The Cookery Blue Book Part 3

=Crab Cutlets.=

Pick up the meat of 2 crabs, seasoning with salt, pepper, a pinch of mustard and a good tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Put in a saucepan a piece of b.u.t.ter twice the size of an egg; when melted stir in 2 tablespoons of flour, and add a cup of rich cream, stirring constantly.

Mix in the prepared crab and set aside to cool. Then mould into cutlets, which you roll in egg and bread crumbs. Stick the claws you have saved into the cutlets, and fry. Serve with or without parsley and slices of lime.

=Shrimp Stew.=

Slice 3 onions and 3 tomatoes, and fry till well done. Rub together 1 tablespoonful flour and a piece of b.u.t.ter, egg-size. Add red pepper, salt and 1 cup of cream. Put this in saucepan, with onions and 1 pint of shrimps. Cook ten minutes, and serve on toast.

=Terrapin Stew.=

Boil according to size thirty or forty minutes, so that the upper sh.e.l.l will separate from the lower easily. Take "gall-bag" from liver, which is always found on the right lobe. Avoid breaking, as it will give a bitter taste and spoil the dish. Strip the skin from the claws, cut off the nails and skin the head. Throw nothing away but the "gall-bag." Cut all into small pieces; stew slowly in sherry wine closely covered, with a goodly supply of b.u.t.ter and red pepper, for one hour and a half. Salt to taste. If they have no eggs in them, add 2 or 3 eggs, hard-boiled, for each terrapin and the juice of 1 lemon, skinning another to lay on top. When about to take from the fire, thicken with a little flour.

Serve on hot toast, well-b.u.t.tered, over which sprinkle a finely chopped egg.

=Baked Oysters in the Sh.e.l.ls.=

Take 50 small Eastern oysters with their liquor and a piece of b.u.t.ter.

Drain the oysters very carefully and strain the liquor. Thicken with an ounce of b.u.t.ter mixed with an ounce of flour. Stir, and boil five minutes. Finish with the yolks of 3 eggs. Add a little salt, some white and red pepper and grated nutmeg. Boil a few minutes longer, stirring constantly. Then remove from the fire. Add the oysters and juice of a lemon, and mix well with the sauce. Have ready some large, deep, well-shaped oyster-sh.e.l.ls slightly b.u.t.tered; fill these with the prepared oysters, sprinkle rolled cracker crumbs over; put a piece of b.u.t.ter on top of each; arrange in a pan; brown slightly in a pretty hot oven (about ten minutes), and serve.

=Curried Oysters.=

Strain juice of oysters and cook alone till edges curl. Cook 1 tablespoonful chopped onion and 1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter five minutes. Mix 1 tablespoonful curry powder, 2 tablespoonsfuls flour and stir into b.u.t.ter. Add 1 pint sweet milk gradually, stirring constantly in saucepan. Mix oysters with the sauce. Pour over small slices of hot b.u.t.tered toast and serve immediately.

=Fancy Roast of Oysters.=

Remove oysters from liquor and have them free from grit or sh.e.l.l. Scald 1 pint of oyster liquor, and when boiling hot put in the oysters and let them cook two or three minutes. Strain the liquor and put the oysters on pieces of toast. Arrange on a dish and set over steam to keep hot. Blend together 2 teaspoonfuls of flour and 1/2 cup of b.u.t.ter, moistening it with oyster liquor. When well mixed, put into the hot liquor and let boil a few minutes, stirring well. Strain over the oysters, and serve hot with lemons.

=Sweet-breads.=

Clean and parboil the sweet breads; cut them in slices and dip in melted b.u.t.ter. Roll them in grated cheese; dip in beaten egg; roll in bread crumbs and fry in hot fat. Serve with tomato sauce.

=Veal Loaf.=

3 pounds of veal cutlets and a small piece of salt pork, all chopped fine together; a tea-cup of rolled crackers moistened a very little with water; salt, pepper and 1 egg. Add summer savory, if you like. Put in a bread-pan and bake one and a-half hours. Serve in slices when cold.

=Meat Salad.=

Chop fine 2 pounds of cold corned beef, then take 2/3 of a cup of vinegar, 1 tablespoonful of sugar and 1 egg. Beat all together, pour into a pan and let boil; then pour into a dish to mould. Serve cold.

=Welsh Rare-bit--No. 1.=

1 pound of fresh cheese, cut in small pieces; in chafing-dish add 1 cup of milk (or cup of Ba.s.s' ale), 4 teaspoonfuls b.u.t.ter, 4 small teaspoons of mustard, 2 of salt and a little pepper. Stir it well, and cook until it thickens (not curdle). Serve on toast.

=Welsh Rare-bit--No. 2.=

1 egg, 1/2 a cup of milk; 1 cup of grated cheese, salt, cayenne pepper and mustard to taste. Heat the milk in a double boiler; melt the cheese.

Add the egg, and pour all over squares of toast.

=Cheese Sticks--No. 1.=

1 cup of grated cheese; 1 cup of flour; a little cayenne pepper; b.u.t.ter same as for pastry. Roll thin; cut in narrow strips, and bake a light brown in a quick oven. (Serve with salad.)

=Cheese Sticks--No. 2.=

3 ounces of b.u.t.ter; 3 ounces of flour; 3 ounces of moist, rich cheese.

Mix together and mould into a paste. Roll out and cut into strips about one-half inch wide and five long. Bake in a quick oven. A very nice relish.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

MEATS.

=Boiled Ham.=

Put a ham weighing 14 pounds in a large kettle and half cover with cold water and cook slowly. When the water boils, add a quart of sour white wine and cook about five hours, or until tender. Put the ham in a baking pan and trim off the under side nicely, and take off the skin. Cover an inch thick with currant jelly, put a cup of sherry in the pan and put into a pretty hot oven. Let the fire go down; baste very often at first, that the wine may penetrate the jelly, and bake a half hour or more.

=Calf's-head Stew.=

1 head, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoonful thyme, 6 quarts of water, 2 large carrots, 1 sweet marjoram, 3 onions, 1 handful salt, 1 teaspoonful pepper. Simmer 4 hours, skimming when necessary. Take out meat, strain broth and cut tongue in small pieces. 2 large teaspoonfuls of b.u.t.ter in pan, 3 of flour, and cook until brown. Juice of 1 lemon, 3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped, 1/2 lemon, sliced, wine and red pepper to taste. When very hot, serve.

=Chops and Tomato Sauce.=

Fry some pieces of pork in the spider, then cut up and fry a few onions.

Into this pour some peeled and cut-up tomatoes; stir till all cooked to pieces and then strain. Thicken with a little flour. Broil chops, place on a hot platter and pour the sauce over them. For 3 pounds chops, 1/4 pound pork, about 3 onions, and 6 or 8 tomatoes are required. A few cloves and a little chili pepper are considered by some an addition.

=Kidney Stew.=

2 beef kidneys cut in small pieces. Pour cold water over, and as it boils pour off and repeat. The third time let it simmer slowly for two hours. Add 2 onions, chopped fine, and cook one hour. A few minutes before serving add sherry wine. Thicken with flour and serve on hot toast. This may be varied by adding curry; both are excellent.