The Century Cook Book Part 65

=TERRAPIN=

The prepared terrapin which comes in cans is the best for the chafing-dish, and needs only to be heated and seasoned to taste.

=CHICKEN LIVERS WITH MADEIRA=

Put a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter in the chafing-dish; add the livers cut into pieces; cook them directly over the flame, turning them constantly, and dredge them while cooking with a tablespoonful of flour.

It will take about five minutes to cook them; add a cupful of stock, and a few drops of kitchen bouquet. Then place the pan in the double pan containing water already hot; add to the livers a half cupful of Madeira and a few stoned olives; season with salt, pepper, and paprica after the wine is in; cover and let it simmer for ten minutes. Serve with croutons.

=CRAB TOAST=

Put into the chafing-dish a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter; when it is melted, add a tablespoonful of chopped celery, a teaspoonful of flour, a half cupful of cream or milk, and a canful of crab meat. Stir until the moisture is nearly evaporated; add a tablespoonful of sherry, salt and pepper, and paprica to taste; spread on toasted biscuits, or on thin slices of toast.

=SMELTS a LA TOULOUSE=

12 smelts.

1/2 cupful of white wine.

3 tablespoonfuls of liquor from the mushroom can.

1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter.

1 tablespoonful of flour.

1 dozen canned mushrooms.

1 truffle.

Cut down the back of the smelts, and remove the bone; close the fish, and lay them in the chafing-dish with the wine and mushroom liquor taken from the can. Cook until done, which will take five or six minutes.

Remove and place the smelts on a hot dish. Mix with the liquor in which they were boiled one cupful of stock; rub together the b.u.t.ter and flour, and stir this in also, leaving it on the spoon until by stirring it is dissolved. (This method prevents its getting lumpy.) Then add the chopped mushrooms and chopped truffle. Season with salt and paprica or a dash of cayenne. Cook, stirring all the time until the sauce is creamy; then pour it over the fish. Serve with croutons.

This is a good supper dish.

=MEATS=

VENISON

Put a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter in a chafing-dish. When it is very hot, lay in a piece of venison steak; let it cook a minute on both sides. Use spoons for turning the meat, so as not to pierce it. When the surfaces are seared, add a gla.s.sful of currant jelly, and baste the venison constantly with the liquid jelly until cooked rare. Extinguish the flame, and cut and serve the meat from the chafing-dish.

MUTTON

Lay a slice of mutton cut from the leg into a hot chafing-dish; turn it constantly, using two spoons, until it is cooked rare. Extinguish the flame, and cover the meat with a maitre d'hotel sauce (page 286). If preferred, spread it with currant jelly or with plum sauce; or prepare it the same as venison, with a little b.u.t.ter, and, instead of jelly, add a half canful of tomatoes, and finish the cooking in the same way.

Season with a little onion-juice, pepper, and salt.

BEEF

A small steak can be pan-broiled in the same way. For beef a maitre d'hotel sauce must be used. A Delmonico steak or a small porterhouse steak, with the bones removed, are the best cuts to use.

Any meat cooked in the chafing-dish should have all the fat trimmed off, so that there will be less odor.

WELSH RAREBIT AND GOLDEN BUCK

Receipts for Welsh Rarebit and Golden Buck are given on pages 371 and 372.

=FONDUE=

BRILLAT-SAVARIN

Savarin gives this receipt, which he says is taken from the papers of a Swiss bailiff. He says: "It is a dish of Swiss origin, is healthy, savory, appetizing, quickly made, and, moreover, is always ready to present to unexpected guests."

He relates an anecdote of the sixteenth century of a M. de Madot, newly appointed Bishop of Belley, who at a feast given in honor of his arrival, mistaking the fondue for cream, eat it with a spoon instead of a fork. This caused so much comment that the next day no two people met who did not say: "Do you know how the new bishop eat his fondue last night?" "Yes; he eat it with a spoon. I have it from an eye-witness."

And soon the news spread over the diocese.

RECEIPT

"Weigh as many eggs as you have guests. Take one third their weight of Gruyere cheese, and one sixth their weight of b.u.t.ter. Beat the eggs well in a saucepan; add the cheese, grated, and the b.u.t.ter. Put the saucepan on the fire and stir until the mixture is soft and creamy; then add salt, more or less, according to the age of the cheese, and a generous amount of pepper, which is one of the positive characters of the dish.

Serve on a hot plate. Bring in the best wine, drink roundly of it, and you will see wonders."

=PINEAPPLE CANAPeS=

Split in two some square sponge-cakes, which can be bought at the baker's for two cents each. Put a little b.u.t.ter in the chafing-dish.

When it is hot put in the slices of cake, and brown them a little on both sides. Lay the slices on a plate, and spread each one with a layer of canned chopped pineapple. Turn the juice from the can into the chafing-dish. Moisten a teaspoonful of arrowroot with cold water, stir it slowly into the hot juice, and continue to stir until it becomes thickened and clear. Pour the sauce over the slices of spread cake. If more than a cupful of juice is used, add more arrowroot in proportion.

Any kind of fruit, and slices of sponge cake or of brioche, can be used instead of the square individual cakes. Strawberries, raspberries, or peaches make good sweet canapes.

=CHOCOLATE MADE WITH CONDENSED MILK=

Fill the cups to be used about one third full of condensed milk; add a heaping teaspoonful of instantaneous chocolate, which is chocolate ground to a fine powder. Mix them well together; then fill the cup with boiling water, and stir until the chocolate and milk are dissolved. No sugar is needed, as the milk is sweetened to preserve it.

CHAPTER XV

BREAD

[Sidenote: The yeast plant.]

Yeast is a minute plant, and like other plants must have the right conditions of heat, moisture, and nourishment in order to live or to nourish. It will be killed if scalded, or if frozen, as any other plant would be; therefore, as we depend upon the growth of this little plant for raising our bread, we must give its requirements as much care as we do our geraniums or our roses. The yeast plant takes its nourishment from sugar. This is found in flour. It converts this sugar into carbonic acid gas and alcohol, and the pressure of this gas causes the mixture in which it is generated to become inflated, or to "rise."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORMS OF GROWTH OF THE YEAST PLANT.]