This is a favorite manner with the French of cooking fish. The fish is served in the same dish in which it is cooked. It is called a gratin dish—generally an oval silver-plated platter, or it may be of block-tin. A fish au gratin is rather expensive, on account of the mushrooms; however, the French canned mushrooms (champignons) are almost as good as fresh ones, and are much cheaper.
Receipt.—First put into a saucepan butter size of an egg, then a handful of shallots, or one large onion minced fine; let it cook ten minutes, when mix in half a cupful of flour; then mince three-fourths of a cupful of mushrooms. Add a tea-cupful of hot water (or better, stock) to the saucepan, then a glass of white or red wine, salt, and pepper. After mixing them well, add the minced mushrooms and a little minced parsley. Skin the fish, cut off the head and tail, split it in two, laying bare the middle bone; slip the knife under the bone, removing it smoothly. Now cut the fish in pieces about an inch long. Moisten the gratin dish with butter, arrange the cuts of fish tastefully on it, pour over the sauce, then sprinkle the whole with bread-crumbs which have been dried and grated. Put little pieces of butter over all, and bake. The dish may be garnished with little diamonds of fried or toasted and buttered bread around the edge. Or,
This is a pretty dish au gratin: Put mashed potatoes (which must be still hot when arranged) in a circle on the outside of the gratin dish, then a row of the pieces of fish (which have been cooked as just described) around the middle of the dish, or just inside the potatoes. Put some mashed potatoes also in the middle of the dish. Garnish here and there with mushrooms. Pour the sauce just described and bread-crumbs over the fish, and bake five or ten minutes.
Boil a fish weighing four pounds in salted water. When done, remove the skin, and flake it, leaving out the bones. Boil one quart of rich milk. Mix butter size of a small egg with three table-spoonfuls of flour, and stir it smoothly in the milk, adding also two or three sprigs of parsley and half an onion chopped fine, a little Cayenne pepper, and salt. Stir it over the fire until it has thickened.
Butter a gratin dish. Put in first a layer of fish, then of dressing, and continue in alternation until all the fish is used, with dressing on top. Sprinkle sifted bread-crumbs over the top. Bake half an hour. Garnish with parsley and slices of hard-boiled egg.
As the rules for boiling, broiling, frying, cooking au gratin, and stewing are the same for nearly all kinds of fish, I will not repeat the receipts for each particular one. I will only suggest the best manner for cooking certain kinds, and will add certain receipts not under the general rule:
SALMON
is undoubtedly best boiled. The only exception to the rule of boiling fish is in the case of salmon, which must be put in hot instead of cold water, to preserve its color. A favorite way of boiling a whole salmon is in the form of a letter S, as in plate. It is done as follows: Thread a trussing-needle with some twine; tie the end of the string around the head, fastening it tight; then pass the needle through the centre part of the body, draw the string tight, and fasten it around the tail. The fish will assume the desired form.
For parties or evening companies, salmon boiled in this form (middle cuts are also used), served cold, with a Mayonnaise sauce poured over, is a favorite dish. It is then generally mounted in style, on an oval or square block pedestal, three or four inches high, made of bread (two or three days old), called a croustade, carved in any form with a sharp knife. It is then fried a light-brown in boiling lard. Oftener these croustades are made of wood, which are covered with white paper, and brushed over with a little half-set aspic jelly. The salmon is then decorated with squares of aspic jelly. A decoration of quartered hard-boiled eggs or of cold cauliflower-blossoms is very pretty, and is palatable also with the Mayonnaise sauce. The best sauces for a boiled salmon served hot are the sauce Hollandaise, lobster, shrimp, or oyster sauces—the sauce Hollandaise being the favorite.
If lobster sauce is used, the coral of the lobster is dried, and sprinkled over the fish, reserving some with which to color the sauce, as in receipt for lobster sauce (see page 122).
If shrimp sauce is used, some whole shrimps should be saved for decorating the dish.
In decorating salmon, as well as any other kind of fish, potatoes cut in little balls, and placed like little piles of cannon-balls around the dish, are pretty. The potatoes should be simply boiled in salted water. An alternate pile of button mushrooms are pretty, and good also. Parsley or any pretty leaves around a dish always give a fresh and tasteful appearance. Or,
An exceedingly pretty garnish for a large fish is one of smelts (in rings, see receipt, page 111) fried in boiling lard. In this case, add slices of lemon. Still another pretty garnish is of fried oysters or fried parsley, or both.
It is quite appropriate to serve a middle cut of salmon at a dinner: 1st, because it is the best cut; 2d, because it is easier and cheaper to serve; and, 3d, because one never cares to supply more than is necessary. This cut is better slowly boiled, also, in the acidulated salted water.
Take two slices of salmon cut from the middle of the fish, sprinkle over a little lemon-juice, Cayenne pepper, salt, and salad-oil. Let it then remain for half an hour. Rub the gridiron well with beef-suet or pork. As it is a nice matter to broil salmon without burning, it would be well to wrap it in buttered or oiled paper just before broiling. Serve a maître-d’hôtel, pickle, caper, anchovy, or a horse-radish sauce.
Remove the skin and bone from some slices of salmon one-third of an inch thick; trim them into cutlet shape; sprinkle on pepper, salt, and flour, and dip them into beaten eggs mixed with a little chopped parsley or onion; then bread-crumb them. Fry them in boiling lard. This is the better way, or they may be fried or sautéd in butter in a sauté pan. Arrange the pieces one over the other in a circle. Pour a pickle, or Tartare sauce, in the centre.
If a family is small, and it should not be advisable to buy a large middle cut of salmon, it would be preferable to buy, for instance, two slices. Boil them very slowly in acidulated salted water, or in the court bouillon with wine. Serve them with parsley between, and a napkin underneath. Serve a sauce Hollandaise in the sauce-boat.
The California canned salmon is undoubtedly one of the greatest successes in canning. By keeping a few cans in the house, one is always ready in any emergency to produce a fine dish of salmon in a few minutes. It is particularly nice for a breakfast-dish, heated, seasoned with pepper and salt, placed on thin slices of buttered toast, with a cream dressing poured over all, i. e., milk thickened on the fire, by stirring it into a roux (see page 51) of butter and flour, and seasoned with pepper, salt, and a few pieces of fresh butter just before serving. For dinner it is excellent served with any of the fish sauces. Salmon is also nice served in shells, as for trout (see page 109).
SHAD.
This delicious fish is undoubtedly best broiled, with a maître-d’hôtel sauce; but it is good also cut in slices, and sautéd.
TROUT.
If large, they may be broiled, boiled, or baked. If boiled or broiled, serve the sauce Hollandaise with them. Professional cooks generally boil it in the court bouillon. Smaller trout are better egged, rolled in salted corn-meal, and thrown into boiling lard.
The trout is a very nice fish for an au gratin, or stewed, called then en matelote.
Parboil little trout; cut the fish into pieces about an inch long, or into dice; place them in paper cases (which have been buttered or oiled, and placed in the oven a few moments to harden the paper so as to enable it to hold the sauce). After partly filling the cases with the pieces of fish, pour over them some fine herb sauce (see page 128), and sprinkle over bread-crumbs; put them into the oven twenty minutes before dinner to bake.
If shells are used, little plated-silver ones (scallop shells) are preferable. In that case, it would be better to fry the fish (seasoned with pepper, salt, and a little lemon-juice) in a sauté pan; cut them in dice afterward, and put them in the shells; pour over a fine herb or a Bechamel sauce; strew the top with grated bread-crumbs; place them a few moments in the oven to brown the tops, and serve.
COD-FISH.
Fresh cod-fish is better boiled. The fish is so large that it is generally boiled in slices. After it is well salted, horse-radish and vinegar in the boiling water will improve the fish. Oyster-sauce is the favorite sauce for a boiled cod-fish. Capers might be mixed with the oyster-sauce. Some serve the fish with the sauce poured over it. Any of the fish sauces may be served with fresh cod-fish. These slices may also be broiled and served with a maître-d’hôtel sauce, or they may be egged and bread-crumbed, and fried in boiling lard.
Soak two slices of cod-fish one inch thick for two hours in ice-water; put them into the stew-pan, and, pouring over enough salted boiling water to cover them, let them simmer for about ten minutes; place them neatly on a platter on a folded napkin, garnish with parsley, and pour into the two cavities a Tartare or a pickle sauce.
Soak this in water overnight; parboil it, changing the water once or twice; separate the flakes. Serve them on thin slices of toast, with an egg sauce poured over. Or,
Mince it when boiled in very little water, which should be changed once; thicken it with butter and flour mixed; cook about two minutes, then break in several eggs. When the eggs are cooked and mixed with the fish, pour all on thin slices of buttered toast.
Cut the cod-fish in pieces; soak them about an hour in lukewarm water, when the bones and skin may be easily removed; pull the fish then into fine shreds, and put it on the stove in some cold water. As soon as it begins to boil, change the water, and repeat this process a second time. It is not proper to boil it, as it renders it tough. As soon as the fish is ready, some potatoes must be cooked at the same time, i. e., boiled tender, and well-mashed while still hot, with a little butter added. Mix half as much cod-fish as potatoes while both are still hot. Form them into little balls or thick flat cakes. Fry them in a little hot butter in a sauté pan, or immerse them in boiling-hot lard. It makes all the difference in the flavor of the balls if the fish and potatoes are mixed while both are hot. Of course, they are better fried at once, but may be made the night before serving (at breakfast), if they are only properly mixed.
Cut three pounds of any kind of fresh fish (cod-fish is especially good), one and a half pounds of potatoes, and one large onion (three ounces) into slices; also, half a pound of salt pork into half-inch squares or dice.
Put the pork and onions into a saucepan, and fry them a light brown; then add a cupful of claret; and when it boils take it from the fire.
Butter a large stew-pan, and put in first a layer of potatoes, then a layer of fish, then a sprinkle of onions and pork (strained from the claret), pepper and salt, and continue these alternations until it is all in, having the potatoes on top. Now pour the claret over the top, and barely cover the whole with boiling water. Cover closely, and let it simmer for fifteen minutes without disturbing it.
In the mean time, bring a pint of milk (or, better, cream) to a boil, take it from the fire, and cut into it three ounces of butter, and break in three ship-crackers. Arrange the slices of fish and potatoes in the shape of a dome in the centre of a hot platter. Place the softened crackers (skimmed from the milk) over the top, and pour over the milk. Serve very hot.
They are generally preferred peppered, salted, then rolled in salted corn-meal, and fried either in a sauté pan with a little lard and some slices of pork, or in boiling lard. They make also a good stew en matelote, or a good au gratin. Their chief excellence consists in their being perfectly fresh, and served hot.
MACKEREL
should be broiled, and served à la maître-d’hôtel.
SMELTS
are good salted, peppered, and rolled in salted corn-meal or flour, and fried in boiling-hot lard, but better egged and bread-crumbed before frying. They should be served immediately, or they will lose their crispness and flavor. When served as a garnish for a large fish, they should be fried in the shape of rings. This is easily done by putting the tail of the fish into its mouth, and holding it with a pin. After it is fried, the pin is withdrawn, as the fried fish will hold its shape. Place these rings around the fish, with an additional garnish of parsley and lemon slices; or the rings may be served alone in a circle around the side of a platter, with a tomato or a Tartare sauce in the centre.
There can be no prettier manner of serving them alone than one often seen in Paris. They are fried in the usual manner; then a little silver or silver-plated skewer four inches long is drawn through two or three of the smelts, running it carefully through the eyes. One skewerful, with a slice of lemon on top, is served for each person at table. If the silver-plated skewers are too extravagant, little ones of polished wire will answer.
Bone and skin the fish, and cut it into even slices; or if a flounder or any flat fish is used, begin at the tail, and, keeping the knife close to the bone, separate each side of the fish neatly from it; then cut each side in two, lengthwise, leaving the fish in four long pieces. Remove the skin carefully. After having sprinkled pepper and salt over them, roll each piece first in sifted cracker or bread crumbs, then in half a cupful of milk mixed with an egg, and then in the crumbs again. They are better fried in a sauté pan in a little hot butter; yet they may be sautéd in a little hot lard, with some neat slices of pork, or fried in boiling lard.
Pour tomato sauce No. 2 (see page 125) on a hot platter, arrange the pieces of fish symmetrically on it, and serve immediately.
Skin them, cut them into four-inch lengths, season them with salt and pepper, roll them in flour or salted corn-meal, and fry them in boiling lard. Some parboil eels and bull-heads, saying it removes a muddy taste. I do not think it is necessary. Fried eels are generally served with a tomato, a pickle, or a Tartare sauce.
Put three-quarters of a cupful of butter into a stew-pan; when hot, add four small onions minced fine, which cook to a light-brown color; add then a table-spoonful of flour; when well mixed and cooked, add two cupfuls of stock, a wine-glassful of port-wine, and two bay leaves (the bay leaves may be omitted). Now put in the eels (two small ones or one large one), cut into pieces one inch long. Cover tightly.
They will be ready to send to the table in about fifteen minutes, served on a hot platter, with a circle around them of toasted or fried slices of bread (croûtons), cut diamond-shaped.
OYSTERS.
Drain them well in a colander, marinate them, i. e., sprinkle over plenty of pepper and salt, and let them remain in a cold place for at least half an hour before serving. This makes a great difference in their flavor. They may be served in the half-shell with quarters or halves of lemons in the same dish. I think a prettier arrangement is to serve them in a block of ice. Select a ten-pound block; melt with a hot flat-iron a symmetrical-shaped cavity in the top to hold the oysters; chip also from the sides at the base, so that the ice-block may stand in a large platter on the napkin. When the oysters are well salted and peppered, place them in the ice, and let them remain in some place where the ice will not melt until the time of serving. The salt will help to make the oysters very cold. The ice may be decorated with leaves or smilax vines, and a row of lemon quarters or halves may be placed around the platter at the base of the ice. It has an especially pretty effect served on a table by gas-light. The English often serve little thin squares of buttered brown bread (like Boston brown bread) with oysters.
Drain the oysters in the colander; sprinkle over pepper and salt, which mix well with them, and put them in a cold place for fifteen or twenty minutes before cooking. This is marinating them. When ready to cook, roll each one first in sifted cracker-crumbs, then in beaten egg mixed with a little milk and seasoned with pepper and salt, then in the cracker-crumbs again. You will please remember the routine: first, the crumbs before the egg, as the egg will not adhere well to the oyster without the crumbs; now throw them into boiling-hot lard (as you would fry doughnuts), first testing to see if it is hot enough. As soon as they assume a light-brown color they should be drained, and served immediately on a hot platter.
Oysters should not be fried until the persons at table are ready to eat them, as it takes only a few moments to fry them, and they are not good unless very hot.
The platter of oysters may be garnished with a table-spoonful of chopped pickles or chowchow placed at the four opposite sides; or the oysters may be served as a border around cold slaw (see receipt, page 224), when they are an especially nice course for dinner; or they may be served with celery, either plain or in salad. As the platter for the fried oysters is hot, the celery salad or cold slaw might be piled on a folded napkin in the centre.
They may be served cooked in their shells, or in silver scallop shells, when they present a better appearance than when cooked and served all in one dish.
If cooked in an oyster or clam shell, one large, or two or three little oysters are placed in it, with a few drops of the oyster liquor. It is sprinkled with pepper and salt, and cracker or bread crumbs. Little pieces of butter are placed over the top. When all are ready, they are put into the oven. When they are plump and hot, they are done. Brown the tops with a salamander, or with a red-hot kitchen shovel.
If they are cooked in the silver scallop shells, which are larger, several oysters are served in the one shell; one or two are put in, peppered, salted, strewed with cracker-crumbs and small pieces of butter; then more layers, until the shell is full, or until enough are used for one person. Moisten them with the oyster-juice, and strew little pieces of butter over the top. They are merely kept in the oven until they are thoroughly hot, then browned with a salamander. Serve one shell for each person at table, placed on a small plate. The oysters may be bearded or not.
Ingredients: Three dozen oysters, a large tea-cupful of bread or cracker crumbs, two ounces of fresh butter, pepper and salt, half a tea-cupful of oyster-juice.
Make layers of these ingredients, as described in the last article, in the top of a chafing-dish, or in any kind of pudding or gratin dish; bake in a quick oven about fifteen minutes; brown with a salamander.
Put a quart of oysters on the fire in their own liquor. The moment they begin to boil, skim them out, and add to the liquor a half-pint of hot cream, salt, and Cayenne pepper to taste. Skim it well, take it off the fire, add to the oysters an ounce and a half of butter broken into small pieces. Serve immediately.
Oysters served on buttered toast for breakfast, or in vols-au-vent, silver scallop-shells, or in paper boxes, are very nice made after the receipts on page 241. They or the fricasseed oysters may be served in either of the above ways.
Put one quart, or twenty-five, oysters on the fire in their own liquor. The moment it begins to boil, turn it into a hot dish through a colander, leaving the oysters in the colander. Put into the saucepan two ounces of butter (size of an egg), and when it bubbles sprinkle in one ounce (a table-spoonful) of sifted flour; let it cook a minute without taking color, stirring it well with a wire egg-whisk; then add, mixing well, a cupful of the oyster liquor. Take it from the fire and mix in the yolks of two eggs, a little salt, a very little Cayenne pepper, one tea-spoonful of lemon-juice, and one grating of nutmeg. Beat it well; then return it to the fire to set the eggs, without allowing it to boil. Put in the oysters.
These oysters may be served on thin slices of toast for breakfast or tea, or in papers (en papillote), or as a filling for patties for dinner.
Drain them. Put them in a spider which is very hot; turn them in a moment, so that they may cook on both sides. It only takes a few seconds to cook them. Put them on a hot plate in which there are pepper, salt, and a little hot melted butter. They should be served immediately. They have the flavor of the oyster roasted in the shell.
Some cook them in this manner at table on a chafing-dish by means of the spirit-lamp.
Ingredients: Two hundred oysters, one pint of vinegar, a nutmeg grated, eight blades of whole mace, three dozen whole cloves, one tea-spoonful of salt, two tea-spoonfuls of whole allspice, and as much Cayenne pepper as will lie on the point of a knife.
Put the oysters with their liquor into a large earthen vessel; add to them the vinegar and all the other ingredients. Stir all well together and set them over a slow fire, keeping them covered. Stir them to the bottom several times. As soon as they are well scalded, they are done. To be eaten cold.
CLAMS.
Chop fifty small clams not too fine, and season them with pepper and salt. Put into a stew-pan butter the size of an egg, and when it bubbles sprinkle in a tea-spoonful of flour, which cook a few moments; stir gradually into it the clam liquor, then the clams, which stew about two or three minutes; then add a cupful of boiling cream, and serve immediately. The clams may or may not be bearded.
Put fifty clams on the fire in their own liquor, with a little salt. When they have boiled about three minutes, strain them, and return the liquor to the fire. Chop a medium-sized onion (two ounces) into small pieces, and cut six ounces of pork into dice. Fry both a light color in two ounces (size of an egg) of butter; then stir in three ounces of flour (two table-spoonfuls). When thoroughly cooked, add the clam liquor, half a pint of good stock or milk, the same quantity of cream, a salt-spoonful of mace, a salt-spoonful of thyme, salt to taste, and eight ounces of potatoes cut into dice. When these are cooked, and the chowder is about to be sent to table, add the clams cut in dice, and four ounces of ship-bread or crackers broken in pieces.
Ingredients: Two hundred soft clams, one large onion, twenty large crackers, can of tomatoes, parsley (chopped fine), half a pound of butter, one large tea-spoonful of sweet marjoram, thyme, sage, savory, half a tea-spoonful of ground cloves, and half a tea-spoonful of curry.
Boil well; then add half a pint of milk and half a pint of sherry wine.
CRABS AND LOBSTERS.
Dry them; sprinkle them with pepper and salt; roll them, first in flour, then in egg (half a cupful of milk mixed in one egg), then in cracker-dust, and fry them in boiling lard.
When the crabs are boiled, take out the meat and cut it into small pieces (dice); clean well the shells.
To six ounces of crab meat, mix two ounces of bread-crumbs, two hard-boiled eggs chopped, the juice of half a lemon, Cayenne pepper and salt. Mix all with cream or cream sauce, or, what is still better, a Bechamel sauce (see page 127). Fill the shells with the mixture, smooth the tops, sprinkle over sifted bread-crumbs, and color it in a quick oven.
is made in the same way as deviled crab, merely substituting the lobster for the crab, and adding a grating of nutmeg to the seasoning. In boiling lobsters and crabs, they are sufficiently cooked when they assume a bright-red color. Too much boiling renders them tough.
Cut half a pound of the flesh of a boiled lobster into small dice. Put two ounces of butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in two ounces of flour (one table-spoonful). Cook it; then pour in a cupful of boiling cream and the lobster dice. Stir it until it is scalding hot; then take it from the fire, and, when slightly cooled, stir in the beaten yolks of three eggs, a grating of nutmeg, a little Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste. Return the mixture to the fire, and stir it long enough to well set the eggs.
Butter a platter, on which spread the lobster mixture half an inch deep. When cold, form it into the shape of chops, pointed at one end; bread-crumb, egg, and crumb them again, and fry them in boiling lard. Stick a claw into the end of each lobster chop after it is cooked.
Place the chops in a circle, overlapping each other, on a napkin. Decorate the dish by putting the tail of the lobster in the centre, and its head, with the long horns, on the tail. Around the outside of the circle of chops arrange the legs, cut an inch each side of the middle joints, so that they will form two equal sides of a triangle.
Put into a saucepan butter the size of a small egg, and a tea-spoonful of minced onion. When it has cooked, sprinkle in a tea-spoonful of flour, which cook also; then stir in one cupful of the water in which the lobster was boiled, one cupful of milk, one cupful of strong veal or beef stock, pepper, and salt: add the meat of the boiled lobster, and when quite hot pour all in the centre of a hot platter. Decorate the dish with the lobster’s head in the centre, fried-bread diamonds (croûtons) around the outside; or in any prettier way you choose, with the abundant resources of lobster legs and trimmings.
FROGS.
Frogs are such a delicacy that it is a pity not to prepare them with care.
The hind legs only are used. They may be made into a broth the same as chicken broth, and are considered a very advantageous diet for those suffering with pulmonary affections.
Put them in salted boiling water, with a little lemon-juice, and boil them three minutes; wipe them; dip them first in cracker-dust, then in eggs (half a cupful of milk mixed in two eggs and seasoned with pepper and salt), then again in cracker-crumbs. When they are all breaded, clean off the bone at the end with a dry cloth. Put them in a wire basket and dip them in boiling lard, to fry. Put a little paper (see page 61) on the end of each bone; place them on a hot platter, in the form of a circle, one overlapping the other, with French pease in the centre. Serve immediately, while they are still crisp and hot.
The French say the English only know how to make one kind of sauce, and a poor one at that. Notwithstanding the French understand the sauce question, it is very convenient to make the drawn butter, and, by adding different flavorings, make just so many kinds of sauce. For instance, by adding capers, shrimps, chopped pickles, anchovy paste, chopped boiled eggs, lobster, oysters, parsley, cauliflower, etc., one has caper, shrimp, pickle, anchovy, egg, and the other sauces. The drawn-butter sauce is simple, yet few make it properly, managing generally to have it insipid, and with flour uncooked. If a housekeeper has any pride about having a good table, she will be amply repaid for learning some of the French sauces, which are, at last, simple enough. We are often frightened to see many items in a receipt; we shake our heads dubiously at the trouble and extravagance of one receipt mentioning thyme, nutmeg, bay-leaf, mace, shallot, capers, pepper-corns, parsley, and, last of all the horrors, stock. As far as the herbs are concerned, an investment of twenty-five cents will purchase enough mace, thyme, bay-leaves, and pepper-corns for a year’s supply of abundant sauces, to say nothing of their uses for braising, blanquettes, etc. Five cents’ worth of shallots should last a long time; they are sold in all city markets, being only young forced onions. Capers would be extravagant if a bottleful, costing sixty cents, would not last a year in a small-sized family. I have already said enough about stock to show that one must be very incompetent if a little of it can not be at hand, made of trimmings and cheap pieces of meat and bones.
The use of mushrooms and truffles, which are comparatively cheap in France, can not be extensively introduced here. A little tin can, holding about a gill of tasteless truffles, costs three or four dollars: however, mushrooms are much less expensive, and infinitely better. A can of mushrooms costs forty cents, and is sufficient for several sauces and entrées.
Some persons raise mushrooms in their cellars. A small, rich bed in a dark place where the soil will not freeze, planted with mushroom spawn, will yield enough mushrooms for the family, and the neighbors besides, with very little trouble and expense.
The French white sauces differ from the English white sauce, as they are made with strong white stock, prepared with veal, or chickens, or both, and some vegetables for a basis. If one would learn to make the sauce Bechamel, it will be found an easy affair to prepare many delicious entrées, such as chicken in shells (en coquille), or in papers (en papillote), and mushrooms in crust (croûte aux champignons).
For boiled fish the sauce Hollandaise is a decided success. In Paris every one speaks of this delicious sauce, and bribes the chef de cuisine for the receipt. It is made without stock, and is very simple.
For fried fish the perfection of accompaniments is the sauce Tartare—a mere addition of some capers, shallots, parsley, and pickles to the sauce Mayonnaise.
When tomatoes are so abundant, it is unpardonable that one should never serve a tomato sauce with a beefsteak, and a score of other meat dishes.
For a chicken or a lobster salad, learn unquestionably the sauce Mayonnaise.
In the thickening of sauces, let it be remembered that butter and flour should be well cooked together before the sauce is added, to prevent the flour from tasting uncooked. In butter sauces, however, only enough butter should be used to cook the flour, the remainder added, cut in pieces, after the sauce is taken from the fire. This preserves its flavor.
Ingredients: Three ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, half a pint of water (or, better, white stock), and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Put two ounces of the butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles, sprinkle in the flour; stir it well with a wire egg-whisk until the flour is thoroughly cooked without taking color, and then mix in well the half-pint of water or stock. Take it off the fire, pass it through a sieve or gravy-strainer, and stir in the other ounce of butter cut in pieces. When properly mixed and melted, it is ready for use. This makes a pint of sauce.
Some persons like drawn-butter sauce slightly acid, in which case add a few drops of vinegar or lemon-juice just before serving.
Make a drawn-butter sauce; just before serving add two or three table-spoonfuls of pickled cucumbers chopped or minced very fine.
Add to half a pint of drawn-butter sauce three hard-boiled eggs, chopped not too fine.
Make a drawn-butter sauce—or, say, melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan; add a table-spoonful of flour; when the two are well mixed, add pepper and salt, and a little less than a pint of boiling water. Stir the sauce on the fire until it thickens, then add three table-spoonfuls of French capers. Removing the saucepan from the fire, stir into the sauce the yolk of an egg beaten with the juice of half a lemon.
Add to half a pint of drawn-butter sauce two tea-spoonfuls of anchovy extract, or anchovy paste.
To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add one-third of a pint of picked boiled shrimps, whole, or chopped a little. Add at last moment a few drops of lemon-juice, and a very little Cayenne pepper. Let the sauce simmer, not boil. Some add a tea-spoonful of anchovy paste; more, perhaps, prefer it without the anchovy flavor.
Shrimps are generally sold at market already boiled. If they are not boiled, throw them into salted boiling water, and boil them until they are quite red. When cold, pick off the heads, and peel off the shells. Always save a few of the shrimps whole for garnishing the dish.
Before proceeding to make this sauce, break up the coral of the lobster, and put it on a paper in a slow oven for half an hour; then pound it in a mortar, and sprinkle it over the boiled fish when it is served. To prepare the sauce itself, chop the meat of the tail and claws of a good-sized lobster into pieces, not too small. Half an hour before dinner, make half a pint of drawn-butter sauce. Add to it the chopped lobster, a pinch of coral, a small pinch of Cayenne, and a little salt. An English lady says: “This process seems simple, yet nothing is rarer in cookery than good lobster sauce. The means of spoiling it are chiefly by chopping the lobster too small, or, worse, pounding it, inserting contents of the head, or using milk, or anchovy, or any sauces. It should not be a half-solid mass, or thin liquid, but the lobster should be distinct in a creamy bed.”
Make a drawn-butter or white sauce; add a few drops of lemon or a table-spoonful of capers, or, if neither be at hand, a few drops of vinegar; add oysters strained from their liquor, and let them just come to a boil in the sauce.
This sauce is much better made with part cream, i. e., used when making the drawn-butter sauce, instead of all water. In this case, do not add the lemon-juice or vinegar. Some make the white sauce of the oyster liquor, instead of water.
This sauce may be served in a sauce-boat, but it is nicer to pour it over the fish, boiled turkey, or chicken.
To half a pint of hot drawn-butter sauce add two table-spoonfuls of chopped parsley. The appearance of the sauce is improved by coloring it with a little spinach-green (see page 87).
Add boiled cauliflowers, cut into little flowerets, to a drawn-butter sauce made with part cream.
To half a pint of drawn-butter sauce add the inside of a lemon, chopped (seeds taken out), and the chicken liver boiled and mashed fine.
Put butter the size of an egg into a bright saucepan, and when it bubbles add a table-spoonful of flour; cook it, and add a pint, or rather less, of boiling water; when smooth, take it from the fire, and add the beaten yolks of two or three eggs, and a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt. Or, Stock can be used instead of boiling water, when two or three small slices of onion are placed in the butter after it begins to bubble, and then allowed to cook yellow; after the flour is cooked, stock is added instead of water, and when smooth, it is taken from the fire, a few drops of lemon-juice, pepper, and salt are added, and the sauce is strained through the gravy-strainer or sieve, to remove the pieces of onion.
Mix butter the size of an egg, the juice of half a lemon, and two or three sprigs of parsley, chopped very fine; pepper and salt all together. Spread this over any broiled meat or fish when hot; then put the dish into the oven a few moments, to allow the butter to penetrate the meat.
Put four table-spoonfuls of chopped mint, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and a quarter of a pint of vinegar into the sauce-boat. Let it remain an hour or two before dinner, that the vinegar may become impregnated with the mint.
A simple sauce made of currant jelly melted with a little water is very nice; yet Francatelli’s receipt is much better, viz.:
“Bruise half a stick of cinnamon and six cloves; put them into a stew-pan with one ounce of sugar and the peel of half a lemon, pared off very thin, and perfectly free from any portion of white pulp; moisten this with one and a half sherry-glassfuls of port-wine, and set the whole to gently simmer or heat on the stove for half an hour; then strain it into a small stew-pan containing half a glassful of currant jelly. Just before sending the sauce to the table, set it on the fire to boil, in order to melt the currant jelly, and so that it may mix with the essence of spice, etc.”
Stew six tomatoes half an hour with two cloves, a sprig of parsley, pepper, and salt; press this through a sieve; put a little butter into a saucepan over the fire, and when it bubbles add a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; mix and cook it well, and add the tomato-pulp, stirring until it is smooth and consistent.
Some add one or two slices of onion at first. It is a decided improvement to add three or four table-spoonfuls of stock; however, the sauce is very good without it, and people are generally too careless to have stock at hand.
Ingredients: One-quart can of tomatoes, two cloves, one small sprig of thyme, two sprigs of parsley, half a small bay-leaf, three pepper-corns, three allspice, two slices of carrot (one and a half ounces), one-ounce onion (one small onion), one and a half ounces of butter (size of a pigeon’s egg), one and a half ounces of flour (one table-spoonful).
Put the tomatoes over the fire with all the above ingredients but the butter and flour, and when they have boiled about twenty minutes strain them through a sieve. Make a roux by putting the butter into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles sprinkle in the flour, which let cook, stirring it well; then pour in the tomato-pulp; when it is well mixed, it is ready for use.
As this is one of the best sauces ever made for boiled fish, asparagus, or cauliflower, I will give two receipts. The first is Dubois’; the second is from the Cooking-school in New York. None should call themselves cooks unless they know how to make the sauce Hollandaise, and simple enough it is.
1st. “Pour four table-spoonfuls of good vinegar into a small stew-pan, and add some pepper-corns and salt; let the liquid boil until it is reduced to half; let it cool; then add to it the well-beaten yolks of four or five eggs, also four ounces (size of an egg) of good butter, more salt, if necessary, and a very little nutmeg. Set the stew-pan on a very slow fire, and stir the liquid until it is about as thick as cream; immediately remove it. Now put this stew-pan or cup into another pan containing a little warm water kept at the side of the fire. Work the sauce briskly with a spoon, or with a little whisk, so as to get it frothy, but adding little bits of butter, in all about three ounces” (I would say the size of half an egg). “When the sauce has become light and smooth, it is ready for use.”
2d. “Put a piece of butter the size of a pigeon’s egg into a saucepan, and when it bubbles stir in with an egg-whisk an even table-spoonful of flour; let it continue to bubble until the flour is thoroughly cooked, when stir in half a pint of boiling water, or, better, of veal stock; when it boils, take it from the fire, and stir into it gradually the beaten yolks of four eggs; return the sauce to the fire for a minute, to set the eggs, without allowing it to boil; again remove the sauce, stir in the juice of half a small lemon, and fresh butter the size of a walnut, cut into small pieces, to facilitate its melting, and stir all well with the whisk.”
Separate the button part from the stalk; then peel them with a sharp knife, cutting off merely the skin. Put them into a stew-pan with a table-spoonful of lemon-juice and two table-spoonfuls of water. Toss them well, to impregnate them with the liquid. The object of the lemon-juice is to keep them white. Then put them on a sharp fire in boiling water, with some butter added. When they are boiled tender they are ready for use, i. e., for garnishing and for sauces.
Having prepared the mushrooms by cutting off the stalks, and if they are large, by cutting them in halves or quarters, throw them into a little boiling water, or, what is much better, stock. Do not use more than is necessary to cover them. This must be seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little butter. Boil the mushrooms until they are tender, then thicken the gravy slightly with a roux of butter and flour. Add a few drops of lemon-juice. It is now ready to pour over the meat.
Prepare the mushrooms as for garnishing; boil them tender in rich white stock, made of veal or chicken; thicken with a roux of butter and flour, and add one or two table-spoonfuls of cream.
Put a piece of butter the size of a walnut into a small stew-pan or tin basin, and when it bubbles add a tea-spoonful (not heaping) of flour; when well cooked, stir in a cupful of stock (reduced and strong), and half a tea-cupful of the mushroom-juice from the can; let it simmer for a minute or two; then, after straining it, add half or three quarters of a can of mushrooms, pepper, salt, and a few drops of lemon-juice. When thoroughly hot it is ready to pour over the meat.
Put butter the size of a walnut into a stew-pan, and when it bubbles stir in an even table-spoonful of flour, which cook thoroughly without letting it take color. Mix into the roux a cupful of strong hot veal stock (i. e., veal put into cold water and boiled four or five hours), a cupful of boiling cream, and one grating of nutmeg; let it simmer, stirring it well for a few minutes, then strain, and it is ready for use. The sauce would be improved if the usual soup-bunch vegetables were added to the stock while it is being made.
Ingredients: One pint of veal stock (a knuckle of veal put into one gallon of cold water, boiled five hours, skimmed and strained), half an ounce of onion (quarter of a rather small one), quarter of an ounce of turnip (quarter of a turnip), one ounce of carrot (quarter of a good-sized carrot), half an ounce of parsley (two sprigs), quarter of a bay-leaf, half a sprig of thyme, three pepper-corns, half a lump of sugar, a small blade of mace.
Put one ounce (size of a walnut) of butter into a stew-pan, and when hot add to it all the above ingredients but the stock and the mace; fry this slowly until it assumes a yellow color; do not let it brown, as the sauce should be white when done; stir in now a table-spoonful (one ounce) of flour, which let cook a minute, and add the blade of mace and the stock (boiling) from another stew-pan. After it has all simmered about five minutes, strain it through a sieve without allowing the vegetables to pass through; return the strained sauce to the fire, reduce it by boiling about one-third, when add three or four table-spoonfuls of good thick cream, and the sauce is ready.
Ingredients: Half a pint of good stock, three table-spoonfuls of mushrooms, one table-spoonful of onions, two table-spoonfuls of parsley, and one shallot, all chopped fine. Fry the shallot and onion in a little butter until they assume a light-yellow color, then add a tea-spoonful of flour and cook it a minute; stir in the stock, mushrooms, and parsley, simmer for five minutes, then add a little Worcestershire sauce, and salt to taste. If no Worcestershire sauce is at hand, add pepper to taste in its place.
To a scant half pint of Mayonnaise sauce (made with the mustard added) mix in two table-spoonfuls of capers, one small shallot (quarter of a rather small onion, a poor substitute), two gerkins (or two ounces of cucumber pickle), and one table-spoonful of parsley, all chopped very fine. This sauce will keep a long time, and is delicious for fried fish, fried oysters, boiled cod-fish, boiled tongue, or as dressing for a salad.
By making the following simple sauce, one can produce several by a little variation.
Put into a saucepan a table-spoonful of minced onion and a little butter. When it has taken color, sprinkle in a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; stir well, and when brown add half a pint of stock. Cook it a few minutes, and strain. Now, by adding a cupful of claret, two cloves, a sprig of parsley, and one of thyme, a bay-leaf, pepper, and salt, and by boiling two or three minutes and straining it, one has the sauce poivrade.
If, instead of the claret, one should add to the poivrade sauce a table-spoonful each of minced cucumber pickles, vinegar, and capers, one has the sauce piquante.
By adding one tea-spoonful of made mustard, the juice of half a lemon, and a little vinegar to the poivrade, instead of the claret, one has the sauce Robert.
For a roast of beef, the sirloin and tenderloin cuts are considered the best. They are more expensive, and are no better than the best cuts of a rib roast: the sixth, seventh, and eighth ribs are the choicest cuts. The latter roasts are served to better advantage by requesting the butcher to remove the bones and roll the meat. Always have him send the bones also, as they are a valuable acquisition to the soup-pot. As the rolled rib roasts are shaved evenly off and across the top when carved (the roasts are to be cooked rare, of course), they present an equally good appearance for a second cooking. I have really served a roast a third time to good advantage, serving it the last time à la jardinière. Of course, in summer large cuts should not be purchased.
If the animal is young and large, and the meat is of clear, bright-red color, and the fat white, the meat is sure to be tender and juicy.
There is no better sauce for a good, juicy roast of beef than the simple juice of the meat. Horse-radish sauce may be served if the beef is not particularly good.
If a sauce is made by adding hot water, flour, pepper, and salt to the contents of the baking-pan after the beef is cooked, do not serve it with a half-inch depth of pure grease on top in the sauce-boat. This is as absurd, when it can be allowed to stand a moment and simply poured off, or taken off with a spoon, as to serve wet salt at table, which can easily be placed in the oven a few moments to dry, before sifting. Also, this kind of baking-pan sauce would not be so very objectionable, if cooks generally knew that it does not require a scientific education, nor a herculean effort, to strain it through a gravy-strainer.
A few rules for roasting and baking beef: Allow nine minutes to the pound for baking a rolled rib-roast; for roasting it, allow ten minutes to the pound. Sirloin roasts require eight minutes to the pound for baking, nine minutes for roasting.