Parboil them as just explained. Just before serving, cut them in even-sized pieces, sprinkle over pepper and salt, egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in hot lard. They are often immersed in boiling lard, yet oftener fried in the sauté pan. If sautéd, when done put them on a hot dish, turn out part of the lard from the sauté pan, leaving about half a tea-spoonful; pour in a cupful of milk thickened with a little flour; let it cook, stirring it constantly, and season it with pepper and salt; strain, and pour over the sweet-breads. With green pease, serve without sauce. This is the usual combination at dinner or breakfast companies, the pease in the centre of the dish, and the sweet-breads around (see cut above). Or they are often served whole with cauliflower or asparagus heads, when the cream-sauce is poured over both; or they are also nice piled in the centre of a dish, with macaroni (cooked with cheese) placed around them like a nest, and browned a little with a salamander (see cut on next page), or with a tomato-sauce in the centre of the dish, and the sweet-breads around, or with stuffed tomatoes alternating with the sweet-breads on the dish, or with mushrooms in the centre, or served on a dish made of boiled rice, called a rice casserole (see page 205), or in little rice molds called cassolettes. To make the latter, boil the rice well, then work it to a smooth paste with a spoon; fill some little buttered patty-pans with the rice, and when it is quite cold take it out, brush the cassolettes with butter on the outside, and color them a little in a hot oven; scoop out the inside, leaving the rice crust a quarter of an inch thick. Fill the cassolettes with the sweet-breads cut into pieces, and pour over each a spoonful of cream dressing; or they may be sautéd as described, and served with a maître-d’hôtel sauce poured over.
Sweet-breads à la Milanaise.
Sweet-breads fried as in preceding receipt are placed in the centre of a hot platter. Small piped macaroni broken into two or three inch lengths is cooked with tomatoes as in receipt (see page 210), and neatly arranged in a circle around them.
Sweet-breads Larded and Braised (English Lady).
Trim all the skin and cartilage very carefully from two fine sweet-breads; lay them in cold water for an hour, and lard them; lay some slices of bacon in the bottom of a braising-pan, or any pan with a good cover (Francatelli would add also minced onions, carrots, celery, and parsley; however, they are quite good enough without); then put in sweet-breads, with slices of bacon between the pan and the sweet-breads; pour over all some stock, just high enough not to touch the larding, which must stand up free; let it simmer very gently for half or three-quarters of an hour. Look at it occasionally to see that the stock does not waste; add a little if it does. When done, hold a salamander or a hot kitchen shovel over the sweet-breads until they are a pale-yellow color on top. Serve these with tomato-sauce poured in the centre of the dish. The whole dish should look moist, the sweet-breads nearly white, and the larding transparent, standing up distinct and firm, like glass, white at the bottom, and pale-yellow on top.
Baked Sweet-breads (New York Cooking-school).
Put a pair of sweet-breads on the fire in one quart of cold water, in which are mixed one tea-spoonful of salt and one table-spoonful of vinegar. When the water boils, take them off, and throw them into cold water, leaving them until they get cold; now lard them with lardoons about one-eighth of an inch square and two inches long. Chop rather fine one-third of a medium-sized onion (one ounce), four or five slices of carrot (one and a half ounces), half a stalk of celery, and one sprig of parsley. Put in the bottom of a baking-dish trimmings of pork; on this place the sweet-breads, and sprinkle the chopped vegetables over the top; bake them twenty minutes in a hot oven. Cut a slice of bread into an oval or any fancy shape, and fry it in a sauté pan in a little hot butter, coloring it well; put this croûton in the centre of a hot platter, on which place the sweet-breads. Serve pease or tomato-sauce around.
Sweet-bread Fritters.
Parboil the sweet-breads as before explained, and cut them into slices about half an inch thick; then sprinkle over them pepper and salt, a little grated nutmeg, some finely chopped parsley, and a few drops of lemon-juice; dip them each into French fritter batter (see page 229); fry them a moment in boiling-hot lard. Always test the lard before frying by putting in a piece of bread or a bit of the batter; if it turns yellow readily, it is hot enough. Drain them well; pile them on a napkin neatly arranged on a platter; garnish them with fried parsley, i. e., parsley thrown into the lard, and skimmed out almost immediately.
Sweet-bread Croquettes (New York Cooking-school).
After two pairs of sweet-breads are blanched (boiled in salted water as described), cut them into dice; cut also half a box (four ounces) of mushrooms into dice. Make a roux by putting one and a half ounces of butter into a saucepan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in two ounces of flour; mix and cook it well; then pour in a gill of strong stock or cream; when this is also mixed, add the dice, which stir over the fire until they are thoroughly heated; take them from the fire, add the beaten yolks of two eggs, which return to the fire a moment to set, without allowing to boil. When cool, form into croquettes; roll them first in cracker-crumbs, then in egg, then in cracker-crumbs again, and fry them in boiling lard.
The croquettes may be cone-shaped, with a stick of parsley or celery pressed in the top for a stem just before serving; or the sweet-bread croquettes may be made in the same manner as chicken croquettes (French cook receipt), substituting sweet-breads for the chickens. They may be served alone, or with pease, or with tomato or Bechamel sauce, etc.
Skewer of Sweet-breads.
Parboil the sweet-breads as before described; cut them into slices or scollops about half an inch or more thick; sprinkle them with pepper and salt, and egg and bread-crumb them; now run a little skewer (see page 56) through two of these slices, alternating with two thin, square slices of bacon; fry in boiling lard; serve a tomato or cream sauce in the centre, and garnish with parsley. Serve one skewerful to each person at table.
MUTTON.
The best roasts are the leg, the saddle, and the shoulder of mutton. They are all roasted according to the regular rules for roasting. In England, mutton is hung some time before cooking. There must be something in the air of England quite different from that of America in reference to the hanging of meats and game; there, it is to be confessed, the mutton, after having hung a certain length of time, certainly is most delicious; here it would be unwholesome, simply not fit to eat. These joints of which I speak are also good braised. Serve currant-jelly-sauce with the roast, or garnish it with stuffed baked tomatoes.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.
This should be quite fresh. Put it into well-salted boiling water, which do not let stop boiling until the meat is thoroughly done. The rule is to boil it a quarter of an hour for each pound of meat. Caper-sauce should be served with this dish, either in a sauce-boat or poured over the mutton; garnish with parsley.
Mutton Cutlets.
Trim them well, scraping the bones; roll them in a little melted butter or oil, season, and broil them; or they are nice egged, bread-crumbed, and fried. They are especially nice when broiled, served around a bed of mashed boiled potatoes: the cutlets help to season the potatoes, which in turn well suit the meat. Tomato-sauce is also a favorite companion to the cutlets. They may, however, be served with almost any kind of vegetables, such as pease or string-beans, in the centre of the dish, and the cutlets arranged in a circle around.
Ragouts (made of Pieces of Mutton, Veal, Beef, or Rabbits).
Cut the upper parts, or the neck, from a fore-quarter of mutton (or take inferior cuts from any part) into pieces for a ragout; heat a heaping table-spoonful of drippings, or lard, in a saucepan, and when hot sauté in it the pieces of mutton (say two pounds) until they are almost done; take them out, put in a table-spoonful of flour, brown it, add at first a little cold or lukewarm water, mix it well, then add a quart of boiling water; now add also salt, Cayenne pepper, two cloves, the pieces of sautéd meat, three or four onions (not large), and six or seven peeled potatoes. Some prefer to boil the potatoes a few minutes in other water first, as the water in which potatoes are boiled is considered unwholesome; cover the stew-pan well. When the vegetables are cooked, take them and the meat out, skim off every particle of fat from the gravy, taste to see if it is properly seasoned, pour it over the ragout, and serve.
These ragouts can be made with the neck, or any pieces of veal, in the same manner, or with pieces of beef, in which case carrots might be substituted for the potatoes. A ragout of rabbits is most excellent made in the same way, adding a glassful of red wine when it is almost done.
In buying a fore quarter of mutton, there are enough trimmings for a good ragout, with a shapely roast besides.
Another Ragout (of Pieces of Mutton, Veal, Beef, etc.).
Make rich pie-paste about the size of an egg (for four persons); roll it a quarter of an inch thick; cut it into diamonds, say an inch long and half an inch broad. Bake them, and put them aside until five minutes before serving the ragout. Take mutton, veal, beef, or almost any kind of meat. Any cheap cut of meat will make a good ragout, and choice cuts had better be cooked in other ways. In this instance, I will say, cut two pounds from the side of mutton. Put a table-spoonful of lard or drippings into a saucepan, and when hot sauté in it the pieces of mutton; when half done, place them in a kettle. Add a heaping table-spoonful of flour to the drippings in the saucepan; stir it constantly several minutes to brown, then add gradually a pint of hot water; now pour this over the meat in the kettle, adding three small onions, two sprigs of parsley, three cloves, and a clove or bulb of garlic, if you have it; pepper and salt. Cover it closely, and let it simmer slowly for an hour, occasionally turning the kettle to one side to skim off all the fat. Five minutes before serving, add the diamonds of crust.
At the moment of serving, take out the meat, crust, and three onions, and arrange them on a hot platter. Pass the gravy through a sieve, and skim off every remaining particle of fat; taste to see if it is properly seasoned with pepper and salt, and pour it over the meat.
Sheep’s Tongues, with Spinach.
Braise a number of sheep’s-tongues with salt pork, parsley, onion, some whole peppers, a tea-spoonful of sugar, and enough stock to cover them. Let them simmer one and a half hours. Serve with spinach in the centre of the dish, and seasoned with lemon-juice, a little of the tongue stock, some Cayenne pepper, salt, and butter. Serve the tongues around it, and diamonds or fancy cuts of fried bread (croûtons) around the outside circle.
Sheep’s Tongues à la Mayonnaise.
Boil half a dozen sheep’s tongues with one or two slices of bacon, one carrot, one onion, two cloves, two or three sprigs of parsley, salt and pepper (some add two table-spoonfuls of sherry or port wine, but this may be omitted), and enough boiling water (or, better, stock) to cover them. Let them simmer about one and a half hours, replenishing the boiling water or the stock when necessary. When thoroughly done, skin and trim them neatly; lay them between two plates, to flatten them. A professional cook would glaze them with the stock boiled down in which they were cooked; however, this is only for the sake of appearance. Arrange them in a circle around a dish, with a Mayonnaise sauce poured in the centre.
Sheep’s Tongues, with Sauce Tartare.
Boil the tongues in salted water into which has been squeezed the juice of half a lemon (for six tongues). Serve with sauce Tartare (see page 128).
LAMB.
The best roasts are the fore and hind quarters.
Roast Leg of Lamb.
Professional cooks serve a roast or baked hind quarter of lamb rather rare, or well done on the outside and pink within. It is really better, although it must be served steaming hot. Serve a caper, pickle, or mint sauce with it. If it is neatly carved through the centre, it will present a good appearance served again the next day, by stuffing the cut-out space with boiled mashed potatoes, smoothing it evenly around, and placing it long enough in the oven to become thoroughly hot.
Roast Fore Quarter of Lamb.
This may or may not be partly stuffed, a common veal stuffing answering the purpose very well. It should be well seasoned with pepper and salt, thoroughly cooked, and often basted.
Lamb Chops.
This is a favorite dinner-company dish, generally arranged in a circle around green pease. They should be neatly trimmed, the bones scraped, then rolled in a little melted butter, and carefully broiled. When done, rub more butter over them, and season them with pepper and salt. Slip little paper ruffles (see page 61) over the ends of the bones. They may be served with a centre of almost any kind of vegetable, such as a smooth hemisphere of mashed potatoes or spinach, or with beans, cauliflowers or stuffed baked tomatoes, or with a tomato-sauce.
Saddle of Lamb or Mutton.
This is considered a delicate roast. Roast it in the usual manner. Serve caper, mint, or any of the sauces or vegetables that are used with other dishes of lamb or mutton.
Lamb Croquettes
are made the same as chicken croquettes, only substituting cold cooked lamb for the chicken. Many prefer the lamb to the chicken croquettes, even for dinner or lunch parties.
Sheep’s Kidneys.
The best manner of cooking is to sauté them. They must be perfectly fresh (they spoil soon), sautéd on a quick fire, never allowed to boil in the sauce (this would spoil the gravy), and served with a little wine in the sauce.
First cut them into slices; season, and sauté them in a little hot suet, clarified drippings, or butter. When done, put them on a hot plate. Now take a second stew-pan, put in a piece of butter the size of a large hickory-nut; when it is hot, throw in a tea-spoonful of minced onion, two sprigs of parsley, minced also, and a tea-spoonful of flour; when they become red, pour in one and a half cupfuls of hot water or stock. Let it simmer a few moments, then season with pepper and salt, and strain it; now add a table-spoonful of sherry or port wine, and the pieces of kidney. A few drops of lemon-juice may or may not be added. Let the kidney remain a few moments in the sauce without boiling, and serve. Professional cooks generally add minced mushrooms; but the dish is quite good enough without them.
PORK.
A little salted pork or bacon should always be kept in the house. I confess to having a decided prejudice against this meat, considering it unwholesome and dangerous, especially in cities, unless used in the smallest quantities. Yet pork makes a delicious flavoring for cooking other meats, and thin, small slices of breakfast bacon are a relishing garnish for beefsteak, veal cutlets, liver, etc. In the country, perhaps, there is less cause for doubt about its use, where the animal is raised with corn, and where much outdoor life will permit the taking of stronger food.
To Cure Bacon.
For every three hundred pounds of pork use fourteen pounds of common salt, and one pound each of brown sugar and saltpetre. Rub them into the meat, and let it lie for three weeks, rubbing and turning it occasionally. Then wipe dry, rub again with dry fine salt, wrap it in a thick cloth (canvas) or paper, and hang it in a cool, dry place.
Roast Little Pig.
I trust entirely to the following receipt. Any one who fancies can cook a little pig, not I.
The pig should be three weeks old, well cleaned, and stuffed with a dressing of this proportion: Two large onions, four times the quantity of bread-crumbs, three tea-spoonfuls of chopped sage, two ounces of butter, half a salt-spoonful of pepper, one salt-spoonful of salt, and one egg. Or it may be filled with a veal force-meat stuffing, if preferred; or, it may be stuffed with hot mashed potatoes. Sew it together with a strong thread, trussing its fore legs forward and its hind legs backward. Rub the pig with butter, flour, pepper, and salt. Roast it at first before a very slow fire, as it should be thoroughly done; or, if it is baked, the oven should not be too hot at first. Baste it very often. When done (in about three hours), place a cob or a potato in the mouth, having put something in at first to keep it open. Serve it with apple-sauce or tomato-sauce.
Roast Pork.
The roasting pieces are the spare rib, the leg, the loin, the saddle, the fillet, and the shoulder. They may be stuffed with a common well-seasoned sage stuffing. The skin, if left on, should be cut in lines forming little squares; if the skin is taken off, sprinkle a little pounded sage over all, and put over it a buttered paper. Be careful, in roasting pork, to put the meat far enough from the fire at first, as it must be thoroughly done. The rule for the time of roasting pork is twenty minutes for each pound. Baste it at first with butter, and afterward with its own drippings. A roast loin of pork is very nice (allowing it to remain well sprinkled with salt an hour or two before roasting) served with cabbage cooked with a little vinegar, or served with sauer-krout.
Broiled Pork Cutlets (Dubois).
Take a fresh neck of pork (free from fat); shorten the bones of the ribs, and remove those of the chine; cut six cutlets off each neck, taking them a little obliquely; trim them, season, and roll them in melted butter and bread-crumbs. Broil them. Pour into a stew-pan four or five table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and double its volume of stock or gravy; let it boil, and thicken it with a little flour. Pass it through a sieve, and add to it pepper and some spoonfuls of chopped pickles. Dish the cutlets in a circle, and pour over them the sauce; or pork cutlets may be fried or sautéd in a stew-pan, in a little hot lard, and served with the same sauce.
Pork and Beans.
Soak a quart of beans overnight. The next day boil them with a sliced onion, one large onion to a quart of beans (they will not taste of the onion), and when they are almost done, put them into a baking-dish, taking out the onions. Almost bury in the centre of the beans a quarter of a pound of salt pork; pour in some of the water in which the beans were boiled, and bake about an hour.
Another way is to omit the onions, and after parboiling the beans put them into the bake-pan with one large spoonful of molasses and a quarter of a pound of pork, and bake them two hours.
Boston Baked Beans.
Put one and one-half pints of medium-sized navy beans into a quart bean-pot; fill it with water, and let it stand overnight. In the morning, pour off the water, and cover the beans with fresh water in which is mixed one table-spoonful of molasses. Put a quarter of a pound of pickled pork in the centre, leaving a quarter of an inch of pork above the beans. Bake them eight hours with a steady fire, and, without stirring the beans, add a cupful of hot water every hour but the last two. Earthen pots with narrow mouths are made expressly for baking beans. Cooking them in this manner, without first boiling them, renders each bean perfectly whole and at the same time thoroughly cooked. When done, place the pork in the centre of a platter, with the beans around it.
Entrée of Apples and Pork.
Cut sour apples (pippins) into slices without skinning them; fry or sauté them with small strips of pork. Serve both, tastefully arranged, on the same dish.
Sausages (Warne).
“Two pounds and a half of pork, fat and lean mixed (three times as much lean as fat), one ounce of fine salt, a quarter of a pound of pepper, two tea-spoonfuls of powdered sage, a quarter of a tea-spoonful of allspice, and a quarter of a tea-spoonful of cloves. Chop the meat as fine as possible: there are machines for the purpose. Mix the seasoning well through the whole; pack the sausage-meat down hard in stone jars, which should be kept in a cool place, well covered. When wanted for use, form them into little cakes, dip them in beaten egg, then in wheat flour, and fry them in hot lard.”
Always serve apple-sauce with pork sausages. Two dishes never suited better. For breakfast, it would be well to have a centre of apple-sauce on a platter, with sausages around, or vice versâ. They are a fine garnish for a roast turkey.
It is said that sausages will keep forever, by frying them and putting them in little jars, with a cover of hot lard.
To Cure Hams (Mrs. Lestlie).
For one hundred pounds of fine pork take seven pounds of coarse salt, five pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of soda, and four gallons of water. Boil all together, and skim the pickle when cold. Pour it on the meat, which should first be rubbed all over with red pepper. Let hams and tongues remain in the pickle eight weeks. Before they are smoked, hang them up, and dry them two or three days. Then sew the hams in cases.
To Boil Ham.
If it is quite salt, let it soak twenty-four hours. Cut off the end of the knuckle-bone; put it into a pot with cold water at the back of the range to simmer slowly for eight hours; then take it off the fire, and let it remain in the water until nearly cold; then peel off the skin carefully, make spots at uniform distances with pepper, and wind fringed paper around the bone. Mrs. Lestlie boils her hams with a bed of hay in the bottom of the pot. Some sprinkle grated bread or crackers over the ham when trimmed, and brown it in the oven; others brush it thickly over with glaze. However well cooked, it would be utterly ruined if it were not cut into thin, neat slices for eating.
Ham and Eggs.
The ham, cut into thin slices, can be broiled or sautéd. If broiled, spread over a little butter when cooked. The eggs can be fried; but they are more wholesome poached in salted water. In both cases they should be carefully cooked, neatly trimmed, and an egg served on each slice of ham.
To Fry or Sauté Ham.
The ham should be cut into thin, neat slices, and sautéd only for a minute in a hot sauté pan. If it is much more than thoroughly heated, it will become tough and dry.
Pork Fried in Batter, or Egged and Bread-crumbed.
Roll very thin slices of breakfast bacon or fat pork in fritter batter, or egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in boiling lard. Serve on toast or fried mush as a dish by itself, or as a garnish for beefsteak, fried chickens, breaded chops, etc.
Mrs. Trowbridge’s Breakfast-bacon Dish.
Soak slices of bacon or pork in milk for fifteen minutes; then dip them into flour, and fry them in the sauté pan. When done, sauté some slices of potato in the same hot fat, and serve them in the centre of a hot dish, with a circle of the slices of pork around them.
Rashers of Pork (to serve with Beefsteak, Roast Beef, etc.).
Breakfast bacon should be cut very thin (one-eighth of an inch thick), and in strips three or four inches long. It should be fried in the sauté pan only long enough to become transparent, or thoroughly hot; if cooked crisp, it is ruined. The French usually serve these strips of bacon laid over beefsteak, roast beef, game, etc.
Sandwiches (Mrs. Geo. H. Williams), No. 1.
Cut some fresh bread very thin, and of square equal shapes. Chop some cold boiled ham very fine, and mix with it the yolks of one or two uncooked eggs, a little pepper and mustard. Spread some of this mixture over the buttered slices of bread; roll them, pinching each roll at the end to keep it in shape.
If there is difficulty in cutting fresh bread, use that which is a day old, then cut it in very thin slices, buttering it on the loaf before it is cut; cut the slices into little even squares or diamonds (the crust being all removed), spread with the chopped ham mixture before mentioned, and fit two squares together.
Sandwiches (New York Cooking-school), No. 2.
Chop fine half a pound of boiled ham, and season it with one table-spoonful of olive-oil, one table-spoonful of lemon-juice, a little cayenne or mustard, and rub it through a sieve. Butter the bread on the loaf before cutting it, and spread the ham between the slices.
Small Rolls, with Salad Filling.
Cut off a little piece of the top of a French roll, and remove carefully the crumb from the inside. Prepare a stuffing of cold chicken, tongue, and celery (cut in dice), mixed in Mayonnaise dressing, and fill the roll, covering the top with the small piece cut off.
This makes a very nice lunch dish, or a lunch for traveling. The rolls may be filled with cold cooked lobster, cut into little dice, and covered with a Mayonnaise dressing.
POULTRY.
If care is taken in picking and dressing fowls or birds, there is no need of washing them. In France it is never done, unless there is absolutely something to wash off; then it is done as delicately as possible. In expostulating once with an old negro auntie for soaking all the blood and flavor out of a fowl, she quickly replied, “Bless my soul, child! haven’t I cooked chickens for fifty years?”
When you buy a goose or a duck, be sure that it is young. Never buy an old duck. The first I ever bought were from a penful at market. I thought myself very clever in choosing the largest, all being one price; not so clever at dinner, when my husband tried to carve those tough and aged drakes.
Roast Turkey.
The secret in having a good roast turkey is to baste it often, and to cook it long enough. A small turkey of seven or eight pounds (the best selection if fat) should be roasted or baked three hours at least. A very large turkey should not be cooked a minute less than four hours; an extra hour is preferable to a minute less. If properly basted, they will not become dry.
With much experience in hotel life, where turkeys are ruined by the wholesale, I have never seen a piece of turkey that was fit to eat. Besides being tasteless, they are almost invariably undercooked. First, then, after the turkey is dressed, season it well, sprinkling pepper and salt on the inside; stuff it, and tie it well in shape; either lard the top or lay slices of bacon over it; wet the skin, and sprinkle it well with pepper, salt, and flour. It is well to allow a turkey to remain some time stuffed before cooking. Pour a little boiling water into the bottom of the dripping-pan. If it is to be roasted, do not put it too near the coals at first, until it gets well heated through; then gradually draw it nearer. The excellence of the turkey depends much upon the frequency of basting it; occasionally baste it with a little butter, oftener with its own drippings. Just before taking it from the fire or out of the oven, put on more melted butter, and sprinkle over more flour; this will make the skin more crisp and brown. While the turkey is cooking, boil the giblets well; chop them fine, and mash the liver. When the turkey is done, put it on a hot platter. Put the baking-pan on the fire, dredge in a little flour, and when cooked stir in a little boiling water or stock; strain it, skim off every particle of fat; add the giblets; season with salt and pepper. If chestnut stuffing is used, add some boiled chestnuts to the gravy; this is decidedly the best sauce for a turkey. Besides the gravy, always serve cranberry (see receipt, page 204), currant, or plum jelly with turkey. These are more attractive molded the day before they are served. The currant or plum jelly is melted and remolded in a pretty form. Roast turkeys are often garnished with little sausage-balls.
Stuffing for Baked Turkey, Chicken, Veal, and Lamb (New York Cooking-school).
Soak half a pound of bread (with the crust cut off) in tepid water, then squeeze it dry. Put three ounces of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot stir in a small onion minced (one and a half ounces), which color slightly; then add the bread, with three table-spoonfuls of parsley (half an ounce) chopped fine, half a tea-spoonful of powdered thyme, a little grated nutmeg, pepper, salt, and a gill of stock. Stir it over the fire until it leaves the bottom and sides; then mix in two eggs.
Stuffing for Roast Turkeys, Chickens, Ducks, and Geese.
The commonest stuffing is this: Two onions, five ounces of soaked and squeezed bread, eight sage leaves, an ounce of butter, pepper, salt, one egg, a little piece of pork minced. Mince the onions, and fry them in the sauté pan before adding them to the other ingredients. Some chopped celery is always a good addition.
Chestnut, Potato, Veal, and Oyster Stuffings.
The chestnut stuffing is made by adding chestnuts to the ordinary stuffing. They are put on the fire in a saucepan or spider to burst the skins; they are then boiled in very salted water or stock; some are also put into the sauce. Or turkeys, etc., may be stuffed with boiled, mashed, and seasoned sweet-potatoes or Irish potatoes.
The great cooks make extra trouble and expense in preparing a force-meat stuffing of cold veal, cold ham, bacon, and a few bread-crumbs, mixed and seasoned with cayenne, salt, lemon-juice, summer savory, parsley, or any sweet herbs. Then they often add truffles cut into little balls; or, an oyster stuffing is made by merely adding plenty of whole oysters (not chopped) to the ordinary turkey bread stuffing. It should be well seasoned, or the oysters will taste insipid.
Boiled Turkey.
If a boiled turkey is not well managed, it will be quite tasteless. Choose a hen turkey. If not well trussed and tied, the legs and wings of a boiled fowl will be found pointing to all the directions of the compass. Cut the legs at the first joint and draw them into the body. Fasten the small ends of the wings under the back, and tie them securely with strong twine. Sprinkle over plenty of salt, pepper, and lemon-juice, and put it into boiling water. Boil it slowly two hours, or until quite tender. It is generally served in a bed of rice, with oyster, caper, cauliflower, parsley, or Hollandaise sauce. Pour part of the sauce over the turkey. Reserve the giblets for giblet soup. It can be stuffed or not, the same as for roasting.
Turkey or Chicken Hash
is made like beef hash, only substituting turkey or chicken for beef.
Turkey Braised.
If you have an old turkey unfit for roasting or boiling, braise it for four or five hours, adding a little wine (toward the last) to the stock, if you choose.
Turkey Galantine, or Boned Turkey.
Choose a fat hen turkey. When dressing it, leave the crop skin (the skin over the breast) whole; cut off the legs, wings, and neck. Now slit the skin at the back, and carefully remove it all around. Cut out the breasts carefully; cut them into little elongated pieces, about a quarter of an inch square and an inch long (parallelograms); or cut them any way you like. Season them with pepper, salt, a little nutmeg, mace, pounded cloves, sweet basil, and a little chopped parsley, all mixed. Now make a force-meat, with a pound and a quarter of lean veal or fresh pork, well freed from skin and gristle. Mix this with the meat of the turkey (all but the breasts); chop it well. Then chop an equal volume of fresh bacon, which mix with the other chopped meat: season this with the condiments last mentioned. Now pound it in a mortar to a paste. Cut one pound of truffles, half a pound of cooked pickled tongue, and half a pound of cooked fat bacon, into three-quarter-inch dice. Season these also.
Spread the turkey skin on a board. Make alternate layers on it, first of half of the force-meat, then half of the turkey breasts, then half of the dice of tongue, truffles, and bacon, then, turkey fillets and dice again: save some of the force-meat to put on the last layer. Now begin at one side and roll it over, giving it a round and long shape; sew up the skin; wrap it, pressing it closely in a napkin; tie it at the extremities, and also tie it across in two places, to keep it in an oval shape with round ends.
Boil the galantine gently for four hours in boiling water (or, better, in stock), with the bones of the turkey thrown in. At the end of that time, take the stew-pan off the fire. Let the galantine cool in the liquor one hour; then drain it, and put it on a dish with a seven-pound weight on it.
When cold, take the galantine out of the napkin; put it at the end of an open oven for some minutes to melt the fat, which wipe off with a cloth; glaze it, or sprinkle it with a little egg and fine bread-crumbs, and bake it a few minutes. It is, of course, to be sliced when eaten. It is generally served placed on a wooden standard, as described for a Mayonnaise of salmon.
A boned turkey, or galantine, is seen at almost all large parties. It is convenient to have one in the house, as it will keep for a long time, and is very nice for lunch or tea. It costs ten dollars to buy one, and about half of the amount to make it. Of course, it is some trouble to make; yet if one’s time is worth less than one’s money, there is plenty of time for the purpose, as it can be made three or four days before an entertainment. Chicken and game galantines are made in the same way. The figure on page 169 is a boned turkey or chicken prepared for boiling.
Mixed Spices for Seasoning.
In cities, mixed spices can be purchased, which are prepared by professional cooks, and which save much trouble to inexperienced compounders. This is one of their receipts: “Take of nutmegs and mace, one ounce each; of cloves and white pepper-corns, two ounces each; of sweet basil, marjoram, and thyme, one ounce each, and half an ounce of bay leaves: these herbs should be previously dried for the purpose. Roughly pound the spices, then place the whole of the above ingredients between two sheets of white paper, and after the sides have been folded over tightly, to prevent the evaporation of the volatile properties of the herbs and spices, place them in a warm place to become perfectly dry. They must then be pounded quickly, put through a sieve, corked up tightly in bottles, and kept for use.”
A Simple Way of Preparing Boned Turkey or Chicken.
Boil a turkey or chicken in as little water as possible, until the bones can easily be separated from the meat. Remove all of the skin; slice and mix together the light and dark parts; season with pepper and salt. Boil down the liquid in which the turkey or chicken was boiled; then pour it on the meat. Shape it like a loaf of bread; wrap it tightly in a cloth; press it with a heavy weight for a few hours. When served, it is cut into thin slices.
CHICKENS.
One is absolutely bewildered at the hundred dishes which are made of chickens. Most of the entrées are prepared with the breasts alone, called fillets. There are boudins and quenelles of fowls, and fillets of fowls à la Toulouse, à la maréchale, etc., etc., and supreme of fillets of fowls à l’écarlate, etc., and aspics of fowls; then, chickens à la Marengo, à la Lyonnaise, à la reine; then, marinades and capitolades of chickens, and fricassees of chickens of scores of names. I would explain some of these long-sounding terms if this book were not already too long, and if at last they were any better than when cooked in the more simple ways.
Spring Chickens.
The excellence of spring chickens depends as much on feeding as on cooking them. If there are conveniences for building a coop, say five feet square, on the ground, where some spring chickens can be kept for a few weeks, feeding them with the scraps from the kitchen, and grain, they will be found plump, the meat white, and the flavor quite different from the thin, poorly fed chickens just from market.
The Southern negro cooks have certainly the best way of cooking spring chickens, and the manner is very simple. Cut them into pieces, dip each piece hastily in water, then sprinkle it with pepper and salt, and roll it in plenty of flour. Have some lard in a sauté pan very hot, in which fry, or rather sauté, the chickens, covering them well, and watching that they may not burn. When done, arrange them on a hot dish; pour out the lard from the spider, if there is more than a tea-spoonful; throw in a cupful or more of milk, or, better, cream thickened with a little flour; stir it constantly, seasoning it with pepper and salt; pour it over the chickens. It makes a pleasant change to add chopped parsley to the gravy.
A nice dish is made by serving cauliflowers in the same platter with the dressing poured over both; or with potatoes cut out in little balls, and boiled in very salt water, served in the same way; or they may be surrounded with water-cresses.
Spring Chickens, Baked.
Cut them open at the back, spread them out in a baking-pan, sprinkle on plenty of pepper, salt, and a little flour. Baste them well with hot water, which should be in the bottom of the pan, also at different times with a little butter. When done, rub butter over them, as you would beefsteak, and set them in the oven for a moment before serving.
Roast and Boiled Chickens.
Chickens are roasted and boiled as are turkeys. In winter there is no better way of cooking chickens than to boil them whole, and pour over them a good caper or pickle sauce just before serving. A large tough chicken is very good managed in this manner. Of course, the chicken should be put into boiling water, which should not stop boiling until the chicken is entirely done. With this management it will retain its flavor, yet the water in which it is boiled should always be saved for soup. It is a valuable addition to any kind of soup. The cut represents a chicken in a bed of rice.
Baked Chickens or Fish (for Camping Parties).
Dress the chickens or fish, making as small incisions as possible, and without removing the skin, feathers, or scales. Fill them with the usual bread stuffing, well seasoned with chopped pork, onion, pepper, and salt. Sew the cut quite firmly. Cover the chicken or fish entirely with wet clay, spreading it half an inch to an inch thick. Bury it in a bed of hot ashes, with coals on top, and let it bake about an hour and a quarter if it weighs two pounds. The skin, feathers, or scales will peel off when removing the cake of clay, leaving the object quite clean, and especially delicious with that “best of sauces, a good appetite;” however, there is no reason why a camping party should not indulge in other sauces at the same time.
A chicken may be surrounded in the same way with a paste of flour and water, and baked in the oven.