MARCH.
Mushroom Soup.
- 3 lbs. of knuckle of veal, well cracked.
- 1 onion.
- Bunch of parsley.
- A slice of ham, or some ham or salt-pork bones.
- 1 can of French mushrooms.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of flour.
- 2 beaten eggs.
- Pepper and salt.
- 1 cup of milk.
- 4 quarts of cold water.
Crack the bones and mince the meat, onion, and parsley. Cover with the water, and boil gently three hours, or until the stock has diminished one-half. Strain, season, boil up and skim. Add the mushrooms, drained from the can liquor, and sliced. Stew twenty minutes; put in the milk, the flour, wet up in cold water, and when it thickens, beat a cupful into the whipped eggs. Stir into this the butter, return to the soup, let it almost boil, and pour out.
To the lovers of mushrooms this is a delicious soup.
Roast Ducks.
Draw, clean and wash a pair of ducks. Stuff one only with a dressing made of bread-crumbs, the hard-boiled yolk of an egg, a little minced sage and onion. Rub the inside of the other with melted butter, pepper and salt. Many do not like the taste of onion and sage, while others do not enjoy roast duck without the flavor of these condiments. Put the fowls into the dripping-pan, pour a cup of boiling water over them, and roast about an hour, basting frequently. At the last, dredge with flour, and baste with butter; then brown. Chop the giblets fine, pour the fat from the top of the gravy in the dripping-pan, thicken with browned flour that which is left, and stir in the giblets.
Green Peas
Have, from time immemorial, been the adjunct of roast ducks. As the best substitute to be had at this season, open a can of preserved green peas—the French cans are best; let them stand an hour to get rid of the airless taste that is apt to cling to canned vegetables; pour off the liquor; cook twenty minutes in boiling water, a little salt; drain dry, and stir up in them a teaspoonful of butter, with pepper to your liking.
Savory Scotch Pudding.
- 1 quart of milk.
- 1 cup of best oatmeal, soaked all night in cold water.
- 1 cup of gravy.
- 4 tablespoonfuls of bread-crumbs.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- 3 eggs.
- Pepper and salt.
When your soup is ready to strain, dip out a cupful and set by to cool. Take off the fat and stir into the soaked oatmeal. Mix up well; put in a farina-kettle with boiling water around it, and add by degrees, as it thickens, the milk heated to scalding. When all is in, salt and pepper to taste and cook fast, stirring often, ten minutes. Take from the fire, and let it cool.
N.B. If you have the gravy, all this can be done on Saturday.
When cold, beat in the butter, melted, working out all the lumps and taking the skin from the top. Beat in the whipped eggs, working up fast and hard. Pour into a buttered pudding-dish; bake, covered, one hour, then brown. Serve in the bake-dish.
Spinach in a Mould.
Pick over carefully, clip off the stems and put on the leaves in boiling water, with salt stirred in. Boil hard fifteen minutes. When done, drain, pressing out all the water. Chop fine; put back into the saucepan with a piece of butter—a large spoonful for a good dish—a little powdered sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir and toss until very hot; press hard into a mould wet with hot water, and turn out with care upon a heated dish. Lay round slices of hard-boiled eggs on the top.
Turret Cream.
- 1 quart of milk.
- 1 package Coxe’s gelatine.
- 1 heaping cup of white sugar.
- 3 eggs beaten light, whites and yolks separately.
- ½ lb. crystallized fruit.
- Vanilla flavoring.
- Juice of a lemon in which half the grated peel has been soaked, then strained out.
Soak the gelatine three hours in a large cup of cold water. Scald the milk, stir in the sugar, and when this has melted, the gelatine. Stir over the fire five minutes; pour out half of the mixture into a bowl, and add the whipped yolks to that left in the saucepan. Stir one minute, and take from the fire. Flavor the yellow gelatine with lemon—the white with vanilla. As soon as the yellow begins to congeal, whip one-half of the stiffened whites into it, a little at a time, with a Dover egg-beater. Add the rest to the white gelatine, in the same manner, whipping each in until it stiffens before adding more, and not ceasing until both are heaps of “sponge.” Wet the inside of a tall fluted mould with water, and arrange in the bottom, close to the outside of the mould, a row of crystallized cherries. Then, put in a layer of the white mixture; on this, close to the outside, strips of apricots or peaches; then a layer of yellow mixture, another border of cherries, and so on, until the materials are used up. Do this on Saturday. Next day, dip for one instant in hot water, and invert upon a flat dish.
Eat with brandied fruit. It will be a beautiful dessert.
Coffee.
Pass with light cakes or sweet biscuits.