Choice Cookery

XI.
ENTRÉES OF MUTTON CUTLETS OR CHOPS.

Mutton Cutlets à la Duchesse.—Take as many cutlets (or French chops) as required. Stew them in stock, with a small bouquet of herbs, very gently until they are perfectly tender. Take them up, skim the stock, and strain it; return to a small saucepan, and reduce the liquid to a glaze; dip each cutlet in the glaze and lay it aside. Have ready what cooks now call a “panada,” made of a gill of thick white sauce, two yolks of eggs stirred into it and allowed to approach the boiling-point, but not to boil (this, of course, must be done in a double boiler), or the eggs will curdle; chop a dessertspoonful of parsley very fine; parboil and chop also very fine three onions; pound thoroughly in a mortar eight mushrooms; stir these all into the thick sauce, with a saltspoonful of salt and a quarter one of pepper. Roll each cutlet in this force-meat (if found too stiff to adhere properly, moisten with a little cream or a little liquor from the mushrooms), lay them on a fire-proof dish, and cover with bread crumbs and bits of butter. Bake them until they are a golden brown. Serve with brown Soubise sauce.

Lamb Cutlets en Concombre.—Trim and cut six lamb cutlets three quarters of an inch thick, flatten them a little to make them of equal size and thickness; flour them, and sauté them in butter five minutes. The fire must be sharp, because they must be a nice brown on both sides. Arrange them round an entrée dish, with a gill of brown sauce poured outside, and a pint of fillets of cucumber in the centre.

To Prepare Fillets of Cucumber.—Cut firm fresh cucumbers lengthwise through the middle, remove seeds and all soft parts, cut into inch lengths and into olive shapes all the same size. Put them into a stewpan with an ounce of butter, a pinch of pepper, a saltspoonful of sugar and one of salt, and let them stew until quite tender, without acquiring any color. To do this the stewpan must be closely covered and frequently shaken.

Lamb Cutlets with a Purée of Mushrooms.—Trim and cook and serve the cutlets as in the foregoing recipe, only in place of the cucumbers make a purée of mushrooms in the following way: stew half a pint of button mushrooms and part of their liquor in half a pint of white sauce until they are very tender (taking care the sauce does not burn), pound them in a mortar, then force them through a vegetable strainer; then add enough of the white sauce in which they were stewed to make the purée the substance of very thick cream.

Cold Lamb Cutlets in Mint Jelly.—Roast a piece of what butchers call the rack of lamb, which is really the neck and ribs. Let it get cold; cut from it six cutlets, which trim just as if they were uncooked; that is to say, remove meat and fat from the bone, and scrape it. Mask each of the cutlets in mint jelly101-* warmed enough to be half fluid. Arrange very carefully round an entrée dish when they are perfectly set, so that the jelly will not come off. Have a Russian salad in the centre.

How to Prepare the Salad.—To prepare this you require two or three small vegetable cutters of pretty shape; use them to trim carrots, white turnips, and cucumbers into small, attractive forms; boil these in separate waters till tender; also green peas, sprays of cauliflower, and very tiny young string-beans. Throw each vegetable as it is cooked into ice-cold water to keep the color. Have some red beet-root boiled before it is cut into shapes. Use equal quantities of each vegetable. Arrange them with peas in the centre, and the others in circles round, studying the effect of color; then dress, but do not mask, them with green mayonnaise.

At seasons when materials for Russian salad cannot readily be obtained the chops may be served with a centre of cucumber salad, or one made of the small white leaves of lettuce.

Cutlets Chaudfroid à la Russe.—For this cold dish mutton cutlets are used. They must be of the finest quality, and from mutton not newly killed. Cut as many cutlets as required, trim, and scrape the bone. Braise for an hour in a moderate oven till the meat is very tender, remove, and press between two dishes until they are cold. Then trim each cutlet into perfect shape. Boil a quart of strong stock (which already jellies) down to less than half a pint; dip each chop into this glaze once or twice, till they look “varnished.” You now require a pint of stiff aspic jelly; turn it out of the bowl, cut one or two slices a quarter of an inch thick from it, to be cut into shapes (or croûtons) with a cutter to garnish the cutlets. Chop the rest of the aspic, lay it round the dish, and the cutlets against it, with the croûtons of aspic to form the outer edge. The centre must be filled with a Russian salad, in this case stirred up with very thick mayonnaise, instead of being formally arranged. The mayonnaise must be only sufficient to dress the vegetables, none to run into the other materials, and beet-root must be added last, as it discolors the sauce if stirred up in it.

ENTRÉES OF SWEETBREADS.

Sweetbreads à la Suprême.—Take two plump sweetbreads, lay them an hour in strong salt and water, then boil them for ten minutes in fresh water; put them between two plates to flatten till cold. Cut off all the gristle and loose skin from underneath; put them to stew very gently in half a pint of good-flavored stock. Take them up, drain well, and stew them in half a pint of sauce suprême, with a dozen small mushrooms, for ten minutes.

Sweetbreads with Oysters.—Prepare the sweetbreads as in the foregoing recipe, quarter them, and put them in a stewpan with a gill of white stock, the strained liquor from two dozen oysters, a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper, and a suspicion of nutmeg. Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan over the fire, stir into it one tablespoonful of fine flour; let them bubble together, stirring the while, one minute. When the sweetbreads have been simmering twenty minutes, pour the gravy from them to the sauce; stir quickly till smooth. If thicker than very thick cream, add a little more stock. In five minutes add the oysters. Keep at boiling-point, but not boiling, till the oysters are firm and plump. Do not leave them in the sauce a minute beyond this, or they will begin to shrink. Take them and the sweetbreads up, and if the sauce is too thin to bear a wineglass of cream, boil it rapidly down till very thick; then skim, and just before pouring over the sweetbreads stir in a wineglass of thick cream. If it goes in earlier it may curdle.

It has been explained before, but I repeat it here, that there must never be too much sauce, however good, to any dish, and that the consistency is most important: it must be thick enough to mask a spoon, yet run from it freely. Nothing can be worse than a dab of white mush being served as sauce, unless it be a quantity of thin, milky soup floating on every plate. This is where the happy medium must be struck. It is perfectly easy to give exact proportions to produce certain degrees of thickness, and this has been done in the chapters on sauces; but where these sauces are used as a medium in which to cook, for instance, sweetbreads, a certain amount of liquid must be added to prevent burning. Now it is impossible to say how fast this added liquid will diminish if the simmering is as slow as it should be, it may lose hardly at all, in which case the articles stewed must be taken out, and a few minutes’ hard boiling given to evaporate the liquid and bring the sauce back to the proper point.

Sweetbreads in Cases.—Prepare two sweetbreads as directed in the foregoing recipes. Put them in a stewpan with a thin slice of fat boiled ham, half a carrot, half a turnip, and a small onion, all cut small, and laid as a bed under the sweetbreads; put in a gill of broth, a bouquet of herbs, and half a saltspoonful of salt, with a pinch of pepper. Let them stew, closely covered, one hour, turning them after the first half-hour. When done, take them up and drain them. When cold, cover with thick d’Uxelles sauce; sprinkle thickly with very fine bread crumbs. Make two rough paper cases, butter each liberally, and very carefully lay each sweetbread in one, crumbed side uppermost. Put them in a quick oven till pale brown. Have ready proper sweetbread cases, slip them neatly into them, and serve.

These are excellent cold, in which event they should not be shifted from the rough case until ready to serve.

XII.
ON THE MANNER OF PREPARING CROQUETTES, CUTLETS, KROMESKIES, RISSOLES, AND CIGARETTES.

Kromeskies are rolls of the same mixture enveloped in very thin slices (hardly thicker than paper) of fat larding pork; a small toothpick holds the pork in place. The rolls are then egged, crumbed, and fried.

Rissoles are the same thing, only rather easier to prepare, being rolled in very thin pastry instead of pork.

Cigarettes, the newest variation of the favorite entrée, and most dainty of them all in appearance, are thin rolls of croquette mixture (or, better still, quenelle meat) not thicker than a small cigar. These are rolled in pastry, thoroughly deadened, pinched very securely, and fried a very pale brown.

As the manner of making the mixture is about the same for all kinds of meats, fish, or game, varying only in flavor—a little wine, a little onion, or sweet herbs taking the place of the mushrooms in some cases—I will give exact directions for making sweetbread cutlets; chicken, game, or fish may be substituted for the sweetbreads, naming them accordingly. The ham may always be omitted where the flavor is objected to. For those who like it, it adds very much to sweetbreads, but would be out of place with game, which should depend on its own individual flavor.

Cutlets of Sweetbreads.—Soak a pair of sweetbreads in salt and water for an hour—longer if there is much blood about them; then cook them half an hour in stock. Drain them and let them get cold. Trim off all superfluous fat and gristle; chop them with one ounce of lean boiled ham to each pair of large sweetbreads, and half a can of mushrooms, a small teaspoonful of salt, the sixth of one of pepper. Put an ounce of flour in a small thick saucepan with an ounce of butter; stir them together over the fire until they bubble; then add a half-pint of liquid consisting of a gill of stiff jellied stock and a gill of thick cream; stir till they boil and form a smooth sauce; mix the sweetbread mixture with the sauce.

The mixture should be a soft, creamy mass, not in any way so stiff as sausage-meat, or so as to remain in a heap without spreading; when poured on a plate, it should be of a consistency that will slowly settle, yet there must not be any liquid whatever. On this question of consistency depends the quality of the croquettes, cutlets, etc., made from it. If too stiff, they will be dry and only a superior sort of hash ball. What you have to aim at is a croquette or cutlet that will ooze out of the thin shell of egg and crumb when pressed with a fork. Success in attaining this can always be secured by taking care to moisten the minced meat with a sauce made of very stiff jelly in the proportion of half a pint of liquid (the melted jelly and cream) and one ounce each of flour and butter. This will mix a pint of sweetbread and mushrooms, or rather less of dry meat, such as the breast of chicken, veal, etc.

I dwell on this point because this class of entrées is always popular, and if the consistency is once well understood, success is certain to follow.

When the mixture is poured into shallow dishes or plates, a piece of buttered paper should be laid over them, and then they should be placed on ice until quite firm. When ready, cut small pieces of the mixture, make them into shapes as nearly resembling a French chop as you can, using a very little cracker meal should they stick to your hands. Have before you a large dish of cracker meal and the yolks of two eggs beaten with two small tablespoonfuls of water, cover each cutlet thoroughly with egg, then with meal, gently patting them to make the meal adhere; insert anything you please to represent the bone (turkey ribs may be boiled white and kept for this purpose). Cutlets require to be dropped into very hot fat, and taken up within two minutes. Consult directions for frying in former chapter.

Sweetbread croquettes are simply made into cork or pear shapes, never large, instead of cutlets. When the white meat of chicken replaces half the sweetbread, they are called Cutlets, or Croquettes, à la Reine.

Make no attempt to mould croquettes or cutlets until the mixture is firm enough to cut; then handle very quickly, make into proper forms, finish them either as cutlets or what you wish, and let them remain in a cold place for an hour or two before cooking; this last direction may not be always possible, and to an expert is not necessary, but when time can be given the amateur should always plan to do it.

But though in experienced hands it is possible (though not so easy) to make croquettes and fry them as soon as breaded, do not be led to believe that you can dispense with putting the mixture on the ice the first time. I remember a young lady who was very proud of her croquettes telling me she never found it necessary to chill the mixture; she could secure perfect shape without. I asked to see the process, and decided in my own mind that she must go widely from the directions, and have her material as stiff as hash; but I found she solved the difficulty in a different way: she simply worked in quantities of cracker meal, using it like flour. Of course the croquettes were spoiled, although it was true they kept their shape, and I do not think the young lady realized at all that she was changing and impoverishing the preparation altogether.

Braised Sweetbreads.—Take a pair of sweetbreads, lay in salt and water for an hour, then blanch. Press slightly between two dishes; when cold, remove all skin, fat, and gristle; cut up very fine a small carrot, a turnip, and an onion; put them in a stewpan with the sweetbreads, pour over them a pint of stock, lay a piece of buttered paper over them, and braise carefully for half an hour. Take them out of the stewpan, put them in a small meat-pan, boil the liquor rapidly a couple of minutes, then baste the sweetbreads with it several times; put them in a quick oven to brown; serve on slices of fried bread, pour half a pint of Spanish sauce round, and garnish with mushrooms.

Tartlettes of Chicken.—Cut six ounces of the breast of a cooked chicken into very small pieces, chop up one truffle, twelve mushrooms, and two ounces of lean boiled ham; stir them into a gill of white sauce. Butter thickly nine dariole moulds, line them neatly with quenelle meat,114-* of which you will require half a pound, fill the centre carefully with the mixed chicken, cover the top carefully with quenelle meat, and steam for twenty minutes; dish on a circle of spinach, pour béchamel sauce over and round, fill the centre of the dish with peas or mixed vegetables.

Chicken à la Hollandaise.—Take out the breast-bone of a large young fowl, and fill the space with the following force-meat: half a pint of fine bread-crumbs, an ounce and a half of butter, a small boiled onion chopped, and a dozen oysters cut into small pieces; a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper; bind together with an egg, sew up the fowl, and truss for roasting. Make a nice batter, as for fine fritters, and when the fowl has been in the oven half an hour, pour part of the batter over it; when dry and beginning to brown, pour more, until it is thickly coated and a nice brown; baste often; cut up the chicken, and serve with Allemande sauce and lemon.

XIII.
PATTIES.

Roll puff-paste a quarter of an inch thick for each patty, cut three circles from it, moisten the surface of two very slightly with water, place one on the other, then with a sharp penknife cut a circle nearly through the third round, leaving a margin of one third of an inch; lay this round carefully on the other two; brush the top with white of egg (be sure not to touch the sides), and bake in a very quick oven. Patties must be watched, and turned if they show signs of rising unevenly. When they are a fine yellow-brown take them out, and leave five minutes for them to cool slightly, then with a penknife or a boning-knife carefully remove the top formed by the smaller circle you marked, and which (if the paste was very light and the oven in good condition) will probably have risen out of the centre. Be careful in handling these covers, for while warm they are very brittle. With a coffee-spoon remove the half-cooked dough from the centre of the patty, taking care, however, to leave sufficient thickness of inner crust to prevent the sauce from oozing through.

The filling for patties can be made before it is needed; but when that is done, it must be made quite hot before it is put into the cases, as, if it were put in cold, the pastry would burn before the inside became warm.

Dresden Patty Cases.—These make a very pretty kind of patty when puff-paste is not to be had, and even when it is are a desirable variety. They are made from fine light baker’s bread. Cut slices an inch and a half thick, then with a biscuit cutter about two inches in diameter cut circles from these slices, and with another cutter, a size smaller, press half-way through each. You will now have pieces of bread the size and shape of patties. Beat four eggs; mix with a pint of milk and a saltspoonful of salt; pour this into a shallow pan, and stand the bread patties in it. The amount of milk and eggs must of course depend on the number of patties; the proportion named is enough for six small ones. The patties must remain steeping until they are thoroughly soaked; they must be carefully turned upside down when the lower part is sufficiently steeped. The time required will depend on the quality of the bread, but one hour will generally suffice. The bread must be thoroughly penetrated by the custard, be almost as moist as mush, yet be in no danger (with careful handling) of breaking. When sufficiently steeped, take each one on a cake turner and lay it on a drainer. (They may be prepared some hours before they are needed for cooking.) When quite drained, baste each one carefully with beaten egg till every part is coated, then smother it in cracker meal. Gently pat it to make it adhere, then slip the patty on to a dish till you are ready to fry. Do not attempt to move the patties with the hand or a spoon, but with a flat skimmer or cake turner.

When prepared as directed, make three pounds of lard very hot in a deep frying-kettle,119-* place three of the patties on a fine wire frying-basket, and fry brown. The fat should be excessively hot, as the patties, being full of cold custard, will not burn, and will rapidly cool it. They should be a delicate brown in six or seven minutes. Let the fat come back to the original intense heat before putting in the other patties. When they are fried, remove the centre you marked with the smaller cutter with a sharp thin knife and small teaspoon, leaving the sides about half an inch thick. They are now ready to fill. If the patties are just right, the inside you remove should be of a custard-like texture, not like sopped bread: indeed, in eating them, the bread should not be easily detected. These patties are very delicious filled with any of the usual fillings, or, for dessert, with stiff preserve. They have no covers, consequently the filling should be piled high without allowing the sauce to run over, and garnished with parsley or water-cress.

Sweetbread Patties.—Soak two very white sweetbreads in salt and water one hour; parboil for twenty minutes; then let them cool; remove the skin, fat, and gristle; cut them into half-inch dice, and lay them aside while you prepare the following sauce: Put a gill of strong white stock into a small saucepan with a gill of mushroom liquor (and a dozen small mushrooms cut in four if approved) to boil. In another saucepan cook an ounce of flour and one of butter together, stirring till they bubble; pour the two gills of stock quickly to it, and stir till smooth. Season with half a teaspoonful of salt and very little pepper; lay in the sweetbreads, and let them stew twenty minutes. Strain them off from the sauce, which boil down (stirring constantly to prevent burning) till very thick; then add a gill of thick fresh cream. The sauce should now be thick enough to mask the spoon very heavily; pour it over the sweetbreads, and stir together. This is now ready for filling the patties. If mushrooms are not liked they may be omitted, the liquor replaced by a gill of stock and a teaspoonful of white wine.

Oyster Patties.—Take a dozen and a half Blue Points, scald them in their own liquor, but do not leave them a moment after they reach the boiling-point; strain the liquor from them; cut each oyster in four. Put a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter into a small saucepan over the fire, stir them together until they bubble; then pour to them half a pint of the strained liquor of the oysters, or part liquor and part stock. Stir continually, and let the sauce boil very thick; then lay in the oysters, and simmer half a minute. The amount of seasoning required will depend on the saltness of the oysters, but a saltspoonful of salt will probably not be too much, a little pepper, and a teaspoonful of essence of anchovies—just enough to make the sauce a delicate salmon-color. For the last thing, stir in one small teaspoonful of lemon juice. The consistency of the sauce for all patties should be that of very thick double cream. When it is not thick enough, it can always be reduced by boiling down, taking care not to boil the meat or oysters, etc., in it.

Chicken Patties.—Take the breast of a boiled chicken, cut it into dice; use half a pint of the liquor in which it was boiled to make the sauce. Put this broth in a small saucepan with a teaspoonful of lean boiled ham chopped a little (take care there is not a particle of the outside of the ham, or it may impart a smoky flavor); let the ham simmer in the broth while you melt together a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter; when they bubble, and the broth has been boiled down to about one half, strain the latter into a half-pint measure, fill up with cream, and stir this quickly to the flour and butter. When the sauce is thick and smooth, put in the chicken; keep the mixture at boiling-point five minutes, then set the saucepan in another of boiling water, and stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs; only just let them thicken; then remove from the fire, and use for filling the patty cases. A teaspoonful of sherry is often added to the sauce. If this filling is not used while hot, it must be reheated in a double boiler and watched, or the eggs will curdle; or the filling may be prepared and the eggs added after it is reheated.

Bouchées of any kind are simply patties made very small indeed—for this reason the filling is always chopped instead of being cut into dice.

The essence of anchovy mentioned is a most useful sauce for fish, and can be bought at any large grocery.

XIV.
ENTRÉES.

To prepare quenelle meat for entrées.

Mode No. 1.—To make quenelle meat, a mortar is indispensable, as it must be pounded to a pulp that will go through a sieve, and I have known a persevering woman grate the breast of chicken on a large grater, but this is very slow work. Take the white meat from a large, young, uncooked chicken, and remove all skin, fat, and sinew. Melt together over the fire a scant tablespoonful of butter and one of flour; when they are thick and smooth, stir in a gill of boiling water quickly. This should now be a thick paste; put it away to cool. Take half as much butter as you have of chicken, and half the quantity of paste (technically called panada) that you have of butter. Put the paste into a mortar; pound it well; add the butter; pound again till smooth; add the chicken, cut up very small, and pound until the whole forms a smooth pulp. Add one whole egg and the yolks of three, the third of a saltspoonful of white pepper (salt must depend on whether the butter seasons sufficiently). Work all well together, stir in half a gill of thick cream, and pass the whole through a wire sieve. Put the whole on ice to get firm. The quenelles should be about the size of a small egg flattened; shape with two tablespoons dipped in flour. Have ready a frying-pan with boiling water in which is a saltspoonful of salt, lay each quenelle carefully in, and poach for ten minutes. The water must boil very gently. Drain on a sieve; serve with mushroom or tomato sauce. Have a little dried parsley and grated tongue or ham, and scatter alternately on each quenelle.

Mode No. 2.—One pound of lean veal cutlet; pound it thoroughly in a mortar; then rub it through a sieve, or it may be forced (after it is pounded) through a vegetable strainer. Steep a pound of bread crumb in tepid water; wring it in a cloth to get rid of the moisture; put it in a stewpan with a tablespoonful of butter and a pinch of salt. Stir it over the fire until it ceases to stick to the pan and forms a smooth paste. Place it between two plates to cool. This is called bread panada. Put into a mortar twelve ounces of the prepared veal, six ounces of fresh butter, and eight ounces of the panada. Pound all well together; mix in gradually one whole egg, two tablespoonfuls of thick cream, and the yolks of four more eggs, a scant teaspoonful of salt, and a quarter-saltspoonful of pepper. When this is all pounded into a smooth, compact mass, put it into a bowl and place it on ice until required for use. Mould and poach as described in last recipe.

Great care is required in cooking quenelles, as if they are overdone they become tough; ten minutes is enough for those the size of a small egg. Before moulding the whole, poach a small one, break it open, and ascertain if it is smooth, light, yet firm. They should melt in the mouth. If they are at all tough, add a little more cream to the mixture, unless the toughness comes from over-boiling, which you must guard against. Very elaborate quenelles are made with a core of dark meat, made by chopping up ham, tongue, or truffles very fine, and inserting it in the centre while forming the quenelles. Always serve quenelles with tomato, mushroom, or rich Spanish sauce. Dish in a circle, and fill the centre with spinach, green peas, or a macédoine of mixed vegetables.

The mode of preparing all quenelles is by one of the two methods just given, but they may be made of any kind of game, or the backs of hares or rabbits. Quenelles of salmon, lobster, or other fish must of course be served with appropriate fish sauce.

Timbale of Chicken à la Champenois.—Chop a small slice of lean boiled ham, weighing about two ounces, put into a saucepan with four chopped mushrooms, four truffles, and an ounce of butter; stir in a moderate dessertspoonful of corn-starch and half a pint of stock and a gill of sherry; let this slowly simmer until reduced to one half. Skim off the fat, then stir in the finely chopped breast of a large chicken or of two small ones, six small pickled gherkins, a sprig of parsley, and six anchovies which have been soaked in milk. Make all hot over a slow fire, but do not let them boil. Line a mould with light puff-paste, pour the mixture into it, and bake one hour; turn out and serve very hot. Garnish with fried parsley.

Scallops of Chicken à la Périgord.—This dish may conveniently be made when the white meat of chicken is required for other purposes.

Bone the legs of two large chickens; take half a pound of veal, a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork; pound both in a mortar, then pass through a sieve; add to this two tablespoonfuls of minced tongue, six truffles, and half a dozen button mushrooms, the yolks of two eggs, a saltspoonful of salt, and a very little cayenne. Mix well. Stuff the legs of the fowls with this. Sewing them up neatly, wrap each up in buttered paper; put them in a stewpan with two ounces of butter and a carrot, turnip, and small onion cut up; add three quarters of a pint of brown stock. Put the stewpan in the oven, baste well, and cook gently one hour. When cooked, have ready a mound of spinach. Take a very sharp knife, cut the legs in slices so as to make circles like slices of sausage; strain off the gravy. Cook together a dessertspoonful of butter and flour; when they bubble, pour the strained gravy to it, with a gill of sherry and a little salt and pepper; stir till smooth; boil till as thick as cream. Dress the scallops of chicken in a circle round the spinach, pour the sauce round all, and insert bits of truffle and of tongue between the scallops.

Chicken Soufflé.—Pound three ounces of the white meat of cooked chicken as fine as possible; mix with it half a pint of cream and three well beaten eggs, a few button mushrooms finely chopped, a saltspoonful of salt, a sixth of one of pepper, a dust of cayenne, and a speck of powdered mace. Pour the mixture in a well-buttered mould, tie a cloth over it, and steam it half an hour. It must stand quite upright in the steamer. Turn out on a hot dish, and pour any rich brown sauce preferred around it. This soufflé may be made of sweetbreads, or half and half. If individual soufflés are preferred, butter as many dariole moulds as the mixture will fill; lay at the bottom of each something by way of garnish—a little star or disk of tongue or ham for some, of truffle for others, of green gherkin for others—so that when turned out the top of the soufflés will show spots of color. Half fill the moulds, and steam twenty minutes.

Soufflés of all kinds depend for excellence on being served the moment they are ready, and on the steam being kept up all the time they are cooking. When baked the oven must be very steady.

Fritot of Chicken.—Take a cold chicken, cut it into small neat joints, season rather highly with salt and pepper, strew over them a small grated onion (or one very finely chopped), and a dessertspoonful of chopped parsley. Cover them with oil, and then squeeze over them the juice of a lemon. Turn the pieces now and then, and let them remain until they have absorbed the flavor. Meanwhile make a batter of four tablespoonfuls of flour and about eight of milk, or as much as will make a thick smooth batter; stir into it a wineglass of brandy and an egg, the whole beaten to a high froth. Leave this batter in a warm place an hour before using, dip the pieces of chicken into it, and fry in very hot, deep fat. Serve piled high on a dish garnished with fried parsley.

XV.
ENTRÉES.—Continued.

Cigarettes à la Reine.—These are the newest development of the rissole and croquette. They require strict attention to details to secure perfect form. Roll puff-paste a quarter of an inch thick; prick it all over—this is to deaden it; roll it now till it is no thicker than cartridge-paper. Cut it with a sharp knife dipped in flour into strips about two inches and a half wide and about the length of a cigar; lay on each strip a roll of chicken quenelle meat that is very firm, and the roll not thicker than a lady’s slender forefinger; be careful that the meat reaches nearly the whole length of the paste, yet leaves a margin for closing, as the least oozing will spoil the appearance. Moisten the edges of the paste all round with white of egg; fold the paste over half an inch; be very careful to see that it adheres thoroughly; then pinch the ends. Roll them gently with a cool hand on the floured board to round them without pressure, taper off the ends cigar fashion. If they are softening, lay them on a floured plate on ice to get firm; then roll them in egg and very finely sifted cracker meal. You may roll or improve the shape, if there is any irregularity, while crumbing them. Remember what you aim to imitate is a cigar. The great danger for the first time is getting them too large; they must therefore be very slender. Fry in deep fat just as rissoles; serve on a napkin, log-house fashion. These dainties, as will have been seen, have a large amount of butter, and soften in a warm room; they must therefore be made in a cold room, and if set on ice some hours before cooking will be much easier to fry without bending or twisting.

Cigarettes à la Chasseur are, as the name indicates, made of game, in exactly the same way as the last recipe.

Lobster Quenelles.—Prepare with bread panada as directed for quenelle meat. Poach and drain them. Then dish in a circle with thick Hollandaise sauce in the centre and round them.

Chicken, Turtle Fashion.—This requires a pullet or young hen about six months old. Bone the bird; stuff with a force-meat made of four parts minced veal, two parts chopped hard eggs, a half part lean boiled ham, two parts mushrooms, and two parts pâté de foie gras. First make the veal and ham hot in a little butter, then add the mushrooms and foie gras; moisten with stock or mushroom liquor, and gently simmer five minutes. Stir in two beaten yolks of eggs and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Season with a saltspoonful of salt, a quarter one of white pepper, and a tiny pinch of nutmeg, grated. Stuff the fowl with this mixture; sew it up with trussing-needle and string; turn the skin of the neck half over the head, and cut off part of the comb, which gives the appearance of the turtle’s head. Scald and skin four chickens’ feet; cut off the claws, and insert two where the wings ought to be and two in the thighs, so as to look like turtles’ feet. Put in a stewpan a tablespoonful of chopped boiled ham, an onion, and a small carrot cut up, with a tablespoonful of butter; let them brown very slightly, add half a pint of stock, skim it, lay the fowl in this stock, and stew gently for an hour and a half to two hours, or even longer, according to size. When quite tender take up the fowl, cut and remove the string with which it is sewn, lay it on its back on a dish, garnish the breast with sliced truffles cut in fancy shapes, place a crawfish tail to represent the turtle’s tail. When eaten hot serve velouté sauce. This is an excellent dish cold garnished with aspic.

Baked Ravioli.—Four ounces of veal, six ounces of butter, three ounces of lean sausage-meat, a teaspoonful of mixed sweet herbs, a little salt and pepper. Pound all in a mortar; when smooth, pound separately a gill of spinach that has been boiled till just tender without losing color, and a quarter of a pound of cream cheese or rich cottage cheese, which must be squeezed in a cloth to remove all the milk. When smooth, pound all together, and stir in the yolks of two eggs. Make some pastry with half a pound of butter, three quarters of a pound of flour, and the yolks of two eggs; mix stiff, and roll till about as thick as a fifty-cent piece. Cut the paste in two parts. Take a medium-sized biscuit-cutter, mark half as many circles on one half the paste as you wish ravioli. Lay in the centre of each circle a mound of the force-meat—perhaps a large teaspoonful, only be careful to leave a quarter-inch margin all round. Moisten this margin with a camel’s-hair brush dipped in white of egg; lay the second half of the pastry over these mounds; press the cutter on each to trim them, and you have a number of little round patties; press the edges together very well by curving the little finger round them. Have some rich stock boiling in a stewpan; poach the ravioli five minutes. Take them up, drain them well, arrange them in a fire-proof gratin dish, sprinkle them over with grated Parmesan cheese, pour in a very little stock, and bake brown in the oven.

Veal Cutlets à la Primrose.—Take a pound of veal cutlet; cut it up into small cutlets the size of a dollar, and perfectly round. Put two ounces of butter (which has been first melted to let the curd separate) into a saucepan, with three onions, two ounces of bacon cut into small dice, a bouquet of herbs (including bay-leaf). Fry, stirring frequently, for a quarter of an hour, then add a tablespoonful of corn-starch, a dessertspoonful of Tarragon vinegar, and a pint of strong stock. Let all simmer very gently for about one hour. Take up the cutlets, strain the gravy and pour it over them, then sprinkle with a tablespoonful of grated tongue, and the same quantity of parsley dried and crumbled small. Chicken may also be cooked in this way.

Quails à la Lucullus.—This, as its name implies, is a most expensive and luxurious way of serving these dainty birds, yet by management the livers of chickens may be saved a day or two by scalding them, and the opportunity taken when several are required for general use during a week. Bone very carefully six or eight quails. Cut up three ounces of unsmoked bacon, put it in a sauté pan, let it cook five minutes, then add the livers, a shallot sliced, a small bouquet, twelve white peppercorns, six cloves, a saltspoonful of salt. Let all cook carefully ten minutes: nothing must burn or get very brown. When cooked, pound well in a mortar, pass through a sieve, then add three truffles chopped; stuff each quail into shape, butter some paper cases known as “quail cases,” put a quail into each case, a few drops of olive oil on each breast. Then put them in a quick oven for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. For the gravy, put the bones of the quails in a stewpan, add a tablespoonful of glaze and a gill of brown sauce, with one tablespoonful of water. Simmer till the gravy is well flavored from the bones, then strain, and add two tablespoonfuls of chopped truffles and half a gill of sherry. Put one tablespoonful of this sauce over each quail before sending it to the table, after very carefully draining all grease from the quails. These are served in the papers, but rough paper cases may be made to bake them in, and the regular crimped ones set in the oven to get hot just before dishing up. Slip the quails into them after draining.

Quails à la Jubilee.—Bone as many birds as required. Lard them with pork and thin strips of truffles. Stuff them in shape with equal parts of sweetbreads and oysters, sew them up; roll them in buttered paper, and cook in the oven in enough Chablis to cover them. Pound some boiled potatoes and water-cresses together until thoroughly blended; put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan with one of milk; put in the potato, stir round till quite hot; use this to make a border on which to serve the quails. When they have cooked fifteen to twenty minutes, take them up, glaze them (melt glaze in a cup standing in hot water, and brush them over). Lay them on the potato border, and pour into the centre some Spanish sauce with mushrooms in which has been boiled a slice of lemon.

XVI.
ENTRÉES.—Continued.

Pigeon Cutlets.—Take half a dozen young pigeons, split them down the back, and bone them, all but the leg, cutting off the wings at the second joint. Cut each bird in two down the breast; trim off all ragged edges, so that each half-bird has as much as possible the appearance of a cutlet, the leg serving for the bone. Sauté these cutlets, having seasoned them with pepper and salt, for three minutes in hot butter, then put them in the oven for five minutes. When done, press between two plates till cold. Then mask each cutlet with a thick purée of tomatoes and mushrooms in which aspic jelly has been mixed, equal parts of each. Let them be put on ice to stiffen the masking. Roll in fine cracker meal, then dip into well-beaten egg, again into the meal, and then place them in a sauté pan with very hot clarified butter, and cook them a fine golden brown. Dish up on a border of mashed potatoes browned with grated Parmesan; serve mushrooms in the centre and Spanish sauce all round.

Pigeons à la Tartare.—The pigeons should be trussed for broiling; flatten well with a rolling-pin without breaking the skin, season them with pepper and salt, dip into clarified butter and cover with very fine crumbs or cracker meal. Broil them carefully, turning often. Make a sauce of a scant tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, a shallot, two spoonfuls of pickled gherkins, and a boned anchovy. Mince all finely and separately. Squeeze over them the juice of a lemon; add half a tablespoonful of water and six of oil, and a little pepper. Mix all very well, and just before serving rub in a teaspoonful of dry mustard. Put the sauce into the dish, lay the pigeons over, and serve.

Compote of Pigeons.—For any dish of pigeons except roast or broiled, wild birds may be used in place of tame. Their flavor is far finer, and if not perfectly young, which is the main objection to the use of wild birds, the preparation remedies the defect. Cut four ounces of lean unsmoked bacon into pieces, and fry five minutes. Split the pigeons in half, skewer each half as neatly as possible with tiny skewers, so that they will not sprawl when dished; flour and season them lightly, and fry a nice brown on both sides; add one small carrot, one small turnip, two sticks of celery, one shallot, six mushrooms—all cut small; add a bouquet garni and three gills of rich stock; let them all simmer very slowly in a stewpan for one hour, or longer if the birds are not young. Simmer together a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter; pepper and salt (quantities depend on whether the stock be seasoned); stir constantly, and when they begin to change color pour a gill of brown stock to it, stirring well; remove from the fire. Take up the pigeons, strain the gravy, then stir in the brown thickening you have made; boil up, skim off all fat, then return the birds; let them get thoroughly hot, but not boil. Serve on a border of mashed potatoes, pour the gravy round and over them, and fill the centre with peas or spinach.

Soufflé of Partridges.—Clean and cook two partridges; remove the breasts and best of the other flesh without skin or sinew. Take two ounces of rice cooked till very tender, pound them together in a mortar with one ounce of butter and a gill and a half of glaze melted, a teaspoonful of salt, and a sixth of pepper. Pound until the whole can be forced through a strainer, then add the beaten yolks of four eggs, and last of all the whites of two beaten till they will not slip from the dish; stir them very lightly into the mixture. Pour it into a silver soufflé case, or into a number of the small china cases. Bake till it rises, and then serve immediately with a tureen of rich brown sauce. This soufflé can be made of any kind of cold bird or fish. The four eggs are given for medium-sized partridges.

Salmis of Snipe.—Clean and roast lightly six snipe, saving the trail. When done let them get cold, then cut them up and remove the skin, and lay them in a buttered stewpan; pound the trimmings and bones in a mortar, and put them into a stewpan with two shallots, a clove, a bouquet of herbs, and half a pint of claret; let this simmer until reduced to one half. Then add three quarters of a pint of Spanish sauce. Let these very gently simmer for half an hour, skimming frequently; strain through a fine sieve, and return to the stewpan. If it is not thick enough to coat the spoon, reduce a little more. Pour this sauce over the snipe in the sauté pan, and let it get hot without boiling; pile the pieces in a pyramid; meanwhile chop the trail, mix with half the quantity of pâté de foie gras and a little salt and pepper; spread this on croûtons, bake, and use them to garnish the snipe.

Fillets of Teal with Anchovies.—Remove the breasts from a pair of teal after they have been three parts roasted. Take care to preserve each half breast in good shape. Lay these fillets seasoned in a china fire-proof dish which has been well buttered and strewed with grated Parmesan; split two anchovies, remove the bone. Wash and dry the four halves, lay one on each fillet of teal, moisten with a gill of fish stock, sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, lay small pieces of butter over, and bake in the oven fifteen minutes. The last thing before serving squeeze the juice of a lemon over all.

Rabbits are so little cared for in this country that it may seem useless to give recipes for using them. There are probably two reasons for the low estimate in which rabbit is held here. One, that as they are offered in market they are skinny, miserable animals. Yet there are parts of the country where they attain a good size, and a fine plump rabbit may compare favorably with fowl for many purposes. Indeed, English epicures use it in preference for mulligatawny. The second reason, and probably the one that is the real reason, for the difference in taste is because, being so lightly esteemed, no care is ever given to the preparation of them.

On the chance that some reader may feel inclined to test the possibilities of the native rabbit, and its claims to a place in choice cookery, I give two or three recipes, each admirable in its way. Rabbits should be used quite fresh, and cleaned and wiped dry as soon after they are killed as possible.

Grenadines of Rabbit à la Soubise.—Take the whole backs of two rabbits from the shoulders to the thighs, both of which you reject; cut away the ribs and the thin part that forms the stomach, leaving only the backbone with solid flesh each side; divide this into sections, about two joints to each. Lard them, and then braise for one hour. Stand them in a circle, and pour over and round them a pint of brown Soubise sauce.

Fillets of Rabbit with Cucumber.—Half roast a rabbit, then remove the solid flesh from each side the backbone in long fillets. Cut two cucumbers and one Bermuda onion in thin slices, salt them, and let them drain. Lard the fillets of rabbit, season them, and lay them in a stewpan, with a pint of white sauce slightly thinned with white stock, the cucumber, and the onion. Let them simmer for half an hour. Lay the fillets in a circle, and put the cucumber and onion in the centre, the sauce, which should be thick enough to mask them, over the fillets. Fried sippets garnish this dish.

A Civet.—For this dish the dark-fleshed rabbit, or hare, as it is often called, is best. Cut it into meat joints; cut half a pound of unsmoked bacon into slices, and fry in a saucepan; then lay in the hare, and sauté for fifteen minutes. Pour off the fat. Add half a pint of port-wine, a bouquet garni, and a dozen mushrooms, and a little pepper and salt; let this simmer gently one hour; then add a pint of brown sauce and twenty button onions which have been blanched. Simmer for another half-hour. Remove the bouquet, add a gill of stewed and strained tomato, half a gill of glaze, and a tablespoonful of Chutney. Serve in a pyramid, pour the gravy, after it is well skimmed, over the whole, and garnish with fried croûtons.

Timbales d’Épinard.—Make some quenelle meat of chicken or veal according to directions already given, and mix with purée of spinach, prepared as follows, until it is a nice green; pick and wash some spinach, put it into salted boiling water, and boil fast for fifteen minutes. Drain and press it, then beat it through a wire sieve; return to the saucepan with two ounces of butter; pepper and salt; stir till well mixed. Stir a gill of cream to the quenelle meat, then use enough of the spinach to give it a fine light-green color. When well mixed, butter some dariole moulds; nearly fill them. Then dip your finger in cold water and press a hole in the centre of each to the bottom; fill it with a purée of ham, and then put a coating of quenelle meat over, and steam twenty minutes.

Purée of ham is prepared as follows: pound lean boiled ham in a mortar with some stock that has been boiled down to half glaze; rub through a wire sieve. If too stiff, moisten with a little more melted glaze.

XVII.
COLD ENTRÉES, OR CHAUDFROIDS.

Sweetbreads au Montpellier.—Parboil a pair of fine white sweetbreads, after soaking them in salt and water an hour. Let them get cold between two plates under slight pressure. Cut them into the form of cutlets (cutlet cutters are to be obtained at the fashionable New York hardware stores, and at the large French tin-shops down-town). Have some firm aspic jelly not quite set; dip each cutlet in it; chop some aspic that is hard and cold roughly; form a circle of it; arrange the cutlets on this; fill the centre with asparagus heads; pour mayonnaise round, and garnish with fancy shapes of aspic, red and white alternately. Red aspic is colored with pulp of the red beet stirred into it while liquid and then strained out; green is produced by spinach. The various shades of amber, shading into rich brown, that are so effective when tastefully mingled, are due to caramel coloring. When colored aspic is required for garnishing, pour off a little into separate vessels, and color each as required.

Chicken Salad à la Prince.—Cut the white meat of cold fowl into neat fillets, using a very sharp knife, so that there may be no ragged edges. Mask each piece with a mixture made as follows: One tablespoonful of finely minced capers, two of minced boiled ham, three hard-boiled eggs, an anchovy boned and washed, and two sardines freed from skin. All these must be well pounded, then rubbed through a sieve; add a teaspoonful of finely minced tarragon and chives. Stir all into a tablespoonful of mayonnaise and one of aspic, semi-fluid of course. When each fillet has been well coated with the mixture and has set, line a border mould with aspic jelly, ornament the fillets of chicken with little strips of beet-root and cucumber arranged like a trellis-work. Place them very carefully round the mould on the layer of aspic, then pour in a little more aspic, until the border mould is full, and set it on ice. When about to serve have a dish well layered with the small leaves of lettuce. Drop the mould for one minute in warm water, and turn out on to the lettuce. Fill the centre with a salad composed of cucumber cut into dice, peas, string-beans cooked until tender (for this purpose the canned French string-beans serve admirably, being beautifully cut ready). Pour over the centre salad some thick mayonnaise.

Where mayonnaise makes too rich a dish for the digestion, béchamel sauce may be substituted for masking, but never for salad; for instance, two very simple chaudfroids of chicken may be made as follows:

Chaudfroid of Chicken, No. 1.—Cut up a young fleshy chicken into neat joints, remove the skin, mask each piece carefully with béchamel sauce; when quite set arrange on chopped aspic in a circle, garnish with strips of cucumber and beet; cut the remainder of the cucumber and beet into neat pieces, and stir into a gill of mayonnaise, and use for the centre. This and all salads should be lightly seasoned before the mayonnaise is added, or they are apt to taste flat.

Chaudfroid of Chicken, No. 2.—Prepare the chicken as in last recipe, only before masking the joints season the béchamel well with finely chopped tarragon; leave out the mayonnaise and aspic. Pile up the pieces of chicken on the entrée dish, and garnish with Roman lettuce, or, if that is not to be had, the hearts of Boston lettuce.

Chicken and Ham Cutlets.—Boil a young fowl with a good breast in clear stock; take it out, let it get cold; cut the breast into rather thin slices. The bones, skin, and trimmings may be thrown back in the stock, which can be boiled down to make both the béchamel and aspic for the dish (see recipes), or be kept for other purposes. Take the slices of chicken and some very well cooked lean ham that is cut so thin you can see the knife under the slices. Melt a little béchamel sauce, that must be like blanc-mange, pour it on a plate, and before it has time to cool cover the plate with the slices of chicken. Dip the ham into the stock (if it has been boiled down to jelly, otherwise into melted aspic), lay the ham over the chicken, then more thin slices of chicken. Now cover the whole by means of a spoon with more béchamel; when all this sets, which, as your sauce has only been half melted, it will do quickly, you have a large white cake about half an inch thick. Cut this cake into small pieces (unless you have a cutlet cutter), as like a cutlet in form as possible, using a sharp penknife or boning-knife. Take up each carefully, and with the end of a silver knife or small spoon cover the edges with the béchamel sauce, which must be nearly set for this purpose.

To garnish the cutlets, cut some tiny green leaves from pickled gherkins, and red ones from the skin of a red pepper-pod, and place two of each in the centre of each cutlet, star-shaped; a touch of white sauce will make them stick; place a speck of parsley not larger than a pin’s head in the centre. Stick a tiny lobster claw three quarters of an inch long at the narrow end of the cutlet, and place them in a silver dish round some aspic of a bright amber color, chopped. Put a very small sprig of parsley between each cutlet.

I may here remind the reader that when aspic or béchamel is used for masking or for pouring into a mould as lining, etc., it must not be made hot, only softened in a bowl set in warm water, just enough to be free from lumps. It must, of course, be stirred from the moment it begins to soften. The mould to be lined should be turned about till it is well coated, and if there is a disposition to run off the sides, roll it round in ice. For instance, when the first layer of béchamel is poured on the plate as directed in last recipe, it must be moved about until quite covered, yet very thinly. If it sets too soon, hold the bottom of the plate over steam.

Reed-birds in Aspic.—Take the back and breast bone from a dozen birds, splitting them down the back first. Save the feet. Make a force-meat of pâté de foie gras and panada in equal proportions; season highly, spread the inside of the birds, sew them up as nearly in shape as possible; bake seven to ten minutes, then dip them into glaze; put a little pale aspic in a dozen dariole moulds, enough to cover the bottom a quarter of an inch, and when just set put in a bird breast down; set on ice a few minutes, then pour in aspic to cover the bird a quarter of an inch. Put on ice. Turn out, and on the top of each strew pistachio nuts chopped very fine. Insert the two feet of the bird, scalded and dried, to stand up from the centre.

Chaudfroid of Reed-birds.—Prepare as in last recipe with pâté de foie gras force-meat. Butter a dozen dariole moulds. Put a bird in each, breast downward; put the dariole moulds in a pan with a little water, and set it in the oven for fifteen minutes; when cold, turn out the birds, wipe them, dip each in brown chaudfroid sauce, and put them on a dish to cool. When cold, lay them in rows against a pile of chopped aspic.

Brown Chaudfroid Sauce is made by putting a pint of Spanish sauce, a gill of cream, half a pint of aspic jelly together, and boiling them until they are reduced one quarter. Skim constantly, and strain for use.

White Chaudfroid Sauce is simply béchamel and aspic treated in the same way. It differs, of course, from plain béchamel in having the piquant flavor of the aspic; in appearance there is little difference.