Chapter XIV · (continued 2)

Mock Brawn.

Having cleaned a hog's head, split it, take out the brains, cut off the ears, and rub the head well with salt. Let it drain for twelve hours, spread 2 oz. common salt and 1½ oz. bay salt over it, and the next day put it into a pan, cover with cold water, and let it stand a day and night. Then wash well, and boil it until the bone comes out; skin the head and tongue, and cut both into bits. Put half of the skin into a pan, spread the meat in layers, season with salt and pepper, press it down hard, and cover with the other half of the skin. If too fat, add bits of lean pork. Make a pickle of 2 oz. salt, a pint of vinegar, and a quart of the liquor; boil it three times, and when cold pour it over.

Tripe in the Scotch Fashion.

First boiled and cold; then simmer it gently in milk and water, with salt, and a piece of butter. When quite tender, take it out, and let it cool, whilst you prepare a thick batter of three eggs, three spoonsful of flour and some milk; add green onions or chives, parsley chopped fine, and ginger. Cut the tripe in square cutlets or strips, dip them in the batter, thick enough to form a thick crust, and fry in beef dripping.

A Scotch Haggis.

Having cleaned a sheep's pluck, cut some places in the heart and liver, to let out the blood, and parboil it all (during which the windpipe should hang over the side of the pot in a bowl, that it may empty itself). Scum the water, as the pluck boils: indeed, it ought to be changed. From half to three quarters of an hour will be sufficient. Take it all out, cut off about half of the liver, and put it back to boil longer. Trim away all pieces of skin and black-looking parts from the other half of the liver, the heart, and part of the lights, and mince all together, with 1 lb. of beef suet and three or four onions. The other half of the liver having boiled half an hour longer, put it in the air to get cold; then grate it to the mince, and put more onions if you like, but slightly parboiled. Toast a large tea-cupful of oatmeal flour; turn it often with a spoon, that it may be dried equally of a light brown. Spread the mince on a board, and strew the meal lightly over, with salt, pepper and cayenne. Have ready the haggis bag (it is better to have two, for one may burst), put in the meat, with broth to make a thick stew; the richer the broth the better; add a little vinegar, but take care that the bag be not too full, for the meat must have room to swell. When it begins to boil, prick the bag with a needle; boil it slowly, three hours. The head may be parboiled, minced and added.

Curry of Chicken, Rabbit, or Veal.

Read in the Chapter on Seasonings, the part relating to Curry Powder.—Curry may be made of cold meat, and makes a variety with the common mode of re-warming meat, but not so good a Curry as when made of undressed meat. Cut the meat into pieces, as are served at table, and brown them, in butter, with 1 or 2 sliced onions, over a quick fire. When of a fine amber colour, put it and the onions in a saucepan, with some veal, mutton broth, or stock of poultry and veal, or mutton trimmings; when this has simmered long enough to cook the meat, put in the curry powder, from 2 to 3 dessert-spoonsful, according to the quantity of meat, rubbed and mixed very smooth with a spoonful of flour; stir this carefully in the sauce, and simmer it five minutes; when done, put in the juice of a lemon, and stir in by degrees a coffee-cupful of thick cream. A small part of the meat and the livers of poultry may be pounded to thicken the sauce.—Or: rub the powder into a thin paste, with cream, and rub each piece of meat with it, when half cooked, then return it to the saucepan to finish stewing.—Another—Fry 4 large sliced onions in 2 oz. of butter, and put all into a stew-pan, with either a loin of lamb in steaks, a breast of veal cut up, chicken, duck or rabbit jointed, or any thing undressed and lean, with a pint of good stock, or more, according to the quantity of meat; stew till tender: then take out the meat, and mix with the gravy about 2 dessert-spoonsful of turmeric powder, 6 pounded coriander seeds, cayenne to taste, and 2 table-spoonsful of chili, or eschalot vinegar. Boil these till thoroughly mixed and thick, and till the turmeric has lost the raw flavour; then put in the meat, and give it one boil. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon or a lime, and serve it very hot, in a deep dish, with plenty of gravy; the rice in another.—Stewed onions, stewed cucumbers, or stewed celery, brown, are good with curry. Serve pickles (melon mangoes most suitable), and chili vinegar.—Veal cutlets fried with onions in butter, and stewed in gravy as above. Lamb, Duck, Cow-heel, and Lobster make good curries. Indeed tender steaks and mutton chops are also very good dressed in curry.

Curry Kebobbed.

Cut into bits, either chicken and tongue, or veal and ham; season with eschalot, and fasten them in alternate slices on small skewers. Mix with flour and butter 2 dessert-spoonsful of curry powder, or 1 of curry paste, 1 of turmeric, and add by degrees ½ pint of good gravy. Fry the meat with 3 onions, chopped in butter, and put all into a stew-pan with the gravy, a tea-spoonful of mushroom powder, a wine-glassful of sherry or Madeira, 2 table-spoonsful of lemon pickle, 2 of garlic or tarragon vinegar, 1 of soy, 1 of walnut pickle, 1 of claret or Port, and a tea-spoonful of cayenne vinegar.—Garnish with pickles.

Curry of Fish.

Slices of cod, turbot, brill, and halibut, also whitings, haddocks, and codlings, may all be curried. To be maigre, make the gravy of well-seasoned fish stock; if not, of beef or veal broth, in which an onion and carrot have been boiled; thicken with butter rubbed in browned flour. Bone the fish, and cut them into neat pieces, rub with flour, and fry them in butter, of a light brown. Drain them on a sieve. Mix very smoothly a table-spoonful of curry powder (more or less according to the quantity of fish), with a dessert-spoonful of flour, and mix it to a paste with a little of the broth; add 2 onions, beaten in a mortar, and ¼ pint of thick cream, mix this in the gravy, or roll the piece of fish in it, then put them in the gravy, and stew them gently till tender; place them in a dish, skim the fat off the sauce, and pour over the fish.—Lobsters, prawns, shrimps, oysters, and muscles are curried in the same way, to form a dish by themselves, or with other fish.—Slices of cold cod, turbot, or brill are re-warmed in curry sauce.

Beef or Ham Chutney.

To 1 oz. of grated meat, put 1 small onion chopped very fine, 1 tea-spoonful of grated ginger, and cayenne to taste; mix well together, adding vinegar or lemon juice.

Fish Chutney.

Parboil an onion, chop it very fine, and add to the fish, which should be rather salted, and chopped fine, or grated; add cayenne and vinegar to taste.

Rice to Boil for Curry.

Pick, and soak it in water; then boil very quickly, with a little salt in the water, till tender, but not soft; drain, and lay it on a sieve reversed, before the fire, to dry. Turn it with a fork, as lightly as possible, but do not use a spoon. Serve it in a dish by itself; or round the dish in light heaps, the curry in the middle. After it is boiled, some cooks pour cold water over, and then set it before the fire to dry. Every particle ought to be distinct, yet perfectly tender.—Another way is, to wash it in warm water, pick it carefully, pour boiling water over it in a stew-pan, cover that close, and keep it by the side of the fire to be quite hot. In an hour's time, pour off the water, set the stew-pan on the fire, and stir briskly with a fork till the rice is dry, but not hard.—The Hindostanee mode is this: when well picked, soak it in cold water a quarter of an hour; strain and put it into boiling water rather more than enough to cover it; boil it ten minutes, skimming, if necessary; then add a gill of milk for each lb. of rice, and boil it two or three minutes; take it off the fire, strain, and put it back into the saucepan over a slow fire; pour on it ½ oz. of butter melted, and a table-spoonful of the water in which it was boiled; boil it slowly, another eight minutes, and it will be ready.—In Carolina they soak the rice two hours in salt and water, wash it, put it in a bag of cheese cloth, then steam it twenty minutes, and each grain will be separated.

A Pillau.

Stew some rice in broth, or melted butter, till tender, season with salt, pepper, and mace. Prepare a boiled fowl, or mutton chops, or veal cutlets, dressed as you like; place them in a hot dish, and if fowl or veal, slices of boiled bacon over; cover the meat with the rice, glaze it with beaten egg, and place it before the fire, to brown. Garnish with hard-boiled egg and slices of lemon.—Or: half roast a breast of veal, cut it in pieces, season with pepper and salt (curry powder, if you like), and stew them in gravy, or broth. Place a high border of rice round a dish, the veal in the centre, thin slices of bacon on it, and cover with rice, glaze with yoke of egg, and brown it. A turkey capon, or old fowl, larded, may be dressed in this way; or cold poultry, or rabbit.

Sausages.

To the following receipts saltpetre may be added, to give a red hue. Mushrooms and oysters give a nice flavour, but the sausages do not keep well. Sausage meat may be cooked without skins: mould it into flat cakes, moistening with yolk of egg, to bind, and then fry them. These cakes form a pretty supper dish, garnished with curled parsley; also a garnish for roast turkey or fowl. The ingredients must be well mixed. Herbs ought to be used sparingly. Pork Sausages.—Cut 3 lbs. of fat, and 3 lbs. of lean pork, into thin slices, scrape each one, and throw away the skin; cut the meat altogether, as small as possible, with 2 oz. salt, ½ oz. pepper, 6 tea-spoonsful of sage, chopped fine, 2 nutmegs, and 2 eggs. Boil a pint of water, let it get cold, put in the crumb of a penny roll, to soak all night; the next morning mix it with the other ingredients, and fill the skins. Oxford Sausages.—To 1 lb. pork, add 1 lb. veal, 12 oz. beef suet, 3 oz. grated bread, 3 eggs, well beaten, with mace, black pepper, salt, and sweet herbs, these last chopped, then pounded in a mortar, before they are put to the other ingredients. Anchovy is an improvement.—Or: leave out the bread, herbs and suet, have plenty of fat to mix with the lean, mix it with yolk of egg, into long thin cakes, and fry them. Epping Sausages.—Equal portions of young tender pork, and beef suet. Mince them very finely, season with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, and a little chopped sage. Veal Sausages.—Equal quantities of lean veal and fat bacon, ½ a handful of sage leaves, salt, pepper, and a few anchovies; beat all well in a mortar. Roll this into cakes and fry them. Bologna Sausages.—An equal portion of beef, veal, lean pork and fat of bacon, minced and mixed well together. Season with pepper, salt, and spices; fill a large skin, and boil it an hour.

Rissoles.

Any sort of cold meat, but veal, chicken, turkey and sweetbreads are best. Mince the meat, season with salt and pepper, and stew it two minutes in well-seasoned gravy; use no more than sufficient to moisten the mince. Let it get cold, then roll into balls; dip these into egg beaten; then into bread-crumbs, and fry them of a light brown. When done, place them in a dish, and pour good gravy into it.—Or: roll out thin puff paste, spread some mince on it, and roll up, in what shape you please; fry of a light brown. Rissoles may be made of cold turbot, shrimps, lobster and cod; season with cayenne and thin melted butter; add the yolk of an egg to bind it, then roll up in thin puff paste and fry them.

A Bread Border.

Cut slices of firm stale bread, the thickness of the blade of a knife, into any shape you like. Heat some top fat, or oil, in a saucepan, and put in the sippets. Take some out before they are much browned, and let the rest brown more. Drain well, fasten each one up with white paper, until you are ready to use them; then pierce the end of an egg, let out a little of the white, beat it up with a knife, and mix in a little flour. Heat a dish, dip one side or point of each sippet in the egg, and stick them, one by one, on the dish, in what form you please, and put the ragout or fricassee in the centre.

A Rice Border.

Soak the rice well, then stew it with salt and a blade of mace; to be richer, use butter and yolk of egg. When just tender, and no more, place it round the dish, as an edging; glaze with beaten yolk of egg, and set it in the oven, or before the fire, a few minutes; then put in the curry, or hash, &c. &c.

Potatoe Border.

Mash them nicely; and form a neat border round the edge of the dish; mark it and glaze with yolk of egg; brown it in the oven, and put the hash in the centre.

Omelets.

These with practice, are easily made, and are convenient to make out a dinner or supper, especially in the country, where fresh eggs may almost always be obtained. Omelets are so common in France, that the poorest inn by the road side will always furnish one. Fresh eggs are essential; the frying-pan should be round and small. The basis of most omelets is the following: beat well the yolks of 6 and the whites of 3 eggs, put to them a little salt and 2 table-spoonsful of water; put 1½ oz. fresh butter into the frying-pan, and hold it over the fire; when the butter is hot, pour in the eggs, shake the pan constantly, or keep stirring the eggs till they become firm, then with a knife lift the edge all round, that the butter may get under. If over done, it will be hard and dry. Gather the border up, roll the omelet, and serve in a hot dish. This may be flavoured in various ways: with grated lemon peel, nutmeg and mace; or with the juice of a Seville orange; or with grated ham, tongue, or veal kidney, pepper and salt; or finely chopped parsley, green onions, chives and herbs: also, for maigre dinners, lobster meat, shrimps or the soft parts of oysters may be pounded, seasoned and put into the eggs. A pounded anchovy, and, also, mushroom powder, may be used to give flavour. Potatoe or wheaten flour, about a table-spoonful, is sometimes added to the eggs.

Eggs to Poach.

Boil some spring water, skim it, and put in a table-spoonful of vinegar. Break off the top of the egg with a knife, and let it slip gently into the boiling water, turning the shell over the egg, to gather in the white; this is said to be a better way than to break the egg into a cup, then turn it into the water. Let the saucepan stand by the side of the fire till the white is set, then put it over the fire for two minutes. Take them up, with a slice; trim them, and serve on toasts, spinach, brocoli, sorrel, slices of broiled ham, or in the centre of a dish, with pork sausages round.

Eggs to Fry.

Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan, and slip the eggs in.—Or: lay some thin slices of bacon in a dish before the fire, to toast; break the eggs into tea-cups, and slip them gently into boiling lard, in a frying-pan. When done, little more than two minutes, trim the white, and lay each one on a slice of bacon. Make a sauce of weak broth, cayenne, made mustard and vinegar.

Eggs to Butter.

Beat 12 eggs with 2 table-spoonsful of gravy; melt ¼ lb. butter, stir the eggs and this together, in a bason with pepper, salt, and finely minced onion, if liked. Pour this backwards and forwards from one bason to another, then into a stew-pan on the fire, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, to prevent burning. When of a proper thickness, serve on toast.

Eggs to Fricassee.

Boil them hard, then cut the eggs in slices, pour a good white sauce over, and serve with sippets round the dish.

Eggs to Ragout.

Boil 8 eggs hard, take off the shell, cut them in quarters. Have ready a pint of gravy, well seasoned and thickened, and pour it hot over the eggs.—Or: melt some butter, thicken with flour, season with nutmeg and mace, add a tea-cupful of cream, and pour hot over the eggs.

Swiss Eggs.

Put a piece of butter the size of a small egg into a saucepan with ¼ lb. grated cheese, a little nutmeg, parsley and chives finely chopped, and ½ a glass of white wine. Stir it over a slow fire, till the cheese is melted; then mix in 6 eggs well beaten, set it on the fire, and keep stirring till done. Serve in the centre of a small dish, with toasted sippets round.

Scotch Eggs.

Boil 4 eggs hard, as for salad, peel and dip them, first in beaten egg, then in a forcemeat of grated ham, crumbs and spices. Fry in clarified dripping, and serve in gravy. Or: in white sauce.

Eggs à la Tripe.

Fry 4 sliced Spanish onions in butter, then dust in some flour, let it catch to a light brown, put in a breakfast cupful of hot milk, salt and pepper, and let it reduce. Then add 12 hard-boiled eggs, some in halves or quarters, others in slices, mix these gently in the sauce (a tea-spoonful of made mustard if you like), and serve it.

Eggs à la Maitre d'Hotel.

Fry onions as in the last receipt, add melted butter, with plenty of parsley chopped in it, put in the eggs and serve quite hot.

Fondu.

Mix an equal quantity of grated parmesan and Gloucester cheese, add double the weight in beaten yolk of egg and cream, or melted butter; beat all well together, add pepper and salt, then the whites of the eggs, which have been beaten separately: stir them lightly in, and bake in deep tin dish, or in paper cases, but fill only half full, as it will rise very much. Serve quite hot.

Ramakins.

Beat an equal portion of Gloucester and Cheshire cheese in a mortar, with the crumb of a French roll, soaked in milk, and the yolks of 3 eggs; season with salt and pepper, and when beaten to a paste, add the whites of 2 eggs, and bake them in saucers, in the Dutch oven.—Or: roll paste out thin, lay a thin slice of cheese on it, cover with paste, and bake like puffs.—Or: beat ¼ lb. Cheshire cheese with 2 eggs and 2 oz. butter, and form it into cakes to cover thin pieces of bread cut round with a wine-glass. Lay these on a dish, not touching one another, put it on a chaffing dish of coals, hold a salamander over till quite brown, and serve hot.

Asparagus and Eggs.

Beat 4 eggs well, with pepper and salt. Cut some dressed asparagus into pieces the size of peas, and stir into the eggs. Melt 2 oz. of butter, in a small stew-pan, pour in the mixture, stir till it thickens, and serve hot on a toast.

Mushrooms and Eggs.

Slice and fry some large onions and a few button mushrooms; drain them well; boil some eggs hard, and slice them; simmer in good gravy, or melted butter, with pepper, salt, mustard, and eschalot vinegar.

Devils.

These are made of legs, rumps, backs and gizzards of cold turkey, goose, capon, and all kinds of game, venison, mutton kidney, the back bone of mackerel well buttered, biscuits and rusks. The meat must be well scored for the seasonings to find their way into it: salt, pepper, cayenne, curry, mushroom, truffle, and anchovy powder, must be used according to taste. Broil, over a quick strong fire, and serve them dry, if to eat with wine; but they may be served with anchovy, or any piquant sauce. Served in a hot water dish.—Biscuits are spread with butter, heated before the fire and sprinkled with the seasonings.

Anchovy Toasts.

Fry thin slices of bread, without the crust, in butter. Spread them with pounded anchovies mixed with butter.

Mock Caviare.

Bone 6 anchovies, pound them in a mortar with dried parsley, a clove of garlic, cayenne, salt and salad oil, also lemon juice if you like. Serve on toast or biscuit.

Sandwiches.

The bread should be cut in thin slices with a sharp knife. Various things are used. Slices of beef, ham, or tongue, or either of the last two grated or scraped; also German or pork sausage, anchovies and shrimps; forcemeat, and all kinds of potted meat. Some persons cut the meat in very little pieces, and spread them over the bread; a mixture of ham and chicken in this way makes delicate sandwiches: or ham and hard-boiled yolk of egg, seasoned with salt, mustard, or curry powder, according to the meat. Cheese sandwiches are made thus: 2 parts of grated parmesan or Cheshire cheese, one of butter, and a small portion of made mustard; pound them in a mortar; cover slices of bread with a little, then thin slices of ham, or any cured meat, cover with another slice of bread, and press it lightly down; cut these sandwiches small.

Maccaroni. (See to make the paste.)

Boil 2 oz. in good broth or gravy, till tender; add a small piece of butter, and a little salt, give it a turn in the stew-pan, and put it in the dish. Scrape parmesan, stilton, or any other dry rich cheese over, and brown it before the fire.—Or: mix a pint of milk and a pint of water, put in 2 oz. maccaroni, and simmer it slowly three hours, till the liquor is wasted, and the maccaroni tender. Add grated cheese, salt, and cayenne, mix well, and brown it before the fire. Maccaroni plain boiled, with a little salt, till tender, and the gravy of roast or boiled meat poured over it, is light and nourishing for an invalid. Maccaroni in the Italian way.—Mince about six livers of fowl or game with a very little celery, young onion, and parsley (blanched), and stew them in good butter. Then have six more livers cut small, not minced, and cooked in a little butter. Boil 2 oz. of maccaroni in white gravy, season it, if necessary, add powdered mace and cayenne; when done, put a layer of it in a deep hot dish, then a layer of the mince, a layer of grated parmesan, then maccaroni, and at top the chopped livers and more cheese, and enough of the gravy to moisten it sufficiently; put it before the fire a quarter of an hour, or on a slow stove: then brown it or not as you choose. Another (Italian).—Boil it in water, pass it through a cullender, and having ready prepared some tomata sauce (which see), lift a layer of the maccaroni lightly with two forks out of the cullender into a deep vegetable or hash dish, put a light sprinkling of grated cheese, then tomata sauce, then maccaroni, and again tomata sauce, till the dish be full; if the maccaroni be dry, add butter in little bits, and cayenne, if you think proper. This is not browned. You may omit the cheese. Maccaroni Maigre.—Simmer 2 oz. maccaroni in a pint of milk and a pint of water (mixed) three hours, and the liquor wasted: stir into it grated cheese, salt, and cayenne, and brown it before the fire.

Toast and Cheese.

Toast a slice of stale bread half an inch thick, without the crust, butter one side, and lay on slices of toasting cheese; put it into a cheese-toaster before the fire; when done, lightly pepper and salt it, and serve it hot.

Welsh or Scotch Rabbit.

There are many receipts for this, and the following is a good one. Mix some butter with grated cheese (unless that be so fat that the butter is not required), add salt, pepper, made mustard, and a tea-cupful of brown stout or Port wine; put this into a cheese-toaster, stir till the cheese be dissolved, then brown, and serve it quite hot: toasts in a separate dish.