LUNCHEONS

LUNCHEONS

A COOK’S PICTURE BOOK

A SUPPLEMENT TO THE

CENTURY COOK BOOK

BY

AUTHOR OF THE CENTURY COOK BOOK

ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER

TWO HUNDRED PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW YORK

THE CENTURY CO.

1902

Copyright, 1902, by

The Century Co.

Published October, 1902

THE DEVINNE PRESS

THE BOOK

This book is intended as a supplement to the “Century Cook Book,” hence no general rules for cooking are given.

It is a book of illustrated receipts, a cook’s picture-book, intended to be very useful in the way of suggestion. It is arranged so that housekeepers may more readily make up a menu, often a difficult task, or may easily find new dishes to vary the routine of the daily fare.

Instead of various menus, which are impracticable because they seldom suit the convenience of the moment, lists of dishes are given which can be quickly read over and those suitable for the occasion selected. These lists are placed at the heads of the sections, each section representing a single course, and each list comprising a number of dishes, any one of which is suitable for that course.

The receipts will meet the requirements of luncheons, but the majority of them are equally appropriate for dinner.

Attention has been given to the garnishing and manner of dishing, in order to make the dishes pleasing to the sight; for pretty dishes are attractive and recommend themselves, while carelessly served ones are sometimes refused on account of their appearance.

The illustrated dishes, though apparently elaborate, are in fact quite simple, the pastry-bag and tube, the use of which is easily acquired, being the means employed to decorate many of them.

The illustrations will serve as suggestions, and the taste of the cook will lead her to use such other combinations as are suited to her convenience.

CONTENTS

[CHAPTER I]

(Pages 1-34)

[CHAPTER II]

(Pages 35-42)

[CHAPTER III]

(Pages 43-48)

[CHAPTER IV]

(Pages 49-58)

[CHAPTER V]

(Pages 59-68)

[CHAPTER VI]

(Pages 69-82)

[CHAPTER VII]

(Pages 83-106)

[CHAPTER VIII]

(Pages 107-111)

[CHAPTER IX]

(Pages 113-131)

[CHAPTER X]

(Pages 133-163)

[CHAPTER XI]

(Pages 165-171)

[CHAPTER XII]

(Pages 173-176)

[CHAPTER XIII]

(Pages 177-195)

[CHAPTER XIV]

(Pages 197-211)

Breads

[INDEX]

(Pages 213-223)

LUNCHEONS

ERRATA[^[1]]

Page 20, line 16, for “gelatines” read “galantines.”

Illustration No. 10, 2, read “Purée Sieve”; 3, read “Fontage or Swedish timbale irons.”

Page 31, line 8, for “will rise and cover” read “will rise when put in the hot fat and cover.”

Page 47, last title, for “Creamed Soups” read “Cream Soups.”

Page 71, 4th line from bottom, for “usual” read “original.”

Page 71, 7th line from bottom, for “dilute it” read “diluted.”

Page 73, 2d line from bottom, for “flour” read “water.”

Page 91, 8th line from bottom, for “browned” read “brown.”

Page 119, for “Salads Nos. 6-7-8-9” read “Illustrations Nos. 94, 95, 96, 97.”

Page 135, line 3, for “and moisten” read “moistened.”

Page 143, 2d line from bottom, for “thick” read “whipped.”

Legend of illustration No. 134 read “Strawberry Charlotte No. 2.”

Legend of illustration No. 137 read “Chestnut Purée.”

Page 155, line 6, for “cupful” read “pound.”

Page 162, line 10, for “by placing” read “and.”

Page 168, 7th line from bottom, for “lemon” read “melon.”

Page 169, to receipt for Lemon Ice add, “1 quart of water.”

Page 170, line 4, for “cupful” read “quart.”

Page 175, after title, “Pineapple,” add “Illustration No. 158.”

Page 184, 5th line from bottom, for “icing” read “tracing.”

Page 189, 5th line from bottom, for “box with” read “box and serve with.”

Page 192, 9th line from bottom, for “coloring” read “covering.”

Page 199, 11th line from bottom, for “double its bulk” read “doubled in bulk.”

Page 201, 8th line from bottom, for “one quarter of an inch” read “one and a quarter inches.”

[1]. Transcriber’s note: these Errata have been applied to this text. (2018-08-15)

CHAPTER I
LUNCHEONS

The midday meal, called luncheon, varies in character from a very informal service, where the dishes are placed on the table and the servants leave the room, to one of equal elaboration and formality with that of a dinner. As this meal is made to conform to convenience, it is difficult to give general rules, as rules are conventions of ceremony, and ceremony is sometimes disregarded, as in the case where a larger number of guests are received than the service of the house admits of entertaining in other than an informal manner.

Luncheon proper corresponds to what in foreign countries is called the second breakfast, or déjeûner à la fourchette, where people are seated at the table and served as at dinner. The French breakfast hour, however, is usually twelve o’clock, while luncheon is an hour or more later.

|The company|Entertaining at luncheon is as customary as dinner giving, but ordinarily the company is composed of women alone, men as a rule not being entertained at this hour, except on holidays or special occasions.

|Seating the guests|A card with the name of the guest distinctly written on it designates the place at the table to be occupied by that guest, and each one finds her place without being otherwise directed, as the hostess is the last one to enter the dining-room. If, for any reason, one lady has precedence over the others, she is placed at the right of the hostess; otherwise the hostess selects for that seat the one whom she wishes particularly to compliment. If a stranger is being especially entertained, the other guests having been invited to meet her, she is given this seat of honor. The hostess in this case presents her as a new acquaintance to her friends, who afterward may call upon and extend to her other courtesies.

|Invitations|The invitations for luncheon are the same in form as for dinner; if the luncheon is a formal entertainment they are usually written in the third person, or conventionally expressed in the first person. An informal note is written for informal occasions. Under no circumstances should a verbal invitation be given.

It is polite to answer an invitation within twelve hours. People who are in the habit of entertaining are seldom remiss in the courtesy of a prompt reply, for they have probably experienced the inconvenience of uncertainty, and the embarrassment of having to fill places at the last minute, and so are better able to understand the significance of this social convention.

|Dress|Women wear street costumes or afternoon gowns; they lay off their wraps, but do not remove their hats. Men should wear afternoon dress.

|The table|At luncheon a table-cloth is not used if the table is handsome enough to permit its omission, but often leaves are put in which have not the same polish as the main table and must be covered with a cloth. The use of a cloth is, however, a matter of taste, not of rule.

The polished table requires care to keep it clean and free from stains and scratches. It should be very frequently rubbed hard with a soft cloth, and occasionally a little kerosene or furniture polish should be used; but what is particularly needed is plenty of hard rubbing. A varnish polish is easily defaced, especially by hot dishes, which leave white marks that are difficult to eradicate. The table top should have what is called hand polish. This can be washed without injury, does not easily stain, heat does not affect it, and with daily care it constantly grows handsomer. It is better for young housekeepers to start with a dull mahogany, or oak, than with a shellacked table, which needs frequent redressing.

|Mats|To protect the table when no table-cloth is used, mats are placed under the dishes. The plate mats, either square or round, are seven to nine inches across. Mats are sometimes lined with asbestos, felt, or other thick material to protect the table better from the heat of the plates. The mats, as a rule, match the centerpiece, but this is not obligatory. There is no limit to the variety of centerpieces and mats. They range from crochet work and embroidered linen to beautiful laces.

|Decorations|Except the mats, the decorations used are the same as for the dinner-table, flowers being the chief and always the most beautiful resource. The decorations should be kept low in order not to obstruct the view across the table and so make general conversation impossible.

A large table is more imposing with high centerpieces, and at buffet luncheons high decorations can be indulged in. The cold dishes used on such occasions are susceptible of much garnishing, and are made to form a part of the decoration.

Where a large number of guests are being entertained, as at wedding breakfasts, or where the luncheon is accessory to some other entertainment, the guests are frequently seated at small tables placed throughout the room. In this case, no ornamentation is attempted other than a few flowers on each table, as anything more would be an inconvenience.

|Lighting|The lighting of the table requires careful consideration. Artificial light is not used unless necessary; but a dark, gloomy table should always be avoided, and if the room is dark candles should be lighted. Sometimes half the guests face bright windows, while the faces of those sitting with their backs to the windows are in shadow. Shaded lights in the chandelier will often remove this shadow; and, if carefully managed, the gas-lights will not be disagreeably noticeable. This, together with a careful adjustment of the curtains, will often equalize the light; but if a blinding glare cannot thus be overcome, it is better to draw the shades and curtains and light the candles. In city houses this is frequently done.

|Laying the table|The table is laid as for dinner, except that bread-and-butter plates are placed at the left of the dinner plates, each bread-and-butter plate having a small knife laid across it. These plates are small, and are used for the breads and hors d’oeuvres.

|The food and courses|At luncheon the soup is served in cups, and, where the guests are seated at the table, roasts are seldom presented, the meats being served in the form of chops, or individual portions; otherwise, the service is the same as at dinner.

At buffet luncheons large cold roasts are used, and ordinarily not more than one or two hot dishes are served, such as bouillon, creamed oysters, or croquettes. Cold fish, cold joints, gelatines, and salads make the substantial part of the luncheon. All the dishes, including the ices, are placed on the buffet table at once, and no order is observed in respect to courses, each person making his own selection. On these occasions the gentlemen serve the ladies, and but little extra household service is needed.

Where the guests are seated at small tables the service is the same as if all were seated at one table, and a number of servants are required. There should always be enough waiters to serve the meal quickly. An hour and a half is the extreme limit of time that guests should be kept at the table. Seven or eight courses are all that should be presented, and these should be served quickly, but without apparent haste. The days of long feasting are passed. People of to-day value their health and time too much to sit for hours at a time at the table. The meal should be over before there is any fatigue or dullness; but on the word of Brillat-Savarin, an accepted authority on gastronomic subjects, it is safe to detain guests at the table for one hour. He says:

“La table est le seul endroit où l’on ne s’ennuie jamais pendant la première heure.”

GARNISHING AND DISHING MEATS

One celebrated French chef says: “Il faut viser a charmer les yeux des gourmet avant d’en satisfaire le goût”; and another, in giving advice to beginners, says: “A cook should have that artistic feeling which imparts to everything, great and small, that harmony of style which captivates the eye.”

This necessity is well recognized by every good cook, and such a one tries to give dishes the inviting appearance justly demanded by epicures. It is not necessary that the dish belong to the category which in cooking parlance is termed “high class,” for the simplest one comes under the same rule and is capable of being raised to a higher rank by careful dishing and tasteful garnishing. The greatest cooks are renowned for such specialties.

It is said of Soyer, “for dishing up he was entitled to celebrity”; and of Carême, “he excelled in everything requiring perfect taste, and dealt in a new and very effective manner with the ornamentation of large cold dishes.”

There is nothing which so quickly indicates the grade of the cook as the manner in which she serves her dishes. One who has no pride in her work seldom takes time for ornamentation, though garnishing is the simplest part of her duty. When, however, attention is given to this branch, even though the result may not be perfect, it gives promise of better things, and one may confidently predict for the cook who thus shows desire to do well that she will attain a higher degree of excellence in her profession. There is no class of dishes, from breads to desserts, which are not more appetizing when made attractive in appearance. It has been said that “eyes do half the eating,” and as no expense need be incurred in the indulgence of tasteful arrangement of the dishes, there seems to be no reason why the simplest table should not share with the most expensive one this element of success. Care, taste, and ingenuity will do much to remedy the lack of money, and may change the standard of the table from coarseness to refinement. Many suggestions for decorations may be found in the show-windows of bakers, pastry-cooks, fishmongers, and of delicatessen shops. Many of the pieces displayed there may seem elaborate and difficult to the novice, but they are, in reality, simple enough when the use of materials is understood.

The word garnishing is used here in a broad interpretation of the term, meaning the general ornamentation of dishes, whether it be obtained by form, color, dishing, or by dressing them with those articles called garnishes.

NO. 198. SODA BISCUITS CUT WITH FLUTED STAMP.

For example, beginning with breads, embellishment is accomplished by means of form and color. The form is gained by molding and cutting; the color, by glazing with egg or sugar. A universal expedient, when short of bread, is the soda biscuit. These biscuits, when cut in very small rounds of uniform size, will tempt the scoffer of hot breads; while large or small crusty rolls, all of exactly the same size, and baked a golden color, will also make him forget his prejudices and find excuse in the delicious crust for eating them. But these same biscuits carelessly cut or molded or baked would offer him no excuse for inviting dyspepsia. Toast looks more inviting when cut into strips or triangles, or with the corners neatly cut off if served in whole slices. Any little thing which indicates care on the part of the cook recommends the dish to favor and almost guarantees its excellence—on the principle that straws show which way the wind blows.

For soups, there is to be found, in any cook book, a long list of garnishes which may be used. Certainly a clear soup is more beautiful when a few green peas or a few bits of celery increase its brilliancy; a cream soup is greatly improved by a few small croutons; and so on through the various classes of dishes.

The garnishes for meat dishes are so various, it may be said that their only limit is the ingenuity and resources of the cook.

It should be remembered that dishes which are served hot do not permit of as much garnishing as cold ones. The first requisite in the former is heat, and this must not be lost by time given to elaborate garnishing. It does not, however, exclude them from the privilege of being embellished; for if the garnishes are prepared and ready at hand, it takes but a minute to put them in place. Hot meat dishes can also rely on other things to improve their appearance, such as shapeliness and uniformity; therefore, strict attention should be given to the cutting and trimming of meats, to the molding of croquettes, of meat-balls, or of anything served in pieces, and also to the dishing of the same.

After meat is well cut, if a joint, it should be divested of all points and irregularities, and of cartilage which will interfere with the carving, and then should be trimmed into a well-balanced and symmetrical form, attention being given to the matter of its standing squarely and solidly upon the platter.

Chops and cutlets should be trimmed into uniform size and shape. This can be done without waste, as the trimmings have their uses. Careful dressing and trussing is essential for poultry, as the appearance of an untrussed fowl is enough to destroy the appetite and condemn the dinner. A fowl should be pressed into a rounded and smooth surface in order to dissociate the article served from the thing of life.

Meat should be placed exactly in the center of the platter, except in certain instances where studied irregularity is given for special garnishing. To place chops or cutlets neatly overlapping one another, either in rows or in a circle, requires some dexterity, perhaps, but this is acquired by a very little practice, and such an arrangement not only helps to keep the meats hot, but is in itself ornamental. The platter should be in right proportion to the article served upon it. A large joint on too small a platter gives the same sense of unsuitableness that an outgrown garment gives to a boy or a girl, and the carving of this seemingly overgrown joint usually results in accidents to the table-cloth. Again, too small a platter affords no room for garnishing.

The color given meat in cooking may be called its secondary garnish, space being the first. Care should be taken, if it is roasted, that it be well browned; if it is boiled, that it be white and clean-looking; if it is fried, that it be not blackened, but a clear lemon color. Poultry should have a golden color that suggests crispness. It is difficult to make the mediocre cook understand these points.

Larding also serves an ornamental purpose. Dry meats, like veal, and oftentimes fowls, are improved in flavor by being larded; and it should be so done as to make it an ornamental feature. There is no part in the preparation of dishes easier to perform than larding, and no novice need hesitate to undertake it.

Hashes and minces can, with very little trouble, be made attractive in appearance as well as in taste. Hash pressed into a mold, giving it a ring or a dome shape, then masked or not with a sauce, or simply turned upon a platter, can be prettily garnished with eggs and greens. Plain meat-balls and potato- or hominy-balls can be placed together on a platter with such regard to effect that the dish assumes the character of an entrée, instead of appearing like a makeshift from left-over pieces.

The next means after larding in what may be called natural garnishing is in the employment of gravies and sauces. No article should ever swim in sauce, but a little can be used with good effect on many dishes. A venison steak wet with a currant jelly sauce, and just enough of the sauce poured on the bottom of the platter to color it, gives a glaze and juicy look to the steak which improves its appearance. A very little tomato sauce under breaded veal chops or croquettes gives color and emphasis to the dish. White sauce poured over boiled dishes gives greater whiteness and often covers defects. In French cooking, much use is made of masking, which is often done by glazing and by the use of sauces. As white sauces will make white foods whiter, so brown ones will make brown ones browner. Fitness must of course be observed. If crispness is a part of the excellence of a dish, it would not do to destroy that quality by using a moistening garnish.

Vegetables as garnishes come next in order of suitableness and convenience. When vegetables are placed on the same platter with meats, they not only ornament the dish, but contribute to the ease of serving a dinner. When they are used the dish is called à la jardinière or à la printanière. Probably every cook knows how to serve mashed or fried potatoes or green peas in the center of a circle of chops. Similar combinations can be made in various ways and of many things. Spinach, beans, carrots, purées, macaroni, spaghetti, or rice may be placed so as to form a base, raising the chops like a crown, or grouped with them in rows, or alternating with the individual pieces. Macedoine is a mixture of any number of vegetables, such as peas, beans of various kinds, carrot and turnip balls, flowers of cauliflower and any other vegetable obtainable. They may be mixed together, or each vegetable may be kept distinct and placed in small piles around the platter. Small portions of vegetables left over may be used to advantage in this way. Very little need be used of any one, and any number may be combined on the same dish. Potatoes boiled or fried can be prepared in many fancy ways to make them suitable for garnishing. Well-seasoned spinach is excellent with chops, steaks, or roasts. Browned onions are often used. Meats with onion garnishes make dishes called à la soubise. Brussels sprouts, hot, are a suitable garnish for corned beef; or cold, with a French dressing, are an excellent salad to serve with cold beef. They should not be over-cooked or they will lose their shape. Stuffed tomatoes may be used with almost any meat dish.

Vegetable purée, in fancy form, is useful for embellishment, and may take the place of a fresh vegetable. Purée is made of any vegetable mashed and seasoned in the same manner as potato. Navy beans, lima beans, flageolets, and peas, either fresh or dried, are so used. The purée can be pressed through a pastry-bag into forms simulating roses, or placed in piles on rounds of toast. Vegetables intended to be eaten with the meats they garnish should be well seasoned before being placed on the platter; but where they are to serve only an ornamental purpose, they may sometimes, as in the case of carrots and turnips, be used uncooked, as they have a better color and more firmness when raw. These two vegetables are very useful, as they are obtainable all the year round. Carrots are particularly pretty when small. Large ones sliced and then stamped into fancy shapes, combined with turnips treated in the same way, are frequently used for making designs. Sometimes they are cut into balls, sometimes are carved into forms simulating roses. It is easy to make them into cups, using a fluted knife to shape the outside, and hollowing the center with a potato-scoop. These cups are good for holding any vegetable or for vegetable salads.

Rice is generally used for borders which are intended to keep creamed dishes and fricassees in shape. Sausages cut in halves or quarters, or fried bacon, make a good relish as well as a garnish for many meats; they are particularly good with egg dishes. Paper frills on protruding bones serve the excellent purpose of concealing these unsightly ends. They are easily made by folding a strip of paper lengthwise, then cutting it down about one and a half inches at intervals of one-eighth inch on the folded side, thus making a double fringe; next slip one side up a little, making the fringe round out; and, finally, roll this around a stick, leaving the openwork in a close spiral. These frills are used on the bones of a leg of mutton, on ham, on chops, and on drumsticks.

The green garnishes are parsley, watercress, small crisp lettuce leaves, green lettuce cut into ribbons, chicory, and celery tops. These are all edible, and all have places where they are especially appropriate. Parsley, which is most commonly used, is preëminent for convenience, beauty of leaf, and freshness. In many cases, however, greens which can be eaten with the dish are preferable, such as watercress with broiled or fried meats or fish. Parsley may be used with almost everything in its purely ornamental function, but it can be chopped and sprinkled over foods for both its flavoring and decorative qualities. A woman who has mastered the art of making an omelet will usually give it this finishing touch. Parsley should be very green and crisp, well washed, and dried with a cloth before being used; it may then be broken into sprigs and placed at intervals, or formed into a wreath. Sometimes a large bunch, like a bouquet, may be used with good effect.

NO. 1. LEMONS CUT FOR GARNISHES.

Lemons, like parsley, have convenience to recommend them, and, like watercress, are acceptable with fried meats. The acid of lemon is the best condiment for veal. When they serve the double purpose of garnish and condiment, they should be cut so the pieces can be taken in the hand and pressed without soiling the fingers. This is effected by cutting them in quarters lengthwise, or in halves and then in quarters. In some instances a half lemon is not too much to serve with one portion, but ordinarily quarters are sufficient. Slices are useless with meats, except as ornaments. Illustration [No. 1] shows a lemon ready to be sliced. It has been channeled so as to give the notched edges which make the slices more ornamental. The illustration also shows a lemon made to simulate a pig. This form can be used with propriety on a ham or pork dish. The ears are formed by cutting and raising a triangular slice on each side of the pointed end, the eyes are made of cloves, the legs and tail of wooden toothpicks.

NO. 2. EGGS CUT FOR GARNISHES.

Hard-boiled eggs ornament in a variety of ways. They should be boiled very hard, then cut with a thin, sharp knife so the slices will be smooth and the edges clean. Illustration [No. 2] shows plain slices, rings made by slipping the yolk out of slices, an egg cut into quarters and eighths, a whole yolk set into a ring, and a stuffed egg. Yolks pressed through a colander and sprinkled over creamed meat and fish dishes, cream toast, and some other dishes make a beautiful golden covering. Chopped whites in conjunction with crumbed yolks are used for tracing designs over salads, minces, and cold pieces.

Pickled beets are a useful and effective garnish. The color gives decided contrast, and the flavor is a good relish. Sliced beets can be stamped with vegetable-cutters into fancy shapes, or cut with a knife into diamonds, cubes, or strips. One can easily have them always at hand. Two or three boiled beets sliced thin and put into vinegar will last until all are used, and should be among the stores in the dresser awaiting the convenience of the cook. Cucumber pickles and gherkins are equally useful in point of color effects, and in giving piquancy to many foods. They are used in slices stamped into fancy shapes, or chopped and arranged in lines or in little heaps. Gherkins are usually left whole, but may be sliced, giving buttons of color. Capers and olives complete the list of condiment garnishes, though any pickle may be used with propriety on cold meat dishes. Illustration [No. 3] shows various garnishes as explained in legend.

Croutons are an indispensable part of hot minced meat dishes, creamed mixtures, and eggs cooked in various ways. They serve also to ornament these dishes, which especially require garnishing to make them presentable. Croutons are pieces of bread browned in butter in a sauté-pan, or moistened with butter and browned in the oven. Care should be taken to cut them exactly, the shape depending on the dish with which they are to be used. For soups they should be quarter-inch cubes; for minced meats, triangles more or less acute. Circles, squares, and strips also have their places. The color should be light golden, not dark brown; the latter color betrays inexperience or carelessness.

NO. 3. GARNISHES.
1. A carrot cut into cup shape with a fluted knife and filled with tomato.
2. A lemon cut into basket shape, the center covered with chopped parsley.
3. A turnip cut into cup shape with fluted knife and filled with green peas.
4. A carrot cup holding parsley.
5. Graduated slices of carrot holding a sprig of parsley.
6. Olives.
7. Strips of the white of a hard boiled egg arranged in a circle, the whole yolk placed in the center. The white is cut lengthwise of the egg, the strips pointed at the ends and sliced so they will lie flat. A small slice is taken off the yolk to make it stand firm.
8. Cranberries.
9. Slices of celery that are crescent shaped.
10. Sliced pickled beet stamped into various shapes.
11. A gherkin sliced nearly to the end, the slices then spread out to resemble a leaf.
12. Chopped pickled beet.
13. A bottle of capers.
14. Aspic jelly cut into triangular, square, and diamond shaped pieces and into small dice.
On the front edge of the board are three pieces of chicken aspic which is so transparent that the pattern of the paper shows through it.

Fontage cups holding vegetables are useful for garnishing.

The articles in the following list are used for garnishing meats:

Parsley

Lettuce

Watercress

Chicory

Hard-boiled eggs

Lemons

Pickles

Capers

Olives

Beets

Croutons

Fancy skewers

Paper frills

Vegetables

Mushrooms

Macaroni

Spaghetti

Rice

Potato or purée forms

Sauces

Sausages

Bacon

A cook who has a desire to ornament her dishes can make an infinite variety of garnishings by combining various things, or by changing the form and arrangement of any one of them. Most of the articles used are within the reach of all. It is even not necessary to buy articles especially for this purpose, for odds and ends left over, or those standard stores always in the larder, will afford enough material tastefully to ornament the dishes.

It must be borne in mind that decorations should not be such as will embarrass the carver.

VEGETABLES

With very few exceptions, vegetables should be served au naturel. Meats require all the aids of skilful handling and tasteful adornment. Vegetables, on the contrary, have great beauty in themselves, and the art of the cook cannot rival that of nature. Therefore a few sprigs of parsley so arranged as to give a finish to the dish are ordinarily sufficient garnishing. In those cases, however, where the vegetables lose form and color in cooking, the skill of the cook may be employed to restore these qualities as far as possible. The more a cabbage can be made to look like itself, the more attractive it will be. This, at first thought, may seem a difficult thing to do, but the boiled vegetable can easily be placed in a cup made of the outside green leaves of the cabbage, and so, in a measure, present its own beautiful form and color. Illustration [No. 4] shows a plain boiled cabbage mixed with a white sauce and so arranged.

NO. 4. SAVOY CABBAGE LEAVES HOLDING CREAMED BOILED CABBAGE.

The color of this vegetable in its natural state appeals to the esthetic sense of every artist, and many a beautiful picture has been made of a field of cabbages; yet the farmer who sees a man sit down with canvas and brush before his cabbage patch usually regards him as a crank, for to his untutored mind cabbages are associated only with their utility. Many housekeepers are equally mistaken in their views about this vegetable, and consider it coarse food fit to serve only garnished with apologies. Such opinions are based on error, however, for the cabbage is both beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. There are many receipts for cooking cabbage which make it as delicate a dish as cauliflower.

NO. 5. SPINACH GARNISHED WITH WHITE OF HARD BOILED EGG AND CROUTONS.

In the case of spinach, since the form cannot be preserved, recourse is had to molding; the color also may be heightened by contrast with other colors. Illustration [No. 5] shows spinach molded by being pressed into a basin decorated with the whites of hard-boiled eggs, and with croutons placed around the form after it is unmolded. Both the eggs and the croutons improve the taste of the spinach. The basin was first buttered to hold the egg in place while the design was being arranged. Crumbed yolk of hard-boiled egg sprinkled over spinach is another garnishing for this vegetable which enhances its green color and gives the dish a better appearance.

NO. 6. ASPIC OF GREEN PEAS.

There are many ways of cooking any vegetable. These various ways may serve for change, but few of them are better than the simple one of boiling and serving with a suitable sauce. Attention should be given to dishing vegetables so that there is no appearance of their having been turned carelessly on to the platter. A neatly folded napkin can be used under dry, unseasoned vegetables, like asparagus, artichokes, or corn. The napkin gives daintiness to the dish, and in the case of corn, when folded over it, helps to keep it hot.

COLD DISHES

It has been said above that discrimination should be made in garnishing dishes; those to be served hot, for instance, should go directly from the fire to the table, and not be allowed to become cool while being elaborately garnished; on the other hand, cold dishes demand no haste and permit of so much elaboration that at suppers and buffet luncheons they are depended upon largely for table decoration.

The accomplished cook considers the work on cold pieces an opportunity for giving examples of his skill, and the ornamentation of molds and chaud-froids a kind of fancy work which requires nicety and taste. Under the head of cold dishes come all the salads, the pâtés, galantines, cold fish dishes, ices, and sweets. In each of these there is range in which to display culinary accomplishments. The skill requisite for moderate adornment of these dishes is not so great that one need hesitate to undertake them. Cold dishes are often more gratefully received in summer than hot ones, therefore it is desirable that every cook should be able to serve them in attractive forms. Again, from an economic point of view they are desirable, as meats can be served a second time in cold forms quite as acceptably as before.

Many meats, when served cold, require to be boned and pressed into good shape. Ordinary kitchen boards weighted down serve very well for a press. The meat, while hot, is put into molds, or is rolled in cloth, the ends tied, and then placed in the press. Small muffin-rings can be used for sweetbreads, bread-tins or oval molds for other meats. Chaud-froid sauce is often spread over galantines, and jellied mayonnaise over cold fish. On this smooth surface the decoration is laid in some design traced in fancy cuts of truffle, or in a combination of white of egg with truffles, cold tongue, olives, and other suitable things which give color. See illustration [No. 114].

Aspic jelly is a principal reliance for covering cold pieces. It is not masking in this case, for the jelly should be perfectly transparent, while masking conceals the material of which the dish is composed. Aspic is also cut into small triangles or in squares to make borders, and is sometimes chopped and used for decoration. See illustration [No. 3]. Aspic is no longer one of the difficult preparations reserved for the hand of the very experienced cook. Any of the beef or chicken extracts stiffened with gelatine, and seasoned and cleared if necessary, make good aspic. The preparation is as simple as that of any jelly. A little care, however, in molding and handling is requisite for good results. Jellied vegetables are appropriate to use with jellied or other cold meats. Small cups are used for molding them, and the pieces can be made very ornamental. See illustration [No. 6]. The small forms placed around meat and served with a green salad make an attractive cold course.

NO. 7. FANCY SKEWERS FOR GARNISHING COLD MEAT OR FISH DISHES.
1. Mushroom, Cranberry, or Olive, whole Hard Boiled Egg, Cranberry, Mushroom.
2. Cranberry or Olive. Prawn, Quarter of Lemon. Prawn, Cranberry, or Olive.
3. Mushroom with Stem. Notched Slice of Lemon. Cranberry or Olive. Lemon, Cranberry, or Olive.

Fancy skewers are much employed on cold meats. Their office is purely ornamental, so when they are used trouble is not to be considered. A fancy-headed skewer is run through, perhaps, a fine red cockscomb, then a truffle, then a fancy cut of lemon, or a mushroom, or a carved vegetable. Truffles in combination with vegetables molded in aspic and quenelles also are often used. If all these things are impracticable, one can devise combinations more easily obtained. A trussing needle can be utilized, concealing the head in a section of lemon and building down with carrot and turnip in alternating colors and shapes, and perhaps using a crawfish, an egg, or an olive in the combination. See illustration [No. 7]. French authors recommend that these skewers be employed only occasionally, so that they may not lose the attraction which novelty gives them.

Cracked, crushed, or ground ice can often be used with good effect. It gives crispness to olives, celery, radishes, and cucumbers, and enhances the beauty of the dish as well. With raw oysters it is indispensable, and with melons very desirable. A free use of ice on the summer breakfast table will go far toward inviting an appetite for that meal.

It is well to remember that although great elaboration is possible in cold dishes, it is not necessary, and dishes can be made very attractive without chaud-froid, aspic, or traced designs. If the pieces are shapely, they will look well if simply sprinkled with chopped parsley, chopped white of egg, or the crumbed yolks, and dressed with any of the green salads. Flowers also can be used to aid in adornment.

NO. 8. BOILED FISH IN SWIMMING POSITION.

FISH

As fish dishes rank with any other kind in point of attractiveness, and are open to almost as great a variety of garnishing as are meats, the same general remarks apply to them. The matter of shape and color here, too, has to be considered. A boiled fish dropping to pieces from over-cooking, or bereft of its head or tail, is an unsightly dish. It is permitted to serve fish au naturel, even going so far as to simulate swimming. This is done by propping it with a whole carrot laid inside, which gives the fish enough rigidity to stand upright. Illustration No. [8] shows a fish served in this way. The garnishing is white rings of hard-boiled egg, holding sprigs of parsley, laid along the back. A slice of lemon sprinkled with and surrounded by parsley, giving the effect of a medallion, is placed against the side of the fish. A fish to be baked may be twisted like the letter S to make it stand upright. A boiled fish, whether served whole or in part, should appear clean. No scum from the kettle should be suffered to remain on it, and no water should drip from it into the platter. A folded napkin is usually placed under boiled fish to insure dryness.

Boiled potatoes are ordinarily served with boiled fish, and may be used for garnishing, if cut into balls and cooked so that they are very white and mealy. Parsley gives color and also a sense of freshness. It may be used in large bunches, especially when the fish is cut, or on creamed fish dishes.

NO. 9. BOILED SECTION OF FISH COVERED WITH WHITE SAUCE AND GARNISHED WITH CHOPPED PARSLEY AND POTATO BALLS.

Illustration [No. 9] shows a middle cut of fish with potato and parsley decoration. The fish being cod, the flesh is not sufficiently white to be attractive, and so it is masked with white sauce, then sprinkled with chopped parsley. Had the fish been halibut, the sauce would have been omitted. Hard-boiled eggs are an excellent accompaniment for boiled fish, and when not used in the sauce may be supplied in the garnishing. Creamed fish is pretty with the top made golden with crumbed yolks.

Fried fish should have a lemon color and look clean, dry, and bright, not black or greasy. The color is secured by dipping them in milk, then rolling in flour and frying in smoking-hot fat; or, if eggs and crumbs are used, having white, fresh crumbs grated from the stale loaf. Fish to be fried is often cut into slices, or into fillets, but small fish need not be cut and so lose their character. Smelts are sometimes turned into rings, or are laid open and the head drawn through a slit cut in the back. Different ways of dressing them give variety, and make dishes ornamental from form alone. If potatoes are served with fried fish, they should be cut into balls and fried. Lemons are indispensable with fried or broiled fish. They are frequently sliced, but are better cut in quarters so as to give more of the juice, which is needed for condiment. Lemon sprinkled with chopped parsley is very pretty.

Broiled fish is improved by being spread with maître d’hôtel butter. This gives it a moist appearance, and is the best possible sauce for it; at the same time the parsley in the sauce helps to garnish the dish. Watercress placed around the fish completes the garnishing and makes the dish perfect. Lemon and watercress are the best condiments for any fried or broiled dish. Baked fish will not bear more than a few sprigs of parsley as garnishing.

Lobster coral is much esteemed on account of its brilliant color, and when lobster is served it is well to use it as a garnish. It may be sprinkled over the whole surface of a lobster dish, or be arranged in lines or dots as the circumstances suggest. Shrimps, prawns, and crawfish make good garnishes for any fish, whether it is served hot or cold.

When dishes are to be passed, the dishing and garnishing should be such that the portions are easily distinguishable.

An amusing story is told by a scientist of the predicament in which he was placed when the guest of honor at an English table. He was a man of simple habits in his home, and was very near-sighted. Elaborately garnished dishes were passed to him first, as he sat at the right of the host, and he had to break the construction of what he was pleased to call architectural or master-builder’s dishes, and this without knowing where their keystone lay, or of what they were composed. He was thus obliged to make public exhibition of his awkwardness, as well as betray ignorance in that branch of his own business, which left him unable to recognize biological specimens when they had evolved into their highest development in the hands of the cook. This story serves as an important hint that no dish should be entirely disguised. A lobster should still be a lobster in form or suggestion, however it is prepared. For example, should it be served in chops, a claw pressed into one end would not only carry out the form of a chop, but would also designate the dish. There is generally something that can be reserved from an article which loses its shape in cooking that may be used to garnish the dish and act as a kind of label.

The garnishes are:

For Vegetables

Parsley

Hard-boiled eggs

Croutons

For Cold Meats

Parsley

Leaves of any of the salads

Cold vegetables in fancy cuts

Hard-boiled eggs

Stuffed eggs

Pickles of any kind

Capers

Olives

Lemons

Jellied vegetables

Aspic jelly

Truffles

Chaudfroid sauce

Fancy skewers

Flowers

Ice

For Fish

Parsley

Lettuce

Watercress

Croutons

Hard-boiled eggs

Lemons

Pickles

Capers

Potato purée and balls

Lobster coral and claws

Crawfish

Prawns

Shrimps

POTATOES

Potatoes are a universal dish, and there are an infinite variety of ways of cooking them: boiling, baking, frying, all manner of ways to suit all manner of people, and to accompany all kinds of meats. Yet, strange as it may seem, it is the food usually the worst cooked of any that is presented. The potatoes are too often soggy, greasy, blackened, burned. The poor cook seems determined to destroy both the favor and flavor of this useful vegetable. The potato is mostly starch, and it is not as well known as it should be that the principle of cooking starch is to cook it only until the starch grains burst, and then remove it from moisture, for the starch grains, when open, readily absorb moisture and become soggy. Hence we see this vegetable a most delicious dish or one unfit to eat, according to the skill of the cook. Mashed potato is served from the simplest kitchen, but betrays the poor cook as quickly as a greasy soup. Sometimes one sees an attempt made to improve the appearance of this dish by pressing and smoothing it over the top. This makes a hard and compact mass of what ought to be a light and flaky substance. Often it is served in a deep dish, which is another mistake; for the potato, when light and white, is tempting enough to serve on a flat dish where it may be seen. Potatoes that are to be served in this way should be mashed the moment they are cooked, and not set aside for a more convenient time. They may then be moistened with milk or cream and be seasoned with butter, pepper, and salt, in measure to the richness desired, and whipped until, like the whites of eggs, they become white and spongy from the air imprisoned in the cells. Mashed potato may be served in a great variety of ways. It can be run through the menu from soup to salad; can be used for entrées, and can make ornamental fancy dishes out of even minces and stews. It is invaluable as a mask for broken dishes; for instance, a leg of mutton can be made a presentable dish to serve a second time by filling the cut with mashed potato. In this case it must be molded to the shape of the roast and be painted with egg over the top, so it will take color and not betray the patch. Such expedients are at times admissible and should not be scorned. It has been wisely said that “if there is not economy in the kitchen there will soon be no kitchen.”

When potato is made into cakes, timbales, or croquettes, it must have egg mixed through it, else it will lose its form when cooked the second time. When used as borders for minces or creamed dishes, it can be turned into shape with a knife, be lightly pressed into a mold to give it form, or be pressed through a pastry-bag and tube into fancy forms.

Frying is perhaps the method of cooking potatoes which requires the most skill. Fried balls, slices, or straws are always excellent with broiled meats, and at the same time are the best garnish for them. The height of skill is reached in the soufflé. These small balloons are something of a marvel, and are seldom seen except from the hand of a French cook. The amateur seldom succeeds with this dish, yet it is one worthy of the practice which makes perfect. To prepare the delectable soufflé, the potato is cut lengthwise, or with the grain; the slices must be one eighth of an inch in thickness and taken off with one clean, sharp cut, then trimmed to uniform shapes, either elliptical or round. The slices are soaked in cold water and dried with a cloth at the moment of cooking. They are immersed in fat just below the smoking-point, and cooked for five minutes, or until softened; are then drained and allowed to cool for a little time in an open oven, and then immersed a second time in fat which is very hot, when the slices at once puff and brown. They should be served at once.

NO. 10. UTENSILS.
1. Baking sheet.
2. Purée sieve.
3. Fontage or Swedish timbale irons.
4. Pastry brush.
5. Two pastry bags made of rubber cloth, the larger one holding a star tube.
6. Tubes for pastry bags with plain, round, and star openings of different sizes. The last four on the right are small tubes for icing cake in ornamental designs.

NO. 12. CUTTERS AND MOLDS.
1. A nest of long vegetable cutters making pencil-shaped pieces of different sizes.
2, 3, 4. Bread and cake cutters in the forms of a heart, a spade, and a clover leaf.
5. Individual timbale molds.
6. Pastry cutter for vol-au-vents.
7. Form for molding lobster or fish chops.
8, 9. Small plain round, and fluted cutters for tiny biscuits or for garnishes.
10. A group of fancy cutters for sliced vegetables to be used in macedoine, in soup, or as garnishes.
11. A smaller cutter used for truffles and hard boiled eggs.
12. Cake cutter in form of crescent.
13. Three vegetable scoops.
14. Fluted knife for cutting fluted slices of vegetables, turnip cups, etc.
15. A spatula, or dull edged flexible knife.
16. Small molds for aspics or other jellies used for garnishing.

NO. 13. RING MOLDS.

Potato straws are very attractive and seem so light and harmless that those who ordinarily reject fried dishes are tempted by them. They are cut lengthwise of the tuber, first in slices about one eighth of an inch in thickness, and then into straws the length of the slices. They cook very quickly in smoking-hot fat, and must not be left in so long as to become brown and dry. They should be crisp and of a lemon color. The straws can be cut of a larger size if desired, and are especially pretty if cut with a fluted knife.

It seems desirable to suggest to housekeepers the feasibility of making a specialty of cooking potatoes, and with them to give variety, which is so acceptable to those who sit at their board. Perhaps no other one thing is susceptible to so many changes, and is so simple to prepare, is so satisfactory when properly served, and withal so nutritious. It answers both the substantial and the esthetic requirements of the perfect meal; it can be suitably served for breakfast, dinner, supper, and luncheon; it is within the reach of all.

CREAM

Whipped cream often makes the best sauce for a dessert dish, and can be used as a garnish. Its use need not be considered an extravagance. A half-pint of double cream is all that is usually called for, this costs but ten cents, and often the use of cream saves the use of butter, in the same way that water can sometimes be substituted for milk if a little butter is added to the receipt to give the richness which milk imparts.

CAKE

Decorating cakes takes a little time, but facility is soon acquired, and the time is not misspent, as the cakes, before being served, can be used to ornament the table.

THE PASTRY-BAG

The pastry-bag is a cornucopia-shaped pocket made of rubber cloth, of duck, or of any closely woven fabric like ticking. The point of the cornucopia is cut off and a tin tube pressed into the small opening. The bags made of rubber cloth are the best, as they do not allow moisture to come through, and are easily cleaned. They cost fifteen cents each, and can be bought at house-furnishing stores, but bags can be easily made at home.

The tubes cost ten cents each, are of graduated sizes, and have various-shaped openings.

The pastry-bag is easy to handle, and is of great utility where ornamental dishes are desired. It is used for mashed vegetables, meringues, whipped cream, drop cake mixtures, icing, etc.

A tube, with opening of suitable size, is fitted into the small end of the bag, the mixture is then put in, and the bag, gathered over close to the material, is held and pressed with one hand while the tube is guided with the other, leaving the material squeezed through it in the forms desired. It needs but very little practice to make ornamental designs. It is well to have at least two bags, one of them large, with a large tube, to hold mixtures used in quantity, and one small for decorating with icing.

FONTAGE CUPS

1 cupful of flour,

½ teaspoonful salt,

Yolks of 2 eggs,

Milk or water.

Add enough milk to a cup of flour to make a thin batter, then add the salt and the beaten yolks. The batter must be smooth and quite thin. Use a small bowl deep enough to immerse the fontage iron.

Have deep fat smoking hot. Place the iron in the fat to heat it. Dip the hot iron into the batter, covering it to within a quarter of an inch of the top; the batter will rise when put in the hot fat and cover the whole iron. Hold the iron in the batter for a minute, or until a little of the batter has hardened around it, then lift it carefully, holding the iron so the batter will not slip off. Immerse it in the hot fat and cook until light-colored.

After a few trials one will be able to make the cups even and thin. They are also called Swedish timbales, and are used for holding any kind of creamed mixtures, or for holding vegetables. They can be used as an entrée, or for garnishing other dishes. The cups will keep for some time, but in this case should be freshened by heating before being used; and, as they soften quickly, the mixture should not be replaced in them until the moment of serving. Illustration [No. 10] shows fontage irons.

NO. 11. DIFFERENT WAYS OF PREPARING BUTTER.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF PREPARING BUTTER

Numbers one, two, and three are made by pressing butter through a pastry-bag with star-tube. In No. 1 it is cut in three-inch lengths; in No. 2 it is pressed into long pencils and cut when cold into one-inch lengths; and in No. 3 it is made into rosettes by holding the tube still until the butter has piled up to the size desired. These are good forms for fresh butter, and they should be made as soon as the butter is churned and worked, as it is soft enough then to pass through the tube. If salted butter is used, it must be whipped with a fork until it is soft and light before being pressed through the bag. The forms must be dropped at once into ice-water to harden them. Serve the pieces in a dish with cracked ice and green leaves. Parsley will do if nothing better is at hand. Rose leaves are especially pretty, or a lettuce leaf may be used as a kind of basket.

No. 4 are shell-shaped pieces made with a bent, fluted utensil made for the purpose (see illustration No. 5, opposite page 256, “Century Cook Book”). The utensil is dipped in hot water, wiped dry, and then drawn lightly over the butter, making a thin shaving which curls over as the utensil is drawn along. The crook must be dipped in hot water and wiped clean each time.

Butter molded into fancy shapes and served in this way is very attractive.

MEASURES AND TERMS

1 cupful means half a pint.

1 teaspoonful of salt or spices means an even teaspoonful.

1 tablespoonful of flour, butter, etc., means a rounding spoonful.

Sauté means to cook in a pan with a little butter or drippings.

Frying means cooking by immersion in hot fat.

Blanching almonds means taking off the skins.

This is done by letting them lie in boiling water until the skins are loosened.

NO. 14. PAPER FRILLS. PAPER BOXES. CAKE DECORATIONS.
1. Pleated paper frill for concealing a baking dish.
2. Frill for leg-of-mutton bone.
3. Frills on wooden toothpicks for croquettes.
4. Frills for chop bones.
5. Board holding on a lace paper confectioners’ roses, of different colors, and other flowers for decorating cake.
6. Paper box holding silvered candy pellets for decorating cake.
7. Paper boxes for ices, or mixtures of creamed meats, or eggs.
8. Paper boxes for holding small iced cakes or candied fruits.

NO. 15. CASSEROLES AND BAKING DISHES.
1. A white china dish for holding creamed oysters, etc., or to hold a smaller dish which has been in the oven.
2, 3. Oblong and round baking dishes of glazed pottery, brown on the outside, white in the inside, which can be sent to the table.
4. Pipkin, to use the same as a casserole.
5. Casserole.
6, 7. Brown-ware dishes for shirred eggs.
8. China cups for individual creamed dishes.
9. Small casserole.

NO. 16 ICE PLANE.

NO. 17. HORS D’OEUVRES.
Hors d’oeuvres are relishes which are passed between the courses.
1. Olives.
2. Small heart stalks of celery and radishes in the same dish.
3. Curled celery. The celery is cut in two-inch lengths, which are scored across the ribbed side and then cut in narrow strips down to a quarter of an inch of one end. The pieces are then placed in cold water to make them curl.
4. Radishes cut in fancy shapes.
5. Pim-olas (olives stuffed with red peppers).

Blanching sweetbreads means whitening them by pouring cold water on them immediately after the hot water is poured off. A scale and a half-pint tin cup are indispensable cooking utensils, as the success of many dishes depends on exact weight and measurements.

Except in a few cases, receipts given in “Century Cook Book” are not repeated here.

ORDER OF COURSES

BEVERAGES SERVED AT LUNCHEON

Table waters

Cups

Wines

Chapter II
FIRST COURSE

FRUITS

FRUITS

Oranges

Salpicon of fruits on glass plate

Salpicon of fruits in glasses

Grape-fruit

Strawberries on individual plates

Individual pineapples

Currants on individual plates

Frosted currants

Muskmelon

COCKTAILS, CANAPÉS, OYSTERS, CLAMS

Clam cocktails

Oyster cocktails

Anchovy eggs

Salmon canapés, heart-shaped

Anchovy canapés

Canapés of caviare

Oysters on the half shell

Clams on the half shell

Bread and butter sandwiches with oysters and clams

FRUITS

No. 1. Oranges. Cut off the tops of the oranges. Scrape out the pulp and draw a narrow ribbon through each top, passing the two ends through with a bodkin and tying them on the under side. Drawing through the ribbon soils it. Tie a bow on top.

Loosen the pulp of the orange, using a silver knife, so it can be eaten with a spoon. Add a little sugar if necessary, and a teaspoonful of sherry, if desired.

No. 2. Salpicon of fruits. Place in the center of a glass plate some pieces of the pulp of an orange or grape-fruit, or both mixed together. Arrange around them a double row of white grapes cut in halves and with the seeds removed.

Salpicon of fruits in glasses. This is a mixture of fruits such as grape-fruit, grapes, oranges, bananas, and pineapple, or any combination convenient. Divide the oranges and grape-fruit into sections, then carefully take off the skins and remove the seeds. Leave the pulp in large pieces; add enough sugar to sweeten and a little sherry if desired. Cut the grapes in halves and remove the seeds. Place the mixture in individual glasses and add two or three candied cherries to each glass.

Grape-fruit. Prepare grape-fruit as directed above. Sweeten it and make it very cold. Place it in individual glasses with a candied cherry in the center. At the last moment add a teaspoonful of cracked ice to each glass.

NO. 18. 1. SALPICON OF FRUIT ON GLASS PLATE. 2. ORANGE.

NO. 19. INDIVIDUAL DISH OF STRAWBERRIES.

Strawberries. Press powdered sugar into a small cup or glass to mold it. Turn the sugar into the center of a dish and arrange around it carefully selected strawberries. Leave the hulls on the berries and serve in individual portions.

Individual pineapples. Cut small pineapples in two. Cut the ends so the pieces will stand straight. Cut out the centers and tear the pulp into pieces, then return it to the cups formed by the skins. Sweeten with powdered sugar; add a tablespoonful of sherry, if desired, to each portion. Let them stand a little while to extract the juice. At the moment of serving add a teaspoonful of cracked ice to each cup. Serve as a first course at luncheon, or before the game at dinner.

A variety called strawberry pines are best suited for this dish. They are sometimes so small that a whole one may be used as one portion.

NO. 20. INDIVIDUAL DISHES OF STRAWBERRY PINEAPPLES.

Currants. Make a mound of sugar as directed for strawberries. Place around the sugar bunches of cherry currants, as in No. 1, or pile them on grape leaves as in No. 2. White and red currants may be placed in the same dish. Serve in individual portions as first course at luncheon or at breakfast.

NO. 21. INDIVIDUAL DISHES OF CURRANTS.

NO. 22. FROSTED CURRANTS.

Frosted currants. Stem large cherry currants. Put them in a dish with a quantity of granulated sugar and shake them together. The moisture of the currants will cause enough sugar to adhere to completely cover them. Turn them off the sugar and serve at once before the sugar loses its dryness. Serve them on leaves in individual portions, or pass them as a first course at luncheon or breakfast. This is a very pretty way of serving currants.

NO. 23. MUSKMELON.

Muskmelon. The muskmelon should be very ripe and very cold. Cut the melons in two and serve with cracked ice in each half. If the melon is not too large serve a half as one portion. Serve on individual plates, or pass as first course for breakfast, luncheon, or dinner. Pass salt and sugar.

For other arrangements of fruits see “Century Cook Book,” page 529.

CLAM OR OYSTER COCKTAILS

Use small Little Neck clams or small Blue Point oysters.

To each 8 or 10 clams or oysters use:

One tablespoonful of tomato catsup,

Two tablespoonfuls of Chili sauce,

One half teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce,

A dash of tabasco or of paprika,

One tablespoonful of clam or oyster liquor,

The juice of one quarter of a lemon.

Mix the sauces and let the clams or oysters stand in them for an hour before serving.

Serve in small glasses as a first course.

NO. 24. ANCHOVY EGGS.

ANCHOVY EGGS

Cut hard-boiled eggs in two lengthwise, using a thin-bladed, sharp knife. Have the eggs boiled twenty-five minutes so the yolks will be crumby.

Remove the yolks, mash them, and mix them with mayonnaise and the trimmings of the anchovies. Just before serving, fill the white halves with the yolk mixture, covering the whole top, heaping it in the middle and leaving a rough surface. Trim anchovies to the right length and lay two of them crossed over the top of each egg. Set each piece on a round of bread sautéd in butter. Slice a little piece off the bottom of the egg to make it stand firm.

Serve on individual plates.

Anchovies preserved in oil are put up in small bottles and can be purchased from a grocer.

NO. 25. HEART-SHAPED SALMON CANAPÉS.

HEART-SHAPED SALMON CANAPÉS

Cut very light bread into slices one quarter of an inch thick. Stamp them with a cutter into heart shapes. Spread them thinly on both sides with butter and put them in the oven to brown; or sauté them in butter. Let them cool, then lay on each one a slice of Nova Scotia smoked salmon, cut as thin as possible. Place around the edges of the heart a border of chopped white of hard-boiled eggs, and a little crumbed yolk just at the upper point of the heart, making a round spot. The salmon must not be entirely covered with egg, so that the hearts may show three colors. Serve on individual plates, with a small piece of parsley at the rounded end.

Nova Scotia salmon can be bought at delicatessen stores.

NO. 26. OYSTERS AND CLAMS ON THE HALF SHELL.

ANCHOVY CANAPÉS

Cut fresh bread into slices quarter of an inch thick, then into rounds two and a half inches in diameter. Spread the rounds of bread with butter, season with a little salt, pepper, and mustard.

Split and trim the anchovies to uniform length and arrange them on the bread in rosette form. Fill the spaces between the anchovy fillets with the chopped white and the crumbed yolk of hard-boiled eggs and make a border around the bread with the white. Use a little chopped parsley in the decoration.

For other canapés, see “Century Cook Book,” page 368.

CANAPÉS OF CAVIARE

Cut very light bread into slices quarter of an inch thick, then into rounds or squares two inches across. Sauté them in butter on one side. When they are cold spread them with a thin covering of caviare moistened with a little oil and lemon juice. Place on the top of each one a very thin slice of lemon.

Caviare is the fermented roe of the sturgeon. It is a dish much esteemed in Russia, but the taste for it is not very general in other countries, so discretion should be used in serving it.

It comes in small jars and can be obtained at grocers’.

OYSTERS OR CLAMS ON THE HALF SHELL

Raw oysters and clams are served on the “half shell” for a first course. Blue Point oysters and Little Neck clams are the varieties preferred. The smallest ones, and those uniform in size, should be selected. They should be opened only a short time before serving. The muscle holding the mollusk to the shell is cut and the oyster or clam is served on the deep valve.

Arrange the clams or oysters symmetrically in a circle, the beaks turned to the center, on a bed of cracked ice. Place in the middle a quarter of a lemon cut lengthwise, the top edge shaved off and the seeds extracted. Rest the piece of lemon on a sprig of parsley or any green leaf.

Condiments, thin brown bread and butter sandwiches, and biscuits are passed with this course.

The condiments (horseradish and tomato catsup, black and red pepper) may be placed on a dish, and the bread and biscuits arranged around them as in illustration.

Chapter III
SECOND COURSE

SOUPS

SOUPS

Consommé of Beef

Consommé of Chicken

Clam Broth

Clam Bisque

Cream of Clams

Cream of Oysters

Cream of Spinach

Cream of Celery

SOUPS

Soups used for luncheon are served in cups. Any kind of soup can be used, but those given below are the ones generally employed. For other soups, see “Century Cook Book,” page 97.

NO. 27. BOUILLON CUP WITH SIPPETS OF TOAST AND ITALIAN BREAD STICKS.

CONSOMMÉ OF BEEF

Cut into pieces four pounds of beef taken from the under part of the round, and the meat cut from a knuckle of veal. Put them into a soup pot with two tablespoonfuls of butter and let them brown on all sides. Then add a cupful of water and let it fall to a glaze. This is to give color to the soup. Add five and a half quarts of cold water. Let it boil slowly for five to six hours. An hour before removing it add soup vegetables, a tablespoonful of salt, fifteen peppercorns, three cloves, two bay-leaves, a little thyme, marjoram, and summer savory.

Strain the soup through a cloth and let it cool without covering. When it is cold take off the grease. As no bones were boiled with the soup, it will be clear; and as the meat was browned, it will have a good color.

It can be made perfectly clear as follows: Pour the soup off the sediment which has fallen to the bottom of the dish. Stir into it while it is cold the whites of two eggs beaten enough to break them. Place it on the fire and stir it until it comes to the boiling-point; the egg will then be cooked and have imprisoned any particles which clouded the soup. Let it boil violently for a few minutes, then draw it to the side of the range. Strain it again through a cloth. Heat it again before serving it.

In summer this soup is sometimes served cold in the form of jelly. In this case the bone of the knuckle of veal must be cooked with it in order to make it jelly. Care must be taken that during the cooking the water only simmers, for if it boils lime will be extracted from the bone and it will be impossible to have a clear soup.

CONSOMMÉ OF CHICKEN

Place a fowl in a soup pot with four quarts of cold water and let it come slowly to the boiling-point, then draw it to the side of the range and let it simmer for five or six hours. If it is allowed to boil the soup will be clouded by lime extracted from the bones.

An hour before removing it add an onion, a branch of celery, a tablespoon of salt, and six peppercorns. Strain it through a cloth, and when cold remove the grease. Clear it the same as the beef consommé.

A knuckle of veal may also be used with this soup if a jellied stock is wanted to serve cold.

CLAM BROTH

Boil clams in their own liquor for twenty minutes. Let the liquid settle before pouring it off. Season it with pepper and serve it very hot in cups, with a teaspoonful of whipped cream on the top of each cupful. About two dozen clams will give a quart of liquor.

CLAM BISQUE

Boil a pint of clams in their own liquor. Chop the clams very fine and return them to the fire with the clam liquor, a quart of soup stock (chicken or veal stock preferred), half a cupful of uncooked rice, a sprig of parsley, and a bay-leaf. Boil until the rice is tender, then strain the soup through a purée sieve, pressing through as much of the clams and rice as possible. Strain a second time. Just before serving, heat it, add a cupful of cream, and beat the whole with an egg-whip.

CREAM OF CLAMS

Steam twenty-five clams and as soon as they open remove them from the shells and strain off the liquor. Chop the clams, pound them in a mortar, and rub as much of them as possible through a purée sieve. Put three cupfuls of milk into a double boiler, cook two tablespoonfuls of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour together, but do not let them brown, then add to the cooked butter and flour a little of the milk from the boiler to make a smooth paste, put the paste into the milk in the double boiler, and stir the mixture until it is a little thickened. When ready to serve add two cupfuls of clam liquor and the pulp which has passed through the sieve. Let it get hot, but do not let it boil or it will curdle. Season with salt, if necessary, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. At the moment of serving add a cupful of cream and beat the whole well with an egg-whip. This receipt makes a quart and a half of soup.

CREAM OF OYSTERS

Prepare the same as the Cream of Clams.

CREAM SOUPS

Any vegetable pulp can be used for creamed soups after the rule given for Cream of Spinach.

CREAM OF SPINACH

Boil spinach until tender, then drain it. Chop it and rub it through a purée sieve. To two cupfuls of vegetable pulp add a quart of soup stock, or a quart of milk, or half stock and half milk. Rub together a tablespoonful of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour. Put this into the soup on the fire and stir all together until the soup is a little thickened. Season it with pepper and salt and add a half or a whole cupful of cream. Beat it well with an egg-whip and serve at once. If the soup is too thick dilute it with a little stock or milk. It should have the consistency of cream.

CREAM OF CELERY

This is prepared in the same manner as the Cream of Spinach, using celery pulp instead of spinach. The roots of the celery as well as the stalks should be boiled to make the pulp.

Chapter IV
THIRD COURSE

EGGS

EGGS

Plain French Omelet

Beaten Omelet

Omelet Chasseur

Eggs à la Romaine

Eggs baked in Tomatoes

Eggs baked in Green Peppers

Scrambled Eggs with Tomato

Creamed Poached Eggs

Creamed Egg Baskets

Poached Eggs with Greens

Eggs in Nests

Eggs Farci, No. 1

Eggs Farci, No. 2

Eggs with Giblet Sauce

Eggs à l’Aurore

Scrambled Eggs with Brains

NO. 29.
1. EGGS À LA ROMAINE.
2. EGGS BAKED IN TOMATOES.
3. EGGS BAKED IN GREEN PEPPERS.
4. SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH TOMATOES.

EGGS

Egg dishes are especially useful for luncheon, as they are easily and quickly prepared, are always liked, and can be served in a great variety of ways. They may be used as a first course, or in the order named in the list.

TO POACH EGGS

Drop the eggs into water just off the boiling-point. Let them cook slowly until the whites are like jelly, but not until hard. Muffin-rings may be used to keep them in good shape.

TO POACH EGGS IN FRENCH STYLE

Use a large saucepan and have it two thirds full of water. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar. When the water boils stir it with the handle of a wooden spoon until it whirls, then drop quickly a fresh egg into the depression or eddy of the whirling water. This will give the egg a rounded shape. When the white is set and before the yolk has hardened, remove the egg with a skimmer and place it on a dish to drain. Only one egg at a time can be cooked in this way. Trim the eggs carefully, cutting away all the ragged white.

TO SCRAMBLE EGGS

Add a tablespoonful of milk, a saltspoonful of salt, and a dash of pepper for every two eggs. Beat them just enough to break them, but not enough to make them smooth or frothy. Put a tablespoonful of butter into a sauté-pan, and when it bubbles turn in the eggs. With a fork scrape the cooked eggs from the bottom of the pan, giving flakes of cooked egg. If the butter is not allowed to brown, the eggs will have a clean, bright yellow color.

PLAIN FRENCH OMELET

Add a tablespoonful of milk, a half teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of pepper to three or four eggs. Beat them just enough to break them. Put a tablespoonful of butter into a clean, smooth sauté-pan. When the butter bubbles turn in the eggs. When the eggs are a little set on the bottom, tip the pan a little towards the handle, and with a fork stir the mixture on the handle half of the pan, lifting the cooked portion off the bottom in large flakes. When the mixture is all cooked, but still soft, pile the scrambled part on to the smooth half, making it high in the center. Turn the omelet on to a hot dish. This should give a smooth outside surface of egg, covering the softer inside portion, which is scrambled in large flakes. It is not well to make an omelet of more than three or four eggs. If more is needed, make a second omelet.

BEATEN OMELET

Beat the whites of three or four eggs to a stiff froth. Add to the yolks a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and a tablespoonful of milk. Beat them well together, then fold in lightly the whipped whites. Put a teaspoonful of butter in a sauté-pan and let it run all over the bottom. When it bubbles turn in the egg mixture and spread it evenly over the pan. Let it cook slowly without stirring until it seems cooked through, then place it in the oven for a few minutes to harden the top surface. Fold one half over the other and turn the omelet on to a hot dish.

NO. 28. OMELET CHASSEUR.

OMELET CHASSEUR

Make either a French or a beaten omelet. Before folding it, place in the center some well-seasoned or creamed minced chicken, or other meat. Fold the omelet and turn it on to a dish. Cover the top with well-seasoned tomato. The tomato should be dry enough to hold its place, leaving a border of yellow egg between the tomato and the meat.

No. 1. Eggs à la romaine. Cut sliced bread into rounds and sauté them in butter. Place on each one an artichoke bottom which has been heated in hot water. On the artichoke place an egg poached in the French style (see page [51]). Arrange the eggs around a mound of green peas, and pour over the eggs a white sauce made partly of chicken stock, with the yolk of an egg beaten in the last thing.

No. 2. Eggs baked in tomatoes. Select round tomatoes of uniform size. Cut off the stem ends and take out enough of the pulp to leave a space as large as an egg. Sprinkle the inside with salt and pepper. Drop into each one an egg. Place the filled tomatoes in a baking-dish with a little hot water, and bake them about fifteen minutes, or until the eggs are set and the tomatoes are a little softened. Serve the eggs on rounds of bread browned in butter. No sauce is required with this dish.

No. 3. Eggs baked in green peppers. Select green peppers of uniform size and shape. Cut off the stems close to the peppers so they will stand firmly. Take off the tops and remove the seeds and ribs. Parboil them. Remove them from the water as soon as they are a little tender, and before they become limp. Break an egg into each one. Set them in a baking-pan with a little hot water, and bake them slowly about fifteen minutes, or until the eggs are set. Arrange them on rounds of browned bread with white sauce in the dish.

No. 4. Scrambled eggs with tomato. Place scrambled eggs on rounds of browned bread, and on the top of each piece place a slice of broiled tomato (see page [97]). Serve with or without a white sauce.

NO. 30. CREAMED POACHED EGGS.

CREAMED POACHED EGGS

Poach eggs, the French style preferred. Lay them on rounds of bread sautéd in butter. Arrange them symmetrically and pour over them a plentiful amount of white sauce made partly of stock, and having the yolk of one or two eggs stirred in after it is taken from the fire. Garnish the dish with a large bunch of parsley, or a bunch of nasturtiums.

The dish may be varied by placing a very thin slice of broiled ham under each egg; or the eggs may be covered with a tomato sauce.

NO. 31. CREAMED EGG BASKETS ON BEAN PURÉE.

CREAMED EGG BASKETS

Boil the eggs hard. Cut them in two lengthwise and remove the yolks. Drop the whites into hot water so they will be warm when needed for use. Mash the yolks and mix them with a little white sauce, or with stock, or with cream and a little butter and salt. Beat the mixture until it is smooth and light. Press the paste through a pastry-bag and star tube into the hollows of the white halves, and insert handles made of thin slices of celery cut from the green ends. Arrange the little baskets on a bed of any kind of well-seasoned vegetable.

In illustration the center is bean purée (see page [98]) pressed through a pastry-bag.

NO. 32. POACHED EGGS WITH GREENS.

POACHED EGGS WITH GREENS

Boil green leaves of lettuce until tender, drain them, chop them fine, and season with a little white sauce. Cover rounds of bread, which have been browned in butter, with the lettuce; or, if more convenient, with well-seasoned creamed spinach. Make nests of the green, leaving the edges of the toast clean, with a border one half inch wide around the depression. Place in each one an egg poached in the French style; or break an uncooked egg into each hollow, and place them in the oven until the eggs are set.

EGGS IN NESTS

Whip to a stiff froth the whites of as many eggs as are needed. Pile it irregularly on a flat, buttered baking-dish, and make depressions in it here and there. Sprinkle the hollows with salt and pepper and drop into each one the yolk of an egg. Put a small piece of butter on each yolk. Place the dish in a moderate oven for five to eight minutes. Serve at once.

The yolks can be conveniently kept in the half shells until needed.

NO. 33. SPANISH EGGS.

SPANISH EGGS

Cover the bottom of an earthen baking-dish with well-seasoned tomato purée. Arrange on it poached eggs, leaving spaces to show the red color. Lay between the eggs whole small sausages, already cooked, or sausages cut in inch lengths. Place a bit of butter on each egg and set the dish in the oven to heat it only.

NO. 34. EGGS FARCI, NO. 1.

NO. 35. EGGS FARCI, NO. 2.

EGGS FARCI

No. 1. Boil until hard as many eggs as are needed. Cut them in two lengthwise. Remove the yolks and mash them. To six yolks add four tablespoonfuls of crumb of bread, softened with water, one half teaspoonful of onion juice, and two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley. Mix well. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan on the fire, add the egg mixture with enough milk or stock to moisten it, but not enough to make it lose consistency. Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. A mushroom or a chicken liver chopped fine added to the farce improves its flavor. Fill the whites of the eggs with the farce, and with what is left make a mound on the serving-dish. Pour a white sauce over it and arrange the stuffed eggs on it; or cut the eggs in two crosswise and fill the cups with farce, molding it to look like whole yolks. Cut a small slice off the ends so they will stand. Arrange them on a dish with white sauce around them.

No. 2. Boil until hard a dozen eggs, cut them in two lengthwise and remove the yolks. Place the whites in cold water to keep them white until ready to use them. Put in a chopping-bowl the breast of a fowl which has been boiled for chicken stock, the yolks of the boiled eggs, two fresh mushrooms sautéd, one half of a truffle, two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, and two tablespoonfuls of crumb of bread. Chop all together to a fine mince. Place in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and a teaspoonful of onion juice. When the butter bubbles add the chopped mixture moistened with enough chicken stock to make it of the right consistency for filling the egg cups. Season it with two teaspoonfuls of salt, one half teaspoonful of pepper, and a dash of nutmeg, and stir until it is hot. Place the whites in hot water to heat them, then fill each one with the hot farce, rounding it to look like a whole yolk.

Make a sauce as follows. Beat the yolks of two eggs enough to break them, stir them into a cupful of cream, and add this to the farce left after filling the cups. Stir it over the fire long enough to set the eggs. If not soft enough, add stock to make it the consistency of thick cream. Pour this sauce on a platter and arrange the stuffed eggs on it in lines or in circles.

NO. 36. EGGS WITH GIBLET SAUCE.

No. 3. With giblet sauce. Prepare eggs as in No. 1. Add chopped giblets to a brown sauce. Spread the sauce on a dish and place the stuffed eggs upon it.

NO. 37. EGGS À L’AURORE IN CUPS.

EGGS À L’AURORE

Chop the whites of hard-boiled eggs into fine dice. Mix them with enough white sauce to make them creamy. Crumb the yolks by pressing them through a coarse sieve or a colander, and spread them over the creamed whites.

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH CALVES’ BRAINS

To a pair of calves’ brains use three or four eggs. Scald the brains by letting them lie in scalding water six or eight minutes. Trim them and cut them into half-inch dice. Put them in a sauté-pan with a tablespoonful of butter and cook them until they look white, then add the beaten eggs and stir them all together, using a fork, until the eggs are cooked. Add one half teaspoonful of salt and one quarter teaspoonful of pepper.

For other egg dishes, see “Century Cook Book,” page 261.

Chapter V
FOURTH COURSE

SHELL-FISH—LOBSTERS—FISH

SHELL-FISH—LOBSTERS—FISH

Sautéd Oysters

Fried Oysters with Cold Slaw

Oysters à la Newburg

Fried Scallops

Scallops on the Shell

Creamed Lobster

Broiled Lobster

Broiled Smelts

Broiled Shad Roe

Shad Roe Croquettes

Fillets of Fish, Fried

Rolled Fillets of Flounder

Baked Fillets of Fish with Sauce

Fillets of Fish with Mushrooms

Creamed Fish Garnished with Potatoes

Fish à la Japonnaise

SAUTÉD OYSTERS

Put two tablespoonfuls of butter into a sauté-pan; when it is hot add as many drained oysters as will make two cupfuls. Add a little salt and pepper and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Shake them in the pan until the gills are curled, then add a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine. Turn them upon slices of toasted bread on a hot platter.

NO. 38. FRIED OYSTERS WITH COLD SLAW.

FRIED OYSTERS WITH COLD SLAW

Use box oysters. These are large in size and cost two cents each.

Lay the oysters on a cloth to dry them. Roll them in cracker dust, then in egg diluted with a little milk and seasoned with pepper and salt, then again cover them with cracker dust. Lay them in a frying-basket and fry them in smoking-hot fat just long enough to give them a light-brown color. Oysters toughen if cooked too long. Prepare only four at a time, as more lower the temperature of the fat too much, and if they are rolled before the moment of frying they moisten the cracker dust. Place them on a paper on the hot shelf until all are done.

Fold a small napkin and place it in the center of a cold platter. Pile the oysters on the napkin and make a wreath around them of cold slaw.

COLD SLAW

Cut cabbage into fine shreds. Put in a saucepan a half cupful of weak vinegar, the yolks of three eggs, a half teaspoonful of English mustard, a dash of pepper, a teaspoonful of salt and of sugar. Beat them together, then place them on the fire and stir until the mixture is thickened. Pour it, while hot, over the cabbage and set it away to cool.

OYSTERS À LA NEWBURG

Place twenty-five large oysters in a saucepan with one and one half tablespoonfuls of butter, half a cupful of white wine or a tablespoonful of lemon juice, and a little pepper and salt. Cook until the oysters are plump, then add half a cupful of mushrooms cut into quarters, and a chopped truffle, if convenient. Beat the yolks of four eggs into a cupful of cream, turn it into the oyster mixture, and let it get hot and a little thickened, without boiling. Turn it into a hot dish and garnish with croutons.

Oysters toughen if cooked too long, and cream curdles easily when added to a mixture which has acid in it, so it is necessary to prepare this dish quickly and to serve it at once.

SCALLOPS

Scallops are the adductor muscle of a large pecten, a mollusk commonly known as scallop.

FRIED SCALLOPS

Marinate the scallops in a mixture of oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Roll them in cracker dust, then in egg, and again in cracker dust or white bread crumbs. Fry them in smoking-hot fat to a golden color.

Prepare but a few at a time so the covering will not be dampened, serve on a napkin with quarters of lemon, and sprinkle over them parsley chopped very fine.

SCALLOPS ON THE SHELL

Discard the black ring. Cut the scallops into quarters. Place them in the scallop shells. Dredge them with salt, pepper, and chopped parsley, then cover them with a layer of chopped fresh, or canned, mushrooms, some bits of butter, a teaspoonful of white wine or of lemon juice, for each shell, and lastly with bread crumbs moistened with butter. Place them in a hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes.

NO. 39. CREAMED LOBSTER.

CREAMED LOBSTER

Cut the meat of boiled lobster into inch dice. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan with a teaspoonful of grated onion, let them cook a minute, then add a tablespoonful of flour. Stir for a few minutes to cook the flour, and then add slowly a cupful of stock and a tablespoonful of lemon juice, or a quarter of a cupful of white wine. When all this thickens add the lobster meat, turning it carefully so as not to break it. When the meat is heated remove it from the fire and mix in a quarter of a cupful of cream which has the yolk of an egg beaten in it. Replace it on the fire for just a minute.

Serve in fontage cups or as in illustration [No. 39].

For Lobster Newburg and other lobster dishes, see “Century Cook Book,” page 136.

BROILED LOBSTER

Parboil a lobster. As soon as it begins to turn red take it out. Split it in two down the back. Remove and discard the stomach and intestine. Remove the green and the coral.

Broil it fifteen to twenty minutes with the shell side to the fire, but turn the flesh side to the coals for a minute before removing it, then at once season it with butter, pepper, and salt.

Mix the green, which is the liver, and the coral with melted butter and use it as a sauce.

BROILED SMELTS

Select large smelts of equal size. Have them split down the back, the head and tail left on. Dip them in melted butter and broil them until they are tender. Lay them evenly on a hot dish and spread them with maître d’hôtel butter (see page [103]).

If convenient, arrange a wreath of watercress around the dish.

BROILED SHAD ROE

Wash and dry the roes, then broil them very slowly and keep them moistened with butter to prevent the skin from breaking. They may also be cooked by sautéing them in butter; or they may be baked in the oven with a little stock or water in the pan to baste them with. Cook them brown. Cover the top with butter, pepper, salt, and a little lemon juice, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley. Garnish with lemon and watercress and serve some of the watercress with each portion. Serve them with maître d’hôtel butter.

SHAD ROE CROQUETTES

Boil shad roes in salted, acidulated water for fifteen minutes, letting the water simmer only, so that the skin will not break. When they are cold cut them, using a sharp knife, into slices one and one half inches thick. Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Roll them first in egg, then in bread crumbs or cracker dust, and fry them in smoking-hot fat to a light brown color. Garnish with watercress and serve them with maître d’hôtel butter.

NO. 40. BROILED SMELTS.

NO. 41. BROILED SHAD ROE.

NO. 42. SHAD ROE CROQUETTES.

FILLETS OF FISH

Fillets of fish are the flesh of the fish freed from the skin and bones. (See “Century Cook Book,” page 112.) The fillets of flounder are used to imitate sole, a variety of fish much esteemed in France and England. Sheepshead and other smaller fish also make good fillets.

FRIED FILLETS OF FISH

Marinate the fillets by letting them lie in a mixture of oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and chopped parsley. Take the fillets from the marinade, roll them first in flour, then in egg, and then in white bread crumbs grated from the loaf. Fry them to a lemon color in smoking-hot fat. They must not be cooked too long or they will become dry. They may also be cooked by sautéing, using half butter and half lard. Prepare one fillet at a time, for the covering of flour and crumbs will become damp if it stands long, and then will not crisp. If the fillets are small, serve them piled in crossed layers on a napkin and garnish with quarters of lemon. If they are large, serve with maître d’hôtel butter or with tartare sauce and garnish with watercress.

ROLLED FILLETS OF FLOUNDER

Sprinkle each fillet with salt and pepper. Spread it with a mixture made of butter, lemon juice, and parsley cut in pieces, not chopped fine. Fold the fillet over, roll it, and fasten it with a wooden toothpick or small skewer. Stand the rolled fillets on end in a baking-pan, put a piece of butter on the top of each one, and pour over the whole a half cupful of white cooking wine (California sauterne). Bake them in a moderate oven for twenty minutes, or until tender, and baste them frequently. Arrange the fillets symmetrically on a platter. Put a piece of parsley in the top of each one, and place in the center of the dish a lemon cut into the shape of a basket. Sprinkle the exposed pulp of the lemon with chopped parsley.

Make a sauce to serve with the fish as follows: Add to the drippings, in the pan in which the fish was cooked, a tablespoonful of flour, stir constantly until the flour is cooked, then add enough stock to make a creamy sauce. Add pepper and salt if necessary.

BAKED FILLETS OF FISH WITH SAUCE

Arrange evenly on a baking-platter fillets of flounder or of sheepshead, or slices of halibut or codfish cut one quarter of an inch thick. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper.

Make a sauce as follows: Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, add to it a half teaspoonful of onion juice, cook until the butter has browned, then add a tablespoonful of flour and stir until the flour has browned. Take it off the fire and add very slowly one and a half cupfuls of soup stock, stirring constantly to keep the mixture smooth. Add a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of salt, one half teaspoonful of pepper, and, if convenient, a teaspoonful of mushroom catsup, or a half cupful of liquor from a can of mushrooms, or a half cupful of juice strained from a can of tomatoes. Pour the sauce over the fish, lifting the fillets a little to let the sauce run under them. Place the dish in the oven and cook for thirty minutes, or until the fish is tender. If the sauce dries away too much, baste the fish with stock. The cooked sauce should have the consistency of cream.

When taken from the oven sprinkle the top with bread crumbs browned in butter and ornament with mashed potato pressed through a pastry-bag and star tube, making a design that will cover the edges of the platter where the sauce has stained it. Set the hot platter on a second platter to serve.

NO. 43. ROLLED FILLETS OF FLOUNDER. A PIECE OF PARSLEY PLACED IN THE TOP OF EACH ONE; A LEMON BASKET IN CENTER AND QUARTERS OF LEMON BETWEEN THE FILLETS.

NO. 44. BAKED FILLETS OF FISH WITH MUSHROOMS.

NO. 45. CREAMED FISH GARNISHED WITH POTATO.

NO. 46. FISH À LA JAPONNAISE, PREPARED FOR BAKING AND SHOWING HOW IT MAY BE GARNISHED.

NO. 47. SLICED CUCUMBER AROUND A MOUND OF ICE. TO SERVE WITH FISH.

Creamed hashed fish can be served in the same manner. After the fish has been mixed with the sauce spread it smoothly on the baking-platter, cover the top with buttered bread crumbs, and set it in the oven to brown.

FILLETS OF FISH WITH MUSHROOMS

Take fillets of flounder, season them with pepper and salt. Take half a can or more of mushrooms, a slice of onion, and a sprig of parsley, and chop them all fine; add a cupful of stock and a tablespoonful of sherry. Spread a part of this mixture on the bottom of a platter that can be used in the oven. Lay the fillets of fish on the mixture. Cover them with the rest of the mixture, then with bread crumbs and with small pieces of butter. Bake forty minutes or until the fillets are tender. Heat the rest of the mushrooms in a little stock. Place them around the edges of the dish and pour the stock over the whole if the fillets are at all dry. This dish should be very moist.

CREAMED FISH GARNISHED WITH POTATOES

Make a good white sauce, or any other sauce preferred. Cut cold boiled fish in pieces one or two inches across and heat them in the sauce without breaking them. Use a plentiful amount of the sauce. Turn the fish mixture on to a platter and sprinkle over the top a little parsley chopped very fine.

Season some mashed potato with salt, butter, and milk, and beat it until it is light and white. Press it through a pastry-bag with star tube into rosettes, forming a wreath around the creamed fish.

FISH À LA JAPONNAISE

Make a creamed mince of any kind of fish, or use a fish forcemeat. Canned salmon is very good for the purpose.

Place the creamed fish on a piece of stiff paper and mold it into the form of a fish. Roll some pie paste very thin. Lay a piece of the paste on one end of the mince and shape it into the form of a fish’s tail. Cut the paste into circles of half an inch diameter, using a pastry-tube if a small vegetable-cutter is not at hand. Beginning at the tail, cover the molded fish with little rounds of paste, placing them in even overlapping layers to imitate scales, and mold a piece of pastry to imitate a head and fins. Use half a cranberry or a turned vegetable to imitate an eye. Brush the paste over lightly with yolk of egg and place it in the oven to brown. Slip it carefully off the baking-sheet on to the serving platter. Trim off the paper that projects and garnish.

Illustration [No. 46] shows a fish ready to bake and the manner in which it may be garnished.

Chapter VI
FIFTH OR SEVENTH COURSE

ENTRÉES

ENTRÉES

Rissoles

Vol-au-vent

Sweetbreads, Baked

Sweetbreads, Glazed

Sweetbreads, Coquilles of

Calf’s Brains à la Poulette

Calf’s Brains à l’Aurore

Calf’s Brains with Hollandaise Sauce

Calf’s Brains with Black Butter

Croquettes

Timbales of Chicken

Timbales of Liver

Mushrooms, Baked

Mushrooms, Stuffed

Tomatoes, Stuffed

Green Peppers, Stuffed

Baked Tomatoes and Fontage Cups

Jardinière

Vegetarian Dish

NO. 49. RISSOLES.

RISSOLES

Roll puff paste about one eighth of an inch thick. Put a teaspoonful of meat of any kind at intervals on the paste, about three inches from the edge. Moisten the paste around the meat-ball, fold over the paste, and press it lightly around the meat. Stamp it with a fluted biscuit-cutter into half circles, leaving the meat on the straight side and an inch of paste around the meat on the round side. Egg the top and bake from fifteen to twenty minutes in a hot oven.

NO. 50. VOL-AU-VENT.

VOL-AU-VENT

Roll puff paste (see page [154]) three quarters of an inch to an inch in thickness. Stamp it with a cutter, or if this is not convenient use a tin, of the size desired, for a gage; lay the tin lightly on the paste, and with a sharp knife cut around it with a quick, firm stroke so as to press the paste as little as possible; then with a sharp-pointed knife cut a ring around the form, leaving a border about an inch wide, and do not let the knife penetrate the paste more than an eighth of an inch. Brush the top with the yolk of an egg, diluted with a little water, and set it away to cool. Bake it in a hot oven as directed for puff paste for thirty minutes, and do not open the oven door during the first fifteen minutes. It should rise to about three times its original thickness. When it is well dried and a good light-brown color, remove it from the oven and let it stand for a few minutes, then carefully lift out the centerpiece and remove all the uncooked paste. Set it in the oven again to dry the inside. The uncooked pieces can also be returned to the oven for a few minutes, and when dry be put back into the shell.

Although puff paste is better when used at once, it will keep very well for several days, and will be perfectly crisp and tender if well heated in the oven just before being used.

When ready to serve fill the center with any salpicon, place the little cover on top, and set the vol-au-vent on a lace-paper. The filling must not be put in until just before sending it to the table, as it will soften the pastry if it stands in it for any length of time.

SALPICON

For filling vol-au-vent or patty shells.

Salpicon is made of cooked chicken, sweetbreads, veal, or calf’s brains cut into small dice, mixed with mushrooms, a little chopped truffle and chopped tongue. One meat alone, or a combination of two or more, may be used. The mixture is then combined with enough good sauce to make it creamy. A white sauce should be used with white meats; a brown sauce when the dark meat and livers of chicken are used. (See “Century Cook Book,” pages 80-299.)

A plain white sauce is made as follows: Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan. When the butter is hot add a tablespoonful of flour and cook them together for a few minutes, not letting them brown; remove from the fire and add a cupful of stock. Add the liquor very slowly at first, stirring constantly to keep it smooth. Return the sauce to the fire, add a teaspoonful of salt, a quarter teaspoonful of pepper, and a little cream, if convenient. Stir constantly until the sauce is thickened. Lastly, add the beaten yolks of one or two eggs to the sauce after it has been taken off the fire.

SWEETBREADS

Sweetbreads are the thymus gland and the pancreas of calves and lambs. They are commonly called by butchers the throat and the stomach, or heart, sweetbreads. The former is the larger, the latter is the whiter, rounder, and more delicate.

TO PREPARE SWEETBREADS

Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for two hours, changing the water several times. Put them on the fire in cold water. When they are whitened and firm to the touch, or parboiled, remove and immerse them again in cold water to blanch them. Remove all the pipes, fibers, and fatty substance. Roll each one in a piece of cheese-cloth, draw the cloth tight and tie it at the ends, pressing the sweetbread into an oval shape. Place them under a light weight for several hours.

NO. 51. BAKED SWEETBREADS WITH SALT PORK ON TOP.

BAKED SWEETBREADS

Parboil and blanch the sweetbreads. Marinate them by standing them for two hours in a mixture of one beaten egg, a teaspoonful of onion juice, one half teaspoonful of salt, one quarter teaspoonful of pepper, and one tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Turn them in the marinade occasionally so they will absorb the seasoning. Roll them in cracker dust and place them in a pan on very thin slices of salt pork, and place a thin slice of pork on top of each one. Bake in a hot oven fifteen or twenty minutes, or until they are tender and brown. The pork will crisp and the sweetbread will brown around it.

Serve with a sauce made as follows: Brown a little flour in the drippings left in the pan, then add a little water or stock, a little lemon juice, and what is left of the marinade. Stir it until it has the consistency of thick cream and strain it on to the platter. Place the sweetbreads upon the sauce.

NO. 52. GLAZED SWEETBREADS.

GLAZED SWEETBREADS

Place sweetbreads, prepared as directed on page [73], in a sauté-pan with butter and a few slices of onion. Sauté them for a few minutes on both sides, then place them in the oven to finish cooking. Put a little stock in the baking-pan and baste them frequently to brown and glaze them. Serve them as in illustration, or place them around a pile of green peas.

COQUILLES OF SWEETBREADS

Parboil one pair of sweetbreads. Trim and put them under a light weight to cool. When they are cold and firm cut them into dice. Sauté them in a tablespoonful of butter for a few minutes, then add a cupful of button mushrooms cut in quarters, a tablespoonful of white wine or of lemon juice, a dash of pepper, a saltspoonful of salt, and cook them until tender, then add a white sauce as given below, and turn over the mixture until it is creamy. Fill shells with the mixture, cover the tops with white bread crumbs wet with melted butter, and place them in the oven to brown.

NO. 53. COQUILLES OF SWEETBREADS.

Chicken, turkey, or veal can be used instead of sweetbreads in the same way.

Sauce: Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan; when it bubbles, add a tablespoonful of flour. Cook the flour a few minutes, but do not let it brown. Remove it from the fire and add, while stirring all the time, a half cupful of stock, chicken stock preferred, a dash of nutmeg and of pepper, and a saltspoonful of salt. Put the saucepan on the fire again and stir until the sauce has thickened, then add two tablespoonfuls of cream.

Any pretty bivalve shell of suitable size may be used for holding this or other creamed mixtures. The illustration shows pecten and cardium shells.

TO PREPARE CALF’S BRAINS

Calf’s brains, in whatever way they are to be served, must be prepared in the following manner: Soak the brains in cold water for some time to extract all the blood. Trim them, removing the membranes and fibers, without breaking the brains apart. Place them in hot water with a bay-leaf, soup vegetables, a few peppercorns, a teaspoonful of salt, and a tablespoonful of vinegar. Cook them for half an hour, letting the water simmer only. When done immerse them in cold water to blanch them.

CALF’S BRAINS

No. 1. À la poulette. Cut the brains in halves or quarters. Arrange them in a circle around mushrooms and pour over the whole a white sauce made partly of stock, and the beaten yolks of two eggs with a little cream added after the sauce is taken from the fire. Garnish with croutons or cut the brains into large dice, mix them with the same sauce, and serve them in individual cups.

No. 2. À l’aurore. Cut the brains into dice; add the chopped whites of three or four hard-boiled eggs to each pair of brains. Add a teaspoonful of parsley chopped very fine, and a saltspoonful of salt. Moisten with white sauce and place the mixture in a baking-dish. Cover the top with crumbed yolks, and over the yolks spread a thin layer of white bread crumbs wet with butter. Set the dish in the oven to brown the crumbs.

No. 3. With Hollandaise sauce. Cut the brains in halves. Place each piece on a round of bread which has been browned in butter. Pour over the whole a Hollandaise sauce, or a white sauce to which has been added, after taking it from the fire, the beaten yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine.

No. 4. With black butter. Cut the brains into thick slices. Cook two tablespoonfuls of butter in a sauté-pan until it is brown. Lay in the slices of brains and color them on both sides. Arrange them in a dish, sprinkle them with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt. Add a teaspoonful of vinegar to the butter, and strain it over the brains.

CROQUETTES

Croquettes can be made of chicken or turkey or veal, alone, but are much nicer when the meat is mixed with sweetbreads or calf’s brains and mushrooms. The meat mixture must be chopped very fine.

Make a sauce as follows:

Put a tablespoonful of butter and a half teaspoonful of onion juice into a saucepan. When it bubbles add two tablespoonfuls of flour and cook it a few minutes without browning, then add slowly, so as to keep it smooth,

A cupful of jellied stock,

1 teaspoonful of salt,

1 saltspoonful of pepper,

A dash of paprika,

A dash of celery salt,

A dash of nutmeg.

Cook until the sauce has thickened a little. Remove it from the fire, stir in a beaten egg and two cupfuls of minced meat. Turn it on to a tin platter and place it on the ice to set.

NO. 54. CHICKEN CROQUETTES.

NO. 55. TIMBALES OF CHICKEN.

When the mixture is set mold the croquettes into shapes pointed at one end. Cover them with egg diluted with a very little water, to break the stringiness of the whites, then cover them with bread crumbs. Crumbs grated from the loaf give a better color than dried crumbs composed partly of crusts. Fry the croquettes in smoking-hot fat to a light-brown color, and until a thin crust is formed. Place them on paper in the open oven to dry and keep hot until all are fried. Arrange them symmetrically on a platter and stick a paper frill into the pointed end of each one. These frills are fastened to a little stick. They can be bought at confectioners’.

It is important to use for the sauce stock which jellies, as it hardens the mixture and makes it easy to mold, while it softens when the croquettes are fried, making them very creamy. Stock will jelly if a knuckle of veal is used in making it. If jellied stock is not at hand, put a level teaspoonful of soaked gelatine into a cupful of any stock or of milk.

CHICKEN TIMBALES

Lay raw chicken breasts on a board and scrape off the meat, thus separating it from the large fibers. Put the scraped meat in a mortar with the white of an egg and pound it to separate it still more from the fibers, then rub it through a purée sieve.

Soak some crumb of bread with milk, stir it to a smooth paste, and cook it until it leaves the sides of the pan. This makes a panada.

Take a half cupful of the fine chicken meat, a quarter of a cupful of panada, one egg, a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper and of nutmeg. Beat them all well together, then fold in lightly a half cupful of cream whipped to a stiff froth.

This quantity of material will make six individual timbales.

Butter the timbale molds well, ornament them with slices of truffle cut into fancy shapes, or with chopped truffle sprinkled over the surface. Put the mixture into the molds carefully with a small spoon so as not to disarrange the decoration, and fill them to within a quarter of an inch of the top. Set them in a pan of hot water. Cover them with a greased paper and poach them in the oven for five to eight minutes, or until they are firm to the touch.

Turn the timbales on to a flat dish and pour around them a white sauce made with chicken stock and the yolks of two eggs diluted with two tablespoonfuls of cream added the last thing. (See Allemande and Poulette sauces, “Century Cook Book,” pages 279-280.)

LIVER TIMBALES

Cut two pounds of liver into large pieces and rub them through a grater.

Moisten a half cupful of crumbs of bread and a half cupful of flour with a cupful of milk.

Fry the slices of half an onion in a tablespoonful of butter until they are tender, then remove them and turn into the pan the mixture of bread, flour, and milk. Stir until it is cooked to a smooth paste.

Put into a bowl two cupfuls of liver pulp, the bread paste, a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and a dash of paprika. Mix them well together and add, one at a time, four eggs, beating in each one well, then add enough cream to make rather a thin batter. Pass the whole through a purée sieve. Beat it well again and turn it into molds.

This amount of mixture will fill twelve individual timbale molds and one pint mold, the latter to be used cold (see page [127]).

Fill the individual timbale molds to within a quarter of an inch of the top, set them into a pan of hot water, cover them with a greased paper, and poach them in the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Turn the timbales on to a flat dish and pour around them a little good brown sauce. The molds may be ornamented, if desired, the same as chicken timbales, using the white of hard-boiled eggs instead of truffles.

For other timbale receipts, see “Century Cook Book,” page 296.

NO. 56. BAKED MUSHROOMS ON TOAST. THE BREAD STAMPED IN LEAF SHAPES.

BAKED MUSHROOMS

Cut the mushroom stems off even with the caps. Peel the caps and stand them on a dish with the gills up. Sprinkle them with pepper and salt and let them stand until moisture gathers on them. Cut sliced bread with a biscuit-cutter into rounds, or if convenient use a fancy cutter. Illustration shows bread cut with a leaf-shaped stamp. Dip the pieces of bread into water to moisten them, but do not let them get soggy. Place them on a baking-tin and sprinkle with pepper and salt and bits of butter. Arrange the mushrooms on them, one or more according to size, with the gills up. Bake about thirty minutes, or until tender.

Watch them carefully so they will not get overdone or too dry. Baste with melted butter, if necessary, while they are baking.

STUFFED MUSHROOMS

Cut the stems off close to the gills. Peel the caps. Cut the stems fine. Sauté all the parts together in butter. Remove the caps when they are tender and before they lose shape. After the caps are removed add six drops of onion juice and a teaspoonful of flour. Let the flour cook a few minutes and then add a quarter of a cupful of stock and a tablespoonful of minced chicken or livers, pepper, and salt, and stir until the mixture is thickened.

Place a little of this mixture on the gills of each mushroom. This quantity is enough for six or eight large caps. Use the stuffed mushrooms for garnishing meat dishes, or serve them separately as an entreé on rounds of bread which have been browned in butter.

NO. 57. STUFFED TOMATOES.

STUFFED TOMATOES

Select smooth, round tomatoes of equal size. Cut a slice off the stem end. Remove carefully the pulp and fill the shells with any of the mixtures given below. Cover the top of the stuffing with bread crumbs moistened with melted butter. Bake them about one half hour, or until they are tender, but not fallen out of shape. Have a little water in the bottom of the baking-pan. Use them for garnishing meat dishes, or serve them on rounds of browned bread as an entrée.

STUFFING FOR TOMATOES

No. 1. Chop fine a half cupful of canned mushrooms, add a half or three quarters of a cupful of crumb of bread and the pulp taken from six tomatoes, a tablespoonful of chopped ham or of chicken, if convenient, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, six drops of onion juice, a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and a teaspoonful of melted butter. If the mixture is not sufficiently moistened by the tomato juice add enough stock to make it quite wet.

No. 2. Use equal parts of minced meat (chicken or veal preferred) and crumb of bread, add the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Season with chopped parsley, a little onion juice, pepper, and salt. Moisten with the pulp taken from the tomatoes, or with stock, or with both of them.

No. 3. Use boiled rice mixed with chopped green peppers, a few drops of onion juice, pepper, and salt. Moisten with the pulp taken from the tomato, or with stock.

No. 4. Boil macaroni, broken into half-inch lengths, until tender. Moisten it with well-seasoned white sauce, and add some grated cheese, a little pepper and salt, and a dash of paprika.

STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS

Select green peppers of equal size. Cut a piece off the stem end, or cut them lengthwise. Remove the seeds and ribs. Parboil them, stuff them with any of the mixtures given for stuffed tomatoes, using stock instead of tomato-pulp for moistening. Bake with a little water in a pan for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until they are tender, but not so long as to allow them to lose their shape. Sprinkle a little parsley chopped fine over the tops just before serving them.

NO. 58. BAKED STUFFED TOMATOES AND FONTAGE CUPS.

BAKED TOMATOES AND FONTAGE CUPS

Place in the center of the dish stuffed tomatoes (see page [80]) and place around them fontage cups filled with eggs à l’aurore, as in illustration, or with any well-seasoned vegetable, or minced meat. Put a handle made of celery in each cup, to resemble a basket.

Eggs à l’aurore are chopped hard-boiled eggs moistened with white sauce.

NO. 59. JARDINIÈRE.

JARDINIÈRE

The illustration shows a variety of vegetables served together, or à la jardinière.

This dish can be used as a course or vegetable entrée, and is particularly appreciated where one has an abundance of fresh vegetables from the garden. The vegetables should be well seasoned and arranged with regard to color so as to give a pleasing effect.

The combination used in the illustration is a cauliflower, green peas, string beans, lima beans, corn, macedoine, and baked tomatoes.

NO. 60. VEGETARIAN DISH. RING OF RICE FILLED WITH CORN. FONTAGE
CUPS HOLDING LIMA BEANS.

VEGETARIAN DISH

After boiling enough rice to fill a ring mold, steam it until it is quite dry, and until the grains are separated. Mix the rice with enough thick white sauce to moisten it. Butter a ring-mold well and sprinkle it thickly with white bread crumbs (crumbs grated from the loaf). Put in the prepared rice and place the ring in a pan, the bottom of which is covered with a very little water. Cover the top with greased paper, and bake for half an hour, or until the crumbs are brown. Turn the browned ring on a platter. Fill the center with any vegetable, and place around the outside fontage cups holding a second vegetable. In the illustration the ring is filled with corn, and the cups hold small lima beans.

A good combination is baked tomatoes alternating with fontage cups holding macedoine of vegetables, the ring holding green peas.

The same style of dish may be made with meat. The ring may be made with mashed potato and hold minced creamed meat.

Chapter VII
SIXTH COURSE

MEATS

MEATS

Casserole of Beef

Fillet of Beef

Filets Mignons

Filets Mignons with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Mutton Chops à la Soubise

Mutton Chops with Horseradish Sauce

Mutton Chops Boned, with Artichokes

Mutton Chops Boned, with Mushrooms

Leg of Mutton à la Jardinière

Leg of Mutton Slices

Cottage Pie

Meat and Potato Pie

Minced Meat with Potato Rings

Minced Ham and Eggs

Veal Chops

Veal à l’Italienne

Veal Cutlets, Small

Grenadines of Veal

Pork Tenderloins with Fried Apples

VEGETABLES AND CEREALS USED AS VEGETABLES

Potatoes, Stuffed Baked

Potatoes, Purée of

Rice à la Milanese

Baked Hominy

Quenelles of Cornmeal

Boiled Lettuce

Tomato Farci

Broiled Tomatoes

Spinach

Bean Croquettes

CHICKEN

Casserole of Chicken, No. 1

Casserole of Chicken, No. 2

Chicken, Panned } Can be used in place of

Chicken, Smothered } game in ninth course.

Chicken Fried in Cream

Chicken Joints

Chicken en Surprise

Forcemeat

SAUCES

White Sauce

Brown Sauce

Supreme Sauce

Tomato Purée

Hollandaise Sauce

Maître d’Hôtel Butter

Glaze

To Make Glaze

Hard Sauce

Liquid Sauces

CASSEROLE OF BEEF

Sauté three or four sliced onions in a tablespoonful of butter. Put them when soft into the casserole. Cut a steak, taken from the upper side of the round, into pieces suitable for one portion. Put them in the sauté-pan and sear them on all sides, then put them in the casserole. Add a tablespoonful of flour to the sauté-pan, let it brown, then add slowly a cupful and a half of water and stir until it is a little thickened, season with a teaspoonful of salt, a half teaspoonful of pepper, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Add, if convenient, a little Worcestershire sauce and a little mushroom catsup. The sauce should be highly seasoned, and such condiments as are at hand may be used. The sauce will be richer if stock is used instead of water. Turn the sauce over the meat, cover the casserole, set it in the oven and cook slowly until the meat is tender, then cover the top with parboiled sliced potato and return it to the oven for a few minutes to finish cooking the potatoes. The sauce should be of the consistency of cream, and there should not be a great quantity of it. Serve in the casserole.

FILLET OF BEEF

The fillet or tenderloin of beef is taken from the under side of the loin. It is the most tender and the most expensive cut of the beef, costing from eighty cents to a dollar a pound. The whole fillet is used as a roast. When sliced it is given different names. Cuts from the middle, which is the thickest part, are Chateaubriands. The Chateaubriand is cut one and a half to three quarters of an inch thick, trimmed, tied into a neatly rounded shape, and struck lightly with the flat side of the cleaver to smooth the top and reduce the thickness to one and a quarter or one and a half inches. It is cooked and served as a steak.

The next pieces are the mignon fillets. These are prepared in the same way as the Chateaubriand and should be about one inch thick and from two and a half to three inches across when finished. They may be broiled or cooked on a hot pan.

Cuts from the small ends are noisettes and turnedos; the former are cut one half of an inch thick and cooked in a sauté-pan; the latter are cut one quarter of an inch thick, and are cooked in a sauté-pan for five minutes only. The noisettes and turnedos should be brushed with glaze before serving (see Glaze, page [104]).

Grenadines are cut lengthwise from the thin end of the fillet and trimmed into chop-shaped pieces. They are larded, sautéd in a little butter, and cooked five to eight minutes.

NO. 61. FILLETS MIGNONS ARRANGED IN CIRCLE. HALF A SLICE OF LEMON
ON EACH FILLET. FRIED POTATOES IN CENTER.

FILETS MIGNONS

Prepare and cook the fillets as directed above. Arrange them in a circle overlapping one another and fill the center of the circle with fried potatoes. Lay on each fillet a half slice of lemon sprinkled with chopped parsley.

The center of the circle may be filled with potato, mashed, balls, puffed, straws, etc., or with a vegetable such as peas, beans, macedoine, etc.

The fillets may also be served with a bearnaise or a mushroom sauce.

NO. 62. FILLETS MIGNONS. EACH FILLET COVERED WITH A SLICE OF BROILED
TOMATO AND A STUFFED MUSHROOM. FANCY SKEWER ON RIGHT OF DISH.

FILETS MIGNON WITH TOMATOES AND MUSHROOMS

Prepare the fillets as directed on this page. Have them of uniform size. Broil them over coals or on a hot pan. Turn them very often so they will cook slowly and when done have an even red color all through. The broiling will take eight to ten minutes. Cover the tops with maître d’hôtel butter (page [103]), or butter, pepper and salt, and chopped parsley. Arrange them in a circle on one end of a platter. Place on each one a slice of broiled tomato (see page [97]), and on the tomato a stuffed mushroom (page [79]).

On one side of the platter place an ornamental skewer stuck into a shaped piece of uncooked vegetable of sufficient size. The skewer in illustration has a mushroom on top, then a slice of lemon, then a row of small carrots strung on a thread, a slice of lemon to hold the carrots in place, and then the foliage of the carrots. It is stuck into a raw parsnip cut so it stands firm. The skewer is for ornamenting the dish only.

CHOPS À LA SOUBISE

Put soubise sauce in the center of the dish and arrange broiled French chops standing in a ring around it. Place a ring of fried onion over each chop bone.

French chops are cut from the rack and trimmed so as to leave the upper half of the bone bare.

NO. 63. CHOPS À LA SOUBISE.

SOUBISE SAUCE

Boil six white onions for ten minutes. Cut them in pieces, put them in a saucepan with one quarter of a pound of butter and cook them very slowly indeed for a long time or until they are soft. The onions must cook so slowly that they do not color. Add a tablespoonful of flour. After the flour is cooked remove the onions from the fire, add one cupful of cream, and pass the whole through a sieve. Add a very little pepper and salt.

This sauce should be white and have the consistency of thick cream.

NO. 64. MUTTON CHOPS WITH HORSERADISH SAUCE.

CHOPS WITH HORSERADISH SAUCE

Arrange French chops down the middle of the platter, with the chops overlapping and the bones crossing. Place a piece of bread under the first two to support and lift the bones off the dish; the rest are then easily arranged in a symmetrical manner.

Garnish the dish with spoonfuls of horseradish sauce, or serve the sauce in a separate dish.

HORSERADISH SAUCE

Grate fresh horseradish root and mix with it enough whipped cream to make it light and to reduce sufficiently the sharpness of the horseradish. The horseradish absorbs the cream, and a few more spoonfuls of the cream are needed than of the grated horseradish. The sauce should not be mixed until just before serving.

NO. 65. BONED MUTTON CHOPS WITH ARTICHOKE BOTTOMS
HOLDING GREEN PEAS.

CHOPS GARNISHED WITH ARTICHOKES

These chops are cut from the rack. They are cut an inch thick, the bones removed, and the meat turned and tied into round pieces. They are then struck with the flat side of the cleaver to smooth and flatten them a little.

Broil the chops, spread them with butter, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley, pepper, and salt. Arrange them symmetrically on a platter and place on each one an artichoke bottom holding a little good sauce, such as bearnaise or Hollandaise, or even melted butter, and a few green peas.

Artichoke bottoms come in cans and can be purchased from a grocer. The French ones are the best. They do not need any more cooking, but should be heated by placing them in hot water.

NO. 66. BONED LOIN CHOPS WITH MUSHROOMS AND PEAS.

BONED CHOPS WITH MUSHROOMS

These chops should be cut an inch and a quarter thick from the loin, the bone then carefully removed, some of the fat taken out, and the thin end piece drawn around and fastened with a wooden skewer, giving a perfectly round chop. Have them uniform in size. Cook them on a hot pan. Turn them frequently after the surfaces are seared so they will cook evenly and slowly. If preferred, they can be broiled over hot coals, but are then more likely to lose their shape and the skewers will be burned.

Arrange the chops flat on the dish in a circle with the skewers pointing out. Cover the top of each chop with a sauce made of the chopped mushroom stems, and place in the center of each chop a large mushroom cap. Place a paper frill on each skewer. Fill the center of the ring of chops with green peas or any small vegetable, or with mashed or fried potatoes.

TO PREPARE THE MUSHROOMS

Select large mushrooms, those not fully opened preferred, as they stand higher. Cut the stems off even with the caps. Peel the caps. Chop the stems. Put all in a pan with butter and sauté them until tender. Remove the caps as soon as they are tender, and before they have flattened out. Add a little stock, or water, to the pan, and a little flour. Stir until the sauce is thickened to the consistency of cream, season with a little salt and pepper. Use this sauce for the tops of the chops.

NO. 67. CARVED LEG OF MUTTON À LA JARDINIÈRE.

LEG OF MUTTON À LA JARDINIÈRE

NO. 68. SLICES OF MUTTON À LA JARDINIÈRE.

Cut a roasted leg of mutton in thick slices and run the knife under the slices to free them, but leave them in place. Conceal the bone with a paper frill. Arrange around the dish a variety of vegetables. In illustration [No. 67] the vegetables are boiled potato balls, macedoine, and string beans cut in two ways, lengthwise and across diagonally into one half inch pieces.

Arrange slices cut from a roasted leg of mutton on one end of a large platter. Cover the rest of the dish with a variety of seasoned vegetables. The vegetables used in illustration No. 68 are cauliflower, string beans, lima beans, and green peas.

NO. 69. COTTAGE PIE.

COTTAGE PIE

Peel a good-sized onion, stick into it half a dozen whole cloves, and place it in the center of an earthenware baking-dish, or a granite-ware basin, or, best of all, the baking-pan of a double pudding-dish. Cut any cold meat into small and rather thin slices. Roll each piece in flour mixed with pepper and salt. Arrange the pieces of meat around the onion, filling the dish three quarters full.

Put the bone of the meat and all of the scraps into a saucepan, cover them with cold water, add a bay-leaf and soup vegetables, and simmer the whole for an hour or longer. Strain off the stock.

Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan with a teaspoonful of onion juice, let it brown, then add a tablespoonful of the flour used for rolling the meat, let the flour brown, then add one and a half cupfuls of the stock and stir until it becomes a little thickened. Add more pepper and salt if necessary, and a dash of mustard and of nutmeg, also a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, if convenient. Let this sauce become a little cooled, then pour it over the meat, and cover the whole with mashed potato. The potato should be seasoned by adding to it a little hot milk, with melted butter in it, and a little salt, and then be whipped with a fork until it is smooth, light, and white. The potato may be put through a ricer over the meat, or be piled on it roughly and scratched with a fork into cone shape, or be put through a pastry-bag with star tube as in illustration. In the latter case it must have the white of an egg mixed with it in order to hold its form when baked. Touch the potato lightly over the top with yolk of egg diluted with milk to make it brown well. Put the dish in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes, or long enough to brown the potato a little and heat the meat. When the sauce begins to bubble through the potato at the edges it is done.

The meat, having been cooked already, will be toughened if cooked a second time and needs only to be heated.

Wrap a folded napkin around the dish before sending it to the table in case a kitchen basin has been used. This is a presentable dish and will be well liked.

MEAT AND POTATO PIE

Butter a pie-plate, spread over it like an under-crust well-seasoned mashed potato. Spread it about a quarter of an inch thick on the bottom. Make a border two inches wide, and thick enough to rise a little above the dish. Score the top of the potato border with a fork and touch it lightly with egg. Fill the center with rare cold beef or mutton cut into dice. Pour over the meat well-seasoned brown sauce and sprinkle the top with a few buttered bread crumbs. Do not let any of the sauce get on the potato border. Place it in the oven for a few minutes to brown.

MINCED MEAT WITH POTATO RINGS

Mince any kind of meat. Make it creamy with brown sauce for dark meat, or with white sauce for veal or chicken; or moisten the minced meat with stock, add pepper and salt, a few drops of onion juice, and, if convenient, a little tomato. Chopped mushrooms added to the mince improve it very much. Spread the creamed mince flat on the dish, or form a mound as in illustration. Sprinkle the top with crumbs browned in butter.

Mash some boiled potatoes, season them with butter, salt, and enough milk to moisten them well, and one or two beaten eggs; one egg is enough for a pint of potato. Beat the potato until it is light and white. Press it through a pastry-bag with star tube into rings. Paint the rings with yolk of egg diluted with a little milk and put them in the oven to brown. The potato will not hold its form unless the egg is added. Arrange the rings around the minced meat and fill the centers with corn and spinach alternately, as in illustration, or with any other vegetables.

NO. 72. MINCED HAM AND EGGS.

MINCED HAM AND EGGS

Mince boiled ham very fine. Moisten it with white sauce. Form it into a mound and cover it with crumbed yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Cut the whites of the eggs into strips and arrange them around the ham.

VEAL CHOPS

Cut thin chops from the rack and trim them like French mutton chops. Leave the bone two and a half inches long. Strike the meat with a cleaver to flatten it out to two and a half inches in diameter. Chop the trimmings very fine, season them with pepper and salt and a few drops of onion juice. Spread the mince over the chops in an even layer. Egg and bread-crumb them and sauté them until thoroughly cooked. Serve on a dish with a little sauce made from the drippings in the sauté-pan, or with a tomato sauce.

Serve spinach with this dish.

NO. 70. MINCED MEAT GARNISHED WITH POTATO RINGS HOLDING VEGETABLES.

NO. 71. MINCED MEAT OR FISH GARNISHED WITH MASHED POTATOES.

NO. 73. VEAL À L’ITALIENNE.

VEAL À L’ITALIENNE

Divide a veal cutlet into uniform small pieces and tie them to make the pieces round and keep them in shape until cooked, when the strings are cut and removed.

One cutlet from the top of the leg of veal will cut into eight pieces.

Dredge the small cutlets with salt and pepper. Dip them into egg, and then cover them with bread crumbs. Sauté them in the fat tried out of thin slices of salt pork. It will take from ten to fifteen minutes to cook them. Veal should be thoroughly cooked, but not dried. The meat will be white when cooked. Put a little lemon juice on each cutlet.

Boil the required amount of spaghetti in salted water until it is tender, then steam it until dry so the sauce will adhere to it. Mix it with tomato purée and a few thin strips of boiled ham cut into straws one and a half inches long. Pile the spaghetti in the center of the dish and arrange the cutlets around it. Place the crisp slices of salt pork on the dish.

NO. 74. SMALL VEAL CUTLETS.

SMALL VEAL CUTLETS

Cut and tie the cutlets into rounds as directed in above receipt. Dredge them in salt and pepper and roll them in flour.

Put a tablespoonful of butter in a sauté-pan, when it is hot add half a teaspoonful of grated onion, let it cook for a minute, then add the cutlets and cook them until done and well browned, turning them several times.

Remove the cutlets. Sprinkle in the pan a teaspoonful of flour, let it cook a minute, then add slowly half a cupful of stock, stirring all the time to keep it smooth. Remove it from the fire and stir in a small bit of butter and the yolks of one or two eggs mixed with a tablespoonful of hot water; season with salt and pepper. If the sauce is too thick, dilute it with a little hot water or stock. It should have the consistency of cream. Strain it on to the serving dish. Place the cutlets upon the sauce, arranging them in a line in the center of the dish, one on top of another, and place around them hard-boiled eggs cut in two lengthwise.

NO. 75. GRENADINES OF VEAL.

GRENADINES OF VEAL

Cut a thin veal cutlet into small pieces and tie the pieces into rounds about two inches in diameter. Lard them. Put them in a baking-pan with a few trimmings of the larding pork, a sliced onion, and enough stock to half cover them. Place them in the oven and cook until the stock has fallen to a glaze. Baste them frequently so they will be well glazed. Arrange them on a dish and pour around them a sauce made from the drippings in the pan, as follows: Add a little stock or water to the pan and a little browned flour, if necessary, to thicken it. Then strain it. A little ham cut into thin strips an inch long improves the sauce.

NO. 76. PORK TENDERLOINS GARNISHED WITH SLICES OF APPLE SAUTÉD.

PORK TENDERLOINS

Sauté tenderloins of pork until cooked and browned. Arrange the tenderloins evenly on a dish and place around them sautéd slices of apples.

Cut apples across into slices quarter of an inch thick, stamp out the cores with a small biscuit-cutter, but do not remove the skin. Sauté the rings of apple in the drippings of the pork until they are tender, but not until they have lost shape.

NO. 79. INDIVIDUAL MOLDS OF SPINACH GARNISHED
WITH CHOPPED WHITE OF EGG.

NO. 80. SPINACH, NO. 2.

VEGETABLES AND CEREALS USED AS VEGETABLES

NO. 77. STUFFED BAKED POTATOES.

STUFFED BAKED POTATOES

Select potatoes of the same size and shape. After carefully washing them, bake them until tender, then cut them in two lengthwise and remove the pulp of the potato, leaving the skins uninjured. Season the potato with butter, salt, and a little milk. Beat it well and replace it in the potato skins. Smooth the top with a knife, brush them with yolk of egg, and set in the oven to brown.

NO. 78. POTATO PURÉE.

POTATO PURÉE

Mash and season the potatoes and add enough milk or hot water to make them quite soft. Take up a spoonful of potato at a time and place it on a flat dish in a regular order. Place a small sprig of parsley on each spoonful.

RICE À LA MILANESE

Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan with a teaspoonful of onion chopped fine. Cook for a minute, but do not brown. Add half a cupful of clean, unwashed rice, and stir until it is a light yellow, then add two cupfuls of stock and cook without stirring for twenty minutes. The rice should be tender and the stock should be absorbed. Add a tablespoonful of grated cheese and a little salt. Turn it lightly together, using a fork, so as not to break the rice. Cover the top with grated cheese.

Serve as a vegetable-dish or as a course for luncheon. In the latter case brush the inside of a ring-mold with glaze, add to the rice a teaspoonful of butter in small bits, and a dash of paprika. Press it lightly into the mold and set it in the oven for a few minutes.

A brown or a tomato sauce may be served with it if desired.

BAKED HOMINY

To two cupfuls of cold boiled hominy add a beaten egg, three quarters of a cupful of milk, and a half teaspoonful of salt. Beat it until perfectly smooth. Put it into a baking-dish, smooth the top, pour over it a teaspoonful of melted butter, and bake it until it forms a golden surface.

Serve it in the baking-dish in place of a vegetable.

QUENELLES OF CORNMEAL

Put a cupful of milk and a cupful and a half of water in a saucepan and add a teaspoonful of salt. When it boils stir in slowly half a cupful of yellow meal and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes, and until the mixture is well thickened. Then take it off the fire. When it is cold and stiffened take it up in spoonfuls and lay the egg-shaped pieces formed by the spoon in a baking-dish. Place the pieces in the dish symmetrically. Pour over them a little melted butter and set them in the oven to brown slightly. Serve as a vegetable.

BOILED LETTUCE

Wash thoroughly whole heads of lettuce. Tie the tops so the leaves will lie together. Place the heads in a large pan so they do not touch and boil them in salted water until tender. Remove them carefully and let them drain on a sieve, pressing each one to free it of water. Lay them in a row on a flat dish and pour over them a sauce made of melted butter, pepper and salt, and a little vinegar; or use a plain white sauce.

TOMATO FARCI

Select tomatoes of equal size, and if they are small use them whole, if large cut them in two. Peel them. Arrange them close together in a flat earthen baking-dish which can be sent to the table. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Spread over the top a mixture of chopped mushrooms, bread crumbs, chopped parsley, and sufficient butter to moisten the bread. Bake about thirty minutes, or until the tomatoes are softened. Set the hot baking-dish on a second dish when serving.

BROILED TOMATOES

Without removing the skin, cut fresh tomatoes into slices three eighths of an inch thick. Sprinkle the slices with pepper and salt and dip them first in melted butter or in oil and then in cracker or bread crumbs, then broil them over hot coals until they are softened. Do not let them cook so much that they fall apart.

SPINACH

Boil carefully washed and carefully picked over spinach until it is tender, drain it, chop it very fine, and press it through a purée sieve. Season it with white sauce made of half milk and half stock (page [102]). Use enough of the sauce to make it quite creamy. If it is to be molded it cannot be quite as soft as when it is to be served in a vegetable-dish.

No. 1. Fill thoroughly buttered individual timbale molds with spinach and press it down quite hard. After a few minutes, turn the spinach out of the molds on to rounds of browned bread. Cover the tops with chopped whites of hard-boiled eggs and place in the center a spot of the crumbed yolks.

Serve alone or use as a garnish on a meat-dish.

This is a good way to utilize a small amount of leftover spinach. Spinach is improved rather than injured by recooking.

No. 2. Make a mound of spinach by pressing it into a buttered bowl. Ornament the top with a hard-boiled egg, the whole yolk standing on slices of the white cut lengthwise.

No. 3. Ornament a thoroughly buttered tin basin or any mold with half rings of hard-boiled eggs as shown in illustration [No. 5]. The egg will stick to the butter and be held in place. Fill the mold with spinach, putting it in carefully with a spoon so as not to displace the ornamentation, and press it down firmly. After a few minutes turn it out of the mold and garnish it with croutons.

Croutons are slices of bread browned (sautéd) in butter.

NO. 81. BEAN CROQUETTES.

BEAN CROQUETTES

Boil until tender a pint of dried beans which have been soaked overnight. Boil an onion in the water with the beans. Press the beans through a purée sieve. Season the purée with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two beaten eggs, a little pepper and salt, and a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine. If the mixture is still too dry add a little stock. Mold the purée into small croquettes. Cover the croquettes with egg and bread crumbs and fry them in smoking-hot fat. Serve with tomato sauce.

CHICKEN

CASSEROLE OF CHICKEN, No. 1

Cut tender chicken into joints. Remove the skin, put a tablespoonful of butter into a casserole. Lay in the pieces of chicken loosely with bits of butter between them, add the sautéd slices of one onion and a bouquet of herbs consisting of a small bunch of parsley, a bay-leaf, and a little thyme, wrap the parsley around the others and tie them together. Add also a few raw potato balls and, if convenient, a few fresh mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt. Lay two or three very thin slices of salt pork over the top. Cover the casserole and put it in the oven. At the end of half an hour turn the chicken carefully and return it to the oven to finish the cooking.

CASSEROLE OF CHICKEN, No. 2

Cut a chicken into joints, remove the skin, sprinkle the pieces with pepper and salt, and roll them in flour. Sauté the slices of one onion and a tablespoonful of butter; when they are tender remove and put them in the casserole, then put in the sauté-pan the pieces of chicken with a little more butter and sauté them to a golden brown on all sides. Place the chicken in the casserole. Add half a tablespoonful of flour to the sauté-pan; after it has cooked a minute stir in slowly one and a half cupfuls of water, or, preferably, stock, and stir until it is slightly thickened. Season with a saltspoonful of pepper and a half teaspoonful of salt. Turn the sauce over the chicken, add a bay-leaf, a few potato balls, and, if convenient, a tablespoonful of sherry and a few mushrooms. Cover the casserole, put it in the oven, and cook slowly until the chicken is tender. If the sauce becomes too dry add enough water or stock to make it the consistency of cream. If it is too thin leave off the lid and continue cooking until it is reduced. There should not be a great quantity of sauce.

PANNED CHICKEN

Split a spring chicken down the back, double the flippers under the back, and cross the legs as shown in illustration [No. 82].

Put a little butter all over the chicken and dust it with pepper, salt, and flour. Place it in a baking-pan with a cupful of water and bake it for thirty minutes, basting it frequently.

SMOTHERED CHICKEN

Put a chicken prepared as above in a pan, cover it with a second pan, and set it in a hot oven for fifteen minutes, or until browned, then turn it over, add a cupful of water, cover it again with the pan, and cook until tender.

CHICKEN FRIED IN CREAM

Fry a few pieces of salt pork until crisp. Remove them from the pan and put in the chicken, which has been cut into pieces and the skin removed. Sauté the chicken in the pork fat until it is cooked and browned, then turn over it a cupful of cream in which has been mixed half a teaspoonful of mustard and the chopped white and crumbed yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Stir them together for a minute and serve.

NO. 82. CHICKEN PREPARED TO BROIL.

NO. 83. CHICKEN JOINTS GARNISHED WITH POTATO.

CHICKEN JOINTS

Take the drumsticks and second joints and the wings of cooked chicken or turkey. Remove the skin and trim them so they are smooth and shapely. Rub them with salt and pepper. Dip them in batter and fry them in smoking-hot fat to a light golden color. Arrange them on a platter with the points in, and ornament the tops with a line of mashed potato pressed through a pastry-bag and star-tube.

Use a plain pancake batter, omitting the baking-powder; or use the batter given for fontage cups (page [30]), but a little thicker. Have it of a consistency to coat the spoon evenly and let it be very smooth.

NO. 84. CHICKEN EN SURPRISE.

CHICKEN EN SURPRISE

Bone a chicken without removing the leg or wing bones. Spread the boned chicken on a board, lay a roll of forcemeat on it, draw it together, giving it the shape of the chicken, and sew the skin together. Put the legs and wings into the positions of a trussed fowl, roll it in a piece of cheesecloth, and secure the ends well. (See Boning and Braising, pages 181-182, “Century Cook Book.”)

Put it in a pot with enough water to cover it, add soup vegetables, herbs and spices, and let it simmer for four hours.

Let the chicken cool before removing the cloth, then lard it, rub it over with a little melted butter, and dredge with salt, pepper, and flour. Place it in the oven to brown and to heat it if it is to be used hot. Baste with a little butter and water so it will not get too brown while it is heating through. Place paper frills on the leg bones, and garnish with fried potato balls and a few sprigs of parsley, as shown in the illustration.

FORCEMEAT

Chop very fine the meat of a fowl, or use veal or pork or a mixture of them both. Add to the meat a cupful of the crumb of bread, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a teaspoonful each of salt, thyme, and onion juice, and a quarter teaspoonful of pepper; a little ham or tongue, some dice of larding-pork and truffle improve the forcemeat, but are not essential when the chicken is to be served hot. Moisten the whole with stock and mix it well.

SAUCES

WHITE SAUCE

Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan; when it bubbles add a tablespoonful of flour and cook them together for a few minutes, but do not let them brown. Remove from the fire and add a cupful of milk, very slowly so as to keep it smooth; stir all the time. Add a half teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. Return it to the fire and cook until it is thickened to a creamy consistency. The sauce is richer if half stock and half milk are used. It is also improved for some uses by adding the yolks of one or two eggs. If yolks are used they are stirred in after the sauce is taken from the fire, as it is still hot enough to cook the egg sufficiently. (See Sauces, “Century Cook Book,” pages 275-277.)

BROWN SAUCE

This is made in the same way and with the same proportions as the white sauce, but the butter with a few drops of onion juice in it is browned before the flour is added. The flour is also allowed to brown. It is then diluted with stock instead of milk.

SUPREME SAUCE

For Chicken Breasts, Sweetbreads, Croquettes, etc.

Put a tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan; when it is hot add a tablespoonful of flour and let it cook a few minutes without coloring, then add slowly a cupful of chicken or veal stock, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of paprika; stir until it thickens, then remove it from the fire, and after a few minutes add slowly a mixture of quarter of a cupful of cream and the yolks of three eggs. Return it to the fire for a minute to cook the eggs. Just before serving add a tablespoonful of lemon juice.

TOMATO PURÉE

Put a canful of tomatoes in a saucepan with half an onion sliced, a bay-leaf, a sprig of parsley, three cloves, one half teaspoonful of salt, and a saltspoonful of pepper. Cook uncovered until reduced one half, then strain it through a purée sieve. Return it to the fire and add, a little at a time, a tablespoonful of butter.

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

For Fish, Vegetables, and Meats

Put in a saucepan the yolks of four eggs, one half cupful of butter, one half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of paprika, and one half cupful of cold water or stock. Mix them together. Place the saucepan in a pan of hot water and stir the mixture over the fire until it has thickened to the consistency of cream. When ready to serve remove it from the fire, and after it has cooled a little add very slowly the juice of half a lemon.

NO. 48. MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL BUTTER.

MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL BUTTER

Whip, with a fork, a quarter of a cupful of butter until it is very light, add a tablespoonful of parsley chopped very fine, one half teaspoonful each of salt and pepper, and lastly add slowly a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Smooth it over and set it in the ice-box to harden. Dip a teaspoon in hot water, wipe it quickly, and then draw it lightly over the hardened butter, taking up a thin layer which will curl over as the spoon is drawn along. Turn it off the spoon in egg-shaped pieces. Heat the spoon again and repeat the operation, laying the pieces in a pile as they are made. Place them in the ice-box to harden.

Serve with any broiled meats or fish.

GLAZE

Glaze is a clear soup stock boiled down to the consistency of thick cream. It is applied with a brush to the surface of meats to give them a smooth and shining surface. It is used also for adding richness to sauces. A very little glaze often improves a sauce and does not thin it as stock would do. The prepared extract of beef which comes in small jars can be used as a glaze.