Hand-Book of Practical Cookery for Ladies and Professional Cooks Part 53

_To blanch._--Put about three pints of cold water and a little salt on the fire, and at the first boiling drop half a pound of macaroni into it; boil gently till tender but not soft. It takes about twenty minutes to boil it, according to quality. A little b.u.t.ter, about two ounces, may be added in boiling. As soon as tender, turn it into a colander, and it is ready for use.

_Au Gratin._--Blanch the macaroni, and when drained put it on a tin or silver dish, and mix with it a _Bechamel_ sauce; add salt, pepper, two or three ounces of b.u.t.ter, a little nutmeg grated, about four ounces of grated cheese, either pine-apple, _Gruyere_, or Parmesan; dust with bread-crumbs, put about eight pieces of b.u.t.ter the size of a hazel-nut here and there on the top, set in a warm but not quick oven till the top turns rather brown, and serve warm as it is, that is, in the dish in which it is. If in a tin dish, put it inside of another dish, and serve.

_A l'Italienne._--Blanch half a pound of macaroni and drain it. Put it in a saucepan with four ounces of b.u.t.ter, and mix well by stirring the b.u.t.ter in the warm macaroni. Then add also three or four tablespoonfuls of gravy; mix again half a pint of tomato-sauce and grated cheese, as for _au gratin_; set on the fire, stir, add salt to taste; keep on the fire for about ten minutes, stirring now and then, and serve warm.

_Napolitaine._--This is the most expensive way of preparing macaroni.

Wealthy Italians have it prepared with beef a la mode gravy only, or gravy made especially for it, with good lean beef cut in dice, and using as many as twelve pounds of meat to make gravy for one pound of macaroni, the meat being prepared as boiled beef afterward, but it can be prepared with ordinary gravy.

Blanch four ounces of macaroni and drain as directed, then put it in a saucepan with two ounces of b.u.t.ter, salt, pepper, a little grated nutmeg, and set on the fire; stir till the b.u.t.ter is melted, and then add grated cheese as directed for _au gratin_, and half a pint of gravy; stir and mix for about ten minutes, and serve. Macaroni requires much b.u.t.ter; the quant.i.ty of cheese is according to taste; some put weight for weight of macaroni, b.u.t.ter, and cheese. It is also prepared in a mould (_en timbale_) for _chartreuse_; it is macaroni _Napolitaine_, when every thing is mixed with it; instead of leaving it ten minutes on the fire, put it in the mould, set in the oven for about fifteen minutes, turn over a dish, and serve warm. In using much cheese, the macaroni will preserve the form of the mould when served.

_In Croquettes._--Proceed as for rice _croquettes_.

_Rice--to boil._--Wash half a pound of rice in water and drain it; put it in a saucepan with one quart of broth taken from the top of the broth-kettle, and before having skimmed off the fat; set on the fire, boil gently for about fifteen minutes, or till rather underdone, and put on a very slow fire to finish the cooking. Water and b.u.t.ter may be used instead of broth. If the broth is absorbed or boiled away before the rice is cooked, add a little more to keep it moist; add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste, and it is ready for use.

_Another way._--When boiled, place it in a slow oven to dry it, and then pour over it, little by little, stirring the while, four ounces of melted b.u.t.ter.

_Another._--Wash half a pound of rice in cold water and drain it. Put it in a saucepan with two quarts of cold water, salt, and the juice of two lemons; boil six minutes, and drain; put it in a saucepan then with about six ounces of melted b.u.t.ter; mix, cover the pan well, and put it in a slow oven for about half an hour; take off and use.

Rice may be boiled in several different ways, or rather with several ingredients. To the above ways, in India or other southern countries, they add, besides salt and nutmeg, a teaspoonful of curry-powder to a pound of rice. In Italy they add slices of ham, sausage, saffron, and even Parmesan cheese. When cooked, chopped truffles may be added at the same time with the b.u.t.ter. Oil is sometimes used instead of b.u.t.ter.

_In Border._--When thus prepared, take it with a spoon and place it all around the dish, leaving room in the middle to serve a bird, and then serve warm.

_Another way._--When prepared as above, put the rice in a mould for border; the rice must be rather dry and the mould well b.u.t.tered. Press on it so as to fill the mould well, then put it in an oven at about 350 deg. Fahr. for ten or twelve minutes. Take off, place a dish on the mould, turn it upside down, and remove the mould. The inside of a mould, for border, is plain, but the outside and bottom are scalloped; the bottom makes the top of the rice when served. There is an empty place in the centre to hold a bird.

_Cake._--b.u.t.ter a mould well and then dust it with sugar. Prepare rice as directed for _croquettes_, and instead of spreading it on a dish to cool, fill the mould about two-thirds full with it, and bake in a warm but not quick oven for about half an hour. Serve on a dish. The mould may be prepared with sugar only in this way: put pulverized sugar into the mould, set it on a rather slow fire, and when turning rather brown turn the mould round and round, so as to have it lined all over with sugar; bake as above, turn over a dish, remove the mould, and serve hot or cold, with or without a sauce for puddings.

_In Croquettes._--Wash four ounces of rice in cold water and set it on the fire with a pint of milk and the rind of half a lemon; when done or nearly so, the milk may be boiled away or absorbed by the rice; add a little more to keep the rice nearly covered with it. When done, take off and mix with it two tablespoonfuls of sugar, two ounces of b.u.t.ter, two tablespoonfuls of milk, three yolks of eggs, a little pinch of salt, and the same of nutmeg--the latter, if liked. Put back on the fire for one minute, stirring the while. Spread the mixture on a dish and let cool.

If the _croquettes_ are for _breakfast_, the above may be done the evening previous. When cold, stir the mixture, so as to mix the upper part with the rest that is less dry. Put it in parts on the paste-board, about a tablespoonful for each part. Have bread-crumbs on it, roll each part of the shape you wish, either round, like a small sausage, or flat, or of a chop-shape. Then dip each _croquette_ in beaten egg, roll in bread-crumbs again, and fry in hot fat. (_See_ Frying.)

To shape them, roll each part round at first, and with a few bread-crumbs; then with a knife you smooth both ends, while you roll them round with the left hand; the two must be done at the same time.

When fried and in the colander, dust with sugar, and serve as warm as possible. _Croquettes_ are generally served in pyramid. A napkin may be spread on the platter, and the _croquettes_ served on it.

_In Fritters._--When a rice-cake is cold, it may be cut in pieces, dipped in batter for fritters, fried (_see_ Frying), dusted with sugar, and served hot.

_Souffle._--Prepare rice as directed for _croquettes_, and when ready to be spread on a dish, add a few drops of essence to flavor; have five whites of eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and mix them gently with it; b.u.t.ter a mould well, fill it two-thirds full with the mixture, dust with sugar and set in a warm but not quick oven, and serve as soon as brown and raised. It takes from fifteen to twenty minutes. If the oven is warmer under the cake than on the top, it would be necessary to place something under the mould, the cake rises better and is lighter. This cake, like every _souffle_, must be served promptly and before it falls.

_With Fruit._--This dish is excellent, sightly, easily made, and can be varied infinitely. The rice is prepared as for _croquettes_, and is used when ready to be spread over a dish to cool. The fruit, if it be _apples_, _pears_, _plums_, etc., is stewed. One or several kinds may be used for the same dish. It is served warm or cold, according to taste.

Place a layer of stewed fruit on a dish and then a layer of rice over it; another layer of the same or of another stewed fruit, and over it a layer of rice. Place as many layers as you fancy, imitating a pyramid, and you have a fine dish.

_Rice-water._--This being often prescribed by doctors against diarrhroea, we will give the receipt for it. See that the rice is clean, but do not wash it. Put one pint of rice in a pan with a quart of cold water, and boil gently till the rice is quite soft or a little overdone; if the water boils away, fill up with cold water so as to have the rice always covered by it. When done, mash it through a colander, put back on the fire, add water to make it thin or thick, according to prescription; as soon as warm, sweeten to taste with sugar or honey, and take cold or warm, also according to prescription.

_Nouilles._--Put four tablespoonfuls of flour on the paste-board; make a hole in the middle, and break two eggs in it, add a pinch of salt, and knead well; then roll down to a thickness of one-twelfth of an inch; dust it slightly with flour; cut it in strips about an inch wide; then cut these strips across, so as to make fillets one inch long and one-eighth of an inch broad. Spread the strips on a sieve for half an hour, to dry them a little. Put cold water and a pinch of salt in a saucepan, and set it on the fire; at the first boiling throw the _nouilles_ in, boil two minutes, stirring occasionally; drain, throw them in cold water and it is ready for use. It may be kept in cold water half a day. _Nouilles_ are used to make soup, and are prepared in the same and every way like macaroni.

SWEET DISHES.

These are served both as _entremets_ and _dessert_. Many are _entremets_ at a grand dinner, and _dessert_ at a family dinner. As the name indicates, sugar is one of the most important of the compounds used to prepare them. It is used in syrup, the making of which is generally more difficult than the rest of the operation.

The _father of cooks_, the great Careme, divides syrup, or the "cooking of sugar," as he calls it, and as every pract.i.tioner has called it since, into six degrees; each one corresponding to the six different states into which the sugar pa.s.ses, while on the fire, from the time it begins to boil to that when it begins to turn _caramel_ or burned.

A copper pan is the best and handiest of all; it can be done in another, but it is more difficult; the sugar turns brown before being thoroughly cooked or reduced. Always use good loaf sugar. If it be necessary to clarify it, do it in the following way: for five pounds of sugar, put the white of an egg in a bowl with half a pint of water, and beat well with an egg-beater; then turn into it nearly three pints of water, stir, put away half a pint of it to be used afterward. Then add to the rest five pounds of sugar, in lumps, set on a rather slow fire, and as soon as it comes to a boil, mix with it the half pint put away, little by little, skimming off carefully the while, and when no more sc.u.m gathers on the surface, strain through a towel and commence the working. If the sugar does not require to be clarified, that is, when it is good white sugar, set five pounds of it on the fire, in a copper pan, with nearly two quarts of water, and skim off carefully as soon as the sc.u.m gathers.

It may be stirred a little to cause the sugar to melt evenly, but as soon as it commences to boil, stop stirring, else it will turn white and stringy. It pa.s.ses from one state or degree to another in a very short time, and must be watched closely. It is at the _first_ degree when, by dipping a piece of wood into it so as to retain a drop of it at the end, and which you touch with another piece of wood--if, by pulling them apart, slowly and immediately, instead of separating it at once, it forms a thread, but that soon breaks. It marks then 34 at the hydrometer. It is at the _second_ degree when, by repeating the same process, the kind of thread formed does not break as easily as the first. It marks then 36. It is at the _third_ degree when, by dipping a skimmer in it, holding it horizontally and striking it on the pan, then blowing on it, it forms small bubbles. It marks 39 at the hydrometer. It is at the _fourth_ degree by trying again with the skimmer after a short time, and when, instead of forming bubbles, it will fly away like threads. It marks then 41. The _fifth_ degree is when, by dipping a piece of wood in the sugar and quickly dipping it also in a bowl of cold water, shaking it at the same time and then biting it; if it breaks easily between the teeth, but at the same time is sticky, it has attained the fifth degree, and marks 44. A few boilings more and it is at the _sixth_ degree, and by trying in the same way as the preceding one, it will break under the teeth, but will not stick to them. Above 44 the mark is uncertain, the syrup being too thick; it pa.s.ses from that state to that of _caramel_; is colored, and would burn immediately. When that happens, make burnt sugar with it according to direction.

_Apples au Beurre._--Peel and core the apples with a fruit-corer. Cut slices of stale bread about one-quarter of an inch in thickness, and then cut them again of a round shape with a paste-cutter and of the size of the apples. Spread some b.u.t.ter on each slice and place an apple on each also. b.u.t.ter a bakepan, place the apples and bread in, fill the hole made in the middle of the apple to core it with sugar; place on the top of the sugar and on each a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of a hazel-nut, and set in a warm, but not quick oven. When about half done, fill the hole again with sugar and a pinch of cinnamon, place b.u.t.ter on top as before, and finish the cooking, serve warm. When done, they may be glazed with apple-jelly and put back in the oven for two minutes; the dish is more sightly.

_Flambantes._--Lay apples in a saucepan, after being peeled and cored, add sugar to taste, and water enough just to cover them, also a stick of cinnamon, and set on a rather slow fire, and leave till done. Take them from the pan carefully and without breaking them; place them on a tin or silver dish, forming a kind of pyramid or mound; turn the juice over them, dust with sugar, pour good rum all over, set it on fire, and serve immediately and warm. As soon as on fire it is placed on the table, and the host must baste with the rum so as to keep it burning till all the alcohol is exhausted, then serve.

The following cut represents either a dish of apples _flambantes_ before being in flames, or apples with rice.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_In Fritters._--Peel, core, and cut apples in slices, and then proceed as directed for fritters. Serve hot.

_With Wine._--Proceed as for apples _flambantes_ in every particular except that you slice the apples, and instead of pouring rum over, you pour Madeira wine, and do not set it on fire.

_Meringues._--Peel, quarter, and core half a dozen apples; set them on the fire in a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of water; stir occasionally till done, then mix with them two or three tablespoonfuls of sugar, and when cold put them on a tin or silver dish; arrange them as a mound on the middle of the dish. Beat three whites of eggs to a stiff froth, and mix three ounces of pulverized sugar with them; spread two thirds of that mixture all over and around the apples, smooth it with a knife; then put the other third in a paper funnel, and by squeezing it out, decorate the dish according to fancy. You may squeeze some small heaps of the mixture here and there, over and around the dish, or squeeze it out all around, giving it a rope-like shape. Dust with sugar, and put in an oven at 250 degrees for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Serve warm in the dish in which it has been baked.

_Charlotte._--Peel, quarter, and core six apples; put them in a pan with two tablespoonfuls of water, cinnamon, and stew till done, when add three or four ounces of sugar, mix gently so as not to mash the apples, let cool. b.u.t.ter a mould well, line it, bottom and sides, with strips of stale bread, about one quarter of an inch thick, one inch broad, and of a proper length for the mould. Fill till about half full with some of the apples, then put a rather thin layer of any kind of sweetmeat on the apples; finish the filling up with apples; cover with pieces of stale bread, bake in an oven at about 340 degrees for about twenty minutes, turn over on a dish, remove the mould, and serve hot.

_With Sweetmeats._--Prepare apples _au beurre_, and when ready to be served, fill the hole with any kind of sweetmeats or with currant-jelly.

Serve warm.

_In Pine-Apple._--Core the apples with a fruit-corer and then peel them with the scalloped knife (the peels are used to make syrup or jelly), place them tastefully on a dish, so that they will form a pyramid, filling the place where the core was with sugar and a little cinnamon; then pour a little apple-syrup on the whole, and bake. When done, pour a little more syrup over, and serve cold or warm.

_Apple-Syrup._--Peel, quarter, and core four or six apples, of the pippin variety; cook them well in about a pint of water, a wine-gla.s.s of brandy, and a pinch of grated cinnamon; when well cooked, put them in a coa.r.s.e towel, and press the juice out; put it in a stewpan and set it on a good fire; add a pound of loaf-sugar, take the foam off with a skimmer a little before it boils, and boil about five minutes; take from the fire, let cool, bottle it, corking well. It may be kept for months.

Syrup with pears, pine-apple, etc., is made in the same way.

_Blanc-Mange._--Set on the fire in a block-tin saucepan one quart of milk with the rind of a lemon and two tablespoonfuls of sugar; stir occasionally to melt the sugar. Then mix about six ounces of corn-starch with half a pint of milk in a bowl. As soon as the milk rises, take it from the fire; take off with a skimmer the rind of lemon, and the skin that has formed on the top of the milk; put the milk back on the fire; turn the corn-starch into it, stir continually and very fast till it is very thick. It will take hardly a minute to get thick.

Turn into a mould wetted with cold water and put away to cool. When perfectly cold, serve with the following sauce: Mix well in a tin saucepan two ounces of sugar and two yolks of eggs, then add half a pint of milk and mix again; set on the fire; stir continually, give one boil; take off; let cool, and serve.

_Blanc-Manger._--Throw in boiling water two ounces of sweet almonds and the same of bitter ones, or pour boiling water over them, and then skin them as soon as the skin comes off easily. Pound them well with four ounces of sugar, lay the whole in a pan with about a pint of water, set on the fire, and when on the point of boiling, take off and strain. Put in a tin saucepan about a pint of milk, the strained juice, an ounce of gelatin, a little rind of lemon, and a little nutmeg, both grated; set the whole on a moderate fire; simmer just enough to melt the gelatin and mix it with the rest, and then strain. Wet a mould with cold water, put the mixture in it, set it on ice, and serve when cool. It may be served with a sauce like the above.

_Charlotte Russe._--Wipe a mould well, see that it is dry, and then line the bottom and sides with lady's-fingers, or sponge cake cut in pieces about the size of a lady's-finger. Commence by lining the bottom, placing the pieces so as to form a star or rosette, or plain, according to fancy. Then place some of them upright all around, rather tight, and even with the top of the mould. Fill with cream, well whipped, sweetened, and flavored with essence; place the mould on ice, and when ready to serve, place a dish on it, turn upside down, remove the mould, and serve as it is, or decorated.

_To decorate._--Make a paper funnel, fill it with cream, or icing (sugar and white of egg worked), then spread some all over the top according to fancy; it is quickly done and is sightly. The mould may also be filled with some other cream; as _creme legere_, _creme cuite_, etc.

_Charlotte a la Chantilly._--It is a _Charlotte_ made exactly as the above one, but filled with _creme a la Chantilly_.

_A la Polonaise._--Make a sponge cake, cut it transversely, dip each piece in cream (any kind) and then place them back where they were so as to give the cake its original form as near as possible. When thus re-formed, cover it with cream, dust with sugar, and decorate with any kind of sweetmeats. Besides the sweetmeats that are placed here and there all around, some currant-jelly may also be used to decorate. Place on ice for some time, and serve.

_Italian._--Peel, quarter, and core about a quart of pears and set them on a rather slow fire, in a saucepan with half a pint of white wine, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon-rind. While they are cooking, line a mould as for _Charlotte Russe_, remove the lemon-rind, and fill the mould with the pears; place it on ice when cool, turn over on a dish, remove the mould, decorate with icing, or cover entirely with apple-jelly, and serve. It is also made with _genoise_ cake instead of sponge cake.

_Francaise._--This is prepared and served like a _Charlotte Russe_, with the exception that it is filled with _blanc manger_ or _fromage a la creme_ instead of cream.

_Of Fruit._--This is made of cherries or any kind of berries; cherries must be stoned carefully. Dip the fruit in wine-jelly as soon as the latter is cool, but not firm, and line a mould with it. By having the mould on ice it will be more easily done. Fill the mould with cream, as for _Charlotte Russe_, place on ice, and serve as soon as congealed.