Soup à la Bonne Femme.
2 lbs. of good white fish—halibut, bass, or pickerel will do; 3 eggs; 1 cup of milk; 1 onion; bunch of sweet herbs; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed in flour; cayenne and salt to taste; a little nutmeg; 3 quarts of water.
Boil together fish, herbs, and onion in cold water for two hours. Strain; pick the fish from the bones, and chop so fine that you can rub it through the colander into the soup. Season, and put back into the soup-pot. Simmer ten minutes and stir in the butter. Heat the milk in a farina-kettle; pour it upon the beaten eggs, and stir over the fire until it begins to thicken. Pour into the tureen, add the soup, stir up well, and serve. It is well to add a pinch of soda to the milk in heating.
Roast Ducks.
Clean, wash, and stuff the ducks; adding sage and onion to the force-meat for one. Fill the other with the ordinary poultry dressing. Lay in the dripping-pan; pour a cup of boiling water over them, and roast, basting often, about twelve minutes to the pound, unless they are very young and tender. Take them up; strain the gravy, and take off the fat. Season; thicken with browned flour, and pour into a boat.
Mashed Potatoes.
Whip boiled mealy potatoes to pieces with a fork, and, when they are a powdery pile, whip in butter, milk, and salt. They should be light and creamy. Pile roughly upon a hot dish.
Green Peas.
Shell; lay in cold water fifteen minutes; put on in boiling salted water, with a lump of loaf-sugar, if they are market peas. Boil twenty minutes, if young; drain very dry; dish, and season with pepper, salt and plenty of butter.
Raw Tomatoes.
Peel with a keen knife. Slice, and lay in a glass bowl, and pour on a dressing made by rubbing together half a teaspoonful each of pepper, salt, sugar, and made mustard, with two tablespoonfuls of best oil, beating into this, a few drops at a time, five tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and at last the yolk of a raw egg. Set the salad upon the ice for half an hour.
Currant and Raspberry Tart.
Mix together three cups of currants and one of raspberries. Sweeten abundantly; fill shells of good pie-paste with them; cover with crust, and bake. Eat cold, with powdered sugar sifted over them.