GAME

QUAILS BROILED

Split the quails down the back, and broil them for four minutes on each side. Spread them with butter, pepper, and salt. Serve them on toast.

QUAILS ROASTED

Lay thin slices of salt pork over well-trussed birds. Bake them in a hot oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. Have in the baking-pan a little water, pepper, and salt, and baste the quails frequently.

Serve on slices of toast moistened with drippings from the pan.

SQUABS

Cook the same as directed for quails.

SALADS

FRENCH DRESSING

Mix the salt and pepper with the oil, then add slowly the vinegar, stirring all the time. It will become a little white and thickened.

To the yolk of an egg add oil very slowly until the mixture becomes very thick, then add alternately vinegar and oil. Lastly add salt and pepper.

The proportions are one cupful of oil to one yolk, one half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and one and a half tablespoonfuls of vinegar or lemon juice. More or less oil may be used, but it must be added very slowly at first or the mixture will curdle. Have all the ingredients cold before beginning to mix the dressing. (See “Century Cook Book,” page 288.)

CREAM DRESSING

Add whipped cream to mayonnaise or plain cream to French dressing at the moment of mixing them with the salad. The proportions need not be exact: a little more or less cream can be used as convenient.

Note.—An onion rubbed on the dish in which lettuce is to be served improves the salad.

PREPARING SALADS

It is essential that leaf salads and celery be dry. Oil and water do not mix, and if the salad is wet the dressing will run off it and also lose its flavor. They should also be crisp and clean. Divest them of imperfect portions and wash to free them of dust and grit. Examine lettuce for a small green insect and celery for a small white worm which infest them, then place them in cold water to refresh and crisp them.

Dry them carefully, shaking lettuce or watercress in a wire basket, or carefully dry each piece in a clean napkin. Celery may be drained or wiped. The salad may be dried sometime before using it, and if kept near the ice will retain its crispness, but the dressing must not be put on until the moment of serving, as it wilts the leaves. The same rule applies to vegetables used as salads: they should be dry and cold.

There need be no waste in lettuce. The imperfect and hard leaves may be boiled and used as directed on page 55 for green eggs. The rejected outside leaves of one head will be enough for one or two eggs, or they may be used with other odds and ends of vegetables to give a macedoine garnishing to a meat dish.

SALADS

Of the many articles used for salad, lettuce is preËminently first in favor. It is the king of salads; and, whatever else is used, lettuce usually forms part of the dish to make it complete. A plain lettuce is always acceptable and can be served in several forms. Combined with one or more articles equally common, a number of bouquet salads can easily be made, giving dishes attractive both in taste and color. The bouquet salads should be placed on flat dishes in order to show the arrangement, color, and variety of articles used.

A variety in salads is desirable; and, as they can be eaten every day, a little change in the combinations will give variety.

The use of nasturtium blossoms is recommended. They are not only beautiful to look at and decorative, but have a piquant flavor. Combinations of green such as are obtained by lettuce and watercress are pleasing.

In the illustrations a number of combinations are given which will suggest others.

No. 1. Plain lettuce salad. The lettuce here is arranged to resemble a cabbage. For this a head of cabbage lettuce is used. The leaves are taken apart, carefully washed and dried, and the stalks flattened by cutting a little slice off the bottom to make them stand upright. They are then put together again in the natural form, but more spread open, and placed on a round platter. Just before serving a French dressing is poured over them with a spoon, to have each leaf moistened, care being taken not to disarrange the leaves.

No. 2. Lettuce hearts. Divest a head of Boston cabbage lettuce of the outer leaves down to the hard head. With a sharp knife cut the head into quarters and arrange them on a dish with the stalk ends toward the center. Sprinkle over them, or not, a little celery cut into small dice. If celery is used, place a little in the center of the dish and between the quarters. At the moment of serving pour French dressing, using a spoon, into the lettuce hearts, moistening them well.

The outside leaves taken from the head can be broken into small pieces or cut into ribbons and used as shown in other illustrations.

No. 3. Bouquet salad. Break crisp lettuce leaves into pieces, arrange them on a flat dish, and place in the center a bunch of watercress or of nasturtium blossoms. Just before serving moisten the lettuce with French dressing, and the watercress also if it is used.

No. 4. Bouquet salad. Place a number of crisp lettuce leaves together, and with a sharp knife cut them across into strips about a quarter of an inch wide. Pile the ribbons in the center of the dish and place slices of hard-boiled eggs around them. Moisten with French dressing at the moment of serving.

No. 5. Bouquet salad. Use a good head of cabbage lettuce. Arrange the white leaves, in a bunch resembling the natural head, in the center of a flat dish. Garnish with slices of tomato and hard-boiled eggs. Just before serving cover the whole with plain French dressing. Use a spoon and pour the dressing on carefully so that all the parts will be moistened without being disarranged.

Mayonnaise may be used on the eggs and tomato if preferred, in which case the dressing should be put on the eggs in the cups under the yolks.

Illustrations Nos. 94, 95, 96, 97. Bouquet salads arranged as explained in legends under the illustrations.

No. 10. Daisy salad. Select tender green leaves of lettuce. Cut the stalks so that the leaves will lie straight and keep in place. Put a spoonful of mayonnaise in each leaf, then arrange on each one in rosette form the white of a hard-boiled egg cut lengthwise into strips, and place a whole yolk in the center.

No. 11. Salad of asparagus tips. See illustration No. 98.

No. 12. Salad of artichoke bottoms. Take artichoke bottoms as they come from the can. Rinse them off with cold water. Spread each one with mayonnaise and pile on it as many vegetables as it will hold. Use green peas, string beans, flowerets of cauliflower, or any mixture of vegetables that may be convenient. Place a little mayonnaise on top of the vegetables, and place the artichoke cups on leaves of lettuce arranged around a bed of mayonnaise. Or a glass or cup filled with mayonnaise can be placed in the center of the dish and the individual portions arranged around it.

No. 13. Vegetable salad. Mix together equal portions of cold boiled string beans, cut in half-inch lengths, and lima beans. Pile them on a flat dish with a surrounding border of lettuce leaves. Pour over them slowly plenty of French dressing.

This is a good hot-weather salad to serve with cold meats on hot days when hot dishes are not acceptable.

No. 14. Macedoine of vegetables. Boil small portions of as many different kinds of vegetables as convenient, and keep them in separate dishes. When they are cold, and shortly before serving, moisten them with French dressing. Just before serving mix them together, adding some mayonnaise.

Peas, string beans, lima beans, flageolets, carrots, cut into dice, and beets cut into dice, make a good combination.

No. 15. Aspic of vegetables en bellevue. Fill individual timbale molds with any or with different kinds of vegetables, then turn in enough aspic (see page 125) to cover them, and place them in the ice-box to set.

Use these forms on cold fish or meat dishes with mayonnaise under them. They require a dressing, but if it were mixed with the vegetables it would cloud the jelly.

No. 16. Cucumber and tomato salad. Peel the tomatoes, cut them in two, and cover each piece with mayonnaise. Place them on one side of a vegetable-dish, and on the other side place sliced cucumbers moistened with French dressing. Separate the two with crisp leaves of lettuce.

No. 17. Tomato and green pepper salad. Cut peeled tomatoes into slices three eighths of an inch thick. Cover them with a thick layer of chopped green peppers. Place them in the center of the dish with a border of crisp lettuce leaves. Moisten the whole with French dressing.

No. 18. Turnip cups with celery. Select turnips of uniform size and not too large. Cut off the tops to give a flat surface for the bottom of the cups. Cut a slice about two inches thick from each turnip. With a fluted knife pare the outside into rounding shape, then with a potato-scoop take out the centers and form a cup.

Leave the cups in water until ready to use; they will keep twenty-four hours or more in this way. Chop some parsley very fine and spread it on a board. Moisten the edges of the cups and press them on the parsley. This will give a green edge around the tops. Fill the cups with celery mayonnaise, or with any vegetable salad.

No. 19. Celery and apple salad. Cut a bunch of crisp white celery into small bits, add a chopped green pepper and a teaspoonful of chopped pimento. Mix it with mayonnaise. Cut into dice one quarter as much apple as you have of celery. Just before serving mix it with the celery, and the whole with whipped cream.

Pile the salad in a mound on a flat dish and garnish it with lettuce or other leaves and radishes. For one bunch of celery there will be needed two apples and a half pint of cream.

The celery is quickly prepared by cutting the stalks into strips one quarter of an inch thick, then laying them together in a pile and cutting them all together into lengths of one quarter of an inch or less. Tart apples of good flavor should be used. Remove the seeds and ribs of the green pepper and cut it into fine bits. Pimentos are Spanish red peppers and are very mild. They come in cans and can be bought at the grocer’s.

No. 20. Individual apple salad. Select apples that are best both in color and flavor. Take out the core carefully, using a pointed knife, and make the hollow on the stem end. An apple-corer can be used, in which case the end piece should be put back again to plug the bottom. The wall of the apple should be half an inch thick. Fill the hollowed out apple with creamed celery and apple mixture, as given on page 121, omitting the green pepper and pimento. Serve on individual plates with one white lettuce leaf at the side of each apple.

No. 21. Cabbage salad. Add to a cupful of cream the beaten yolks of two eggs, one teaspoonful of mustard, one half teaspoonful each of salt, pepper, and sugar, and half a tablespoonful of celery seeds. Put all this in a double boiler and stir until it thickens. Let it cool. When ready to serve add to the dressing a tablespoonful of vinegar and mix it with cabbage chopped fine. Serve in cabbage leaves as shown in illustration. Cold slaw may be served in the same way.

No. 22. Mashed potato salad. To a quart or a little more of mashed potatoes add three tablespoonfuls of oil, a teaspoonful each of onion juice and salt, a dash of nutmeg, one half teaspoonful of pepper, a tablespoonful of pickled beets chopped fine, a tablespoonful of cucumber pickle chopped fine, and a tablespoonful of vinegar taken from the pickled-beet jar. Beat all together until the potato is light. The beet vinegar will color it pink. If a deeper color is wanted add a little more of the red vinegar. The potato should be a moist purÉe. If the salad is too dry after the ingredients are in add a little soup stock or water. Shape into a mound without pressing it, and garnish it with slices of beets, pickles, and lettuce.

No. 23. Shad roe salad. Wash the roe carefully and place it in salted water. The water must not boil or it will break the skin. Simmer it for twenty minutes. After cooling cut it with a sharp knife into slices quarter of an inch thick. Place the slices, overlapping, on a dish. Garnish with lettuce leaves. Pour over the roe a plentiful amount of French dressing.

No. 24. Chicken salad. Cut cold chicken into half-inch dice, using both white and dark meat. Moisten it with French dressing. Cut tender celery into small dice and mix it with the chicken, using two thirds as much celery as there is of chicken. Mix the whole with mayonnaise. Form it into a mound. Cover it with mayonnaise. Decorate the mound as follows:

Begin at the top and form four lines of chopped pickled beet, dividing the form into four sections. Follow the lines of beet with lines of chopped white of hard-boiled eggs. This will leave triangular spaces. Make another line of beets and fill the spaces left with the crumbed yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Outline the small triangular spaces with capers and finish the top with an olive and sprigs of parsley. Place lettuce leaves and slices of hard-boiled egg around the dish. Veal instead of chicken may be used in the same way. Lobster salad should be mixed with lettuce instead of celery.

No. 25. Chestnut salad. Mix together two cupfuls each of tart apples cut into half-inch dice, celery cut into small pieces, and boiled chestnuts cut into half-inch pieces.

Put in a double boiler:

Beat all this well together and stir until thickened. After it has cooled and just before serving add the dressing and a cupful of whipped cream to the salad mixture.

No. 26. Fruit salads. Fruits are sometimes mixed with mayonnaise and used as a salad.

The following mixtures may be used: Pineapple, oranges, and apples. Grape-fruit, oranges, and canned pears. Pineapple and banana. Apple and grape-fruit. Garnish with lettuce leaves.

CHICKEN ASPIC

Make a chicken stock as for chicken consommÉ, page 46. Use a knuckle of veal and as many quarts of water as you have pounds of meat. Remove the breast of the fowl when it is tender. Clarify the stock, and if it has not made a jelly firm enough to stand add a little gelatine,—a tablespoonful of granulated gelatine to a quart of stock will perhaps be more than enough, for the jelly must not be too hard, and the jellied stock may need but very little extra stiffness to make it hold its shape when molded.

Ornament the bottom of a ring-mold with slices of the white of hard-boiled egg cut into diamond-shaped pieces. Lay the pieces, with thin strips of egg between them, in a manner to imitate a wreath of leaves. A long pin will be useful in arranging the pieces of egg. Put the mold in a bowl of cracked ice, and with a spoon add a very little liquid jelly, taking care not to use enough to float the pieces of egg. When it has set sufficiently to hold the decoration in place add enough more jelly to make a layer a quarter of an inch thick. When the layer has stiffened, put in a layer of chicken breast cut into inch lengths, so the jelly will not be torn apart when being served, but place the pieces close together so they appear like large pieces. Add more jelly, letting it rise a quarter of an inch above the chicken; when that has stiffened, add another layer of chicken and fill the mold with jelly. Let the mold be level and have a smooth layer of gelatine on top, so when unmolded it will stand firm and even.

Fill the center of the ring with celery mayonnaise, or a macedoine vegetable salad.

ASPIC OF PÂTÉ DE FOIE GRAS

Make a chicken aspic as directed above. When a mold is used which has projections on top, as in illustration, the jelly must be made a little firmer than for a plain mold. Pour into the mold a layer of jelly, let it stiffen, and then add a layer of pÂtÉ de foie gras and a little jelly to set it. Then fill the mold with jelly. Care must be taken in unmolding this form, for if held a moment too long in hot water the points will fall off or lose shape.

CHICKEN MOUSSE

Put through a chopper cooked chicken, using the white or the dark meat, or both. Grind it a second time, if necessary, to make it very fine. If a meat-chopper is not at hand, chop it by hand, pound it to free the meat from the fiber, and rub it through a purÉe sieve.

Heat a cupful of chicken stock, pour it over the beaten yolks of three eggs, add a teaspoonful each of salt and celery salt, a dash of pepper and of paprika. Return it to the fire and stir until it has thickened like a boiled custard; add two tablespoonfuls of granulated gelatine which has soaked for an hour in a quarter cupful of cold chicken stock. When the gelatine has dissolved, remove it from the fire and add one and one half cupfuls of the fine chicken meat. When the mixture begins to thicken stir it perfectly smooth and fold in a half pint of cream whipped to a stiff froth. Turn it into a brick mold. The cream must not be added until the mixture begins to set, or the ingredients will settle into layers.

Serve with lettuce or celery salad.

Line a pint brick mold with thin slices of larding pork. Pour in liver timbale mixture given on page 78. Fill the mold to within a quarter of an inch of the top. Cover it with slices of pork. Set it in a pan of water and cook in a slow oven for one hour, or until firm to the touch.

Serve cold in slices with salad.

COLD SLICED MEATS

Illustration No. 109 shows an attractive way of serving cold meats. On the right are overlapping slices of cold tongue; on the left, slices of beef. A slice of tongue cut round is placed in the center to cover the spot where they meet. Slices of cold chicken are placed at right angles to the tongue and beef. Aspic jelly is placed in the four angles. The garnishing is sliced pickled beets cut into stars and hearts, and small pickles or gherkins sliced down to nearly the end, then spread into leaf shapes. The stars are placed on the sliced meat, the hearts on the dish in front of the jelly, with a slice of pickle on each side, and the leaf-like gherkins are in the center.

The aspic used in this dish was jellied stock made a little stiffer with gelatine.

Cold meats may also be attractively served by placing a socle made of hominy in the center of the dish, the top of the hominy ornamented with aspic or any garnishes, and the sliced meats laid around and against the socle.

GLAZED TONGUE

Boil a smoked or a fresh tongue until tender, then skin and trim it. While it is flexible skewer it into a good shape. Paint it with glaze (page 104).

Whip some butter with a fork until it is soft and very light. Place the whipped butter in a pastry-bag with star tube and press it through, outlining a figure on the sides of the tongue and down the middle.

Garnish the dish with parsley and a hard-boiled egg. Cut the white of the egg in strips lengthwise, leave the yolk whole, and arrange the pieces so they resemble a daisy.

Keep the garnished tongue in a cold place until ready to serve, in order to harden the butter.

BOILED HAM

Soak the ham overnight, with the rind side up. Thoroughly wash and scrape off any bad parts. Put it in sufficient cold water to cover it well. Add a bunch of soup vegetables and two bay-leaves. Boil it slowly, allowing twenty minutes to the pound, counting from the time the water begins to boil. It is done when the meat around the bone is tender. Place it on a board, peel off the skin, and by trimming make it smooth and shapely. Take a slice off the bottom, if necessary, to make it stand firmly. Serve it hot or cold.

In illustration No. 111 the ham after being trimmed is covered with cracker dust and sugar and placed in the oven to brown. The bone is covered with a pleated paper frill, and a lemon cut to imitate a pig (see page 16) is set on top.

In illustration No. 112 black pepper is placed in spots on the fat, and then with the finger is rubbed into regular circles. A whole clove is stuck in the center of each spot of pepper. If the ham is to be served cold the parts not covered by fat can be concealed with a layer of butter; the butter should be whipped until smooth and soft and then spread evenly with a knife. In this way the whole ham can be made smooth and the spots of pepper can be extended entirely over it.

The bone is covered with a paper frill (page 14). The dish is garnished with slices of pickled beets stamped into rounds.

BONED HAM

Boil the ham as directed above. While it is still hot strip off the skin, then turn it over and remove the bone. If the ham is thoroughly cooked, the bone will come out easily. Make a cut down to and along the bone in the center of the under side, then work the knife around and close to the bone until the latter is loosened enough to be pulled out.

Lay the boned ham on a cloth, draw it together and sew the cloth around it, pressing the ham firmly together, and giving it a good shape. Place a board and heavy weights on the ham, and let it cool while under this pressure.

Remove the cloth. Trim it again, if necessary. Cover it with a meat glaze (see page 104). Garnish with a wreath of watercress.

COLD FISH

Garnished cold fish makes an ornamental and useful dish for buffet luncheons, and for summer service, when cold dishes of any kind are acceptable. Illustration No. 114 shows a bluefish boiled in upright position, covered with jellied mayonnaise and garnished with pickled beets, cranberries, and gherkins. It is placed on a layer of bread to raise it on the dish. To prepare the dish, place a carrot inside the fish to give it stability, then tie and prop it with vegetables on the kettle-strainer, in the position desired. Boil it slowly, allowing ten minutes to the pound. Put soup vegetables, a bay-leaf, and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar in the water. When cooked, lift the fish out carefully and let it get cold before removing it from the strainer.

Take off the skin and cover it with a mayonnaise made as follows: Heat a cupful of clear beef or chicken stock, and dissolve in it one and a half tablespoonfuls of granulated gelatine which has soaked for an hour in half a cupful of cold water. When it has cooled add half a cupful of oil, a tablespoonful of vinegar or of lemon juice, half a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, and the beaten yolk of an egg. When it begins to set spread it over the fish with a knife. It will give a smooth, polished yellow covering. Garnish with slices of pickled beets stamped into various shapes.

Bass, salmon, bluefish, and halibut are good varieties to serve cold. They may be masked with the aspic mayonnaise given above, or with a plain, thick mayonnaise, or with tartare sauce, or with maÎtre d’hÔtel butter. The covering should be spread with a knife to make it smooth, and the fish kept in a cool place until the time of serving. Hard-boiled eggs, capers, pickles, lettuce, watercress, and parsley are suitable garnishes.

JELLIED CUTLETS

Cut cold boiled sheepshead or other fish into flat, even pieces, each piece a size suitable for one portion. Lay them in a pan, leaving spaces between them. Place on each piece a thin slice of hard-boiled egg, then pour over them just enough aspic jelly to cover them. The aspic should have a little lemon juice or vinegar mixed with it to make it tart. When the jelly is set, cut the pieces apart with a sharp knife and arrange them on a dish with creamed horseradish sauce.

FISH IN THE GARDEN

Skin a cold boiled trout, bass, or other fish. Cover it with mayonnaise, or with maÎtre d’hÔtel butter. Garnish it with aspic jelly and surround it with vegetables molded in jelly as in illustration No. 6. Use peas, beans, celery, etc.

Cover a thick piece of boiled halibut with mayonnaise. Sprinkle the top with chopped capers. Garnish it with potato salad, the potatoes being cut into balls.

CHEESE

CREAM CHEESE WITH BAR-LE-DUC CURRANTS

Beat with a fork a square of Philadelphia cream cheese, or of domestic NeufchÂtel, until it is light and smooth. Whip three tablespoonfuls of cream to a stiff froth. Mix the cheese and whipped cream together lightly and pile the mixture on a dish in which it is to be served. Put it in a cool place. Just before serving pour over it a glassful of Bar-le-Duc red currants.