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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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.