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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

LEG 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

TO MAKE GLAZE

Put in a soup pot bits of fat cut from meat and let them try out enough to moisten the bottom of the pot; or use a tablespoonful of butter for this purpose. Add four pounds of lean beef cut into pieces and let them brown, turning them a few times, then add a half cupful of hot water and let the whole cook until the juices are reduced to a glaze in the bottom of the pot. This is to give color to the stock. Add six quarts of cold water and the knuckle of veal, and let the mixture simmer for six hours. If the water is allowed to boil the lime will be extracted from the bone and the stock will be clouded. After three hours’ simmering add the soup vegetables, consisting of two stalks of celery, one onion, a few sprigs of parsley, a piece of carrot, three cloves, a bay-leaf, a saltspoonful each of thyme and marjoram, fifteen peppercorns, and a tablespoonful of salt. After six hours’ simmering strain the stock through a cloth laid on a colander, and let it cool. You have now a soup stock. The next day remove the grease, turn the stock into a saucepan carefully so that no sediment goes in, and let it boil, uncovered, until reduced to a thin paste. The stock is now glaze. Be careful toward the end of the cooking that the stock does not burn. Turn the glaze into a small jar and put a little melted butter over the top to exclude the air. When ready to use it heat a little of the glaze to soften it and apply it with a brush.

SWEET SAUCES FOR PUDDINGS

HARD SAUCE

Hard sauce is made of butter, sugar, and flavoring.

Use twice the quantity of sugar that you have of butter. Beat them together for a long time, or until they are very light and white, then add the flavoring and put it in the ice-box to harden. The yolk of an egg or the whipped white of an egg may be added to white sauce.

To half a cupful of butter and a cupful of sugar add for flavoring one tablespoonful of wine, or two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, and one teaspoonful of grated lemon-rind, or six drops of vanilla.

No. 1. Use the same proportions of butter and sugar as for hard sauce. Add a little wine, or milk, or hot water. Stir the whole over the fire until the sugar and butter are melted.

No. 2. Use yolks of eggs with wine and sugar.

4 yolks,
4 tablespoonfuls of wine,
4 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Cook in a double boiler until a little thickened.

No. 3.

Beat together and cook in a double boiler until a little thickened.