The Cook's Decameron Part 16

No. 94. Costolette d' Agnello alla Costanza (Lamb Cutlets)

Ingredients: Lamb cutlets, b.u.t.ter, stock, c.o.c.ks' combs, fowl's liver, mushrooms.

Fry as many lamb cutlets as you require very sharply in b.u.t.ter, drain off the b.u.t.ter and replace it with some very good stock or gravy. Make a ragout of c.o.c.ks' combs, bits of fowl's liver and mushrooms all cut up; add a white sauce with half a gill of cream mixed with it, and with this mask the cutlets, and saute them for fifteen minutes.

Tongue, Sweetbread, Calf's Head, Liver, Sucking Pig, &C.

No. 95. Timballo alla Romana

Ingredients: Cold fowl, game, or sweetbread, b.u.t.ter, lard, flour, Parmesan, truffles, macaroni, onions, cream.

Make a light paste of two ounces of b.u.t.ter, two of lard, and half a pound of flour, and put it in the larder for two hours. In the meantime boil a little macaroni and let it get cold, then line a plain mould with the paste, and fill it with bits of cut-up fowl, or game, or sweetbread, bits of truffle cut in small dice, grated Parmesan, and a little chopped onion. Put these ingredients in alternately, and after each layer add enough cream to moisten. Fill the mould quite full, then roll out a thin paste for the top and press it well together at the edges to keep the cream from boiling out. Bake it in a moderate oven for an hour and a half, turn it out of the mould, and serve with a rich brown sauce.

Decorate the top with bits of red tongue and truffles cut into shapes or with a little chopped pistacchio nut.

No. 96. Timballo alla Lombarda

Ingredients: Macaroni, fowl or game, eggs, stock, Velute sauce (No. 2), tongue, b.u.t.ter, truffles.

b.u.t.ter a smooth mould, then boil some macaroni, but take care that it is in long pieces. When cold, take the longest bits and line the bottom of the mould, making the macaroni go in circles; and when you come to the end of one piece, join on the next as closely as possible until the whole mould is lined; paint it over now and then with white of egg beaten up; then mask the whole inside with a thin layer of forcemeat of fowl, which should also be put on with white of egg to make it adhere; then cut up the bits of macaroni which remain, warm them up in some good fowl stock and Velute sauce much reduced, a little melted b.u.t.ter, some bits of truffle cut into dice, tongue, fowl, or game also cut up in pieces. When the mould is full, put on another layer of forcemeat, steam for an hour, then turn out and serve with a very good brown sauce.

No. 97. Lingua alla Visconti (Tongue)

Ingredients: Tongue, glaze, bread, spinach, white grapes, port.

Soak a smoked tongue in fresh water for forty-eight hours, then boil it till it is tender. Peel off the skin, cut the tongue in rather thick slices, and glaze them. Prepare an oval border of fried bread, cover it with spinach about two inches thick, and on this arrange the slices of tongue. Fill in the centre of the dish with white grapes cooked in port or muscat.

No. 98. Lingua di Manzo al Citriuoli (Tongue with Cuc.u.mber)

Ingredients: Ox tongue, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, bacon, veal, carrots, onions, thyme, bay leaves, cloves, stock.

Gently boil an ox tongue until you can peel off the skin, then lard it, season it with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and chopped parsley, and boil it with some bits of bacon, ham, veal, a carrot, an onion, two bay leaves, thyme and two cloves. Pour some good stock over it and let it simmer gently until it is cooked. Put the tongue on a dish and garnish it with slices of fried cuc.u.mber. Boil the cuc.u.mber for five minutes before you fry it, to take away the bitter taste. Serve the tongue with a sauce piquante, made with one dessert-spoonful of New Century sauce to a quarter pint of good Espangole sauce (No. 1).

No. 99. Lingue di Castrato alla Cuciniera (Sheep's Tongues)

Ingredients: Sheep's tongues, bacon, beef, onions, herbs, spice, eggs, b.u.t.ter, flour.

Cook three or four sheep's tongues in good stock, and add some slices of bacon, bits of beef, two onions, a bunch of herbs, and a pinch of spice.

Let them get cold, flour them and mask them with egg beaten up and fry quickly in b.u.t.ter. Serve with Italian sauce (No. 6)

No. 100. Lingue di Vitello all'Italiana (Calves' Tongues)

Ingredients: Calves' tongues, salt, b.u.t.ter, stock, water, glaze, potatoes, ham, truffles, sauce piquante.

Rub a good handful of salt into two or three calves' tongues and leave them for twenty-four hours, then wash off all the salt and soak them in fresh water for two hours. Stew them gently till tender, take them out, skin and braize them in b.u.t.ter and good stock for half an hour. Let them get cold and cut them into slices about half an inch thick; put the slices into a b.u.t.tered saute-pan and cover them with a good thick glaze; let them get quite hot and then arrange them on a border of potatoes, and garnish each slice with round shapes of cooked ham and truffle. Fill the centre with any vegetables you like; fried cuc.u.mber is excellent, but if you use it do not forget to boil it for five minutes before you fry it to take away the bitter taste. Serve with a sauce piquante (No.

10, or No. 226).

No. 101. Porcelletto alla Corradino (Sucking Pig)

Ingredients: Sucking pig, ham, eggs, Parmesan, truffles, mushrooms, garlic, bay leaves, coriander seeds, pistacchio nuts, veal forcemeat, suet, bacon, herbs, spice.

Bone a sucking pig, remove all the inside and fill it with a stuffing made of veal forcemeat mixed with a little chopped suet, ham, bacon, herbs, two tablespoonsful of finely chopped pistacchio nuts, a pinch of spice, six coriander seeds, two tablespoonsful of grated Parmesan, cuttings of truffles and mushrooms all bound together with eggs. Sew the pig up and braize it in a big stewpan with bits of bacon, a clove of garlic with two cuts, a bunch of herbs and one bay leaf, for half an hour. Then pour off the gravy, cover the pig with well-b.u.t.tered paper, and finish cooking it in the oven. Garnish the top with vegetables and truffles cut into shapes, slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley. Serve with a good sauce piquante (No. 229). Do not leave the garlic in for more than ten minutes.

No. 102. Porcelletto da Latte in Galantina (Sucking Pig)

Ingredients: Sucking pig, forcemeat of fowl, bacon, truffles, pistacchio nuts, ham, lemon, veal, bay leaves, salt, carrots, onions, shallots, parsley, stock, Chablis, gravy.

Bone a sucking pig all except its feet, but be careful not to cut the skin on its back. Lay it out on a napkin and line it inside with a forcemeat of fowl and veal about an inch thick, over this put a layer of bits of marinated bacon, slices of truffle, pistacchio nuts, cooked ham, and some of the flesh of the pig, then another layer of forcemeat until the pig's skin is fairly filled. Keep its shape by sewing it lightly together, then rub it all over with lemon juice and cover it with slices of fat bacon, roll it up and st.i.tch it in a pudding cloth. Then put the bones and cuttings into a stewpan with bits of bacon and veal steak cut up, two bay leaves, salt, a carrot, an onion, a shallot, and a bunch of parsley. Into this put the pig with a bottle of white wine and sufficient stock to cover it, and cook on a slow fire for three hours.

Then take it out, and when cold take off the pudding-cloth. Pa.s.s the liquor through a hair sieve, and, if necessary, add some stock; reduce and clarify it. Decorate the dish with this jelly and serve cold.

No. 103. Ateletti alla Sarda

Ingredients: Veal or fowl, ox palates, stock, tongue, truffles, b.u.t.ter, mushrooms, sweetbread.

Soak two ox palates in salted water for four hours, then boil them until the rough skin comes off, and cook them in good stock for six hours, press them between two plates and let them get cold. Roll some forcemeat of veal or fowl in flour, cut it into small pieces about the size of a cork, boil them in salted water, let them get cold and cut them into circular pieces. Cut the ox palates also into circular pieces the same size as the bits of forcemeat, then thinner circles of cooked tongue and truffles. String these pieces alternately on small silver skewers.

Reduce to half its quant.i.ty a pint of Velute sauce (No. 2), and add the cuttings of the truffles, mushroom tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, bits of sweetbread, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Let it get cold and then mask the atelets (or skewers with the forcemeat, &c.) with it, and fry them quickly in b.u.t.ter. Fry a large oval crouton of bread, scoop out the centre and fill it with fried slices of cuc.u.mber and truffles boiled in a little Chablis. Stick the skewers into the crouton and pour the sauce round it.