Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed Part 3

CALVES' LIVER FRIED.

Cut the liver into thin slices, and put them into a frying-pan with a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, some minced onions and a gla.s.s of white wine, salt, pepper, and a little mace. Let it fry about ten minutes.

VEAL KIDNEYS.

Cut the kidneys into thin slices; having first soaked them in cold water, rub them with a little salt and pepper. Then sprinkle them with flour, and a little parsley and onions minced fine. Fry them in b.u.t.ter, adding a gla.s.s of champagne or other white wine.

Mutton kidneys may be done in the same manner.

Another way of dressing kidneys is to split them in half, season them with salt and pepper, lard them, and broil them.

GRILLADES.

Cut slices from either a fillet of veal, a round of fresh beef, a leg of mutton, or a leg of pork. Do not let them exceed the thickness of half an inch. Put them into a stew-pan with a sufficient proportion of oil, pepper, salt, and a little parsley and onion chopped fine. Stew them in a very little water till half done. Then prepare some sheets of white paper rubbed with oil or b.u.t.ter. Take out the slices of meat (covered with this seasoning) and grate some bread crumbs over them. Fasten up each slice in a piece of paper, and broil them on a gridiron over a slow fire. Serve them up in the paper.

LIVER CAKE.

Take a pound and a half of grated bread, and two pounds of liver (either calves' or pigs') a few onions, a little sage, some mushrooms, and a laurel leaf, all chopped fine. Mince the liver also, and mix it with the other ingredients, adding salt, pepper, and nutmeg. b.u.t.ter a mould or a very deep dish. Put the mixture into it, and let it bake an hour and a half in a moderate oven. When done, turn it out.

It is eaten cold, cut in slices.

SIRLOIN OF BEEF.

Rub your beef all over with salt, and lard the lean part of it with slips of fat bacon. Cover the meat with sheets of oiled or b.u.t.tered paper. Roast it in proportion to its size, between three and four hours.

Serve it up with its gravy, and have some onion sauce in a boat.

STEWED BEEF.

Take some slices of cold roast beef that has been under-done. Put them into a stew-pan with a little gravy or broth, or if you have neither, some warm water. Add a piece of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour, some capers, or some pickled cuc.u.mbers chopped small, a little lemon-juice or vinegar, and some salt and pepper. Let the beef simmer slowly, but do not allow it to boil. Have ready some slices of bread (of the same size as the slices of beef) and fry them in b.u.t.ter. Put some tomata sauce in the bottom of a dish. Lay on it in a pile a few slices of beef and slices of fried bread alternately. Pour the gravy over it, and send it to table.

Any other sort of meat may be done in the same manner.

BEEF STEAKS.

Cut slices of beef from the sirloin. Trim them neatly, and take off the bone and the skin. To make them tender beat them on both sides with a wooden beetle or with the end of a rolling-pin. Rub them with salt and pepper. Warm a sufficient quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter, and when it is soft spread it over the steaks. Then sprinkle them with onions minced very fine.

Cover them up in a dish, and let them lie an hour or more in the seasoning. Then broil them over a clear fire. Slice some cold boiled potatoes, fry them in b.u.t.ter, and lay them round the steaks.

BEEF a LA MODE.

Take a round of fresh beef, and beat it well to make it tender. Rub it all over with salt and pepper. Lard it on both sides with slips of bacon. Lay it in a deep pan with some slices of bacon, a calves-foot, a few onions, a carrot cut in pieces, a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, one or two laurel leaves, some cloves, and a beaten nutmeg. Pour in a half-pint of red wine, a half-pint of white wine, and a spoonful of brandy. Let it stew slowly for at least six hours. Then take it out; strain the gravy, pour it over the meat, and serve it up.

A fillet of veal may be done in the same manner.

ROASTED HAM.

Let your ham soak all night in cold water, and then trim it handsomely, having first taken out the bone by loosening the meat all round it, with the point of a knife. Tie a broad tape round the ham to keep it in shape. Then put it into a large pan with some sliced onions, some sprigs of parsley, two or three laurel leaves, and a bottle of white wine.

Cover it, and let it lie in the seasoning twenty-four hours. Then roast it, and baste it with the seasoning. A large ham will require four or five hours to roast. A little before it is done, take off the skin and sprinkle the ham with grated bread crumbs.

While the ham is roasting, stew together the bone and the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and sc.r.a.ps till they come to a jelly, which you must strain through a sieve.

When you take the ham from the spit (having removed the tape that has been fastened round it) glaze it all over with the jelly, laid on with a brush or a quill feather. Serve it up with the seasoning or marinade under it.

If the ham is to be eaten cold, you may cover it all over the glazing with cold boiled potatoes grated finely, so that it will look like a large cake covered with icing. Ornament it with slices of boiled carrot, beets, &c. scolloped and laid on the potatoes, in handsome forms, so as to look like red and yellow flowering. Stick a large bunch of double parsley in the centre.

A ham boiled in the usual manner may be ornamented in the same way; first extracting the bone, and making the meat into a circular shape.

Instead of a mere bunch of double parsley, you may stick in the centre of the ham a nosegay of flowers, formed of different culinary vegetables, and cut into proper shape with a sharp pen-knife. All these vegetables must be raw. The flowers intended to represent red roses must be made of beets, the white roses of turnips, and the marigolds or other deep yellow flowers must be cut out of carrots. The pieces of turnips and beets must first be made with the pen-knife into the form of a ball, on the surface of which the rose-leaves must be cut. The carrots may be cut into flat slices, and then notched to look like marigolds or chrysanthemums. Stick each flower on the end of a small wooden skewer, which will answer for the stalk, but which must be concealed by thick bunches of double parsley tied on so as to represent the green leaves.

Tie all the skewers together at the bottom with a pack-thread, and the whole will have the effect of a handsome nosegay when placed in the middle of the ham.

A round of cold a-la-mode beef may be ornamented with a bunch of these flowers. Let the beef itself be covered all over with parsley, so as to resemble a green bank.

FRIED HAM, WITH TOMATAS.

Fry some slices of cold boiled ham. Then fry some tomatas, allowing one tomata to each slice of meat. Lay the tomatas on the ham, shake some pepper over them, and send them to table.

ROASTED TONGUE.

Having soaked a large smoked tongue all night in cold water, parboil it in a very little warm water with a slice of bacon, a bunch of sweet herbs, and an onion or two stuck with cloves. When it is nearly done, take it out, drain it, and lard it with large slips of bacon on the upper side, and small pieces on the under side. Then put it on the spit and roast it half an hour, and serve it up with pungent sauce (Sauce Piquante.)

BAKED TONGUE.

Take a cold boiled tongue and cut it into slices. Put in the bottom of a deep dish a little vinegar, with some capers, parsley and shalots minced fine, and some grated bread, all mixed together. Lay the slices of tongue upon this, and cover them with some more of the same seasoning.

Then grate some bread all over the top. Moisten the whole by pouring in a little warm water. Put the dish into a stove moderately heated, or set it on a slow furnace. Bake it till brown.

POTTED TONGUE.

Boil two smoked tongues. Skin them and cut them into thin slices. Put the slices (a few at a time) into a mortar and beat them to a paste, adding gradually a pound of b.u.t.ter. Then prepare an equal quant.i.ty of the lean of stewed veal, and pound that also in the mortar (a little at a time) with the same proportion of b.u.t.ter. Then make the veal and the tongue into lumps, and put them alternately into your stone pots, pressing them together so as to look like red and white marble. Have a layer of veal at the top. Press the whole down very hard. Fill up the pots with b.u.t.ter, boiled and skimmed and poured on warm. Tie them up closely with parchment, and keep them in a cold but dry place.

When you use it, cut it in slices.

LEG OF MUTTON WITH OYSTERS.

Rub a leg of mutton all over with salt, and put it on the spit to roast with a clear fire, basting it with its own gravy. When it is nearly done, take it up and with a sharp knife make incisions all over it, and stuff an oyster into every hole. Then put it again before the fire, to finish roasting.

Before you serve it up, skim the gravy well, and give it a boil with a gla.s.s of red wine.