THE ENTERPRISE CHOPPER

This simple machine minces meat very fine, and is useful in making croquettes, forcemeat for stuffings, etc. Where meat having much fiber is put in the chopper, it soon becomes clogged. The end piece can then be taken off, and the fiber clinging to it, which stops the holes, be removed. In making timbales the meat put through the chopper in this way, and then pounded, will sometimes do without being passed through a sieve.

SAUCE FOR CROQUETTE MIXTURE

(To this amount of sauce add two cupfuls of meat.)

• 1 tablespoonful of butter.
• 2 tablespoonfuls of flour.
• 1 cupful of milk or cream.
• 1 egg.
• 1 teaspoonful of onion-juice.
• 1 teaspoonful of salt.
• ¼ teaspoonful of pepper.
• Dash of cayenne.
• Dash of nutmeg.

Put the cream or milk in a double boiler and scald it. Rub the butter and flour together. Take this paste on a spoon and stir it in the scalding milk until it is dissolved from the spoon, and the sauce has become thickened and consistent. Add the seasoning; then remove from the fire and stir in a beaten egg (the egg may be omitted if desired). Place it again on the fire for a minute to cook the egg, but do not let it boil, and add two cupfuls of meat minced very fine.

Pour this mixture on a flat dish, and set it away for two or more hours. It will then be stiffened and can be easily molded. If a mixture is used which absorbs the sauce, add more than the quantity given in receipt. The softer the mixture, the more creamy, and therefore the better will be the croquettes, and if allowed to stand long enough the molding will not be difficult.

TO MOLD CROQUETTES

Take a tablespoonful of the mixture (this will make a croquette of the right size; large ones are likely to crack open in frying); roll it lightly between the hands into a ball. Have a plentiful supply of bread-crumbs spread evenly on a board; roll the ball lightly on the crumbs into the shape of a cylinder, and flatten each end by dropping it lightly on the board; put it in the egg (to each egg add one tablespoonful of water, and beat together), and with a spoon moisten the croquette completely with the egg; lift it out on a knife-blade, and again roll lightly in the crumbs. Have every part entirely covered, so there will be no opening through which the grease may be absorbed. Where a light yellow color is wanted, use fresh white crumbs grated from the loaf (or rubbed through a purÉe sieve) for the outside, and do not use the yolk of the egg. Coarse fresh crumbs are used for fish croquettes, which are usually made in the form of chops, or half heart shape. A small hole is pricked in the pointed end after frying, and a sprig of parsley inserted. For lobster croquettes a small claw is used instead of the parsley. Cracker-crumbs are used where a smooth surface is wanted. Have all the croquettes of perfectly uniform size and shape, and lay them aside on a dish, not touching one another, for an hour or more before frying. This will make the crust more firm.

The white of an egg alone may be used for egging them, but not the yolk alone. Whip the egg with the water, just enough to break it, as air-bubbles in the egg will break in frying, and let the grease penetrate.

TO FRY CROQUETTES

Let the fat become smoking hot; then test it with a piece of bread. If the bread colors while you count forty (twenty seconds), it is right. It is well to put the frying-pot on the fire an hour before it is needed, so it will be hot, and ready to be raised quickly to the right degree. After dipping the frying-basket in the fat to grease it, lay in it four croquettes so that they do not touch one another, and immerse them in the fat. Cook only long enough to attain a delicate color. Let them drain a moment over the hot fat; then lift them from the basket with the hand (if done quickly the hand will not be burned) and place on a brown paper on the hot shelf or in the open oven until all are ready. Do not fry more than four at one time, as more would reduce the heat of the fat too much. Let the fat become smoking hot before each immersion of croquettes. Hang the basket on a long iron spoon so the hand will not be burned by the spattering fat.

MATERIALS USED FOR CROQUETTES

CHICKEN CROQUETTES

Chop the chicken very fine, using the white meat alone, or the dark meat alone, or both together. Season with salt, pepper, onion-juice, and lemon-juice. Chopped mushrooms, sweetbreads, calf’s brains, tongue, ham or truffles are used with chicken, and a combination of two or more of them much improves the quality of the croquettes.

VEAL CROQUETTES

Veal is often mixed with chicken, or is used alone as a substitute for chicken. Season in same manner and make the same combinations.

SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES

Cut the boiled sweetbreads into small dice with a silver knife. Mix with mushrooms, using half the quantity of mushrooms that you have of sweetbreads. Use two eggs in the sauce.

OYSTER CROQUETTES

Scald the oysters; cut them into small pieces with a silver-plated knife.

LOBSTER CROQUETTES (see page 138)

FISH CROQUETTES (see pages 121 and 126)

MEAT AND BOILED HOMINY CROQUETTES

Equal proportions.

MEAT, RICE, AND TOMATO CROQUETTES

Equal proportions of meat and boiled rice: moisten with tomato purÉe.

MACARONI CROQUETTES

Boil the macaroni in salted water until tender; let it cool; then cut into pieces one quarter inch long, forming rings. To a cupful of the rings add one tablespoonful of grated cheese.

The sauces to serve with croquettes are brown, BÉchamel, Poulette, and Tomato.

TIMBALES

TRUFFLES

Truffles can be bought in tins, and as very little is used at a time they are not as expensive as at first appears. To preserve truffles left over in an opened can, drain them from the liquor and roll them in melted paraffine or in melted suet. With the air-tight covering which either of these things gives, the truffles can be kept in the refrigerator for an indefinite time.

CREAM CHICKEN FORCEMEAT

Cut the breast from a chicken or turkey, also the white meat from the wings; remove the skin and fat, and with a knife scrape the meat so as to free it from the sinews. Place the scraped meat in a mortar and pound it to a paste; incorporate into it gradually, while pounding, the white of an egg; this will moisten it a little so it will pass more easily through the sieve. After it is thoroughly macerated, take a little at a time and with the pestle or spoon rub it through a sieve; it passes through better when a little is worked at a time. Put the pulp in a bowl, season it with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg. Set the bowl on cracked ice and stir in slowly (as you add oil to Mayonnaise) one or one and a half cupfuls of thick cream—some mixtures take more cream than others; stir continually, using a wire whip if convenient. When it is a consistent paste, try it by dropping a half teaspoonful in hot (not boiling) water and let it poach; if it is too thick add more cream, if too thin add a little beaten white of egg. The sample should poach for ten minutes, and when cut should be smooth and firm, but not tough.

CREAM FORCEMEAT, No. 2.

To one half pound of meat pulp add five ounces of butter, one whole egg, and four yolks, or the whites alone of four eggs if used with white meat; beat very thoroughly together; pass again through the sieve; place on ice and beat in slowly one pint of whipped cream—three quarters of a cupful of cream will make about the right amount after being whipped.

FISH CREAM FORCEMEAT

Scrape, pound, and pass through a sieve one pound of firm white fish. Put the pulp in a bowl, season with salt, pepper and cayenne; whip into it the whites of two eggs, and add slowly, beating all the time, about one and a half cupfuls of cream. Poach a small piece to see if right: if too thick add more cream, if too thin add more white of egg. A pretty decoration for fish timbale, especially when made of salmon, is lobster coral, dried and pounded to powder, and sprinkled on the buttered mold. Fish timbale is usually made in a solid piece and served as a fish course. With white fish serve a tomato sauce; with salmon a Poulette or a cream sauce, or Mayonnaise.

QUENELLE FORCEMEAT

To one cupful of meat-pulp, after it is rubbed through the sieve, add one half cupful of panada, one quarter cupful of butter, yolks of three eggs, salt, pepper, and dash of nutmeg. Stir well together and pass again through the sieve. Place on ice and add slowly one cupful of cream. Try by poaching a small piece to see if it is of the right consistency. A good white sauce or tomato purÉe may be substituted for the cream in some cases. This forcemeat is used the same as cream forcemeat.

BREAD PANADA

Soak the crumb of bread; express the water and place the bread in a saucepan on the fire. Stir it to a paste with milk or stock, and continue to stir until it leaves the sides of the pan.

FLOUR PANADA

Put a little water, milk or stock in a saucepan; add a little butter and salt, and stir in as much flour as will absorb the liquid. Stir constantly until it leaves the sides of the pan.

TO MOLD AND COOK TIMBALES

Rub the mold well with butter; ornament it with truffle, tongue, ham, or hard-boiled egg. Cut the truffle, or other article used for the decoration, in very thin slices and stamp it into fancy shapes with a cutter, or cut it with a knife. Arrange the pieces in some design on the mold; they will stay in place if the mold is well buttered. Put in the forcemeat carefully with a knife, press it well against the sides to force out any air-bubbles, and have a care not to displace the decoration. If the timbale is to be filled with salpicon, make a layer of the forcemeat from a quarter to three quarters of an inch thick, according to the size of mold, using enough to give stability to the form when unmolded; make it a little thicker at the base than at the top and leave a smooth surface inside; fill it with the salpicon and cover the top with forcemeat, pressing from the sides towards the center; draw the knife across the top so it will be smooth and even, and stand straight and firm when unmolded. Stand the mold or molds in a pan of water, covering them one half or a little more. Cover them with a greased paper and let them poach in a slow oven ten to fifteen minutes for small, and twenty minutes for large molds. If the center feels firm to the touch they are done. The water must not be allowed to boil; slow cooking is necessary to have them tender. Let the molds stand a minute in the water, then invert on a cloth to let the moisture drain off, and unmold them on the dish on which they are to be served.

SALPICON

Cooked veal, chicken, game, sweetbreads, calf’s brains, livers, fish, oysters, lobster, mushrooms, truffles, tongue, etc., when cut into dice and mixed with a rich sauce is called salpicon. It is used for filling timbales, vol-au-vent, patties, croustades, etc. It may also be served in paper boxes, or shells, or fontage cups. It may be made of one kind of meat, but is usually a mixture of two or more, with mushrooms and truffles. The meats are cut into small dice and warmed with a sauce which goes well with the meats used. The sauce must be reduced until quite thick, and enough of it used to make the mixture very creamy. For dark meat use an Espagnole, brown or mushroom sauce; for white meat, BÉchamel, Allemande or Poulette sauce.

FONTAGE CUPS

(USED FOR OYSTER-CRABS, SALPICON, CREAMED SWEETBREADS, ETC.)

Make a batter of one half cupful of flour, yolk of one egg, one quarter teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of salad oil, and enough milk or water to make the batter thin. Let it stand for an hour or two. Beat it well together, and have the batter very smooth; strain it if there are any lumps. Have a pot of hot fat; place the fontage iron in the fat until it is thoroughly hot, then dip it in the batter, and hold it there a moment until a coating of batter has adhered; place it again in the hot fat until the cup is cooked a delicate color, and can be detached from the iron. Repeat the operation until all are made, and keep them in a warm dry place until used. This amount of batter will make twelve cups.

PAIN DE VOLAILLE

Make a chicken cream forcemeat (see page 297). Butter individual timbale molds, decorate them with truffles, fill with forcemeat, and poach ten to fifteen minutes in slow oven. Serve with an Allemande sauce.

Or, line the molds with forcemeat; fill them with salpicon made of the dark meat of the chicken and mushrooms; mix with Espagnole or a good brown sauce; cover the top well with forcemeat, and poach as directed.

Or, use a charlotte russe mold; line it a half inch thick with forcemeat, and use the same salpicon, adding small egg balls or quenelles, a few pieces of tongue, and a truffle chopped very fine.

Or, use a border mold for the forcemeat, and fill the center of the ring, when unmolded, with the salpicon.

QUENELLES

These are quenelle forcemeat formed into small balls, the balls rolled in flour and poached, then used in salpicon; or, with two tablespoons, the forcemeat may be molded into egg-shaped pieces, poached in hot salted (not boiling) water, and ranged on a socle; or they may be placed on a dish in a circle. The two latter forms of quenelles are served with a sauce as an entrÉe. Fish quenelles with tomato sauce make a very good dish. Large quenelles for decorating dishes may be made by molding the forcemeat into fancy shapes with a knife on buttered white paper (the paper will become detached while they are poaching). The quenelles may be ornamented with truffles or tongue, using white of egg to make the decoration adhere. Use salted water for poaching them, and do not let it boil.

PALMETTES

Press forcemeat into rings or cutlet molds; partly poach them. Unmold, roll in egg and crumbs, and fry in hot fat. Serve with a sauce.

CELESTINES À LA MAINTENON

Take some quenelle forcemeat (see page 298). Add to it a little juice from a can of truffles, one truffle chopped fine, two tablespoonfuls of mushrooms chopped fine, and a few bits of ham, or tongue. Mix well together, and stir in enough cream to make it quite soft. Butter some cutlet molds, or some rings. Fill them with the mixture; smooth them with a knife, and place them on the bottom of a large saucepan. Pour enough boiling water to cover them carefully on the sides of the pan, so it will go into the pan without defacing the forcemeat; let them poach for five minutes without the water boiling. The cutlets will leave the molds, and rise to the top. Lift them out with a skimmer, and place on an inverted pan to cool. When perfectly cold, dry them lightly with a napkin, and cover each one with Villeroi sauce (see page 280). Set aside to let the sauce harden. Sprinkle with bread-crumbs; moisten with egg and cover with fresh crumbs grated from the leaf. Use a broad knife to handle them with when crumbing. Fry in hot fat, like croquettes, to an amber color. Serve with BÉchamel or Poulette sauce.

BOUDINS ROUENNAIS

Line well-buttered individual molds with a cream forcemeat made of veal or chicken; fill the center with a forcemeat made of duck or any game. Cover the top with a white forcemeat, and smooth it off even with the mold. Poach them for ten minutes. Unmold, and let them cool; then cover with egg and fresh bread-crumbs, and fry in hot fat to an amber color. Serve with them an Espagnole or a brown sauce.

MACARONI TIMBALE

Cook until tender in salted water long pieces of spaghetti, or fine macaroni. Put it into the water slowly, and it can then be turned so it will not break. Lay the pieces straight on a napkin to cool. Butter well a dome-shaped mold. Wind the spaghetti around the mold, holding it in place, as you proceed, with a layer of forcemeat. Fill the center with boiled macaroni and cheese, mixed with a well-reduced BÉchamel sauce; or fill the timbale with a salpicon of sweetbreads and mushrooms. Make the layer of forcemeat thick enough to give the timbale stability. Cover it with a greased paper, stand it in a pan of hot water, and poach in a slow oven for thirty minutes. This timbale may also be made in individual molds.

HONEYCOMB TIMBALE

(A VERY SIMPLE LUNCHEON DISH)

Boil in salted water large-sized macaroni. When cold cut it into pieces one quarter of an inch long, making rings. Butter a plain dome-shaped mold, and cover it with the rings. Fill the mold with minced uncooked chicken, turkey, or veal, mixed with cream sauce. Add three or four eggs to the creamed mince just before putting it into the mold. Unless the eggs are added, it will not have stiffness enough to hold in shape. Cover the mold with a greased paper. Place it in a pan of hot water, and poach in a slow oven for thirty minutes.This timbale may also be made of any cooked meat as follows: Put the meat through an “Enterprise” chopper. Make a sauce, using two tablespoonfuls each of butter and flour, a cupful of milk, and a cupful of stock. After the liquid is added to the roux put in a slice of onion and two dried mushrooms, one teaspoonful of salt, and one quarter teaspoonful pepper. Let it cook until a little thickened. Add half the strained sauce to the minced meat. Stir it over the fire until the meat is heated; remove from the fire, add two beaten eggs, and turn it into a a quart timbale mold, which is lined with macaroni in any of the forms given in illustrations. Cover the mold with a greased paper. Place it in a pan of hot water, and poach for twenty minutes. Serve the rest of the sauce with the cooked timbale.

A SIMPLE TIMBALE OF HALIBUT

Take a half pound of uncooked halibut. Cut it into fine pieces, pound it in a mortar, and pass it through a sieve. Mix a cupful of white bread-crumbs with a half cupful of milk, and stir until it makes a smooth paste; remove it from the fire, add the fish pulp, a half teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of paprica. Then beat in lightly, a little at a time, the whipped whites of five eggs. Fill buttered timbale molds with the mixture, and place them in a pan of hot water in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. This will fill a quart mold, or eight individual molds. Serve with a white or with a tomato sauce.

PASTRY TIMBALE

Make a paste, using to one pound of flour three quarters of a pound of butter, four yolks, one half teaspoonful of salt, and one and a half cups of water. Work it well, roll it one quarter of an inch thick, cover, and set it aside for one hour. Butter a timbale-mold, and line it with the paste. If ornamentation is wanted, cut some noodle paste into fancy forms. Arrange the pieces in some design on the bottom and sides of the mold, and brush them with a little water before putting in the paste. With a cutter or knife stamp out a circle in the paste on the bottom of the mold, but do not remove it. Then with a buttered paper cover the whole inside surface of the paste. Fill the center with flour. Cover the top with buttered paper, buttered side up; then a layer of paste, and press it to the paste of the sides. Set it aside for half an hour. Bake it in a hot oven for fifty minutes. Unmold, take off the circle which was cut in the paste; remove the paper and flour. Brush the timbale all over, inside and out, with yolk of egg, and place it in the oven to brown. Fill it with salpicon.

POTATO AND FISH TIMBALE

(FOR LUNCHEON OR BREAKFAST)

Butter a plain mold. Sprinkle it with white bread-crumbs. Fill it with mashed potato which has been seasoned and mixed with two or more egg yolks and some grated cheese. Bake it for forty minutes in a moderate oven. With a pointed knife cut around the top one and a half inches from the edges; lift off the piece, and with a spoon scoop out the potato, leaving a lining one and a half inches thick. Brush the inside with egg, and place it again in the oven to dry and brown. Fill the center with creamed fish; replace the top piece, and fill the cut with potato so as to confine the fish. Place a dish over the top, invert the mold, and let it stand a few minutes. It will then come out of the mold. Serve with a white sauce.

VOL AU VENT

Prepare a puff paste (see page 458). Roll it one and a half inches thick. Cut a circle six to six and a half inches in diameter, using as guide a pie-tin or cardboard, if a regular cutter is not at hand. Place it with care on a baking-tin, and cut a smaller circle around the top, one and a half inches from the edge, and two thirds through the paste. Paint over the top with yolk of egg, and bake it in a hot oven for thirty minutes. Do not open the oven door for the first fifteen minutes. When baked, lift off the inside circle. Cut out the uncooked paste, paint it over with white of egg, and place it again in the oven to brown. Keep the crust hot until ready to serve. Then fill with salpicon, and replace the cover, or small circle of paste.

PATTIES

Prepare patty shells as directed in puff paste receipt (page 460). Fill them with oysters (see page 134), with lobster (see page 140), or with any salpicon.

RISSOLES

Roll puff paste one eighth of an inch thick. Place on it at intervals of three inches from the edge and five inches apart, a teaspoonful of salpicon, or of creamed minced meat. Moisten with a wet brush the paste, and fold it over the balls of meat. With the finger press the paste together lightly around the meat, inclosing it like a small pie. Then with a patty or biscuit-cutter stamp out the rissoles in shape of half-circles, the ball of meat being on the straight side, and a border of paste an inch or more wide on the rounded side. Egg and bread-crumb them or not, and fry in hot fat. Serve on a folded napkin.

TO PREPARE SWEETBREADS

Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for an hour or more. Change the water several times, so that all the blood will be extracted, and leave the sweetbreads very white. Put them on the fire in cold water, and simmer (not boil) for twenty minutes. Then immerse them again in cold water. This is to parboil and blanch them. Remove all the pipes, strings, and fibers it is possible to do without breaking the sweetbreads to pieces. When half cold tie each one in a piece of cheese-cloth, drawing it tightly into an oval form, and place them under a light weight until cold. They will then be smooth and a uniform shape, and may be larded with fine lardoons if desired. Use a silver knife for cutting sweetbreads.

BAKED SWEETBREADS

Take parboiled larded sweetbreads, and place them on slices of salt pork in a baking-pan. Add enough stock to cover well the pan. Cook them in a hot oven for twenty minutes, basting frequently. Serve with a brown or with a mushroom sauce.

BRAISED SWEETBREADS

Place in a baking-pan a bed of vegetables cut in small dice, and a few pieces of salt pork. Lay parboiled sweetbreads on it. Add enough water or stock to cover the vegetables. Close the pan tight, and cook for forty to forty-five minutes. Uncover the pan the last fifteen minutes to let the sweetbreads brown. Paint them with glaze. Strain the liquor from the pan; thicken it with a brown roux, and serve it on the dish under the sweetbreads.

SAUTÉD SWEETBREADS

Cut the parboiled sweetbreads in slices and sautÉ them in butter; serve with green peas.

FRIED SWEETBREADS

Roll the sweetbreads (either whole or cut in slices) in egg and crumbs; let them stand for a time, then fry in hot fat; dress them on a folded napkin and serve with them a BÉchamel sauce. They may also be dipped in fritter batter and fried.

SWEETBREADS À LA POULETTE

Simmer the sweetbreads for thirty or forty minutes; blanch them, then cut or break them in pieces and place them on a dish. Pour over them a BÉchamel or a Poulette sauce. Mushrooms and chopped truffles may be added if desired.

CHAUDFROID OF SWEETBREADS

Simmer the sweetbreads until cooked; blanch and tie them in cloth as directed above, or place them in muffin-rings under pressure until cold; cover them with a Chaudfroid sauce (see page 281). Place fancy bits of truffle on the top lightly, and when the sauce has set, paint it over with liquid aspic. Arrange them on a socle or on a mound of salad, and serve with them a Mayonnaise sauce and lettuce.

CALF’S BRAINS

Soak the brains for an hour in cold water; then simmer in water containing a tablespoonful of vinegar for twenty minutes; an onion, thyme, bay-leaf, salt and peppercorns in the water also will improve the flavor of the brains; place again in cold water to blanch; remove the skin and fibres, and cook by any of the receipts given for sweetbreads. The boiled brains may also be served with any of the following sauces poured over them: a plain white sauce; a white sauce with chopped mushrooms; a white sauce seasoned with mashed yolks of hard-boiled eggs, a little mustard, tarragon vinegar and chopped parsley, and a tablespoonful of chopped pickle added just before serving; a Vinaigrette sauce; a Hollandaise sauce; a tomato sauce; or a sauce made of browned butter and a dash of vinegar.

MARINADE OF BRAINS

Boil the brains; remove the skin and veins; cut them into pieces the size of half an egg; let them stand an hour in a marinade of oil, vinegar, onion, pepper and salt; then wipe and dip them into fritter batter and fry in hot fat. Arrange them on a napkin and serve with tomato sauce.

CALF’S HEAD À LA VINAIGRETTE

Place pieces of hot boiled calf’s head in the center of a dish; split the tongue in two and lay it across two sides of the dish, and the brains on the opposite sides; garnish with parsley and serve with a Vinaigrette sauce, or with a Piquante sauce.

Vinaigrette Sauce (Cold): Three tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of vinegar, one teaspoonful each of grated onion, chopped parsley, and capers, one saltspoonful each of salt and pepper.

FALSE TERRAPIN

Cut boiled calf’s head (see page 175) into pieces one inch square; break into pieces the boiled brains. Make a brown roux; add to it water in which the calf’s head was boiled, in the same proportion as for white sauce; season with salt, pepper, and cayenne, and add a cupful of cream; then put in the pieces of meat, three or four chopped hard-boiled eggs, a few small egg balls, and a glass of sherry; serve very hot; there should be a half more sauce than meat.

CALF’S HEAD À LA POULETTE

Cut boiled calf’s head into pieces one inch square; heat them in hot water; drain and pile them in the center of a hot dish; sprinkle over them a few small egg balls, and pour over the whole a Poulette sauce, using for the sauce water in which the calf’s head was boiled in the place of chicken stock.

OYSTER CASES

Line buttered paper cases, or china individual cups, with a layer of fish quenelle forcemeat (page 298), or with the fish preparation given in receipt for fish pudding (page 123); scald some oysters in their own liquor until the gills curl; cut each oyster into four pieces and fill the center of the cup with them; pour over them a tablespoonful of BÉchamel sauce, made with oyster-liquor in place of stock; cover the top with forcemeat, brush it over with butter and bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes.

Cases of other combinations may be made in the same way; using mashed potato for the lining and any creamed meat for filling; or use hominy or rice with chicken, mushrooms, etc.

LIVER LOAF, OR FALSE PÂTÉ DE FOIE GRAS

Cut a calf’s liver in pieces; pound it in a mortar and press it through a sieve; add to one cupful of liver pulp one quarter cupful of flour panada, one teaspoonful each of butter and salt; one half teaspoonful of pepper; dash each of cayenne and of nutmeg and allspice, and two eggs. Mix well together and pass it again through the sieve. Put the mixture into a well-buttered pint mold; place it in a pan of hot water in the oven for forty-five minutes or more. An ice-cream brick-mold makes a loaf of convenient shape. It may be served hot with a brown sauce; but is better cold with salad, or used like pÂtÉ de foie gras. A loaf of any game may be made in the same way. The loaf may be made very ornamental by decorating it with pieces of truffle, ham, and white of hard-boiled eggs cut into diamond shapes and fitted together to look like blocks. To arrange this decoration use two molds of the same size; butter one of them and apply carefully the decoration; line the other with thin slices of larding pork and cook the liver or game mixture in it; when it is cold remove the pork, and this will leave it small enough to fit into the decorated mold. Fill the space between them with aspic jelly and let it become well set before unmolding the form.

CHICKEN LIVERS

Cut the gall carefully off the livers; dry them with a cloth and cut them in two or more pieces. Place them in a frying-pan with a tablespoonful of butter, and sautÉ until cooked, or about five minutes. Turn them often, so they will not burn, and dredge them with a little flour; add one cupful of Espagnole, or of brown sauce, and one half cupful of Madeira; season with salt and pepper and let simmer slowly for ten minutes. If the color is not dark enough, add a few drops of caramel or of kitchen bouquet; serve with croÛtons around the dish, or in a croustade, or in fontage cups.

STUFFED MUSHROOMS

Take off the stalks from one pound of fresh mushrooms, peel the cups, using a silver knife, and drop them into cold water to keep them white (if exposed to the air they discolor). If they have to stand for some time put a little lemon-juice in the water; scrape the stalks, chop them and put them into a saucepan with one tablespoonful of butter and one half onion sliced; cook slowly for ten minutes, then add one tablespoonful of flour and cook that five minutes; add one cupful of stock and one half cupful of bread crumbs; season with salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne. Fill the cups of the mushrooms with this mixture; sprinkle with crumbs and place them on circles of toasted bread one quarter of an inch thick and the size of the mushroom. Bake in moderate oven for fifteen minutes.

CHICKEN PURÉE

Chop cooked chicken very fine; pound it to as much of a paste as possible; season with salt and pepper; mix it with half its quantity of Chaudfroid sauce (see page 281). Coat a mold with jelly (see page 323), and fill it with the mixture, which must be cold and beginning to set; when it has hardened, turn it onto a dish; garnish with lettuce and serve with it a Mayonnaise or a BÉarnaise sauce. Game may be used in the same way. Ornamented individual timbale cups may also be used for molding the purÉe.

OYSTER-CRABS

Put into a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and a gill of water, one teaspoonful of lemon-juice, a little salt and white pepper. When the liquid is warm, put a few of the crabs in at a time and cook until they begin to whiten, then skim them out and keep them in a warm place until all are cooked. The liquid must only simmer; if it is too hot the crabs will break open. The crabs should be just moistened with the sauce in which they are cooked. Serve in croustades, or in fontage cups (see page 300).

ENTRÉE OF OYSTER-CRABS

Use for this entrÉe individual shirred-egg dishes. Cut slices of bread one inch thick; with a biscuit-cutter stamp it into circles one inch smaller than the egg dish, and with a smaller cutter stamp out the center, making rings of the bread one inch thick, one inch wide, and one inch smaller than the egg dishes. Place the bread rings in the dishes and moisten them with cream; fill the space outside the rings with oyster-crabs cooked as directed above; spread one layer of crabs in the center of each ring and on them break an egg. Cover the whole with BÉchamel sauce and sprinkle the top with grated Parmesan cheese. Place this in a hot oven just long enough to set the egg.

TERRAPIN, FROGS’ LEGS

TERRAPIN

Counts. Terrapin measuring six inches or more across the bottom shell are called “counts.” The largest do not exceed ten inches; the average size is seven inches, and weight three to five pounds. The counts vary in price from seventeen to eighty dollars a dozen, according to size and weight.

Diamond backs. The terrapin which are most esteemed, and which command the highest price, are the “Diamond Back,” from the Chesapeake Bay. Probably it is the wild celery of this region which gives the especially prized flavor to the terrapin as well as to the Canvasback ducks taken there. Good terrapin, however, are taken in Long Island waters and all along the sea-coast.

Season. Terrapin burrow in the mud as soon as cold weather approaches and remain there until May, during which time they grow fat. They are caught during their season of hibernation, and are kept in cool, dark places packed in sea grass until wanted; the season for eating them being from December to April. Terrapin taken during the summer are rank in taste and unfit for food, and are confined in pens and fed on celery.

The female terrapin is the most prized on account of its eggs, terrapin-eggs, as served in the stew, being considered a great delicacy.

Cooking. The Maryland style of cooking terrapin is one of the most esteemed. A simple way is that of the Southern negro, who places the “bird,” as he calls it, over hot coals or in the oven until cooked, when the under shell comes off, and, removing only the gall, he eats the whole of the contents from the inverted upper shell, seasoning with butter, pepper, and salt. Before hibernating, the terrapin empties the stomach and is consequently clean, but a fastidious taste prefers to have the terrapin thoroughly washed, and the entrails and lights as well as the gall-sack removed.

The gall. It is of the greatest importance that the gall should be very carefully removed, for, if the sack be punctured or in any way injured, so that the liquid touches the liver or meat, its disagreeable bitter taste will infect the entire dish.