should all be placed in a wire-basket, and put into boiling water. Boil them two minutes and three-quarters precisely.

Lord Chesterfield said it was only necessary for him to see a person at table to tell if he were a gentleman. He must have had a fine opportunity for observation when boiled eggs were served. It seems nonsense (and it is nonsense) when I say that the fashionable world abroad and their imitators here consider it insufferably gauche to serve a boiled egg but in one stereotyped way, i. e., in the smallest of egg-cups. The top of the egg is cut off with a knife, and with a little egg-spoon, dipped into salt when necessary, the egg is eaten from the shell. I really can not see that it matters much whether an egg is eaten from an egg-glass, or in the little egg-cups from the shell, unless one prefers to be in the fashion, when it requires no more trouble.

Poached Eggs.

Salt the water well; when it is simmering, drop lightly each broken egg from a saucer into it. Cook one egg at a time, throwing carefully with a spoon the water from the side over the egg, to whiten the top. When cooked just enough (do not let it get too hard), take out the egg with a perforated ladle, trim off the ragged pieces, and slip it on a small, thin piece of hot buttered toast, cut neatly into squares. When all are cooked, and placed on their separate pieces of toast, sprinkle a little pepper and salt over each one.

Some put into the boiling water muffin-rings, in which the eggs are cooked, to give them an even shape; they present a better appearance, however, cooked in the egg-poacher, illustrated among the cooking utensils. Poached eggs are nice introduced into a beef soup—one egg for each person at table; they are also nice served on thin, diamond-shaped slices of broiled ham instead of toast.

Delmonico serves poached eggs on toast, with sorrel sprinkled over the tops.

Poached Eggs on Anchovy Toast.

This is a favorite dish abroad. It is generally a supper-dish, yet can be served at breakfast, lunch, and even as a course for dinner. The dish consists simply of thin pieces of toast, cut of equal size, buttered, and spread with a little anchovy paste, and a poached egg placed on each piece. Anchovy paste can be purchased in little jars at all the larger groceries.

Stuffed Eggs (for Lunch).

Boil the eggs hard; cut them in two lengthwise, and remove the yolks, which chop, adding to them some cooked chicken, lamb, veal, or pickled tongue chopped fine; season the mixture, and add enough gravy, or the raw yolk of egg, to bind them; stuff the cavities, smooth them, and press the two halves together; roll them in beaten egg and bread-crumbs twice. When just ready to serve, dip them in a wire-basket into boiling lard; and when they have taken a delicate color, drain. Serve on a napkin, and garnish with parsley or any kind of leaves, or serve with a tomato-sauce.

Stuffed Eggs (French Cook).

Boil the eggs hard, and cut them in two; take out carefully the yolks, which mash well, adding a little finely minced onion, chopped parsley, pepper, and salt. Mash also double the quantity of bread, which has been soaked in milk; mix bread, yolks, etc., together; then bind them with a little raw yolk of egg; taste to see if they are properly seasoned. Stuff the eggs with the mixture, so that each half has the appearance of containing a whole round yolk; smooth the remainder of the mixture on the bottom of a pie-pan; arrange the halves symmetrically in this bed; brown a little in the oven.

Stuffed Eggs, with Cheese.

Ingredients: Six eggs, one ounce of cheese, two ounces of butter, one heaping tea-spoonful of flour, a little cayenne, one table-spoonful of vinegar, one and a half cupfuls of milk.

Put the eggs on the fire in cold water, and when they come to a boil set them at the side of the fire to simmer seven minutes; then put them into cold water. When cold, remove the shells; cut them in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, taking care not to tear the whites; mash the yolks, to which add the grated cheese, vinegar, cayenne. At the cooking-school was added also a tea-spoonful of olive oil. Make a roux by putting the butter into a little saucepan on the fire, and when it bubbles mix in the flour. In another small saucepan have a wine-glassful of milk boiling, to which add enough of the roux to thicken it, and then add the yolks, and mix all together until quite hot. Now to the remaining roux add a cupful of milk, and stir until quite smooth for a sauce; fill the cavities of the whites of the eggs with the yolk preparation, rounding the tops to represent whole yolks; arrange them in a circle on a warm platter, and pour the white sauce in the centre.

OMELETS.

Nothing is more simple than to make an omelet, yet very few can make one. The eggs stick to the pan, or they are overdone, and tough.

Senator Riddle, of Delaware, a decided epicure, took much pleasure in his superior knowledge on this important subject. Once when breakfasting with Mrs. Crittenden, of Kentucky, a piece of omelet of doubtful appearance was presented to him. “Before we proceed with our breakfast,” said he, “let me teach you a valuable accomplishment.” They repaired at once to the kitchen range, where the senator demonstrated at once his qualifications as a first-class cook. My own first lesson was from Mr. Riddle, so of course I have the correct modus operandi; afterward in London, however, I heard a lecture upon omelets from a cooking professor, and was astonished at the multiplicity of dishes which could be made from this simple preparation; not only breakfast dishes, but also the variety of sweet omelets for dessert.

Plain Omelet.

The fire should be quite hot. All cookery-books especially expatiate on the necessity of a pan to be used for omelets alone. Any clean, smooth iron spider, or sautÉ pan, is a good enough omelet-pan. Put the pan on the fire to become heated; break the eggs into a kitchen basin; sprinkle over them pepper and salt, and give them twelve vigorous beats with a spoon. This is enough to break all the yolks, and twelve beats was Mr. Riddle’s rule. Now put butter the size of an egg (for five eggs) in the heated pan; turn it around so that it will moisten all the bottom of the pan. When it is well melted, and begins to boil, pour in the eggs. Holding the handle of the omelet-pan in the left hand, carefully and lightly with a spoon draw up the whitened egg from the bottom, so that all the eggs may be equally cooked, or whitened to a soft, creamy substance. Now, still with the left hand, shake the pan forward and backward, which will disengage the eggs from the bottom; then shaking again the omelet a little one side, turn with a spoon half of one side over the other; and allowing it to remain a moment to harden a little at the bottom, gently shaking it all the time, toss it over on to a warm platter held in the right hand. A little practice makes one quite dexterous in placing the omelet in the centre of the platter, and turning it over as it is tossed from the omelet-pan.

However, if one is unsuccessful in the tossing operation, which is the correct thing, according to the cooking professor, the omelet can be lifted to the platter with a pancake-turner. It should be creamy and light in the centre, and more firm on the outside.

I will specify several different omelets. A variety of others may be made in the same way, by adding boiled tongue cut into dice, sliced truffles, cooked and sliced kidneys with the gravy poured around, etc., etc.

Omelet, with Tomatoes.

Make the plain omelet; and just before turning one half over the other, place in the centre three or four whole tomatoes which have been boiled a few minutes previously and seasoned. When the omelet is turned, of course the tomatoes will be quite enveloped. Serve with tomato-sauce (see page 125) poured around it.

Omelet with Green Pease

is managed as omelet with tomatoes, putting several spoonfuls of cooked green pease in the centre before the omelet is lapped, then serving with a neat row of pease (without juice) around it.

Omelet, with Ham.

Throw into the omelet-pan fine-cut shreds of tender ham, with the butter. When the ham has cooked a moment, throw in the eggs, and proceed as for plain omelet. A little chopped parsley beaten with the eggs will improve it. The dish may be garnished with thin diamonds of ham around the omelet.

Omelet, with Fine Herbs.

Before beating the eggs, add with the pepper and salt some chopped parsley and shives; cook a moment in the butter some thin shreds of onion, then pour in the eggs, and proceed as for a plain omelet. The shives may be omitted.

Omelet, with Mushrooms.

Boil the mushrooms in a little water, or stock, to which are added pepper, salt, a few drops of lemon-juice, and, when done, a little flour, to thicken it slightly. Inclose some mushrooms in the omelet in the manner explained for tomatoes; pour the remainder of the mushrooms around the omelet, with a little juice.

Omelet, with Shrimps.

Inclose some picked shrimps in the centre of the omelet. Garnish the omelet with shrimps unpicked.

Omelet, with Oysters.

Scald the oysters in their own liquor; when just about to boil, plump them by throwing them into cold water; then beard them; beat them into the eggs before they are cooked, leaving a few oysters for garnishing the plate.

Omelet, with Cheese, or Fondue.

Brillat Savarin says: “Take the same number of eggs as guests at table. Take then a piece of good fromage de GruyÈre, weighing about one-third, and a piece of butter one-sixth this weight. Break up and beat your eggs well in a saucepan; then add your cheese and butter grated. Put your saucepan on the fire, and stir with a wooden spoon until the substance is thick and soft; put in a little salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a good sprinkling of pepper, which is one of the positive characteristics of this ancient dish. Serve up on a warm dish. Get some of your best wine from the cellar, which pass around briskly, and you will see wonders.”

GruyÈre cheese is considered superior to other cheeses in this omelet; yet any kind of American cheese, if highly flavored, is most delicious also, and, I think, quite as good as the GruyÈre. I would use fresh cheese, and chop it fine, rather than grate it, and also would not add so much butter. We will say, then, to six eggs add three-quarters of a cupful, or two ounces, of cheese chopped fine, a piece of butter the size of a small egg, salt, and pepper. Proceed as for plain omelet.

Omelet, with Cheese and Macaroni.

Add to the above receipt about two or three cupfuls of macaroni which has been boiled in salted water and drained, and is still hot.

Fried Omelet SoufflÉ (for Breakfast).

Beat the whites and yolks of four eggs separately, and then, adding pepper and salt, put the whites over the yolks, and mix them together carefully. Put butter the size of a small egg into an omelet-pan, and when it has covered the bottom of the pan and is bubbling turn in the eggs; with a spoon lift them from the bottom until all is slightly cooked, or at least well heated; then gather up the sides to make it into omelet form; shake the pan to disengage the omelet, and at the same time to color it slightly at the bottom; turn this over into the centre of a warm platter, so that the colored part be on top.

Sweet Omelet (for Dessert).

Add a little sugar to the eggs, instead of pepper and salt; make it then as a plain omelet, inclosing in the centre any kind of preserves, marmalade, or jam; when it is turned on to the dish, sprinkle sugar over the top.

Omelet, with Rum.

This is a most delicious omelet. Add a little sugar to the eggs, say a sherry-glassful to six eggs, and make the omelet as a plain omelet. When turned on to the dish, sprinkle a little handful of sugar over the top, and pour over five or six table-spoonfuls of rum. Set it on fire, and serve it at the table burning.

Omelet SoufflÉ.

Although it is a simple thing to make an omelet soufflÉ, and although in France there is not one cook in a score who can not make a delicious one for any and every occasion, I would not advise a careless cook to ever attempt it. The ingredients are: Six whites and three yolks of eggs, three ounces of pulverized sugar (three table-spoonfuls), and a flavoring of vanilla or lemon. First, beat the yolks and sugar to a light cream, and add a few drops of flavoring; then beat the whites to the stiffest possible froth. Have the yolks in a rather deep kitchen bowl; turn the whites over them, and with a spoon, giving it a rotary motion, cut the two, mixing them carefully together. Turn this on to a baking-dish, either of earthenware or tin, with sides two or three inches high and slightly buttered. Smooth over the top, sprinkle over sugar, and put it into a moderate oven. If it has to be turned or moved in the oven, do it as gently as possible. When it has risen well, and is of a fine yellow color, it is ready to be served. It should be served at once, or it will fall.

Omelet soufflÉ was especially nice at the CafÉ Vienna in Paris. This is their cook’s receipt: “For one portion,” said he, “use the whites of three eggs; beat them well; add one table-spoonful of marmalade cut into fine pieces, or little pieces of fresh peaches; mix with powdered sugar. Bake it on a dish rubbed with butter in a rather quick oven.” It seemed as if this was too simple a receipt to be so nice. In another place was a layer of marmalade on the bottom of the dish, with a soufflÉ according to the first receipt, flavored with vanilla, banked over it.

Omelet, with Asparagus Points, Cauliflowers, or other Vegetables.

Cook the vegetables first until they are done, as they will not have time to cook with the eggs. Make them in the same manner described for tomatoes; or the vegetables may be beaten with the eggs. Make a border around the omelet of the vegetables used.

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