Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book Part 7

An excellent pot-pie may be made with venison and potatoes previously stewed together. Boiled paste is always best when shortened with minced suet. Beef-suet is superior to any other.

A VENISON PUDDING.--Take nice steaks of _fresh_ venison; season them slightly with salt and pepper; put them into a pot, with a piece of fresh b.u.t.ter, and stew them in barely sufficient water to keep them from scorching. When they are quite tender, take them, up; cut all the meat from the bones, and set it to cool. Save the gravy, and when cold carefully remove all the fat from the surface. Prepare a paste, in the proportion of three quarters of a pound of beef-suet, finely minced, to two pounds of flour. Rub the suet thoroughly into the flour, adding a small salt-spoon of salt, and sufficient cold water to moisten it into a stiff dough. Beat the lump of dough, on all sides, with the rolling-pin, to increase the lightness of the paste. Roll it out thick; put the venison into it; and pour on enough of the gravy to wet the meat all through. Then close over the paste, so as to form a large dumpling, with the venison in the middle. Have ready a thick pudding-cloth, that has been dipped in boiling water, shaken out, dredged with flour, and spread open in a broad pan. Place the pudding in the cloth, tie it firmly, leaving room for the pudding to swell; and, to prevent the water getting in, stop up the tying-place with a bit of coa.r.s.e dough. Lay an old plate at the bottom of a large pot of boiling water; put in the pudding, and keep it boiling steadily for an hour or more, turning it several times. When done, dip it into cold water, untie the cloth, and turn out the pudding. Send it to table hot.

A beef-steak pudding may be made as above.

You may make the crust of fresh b.u.t.ter, instead of suet; allowing a pound of b.u.t.ter to two pounds, or two quarts of flour.

VENISON CHESNUT PUDDING.--Take some steaks of fresh-killed venison; season them slightly with pepper and salt. Have ready a sufficient quant.i.ty of large chesnuts, boiled and peeled. Make a crust of flour and suet, in the proportion of three quarters of a pound of finely minced suet to two pounds of flour. Roll it out thick, in two pieces, and place on one piece the venison and chesnuts, in alternate layers. Pour on a little water. Cover it with the other piece of paste, uniting it closely round the edges. Put it into a strong pudding-cloth; tie it tightly, and plaster the tying-place with a lump of flour and water. Put the pudding into a pot of boiling water, and boil it four hours.

For the chesnuts, you may subst.i.tute cold, boiled sweet potatoes, cut into round, thick slices.

This is an excellent pudding in a venison country; but the meat must be very fresh and juicy. The paste may be made with b.u.t.ter.

FRENCH STEW OF RABBITS.--Having cut up the rabbits, lay the pieces in cold water, to soak out the blood. Then wash them through another water.

Season them with a little pepper, some powdered mace and nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon grated. Put them into a jar, or a wide-mouthed pitcher, adding some chopped celery, sweet-marjoram, and tarragon leaves. Intersperse them with a few small thin slices of cold ham or smoked tongue, and add a tea-cup full of water and two gla.s.ses of white wine. Cover the jar very closely, so that none of the flavour may escape with the steam; set it over the fire in a large kettle of cold water, and let it stew slowly two hours. When nearly done, add some pieces of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour.

Hares may be stewed in the same manner; also, fresh venison.

For the wine, you may subst.i.tute two wine-gla.s.ses of rich cream.

TONGUE TOAST.--Take a cold smoked tongue that has been well boiled; and grate it with a coa.r.s.e grater, or mince it fine. Mix it with cream, and beaten yolk of egg; and give it a simmer over the fire. Having first cut off all the crust, toast very nicely some slices of bread; and then b.u.t.ter them rather slightly. Lay them in a flat dish that has been heated before the fire; and cover each slice of toast thickly with the tongue-mixture, spread on hot; and send them to table covered. This is a nice breakfast or supper dish.

For tongue, you may subst.i.tute cold ham finely minced.

BISCUIT SANDWICHES.--Split some light _soft_ milk biscuits (or small French rolls) and b.u.t.ter them. Cover the lower half thickly with grated ham, or smoked tongue; pressing it down upon the b.u.t.ter. Then put on the upper half or lid; pressing that on, to make it stick. Pile the biscuits handsomely in a pyramid upon a flat dish, and place among them, at regular distances, green sprigs of pepper-gra.s.s, corn-salad, water-cresses, or curled parsley, allowing four or six to each biscuit.

Put in the sprigs between the upper and lower halves of the biscuits, so that they may stick out at the edges.

To make more s.p.a.ce for the grated ham, you may scoop out a little of the inside of the upper-half of each milk biscuit or roll. They should be fresh, of that day's baking.

This is a nice supper-dish.

POTTED HAM.--Take some cold ham, slice it, and mince it small, fat and lean together. Then pound it in a mortar; seasoning it as you proceed with cayenne pepper, powdered mace, and powdered nutmeg. Then fill with it a large deep pan, and set it in an oven for half an hour. Afterwards pack it down hard in a stone jar, and fill up the jar with lard. Cover it closely, and paste down a thick paper over the jar. If sufficiently seasoned, it will keep well in winter; and is convenient for sandwiches, or on the tea-table. A jar of this will be found useful to travellers in remote places.

A FRENCH HAM PIE.--Having soaked and boiled a small ham, and taken out the bone, trim the ham nicely so as to make it a good shape; and of the bone and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs make a rich gravy, by stewing them in a sauce-pan with a little water; carefully skimming off the fat. Make a sufficient quant.i.ty of force-meat, out of cold roast chicken or veal, minced suet, grated bread-crumbs, b.u.t.ter, pepper, chopped sweet-marjoram or tarragon; and grated lemon-peel, adding the lemon-juice, and some beaten egg. Mix the ingredients thoroughly. You may add some chopped oysters.

Having made a standing crust, allowing to two pounds of flour half a pound of b.u.t.ter, and a pound of minced suet, wetted to a paste with boiling water, put in the ham, (moistening it with the gravy,) and fill in all the vacancies with the force-meat, having a layer of force-meat at the bottom and top. Then put on the lid, pinching the edges together so as to close them well. Brush the paste all over with beaten yolk of egg; then put on the ornamental flowers and leaves that have been cut out of the dough. Bake it three or four hours. It may be eaten warm, but is generally preferred cold. It keeps well, if carefully secluded from the air.

TONGUE PIE is made as above; only subst.i.tuting a smoked tongue for the ham. The tongue must be nicely trimmed and peeled, and the root minced fine, and mixed with the veal or chicken force-meat.

Either of these pies may be made and baked in deep dishes, and with paste made in the usual way of b.u.t.ter and flour, wetted with a little cold water.

HAM TOAST.--Grate a sufficiency of the lean of cold ham. Mix some beaten yolk of egg with a little cream, and thicken it with the grated ham.

Then put the mixture into a sauce-pan over the fire, and let it simmer awhile. Have ready some slices of bread nicely toasted (all the crust being pared off) and well b.u.t.tered. Spread it over thickly with the ham mixture, and send it to table warm.

POULTRY, GAME, ETC.

CHICKENS STEWED WHOLE.--Having trussed a pair of fine fat young fowls or chickens, (with the liver under one wing, and the gizzard under the other,) fill the inside with large oysters, secured from falling out, by fastening tape round the bodies of the fowls. Put them into a tin b.u.t.ter-kettle with a close cover. Set the kettle into a larger pot or sauce-pan of boiling water, (which must not reach quite to the top of the kettle,) and place it over the fire. Keep it boiling till the fowls are well done, which they should be in about an hour after they begin to simmer. Occasionally take off the lid to remove the sc.u.m; and be sure to put it on again closely. As the water in the outside pot boils away, replenish it with more _hot_ water from a tea-kettle that is kept boiling hard. When the fowls are stewed quite tender, remove them from the fire; take from them all the gravy that is about them, and put it into a small sauce-pan, covering closely the kettle in which they were stewed, and leaving the fowls in it to keep warm. Then add to the gravy two table-spoonfuls of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour; two table-spoonfuls of chopped oysters; the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs minced fine; half a grated nutmeg; four blades of mace; and a small tea-cup of cream. Boil this gravy about five minutes. Put the fowls on a dish, and send them to table, accompanied by the gravy in a sauce-boat. This is an excellent way of cooking chickens.

FOWL AND OYSTERS.--Take a fine fat young fowl, and having trussed it for boiling, fill the body and crop with oysters, seasoned with a few blades of mace; tying it round with twine to keep them in. Put the fowl into a tall strait-sided jar, and cover it closely. Then place the jar in a kettle of water; set it over the fire, and let it boil at least an hour and a half after the water has come to a hard boil. When it is done, take out the fowl, and keep it hot while you prepare the gravy, of which you will find a quant.i.ty in the jar. Transfer this gravy to a sauce-pan; enrich it with the beaten yolks of two eggs, mixed with three table-spoonfuls of cream; and add a large table-spoonful of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. If you cannot get cream, you must have a double portion of b.u.t.ter. Set this sauce over the fire; stirring it well; and when it comes to a boil, add twenty oysters chopped small. In five minutes take it off; put it into a sauce-boat, and serve it up with the fowl, which cooked in this manner will be found excellent.

Clams may be subst.i.tuted for oysters; but they should be removed from the fowl before it is sent to table. Their flavour being drawn out into the gravy, the clams themselves will be found tough, tasteless, and not proper to be eaten.

FRENCH CHICKEN PIE.--Parboil a pair of full-grown, but fat and tender chickens. Then take the giblets, and put them into a small sauce-pan with as much of the water in which the chickens were parboiled as will cover them well, and stew them for gravy; add a bunch of sweet herbs and a few blades of mace. When the chickens are cold, dissect them as if for carving. Line a deep dish with thick puff-paste, and put in the pieces of chicken. Take a nice thin slice of cold ham, or two slices of smoked tongue, and pound them one at a time in a marble mortar, pounding also the livers of the chickens, and the yolks of half a dozen hard-boiled eggs. Make this force-meat into b.a.l.l.s, and intersperse them among the pieces of chicken. Add some bits of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and then (having removed the giblets) pour on the gravy. Cover the pie with a lid of puff-paste, rolled out thick; and notch the edges handsomely; placing a knot or ornament of paste on the centre of the top. Set it directly into a well-heated oven, and bake it brown. It should be eaten warm.

This pie will be greatly improved by a pint of mushrooms, cut into pieces. Also by a small tea-cup of cream.

Any pie of poultry, pigeons, or game may be made in this manner.

CHICKEN GUMBO.--Cut up a young fowl as if for a frica.s.see. Put into a stew-pan a large table-spoonful of fresh b.u.t.ter, mixed with a tea-spoonful of flour, and an onion finely minced. Brown them over the fire, and then add a quart of water, and the pieces of chicken, with a large quarter of a peck of ochras, (first sliced thin, and then chopped,) and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the pan, and let the whole stew together till the ochras are entirely dissolved, and the fowl thoroughly done. If it is a very young chicken, do not put it in at first; as half an hour will be sufficient to cook it. Serve it up hot in a deep dish.

A cold fowl may be used for this purpose.

You may add to the ochras an equal quant.i.ty of tomatoes cut small. If you use tomatoes, no water will be necessary, as their juice will supply a sufficient liquid.

TOMATO CHICKEN.--Take four small chickens or two large ones, and cut them up as for carving. Put them into a stew-pan, with one or two large slices of cold boiled ham cut into little bits; eight or ten large tomatoes; an onion sliced; a bunch of pot-herbs, (cut up;) a small green pepper, (the seeds and veins first extracted;) half a dozen blades of mace; a table-spoonful of lard, or of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour; and two pounded crackers, or a handful of grated bread-crumbs. Add a tumbler or half a pint of water. Cover the sauce-pan closely with a cloth beneath the lid; set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire; and let it stew slowly till the chickens are thoroughly done, and the tomatoes entirely dissolved. Turn it out into a deep dish.

Rabbits may be stewed in this manner. Also, veal steaks, cut thin and small.

TURKEY AND CHICKEN PATTIES.--Take the white part of some cold turkey or chicken, and mince it very fine. Mince also some cold boiled ham or smoked tongue, and then mix the turkey and ham together. Add the yolks of some hard-boiled eggs, grated or minced; a very little cayenne; and some powdered mace and nutmeg. Moisten the whole with cream or fresh b.u.t.ter. Have ready some puff-paste sh.e.l.ls, that have been baked empty in patty-pans. Place them on a large dish, and fill them with the mixture.

Cold fillet of veal minced, and mixed with chopped ham, and grated yolk of egg, and seasoned as above, will make very good patties.

CHICKEN RICE PUDDING.--Parboil a fine fowl, and cut it up. Boil, till soft and dry, a pint of rice; and while warm, mix with it a large table-spoonful of fresh b.u.t.ter. Beat four eggs very light; and then mix them, gradually, with the rice. Spread a coating of the rice, &c., over the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Place on it the pieces of the parboiled fowl, with a little of the liquid in which it was boiled--seasoned with powdered mace and nutmeg. Add some bits of fresh b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and a little cream. Cover the dish closely with the remainder of the rice; set the pudding immediately into the oven and bake it brown.

Cold chicken or turkey cooked the day before may be used for this purpose. The pudding may be improved by the addition of a few very thin, small slices of cold ham or smoked tongue.

RICE CROQUETTES.--Boil half a pound of rice till it becomes quite soft and dry. Then mix with it two table-spoonfuls of rich (but not strong) grated cheese, a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace, and sufficient fresh b.u.t.ter to moisten it. Mince very fine six table-spoonfuls of the white part of cold chicken or turkey, the soft parts of six large oysters, and a sprig or two of tarragon or parsley; add a grated nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon. Mix the whole well, moistening it with cream or white wine. Take of the prepared rice a portion about the size of an egg, flatten it, and put into the centre a dessert-spoonful of the mixture; close the rice round it as you would the paste round a dumpling-apple. Then form it into the shape of an egg. Brush it over with some beaten yolk of egg, and then dredge it with pounded crackers.

In this way make up the whole into oval b.a.l.l.s. Have ready, in a sauce-pan over the fire, a pound of boiling lard. Into this throw the croquettes, two at a time, so as to brown them. Let them brown for a few minutes; then take them out with a perforated skimmer. Drain them from the lard, and serve them up hot, garnished with curled parsley.