VEGETABLES.
STEWED LETTUCE.
Wash a fine lettuce, and tie it up with a string passed several times round it, to keep the leaves together. Put it in boiling water, with a little salt. When the lettuce has boiled, take it out and press it to squeeze out the water, but be careful not to break it.
Having mixed, in a stew-pan, a large spoonful of butter with a spoonful of flour, add half a pint of cream or rich milk; put in the lettuce, with a very little salt, half a nutmeg grated, and two lumps of sugar. Let it boil ten minutes. Take out the lettuce, stir the yolks of two beaten eggs into the sauce, and serve all up together.
STEWED SPINACH.
Take young spinach, and throw it into boiling water with some salt. When it has boiled, take it out, drain it, and lay it in cold water for a quarter of an hour. Then drain it and squeeze it. Cut it small, and put it into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter. After it has stewed slowly for a quarter of an hour, add a spoonful of flour, with a little salt, sugar, and nutmeg. Moisten it with cream or milk, and let it simmer again over a slow fire for another quarter of an hour. Then serve it up, and lay on it slices of toasted bread dipped in melted butter.
STEWED CUCUMBERS.
Lay your cucumbers in cold water for half an hour; then pare them, and cut them into slips about as long as your little finger; take out the seeds; then boil the cucumbers a few minutes, with a little salt. Take them out, and drain them well.
Put into a stew-pan some butter rolled in flour, and a little cream. Stew your cucumbers in it for ten minutes. When you take them off, stir in the yolks of two beaten eggs; and if you choose, a tea-spoonful of vinegar.
STEWED BEETS.
Boil some beets. Then peel and cut them into slices. Stew them for a quarter of an hour with a piece of butter rolled in flour, some onion and parsley chopped fine, a little vinegar, salt and pepper, and a clove of garlic.
STEWED CARROTS.
Scrape and wash your carrots. Scald them in boiling water; then drain them, and cut them into long slips. Stew them in milk or cream, with a little salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. When done, take them out, stir into the sauce the yolks of one or two eggs, and a lump or two of loaf-sugar, and pour it over the carrots.
STEWED CABBAGE.
Having washed your cabbage, cut it in four, and throw it into boiling water with some salt. When it has boiled till quite tender, take it up, squeeze out the water, and put the cabbage to drain. Then lay it in a stew-pan with butter, salt, pepper, nutmeg, a spoonful of flour, and half a pint of cream. Stew it a quarter of an hour, and pour the sauce over it when you send it to table.
Cauliflowers may be stewed in the same manner.
STEWED PEAS.
Take two quarts of green peas; put them into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter, a bunch of parsley, and the heart of a fine lettuce cut in pieces, a bunch of mint, three or four lumps of sugar, some salt and pepper, and a very little water. Stir all together, set it on coals and let it stew gently for an hour or an hour and a half. Having taken out the parsley, add a piece of butter rolled in flour; and stir in the yolks of two eggs just before you send it to table.
You may, if you choose, put in the lettuce without cutting it in pieces; tie it up with the bunch of parsley and two onions, and withdraw the whole before you dish the peas. Serve up the lettuce in another dish.
STEWED BEANS.
Put into a stew-pan some parsley and some chives or little onions chopped fine, some mushrooms (if you have them) chopped also, and a large piece of butter rolled in flour. Add a glass of white wine and a little water. Stir all together, and then put in as many beans as will fill a quart measure when strung and cut small; having first soaked them a quarter of an hour in cold water. Let them stew gently on hot coals till quite tender. Just before you serve them up, stir in the yolks of two eggs. You may substitute for the wine a tumbler of cream, but it must be stirred in at the last.
STEWED ONIONS.
Boil some small onions with salt, and then drain them. Lay them in a stew-pan with a piece of butter, and sprinkle them with flour, pepper and salt. Pour on them some cream, and then turn every onion with a spoon. Stew them ten minutes, and serve them up.
ONIONS STEWED IN WINE.
Boil twenty or thirty onions a quarter of an hour with a bunch of sweet herbs, some salt, a few cloves, and a laurel leaf. Then take out the onions, and put them into a stew-pan with some salt, a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a pint of red wine. Stew them another quarter of an hour, and serve them up garnished with pieces of toast dipped in the sauce.
STEWED MUSHROOMS.
Having peeled and washed your mushrooms, drain them, and stew them with butter, pepper, salt, and a little chopped parsley, adding a little flour and warm water. When they are done, stir into the sauce the yolks of two or three eggs, and some cream. Toast and butter a slice of bread. Lay it on the dish under the mushrooms, and pour the sauce over them.
Put in a small onion with the mushrooms, that you may know by its turning almost black, whether there is a poisonous one among them. If the onion turns black, throw away all the mushrooms.
STEWED POTATOES.
Boil eight or nine large potatoes with a little salt, and then peel and cut them in slices. Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, a spoonful of flour, some salt, and half a grated nutmeg. Add a half-pint of cream, and mix all together. When this sauce boils, put in your sliced potatoes, and let them stew a quarter of an hour.
STEWED POTATOES WITH TURNIPS.
Pare and boil an equal quantity of turnips and potatoes. When done, drain and mash them. Melt some butter in a stew-pan, and add to it a little mustard. Stew the mixed potatoes and turnips in it, with a small quantity of hot milk, for about ten minutes.
ASPARAGUS WITH CREAM.
Wash and boil four or five bundles of asparagus. Have ready a pint of cream, or a pint of milk, with the yolks of six eggs stirred into it. Take four large rolls of bread, and cut a round piece out of the top of each. Scoop out the crumb from the inside of the rolls, and put it into the cream with the heads of the asparagus, of which you must save out a sufficient number (with a small piece of the stalk left on each) to stick the rolls with. Make holes in the top-pieces of the rolls.
Fry the rolls in butter. Put the most of the asparagus heads into the cream mixed with the crumb of the rolls, and simmer it awhile over a slow fire. When the rolls are fried, fill their cavities with the mixture. Stick the tops with the remainder of the asparagus, and lay them on the rolls.
Asparagus may be simply boiled with salt, and served up on toasted bread dipped in oil, and eaten with oil sauce.
POTATOES STEWED WHOLE.
Boil two dozen small new potatoes, with some salt. Put into a stew-pan a piece of butter rolled in flour, half the peel of a lemon grated, half a nutmeg grated, some salt, two or three lumps of sugar, and three tea-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Lay the potatoes in this mixture, squeeze over them the juice of a lemon, and let them stew gently about ten minutes.
FRIED POTATOES.
Make a batter with the yolks of three eggs, a little salt, a table-spoonful of oil, a table-spoonful of brandy, and sufficient flour or grated bread to thicken it. Have ready some large cold potatoes cut in slices. Dip each slice in the batter, and fry them in butter.
FRIED CAULIFLOWER.
Wash a fine large cauliflower, and cut it into quarters. Having boiled some water with salt, throw the cauliflower into it, and boil it till you can nip it easily with your fingers. Take it out and drain it. Then put it into a pan with salt, pepper and vinegar, and let it lie half an hour, turning it frequently.
Make the following batter, which must be prepared half an hour or more before it is wanted, that it may have time to rise. Take three table-spoonfuls of flour, three beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of butter melted in a little warm water, a spoonful of sweet oil, and a spoonful of brandy. Stir all together; and if you find it too thin, add a little more flour; cover it, and let it set half an hour. Then beat to a stiff froth the whites of the eggs, and stir them hard into the batter. Dip your quarters of cauliflower into this mixture, and fry them of a fine light brown.
When the cauliflower is done, let it remain in the pan a quarter of an hour before you send it to table. Lay fried parsley round it.
Broccoli may be fried in the same manner.
FRIED CELERY.
Take ten or twelve fine stalks of celery. Cut them into pieces about six inches long, and lay them an hour in salt and water. Drain them, spread them on a dish, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Make a batter of eggs, milk, and grated bread; allowing four eggs to a pint of milk. Dip each piece of celery into the batter, and fry them in butter.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.71-*
Peel, wash, and drain your mushrooms, and then cut them in pieces. Make a square case of white paper, and butter it well. Fill it with the mushrooms mixed with butter, salt, and pepper. Broil them on the gridiron over a clear fire, and serve them up in the paper.
If you choose, you may mix with the mushrooms some chopped onion and sweet-herbs.
STUFFED CABBAGE. (Choux farcis.)
Take a large cabbage, with a hard full head; put it into boiling water with some salt, and let it boil from five to ten minutes. Then take it out and drain it. Cut off the stalk close to the bottom, so that the cabbage may stand upright on the dish, and then carefully take out the inside leaves or heart; leaving the outside leaves whole.
Chop fine what you have taken out of the inside, and chop also some cold ham and veal, or cold chicken. Likewise four eggs boiled hard. Mix together the chopped eggs, the ham and veal, the cabbage heart, and some grated bread, adding salt and pepper. Fill the cabbage with this stuffing, and tie tape round it to keep the outside leaves together. Then put it into a deep stew-pan, with a quarter of a pound of butter rolled in flour, and an onion stuck full of cloves. Let it simmer over a slow fire for two hours or more.
When it is done, take off the tape, set the cabbage upright in a dish, and pour melted butter over it.
Lettuce may be done in the same manner.
STUFFED POTATOES.
Take eight very large potatoes, wash and pare them. Make a small slit or incision in each of them, and scoop out carefully with a knife as much of the inside as will leave all round a shell about the thickness of two cents. Then make a force-meat of the substance you have taken out of the inside, mixing it with two minced onions, a small piece of minced cold ham or pork, about two ounces of butter, and a little parsley; adding the yolks of two or three beaten eggs. Mix the stuffing thoroughly, by pounding it in a mortar.
Butter the inside of the potatoes, and fill them with this mixture. Then having buttered a large dish, lay your potatoes in it separately. Bake them half an hour, or till they are of a fine brown.
When you mash potatoes, moisten them with milk or cream, adding a little salt. Heap them up on the dish in the form of a pyramid. Smooth the sides of the pyramid with the back of a spoon, and brown it by holding over it a red-hot shovel.
STUFFED CUCUMBERS.
Cut off one end of each of the cucumbers, and scoop out all the seeds with a fork. Then pare them. Prepare a stuffing made of bread crumbs, cold meat minced, salt, pepper, and sweet-herbs. Fill your cucumbers with it, and fasten on with a skewer the pieces you have cut off from their ends. Sow up every one separately in a thin cloth. Put them into a pan with butter, flour, a bunch of sweet-herbs, and a little warm water. Let them stew very slowly for about two hours, and then take them out. Remove the cloths, and serve up the cucumbers with the sauce under them.
STUFFED TOMATAS.
Scoop out the inside of a dozen large tomatas, without spoiling their shape. Pass the inside through a sieve, and then mix it with grated bread, chopped sweet-herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stew it ten minutes, with a laurel leaf, or two peach leaves. Remove the leaves, and stuff the tomatas with the mixture, tying a string round each to keep them in shape. Sprinkle them all over with rasped bread-crust. Set them in a buttered dish, and bake them in an oven. Take off the strings, and serve up the tomatas.
Egg-plants may be cooked in the same manner.
CAULIFLOWERS WITH CHEESE.
Having washed and boiled your cauliflowers in salt and water, drain them well. Make a white sauce in a small pan, with butter rolled in flour, and a little milk. Pour some of this sauce into the bottom of a dish that will bear the fire. Chop your cauliflower, and spread a layer of it on the sauce. Then cover it with a layer of rich cheese, grated and slightly sprinkled with pepper. Then spread on the remainder of the cauliflower, and then another layer of peppered cheese, and so on till your dish is nearly full. Pour over it the rest of the sauce. Prepare two or three handfuls of grated bread, mixed with a little of the grated cheese. Spread it all over the surface of the last layer of cauliflower, and smooth it with the back of a spoon. Allow a quarter of a pound of cheese to each cauliflower.
Put the dish in a slow oven about a quarter of an hour before you serve it up, and bake it till a brown crust forms on the outside. Clear off the butter from the edges of the dish, and send it to table hot.
Broccoli may be done in the same manner.
RAGOOED CABBAGE.
Wash a fine savoy cabbage, and boil it for half an hour in salt and water. Then take it out, drain it, and lay it for ten minutes in cold water. Afterwards squeeze and drain it well, and take out the stalk. Chop the cabbage slightly, and put it into a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter, and add two table-spoonfuls of flour. Season it with salt and pepper, and moisten it with a little water. Let it stew slowly for an hour, and then serve it up.
Cauliflowers or broccoli may be done in the same manner.
RAGOOED MUSHROOMS.
Take a pint of fresh mushrooms. When they are peeled and the stalks cut off, put the mushrooms into a stew-pan with two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, a sprig or two of parsley, a small onion, a few chives chopped fine, some salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Let it boil gently for a quarter of an hour. Before it goes to table, stir in the yolks of two eggs.
If the onion has turned blue or black, throw the whole away, as it is evident that some poisonous ones are among the mushrooms.
PURÉES.
The word PurÉe cannot be exactly translated, as there is nothing in the English language that gives precisely the same idea. In French it is generally applied to a certain manner of cooking vegetables that converts them into a substance resembling marmalade, which, when the coarser parts are strained out, leaves a fine smooth jelly.
It is served up with meat.
PURÉE OF TURNIPS.
Wash and pare some of the finest turnips. Cut them into small pieces, and let them lie for half an hour in cold water. Then take them out and drain them. Put them into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter and some salt and pepper. Moisten them with a little broth or boiling water. Let them stew over a very slow fire, for five or six hours, stirring them frequently. Then rub them through a sieve, and serve up the jelly with roast meat.
PURÉE OF CELERY.
Wash your celery, peel it, and stew it slowly for three or four hours, with salt, and a very little water. Then pass it through a sieve, and season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.
PURÉE OF ONIONS.
Take thirty onions; cut them in slices and put them into a stew-pan, with a little salt, pepper, and a grated nutmeg. Let them stew slowly till they are of a fine brown color, and then add a table-spoonful of broth or warm water.
When it has attained the proper consistence, strain it and serve it up.
PURÉE OF MUSHROOMS.
Peel a pint of mushrooms, cut them in pieces, and put them in a pan with as much cold water as will keep them from burning. Throw in with them a small onion to test their goodness; as, if there is a bad or poisonous one among them, the onion will turn of a bluish black while cooking. In that case, throw them all away.
Stew them slowly till they have lost all shape and have become an undistinguishable mass. Then strain them.
Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, or a spoonful of flour, and two lumps of sugar. Add your purÉe, and let it stew again for about five minutes. When you take it off the fire, stir in the yolks of two eggs slightly beaten, and a spoonful of cream or rich milk. Put it in the middle of a dish, and lay round it thin slices of fried bread or toast.
PURÉE OF BEANS.
Having strung and cut your beans till you have a quart, throw them into boiling water, with a little salt. Let them remain a quarter of an hour. Then drain them, and throw into cold water to green them. After they have lain half an hour in the cold water, take them out and drain them again.
Put a large piece of butter into a stew-pan with some pepper, a little salt, and a spoonful of flour. Add your beans, and cover them with broth or warm water. Put in a bunch of sweet-herbs cut small, and stew the whole very slowly till it has dissolved into a mass. Then strain it. Put a piece of butter into the purÉe, and serve it up.
PURÉE OF GREEN PEAS.
Take a quart of shelled green peas. Wash them, and put them into a stew-pan with water enough to cover them, a little salt and pepper, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, a laurel leaf or a couple of peach-leaves, and a bunch of mint.
Let them stew very slowly; and if necessary moisten them occasionally with a little warm water or broth. Stir them frequently, that they may not stick to the pan. When they become of the consistence of marmalade, strain it. Chop an onion fine, fry it in butter, and have it ready to mix with the purÉe.
Dried split peas may be made into a purÉe in the same manner.
PurÉes may be made in a similar manner of different sorts of meat, poultry &c. seasoned, stewed slowly to a jelly, then strained through a cullender or sieve, and taken as soups.
In gathering mushrooms, take only those that are of a pale pink color underneath, and a dull white or pearl color on the top. Those that are perfectly white above, or whose under side is white, yellow, or any color but pale pink, are unfit to eat, and poisonous.
After being gathered awhile, the pink tinge changes to brown, but it always appears on the good ones while in the ground.
In choosing eggs, hold them up against the light, and if you see that the yolk is round, and the white thin and clear, you may suppose them to be good. But if the yolk appears to be broken and mixed with the white, giving it a thick cloudy look, you may be sure that the egg is bad. Eggs may be preserved by keeping them in a keg of lime-water, or by greasing each egg all over with dripping, and putting them into a tight vessel filled with wood-ashes, placing them all with their small ends downwards. You may also keep them by burying them in salt. Still they are never so good as when quite fresh.
When you break eggs for use, do every one separately, in a saucer. If you find the egg good, throw it into the pan in which they are to be beaten. If you meet with a bad one, throw it away and wash the saucer or get a clean one. A single bad egg will make the whole mixture heavy, spungy, and of an unpleasant taste.
When the water boils hard, put in the eggs, and let them boil exactly three minutes. Then take them out, and cover them up for about a minute, which will greatly improve them. Send them to table wrapped in a napkin, and laid in a deep dish.
Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan. When it ceases to hiss, put in the yolks only of your eggs. Season them with pepper and salt. When fried, color them by holding over them a red-hot shovel.
Melt some butter in a dish that will bear the fire. Add to it salt, and nutmeg, and a little milk in the proportion of a table-spoonful to each egg. Mix them well together. Then lay over it the yolks of your eggs, first ascertaining that they are all good. Let it stew over a slow fire for a few minutes; and color it by holding over it a red-hot shovel. The eggs must not be allowed to get hard, but the surface should be soft and perfectly smooth and even.
Before you put in the eggs, you may stir into the mixture some heads of boiled asparagus.
Boil twelve eggs hard. Take off the shell, and cut each egg in half. Take out the yolks, and pound them in a mortar with a quarter of a pound of butter; a nutmeg; some grated bread that has been soaked in milk; a little salt; and if you choose, some minced sweet-herbs. Fill the whites of the eggs with this stuffing, heaping it up, and smoothing it into a round even shape. Butter a dish, and spread over the inside a thin layer of the stuffing. Arrange in it all your halves of eggs, the bottoms downwards. Put them into an oven, the lid of which must be hot. Let them set about five minutes, and then send them to table.
Take a quart of milk, and stir into it two spoonfuls of rose-water, and a quarter of a pound of white sugar, with a powdered nutmeg. Add by degrees the yolks of twelve eggs well beaten. Boil the whole together, stirring it all the time, so as to make a thick smooth custard. If you keep it too long on the fire, it will be lumpy. Set it away to get cold in a deep dish. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth that will stand alone, adding to it twelve drops of essence of lemon. Heap it on the dish of custard so as to look like a pile of snow; or you may drop it with a large spoon, so as to form separate balls. On the top of each ball you may lay a tea-spoonful of stiff currant-jelly.
Beat together a quart of sifted flour, six eggs, a table-spoonful of brandy, a grated nutmeg, a little salt, and sufficient water to make a thin batter. Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan, or substitute a little sweet-oil. Pour in a ladleful of the batter, and let it spread into a circular form. When it is slightly brown on one side, turn it carefully on the other. Serve them up with white sugar grated over each.
You may color them pink, by stirring into the mixture some of the juice of a beet-root, which has been boiled and then beaten in a mortar.
Omelets may be seasoned in the same manner with parsley, chopped sweet-herbs, or mushrooms. Also with minced oysters.
Boil half a pound of maccaroni with two ounces of butter, some whole pepper, and a little salt. Do not let it boil long enough for the maccaroni to lose its shape. When done, mix with it a quarter of a pound of rich cheese, scraped or grated. Butter a deep dish, and put the mixture into it. Then set it for a quarter of an hour in the oven. Brown the top with a red-hot shovel.
Take half a pound of maccaroni, and put it into a stew-pan with an ounce of butter, a little salt and pepper, and water enough to cover it. Stew it till dry. Then grate a quarter of a pound of fine cheese, and mix it with the maccaroni, adding another ounce of butter. Set it away to get cold.
Take another pan, which must be very deep, with a flat bottom, and nearly the shape of a drum. Butter the inside. Make a good paste, and cover with it the whole interior of the pan, sides and bottom. Put in the maccaroni. Cover the pie with a lid of paste. Bake it at least half an hour. When done, loosen it from the pan and turn it out on a dish. It will be in the form of a drum, if the pan was of that shape.
Take two ounces of shelled sweet almonds, and one ounce of shelled bitter almonds. Blanch them by throwing them into scalding water to make the skins peel off easily; then put them in cold water; wipe them dry afterwards, and pound them in a mortar, adding at times a little rose-water.
Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in warm water, and then stir it into a quart of cream. Add a quarter of a pound of broken loaf-sugar, and a wine-glass of rose-water. Boil it hard for a quarter of an hour, and stir it all the time. Then strain it through a linen bag, and put it into egg-cups, or into the halves of egg-shells nicely and evenly trimmed, and set it away in a cold place to congeal.
Have ready some calves-feet jelly (made according to the directions given in the article “Chickens in Jelly”); and when the blancmange is firm, take out a small piece from the middle of each cupful, and replace it with a lump of the jelly, put in so as to look like the yolk of the egg. Or if more convenient, you need not put in the jelly till you have taken the blancmange out of the cups or egg-shells, which must be done by wetting the moulds with warm water on the outside.
The jelly for this purpose must be very high-colored, by means of brandy, or dark sweet wine.
If nicely managed, the blancmange and jelly will look like eggs cut in half. Lay them in a circle round a dish that contains something high and ornamental,—for instance, a pyramid of ice-cream.
