Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed Part 4

CUTLETS a LA MAINTENON.

Cut a neck of mutton into chops, leaving a bone to each, but sc.r.a.ping the end of the bone quite clean. Mix together some grated bread, and some marjoram and onion chopped fine. Season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Having melted some b.u.t.ter, dip each chop into it, and then cover them on both sides with the seasoning. b.u.t.ter some half-sheets of white paper, and put the cutlets into them, leaving the end of each bone to stick out of the paper like a handle. Lay them on a gridiron, and broil them for about twenty minutes on clear lively coals. Serve them up in the papers.

Make a sauce of four shalots or little onions chopped fine, some gravy, a little pepper and salt, and a spoonful of red wine. Boil this sauce for a minute, and send it up in a boat.

PORK CUTLETS.

Mince together some onions, parsley, and a laurel leaf. Season it with pepper, salt, and cloves. Cut your pork into thin steaks, and lay them in this seasoning for five or six hours. Then broil or fry them with the seasoning on them, and serve them up with sauce Robert, or with tomata sauce.

LARDED RABBIT.

Lard a fine large rabbit, and put it into a stew-pan with a slice or two of cold ham, a bunch of sweet-herbs, a table-spoonful of sweet oil, and a gill of white wine. Stew it slowly, and, when it is quite done, strain the gravy and pour it over the rabbit.

RABBITS IN PAPERS.

Take two young rabbits; cut off the limbs and put them aside. Cut the flesh from the body, and chop it very fine, mixing it with shalots, parsley, and mushrooms chopped also, and, if you choose, a clove of garlic. Season it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and moisten it with sweet oil. Lay the legs of the rabbit in this mixture, for three or four hours. Then take out separately each leg covered with the seasoning, lay on it a thin slice of bacon or cold ham, and wrap it in a sheet of white paper well b.u.t.tered. Broil the limbs slowly on the gridiron, and serve them up hot in the papers.

Fowls may be done in the same manner. Ducks also.

PILAU.

Take half a dozen slices of the lean of a leg of mutton, or of fillet of veal. Put them into a stew-pan with six large onions, a carrot cut in pieces, and some parsley, with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.

Add a tea-spoonful of saffron, a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and a little boiling water. Let it stew for an hour, and skim it well.

Have ready a pound of rice boiled soft and drained. Mix with it a large piece of b.u.t.ter. Put some rice in the bottom of a deep dish, and lay on it first the seasoning, and then the slices of meat in a pile. Keep the remainder of the rice over it, and set it on the stove or in the oven for ten minutes.

VEAL SWEETBREADS.

Take three sweet-breads, and soak them three or four hours in milk. Then wipe them dry, and lard them. Make a seasoning of sweet-herbs and mushrooms chopped fine, a quarter of a pound of cold ham or bacon sc.r.a.ped or minced, salt, pepper, and nutmeg to your taste, and a table-spoonful of sweet-oil. Mix the seasoning very well together, and put it into a stew-pan with the sweet-breads, a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, a little water or broth, and the same quant.i.ty of wine. Stew it about ten minutes. Then take out the sweet-breads, lay them in a deep dish, pour the seasoning over them, and let them get cold. Next prepare some cases of white paper, oil them, and cover the inside with grated bread. Put a sweet-bread into each paper-case, with some of the seasoning at bottom and top. Close the cases, put them in an oven, and bake them long enough to color the sweet-breads. Serve them up in the papers.

Set the gravy over the fire, and when it simmers take it off, and stir in the yolk of an egg slightly beaten. Keep it covered for a few minutes, and then serve it up in a boat.

PART THE THIRD.

GAME AND POULTRY.

A SALMI.

Cut off the flesh from the bodies of a pair of cold pheasants, partridges or wild-ducks, or an equal quant.i.ty of small birds. Beat it in a mortar, moistening it frequently with a little broth or gravy. Then pa.s.s the whole through a cullender or sieve. Put it into a stew-pan with a piece of b.u.t.ter about the size of a walnut, rolled in flour; half a pint of port wine or claret; two whole onions, and a bunch of sweet-herbs. Let it boil half an hour, and then stir in two table-spoonfuls of sweet oil, and the juice of a lemon.

In another pan stew the legs and wings of the birds, but do not let them boil. Stew them in b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, seasoned with pepper and salt. Cut some slices of bread into triangular pieces, and fry them in b.u.t.ter. Lay them in the bottom of a dish, put the legs and wings upon them, and then the other part of the stew. Garnish the edge with slices of lemon, handsomely notched with a knife.

If the Salmi is made of partridges, use oranges instead of lemons for the juice and garnis.h.i.+ng.

COLD SALMI.

This is prepared on the table. Take the liver of a roast goose, turkey, or ducks. Put some of the gravy on a plate, cut up the liver in it, and bruise it with the back of a spoon or a silver fork. Add three tea-spoonfuls of olive oil, the juice of a lemon, and cayenne pepper and salt to your taste. Mix it well. When the bird is cut up, eat with it some of this sauce.

RAGOOED LIVERS.

Take the livers of half a dozen fowls or other poultry, a dozen mushrooms, a bunch of sweet herbs, a clove of garlic or a small onion, a table-spoonful of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Add a gla.s.s of white wine, and sufficient warm water to keep the ingredients moist. Season it with salt and pepper. Stew all together, and skim it well. Before you send it to table, stir in the yolks of two or three beaten eggs, and two spoonfuls of cream.

A FINE HASH.

Take any cold game or poultry that you have. You may mix several kinds together. Some sausages, of the best sort, will be an improvement. Chop all together, and mix with it bread crumbs, chopped onions and parsley, and the yolks of two or three hard-boiled eggs. Put it into a sauce-pan with a proportionate piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Moisten it with broth, gravy, or warm water, and let it stew gently for half an hour.

Cold veal or fresh pork may be hashed in the same manner.

MARINADE OF FOWLS.

Take a pair of fowls, skin and cut them up. Wash them in lukewarm water.

Drain them, and put them into a stew-pan with some b.u.t.ter. Season them to your taste with salt, pepper, and lemon-juice. Add parsley, onions, and a laurel leaf. Moisten them with warm water, and let them stew slowly on hot coals for two or three hours. Clear them from the seasoning and drain them. Then lay them in a dish, and grate bread crumbs over them. Whip some white of egg to a stiff froth, and cover with it all the pieces of fowl.

FRICa.s.sEE OF FOWLS.

Skin and cut up your fowls, and soak them two hours in cold water, to make them white. Drain them. Put into a stew-pan a large piece of b.u.t.ter, and a table-spoonful of flour. Stir them together till the b.u.t.ter has melted. Add salt, pepper, a grated nutmeg, and a bunch of sweet-herbs. Pour in half a pint of cream. Put in the fowls, and let them stew three quarters of an hour. Before you send them to table, stir in the yolks of three beaten eggs, and the juice of half a lemon.

The Frica.s.see will be greatly improved by some mushrooms stewed with the fowl.

To keep the frica.s.see white, cover it (while stewing) with a sheet of b.u.t.tered paper laid over the fowls. The lid of the stew-pan must be kept on tightly.

FOWLS WITH TARRAGON.

Pick two handfuls of tarragon (the leaves from the stalks) and chop half of it fine with the livers of the fowls. Mix it with b.u.t.ter, salt, and whole pepper. Stuff your fowls with it. Lard them and wrap them in papers b.u.t.tered or oiled.

Melt some b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, and stir into it the rest of the tarragon. Moisten it with a little water or milk. Stir in the yolks of two beaten eggs, and the juice of half a lemon. Serve it up as gravy.

Strew over the fowls some sprigs of fresh tarragon.