The Cook's Decameron Part 18

Ingredients: Sweetbread, b.u.t.ter, onions, salt, herbs, eggs, glaze, Risotto (No. 190), truffles, quenelles of fowl, Espagnole sauce, white sauce.

Blanch as many sweetbreads as you require, cut them into quarters and saute them in b.u.t.ter with a small onion cut up, salt, and a bunch of herbs. Then pour over them two cups of white sauce and cook gently for twenty minutes; take out the sweetbreads and put them in a stewpan.

Reduce the sauce, and add to it a mixture made of the yolks of four eggs, one and a half ounce of b.u.t.ter and a teaspoonful of glaze; pa.s.s it through a sieve, pour it over the sweetbreads, and keep them warm in a bain-marie. Have ready a good Risotto all'Italiana (No. 190), and put it into a border mould (but first decorate the inside of the mould with slices of truffle), put it in a moderate oven, and when it is warm turn it out on a dish. Place the sweetbreads on the risotto and fill in the centre with quenelles of fowl and Espagnole sauce (No. 1).

No. 115. Animelle Lardellate (Sweetbread)

Ingredients: Sweetbreads, larding, bacon, stock, a macedoine of vegetables.

Blanch two sweetbreads, lard them, and cook them very slowly in good stock. Skim the stock and reduce it to a glaze to cover the sweetbreads.

Then cut them into three or four pieces and arrange them round a dish, but see that the larding is well glazed over. In the centre of the dish place a piece of bread in the shape of a cup and fill this with a macedoine of vegetables.

No. 116. Frittura di Bottoni e di Animelle (Sweetbread and Mushrooms)

Ingredients: Sweetbread, fresh b.u.t.ton mushrooms, flour, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, parsley, b.u.t.ter, lemons.

Peel some b.u.t.ton mushrooms and cut them in halves. Boil a sweetbread, and cut it into pieces about the same size as the mushrooms, flour, egg, and bread crumb them, and fry in b.u.t.ter; then serve with a garnish of fried parsley. Hand cut lemons with this dish.

No. 117. Cervello in Fili serbe (Calf's Brains)

Ingredients: Calf's brains, stock, b.u.t.ter, parsley, lemon.

Boil half a calf's brain in good stock for ten minutes then drain and pour a little melted b.u.t.ter and the juice of half a lemon over the brain; add some chopped parsley fried for one minute in b.u.t.ter, and serve as hot as possible.

No. 118. Cervello alla Milanese (Calf's Brains)

Ingredients: Calf s brains, eggs, bread crumbs, b.u.t.ter.

Scald a calf's brain and let it get cold. Wipe it on a cloth, and get it as dry as possible, then cut it into pieces about the size of a walnut, egg and bread crumb them, fry in b.u.t.ter, and strew a little salt over them.

No. 119. Cervello alla Villeroy (Calf's Brains)

Ingredients: Calf's brains, eggs, flour, mushrooms, Velute sauce.

Scald a calf's brain, and when cold cut it up and mask each piece with a thick sauce made of well-reduced Velute (No. 2), mixed with chopped cooked mushrooms; flour them over and dip them into the yolk of an egg, and fry as quickly as possible.

No. 120. Frittura of Liver and Brains

Ingredients: Calf's liver and brains (or lamb's or pig's fry), b.u.t.ter, ham, flour, puff pastry.

Cut up half a pound of liver in small slices, flour and fry them in b.u.t.ter or dripping, together with a calf's or pig's or sheep's brain, previously scalded and also cut up. Serve with bits of fried ham and little diamond-shaped pieces of puff pastry.

No. 121. Cervello in Frittata Montano (Calf's Brains)

Ingredients: Calf's brains, stock, cream, eggs, spice, Parmesan, b.u.t.ter.

Boil a calf's brain in good stock for ten minutes, let it get cold, cut it up into little b.a.l.l.s, and mask each piece with a mixture made of half a gill of cream, the yolks of two eggs, a little spice, a tablespoonful of grated Parmesan, and the whites of two eggs well beaten up. Fry the b.a.l.l.s in b.u.t.ter, and serve as hot as possible. You may mask and cook the calf's brain without cutting it up, if you prefer it so.

No. 122. Marinata di Cervello alla Villeroy (Calf's Brains)

Ingredients: Calf's brains, stock, Bechamel sauce, eggs, b.u.t.ter, lemon, forcemeat of fowl, flour.

Boil a calf's or sheep's brain in good stock, wipe it well, and cut it up. Reduce a pint of Bechamel (No. 3), and add to it the yolks of three eggs, an ounce of b.u.t.ter, and the juice of a lemon. When it boils throw in the cut-up brain; let it cool, then take out the brain and form it into little b.a.l.l.s about the size of a small walnut. Make a forcemeat of fowl, and add a dessert-spoonful of flour to it, and spread it out very thin on a paste-board, and into this wrap the b.a.l.l.s of brain, each separately. Dip them into a pasta marinate (No. 17), and fry them a golden brown.

No. 123. Minuta alla Milanese (Lamb's Sweetbread)

Ingredients: Lamb's sweetbread, b.u.t.ter, onions, stock, Chablis, salt, lemon, herbs, c.o.c.ks' combs, fowls' livers.

Cut up equal quant.i.ties of lamb's sweetbreads, c.o.c.ks' combs, fowls'

livers in pieces about the size of a filbert, flour and fry them slightly in b.u.t.ter and a small bit of onion, add half a gla.s.s of Chablis, a cup of good stock, and a bunch of herbs. Reduce the sauce, and thicken it with a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter and flour fried together.

Make a border of Risotto all'Italiana (No. 190), and put the sweetbread, &c., together with the sauce in the centre.

No. 124. Animelle al Sapor di Targone (Lamb's Fry)

Ingredients: Lamb's fry, ham, garlic, larding bacon, spice, herbs, b.u.t.ter, flour, stock.

The lamb's fry should be nearly all sweetbread, and very little liver.

Lard each piece with bacon and ham, and roll it in chopped herbs and a pinch of pounded spice. Then dip it in flour and braize in good stock, to which add three ounces of b.u.t.ter, some bits of bacon, ham, a bay leaf, herbs, and a clove of garlic with two cuts. Cook until the fry is well glazed over, and serve with Tarragon sauce (No. 8). Do not leave the garlic in longer than ten minutes.