LUNCHEON DISHES
OYSTERS
Fricasseed oysters
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters and bring to the boiling point. Stir into it two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs rolled very fine. Set at the side of the range while you scald a half pint of cream in which you have dissolved a tiny pinch of soda. Meanwhile melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan and cook the oysters in this until their edges “ruffle,” when they must be removed and laid on tiny slices of toast on a hot water dish. Turn the melted butter remaining in the saucepan into the oyster liquor and pour this slowly, stirring all the time, on the hot cream, season with salt and paprika, and pour immediately over the oysters and toast.
Deviled oyster pâtés
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters. Chop the oysters and mix with them a cup of cracker crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and enough oyster liquor to soften the whole. Season with salt, paprika and a few drops of Tabasco sauce, with a teaspoonful of tomato catsup. Butter small pâté-pans, fill these with the mixture, sprinkle cracker crumbs on top, and bake.
Creamed oysters
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters.
Cook together three tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and when they bubble pour upon them a cupful of oyster liquor and a cupful of rich milk (cream is better), in which you have dropped a bit of soda the size of a pea. Stir until the sauce thickens, then turn into it the oysters. Cook until the oysters are heated through; add, a few drops at a time, the beaten yolks of two eggs, keeping your spoon moving all the time. Do not allow it to cook a minute after the last drop of egg is added.
Broiled oysters (No. 1)
There are several methods of broiling oysters. For all of them a good large oyster is needed. I give the simplest method first.
Dry your oysters on a towel; sprinkle them with salt and a little red pepper and lay them within an oyster-broiler. Turn them so that they may brown on both sides, put them on a hot dish, dress at once with butter, and serve as soon as this has melted.
Broiled oysters (No. 2)
Drain and dry your oysters, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and roll them in bread-crumbs. Broil them over a clear fire, turning them until they are brown. Serve on buttered toast. Put a bit of butter on each oyster and squeeze on it a few drops of lemon juice.
Broiled oysters with brown sauce
Sprinkle large drained oysters with salt and pepper, dip in beaten egg, then roll in cracker-dust, and lay on the ice for an hour before cooking upon an oyster-broiler over a clear fire to a delicate brown. Put on a hot platter and cover with a brown sauce.
Brown sauce for broiled oysters
Cook together a scant tablespoonful, each, of butter and browned flour; pour upon a half pint of cleared consommé; season with salt, pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a little mushroom catsup and a few drops of kitchen bouquet. Add a dash of lemon juice and serve.
Scalloped oysters
Drain the oysters and dispose in a buttered bake-dish in the following order:
In the bottom have a light layer of crushed cracker crumbs; season with paprika and salt, drop bits of butter upon them and wet with oyster liquor and milk mixed in equal quantities. Now comes a layer of oysters, similarly seasoned, next a layer of crumbs. Go on thus until the dish is full or the materials are used up. The top layer should be crumbs with a double allowance of butter. Cover closely and bake half an hour, then uncover and brown lightly.
Oyster scallops
Prepare as above, but bake in pâté-pans or in shells, covering each with fine crumbs. In tide-water Virginia, notably near Williamsburg, the first capital of the state, large, fluted shells are dug up many feet below the surface, which, when cleaned, make the best possible receptacle for scalloped oysters. All who have eaten fresh oysters, just from York river, cooked in these fossil remains, will agree with me that they are incomparably savory.
Send sliced lemon around with them.
Fried oysters
They must be large, plump and fresh. Drain well; spread upon a clean, soft towel, and cover with another, patting them gently to dry them on both sides. Roll each over and over in salted cracker-crumbs; set on the ice for an hour; dust more crumbs over them, and fry, a few at a time, in boiling hot butter, cottolene or other fats.
Drain, garnish with parsley and serve.
Oysters creamed and baked
Heat a large spoonful of butter in a clean frying-pan, rub in a tablespoonful of flour, and stir to a white roux. Remove to the table. Season with salt and white pepper. Have ready pâté-pans or scallop-shells arranged in a baking-pan; put three or four fine oysters in each, cover with the white sauce and cook in a quick oven about eight minutes, or until the oysters “ruffle.” Serve in the shells. The white sauce should be thick, as the liquor from the oysters will thin it.
Stewed oysters
Drain in a colander one quart of oysters. Put the liquor over the fire in a saucepan, with a good tablespoonful of butter. Add half as much boiling water as you have liquor, pepper and salt to taste, and bring to a boil. As soon as this is reached, put in the drained oysters and cook quickly. When they “ruffle”—in five minutes or thereabouts—add half a cupful of milk heated in another vessel with a tiny bit of soda to prevent curdling, and half a teaspoonful of corn-starch wet with cold milk, stirred in. Pour upon the oysters, cook for one minute and dish.
Most stewed oysters are cooked into insipid toughness.
Oyster stew
Heat the liquor from a quart of oysters to boiling. While it is growing hot put over the fire in another vessel a pint of milk. When this is heated stir into it a tablespoonful of butter rolled in as much flour. Drop the oysters into the hot liquid and let them cook until they ruffle. Pour the milk into the saucepan with the oysters, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.
This is the old-fashioned stew and is better than many more modern inventions.
Oysters fried in batter
Make a rather thick batter of one egg, a cupful of milk and about half a cupful of flour, sifted twice, with a scant half teaspoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt. Drain fine oysters, roll each in flour, let them stand half an hour, then dip in the batter and fry in boiling butter, cottolene or other fat. Drain off every drop of grease in a hot colander and serve.
Steamed oysters
Wash shell oysters and arrange, flat side up, in the steamer. Cover closely, and set over water at a hard boil. In twenty-five minutes lift the steamer from the fire. If the shells gape, the oysters are done. Pry off the lower shell, put a bit of butter on each, and send at once to table. Pass salt and pepper and sliced lemon with them. They are delicious if eaten piping hot, preserving the flavor far better than stewed or panned oysters can hold it.
Panned oysters
Fit rounds of buttered toast into the bottom of pâté pans; lay on these as many oysters as the pans will hold, season with salt and pepper, lay a dot of butter upon each panful and set in your covered roaster to cook in a quick oven about ten minutes, or until the oysters “ruffle.” Serve in the pans.
An appetizing luncheon or supper dish.
Creamed panned oysters
Cook as in last recipe, and when the oysters are done add to each pan a large teaspoonful of cream heated to scalding, putting in a tiny pinch of soda to prevent curdling.
Instead of the cream you may make a dish of
Deviled panned oysters
When ready for the table add to each pan a dozen drops of Tabasco sauce, stirred into a saltspoonful of French mustard and the same quantity of lemon juice. Beat together, stir lightly into the oysters with a fork, heat one minute and serve.
Curried oysters
Into two tablespoonfuls of white roux stir a few drops of onion juice and a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add a cupful of scalding oyster liquor, and, when well incorporated, pour over broiled or fried oysters laid upon toast in a chafing-dish. Rice croquettes are nice served with this dish.
Oyster pie or pâtés
Make pastry shells or a pie shell of puff paste, bake, and when cold, fill with a filling made thus: Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour; pour on them a cup of cream and a gill of oyster liquor and stir to a smooth sauce. Drop in the oysters and cook, stirring steadily until the edges begin to curl; remove from the fire and beat in gradually the yolk of an egg. Pour into the pastry shells and set in the oven until the pastry and contents are very hot.
Oyster cocktails (No. 1)
Into a tablespoonful of tomato catsup stir a half tablespoonful of grated horseradish, a half tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a quarter teaspoonful of Tabasco sauce, half a tablespoonful of vinegar and a saltspoonful of salt. Set in the ice for an hour. Into very cold little glasses put five small oysters that have been chilled, and fill the glasses with the cold sauce.
Oyster cocktails (No. 2)
For six of these provide thirty small oysters. Make a sauce by mixing together a tablespoonful, each, of lemon juice and tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of grated horseradish, a pinch, each, of salt and cayenne pepper and six drops of Tabasco sauce. Have all very cold, and the cocktail or claret glasses thoroughly chilled before you put five oysters in each and divide the sauce equally between them. Lay a slice of lemon on top of each cocktail.
Oysters with mushrooms
(Contributed)
Drain about twenty-five oysters, put them into a hot pan with a teaspoonful of butter and toss them until they are plumped and ruffled on both sides. Then place them in a hot dish. To the oyster liquor add the juice of half a pint of chopped mushrooms and enough milk to make a pint. Thicken this with a tablespoonful of flour moistened with a little milk and cook three minutes; stir in the mushrooms and cook two minutes longer; add a half teaspoonful of salt, a half teaspoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of onion juice, the beaten yolks of two eggs and a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Put in the oysters and as soon as the preparation reaches the boiling point turn into a hot dish.
Pigs in blankets
(Contributed)
Take large oysters and allow them to remain in the following dressing: The juice of two lemons, half a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. Now wrap each oyster in a thin slice of bacon and fasten with a toothpick, fry in a little butter until the bacon is crisp. Have nicely browned slices of toast and lay the oysters on them. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Baked oysters
(Contributed)
Select nice large oysters. Wash and scrub the shells free from sand. Put them into a baking-pan and bake in a hot oven until the shells open. Carefully remove the upper shell; put a bit of butter on each oyster, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve in the under shells.
Oysters with macaroni
(Contributed)
Put about four ounces of macaroni in plenty of boiling salted water and cook for twenty minutes. Take out and drain well. Into a buttered baking-dish put a layer of the macaroni, then a layer of oysters, dot with bits of butter, season with pepper and salt; follow this with another layer of macaroni, another of oysters and seasoning, and finish with a layer of macaroni sprinkled thickly with grated cheese. Bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.
Oysters sautés
Drain the oysters well, season with pepper and salt, roll in fine bread crumbs, and brown in a little clarified butter in a spider. Serve on a hot platter.
Scalloped clams
Select one dozen large clams in the shell and two dozen soft ones. Use care not to injure the shells which are to be used in cooking. Clean the shells well and put two soft clams into each one. Add to each a touch of white pepper and one and a half teaspoonfuls of minced celery. Cut into small dice a few slices of bacon and add four of these to each shell; sprinkle bread crumbs over the top, put a piece of butter on top of each and bake in the oven till brown.
Roast clams
Wash the clams and lay them unopened in a bake-pan, and set on the top of the very hot range. Cook until the shells open wide, then remove the upper shell and transfer the lower—with the clam and juice still in it—to a hot platter. Squeeze upon each clam a few drops of lemon juice and serve in the shells. Pass tomato catsup or chili sauce with them.
Creamed clams
Drain the liquor from a pint of opened clams, and set the clams and liquor on the range in separate double boilers to heat. Cook together a large tablespoonful of butter and the same of flour until they bubble, then pour upon them the heated liquor and cook until smooth and thick. Have ready in another vessel a pint of hot cream, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Pour this gradually upon a beaten egg, and return to the fire for a minute, stirring constantly. Add the chopped and heated clams to the thickened liquor, season with paprika, stir gradually into the hot eggs and cream, and pour upon squares of lightly buttered toast.
Clam pâtés
Drain the liquor from a quart of clams. Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour upon them a cup of hot milk (in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved) and a cup of clam liquor. Stew until you have a smooth, thick sauce, and then add the chopped clams. Add a beaten egg, drop by drop, and when well mixed remove from the fire, season and set aside to cool. Line pâté pans with good puff paste, fill with the clam mixture, put pastry over the tops and bake to a light brown. Serve hot.
Deviled clams (No. 1)
Steam in the shell as you have been told how to steam oysters. When they gape, open, saving all the liquor in a bowl. Cut off the dark end of each clam and set aside while you strain the liquor and bring it quickly to a boil. Season with paprika, butter, lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco sauce; put in the clams and as soon as they are smoking hot, turn into a heated covered dish. Send around buttered bars of graham bread, or strips of buttered toast, or hot crackers, buttered lightly.
Deviled clams (No. 2)
Take two dozen clams from the shells, drain and chop. Scald a cup of rich milk and thicken it with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into one of butter; remove from the fire, add gradually the beaten yolks of three eggs, paprika and celery salt to taste, a few drops of lemon juice and the chopped clams. Wash the clam shells, fill with this mixture, and set in a pan in the oven for ten minutes. Serve very hot.
Lobster à la Newburg
Stir a pinch of baking soda into a pint of cream; put this, the beaten yolks of three eggs, and a wineglassful of sherry in a double boiler and cook, stirring, until thick. Now add a pint of lobster meat, seasoned with salt and cayenne, and stir until smoking hot; then serve.
Lobster timbales
Mix together a cup of cold boiled lobster, minced very fine, eight blanched and chopped almonds, and season with celery salt and white pepper. Stir in a half pint of whipped cream and the whites of four eggs beaten very stiff and work in an ordinary Hollandaise sauce. Turn into timbale molds and bake.
Lobster cutlets
Two cupfuls of minced lobster seasoned with a quarter teaspoonful of salt, a dash of paprika, and one teaspoonful, each, of lemon juice and minced parsley. Moisten with one cup of thick drawn butter and the beaten yolk of one egg. When cool, shape into cutlets; egg and crumb them, let them stand for one hour on ice, then fry in deep, hot butter.
Creamed lobster
Two cups of boiled lobster meat, cut into dice. Season with paprika, salt and lemon juice. Heat a great spoonful of butter in a saucepan and turn in the lobster dice. Toss until smoking hot, add half a cup of cream, heated (with a bit of soda), then beat into it the whipped yolks of three eggs. Stir for one minute, and dish.
Send hot, buttered crackers around with it.
Curry of lobster
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and cook in it a tablespoonful of sliced onion. Strain out the onion, return the butter to the pan, and stir to a roux with a level tablespoonful of flour and a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add four tablespoonfuls of cream, heated (not forgetting the pinch of soda); lastly two cupfuls of lobster meat, cut into dice. Stir steadily until very hot, and dish.
Note
All of these preparations of lobster may be made with canned lobster, although they must always be inferior in flavor to those made from the fresh fish. If canned lobster be used, drain off every drop of the liquor and have the meat as dry as possible before it goes into the manufacture of the proposed dish.
Scalloped lobsters
(Contributed)
Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with fine bread-crumbs. On this put a layer of lobster and season with pepper and salt; add another layer of crumbs, another of lobster and so on, until the dish is filled. Moisten with milk, strew with bits of butter and bake about twenty minutes.
Deviled lobster
Two cups of lobster meat, cut into dice. Reserve the coral, rubbing it to a paste with butter and lemon juice. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, add the lobster meat highly seasoned with paprika, French mustard, ten drops of Tabasco, or double the quantity of Worcestershire sauce and salt. As soon as it bubbles turn in the coral paste and let it just come to a boil before serving.
Deviled crab
Pick the meat from boiled crabs, taking care not to break the shells. Flake the meat and mix with it a tablespoonful of melted butter, cayenne and salt to taste and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Return to the shells, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.
Crabs and champignons
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into dice, and half a can of champignons (mushrooms), cut into dice of the same size. Make a roux in a frying-pan of two tablespoonfuls of butter and one heaping tablespoonful of flour, stirred until smooth. Mix the crab meat and champignons well together, season with paprika, salt and a dash of onion juice; turn into the smoking roux; cook three minutes; remove from the fire; add quickly three tablespoonfuls of cream, heated, with a pinch of soda; set over the fire for one minute, add a glass of sherry, and serve hot.
Lobsters cooked in this way, substituting the fresh mushrooms for the canned, are delicious.
Crabs en coquille (No. 1)
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into neat dice, and set on ice until needed. One heaping tablespoonful of flour and an even tablespoonful of butter. Four tablespoonfuls of cream. Salt, cayenne, ten drops of Tabasco sauce or twice as much Worcestershire. A little boiling water. Pinch of soda in the cream.
Make a roux of butter and flour. Season the crab meat and stir into the roux, thinning with just enough boiling water to make the mixture manageable. When smoking-hot, take from the fire, beat in the hot cream and fill crab shells with the paste, rounding to suit the shape of the shell. Sift fine crumbs, salted and peppered, over each, put bits of butter on top, and brown on the upper grating of the oven.
Crabs en coquille (No. 2)
(A Cuban dish.)
Prepare as directed in foregoing recipe, but mix with the crab meat the pulp of three tomatoes, cut into bits and drained dry, a green pepper, seeded and minced, and four tablespoonfuls of the inside of an eggplant (boiled and cold), cut small; also half a cup of fine bread (not cracker) crumbs. Season with paprika, salt, and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Stir into the roux over the fire, adding a little boiling water if too thick, until very hot, when remove to a table and beat in the whipped yolks of two eggs. Fill your crab shells, sift fine crumbs on top, dot with butter and cook, covered, ten minutes before browning upon the upper grating.
CRAB SCALLOPED IN SHELL GARNISHED WITH LETTUCE AND LEMON
LOBSTER CUTLETS AND WHIPPED POTATO
SHRIMPS
The wee shell-fish are comparatively little known in many parts of the United States except as they come in cans. Even in this shape they lend themselves to many pleasing combinations convenient for luncheons and picnics.
Open the cans several hours before they are to be used, turn out the contents into an open bowl, rinse in cold water, drain and set on ice, or in some very cold place.
Buttered shrimps
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan; add a teaspoonful of flour, and, when bubbling hot, a tablespoonful of tomato sauce, paprika and salt to taste, and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Boil one minute and add a can of shrimps, washed and drained. Stir the mixture four minutes over a brisk fire and serve.
Pass thin slices of buttered brown bread with them.
Shrimps en coquille
Prepare as directed on preceding page, in crabs en coquille, No. 1. They are very good.
Scallop of shrimps and mushrooms
Cook precisely as in recipe on preceding page, for crabs and champignons.
Curried shrimps
Make a roux of one heaping tablespoonful of butter and a little less flour; thin with one small cupful of boiling water; add an even tablespoonful of best curry powder and one teaspoonful of onion juice. Stir for one minute and add a can of shrimps, washed and drained. Cook five minutes and serve.
Shrimps and eggs
(A Cuban dish.)
Make a roux of one large tablespoonful of butter and one of flour; when it bubbles add a teaspoonful of onion juice and twice as much green sweet pepper, minced fine, with salt and a saltspoonful of sugar. Boil up and stir in a can of shrimps, previously washed and drained. Cook for five minutes; remove to the table and mix in gradually, stirring all the time, four eggs which have been beaten just enough to break the yolks. Return to the fire and stir until the eggs begin to “set.”
Maryland terrapin
Boil the terrapin until the skin on the claws is sufficiently soft to rub off at the slightest touch. Take from the shell, and remove every particle of entrails and lungs. Place the meat in a chafing-dish. Add butter, pepper and salt, the quantity of each depending on the quantity of flesh. Let it simmer until the essence and butter reach the consistency of light gravy. Serve hot. If desired, add a little good sherry while eating, but not while cooking. Use no spices, dressing or other ingredients that can detract from the flavor.
SARDINES
The adaptability of the sardine to a variety of preparations that are appetizing and delicious is not generally recognized by the housekeeper. The tiny fish may be used as the foundation of many nice, light dishes, and during the heated months form a pleasing variety upon the heavier lunch or supper dishes composed of meat. It is always well to open a box of sardines an hour or two before the contents are to be used. Drain the fish from the oil in which they are packed, as this is too rich to be digestible, and does not improve the flavor of the fish. In buying sardines, choose the more expensive quality rather than the cheap, so-called sardines, which are often only American minnows packed down in oil.
Baked sardines
Toast crustless slices of graham bread and butter them. Put the drained sardines on a tin plate, squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice and sprinkle with fine cracker crumbs. Set the plate in the oven and bake the fish for ten minutes. Transfer the sardines to the toast, and keep hot while you make the following sauce:
Strain a half-pint of liquor from a can of tomatoes and put it into a porcelain-lined saucepan to heat. Rub together a teaspoonful of butter and one of flour, stir these into the tomato liquor, and, as the sauce thickens, add a half-teaspoonful of onion juice and a teaspoonful of granulated sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Boil up once and pour over the sardines and toast.
You may, if you like, substitute white bread for brown, and omit the tomato sauce entirely.
Broiled sardines
Drain the sardines free from oil and lay them on a fine oyster-broiler. Broil over a clear fire for five minutes. Butter heated saltine wafers, and lay a sardine on each of these. Squeeze four drops of lemon juice and two drops of onion juice on each fish and send to the table very hot.
Canapés of sardines
Cut thin bread into crescents or triangles. The crescent is the true canapé shape. Toast the bread. Flake sardines fine with a fork; work into them a teaspoonful of melted butter, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and four or five drops of Tabasco sauce. Spread the toast first with butter, then with the sardine mixture, place on a tin plate, cover, and set in the oven until very hot.
Grilled sardines
Cut as many strips of bread as you have sardines, making each piece a little longer and broader than the fish. Toast or fry these. Roll your sardines in egg and then in fine cracker crumbs, and fry to a light brown. Lay a sardine on each strip of toast and garnish with lemon and parsley.
Sardine eggs (cold)
Boil six eggs hard and throw into cold water. Remove the shells and cut the eggs in halves, removing the yolks. Pound these yolks to a paste with a tablespoonful of salad oil, and work into this paste eight skinned and minced sardines. Now add a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and a saltspoonful, each, of salt, pepper and mustard. Form into balls, and fit these into the halved whites of the eggs, trimming off the bottoms of the whites so that they will stand on end. Serve garnished with water-cress, and with or without a mayonnaise dressing.
Sardine eggs (hot)
After making out the “eggs” as directed in foregoing recipe, put into a saucepan with a broad bottom and closely fitting lid, and set in a pot of water at a hard boil on the range. Do not let the water get into the inner vessel. In twenty minutes they should be heated through. Transfer to a hot dish and pour over them a hot Bearnaise sauce. (See Sauces.)
Sardines in cups
Cut rounds of stale bread more than half an inch thick. Press a smaller cutter inside of the larger round half way through the bread. Scrape out the crumb from the inner round, leaving sides and bottom whole. Set upon the upper grating of a hot oven until crisped to a light brown. Turn and toast the bottom of the cups; then butter well. Skin and behead eight sardines. Scrape to a smooth pulp and mix with this sauce:
Make a roux of a large tablespoonful of butter and nearly as much flour, thin with a few spoonfuls of boiling water, season with a teaspoonful of anchovy paste and one of Worcestershire sauce; stir in the sardine pulp, and when it begins to bubble fill the buttered bread cups, which should have been kept hot. Send around sliced lemon with them.
Anchovies au lit
Toast thin rounds of bread; butter and cover thickly with the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, run through the vegetable press. Make a hollow in the mass of powdered egg and lay a curled anchovy in the little pit thus formed.
Set in a hot oven for five minutes, and serve.
Anchovy toast
Cut the crust from slices of bread and toast to a light brown. Butter lightly, and spread with anchovy paste. Lay the toast upon a hot platter in the oven while you make a sauce by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and the same quantity of browned flour, and when they are blended pouring upon them a pint of beef stock. Stir to a smooth, brown sauce, add a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, six stoned and chopped olives, pepper to taste, and a very little salt. Pour this sauce over and around the anchovy toast.
Anchovy croutons
Cut white bread into three-inch triangles, and fry them in butter to a pale brown. Drain, and spread each lightly with anchovy paste, and on this lay a slice of tomato. Dust with salt and pepper and serve cold.
Caviar in saucers
Prepare rounds of bread as directed for “Sardines in Cups,” and keep hot while you make the filling thus:
Two tablespoonfuls of caviar, one teaspoonful of lemon juice, one-fourth teaspoonful of curry powder, and the same of paprika. Put all into a saucepan over the fire and stir until quite hot; then put it into the hot and crisped “saucers.”
Caviar strips
Cut an equal number of slices of brown and of white bread—quite thin—and butter on one side. Trim into neat oblongs and spread the white bread with caviar. Fit a brown strip over each piece thus prepared, press lightly and firmly together, and lay, log-cabin-wise, in a tray lined with a doily.
A curry of salmon
Open a can of salmon two hours before using, and remove all bits of skin and bone. Pour two tablespoonfuls of olive oil into a frying-pan and fry in it a minced onion. When the onion is brown stir into the oil a tablespoonful of flour mixed with a teaspoonful of curry powder, and when these are blended add a large coffee-cupful of boiling water. Season and stir for a moment, and turn the salmon into the mixture. Cook for two minutes and serve. Pass sliced lemon with this dish.
Salmon mayonnaise
Have boiling in a kettle a gallon of salted water to which a gill of vinegar has been added. Lay carefully in this two salmon steaks and let them boil very slowly. Test with a silver fork, and when done, but not at all broken, lift carefully from the water and drain. Set aside until cool, then keep on the ice until wanted. Lay the steaks on a cold platter and pour a very thick mayonnaise over them. Spread this smooth with a knife that the steaks may be covered. Garnish with an abundance of water-cress.
Scallop of salmon
Open a can of salmon several hours before it is needed. Remove all bits of skin and bone, and flake the fish into small pieces. Make a white sauce and stir the salmon into this. Pour into a buttered pudding-dish, cover thickly with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.
Beauregard cod
Boil a pound of cod the day before it is needed and let it get cold. Flake to pieces with a silver fork, removing all bits of skin and bone. Next day heat a pint of fresh milk in a double boiler, thicken this with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter, and stir in the flaked fish. Season to taste and cook for five minutes. Turn upon squares of buttered toast. Have ready four hard-boiled eggs, the yolks powdered, the whites cut into rings. Sprinkle the yellow powder over the fish and lay the white rings about the edge of the platter.
Baked smelts with oyster forcemeat
Choose fine, large smelts of uniform size. Clean, wash and wipe, and fill them with a forcemeat made of one part fine crumbs, three parts finely-minced oysters, seasoned with paprika, a little minced parsley, salt and a tablespoonful of melted butter to a cupful of the forcemeat. Sew the fish up with fine thread and long stitches; lay in your covered roaster with a little boiling water under the grating and bake twenty minutes, basting once with butter when nearly done. Serve with lemon sauce.
They make a delicious fish course for luncheon. The threads should be clipped carefully that the fish may not be torn as they are drawn out before serving.
Baked smelts
Clean, wipe, roll in melted butter, then in cracker dust, set on ice to stiffen for an hour, and cook fifteen minutes in your covered roaster. Send sliced lemon around with this dish.
Creamed shad
(Contributed)
Make a white sauce by cooking together a tablespoonful of butter and a heaping one of flour, and, when they are blended, pouring upon them a pint of unskimmed milk. Add a few drops of onion juice, then pour slowly upon the beaten yolks of two eggs. Season with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of minced parsley. Into this sauce stir a pint of cold, cooked shad that has been freed of bones and flaked very fine. Turn into a greased pudding-dish, sprinkle with crumbs and bake for twenty minutes or until heated through.
A “pick-up” of fish
This is a good dish for Saturday when you are gathering up left-overs to clear decks for the Sunday which is to begin the new week.
A cupful of cold, cooked fish—cod, halibut, salmon or any other firm fish; the same quantity of cold, cooked macaroni, cut into small bits; half a cupful of tomato sauce, one cupful of oyster liquor, which any fish dealer will give you; a heaping tablespoonful of butter and the same of flour, a teaspoonful of onion juice and the same of minced parsley. Salt and paprika to taste.
Heat the butter in a saucepan; stir in the flour, and, when it bubbles, the tomato sauce, the oyster liquor and the seasoning. Boil up once, add fish and macaroni; heat to a bubble without stirring, and turn into a deep dish.
Fish scallop
Prepare as above, but instead of stewing turn all into a buttered pudding-dish as soon as macaroni and fish are added to the hot sauce; strew crumbs on top, stick bits of butter over it and bake, covered, half an hour. Then brown.
Baked chowder
Fry a small sliced onion in a large spoonful of butter; strain and return butter to the frying-pan. Have ready two pounds of cod or other firm fish cut into inch squares; put into the hot butter and toss and turn until they are well coated; pack the fish in a buttered bake-dish alternately with slices of parboiled potatoes, fat salt pork, minced fine (about half a pound in all), bits of butter rolled in flour, minced parsley and two tomatoes chopped. Season a large cupful of oyster liquor with paprika and salt, and pour over all. Cover with split Boston crackers that have been soaked in milk for half an hour, fit on a lid and bake, covered, one hour. Then brown. A savory family dish.
A “Cape Cod folks” tid-bit
Soak two pounds of salt cod over night. In the morning wash and scrub it with a whisk to remove lingering crystals of salt and cover with hot water in which an onion has been boiled. Let it stand in this until the water is cold. Take out the fish and lay between two towels until perfectly dry. Broil then on both sides, turning twice; lay it in a hot water dish; break to pieces with a fork, and cover well with hot drawn butter, seasoned with pepper, lemon juice and minced parsley. Let it stand (covered) for ten minutes over the hot water before serving, and you will be surprised by the excellent dish contrived of such homely materials.
Halibut and cheese scallop
Have ready two cupfuls (less, if you happen not to have as much) of cold, cooked halibut, flaked rather coarsely with a fork. Make a good white sauce—drawn butter—based upon milk instead of water. Butter a bake-dish and fill it with alternate layers of the fish, sauce and grated cheese (very mild), using altogether about four tablespoonfuls of the latter, and cover the top with crumbs. Bake half an hour in a quick oven, and serve hot. Keep covered until ten minutes before serving, when brown.
Deviled halibut or cod
Pick cold, cooked fish into bits with a silver fork. Make a forcemeat of bread-crumbs, the yolks of two eggs run through colander or vegetable press, a tablespoonful of melted butter, one of minced parsley, a teaspoonful of onion juice, paprika and salt. Mix with the fish, wet up with oyster liquor and fill scallop shells with the mixture. Cover with fine crumbs, pepper and salt them, put a dot of butter upon each scallop and bake quickly to a light brown.
EGGS
Curried eggs
Boil seven eggs hard and throw into cold water to loosen the shells. Remove these without tearing or breaking the eggs, and cut round in slices nearly half an inch thick. Have ready in a saucepan a large cup of gravy from which the fat has been removed. Chicken gravy or stock is especially nice for this purpose. Season well with a teaspoonful of onion juice, half a cupful of strained tomato sauce, with pepper and salt. Boil up, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour and a teaspoonful of curry powder, and simmer together three minutes.
Arrange the sliced eggs upon a chafing-dish or hot-water dish, pour the curry sauce over them; set in the hot oven for three or four minutes, covered, to get heated through, and send to table in the hot-water dish.
Serve boiled rice with it.
Banana toast
Is a pleasing accompaniment to curried eggs.
Remove the crust from graham bread and cut it into thin slices. Spread one piece with thin slices of banana and lay another slice of bread upon this. Press the two pieces together that they may not fall apart, and toast quickly to a light brown. Keep hot in the oven until wanted, as these sandwiches are not good when cold.
Egg timbales
Beat six eggs light and stir into them a half-pint of rich milk, a pinch of soda and salt and white pepper to taste. Pour into greased muffin-pans; set these in an outer pan of boiling water, and bake until the egg is “set.” Turn the timbales out upon a platter and pour a rich brown sauce around them.
Baked omelet
Break five eggs, the whites and yolks separately. Soak the crumbs of a slice of white bread in a half-cupful of milk for ten minutes. Beat the yolks of the eggs thoroughly and whip the whites stiff. Stir the bread and milk into the yolks, add a teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of white pepper, and stir in the whites of the eggs lightly—just enough to mix them. Turn into a well-greased pudding-dish and bake in a quick oven. Do not let the omelet crust over too quickly, but put a piece of paper over the top for a few minutes. Uncover and brown.
Deviled eggs
Boil a dozen eggs hard, throw into cold water, and at the end of half an hour remove the shells. Cut the eggs carefully in half, extract the yolks and rub these to a paste with three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a half-teaspoonful of made mustard, a dash of paprika, two or three drops of Tabasco sauce, and salt to taste. Form this paste into balls, put the balls back into the halved whites and fit the whites into place. Run a wooden toothpick through the two halves of each egg to hold them together. Wrap every egg in waxed or tissue paper to keep it from becoming dry. Eat cold, with or without mayonnaise dressing.
Omelets cachés
Wash and wipe six large, smooth tomatoes of uniform size. Cut a piece from the blossom end of each and lay aside. Scoop out the pulp carefully, not to break the walls of the tomato. Set together in an open pudding-dish and put this into a brisk oven until the tomatoes are smoking-hot, but not until they break and collapse. Have ready the pulp you have extracted, minced and stewed, seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, a little onion juice and sugar. Drain off most of the juice. Beat four eggs light, add four tablespoonfuls of cream, a tablespoonful of butter heated to a roux with one of flour, mix quickly with three tablespoonfuls of the drained tomato, and fill the tomato shells with them. Fit on the tops and set in a shallow pan upon the top grating of a quick oven. Five minutes should cook them. Slip a spatula under each tomato, transfer to a hot platter and serve at once.
Pass thin slices of brown bread with them.
Chicken or turkey timbales
Boil eight eggs very hard and leave them in cold water for two or more hours. Take the shells off, cut in half, and extract the yolks. Chop the whites before running them through a vegetable press. Now mix with them four heaping tablespoonfuls of the breast of chicken or turkey minced as finely as possible; season with half a teaspoonful of onion juice, paprika and celery salt to taste, and mix to a white paste with the whites of three eggs beaten to a standing froth. Have ready enough buttered “nappies” or pâté pans to hold the mixture; fill them, set in a pan of hot water and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven.
Turn out upon a hot platter; pour a good white sauce about the base, heap a teaspoonful of the powdered yolks on the top of each and serve.
The yolks are prepared by running through a colander or, better still, a vegetable press.
Scallop of chicken and eggs
Strew fine, dry, buttered crumbs over the bottom of a buttered baking-dish, then put in a layer of cold, cooked chicken cut into small dice. Cook a teaspoonful of chopped onion in a tablespoonful of butter till slightly colored, add a cupful of milk, and when hot stir in half a cupful of dry bread-crumbs. Add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley and a little salt and paprika. Let it cool until blood-warm, then stir in two well-beaten eggs, and pour the mixture over the meat. Cover with fine crumbs. Place in the oven and bake, covered, half an hour. Serve in the dish in which it is baked.
A savory mince
Use any cold meat you have left over, except beef—poultry, lamb, veal, mutton, will do—and a little ham chopped and mixed with the other meat. Add one-third bread-crumbs soaked in stock or gravy and season well. Stir in a saucepan until very hot. Prepare “cups” of stale bread by cutting round, then with a smaller cutter marking out an inner circle, from which scrape out the bread, leaving bottom and sides whole. Dip these in a raw, sugarless custard made of a cupful of milk and two beaten eggs, and let each absorb all it will hold. Fry in hot cottolene or other fat to a light brown, drain, fill with the mince, which should be quite soft, drop a raw egg upon each, and set in the oven until the egg is “set.”
Larded sweetbreads (roasted)
Blanch the sweetbreads. With a sharp skewer make holes in them and run through these openings narrow strips of salt pork. Let the bits of pork project half an inch on each side. Lay the sweetbreads in a covered roaster, pour about them a pint of cleared and seasoned soup stock, cover closely and cook for an hour, then transfer to a hot dish. Thicken the gravy in the pan, season and pour it about the sweetbreads.
Larded sweetbreads (fried)
Prepare as in the last recipe, but instead of roasting dip in egg, then in crumbs; set on ice for an hour and fry in boiling butter.
Sweetbread pâtés
Make shells of rich puff paste, bake them, and fill, while hot, with a mixture made according to the following recipe:
Cut a pair of blanched sweetbreads into small dice. Cut ten canned mushrooms into quarters and mix them with the sweetbreads. Add eight blanched and chopped almonds and six olives cut into tiny pieces. Heat a cup of cream and thicken it with a teaspoonful of cornstarch rubbed into one of butter. When smooth and thick add the sweetbreads, olives, etc. If too thick now, thin the mixture with a little mushroom liquor. As soon as all the ingredients are heated through remove from the fire and turn into the shells.
Timbales of sweetbreads
Blanch and chop two pairs of sweetbreads until as fine as powder, then rub them very smooth with the back of a silver spoon. Work into this paste a gill of sweet cream and the beaten yolks of two eggs. Season with salt and white pepper, and beat long and hard. Butter small timbale molds or “nappies,” and pour the mixture into them. Set the molds in a pan of hot water and bake in a hot oven until “set.” Loosen the contents of the nappies with a sharp knife, and turn out the molds upon a hot dish. Pour a white sauce about them.
Sweetbreads en nid
Follow directions for larded sweetbreads, and keep hot. Make a “nest” for them of cold boiled ham shredded into bits hardly larger than coarse straw; cold roast chicken, turkey or veal, and cold boiled spaghetti in four-inch lengths. Arrange upon a hot platter to simulate a nest, pour a little scalding, well-seasoned gravy over them, and set the dish in a hot oven about five minutes. Have ready a large cupful of rich tomato sauce, strained and thickened with a roux of butter and flour, and seasoned with salt, paprika and onion juice. Lay the sweetbreads upon the “straw,” and pour the boiling tomato sauce over all.
A baked mince
Mix together two cupfuls of minced cold lamb, chicken or veal, one cupful of chopped ham and one cupful of fine bread-crumbs. Moisten thoroughly with well-seasoned soup stock. Turn into a greased bake-dish and set in the oven until heated through. Break upon the top of the mince as many eggs as will lie side by side on it, sprinkle with salt and pepper, return to the oven and bake until the whites are set and firm. Send to table in a pudding-dish.
Curried beef
Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan and cook in it for five minutes an onion, sliced. Remove the onion, and stir into the melted butter two tablespoonfuls of browned flour, mixed with a tablespoonful of curry powder. Cook until they bubble, then pour on them a pint of beef stock. Stir until you have a thick, brown sauce. Season with salt and mix with it two cupfuls of cold roast beef cut into dice. Toss and stir until the meat is heated through. Have ready on a platter a hollowed mold of boiled rice, and pour the meat and sauce in the center and about the base of this.
Curried veal
Cut three pounds of lean veal into dice an inch square. Fry a sliced onion in two tablespoonfuls of butter until it begins to color. Strain out the onion; heat the butter to hissing, put in the meat cubes and shake over the coals until heated through and slightly browned. Turn the contents of the frying-pan into a pot, rinsing out the pan with a cupful of boiling water, just enough to cover the meat. Sprinkle over all three tablespoonfuls of finely-minced salt pork and some chopped parsley, cover closely and stew gently for two hours, or until the veal is tender. Drain the meat free from gravy in a colander and keep hot over boiling water. Return the gravy to the fire; add salt if necessary. Have ready in a cup a great spoonful of browned flour, wet to a paste with cold water. When smooth, add a teaspoonful of curry, and stir in well before adding both to the hot gravy. As it begins to boil put in the meat; cook gently (covered) ten minutes, and serve.
Always serve boiled rice with curry, the same person helping both. A large spoonful of the rice is put upon the heated plate, and the curry poured over it. Bananas that have been chilled upon the ice are a most grateful accompaniment to curry of any kind. One is given to each person, who peels and slices it with a silver knife.
Curried lamb or mutton
Make in the same way, substituting either of these meats for veal. If you like, stir a little currant jelly into the gravy.
Curried chicken
Joint the chicken as for frying, divide the breast and the back into two pieces, and proceed as with a curry of veal. It is particularly nice and popular with all who have been gently led on to appreciate a savory curry.
A “toss-up” of veal
Make a roux of one tablespoonful of butter and the same of flour; when very hot and bubbling, add a little onion juice, pepper and salt, four tablespoonfuls of hot milk (cream if you have it), with a pinch of soda heated in it; lastly, six tablespoonfuls of rich, strained tomato sauce. Stir in two cupfuls of cold veal, cut into dice, and the moment it begins to boil remove from the fire to a hot dish.
Mince of veal garnished with eggs
Make the mince as directed in foregoing recipe, but somewhat stiffer; season highly, bring to a boil and mold in the middle of a hot platter. Against this hillock of mince lay fried eggs, neatly trimmed, and outside of these curled strips of fried breakfast bacon. This dish will be much improved by the addition of half a can of mushrooms, minced fine.
Mince of lamb and rice
This is very much like the mince just described, the main difference being that a cupful of cold boiled rice and a green sweet pepper minced fine are added to the meat and tomato sauce. You may also substitute poached eggs for fried, and ham for bacon.
Any of the dishes just mentioned make savory a plain family luncheon, and may be easily prepared at little expense by the housewife who keeps a bright lookout for available “left-overs.”
An Italian hotch-potch
which became a favorite with us under the general name of “Frittura” during the winters we spent in Florence.
I suppose that it was a weekly clearing-house for all manner of leavings from roast and boiled meats, but it was good! Calf’s and poultry livers; cold mutton, lamb and veal; calf’s brains; now and then oysters; small artichokes; sprigs of cauliflower; potatoes; celery—all cooked, cut into small pieces, seasoned, rolled in flour, next in egg, again in flour, and fried; first the meat, then the vegetables, in boiling oil, and drained,—were duly sorted, but served upon one and the same dish—very hot.
Stew of mutton and peas
Cut three pounds of lean mutton into dice. In a pot fry six slices of fat salt pork; when crisp, remove them with a skimmer and lay in the grease the mutton, dredged with flour and half an onion sliced. Cook for five minutes, then cover with cold water and simmer until the meat is very tender. Remove the meat, lay it on a platter, sprinkle with salt and pepper and keep it hot while you thicken the gravy in the pot with a brown roux, and season it to taste with a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet and salt and pepper to taste. Now add the contents of a can of peas. These peas should have been drained and exposed to the air for an hour. Bring the stew to a boil, cook for five minutes, return the meat to the pot for a minute, then pour all into the hot platter.
Mince turnovers
Two cupfuls of flour, sifted twice with one rounded teaspoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt. Chop into it two tablespoonfuls of butter, and wet up with a cupful of milk, quickly and lightly. Roll into a sheet less than a quarter-inch thick, and this into squares about six inches across. Put into the middle of each square a large tablespoonful of minced poultry, veal, ham or lamb—or a mixture of these well-seasoned and wet with gravy. Double the paste into a triangle, enfolding the meat; pinch or print the edges to hold them together, and bake.
They are good hot or cold.
Beef with sauce piquante
Cut slices from yesterday’s roast of beef, mutton or veal. Put into a saucepan three tablespoonfuls of butter, a teaspoonful of vinegar, a half-teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet, a tablespoonful of tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of made mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir these ingredients well together and lay the sliced meat into the sauce thus prepared. Turn the meat over and over until heated through, and serve with the sauce poured over it.
Larded beef
With a sharp knife make through a round of beef incisions an inch apart. Into the holes thus made stick long strips of fat salt pork. Rub the meat with a dressing made of equal parts of oil and vinegar, seasoned with salt and pepper. Let the meat lie in this for eight hours. Put the meat into a covered roaster, pour a pint of beef stock around it and roast for four hours. Set away in the gravy with a weight on the top. When cold, slice very thin and serve.
Beef loaf
Mix together three pounds of chopped raw beef, one-quarter of a pound of minced salt pork, one cup of cracker dust, two teaspoonfuls, each, of salt and pepper, and moisten all with two beaten eggs and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Work in two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, and pack in a greased mold. Cover; set in a roasting-pan of boiling water, and cook in a steady oven for two hours. Let the loaf get cold in the mold before turning out.
Veal loaf
Chop two pounds of cold cooked veal very fine, and work into it a teaspoonful, each, of salt, pepper and onion juice, a dozen chopped olives and as many minced mushrooms. Wet with a half-pint of veal or chicken stock. Pack in a greased mold and cook as in the preceding recipe. Have the loaf very cold before turning it out.
Pressed veal
Boil two pounds of lean veal in enough water to cover it. When cold, remove the meat from the liquor, skim the grease from the latter and chop the meat fine. To the chopped veal add a cupful of minced boiled ham and two hard-boiled eggs, chopped. Season the veal liquor with celery salt, pepper, a little tomato catsup and a dash of nutmeg. Make the chopped meat very moist with this liquor and press the mass hard into a buttered mold. Cover and set in the oven for half an hour. Remove from the oven; keep in a cool place for twenty-four hours, and turn from the mold upon a chilled platter.
Jellied tongue
Boil a tongue, and when cold place it in a brick-shaped mold. Into a pint of seasoned and heated beef stock stir a half-box of soaked gelatine, and when this is dissolved pour the stock around the tongue in the mold. When cool, set on the ice until the jelly is very firm. Turn out on a cold platter.
Jellied chicken
Boil a chicken the day before it is to be used. When the liquor is cold skim from it every bit of fat.
Soak a half-cup of gelatine in a cup of cold water for two hours. Remove all skin from the chicken and cut the meat into neat dice. Cut two dozen canned French mushrooms into halves. Stone and halve one dozen large olives.
Bring to a boil and strain a pint of the chicken liquor; stir into it the soaked gelatine, and set aside to cool. As it begins to thicken prepare your chicken loaf in the following manner: In a buttered mold lay a stratum of the chicken, sprinkle with pepper and salt, and a few halved olives and mushrooms, pour upon this the thickening, but still liquid, jelly. Then add more chicken, mushrooms and olives; pour upon them more jelly, and proceed in this manner until the mold is full. Set in a cool place for twenty-four hours before using. Lay a warm cloth for a moment about the mold, then invert it upon a chilled platter. This loaf is delicious served with lettuce and mayonnaise.
Beefsteak and sherry sauce
Broil a porterhouse steak over a clear fire until done. Lay on a hot platter. Make a sauce of a cupful of beef bouillon, thickened with a tablespoonful of brown roux, and when this is smooth add to it a wineglassful of sherry, a tablespoonful of onion juice and a half-cupful of French mushrooms, cut in half. Boil up once and pour over the steak.
Mock roast chicken
Boil and chop fine the giblets from three chickens saved from roast or fricassee. Trim the fat from a good-sized, but not thick, round steak. Make a forcemeat in the following manner:
Mix together the chopped chicken giblets, two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, and a half-cupful of fine bread-crumbs. Moisten all with chicken stock. Lay the steak upon the table, cover thickly with the forcemeat and roll it up, as you would a sheet of music, tying it in shape with stout strings. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan and cook the steak in this just long enough to brown it lightly. Remove the meat from the pan and put over the fire in a large pot. Add to the fat in the pan a tablespoonful of browned flour and pour upon it two cups of chicken stock. Stir to a smooth sauce, season to taste and pour over the steak in the pot. Cover closely and simmer for an hour and a half. Transfer the meat to a hot platter, remove the string, and pour the sauce over it.
Stewed rump steak
Trim the fat from the edge of a thick rump steak, and put the steak over the fire in a large pot. Pour over it a cup of cold water, cover closely and set at the side of the range, where it will simmer for three-quarters of an hour after it reaches the boil. Remove the meat from the pot and transfer to a baking-pan; season the gravy and pour it over the top, and cook for fifteen minutes longer, basting three times during the process. Remove the steak to a hot platter and set in the open oven while you add to the gravy a cup of soup stock and thicken it with a little browned flour rubbed to a paste with a spoonful of butter. Season with kitchen bouquet, celery salt and a half-teaspoonful of good sauce. Add a dozen canned mushrooms cut in half. Cook one minute and pour over the steak.
Rump steak and tomatoes
With a sharp carving-knife split a thick rump steak, thus making two thin steaks. Spread the lower half of this with bits of butter, a little minced ham and a cupful of tomatoes. (Use the canned tomatoes, straining off the juice and using it for the sauce.) Lay the upper half of the steak, sandwich-wise, upon the lower, and fasten the two together with small, stout skewers. Lay the meat in a covered roasting-pan, dash a cup of boiling water over it, and cook, allowing twenty minutes to each pound. Transfer to a hot dish, remove the skewers and pour over the steak a savory tomato sauce.
Mutton mince with tomatoes
Make three cups of good tomato sauce thickened with a heaping teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Keep hot in a double boiler set at the side of range.
Toast slices of bread, butter, spread on a platter, and put a tablespoonful of tomato sauce on each. Into the remainder of the tomato sauce turn two cupfuls of minced mutton, put the saucepan over the fire, stir until the meat is thoroughly heated, season to taste and pour upon the toast.
Porterhouse steak with oysters
Broil a fine tender steak on both sides and transfer it to a hot dish. Pepper and salt well, then rub into the steak a mixture of butter rubbed to a cream with the juice of half a lemon.
Put one pint of oysters into a saucepan without any of the liquor. Stir until the edges ruffle, add one tablespoonful of butter creamed with an equal amount of flour and cooked to a roux. Pour over the hot steak and serve at once.
Savory stew of beef
Cut two pounds of raw lean beef into very small strips, almost like straws, with a keen blade. Put into a saucepan; cover with cold weak stock, or, if you have none, with cold water, and cook slowly two hours. Put into another saucepan a cupful of rich brown stock, one small onion chopped fine, a little grated nutmeg, cayenne pepper and the juice of half a lemon; boil these ingredients a few minutes and mix with the beef, adding a little browned flour if necessary. Dish upon a hot platter, lay triangles of fried toast about the base, and serve.
Roulades of beef
Cut two pounds of lean steak into pieces about five inches long and half as wide, and less than half an inch thick. Make a forcemeat of cooked sausage, chopped fine, and mixed with one-fourth as much fine, buttered and seasoned bread-crumbs. Place two tablespoonfuls of this mixture on each piece of meat, roll them into the shape of a small cylinder, and sew both ends with fine thread. Let them brown in butter in a frying-pan, then put them into a saucepan with the juice of a lemon, two cupfuls of brown stock, a carrot and an onion, sliced, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover closely, and cook for two hours. Transfer to a hot platter, clip and draw out the thread; thicken the gravy left in the saucepan with browned flour, add a little Worcestershire sauce and a glass of sherry; boil up once and pour over the roulades.
How to use up the cold tongue
Cut cold boiled beef-tongue into dice. Make a roux in a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same amount of flour, salt, pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Add a cupful of strained tomato. Simmer slowly for ten minutes. Strain, return to the saucepan, lay in the tongue and let it stand where it will keep hot without boiling for five minutes. Serve in a hot platter.
This is still better if made of fresh beef’s tongue.
Galantine
Cut a strip of lean veal from the loin or the breast, about six inches wide and twice as long. Prepare a forcemeat of cooked ham, chopped mushrooms, any scraps of poultry you may have, the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, one-third as much crumbs as you have meat, season with paprika and grated onion.
Lay this forcemeat in the center of the veal, roll up carefully, wrap in cheese-cloth and sew up closely. Lay it in a plate in a kettle, cover with cold water, add one-half teaspoonful of salt, one bay leaf and a sprig of thyme, cover and boil for fifteen minutes. Then put it at one side of the fire where it can only simmer for two hours. When done set aside, with a plate upon it and a heavy weight upon the plate, until next day. Clip the threads, unwrap the meat and serve, garnished with cress and nasturtiums. Cut perpendicularly.
Chipped smoked beef
Shred the beef into thin straws. Make a white sauce, lay in the beef and simmer for five minutes. Then stir in a beaten egg, a little onion juice and pepper. Stir until the egg is set, and serve upon toast.
Brains on toast
Scald and blanch the brains, beat smooth, add three eggs and beat hard. Have ready a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan hissing hot; turn in the mixture and stir steadily for three minutes. Serve upon rounds of toast.
Baked calf’s liver (larded)
Lard with strips of fat salt pork, inserted perpendicularly. The lardoons should project on both sides. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with minced pork, place the liver on it; add a carrot, two small onions, a half-dozen stalks of celery, all chopped fine; the juice of a lemon and a quart of strong stock; cover the saucepan and bake slowly for two hours and a half, basting often with the liquor in the pan. When done remove the liver, and put into the oven for a few minutes to brown; make a rich gravy of the remainder of the gravy in the pan; put the liver in the center of the dish, strain the sauce and pour over it.
Mock pâté de foie gras
When poultry is in full season and the weather is cold, save the giblets from half a dozen fowls, boiling them, salting slightly to keep them and setting them in a cold place. When you have enough, chop them, rejecting tough portions, and run through a vegetable press. Work to a smooth paste with melted butter, season with paprika, salt, and a dash of onion juice. Pack down in small jars, pour melted butter over the top, and keep in a cool, dry place. If you will boil a few mushrooms in salted water, strain, cut them into coarse dice and intersperse throughout the paste, you will have a veritable imitation of the famous Strasburg pâtés.
You may substitute calf’s, lamb’s or pig’s liver for those of fowls if you can not get the latter.
Savory ham
Fry slices of boiled ham on both sides. Transfer to a hot dish. Cook together in a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of vinegar, a teaspoonful of granulated sugar, a teaspoonful of French mustard, and a dash of paprika. Stir until very hot, and pour over the fried ham.
Cottage pie
(Contributed)
Chop cold meat very fine. To each cupful add one saltspoonful of salt and one-and-a-half saltspoonfuls of pepper, a pinch of summer savory and one-half cupful of stock. Put into a baking dish and cover with a crust of mashed potatoes. Brush over the top with milk and bake in an oven to a golden brown.