and color it by holding over it a red-hot shovel. The
eggs must not be allowed to get hard, but the surface should be soft and
perfectly smooth and even.
Before you put in the eggs, you may stir into the mixture some heads of
boiled asparagus.
Boil twelve eggs hard. Take off the shell, and cut each egg in half.
Take out the yolks, and pound them in a mortar with a quarter of a pound
of butter; a nutmeg; some grated bread that has been soaked in milk; a
little salt; and if you choose, some minced sweet-herbs. Fill the whites
of the eggs with this stuffing, heaping it up, and smoothing it into a
round even shape. Butter a dish, and spread over the inside a thin layer
of the stuffing. Arrange in it all your halves of eggs, the bottoms
downwards. Put them into an oven, the lid of which must be hot. Let them
set about five minutes, and then send them to table.
Take a quart of milk, and stir into it two spoonfuls of rose-water, and
a quarter of a pound of white sugar, with a powdered nutmeg. Add by
degrees the yolks of twelve eggs well beaten. Boil the whole together,
stirring it all the time, so as to make a thick smooth custard. If you
keep it too long on the fire, it will be lumpy. Set it away to get cold
in a deep dish. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth that will
stand alone, adding to it twelve drops of essence of lemon. Heap it on
the dish of custard so as to look like a pile of snow; or you may drop
it with a large spoon, so as to form separate balls. On the top of each
ball you may lay a tea-spoonful of stiff currant-jelly.
Beat together a quart of sifted flour, six eggs, a table-spoonful of
brandy, a grated nutmeg, a little salt, and sufficient water to make a
thin batter. Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan, or substitute a
little sweet-oil. Pour in a ladleful of the batter, and let it spread
into a circular form. When it is slightly brown on one side, turn it
carefully on the other. Serve them up with white sugar grated over each.
You may color them pink, by stirring into the mixture some of the juice
of a beet-root, which has been boiled and then beaten in a mortar.
Cheese Omelet.—Grate some rich cheese, and mix it gradually with your
eggs while beating them. Season with salt and pepper. Melt some butter
in a frying-pan. Put in your omelet, and fry it first on one side, and
then on the other. When you dish it up, fold it over in half.
Bread Omelet.—Put two handfuls or more of bread crumbs into half a
pint of cream, with a grated nutmeg and a little salt. When the bread
has absorbed all the cream, stir it into the eggs as you beat them for
the omelet. Fry it in butter, and when dished, fold one half over the
other.
Lobster Omelet.—Beat in a mortar the flesh of a boiled lobster,
adding, at times, a little butter; and season it with pepper and salt.
Stir it gradually into the eggs while beating them. Fry it in butter.
Onion Omelet.—Boil some onions; mince them fine, and moisten them
with milk. Stir them into the eggs as you beat them.
Ham Omelet.—Is made with grated cold ham, stirred into the eggs while
beating.
Omelets may be seasoned in the same manner with parsley, chopped
sweet-herbs, or mushrooms. Also with minced oysters.
Boil half a pound of maccaroni with two ounces of butter, some whole
pepper, and a little salt. Do not let it boil long enough for the
maccaroni to lose its shape. When done, mix with it a quarter of a pound
of rich cheese, scraped or grated. Butter a deep dish, and put the
mixture into it. Then set it for a quarter of an hour in the oven. Brown
the top with a red-hot shovel.
Take half a pound of maccaroni, and put it into a stew-pan with an ounce
of butter, a little salt and pepper, and water enough to cover it. Stew
it till dry. Then grate a quarter of a pound of fine cheese, and mix it
with the maccaroni, adding another ounce of butter. Set it away to get
cold.
Take another pan, which must be very deep, with a flat bottom, and
nearly the shape of a drum. Butter the inside. Make a good paste, and
cover with it the whole interior of the pan, sides and bottom. Put in
the maccaroni. Cover the pie with a lid of paste. Bake it at least half
an hour. When done, loosen it from the pan and turn it out on a dish. It
will be in the form of a drum, if the pan was of that shape.
Take two ounces of shelled sweet almonds, and one ounce of shelled
bitter almonds. Blanch them by throwing them into scalding water to make
the skins peel off easily; then put them in cold water; wipe them dry
afterwards, and pound them in a mortar, adding at times a little
rose-water.
Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in warm water, and then stir it into a
quart of cream. Add a quarter of a pound of broken loaf-sugar, and a
wine-glass of rose-water. Boil it hard for a quarter of an hour, and
stir it all the time. Then strain it through a linen bag, and put it
into egg-cups, or into the halves of egg-shells nicely and evenly
trimmed, and set it away in a cold place to congeal.
Have ready some calves-feet jelly (made according to the directions
given in the article “Chickens in Jelly”); and when the blancmange is
firm, take out a small piece from the middle of each cupful, and replace
it with a lump of the jelly, put in so as to look like the yolk of the
egg. Or if more convenient, you need not put in the jelly till you have
taken the blancmange out of the cups or egg-shells, which must be done
by wetting the moulds with warm water on the outside.
The jelly for this purpose must be very high-colored, by means of
brandy, or dark sweet wine.
If nicely managed, the blancmange and jelly will look like eggs cut in
half. Lay them in a circle round a dish that contains something high and
ornamental,—for instance, a pyramid of ice-cream.