PAGE 2
THE BELGIAN COOK-BOOK
EDITED BY
MRS. BRIAN LUCK
1915
MOCHA CAKE
Take half a pound of fresh butter, four ounces of powdered sugar, and
work them well together. When they are well mixed, add the yolks of four
eggs, each one separately, and the whites of two. When the mixture is
thoroughly well done, add, drop by drop, some boiling coffee essence to
your taste. Butter a mold and line it with small sponge biscuits, and
fill it with alternate layers of the cream and of biscuits. Put it for
the night in the cellar before you serve it the following day. You can
replace the essence of coffee by some chocolate that has been melted over
hot water.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
VANILLA CREAM
Sweeten well half a pint of milk and flavor it with vanilla. Put it to
boil. Mix in a dish the yolks of four eggs with a little cornflour. When
the milk boils, pour it very slowly over the eggs, mixing it well. Return
it all to the pan and let it get thick without bringing it to the boil.
Add some chopped almonds, and turn the mixture into a mold to cool.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
RUM CREAM
Take sponge biscuits and arrange them on a dish, joining each to the
other with jam. (You can make a square or a circle or a sort of hollow
tower.) Pour your rum over them till they are well soaked. Then pour over
them, or into the middle of the biscuits, a vanilla cream like the
foregoing recipe, but let it be nearly cold before you use it. Decorate
the top with the whites of four eggs sweetened and beaten, or use fresh
cream in the same way.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
PINEAPPLE À L'ANVERS
Take some slices of pineapple, and cut off the brown spots at the edges.
Steep them for three hours in a plateful of weak kirsch, or maraschino,
that is slightly warmed. Cut some slices of plain cake of equal
thickness, and glaze them. This is done by sprinkling sugar over the
slices and placing them in a gentle oven. The sugar melts and leaves the
slices _glacés_. Arrange the slices in a circle, alternating
pineapple and cake, and pour over the latter an apricot marmalade thinned
with kirsch or other liqueur. This dish looks very nice, and if whipped
cream can be added it is excellent.
[_L. L. B. Anvers_.]
POUDING AUX POMMES
Take a pound of apples and peel them. Cook them, and rub them, when soft,
through a sieve to make them into a purée. Sweeten it well, and scent it
with a scrap of vanilla; then let it get cold. Beat up three eggs, both
whites and yolks, and mix them into your cold compôte, and put all in a
dish that will stand the heat of the oven. Then place on the top a bit of
butter the size of a filbert and powder all over with white sugar. Place
the dish in an oven with a gentle heat for half-an-hour, watching how it
cooks. This dish can be eaten hot or cold.
[_E. Defouck_.]
SOUFFLÉ AU CHOCOLAT
Melt two tablets of chocolate (Menier) in a dessert-spoonful of water
over heat, stirring till the chocolate is well wetted and very thick.
Then prepare some feculina flour in the following way: Take for five or
six persons nearly a pint of milk. Sweeten it well with sugar; take two
dessert-spoonfuls of feculina. Boil the sweetened milk, flavoring it with
a few drops of vanilla essence. When it is boiled, take it from the fire,
and let it get cold, mixing in the flour by adding it slowly so as not to
make lumps. Put it back on a brisk fire and stir till it thickens; add
then the melted chocolate, and when that is gently stirred in take off
your pan, and again let it get cold. At the moment of cooking the
soufflé, add three whites of eggs beaten stiff. Butter a deep fireproof
dish, and pour in the mixture, only filling up half of the dish. Cook in
the oven for fifteen minutes in a gentle heat, and serve immediately. A
tablet of Chocolat Menier is a recognized weight.
[_Gabrielle Janssens_.]
A NEW DISH OF APPLES
Take a pint of apple purée and add to it three well-beaten eggs, a taste
of cinnamon if liked, quarter of a pound of melted butter and the same
quantity of white powdered sugar. Mix all together and, taking a
fireproof dish, put a little water in the bottom of it and then some fine
breadcrumbs, sufficient to cover the bottom. Pour in your compôte, then,
above that, a layer of fine breadcrumbs, and here and there a lump of
fresh butter, which will prevent the breadcrumbs from burning. Cook for
half-an-hour.
GOLDEN RICE
Put a quart of milk to boil, and, when boiling, add half a pound of good
rice. When the rice is nearly cooked, add a pennyworth of saffron,
stirring it in evenly. This is excellent, eaten cold with stewed quinces
and cream.
[_V. Verachtert_.]
BANANA COMPÔTE
Divide the bananas in regular pieces; arrange them in slices on your
compôte dish, one slice leaning against the other in a circle. Sprinkle
them with sugar. Squeeze the juice of an orange and of half a lemon--this
would be sufficient for six bananas--and pour it over the bananas. Cover
the dish and leave it for two hours in a cold place. A mold of cornflour
or of ground rice may be eaten with this.
[_Mme. Gabrielle Janssens_.]
RIZ CONDE
For one and one-half pints of milk half a breakfast-cupful of rice. Let
it boil with sugar and vanilla; strain the whole. Add one-half pint of
cream, well beaten, five leaves of gelatine (melted). Mix the whole and
pour in a mold which has been wet. When turned out of the mold, put
apricots or other fruit on the top. Pour the juice over all.
[_Mlle. Breakers_.]
CHOCOLATE CREAM
10 leaves of gelatine, well melted and sifted.
1 pint cream, _well beaten_.
3-1/2 sticks of chocolate melted with a little milk.
Mix all the ingredients together and put them in a mold which has been
previously wet.
[_Mlle. Breakers_.]
KIDNEY SOUFFLÉ
Mince finely a veal kidney and add one-half pound of minced veal. Make a
brown sauce of flour and butter, and add the meat to it. Let it cool a
little, and add three well-beaten eggs, with a teaspoonful of rasped
Gruyère. Butter a mold, and sprinkle the inside with breadcrumbs, and
fill it with the mince. Leave it for three quarters of an hour in the
oven, or for an hour and a half in the double saucepan of boiling water.
Turn it out of the mold and serve with either a tomato or a mushroom
sauce.
[_L. L. B. (d'Anvers)_.]
BAKED SOUFFLE
Three eggs, two table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar and a thimbleful of
cornflour or feculina flour. The original recipe gives also one packet of
vanilla sugar, but as this may be difficult to get in England it will be
easier to add a few drops of vanilla essence when mixing. Mix the yolks
of eggs with the sugar for ten minutes, then add the whites, stiffly
beaten, stirring in very lightly, so as to let as much air as possible
remain in the mixture; sprinkle in the flour. Take a fireproof dish, and
butter it, and pour in the mixture, which place in a gentle oven for a
quarter of an hour. It is better to practice this recipe at lest once
before you prepare it at a dinner, on account of the baking.
[_L. Verhaeghe._]
PEASANTS' EGGS
For six people put on the fire two handfuls of sorrel, reduce it to a
puree, and add two dessertspoonfuls of cream, a lump of butter the size
of a pigeon's egg, pepper, salt. Take six hard-boiled eggs and, crumbling
out the yolks, add them to the sorrel puree. Place the whites (which you
should have cut longways) on a hot dish, and pour over them the puree of
sorrel; sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs, and put bits of butter on it
also. Place in the oven for ten minutes, and serve garnished with
tomatoes.
[_Mlle. A. Demeulemeester._]
TWO RECIPES FOR TOMATOES AND EGGS
Take some good tomatoes, but not too ripe. Cut them down from top to
bottom, take out the pulp, and in each half tomato put half a hard-boiled
egg. Arrange them on a dish, and pour round them a good mayonnaise, to
which you have added some chopped parsley.
Take some tomatoes not too ripe, and cut them in half horizontally. Take
out the pulp, so that you have two half-cases from each tomato. Break an
egg into each tomato and sprinkle it well with cheese. Place them all in
the oven, till the eggs are set, and decorate with sprigs of parsley.
[Mlle. A. Demeulemeester.]
TOMATOES AND EGGS
Hard-boil some eggs and, while they are cooking, fry a large square slice
of bread in butter to make a large crouton. Peel the eggs when they have
been in boiling water for ten minutes. Pile them on the crouton, and have
ready a tomato sauce to pour over.
Tomato Sauce: Gently stew two pounds of tomatoes and pass them through a
sieve, return them to the pan and stir in a mustard-spoonful of mustard,
a teaspoonful of vinegar, salt and pepper; heat well; and, if too thin,
thicken it with flour to the right consistency.
[_Mme. van Praet._]
MUSHROOM OMELETTE
Toss the sliced mushrooms in butter, adding, if you wish, a little
mushroom ketchup. Break the eggs in a pan and beat them lightly together,
and cook for three minutes over a good fire. Slip the omelette on a hot
dish, spread with butter.
ASPARAGUS OMELETTE
This is made quite differently. Cook the asparagus-tops in salt and water
and drain them. Roll them in a little bechamel sauce. Break your eggs
into the pan into which you have put a little butter; stir them with a
fork in your left hand, adding salt and pepper with your right. This will
only take a minute. Add the asparagus-tops in the thick sauce; this will
take another minute. Roll or fold up the omelette and slip it on a hot
buttered dish.
[_Mme. van Praet._]
STUFFED EGGS
Hard-boil your eggs, allowing half an egg for each person. Take out the
yolk. While they are boiling and afterwards cooling in water, make a
small quantity of mayonnaise sauce. Peel the eggs, cut them through
lengthways, and take out the yolks. Crumble these with a little chopped
herbs, and add the mayonnaise. Fill the eggs with this mixture, and place
them in a dish with chopped lettuce round it, to which you may add a
little more of the sauce.
[_Mme. van Marcke de Lunessen_.]
POACHED EGGS, TOMATO SAUCE
Make some rounds of toast and butter them; place on each a slice of
tongue or of ham. Keep these hot, and poach as many eggs as you require.
Slip each egg on the toasts, and cover them quickly with a highly
seasoned tomato sauce.
[_Mme. van Marcke de Lunessen_.]
EGGS AND MUSHROOMS
Pick over half a pound of mushrooms, cut them in small pieces like dice,
and put them to stew in the oven with plenty of butter, pepper, and salt.
Make a thick white sauce, and you may add to it the juice from the
mushrooms when they are cooked; then stir in the mushrooms. Take three
hard-boiled eggs, and separate yolks from whites. Put into a shallow
vegetable-dish the whites cut up in small pieces, pour over them the
bechamel with the mushrooms, and finish up by sprinkling over the top the
hard-boiled yolks, which you have crumbled up with a fork.
[_Mme. Braconnière_.]
BELGIAN EGGS
Make some scrambled eggs, and place them on a very hot dish, and pour
round them a thick tomato sauce. Decorate the dish quickly with thick
rounds of tomato.
EGGS À LA RIBEAUCOURT
Butter some little paper cases, and let them dry in the oven. Put into
each one a pat of butter and let it melt lightly. Break an egg into each
case, taking care not to break the yolk, and put a bit of butter on each
yolk. Place in a quick oven till the whites are half set. At the moment
of serving take them out, and have ready some minced tongue or ham, to
sprinkle on them, and decorate with a big bit of truffle.
TO USE UP REMAINS OF MEAT
Cut in slices the remains of any cold meat, such as pork, beef, veal,
ham, or mutton. Melt in a pan a bit of salt butter the size of a walnut,
and put in it an onion cut into fine slices; let it get brown in the hot
butter. In another pan put a larger piece of butter rolled in a soup-
spoonful of flour; add to it the onion and butter, and add enough water
to prevent the sauce from getting very thick. Add, if you wish it, a
teaspoonful of meat-extract and a pinch of salt. Have ready some mashed
potatoes, but let them be very light. Place the slices of meat in a
fireproof dish, pour the sauce on them, then the mashed potatoes, and put
the dish in the oven, all well heated through. This is called in Belgium
"_un philosophe_."
[_Paquerette_.]
VEAL WITH ONIONS
Take a lump of butter the size of an egg, and let it color in a saucepan.
Slice some onions and fry them in another pan. When fried, add them to
the butter with some sliced carrots, a few small onions, and your pieces
of veal, salt, and pepper. Add a small quantity of water, and close the
lid on the saucepan. When the meat is tender, you can thicken the sauce
with a little flour. This is a good way to use veal that is hard, or
parts that are not the best cuts.
[_Paquerette_.]
VEAL CAKE
Mince very finely three pounds of raw veal and one-fourth pound of pork.
It is better to do this at home than to have it done at the butcher's.
Put two slices of bread to soak in milk, add two yolks of eggs and the
whites, pepper and salt. Mix it well, working it for ten minutes. Then
let it rest for half-an-hour. Put it in a small stewpan, add a lump of
butter the size of a pigeon's egg, and put it in the oven. It will be
ready to serve when the juice has ceased to run out.
[_Paquerette_]
TO USE UP COLD MEAT
Take a fresh celery, wash it well, and remove the green leaves. Let it
boil till half-cooked in salted water. Drain it on a sieve, and then cut
it lengthways, and place minced meat of any kind, well seasoned, between
the two pieces. Tie them together with a thread and let them cook again
for a quarter of an hour, this time either in the same water and gently
simmered, or in the oven in a well-buttered dish. Other people, to avoid
the trouble of tying the two halves, spread the mince on each half and
cook it in the oven, laid flat in a fireproof dish. In this case put a
good lump of butter on each portion of mince.
[_L. Verhaeghe._]
FLEMISH CARBONADE
Put two onions to color in butter or in hot fat. Then add to them the
beef, which you have cut into pieces the size of a small cake. Let it
cook for a few minutes, then add pepper, salt, a carrot sliced, and
enough water to allow the meat to cook gently by the side of the fire,
allowing one and one-half hours for one and one-half pounds of meat. Ten
minutes before serving add to the sauce a little meat-juice or Liebig.
You may at the same time, if it is wished, cook potatoes with the meat
for about twenty minutes. Serve it all in a large dish, the meat in the
center and the potatoes round. The sauce is served separately, and
without being passed through the sieve.
[_L. Verhaeghe._]
A USE FOR COLD MUTTON
Cut the mutton into neat pieces, take away all fat and skin. Fry in
butter and add all sorts of vegetables in dice, with thyme, bay-leaves,
and parsley. Let all this stew very gently for two hours; you must add
more stock or water to prevent it getting dry. Keep the lid of the pan on
and, half-an-hour before serving, put in peeled potatoes. This dish is
served very liquid.
[_Mme. Spinette_.]
FLEMISH CARBONADES
Take four pounds of beef--there is a cut near the neck that is suitable
for this recipe. Cut the meat in small pieces (square) and fry them in a
pan. In another pan put a piece of refined fat and fry in it five big
onions that you have finely chopped. When these are well browned, add to
them the meat, sprinkling in also pepper, salt, mixed herbs. Cover all
with water, and let it cook for an hour with the lid on. After an hour's
cooking, add half a glass of beer, a slice of crumb of bread with a light
layer of mustard and three tablespoonfuls of best vinegar. Let it cook
again for three quarters of an hour. If the sauce is not thick enough,
add a little flour, taking care that it boils up again afterwards.
FISH
When there remains any cold fish, take away all skin and bones, mixing
the flesh with salt, butter, pepper, and one or two raw eggs as you wish.
Take some small fireproof cases and place in each some lemon-juice with a
little melted butter and grated breadcrumbs. Bake the cases till the top
of the fish is of a golden color.
REMAINS OF FISH
Make a good white sauce, add pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg and juice
of a lemon. Add then your remains of fish and a few pickled shrimps. Fill
some shells with it and sprinkle over the top a good powdering of grated
Gruyère cheese. Lay a pat of butter in the middle of each shell and put
them in the oven. When they are colored a good golden brown, serve them
decorated with parsley.
[_Mme. Lekent_.]
GOOD RISSOLES
Mince any cold meat, adding to a pound of it one-half pound of fresh lean
pork, a chopped shallot and parsley, salt, pepper, a little nutmeg, and
bind with an egg, both yolk and white. Form into balls, and dip them in
flour, then color them in some butter, and when they are nicely browned
pour into the butter a little stock or meat-juice and water. Let them
gently cook in it for ten minutes, and serve.
[_Mme. Lekent_.]
CROQUETTES OF BOILED MEAT
I think that boiled meat when cold is often neglected as being tasteless,
but, prepared as I will show you, it will deserve your approval.
Mince your boiled meat and put it into a thick white sauce well-spiced
with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and let it remain for two hours. Then
prepare your croquettes by rolling the mixture in white of egg and fine
breadcrumbs. Put a piece of butter in the saucepan, sufficient to take
all the croquettes, and let them brown in it for about ten minutes. A
white sauce served with them is a good addition.
[_Mlle. A. Demeulemeester_.]
CARBONADES DONE WITH BEER
Cut the meat into slices that are thin rather than thick. Mince two big
onions and fry them till brown; then fry the slices till they are colored
on both sides. Pour on them first some beer, then a dash of vinegar,
adding thyme, pepper, and salt, and throw in also a slice of crust of
bread, which you have spread with mustard. Let this all simmer for three
hours.
[_Mme. Segur_.]
WALLOON ENTRÉE
Make some toasted bread, either cut in rounds or in squares, and butter
them. Cut some slices of salt beef, or, better still, ham, and put them
on top; spread the meat with a good layer of grated cheese, and over that
place another piece of buttered toast of corresponding shape. Melt some
butter in a small saucepan and fry the rounds till they are golden-brown.
[_Mme. E. Maes_.]
SCRAPS OF MEAT
Your scraps of meat must be cut small or roughly minced; add to them a
little sausage-meat, about a quarter as much, and a slice of white crumb
bread that you have dipped in water or milk, and well drained. If eggs
are not too dear, add two eggs, mixing them with the meat. Place the dish
in the oven for half-an-hour--but it must be a slow oven--and take care
that the meat does not become dry.
[_V. Verachtert_.]
FRICADELLE
For one pound of minced pork take one and one-half pounds of minced veal;
cut three slices of white bread the thickness of nearly an inch, and
crumble them up; two raw eggs, pepper and salt. Mix it all well, and
place it in the oven for half-an-hour. If you eat this hot, serve it with
a gravy sauce. If you wish for a supper-dish, put salad round the meat.
CHICORY AND HAM WITH CHEESE SAUCE
Cook the chicories gently in butter till they are done. Then take each
one, and roll it in a slice of ham, and put them in a fireproof dish.
Then make a very good white sauce of flour and butter and milk, adding
cheese to flavor it strongly, and the yolk of an egg. Pour this sauce
over the chicory, and place the dish in the oven. Let it turn brownish,
and then serve it directly.
[_Mme. Vandervalle_.]
CROQUETTES OF VEAL
Make first of all a very thick white sauce of flour, milk, and butter,
not forgetting also salt and pepper; when it is very thick add grated
Gruyère cheese, in the proportion of a heaped teaspoonful of this to a
breakfast-cupful of sauce. Take it off the fire, and stir in first of all
the juice of a lemon, and then the yolk of an egg. Let it get cold. Then
mince up finely your veal, or, indeed, any lean meat. Mix it well with
the sauce, and make croquettes of it. Then roll each in the white of egg
that you have left, and then in grated breadcrumbs, and fry in deep fat.
[_Mme. Vandervalle_.]
ENTRÉE (CROQUE-MONSIEUR)
Cut out some rounds of crumb of bread, of equal size, with a tin cutter;
or, failing that, with a wine-glass. Butter all the rounds and sprinkle
them with grated cheese--for preference with Gruyère. On half the number
of rounds place a bit of ham cut to the same size. Put a lump of butter
the weight of egg into a pan, and fry with the rounds in it, till they
become golden. When they are a nice color, place one round dressed with
cheese on a round dressed with ham, so as to have the golden bread both
above and below. Serve them very hot, and garnished with fried parsley.
[_E. Defouck_.]
HOT-POT
Before putting in your meat, cook in the water a celery, four leeks, two
onions, two turnips, two carrots; then add the meat, with pepper and
salt, and stew gently for three hours. If you can put in a marrow-bone as
well, that will give the soup a delicious flavor.
[_V. Verachtert_.]
HOCHE POT
One pound of fresh pork, one pound rump (flank) of beef, one pound rump
of veal, two onions, one celery, four leeks, two or three carrots, two or
three turnips, according to the size, a few Brussels sprouts, five or six
potatoes, according to the number of persons. Let the water boil before
putting in the meat, and cut all the vegetables in cubes of the same
size, like cubes of sugar. Let simmer only, for three hours; it is
delicious and makes a dinner.
[_V. Verachtert_.]
BOUCHÉES À LA REINE
Get some little cases from the pastry-cook of puff paste, which are to be
filled with sweetbread cut in dice. It is a good plan to heat the cases
before filling them.
The filling mixture. Cook the sweetbreads in water with pepper and salt,
till done, skin them and cut in dice. Prepare a good bechamel sauce,
seasoned with the juice of a lemon, and add to it a few mushrooms that
have been fried in butter. Heat the dice of sweetbread in this sauce and
fill the cases with it. Put them back in the oven to get quite hot.
HOCHE POT OF GHENT
Clean two big carrots and cut them into small pieces, the same for two
turnips, four leeks, two celeries, and a good green cabbage, only using
the pale leaves. Wash all these vegetables well in running water, two or
three times, and put them on the fire in three and one-half pints of
water. Add salt, and let it cook for an hour. At the end of this time,
add a good piece of pork weighing perhaps three pounds--for choice let it
be cutlets. You can also add a pig's trotter. Let it cook for another
hour, taking care that the meat remains below the water. At the end of
that time, and half-an-hour before you wish to eat it, add potatoes
enough to be three for each person. Watch the cooking so as to see that
the potatoes do not stick, and finish the seasoning with pepper and salt.
[_Georges Kerckaert_.]
CARBONADE OF FLANDERS
Cut your beef into small neat pieces. Mince some onions finely, and for
five or six people you would add two bay-leaves, two cloves, pepper,
salt; simmer gently for three hours in water, and at the end of that time
bind the sauce with cornflour. Some people like the sauce to be thickened
instead with mustard.
[_V. Verachtert._]
HEADLESS SPARROWS
Take two pounds of beef, which must be lean and cut in thin slices. Cut
your slices of beef in pieces of five inches by three. Put in the middle
of each piece a little square of very fat bacon, a sprig of parsley,
pepper and salt. Roll up the slices and tie them round with a thread so
that the seasoning remains inside. Melt in a pan a lump of butter the
size of a very big egg. Let it get brown and then, after rolling the beef
in flour, put them in the butter. Let them cook thus for five minutes,
add half a pint of water, and let them simmer for two hours. Fill up with
water if it becomes too dry. Before serving, take great care to remove
the threads.
[_A Belgian at Droitwich._]
MUTTON STEW
Take two pounds of mutton, the breast or one of the inferior parts will
do as well as a prime piece. Put in an earthenware pan a lump of butter
as big as an egg, and let it color. Cut the mutton in pieces and let them
color in the butter, adding salt and pepper, a few onions or shallots.
When all is colored, add at least a pound of turnips, cut in slices, with
about a pint of water. Let it boil up till the turnips are tender. Then
add two and one-half or three pounds of potatoes; salt and pepper these,
but in moderation, if the meat has been already salted and peppered. Add
some thyme and bay-leaves, and let them all cook very gently till the
potatoes are tender. When these are cooked, take out the pieces of meat,
mix the turnips and potatoes, so as to make a uniform mixture; then place
the meat on the top of the mixture, and serve it. _N.B._ It is
necessary to watch the cooking of this dish very carefully, so that you
can add a little water whenever it becomes necessary, for if one leaves
the preparation a little too dry it quickly burns.
[_A Belgian at Droitwich._]
HOCHE POT GANTOIS
(For eight or nine persons)
Take one pound beef, one pound salt pork, and one pound mutton; cut into
pieces about three inches by two, let it boil, and skim. Take two or
three carrots, one large turnip, one large head of celery, three or four
leeks, a good green cabbage, cut in four, the other vegetables cut into
pieces of moderate size, not too small; put them in with the meat, and
see that they are first covered by the water. Let it boil for three to
four hours, and three quarters of an hour before dishing, add some
potatoes cut in pieces.
To dish: Place the meat in the center of a flat dish, and the vegetables
around; serve the liquid in a soup-tureen. This dish should be eaten out
of soup plates, as it is soup and meat course at one time.
CHINESE CORKS
Make a thick white sauce, and when it has grown a little cold, add the
yolk of one egg, and a few drops of lemon-juice. Sprinkle in a slice of
stale bread, and enough grated cheese to flavor it strongly, and leave it
to cool for two hours. Then shape into small pieces like corks, dip them
into the beaten whites of your egg, and then into grated breadcrumbs.
Have ready some hot fat, or lard, and fry the cheese-balls in it till
they are golden.
[_Mme. Limpens._]
LIMPENS CHEESE
Take a roll and, cutting it in slices, remove the crusts so that a round
of crumbs remain. Butter each slice, and cover it well with grated
cheese, building up the slices one on the top of the other. Boil a cupful
of milk, with pepper, salt, and a little nutmeg; when boiled, pour it
over the bread till it is well soaked. Put them in the oven, for quarter
of an hour, according to the heat of the oven and the quantity you have.
You must pour its juice over it every now and then, and when the top is
turning into a crust, serve it.
[_Mme. Limpens._]
CHEESE SOUFFLÉ
Take two good soup-spoonfuls of flour, and mix it with half a teacupful
of milk; melt a lump of butter, the size of a filbert, and add that, then
enough grated cheese to your taste, and the yolks of four eggs. Add at
the last the whites of the four eggs, beaten stiffly; pepper and salt.
Butter a mold, put in your mixture, and let it cook for one hour in a
saucepan, surrounded with boiling water, and the lid on. Then turn out
the soufflé, and serve with a mushroom sauce. The sauce is a good white
sauce, to which you add already cooked mushrooms. Clean them first of
all, chop them, and cook them till tender in butter; and their own juice;
then throw them into the sauce, and pour it over your soufflé.
[_Mme. Vandervalle._]
CHEESE CROQUETTES
Make a thick bechamel sauce, and be sure that you cook it for ten
minutes, constantly stirring. Add, till well flavored, some Gruyère and
Parmesan cheese, mixed and grated. Let it all get cold. Then roll this
mixture into the shape of carrots; roll them in finely-grated
breadcrumbs, and fry them in hot lard or refined fat. Lay them on a hot
dish, and, at the thicker end of each carrot stick in a sprig of parsley
to look like the stalk.
[_Mme. van Marcke de Lunessen._]
CHEESE FONDANTS
For twelve fondants make a white sauce with two soupspoons of flour and
milk. Add to it the yolks of three eggs. Stir in four ounces of mixed
Gruyère cheese, and Parmesan, grated very finely. Add at the end the
juice of half a lemon, and a dust of cayenne. Let it all grow cold. Then
make little balls with this paste and roll them in breadcrumbs. Throw
them in a pan of boiling fat, where they must remain till they are a good
golden color. Drain them, keeping them hot, and serve quickly.
[_Madame Emelie Jones_]
CHEESE SOUFFLÉ
Grate half a pound of Gruyère cheese. Mix in a cup of milk a dessert-
spoonful of flour; beat four whole eggs, and add first the cheese, and
then the flour and milk mixture. Season with pepper and salt, and put all
into a mold. Let it cook in a saucepan of boiling water for an hour and a
half. Then at the end of this time put it in the oven for half an hour.
[_Madame Emelie Jones_.]
POTATOES AND CHEESE
Wash some raw potatoes, peel them, cut them into very thin round slices.
Take a dish which will stand the oven, and be nice enough to go on the
table, and put in it a layer of the slices sprinkled with pepper, salt, a
little flour, and plenty of grated Gruyère. Continue in this way,
finishing with a layer of cheese, and a little flour. Put the dish in the
oven, which must not be a very hot one, and cook gently.
For a medium pie dish you will find that half an hour will be sufficient
to cook the potatoes.
[_Madame Emelie Jones_.]
YORK HAM, SWEETBREADS, MADEIRA SAUCE
Heat the ham in a double saucepan (bain marie). Boil the sweetbreads,
blanch them and let them fry in some butter.
Take flour and butter and melt them to a thick sauce, adding a tumbler of
water and Liebig which will turn your sauce brown. Fry half a pound of
mushrooms in butter and when brown, add them and the liquor to your sauce
with a good glass of madeira or sherry. Place your ham in the middle of
the dish, surround it with the sweetbreads, and pour over all the Madeira
sauce.
[_Mme. Vandervalle_.]
HAM WITH MADEIRA SAUCE
Cook some macaroni or spaghetti, with salt and pepper. Make a brown
sauce, using plenty of butter, for this dish requires a great deal of
sauce, and add to your "roux" some tomatoes in purée (stewed and run
through a sieve), a little meat extract, some fried mushrooms, a few
drops of good brandy or madeira to your taste. Let your slices of ham
heat in this sauce, and when ready, place them in the middle of a flat
dish, put the mushrooms or spaghetti round, and put the sauce, very hot,
over the ham.
[_Madame Spinette._]
A DIFFICULT DISH OF EGGS
And yet this is only fried eggs after all! Put some oil on to heat; if
you have not oil use butter, but oil is the best. When the bluish steam
rises it is hot enough. Break an egg into a little flat dish, tip up the
frying pan at the handle side, and slip the egg into it, then with a
wooden spoon turn the egg over on itself; that is, roll the white of it
over the yolk as it slips into the pan. If you cannot manage this, let
the egg heat for a second, and then roll the white over the yolk with a
wooden spoon. Do each egg in this way, and as soon as one is done let it
drain and keep warm by the fire. When all are done put them in a circle,
in a dish, and pour round them a very hot sauce, either made with
tomatoes, or flavored with vinegar and mustard.
COUNTRY EGGS
Make a white sauce thickly mixed with onions, such as you would eat in
England with a leg of mutton, but do not forget a little seasoning of
mace. Make a high mold of mashed potatoes, and then scoop it out from the
top, leaving the bottom and high sides of the vegetable. While your sauce
is kept by the fire (the potatoes also), boil six eggs for two minutes,
shell them, and you will find the whites just set and no more. Pour the
onion sauce into the potato, and drop in the whole eggs and serve very
hot.
FRENCH EGGS
Put a lump of butter the size of an egg in a fireproof dish, mixing in
when it is melted some breadcrumbs, a chopped leek, the inside of three
tomatoes, pepper and salt. Let it cook for three or four minutes in the
oven, then stir in the yolks of two eggs, and let it make a custard.
Then break on the top of this custard as many eggs as you wish; sprinkle
with pepper and salt. Let it remain in the oven till these last are
beginning to set. Take out the dish, and pass over the top the
salamander, or the shovel, red hot, and serve at once. I have seen this
dish with the two extra whites of eggs beaten and placed in a pile on the
top, and slightly browned by the shovel.
OEUFS CELESTES
(Hommage à Sir Edward Grey)
Gently boil a quantity of the very best green peas in good gravy; as the
gravy becomes reduced, add, instead, butter. Do not forget to have put a
lump of sugar in every pint of gravy. When the peas are done break on
them the required number of fresh eggs, with pepper and salt. Place all
in a double saucepan, till the eggs are just done. It is a pity that in
England there are no cooking pots made, which will hold fire on the top,
so that a dish, such as this, becomes easily done in a few minutes.
PETITES CAISSES À LA FURNES
Take a small Ostend rabbit, steep it in water as usual, and boil it
gently in some white stock, with a good many peppercorns. When it is cold
chop the meat up into small dice; add to it about a quarter of the amount
of ham, and the whites of two hard-boiled eggs, all cut to the same size.
Moisten the salpicon with a good white sauce made with cream, a little
lemon juice, pepper and salt.
The little paper cases must have a ring of cress arranged, about a
quarter of an inch thick; the salpicon, put in carefully with a small
spoon, will hold it in place.
Fill the cases to the level of the cress leaves, and decorate with a
Belgian flag made as follows:
Make some aspic jelly with gelatine, tarragon vinegar, and a little
sherry. Color one portion with paprika or coralline, pepper; a second
part with the sieved yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, and the remainder
with rinsed pickled walnuts, also passed through a wire sieve. Pour the
red jelly into a small mold with straight sides; when it is almost set
pour in the yellow aspic, and when that is cold pour in the black. When
the jelly is quite cold, turn it out, slice it, and cut it into pieces of
suitable size. If you make too much aspic it can decorate any cold dish
or salad. The walnut squash looks black at night.
[_Margaret Strail, or Mrs. A. Stuart._]
FLEMISH CARROTS
Take some young carrots, wash and brush them as tenderly as you would an
infant, then simmer them till tender in with pepper and salt. When
cooked, draw them to the side of the fire and pour in some cream to make
a good sauce. If you cannot use cream, take milk instead and stir with it
the yolk of an egg. To thicken for use, add a pinch of sugar and some
chopped parsley.
AUBERGINE OR EGG PLANT
This purple fruit is, like the tomato, always cooked as a vegetable. It
is like the brinjal of the East. It is hardly necessary to give special
recipes for the dressing of aubergines, for you can see their
possibilities at a glance. They can be stuffed with white mince in a
white sauce, when you would cut the fruit in half, remove some of the
interior, fill up with mince and sauce, replace the top, and bake for
twenty minutes, or simply cut in halves and stewed in stock, with pepper
and salt they are good, or you can simmer them gently in water and when
ready to serve, pour over them a white sauce as for vegetable marrow. If
they are cheap in England the following entrée would be inexpensive and
would look nice.
EGG PLANTS AS SOUFFLÉ
Wash the fruit, cut them lengthways, remove the inside. Fill each half
with a mixture made of beaten egg, grated cheese, and some fine
breadcrumbs, and a dash of mustard. Put the halves to bake for a quarter
of an hour, or till the soufflé mixture has risen. When cooked place them
in an oval dish with a border of rice turned out from a border mold.
POTATO CROQUETTES
Cook your potatoes, rub them through the sieve, add pepper and salt, two
or three eggs, lightly beaten, mixing both yolks and whites, and
according to the quantity you are making a little butter and milk. Work
all well and let it get cold. Roll into croquettes, roll each in beaten
egg, then in finely grated breadcrumbs, and let them cook in boiling fat
or lard.
[_Madame Emelie Jones._]
PURÉE OF CHESTNUTS
Make a little slit in each chestnut, boil them till tender, then put them
in another pan with cold water in it and replace them on the fire. Peel
them one by one as you take them out, and rub them through a sieve,
pounding them first to make it easier, add salt, a good lump of butter
and a little milk to make a nice purée. This is very good to surround
grilled chicken or turkey legs, or for a salmi of duck or hare.
HORS D'OEUVRES
The attractive "savory" of English dinner tables finds its counterpart
apparently in egg and fish dishes served cold at the beginning of a meal,
and therefore what we should call hors d'oeuvres.
POTATO DICE
Boil your potatoes and let them be of the firm, soapy kind, not the
floury kind. When cooked, and cold, cut them into dice, and toss them in
the following sauce:
Take equal quantities of salad oil and cream, a quarter of that amount of
tarragon vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a few chopped capers. Mix very
well, and pour it on the dice. You may vary this by using cream only, in
which case omit the vinegar. Season with pepper, salt, celery seed, and
instead of the capers take some pickled nasturtium seed, and let that,
finely minced, remain in the sauce for an hour before using it.
ANCHOVIES
Fillets of these, put in a lattice work across mashed potato look very
nice. Be sure you use good anchovies preserved in salt, and well washed
and soaked to take away the greater part of the saltness; or, if you can
make some toast butter it when cold, cut it into thin strips, and lay a
fillet in the center. Fill up the sides of the toast with chopped hard-
boiled yolk of egg.
ANCHOVY SANDWICHES
Cut some bread and butter, very thin, and in fingers. Chop some water-
cress, lay it on a finger, sprinkle a little Tarragon vinegar and water
(equal quantities) over it, and then lay on a fillet of anchovy, cover
with more cress and a finger of bread and butter. Put them in a pile
under a plate to flatten and before serving trim the edges.
ANCHOVY ROUNDS
Make some toast, cut it in rounds, butter it when cold. Curl an anchovy
round a stewed olive, and put it on the toast. Make a little border of
yolk of egg boiled and chopped.
ANCHOVY BISCUITS
Made as you would make cheese biscuits, but using anchovy sauce instead
to flavor them. If you make the pastry thin you can put some lettuce
between two biscuits and press together with a little butter spread
inside.
ANCHOVY PATTIES
Make some paste and roll it out thinly. Take a coffee cup and turning it
upside down stamp out some rounds. Turn the cup the right way again, and
put it on a round. Then you will see an edge of paste protruding all
round. Turn this up with the end of a fork, which makes a pretty little
edge. Do this with all, and fill the shallow cases then made with a good
mayonnaise sauce in which you have put chopped celery and potato, and a
small quantity of chopped gherkins. Lay three fillets of anchovy across
each other to form a six-pointed star and season highly with cayenne
pepper.
All the above recipes can be followed using sardines instead of
anchovies, and indeed one can use them in many other ways, with eggs,
with lettuce, with tomatoes. As anchovies are rather expensive to buy, I
give a recipe for mock anchovies, which is easy to do, but it must be
done six months before using the fish.
MOCK ANCHOVIES
When sprats are cheap, buy a good quantity, what in England you would
call a peck. Do not either wipe or wash them. Take four ounces of
saltpeter, a pound of bay salt, two pounds of common coarse salt, and
pound them well, then add a little cochineal to color it, pound and mix
very well. Take a stone jar and put in it a layer of the mixture and a
layer of the sprats, on each layer of fish adding three or four bay
leaves and a few whole pepper-corns. Fill up the jar and press it all
down very firmly. Cover with a stone cover, and let them stand for six
months before you use them.
CUCUMBER À LA LAEKEN
Take a cucumber and cut it in pieces two inches long, then peel away the
dark green skin for one inch, leaving the other inch as it was. Set up
each piece on end, scoop it out till nearly the bottom and fill up with
bits of cold salmon or lobster in mayonnaise sauce. Cold turbot or any
other delicate fish will do equally well or a small turret of whipped
cream, slightly salted, should be piled on top. This dish never fails to
please.
HERRING AND MAYONNAISE
Take some salt herring, a half for each person, and soak them for a day
in water. Skin them, cut them open lengthwise, take out the backbone, and
put them to soak in vinegar. Then before serving them let them lie for a
few minutes in milk, and putting them on a dish pour over them a good
mayonnaise sauce. [_Mlle. Oclhaye._]
SWEET DRINKS AND CORDIALS. ORGEAT
Blanch first of all half a pound of sweet almonds and three ounces of
bitter, turn them into cold water for a few minutes; then you must pound
them very fine in a stone mortar, if you have a marble one so much the
better, and do it in a cool place.
You must add a little milk occasionally to prevent the paste from
becoming oily, then add three quarts of fresh milk, stirring it in
slowly, sweeten to your taste, and then putting all into a saucepan clean
as a chalice, bring it to the boil.
Boil for ten minutes, and then stir till cold, strain it through finest
muslin, and then add two good glasses of brandy. Bottle and keep in a
dark place.
HAWTHORN CORDIAL
When the hawthorn is in full bloom, pick a basketful of the blooms. Take
them home, and put the white petals into a large glass bottle, taking
care that you put in no leaves or stalks. When the bottle is filled to
the top do not press it down, but pour in gently as much good French
Brandy as it will hold. Cork and let it stand for three months, then you
can strain it off. This is good as a cordial, and if you find it too
strong, add water, or sweeten it with sugar.
DUTCH NOYEAU
Peel finely the rinds of five large lemons, or of six small ones, then
throw on it a pound of loaf sugar that you have freshly pounded, two
ounces of bitter almonds, chopped and pounded; mix these with two quarts
of the best Schnappes or Hollands, and add six tablespoonfuls of boiling
milk.
Fill your jars with this, cover it close, and put it in a passage or
hall, where people can shake it every day.
Leave it there for three weeks, and strain it through some blotting paper
into another bottle. It will be ready to drink.
LAVENDER WATER
Take a large bottle, and put in it twelve ounces of the best spirits of
wine, one essence of ambergris, twopennyworth of musk, and three drachms
of oil of lavender.
Cork it tightly, put in a dark place, and shake it every day for a month.
This is really lavender spirit, as no water is used.
HOT BURGUNDY
Take half a pint of good Burgundy wine, put it to boil with two cloves,
and a dust of mixed spice, sweeten to taste with some powdered sugar. If
you like add a quarter of the quantity of water to the wine before
boiling.
CRÊME DE POISSON À LA ROI ALBERT
Take a fresh raw whiting, fillet it, and pass the flesh through a wire
sieve.
For a small dish take four ounces of the fish, mix them lightly with four
tablespoonfuls of very thick cream, adding pepper and salt. Fill an oval
ring mold, and steam gently for twenty minutes, under buttered paper.
Have some marine crayfish boiled, shell the tails, cut them in pieces,
removing the black line inside. Cut three truffles into thick slices,
heat them and the crayfish in some ordinary white sauce, enriched with
the yolk of a raw egg, pepper and salt, and one dessertspoonful of
tarragon vinegar. This must not be allowed to boil. When the cream is
turned out into a hot silver dish, pour the ragout into the center, and
put a hot lid on.
This dish, and that on page 86-87, has been composed by a Scotch lady in
honor of the King of the Belgians. Not every cook can manage the cream,
but the proportions are exact, and so is the time.
[_Mrs. Alex. Stuart._]
FISH AND CUSTARD
Boil up the trimmings of your fish with milk, pepper and salt. Strain it
and add the yolks of eggs till you get a good custard. Pour the custard
into a mold, and lay in it your fish, which must already be parboiled. If
you have cold fish, flake it, and mix it with the custard. Put the mold
in a double saucepan. Steam it for three quarters of an hour. Turn it
out, and garnish with strips of lemon peel, and if you have it, sprigs of
fennel.
HAKE AND POTATOES
Hake, which is not one of the most delicate fish, can be made excellent
if stewed in the following sauce: A quart of milk to which you have added
a dessertspoonful of any of the good English sauces; thicken it with a
knob of butter rolled in flour, which stir in till all is smooth. When it
boils take off the fire, and put in your pieces of hake, set it back by
the side of the fire to keep very hot, without boiling, for twenty-five
minutes. Meanwhile mash some potatoes, and put it as a purée round a
dish, pour the fish in the center, sprinkle on it chopped parsley. The
liquor ought to be much reduced.
VERY NICE SKATE
Take skate, or indeed any fish that rolls up easily, make into fillets,
dry them well, and sprinkle on each fillet, pepper, salt, a dust of mixed
spice, and chopped parsley. Roll each fillet up tightly, and pack them
tightly into a dish, so that they will not become loose. Take vinegar and
beer in equal quantities, or, if you do not like to use beer, you must
add to the vinegar some whole black pepper, and a good sprinkle of dried
and mixed herbs with salt. Pour over the fish, tie a piece of buttered
paper over the top, and bake for an hour and a quarter (for a medium pie
dish) in a moderate oven.
TO KEEP SPRATS
A large quantity of these may be bought cheaply and kept for some weeks
by this method. Put on to warm equal quantities of vinegar and water,
what you think sufficient to cover your sprats, allowing for wastage; and
stir in for every quart of liquor a small saltspoonful of mixed spice,
four bay leaves, a shallot minced, a small bunch of bruised thyme, the
thin rind of a half lemon, salt and pepper; if you can use tarragon
vinegar so much the better. Clean the sprats, remove tails and heads, and
lay them in a deep dish. Take your liquor and pour it over the fish, tie
a large paper over all, and let them bake in a cool oven for two or three
hours; or cook them in a double saucepan; in any case do them very
slowly. Put aside to cool, and take out the fish to use as required. They
will keep good four weeks.
TO KEEP MACKEREL FOR A WEEK
It sometimes happens that you can get a great quantity of this fish, very
fresh, cheaply, and wish to use it later on.
Pickle it thus: Boil a pint of vinegar with six peppercorns, four cloves,
four bay leaves, a scrap of mace, a saltspoonful of salt, and the same of
made mustard. When this is boiled up put it to cool. Lay your mackerel
prepared ready for eating, and sprinkle on each piece some salt, and
minced thyme. It may be an hour before using.
Then fry the fish, lifting each piece carefully into the hot fat. When
fried lay the fish in a deep dish, and pour on each piece your vinegar
liquor till all is covered.
Cover over with paper such as you use for jam pots, well tied down. You
can afterwards heat the fish as you require.
A BROWN DISH OF FISH
Take your fish, which should be herring or mackerel, relieve it of the
bones, skin and fins, which you must put to boil for three quarters of an
hour in water, with pepper and salt. After that time strain off the
liquor, and add to it enough browning to color it well.
Then brown quarter of a pound of butter and knead into it two
tablespoonfuls of flour, add it, when well mixed, to your liquor, with
salt and pepper, a piece of lemon peel, and a dust of mixed spice. Bring
all this to the boil and drop in your fish. (Cut in neat fillets.) Let
them simmer for twenty minutes, and if too dry pour in some darkly
colored gravy. Just before you wish to serve add a good wine glass of
claret, or of Burgundy, take out the lemon peel, and pour all on a hot
dish. If you do not wish to put wine, the flavor of the sauce is very
excellent if you stir into it a dessertspoonful of mushroom ketchup, or a
teaspoonful of soy. This brown fish is nice to follow a white soup.
BAKED HADDOCKS
Take all the trimmings of two good sized haddocks, cover them with milk
and water, and put them to simmer. Add chopped parsley, a chopped
shallot, pepper and salt.
Cut each fish in half across, and lay them in the bottom of a pie dish,
sprinkle breadcrumbs, pats of butter, pepper and salt, between and on
each piece. Fill up the dish with water or milk, adding the simmered and
strained liquor from the trimmings.
Bake gently for an hour, and when brown on top add more breadcrumbs, and
pats of butter.
FILLETED SOLES AU FROMAGE
Boil the filleted soles in water. Make a sauce with butter. One spoonful
of flour--milk, pepper and salt, powdered cheese (Cheddar). Boil it,
adding some washed and chopped mushrooms and a little cream. Put the
filets on a dish and pour them over the sauce. Leave it about a quarter
of an hour in the oven, so that it becomes slightly browned.
[_Mdlle. Spreakers._]
FILLETED FISH, WITH WHITE SAUCE AND TOMATOES
Brown two onions in butter, and add a spray of parsley, half a pound of
tomatoes and a claret glassful of white wine. Let this simmer for half an
hour, and then pass it through the tammy. Then fry half a pound of
mushrooms, and add them and their liquor to the sauce, thickening it, if
necessary, with a little cornflour. A great improvement is a little
liebig. Place your fish in the oven, and cook it gently in butter, with
pepper and salt. When it is done, serve it with the sauce poured over it.
[_Madame Vandervalle._]
THE MILLER'S COD
(Cabillaud meunier)
Cut your cod in slices, and roll them in flour. Put them to fry in a good
piece of butter, adding chopped parsley, pepper and salt, and the juice
of one lemon. This is very good, if served in the dish that it is cooked
in.
DUTCH HERRINGS
(A cold dish)
Take some Dutch, or some salted herrings, and remove the skin, backbones,
etc. Lay the fish in milk for at least twenty-four hours to get the salt
out. Make a mayonnaise sauce, adding to it the roe from the herrings, in
small pieces; wipe and drain the fish, and pour over them the sauce.
REMAINS OF COD
I
Take your fish, and remove all bones and skin. Put some butter to brown
in a saucepan, and when it is colored, add the cod, sprinkling in pepper
and salt and a good thickening of grated breadcrumbs. Let this all heat
gently by the fire and turn it into paper cases, with chopped parsley on
the top.
II
The above recipe can be followed for making fish rissoles, but, after
having mixed it well, let it grow cold. Then form into balls, roll them
in breadcrumbs, and throw them into boiling fat.
III
Take all the remains of the fish and heat them in butter. Make some
mashed potatoes, and add to them some white sauce, made of flour, milk
and butter. Mix this with the fish, so that it is quite moist, and do not
forget salt and pepper. Place the mixture in a fireproof dish and
sprinkle breadcrumbs over it. Bake for fifteen minutes, or till it is hot
through, and serve as it is.
[_Mdlle. M. Schmidt, of Antwerp._]
* * * * *
PART II
The second half of this little book is composed chiefly of recipes for
dishes that can be made in haste, and by the inexperienced cook. But such
cook can hardly pay too much attention to details if she does not wish to
revert to an early, not to say feral type of cuisine, where the roots
were eaten raw while the meat was burnt. Because your dining-room
furniture is Early English, there is no reason why the cooking should be
early English too. And it certainly will be, unless one takes great
trouble with detail.
Let us suppose that at 7:30 P.M. your husband telephones that he is
bringing a friend to dine at 8. Let us suppose an even more rash act. He
arrives at 7:15, he brings a friend: you perceive the unexpressed
corollary that the dinner must be better than usual. In such a moment of
poignant surprise, let fly your best smile (the kind that is practiced by
bachelors' widows) and say "I am delighted you have come like this; do
you mind eight or a quarter past for dinner?" Then melt away to the cook
with this very book in your hand.
I take it that you consider her to be the junior partner in the
household, you, of course, being the senior, and your husband the
sleeping partner in it. Ask what there is in the house for an extra dish,
and I wager you the whole solar system to a burnt match that you will
find in these pages the very recipe that fits the case. A piece of cold
veal, viewed with an eye to futurity, resolves itself into a white creamy
delightfulness that melts in your mouth; a new-laid egg, maybe, poached
on the top, and all set in a china shell. If you have no meat at all, you
must simply hoodwink your friends with the fish and vegetables.
You know the story of the great Frenchwoman:
"Hèlas, Annette, I have some gentlemen coming to dine, and we have no
meat in the house. What to do?"
"Ah! Madame, I will cook at my best; and if Madame will talk at her best,
they will never notice there is anything wrong."
But for the present day, I would recommend rather that the gentlemen be
beguiled into doing the talking themselves, if any shortcoming in the
menu is to be concealed from them, for then their attention will be
engaged.
It takes away from the made-in-a-hurry look of a dish if it is decorated,
and there are plenty of motifs in that way besides parsley. One can use
beetroot, radishes, carrots cut in dice, minced pickles, sieved egg; and
for sweets, besides the usual preserved cherries and angelica, you can
have strips of lemon peel, almonds pointed or chopped, stoned prunes cut
in halves, wild strawberries, portions of tangerine orange. There is a
saying,
Polish the shoe,
Though the sole be through,
and a very simple chocolate shape may be made attractive by being
garnished with a cluster of pointed almonds in the center, surrounded by
a ring of tangerine pieces, well skinned and laid like many crescents one
after the other. There is nothing so small and insignificant but has
great possibilities. Did not Darwin raise eighty seedlings from a single
clod of earth taken from a bird's foot?
It is to be regretted that Samuel Johnson never wrote the manual that he
contemplated. "Sir," he said, "I could write a better book of cookery
than has ever yet been written. It should be a book on philosophical
principles."
Perhaps the pies of Fleet Street reminded him of the Black Broth of the
Spartans which the well-fed Dionysius found excessively nasty; the tyrant
was curtly told that it was nothing indeed without the seasoning of
fatigue and hunger. We do not wish a meal to owe its relish solely to the
influence of extreme hunger--it must have a beautiful nature all its own,
it must exhibit the idea of Thing-in-Itself in an easily assimilable
form.
I am convinced, anyhow, that this little collection (formed through the
kindness of our Belgian friends) will work miracles; for there are plenty
of miracles worked nowadays, though not by those romantic souls who think
that things come by themselves. Good dinners certainly do not, and I end
with this couplet:
A douce woman and a fu' wame
Maks King and cottar bide at hame.
Which, being interpreted, means that if you want a man to stay at home,
you must agree with him and so must his dinner.
M. LUCK.
HORS D'OEUVRE
(Herring and Mayonnaise)
Take some salt herrings, one for each person, and soak them for a day in
water. Skin them, cut them open lengthways, take out the backbone, and
put them to soak for a day in vinegar. Then before serving them, let them
lie for a few minutes in milk, and, putting them on a dish, pour over
them a good mayonnaise sauce.
[_Mme. Delhaye._]
CARROT SOUP
Wash and scrape a pound of carrots, slice them, treat two medium sized
potatoes in the same manner, add a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme and a
chopped onion. Cook all with water, add salt, pepper, and cook gently
till tender, when pass it through a sieve. Put in a pan a lump of butter
the size of an egg, with a chopped leek and a sprig of chervil. Let it
cook gently for three or four minutes, then pour on the puree of carrots
and let it all come to the boil before taking it off to serve.
[_Madame Stoppers._]
SORREL SOUP
Take a quart of bouillon or of meat extract and water. Fry in butter a
carrot, a turnip, an onion, a small cabbage, all washed and chopped, and
add half a teaspoonful of castor sugar. Put your soup to it and set on
the fire. Let it simmer for twenty minutes, add any seasoning you wish
and a little more water, and let it simmer for another half hour. Then
shred a bit of basil or marjoram with a handful of well washed sorrel,
throw them in, cook for five minutes, skim it, pour it into a soup
tureen, and serve.
OSTEND SOUP
There are many varieties of this soup to be met with in the different
hotels, but it is a white soup, made of fish pieces and trimmings,
strained, returned to the pot, and with plenty of cream and oysters added
before serving. It should never boil after the cream is put in. A little
mace is usual, but no onions or shallot. A simple variety is made with
flour and milk instead of cream, the liquor of the oysters as well as the
oysters, and a beaten egg added at the last moment.
[_Esperance._]
ANOTHER SORREL SOUP
Take a tablespoonful of breadcrumbs, moisten them in milk in a pan, then
add as much water as you require. Throw in three medium potatoes, a
handful of well washed sorrel, and a sprig or two of chervil, a lump of
butter, pepper, and salt. Bring to the boil, simmer for quarter of an
hour, pass through a tammy, heat again for ten minutes and serve burning
hot.
[_Esperance._]
HASTY SOUP
Into a quart of boiling water throw lightly four tablespoonfuls of
semolina, so that the grains are separated. Let it boil for a quarter of
an hour, with pepper and salt. Take the tureen and put the yolk of an egg
in it with a bit of butter the same size, mix them with a fork and pour
in a teacupful of hot water with extract of meat in it, as strong as you
wish. Quickly pour in the semolina soup and serve it at once. This is a
quickly made and inexpensive dish, besides which it is a nice one.
[_Madame Alphonse F._]
ARTICHOKES A LA VEDETTE
Boil some globe artichokes in salted water till they are tender. Take out
the center leaves, leaving an even fringe of leaves on the outside.
Remove as much of the choke as you can. Put them back in a steamer. Toss
some cooked peas in butter, then mix them in cream and taking up your
artichokes again put in your cream and peas in the center of each, as
much as you can get in. The cream is not necessary for this dish to be a
good one, but the artichokes and peas must both be young. As a rule
people cut their fruit too soon and their vegetables too late.
[_Chef reconnaissant._]
SURPRISE POTATOES
Quarter of an hour will suffice to prepare and cook this savory surprise,
once the potatoes are baked. Take three large potatoes of symmetrical
size, clean and bake them; cut each in two and remove the inside without
injuring the skin. Melt half an ounce of butter by the fire, add two
ounces of potato passed through a sieve, a teaspoonful of grated
parmesan, pepper, salt, and a tablespoonful of milk. Then stir in the
yolk of an egg and presently the white, well beaten. Fill the empty
potato skins with the mixture which ought to rise and puff out in ten or
twelve minutes.
VEGETABLE SALADS
Sometimes one has a few leeks, a half cauliflower, a handful each of peas
and beans. Instead of currying these vegetables (which removes all
distinctive flavor from them) cook them gently, and toss them when cold
in a good salad dressing. If you can give the yolk of an egg to it, so
much the better. Any cold meat is improved by a side dish of this sort.
The vegetables that one can curry with advantage are large marrows, cut
into cubes, turnips, potatoes, parsnips.
[_Marguerite Leblanc_.]
TOMATOES A LA SIR EDWARD GREY HOMMAGE
Take some fine firm tomatoes, not very ripe. Turn them with the stalk
side up and cut a slice off the top with a sharp knife. Take out the
inside with a teaspoon. Break into each tomato a pullet's egg, sprinkle
with pepper and salt. The inside of the tomato you will pass through a
fine wire sieve and it will be a thick liquor; mix it with bread-crumbs,
salt, pepper, and some grated cheese till quite thick. Put this mixture
on the top of each egg and place all in the oven for three or four
minutes, so that the eggs are only just set and no more.
[_Amie inconnue._]
STUFFED CARROTS
Take some good sized carrots, and after washing them well and cutting off
the green tuft, cut each one across about two and a half inches from the
leaves. Scoop out the inside yellow part, leaving a case of the redder
part and a piece to form the bottom, at the smaller end. Then stew the
cases very gently till a little tender, but not quite soft. Take them out
of the water, drain them, and then placing each on its small end, fill up
with hot chopped mushrooms, that have been tossed in butter. Arrange in a
circle on a dish, and garnish with small sprigs of carrot leaves. The
insides that you have scooped out are to be used for soup flavoring.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
TO COOK ASPARAGUS
One should not let the tips of this vegetable touch the water. Take your
bundle, dip the stalks in warm water to remove any dust, and the tips
also, if it is necessary. Then tie the bundle round with tape, keeping
the ends of stalks even so that it will stand upright. Place them in
boiling water with the heads just sticking out, and keep them like that.
In this way the heads, which are very tender, will be cooked in the steam
and will not drop off.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
TOMATOES IN HASTE
Butter a pie-dish, preferably a fireproof china dish. Open a tin of
tomatoes and remove as much skin as you can if they are the unpeeled
kind. Put a handful of crumbled brown bread in the dish with lumps of
butter, then pour on that some tomatoes, dust with pepper and salt, then
more bread, and so on, finishing at the last with lumps of butter, and a
thick sprinkling of grated cheese. Bake for twenty minutes.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
KIDNEYS AND LETTUCE
Put on some water to boil. Take your lettuce, and choose the round kind,
and wash it well. Take out neatly with your fingers the center leaves,
and fill up instead with a sheep's kidney which you have lightly dusted
with flour, pepper, and salt. Tie the lettuce round very firmly and set
it in a pan of boiling water that covers up only three quarters of the
vegetable. Boil for eighteen minutes. Take out the lettuce, untie it,
drain it, and serve at once. Kidneys are good when they are placed inside
large Spanish onions and gently stewed, in which case a dab of made
mustard is given them.
TOMATO RICE
Put on your rice to boil. Make a tomato sauce by stewing them gently, and
then rubbing them through a sieve; this makes a purée, which you must put
back to heat with pepper and salt and a small quantity of made mustard.
Then grate some parmesan, or failing that, some Gruyère cheese. Take off
the rice, drain it, keeping it hot, put it on a dish and pour over it
your purée. Then sprinkle the grated cheese thickly on top of all.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
RICE WITH EGGS
Boil some rice till it will press closely together. Fill some teacups
with it, pressing the rice well down; then leave a hole in the middle and
pour into each hole a small raw egg, yolk, and white. Set the tea-cups to
cook in the oven, and when the eggs are just set and no more, press on
them some more rice. Turn them out of the teacups, and if you have rubbed
the inside of the cups with a little butter this will be easy, and
sprinkle over the top of each mold plenty of chopped parsley. Do not
forget salt and pepper to season the ingredients.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
BROAD BEANS IN SAUCE
Take your shelled beans, very young and tender. Throw them into boiling
water for a minute, then pour the water away. Heat for a pound of beans
one and one-half pints of milk, stir in four ounces of salt butter, a
very little chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Do not let the milk boil,
but when it simmers put in the beans. When they have been heated for ten
minutes, thicken your sauce with the yolks of two eggs and a
tablespoonful of cream. Take out a bean and eat it to see if it is
cooked, and if so, pour all on a hot dish. Garnish with fried sippets of
bread. Old broad beans can be treated in the same way, but they must
first be skinned.
[_Aimee._]
OMELETTE OF PEAS
Beat up three eggs, to which add one tablespoonful of grated cheese,
pepper, and salt, and mix thoroughly. Butter an omelette pan, and pour in
the mixture, keep moving it gently with a fork while you sprinkle in with
the other hand some cooked green peas. The omelette will be cooked by the
time you have sprinkled in two handfuls. Slip it off on to a very hot
dish, fold over, and serve at once.
[_Jean O._]
BRUSSELS ARTICHOKES
Wash well some globe artichokes, and boil them in salted water. Meanwhile
make a good mushroom filling, highly seasoned, of cooked mushroom, dipped
into butter, pepper, salt, a few breadcrumbs, and shreds of ham. Remove
the center leaves from the vegetable and as much of the choke as you can.
Fill up with the mushroom force and stew gently in brown sauce flavored
with a bunch of herbs.
[_F. R._]
BELGIAN SALAD
is merely endive, washed and torn apart with red peppers added here and
there as well as the ordinary salad dressing.
_Belgian asparagus_ is done by adding to the cooked vegetable a
bechamel sauce, poured over the dish, and then slices of hard boiled eggs
placed on the top. The giant asparagus is used, and it is eaten with a
fork.
[_A Grocer's Wife._]
BRUSSELS CARROTS
Cut young carrots in small pieces, blanch them in salted water; melt some
butter in a stew pan, add enough water and meat extract to make
sufficient to cover the carrots, season with pepper, salt and a pinch of
sugar and toss the carrots in this till they are tender. Then add the
yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of cream, holding the pan just off the
fire with the left hand, while you stir with the right. When it is well
mixed pour all out on a vegetable dish and sprinkle over with chopped
parsley.
[_Amie reconnaissante._]
CARROTS AND EGGS
Make the same preparation as above, for the sauce, with the same
seasonings, but add a dust of nutmeg. Then add half a pint of white stock
which will be enough for a small bunch of carrots; simmer them for
fifteen minutes and then break in three whole eggs, taking care that they
fall apart from each other. Let them cook till nearly set (for they will
go on cooking in the hot sauce after you remove them from the fire) and
serve at once. This is nearly as good if you use old carrots sliced,
instead of the young ones.
[_M. Zoeben_.]
CUCUMBERS AND TOMATOES
Take two earthenware pots and put some tomatoes to stew in one, in water,
pepper, and salt. Peel a cucumber, open it, remove the seeds and stuff it
with any forcemeat that you have; but a white one is best. Let it cook
gently in some brown stock, well covered over. When tender put the
cucumber along the dish and tomatoes on each side. A puree of potatoes
can surround them.
[_A. Fanderverde_.]
RED HARICOTS
Soak some white haricot-beans over night, or stew them till tender in
some weak stock. Make a tomato sauce in a saucepan, and flavor it rather
strongly with made mustard, stirring well, so that it is well
incorporated. When the beans are tender, drain them from the liquor
(keeping them hot) and reduce that to half its quantity. Put back the
beans and add the tomato sauce, heat for a couple of minutes, and serve
with three-cornered pieces of toast.
[_Elise et Jean_.]
POTATOES A LA BRABANCONNE
Boil some potatoes, rub them through a sieve, add pepper, salt, and a
tablespoonful of cream to a pound of potatoes, rub through a tammy again.
Chop a shallot, a spring or two of parsley and mix them in, sprinkling in
at the same time a dust of nutmeg and a dessertspoonful of grated cheese.
Place the puree in a dish to be baked, and before setting it in the oven
sprinkle on the top some bread-crumbs, and cheese grated and mixed and
one or two pats of salt butter. Bake till it is a golden brown.
[_Elise et Jean_.]
FLEMISH PEAS
Cook some young peas and some carrots (scraped and shaped into cones) in
separate pans. Then put them together in an earthenware close covered pan
to simmer together in butter and gravy, the first water having been well
drained from them. Season with pepper and salt and let them cook gently
for ten or twelve minutes; do not uncover the pot to stir it, but shake
it every now and then to prevent the contents from burning.
[_Amie inconnue_.]
CHOU-CROUTE
Take as many white September cabbages as you wish, trim them, cut in
halves, remove the stalks, wash them very thoroughly and shred them
pretty finely. Procure an earthenware crock and put in a layer of
cabbage, sprinkle it with coarse salt, whole pepper, and juniper berries.
Fill up the crock in this way, put on the lid, and keep it down closely
with weights. It will be ready in about six weeks' time, when the
fermentation has taken place. It is good with pork or bacon.
SPINACH FRITTERS
Take any cold boiled spinach--though people generally eat all that there
is--and mix it thickly with the yolk of egg and a little rice flour; you
may add a little powdered sugar. Have ready some boiling fat, and drop
spoonfuls of the spinach into it. If the fat is hot enough the fritters
will puff out. Drain them quickly and serve very hot.
HARLEQUIN CABBAGES
Shred some red cabbage, to half a pound of it add two medium sized
apples, minced finely without core or skin, a bit of fat bacon, season
with pepper, salt, vinegar, which should be tarragon vinegar, and put it
to simmer in some gravy or milk and water. It should cook for an hour
over a gentle fire. Cook separately some green cabbage, cleaned, boiled
till tender in salted water, chopped, then put back on a gentle fire with
salt, pepper, a dust of nutmeg, and some fat or butter. Let it heat and
mix well, and then serve the two colors side by side in the same dish;
the red cabbage has a sour and the green has a nutty flavor which is very
agreeable.
LITTLE TOWERS OF SALAD
Put a couple of eggs on to boil hard, while you make a thick mayonnaise
sauce. Cut some beetroot, some cucumber, some cold potato, some tomato
into slices. Peel your eggs, and slice them, and build up little piles of
the different things, till about two inches high. Between each slice you
will sprinkle grated breadcrumbs, pepper, salt, a tiny scrap of chopped
raw shallot, parsley, all mixed in a cup. Finish with the rounded ends of
white of egg on the top, put lettuce round and pour the dressing over it.
PUFFS FOR FRIDAY
Make a batter of a beaten egg, a dust of rice flour, pepper, salt and as
much cream as you can give. Roll out this batter so thinly that you can
almost see through it. Cut it into rounds and put on it any cooked
vegetables that you have, but they must be highly seasoned. Cold potatoes
will do if they are done with mustard, vinegar, or a strong boiled sauce.
Fold over the paste, press it together at the edges, and fry in hot fat.
HADDOCK A LA CARDINAL
Take some fillets of haddock, or cod or hake, and poach them gently in
milk and water. Meanwhile, prepare a good white sauce, and in another pan
a thick tomato sauce, highly seasoned, colored with cochineal if need be,
and as thick as a good cream. Lay the fillets when cooked one each on a
plate, put some of the white sauce round it, and along the top put the
tomato sauce which must not run down. A sprig of chervil is to be placed
at each end of the fillet.
[_Seulette._]
SKATE STEW
Put the fins, skin, trimmings of skate into water enough to cook them,
with pepper and salt and simmer for half an hour. Strain it through a
fine sieve. Make a brown sauce of butter and flour, pepper, salt, adding
a little milk, about a teacupful for a pound of skate, then squeeze in
the juice of half a lemon, and if you have it, a glass of white wine.
Take the skate, cut it in pieces, simmer it in salted water; when cooked,
strain away the water, dish the fish, pouring over it the above sauce.
Decorate with strips of lemon peel laid in a lattice-work down the
center.
[_Une epiciere_.]
TO DRESS COARSE FISH
Any fish is good if dressed in this way. Make a brown sauce, well
flouring it with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. Mince and fry a shallot
and add it, then a large glass of red wine, a few drops of lemon juice.
Cook some fish roe, sieve it, and stir it into the sauce. Take your fish
and simmer it in milk and water till cooked, then heat it up quickly in
the sauce to serve.
[_F. R._]
FLEMISH SALAD
This is fillets of herring, laid in a bowl with slices of apple,
beetroot, cold potatoes, and cold cooked sprouts, covered with the
ordinary salad dressing. If the fish is salted, let it soak first of all
in milk to take away the greater part of the salt. This is a winter dish,
but the same sort of thing is prepared in summer, substituting cold
cooked peas, cauliflower, artichokes, beans, with the fish.
[_Amie reconnaissante._]
FLEMISH SAUCE
This popular sauce is composed of melted butter thickened with yolk of
egg and flavored with mustard; it is used greatly for fish.
BEEF SQUARES
If you have a small piece of very good beef, such as rump steak or fillet
of beef, it is more economical to cut it into squares, and grill it
lightly at a clear fire. Have ready some squares of toast, buttered and
hot, lay these on a hot dish with a bit of steak on the top, and on the
top of that a slice of tomato much peppered and salted and a small pile
of horse-radish. This makes a pretty dish and can be varied by using
capers or chopped gherkins instead of horse-radish. It is a great saving
to cut meat, bread, etc., in squares instead of rounds.
[_Une amie au convent._]
IMITATION CUTLETS
A dish that I have done for those who like curry flavoring is the
following. Take any cold cooked vegetables, and cutting them in small
pieces, roll them in a thick white sauce which you have strongly flavored
with curry. Put it aside to get firm. If you are in a hurry you can bind
with the yolk of an egg in the flour and make a thick batter in that way.
Form into cutlets and fry as you would a real cutlet. The same thing can
be done with macaroni or spaghetti that is already cooked, with cold fish
or anything that is insipid to the taste.
[_Une amie au convent_.]
KIDNEYS WITH MADEIRA
Use either sheep or pigs' kidneys. Cut them longways, so as to be able to
take out the threads from the inside of them. Put some butter on to fry
over a brisk fire and when it is browned, but not burnt, put in the
kidneys for three or four minutes. Take them out and keep them hot for a
minute while you add to the butter they were cooked in a soupspoonful of
Madeira wine, a good dust of chopped parsley, a little cayenne pepper and
salt. Mix it well, and if too thick add a little gravy. Pour the sauce
over the kidneys and finish with a powdering of chopped parsley. Fried
potatoes are eaten with this dish.
[_Mme. Vanderbelle Genotte._]
PIGS' TROTTERS IN BLANQUETTE
Any part of pork or veal is good done in this way. Take your pieces of
meat and fry them in butter till they are a good golden brown color. Put
them in a pan, covering them with water, and adding a sliced onion, a bay
leaf, a whole carrot, a leek, pepper, salt,--let it all simmer gently
over a slow fire till the meat is cooked but not boiled. Take the pieces
from the liquor and pass it through a sieve. Mix a little rice flour in a
cup of cold water, stirring well. Drop in the juice of half a lemon and
the beaten yolk of an egg, which stir round quickly. Put in the meat
again for a moment and serve it with boiled potatoes.
LOIN OF MUTTON IN THE POT
Put in an earthenware pot three shallots, finely minced; take a bit of
garlic, cut it close and rub it round the side of the pot; put in as well
a lump of butter, pepper and salt, and some rather fat gravy. Divide the
loin and put six chops in to simmer for three quarters of an hour on a
moderate fire, covering the pot with the lid. Before you serve it, stir
in a little lemon juice and stir up the sauce. To be served with
Cauliflower à la Aerschot as follows: Cut your cauliflower into medium
pieces, seeing that it is very clean, while you have some salted water
boiling up. Put in the pieces, boil till tender, then drain them on
a sieve. Put leaves and trimming of the vegetable into the pot to simmer
and serve as basis for a vegetable soup. Make a good white sauce, adding
the yolk of an egg, and flavoring it with nutmeg. Put the vegetable on a
dish and pour over the sauce, letting it stand for a few moments by the
fire before it is eaten.
[_Madame Herman Noppen._]
OX TONGUE WITH SPINACH AND WHITE SAUCE
Boil the tongue in salted water till the outer skin will peel off. Take
this off, then put the tongue back in the liquor to simmer while you
prepare the same. Take a piece of butter the size of an egg, melt it and
mix it with two dessertspoonfuls of ground rice, add some of the liquor,
pepper, and salt, stir well, so that it makes a good cream; drop in the
yolks of two eggs, always stirring, and a little lemon juice. Serve the
tongue whole with this sauce poured over it and spinach done in the
following way: Wash the spinach in running water till every bit of grit
has gone. Put some water on to boil, salt it well, and throw in the
spinach which you have freed from mid-rib and stalk. The water must be
boiling and the fire brisk. When tender, pass the spinach through the
sieve, then put a bit of butter into an enameled saucepan, then the
spinach, which heat for six minutes, add a little pepper. Serve it with
the tongue, and you can garnish as well with little croutons of bread
fried in butter.
[_Madame Herman Noppen_.]
VEAL FRITTERS
If you have only a little piece of veal or other cold meat, you can make
a very presentable dish in the following way: Cut a thin slice of meat
and spread on each side of it a layer of mashed potatoes to which you
have added some tomato sauce. Beat up an egg and dip the slices and
potato into it, lay them in fine breadcrumbs and fry them till a good
golden color in plenty of fat. Send them to table under a hot cover.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
STEWED BEEF
If you are obliged to make a hot dish in a hurry and have only a piece of
inferior meat, there is no better way of using it than by dressing it in
the Brabant way, which is rather expensive. Clean and cook some
mushrooms, and when fried lightly, add them and their liquor to your
beef, cut up in small pieces, but not minced. Add pepper, salt, a dust of
spices, or an onion with three or four cloves in it, and a half bottle of
good red wine. Stew all together for at least twenty minutes, take out
the onion and cloves, and serve in the dish it was cooked in which should
be an earthenware pot.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
A MUTTON SALAD
Cut some slices of cold mutton or lamb, removing every bit of fat and
skin that you can, unless that destroys the firmness of the slice.
Prepare a salad of lettuce, and if you cannot give a mayonnaise sauce,
add to the lettuce plenty of sliced cucumber, for that keeps the mutton
moist. Put the salad on each slice and roll the meat over as tightly as
you can. Lay the rolls closely together in a dish and sprinkle a very
little salad dressing over them. This way of doing meat is very useful
for taking to picnics, or for taking on a long journey.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
SAUSAGE PATTIES
Half a pound of sausage meat of any kind that you like. Make some rounds
of paste, lay the meat on half of each round and fold over. Steam for
quarter of an hour, or stew in plenty of gravy.
[_Pour la Patrie_.]
SAUSAGE AND POTATOES
Roll some cooked sausage meat in mashed potatoes, making a roll for each
person. Brush the potatoes over with milk and put them to bake till
nicely browned. Decorate with gherkins on each roll of butter.
[_Pour la Patrie_.]
RAGOUT OF COLD MEAT
Take any cold meat that you have, free it from fat and skin and cut it in
rounds like a five-franc piece. If you have some lean bacon or ham, a
little of that should be added. I should tell you first of all to put
some rice on to boil in boiling water. Make a sauce of flour and butter
in a pan, adding gravy if you happen to have it, but failing that, use
water and vinegar in equal parts to thin it; season with pepper and salt
and a small spoonful of anchovy sauce. When the sauce is heating, put in
the meat and cover the pan, let it all heat for twelve minutes and then
place meat and sauce in the middle of a dish. By this time the rice may
be tender. Drain it well and put it as a border to the stew.
[_Aimee._]
A QUICKLY MADE STEW
Put a piece of butter in a stewpan, with an onion cut in pieces, a few
cloves, salt and pepper, a tablespoonful of shredded parsley, and if you
have it some good gravy or meat juice and water. Throw into the sauce
some cold meat, preferably underdone, and after it has simmered for
fifteen minutes take a cut onion and rub with it the bottom of the dish
that you are going to use. Take a good glass of red wine, such as
Burgundy and mix it with the yolk of an egg, stir this into the stew and
serve up in a couple of minutes.
[_Madame Groubet._]
GRENADINES OF VEAL
Take a fireproof dish, and after sprinkling it with breadcrumbs put in it
a layer of roast veal in slices, a layer of mashed potatoes, a layer of
veal kidney, partly cooked, and cut into pieces and lastly a layer of
potato. Cover the whole with a bechamel sauce into which you have stirred
some grated cheese; put it to bake in the oven. Then make a brown sauce
with any veal or kidney gravy that you have, and cook some mushrooms in
it with pepper and salt; the sauce is to be served with the grenadine.
HOCHE POT
Slice an onion and fry it in butter till it is brown; add pieces of pork
and of mutton freed from fat and skin; cover them with water and throw
into it any kinds of vegetables that you may have; but particularly
sliced carrots and turnips and green cabbages; put it in the oven to
cook. In another saucepan boil some white haricot beans, salt, and
pepper, until they are tender, when they must be added to the stew with a
small quantity of the liquor that they have been boiled in.
PIGEON AND CABBAGE ROLLS
Take two pigeons, two cabbages, four slices of fried bacon, an ounce of
butter, a large wineglassful of sherry, and some gravy. Truss your
pigeons and cook them in butter for ten minutes in a fireproof dish. Then
take them out, cut them into neat pieces. Meanwhile have the cabbages
boiled in salted water. Drain them. Cut them in small pieces and roll
some up in each slice of bacon; lay the pigeons on top, pouring over them
the liquor they were cooked in and half the wine. Put all in the oven for
ten minutes--pour in the rest of the wine and leave for another ten
minutes before serving. If you have stock to add to this it is an
improvement, or put half a teaspoonful of meat extract to half a pint of
water.
[_Une refugiee_.]
REMAINS OF SAUSAGE
If you have a few inches of a big sausage cut it into as thick slices as
you can--fry them and lay them in a circle on a dish with a poached egg
on each. Little dinner breads are good when soaked in milk, stuffed with
sausage meat, and fried. It can be used to stuff cucumber, or eggplants,
but you should then crumble up the meat and bind it with the yolk of a
raw egg.
[_Mme. Georgette._]
SHOULDER OF LAMB A LA BEIGE
Braise your shoulder of lamb; that is, put it in a closely covered
stewpan, in a good brown sauce or gravy with the vegetables, to be served
with it. It is the lid being closed that makes the meat take some flavor
from the vegetables. To do it in the Belgian way, take some good white
turnips, wash them and scrape them, put small ones in whole, large ones
cut in half. Take some small cabbages, trim off without leaves, cut them
in half, remove the stalk, make a hollow in the center and fill it with
forcemeat of any kind; but sausage meat is good. Place the stuffed
cabbages round the meat to cook gently at the same time.
[_Madame Vershagen._]
FILLET OF BEEF À LA BRABANCONNE
Take a whole fillet of beef, trim it neatly and set it in a braising pan
to cook very slowly in some good brown sauce to which you have added a
pint of stock. Put in neatly shaped carrots and turnips and some balls
made of mashed potato already fried. Keep hot in two sauceboats a puree
of Brussels sprouts and a puree of onions. These are prepared by cooking
the vegetables in water, then chopping fine, and rubbing through a sieve
with cream, or with a little good milk, pepper, and salt. To serve the
fillet, lay it on a dish with the carrots and turnip, potato cakes round;
pour over it the rest of the brown sauce from the pan; then add in heaps
the onion puree and the sprouts puree.
[_Madame Vershagen._]
STEWED BEEF
An inferior part of beef may be made to taste excellent if it is braised;
that is, simmered with the cover on slowly, in company with onions
(already fried) and well washed pieces of carrots and whole turnips. Put
on also some small cabbages cut in halves, and if you can give it, a
glass of good red wine.
[_Une refugiee._]
BEEF AND APRICOTS
Stew your beef, say three pounds of steak, in some gravy, adding to a
pint of liquor a level teaspoonful of white sugar. Throw in a handful of
the dried apricots, but be sure you wash them well first. This dish is
generally accompanied by leeks, first blanched for a few moments, and
then put in the stew. Flavor with salt, pepper, and the rind of half a
lemon which remove before you serve the stew. For English taste the sugar
could be omitted.
[_Seulette._]
FOR AN INVALID
This must be begun at least three hours before it will be required. Take
two ounces of pearl barley, wash it well, and put it in cold water enough
to cover it, for an hour. Take a pound of good steak, shred it in small
pieces, and put it in an enameled saucepan with a quart of cold water and
a sprinkle of salt. Strain the water from the barley and add this last to
the meat, and let it simmer for two hours. Then strain off the liquor and
pound the meat and barley in a mortar, rub it through a sieve; when it is
a smooth puree put it back into the pan with its liquor and a gill of
cream. Let it simmer again for a moment and serve it in a cup with a lid
to it.
[_Madame A. F._]
INVALIDS' EGGS
Cut out some rounds of bread a good deal larger than a poached egg would
be. While these are frying, make a puree of Brussels sprouts. Boil them
till tender, squeeze in a cloth. Rub them through a sieve and make into a
very thick puree with cream, pepper and salt. Poach a fresh egg for each
crouton, and slip it on, very quickly, put some of the green puree round,
and serve under a hot cover.
A SWEET FOR THE CHILDREN
If you have some little breads over, cut each one in four, soak the
pieces in milk sweetened and flavored with vanilla, for three hours. When
they are well soaked roll them for a moment in grated and dried
breadcrumbs, and dip them for a moment in boiling fat, just as you would
do croquettes. Sift some white sugar over them and serve very hot.
[_Madame M._]
QUINCE CUSTARD
When you have quince preserves by you this is a quickly prepared dish.
Make a good custard with a pint of rich milk, four eggs and a little
essence of almonds and two ounces of powdered sugar. Put your quince
preserve at the bottom of a fireproof circular dish and fill up with
custard. Put it to bake for half or hour or till set. When set add some
more quince (heated) on the top with some chopped almonds and serve hot.
The same dish can be done with apples, which should be stewed, flavored
with the rind of a half lemon, and passed through a sieve. Apple puree is
put on the top in the same way, and it is decorated with some thin lemon
peel cut into stars.
[_Chef reconnaissant._]
YELLOW PLUMS AND RICE
Put half a pound of rice in hot milk till it has absorbed all it can and
is tender. Beat lightly the yolks of three eggs, beating in a lump of
fresh butter the size of a pullet's egg; add powdered sugar and the
whites of the eggs well beaten. Put the rice into this mixture and place
all in a mold. Cook it gently for twenty-five minutes. Meanwhile take
some very perfect yellow plums, skin and stone them and heat them in half
a bottle of light white wine that you have seasoned with a little spice.
Turn out the rice, put the yellow plums on the top and pour round the
sauce, strained through muslin. Very good cold.
BRABANT PANCAKE
Butter first of all your pancakes, and you should have proper pancake
saucers fit to go to table. Heat half a pint of sweetened milk and melt a
quarter of a pound of salt butter with it. When well melted pour it into
a basin and sprinkle in nearly three ounces of flour. Beat up the yolks
of three large or four small eggs and incorporate them, then add the
whites well beaten. Put a spoonful or two on each saucer and set to bake
in the oven for ten minutes and when done place each saucer on a plate
with a good lump of apricot jam on each. If you have no pancake saucers,
put the apricot preserve on one half of each pancake and fold it up.
[_Jean O._]
DELICIOUS SAUCE FOR PUDDINGS
To a large wineglassful (say a glass for champagne wine) of new Madeira
add the yolks only of two eggs. Put in a very clean enamel saucepan over
the fire and stir in powdered sugar to your taste. Whisk it over the fire
till it froths, but do not allow it even to simmer. Use for Genoese cakes
and puddings.
[_Madame Groubet._]
FRUIT JELLIES
Jellies that are very well flavored can be made with fresh fruit,
raspberries, strawberries, apricots, or even rhubarb, using the
proportions of one ounce of gelatine (in cold weather) to every pound of
fruit puree. In hot weather use a little less gelatine. As the fruit
generally gives a bad color, you must use cochineal for the red jellies
and a little green coloring for gooseberry jellies. The gelatine is of
course melted in the fruit puree and all turned into a mold. You can make
your own green coloring in this way. Pick a pound of spinach, throwing
away the stalks and midrib. Put it on in a pan with a little salt and
keep the cover down. Let it boil for twelve minutes. Then put a fine
sieve over a basin and pour the spinach water through it. Strain the
spinach water once or twice through muslin; it will be a good color and
will keep some time. Orange and lemon jellies are much more wholesome
when made at home than those made from bought powders. To the juice of
every six oranges you should add the juice of one lemon, and you will
procure twice as much juice from the fruit if, just before you squeeze
it, you let it soak in hot water for three or four minutes.
[_Pour la Patrie_.]
STRAWBERRY FANCY
Take a slice or two of plain sponge cake and cut out rounds two inches
across. Then whip up in a basin the whites only of four eggs, coloring
them with the thinner part of strawberry jam. As a rule this jam is not
red enough, and you must add a little cochineal. Put the pink mixture in
high piles on the cakes.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
PINK RICE
This sweet is liked by children who are tired of rice pudding. Boil your
rice and when tender mix in with it the juice of a boiled beetroot to
which some sugar has been added. Turn it into a mold and when cold remove
it and serve it with a spoonful of raspberry preserve on the top or with
some red plums round it.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
MILITARY PRUNES
Take some of the best French preserved prunes, and remove the stones.
Soak them in orange curaçoa for as long a time as you have at your
disposal. Then replace each stone by a blanched almond, and place the
prunes in small crystal dishes.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
MADELINE CHERRIES
Take some Madeleine cakes and scoop them out to form baskets. Fill these
with stoned cherries both white and black that you have soaked in a good
liqueur--cherry brandy is the best but you may use maraschino. Place two
long strips of angelica across the top and where these intersect a very
fine stoned cherry.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
STRAWBERRY TARTLETS
It often happens that you have among the strawberries a quantity that are
not quite good enough to be sent to table as dessert, and yet not enough
to make jam of. Put these strawberries on to heat, with some brown sugar,
and use them to fill small pastry tartlets. Pastry cases can be bought
for very little at the confectioner's. Cover the top of the tartlet when
the strawberry conserve is cold with whipped cream.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
MADEIRA EGGS OR OEUFS À LA GRAND'MÈRE
Break the yolk of an egg in a basin and be sure that it is very fresh;
beat it up, adding a little powdered sugar, and then, drop by drop,
enough of the best Madeira to give it a strong flavor. This makes a nice
sweet served in glass cups and it is besides very good for sore throats.
[_Pour la Patrie._]
BUTTERFLIES
You will get at the confectioner's small round cakes that are smooth on
the top; they are plain, and are about two and one-half inches across.
Take one and cut it in halves, separating the top from the bottom. Cut
the top pieces right across; you have now two half moons. Put some honey
along the one straight edge of each half moon and stick it by that on the
lower piece of cake, a little to one side. Do the same with the second
half moon, so that they both stick up, not unlike wings. Fill the space
between with a thick mixture of chopped almonds rolled in honey, and
place two strips of angelica poking forward to suggest antennae. A good
nougat will answer instead of the honey.
[_Pour la Patrie_.]
CHERRY AND STRAWBERRY COMPOTE
Take half a pint of rich cream and mix with it a small glassful of
Madeira wine or of good brandy. Pick over some fine cherries and
strawberries, stoning the cherries, and taking out the little center
piece of each strawberry that is attached to the stalk. Lay your fruit in
a shallow dish and cover it with the liquor and serve with the long
sponge biscuits known as "langues de chat" (Savoy fingers).
[_Amitie aux Anglais._]
CHOCOLATE CUSTARD
To make a nice sweet in a few minutes can be easily managed if you follow
this recipe. Make a custard of rich milk and yolks of eggs, sweeten it
with sugar, flavored with vanilla, and if you have a little cream add
that also. Then grate down some of the best chocolate, as finely as you
can, rub it through coarse muslin so that it is a fine powder. Stir this
with your custard, always stirring one way so that no bubbles of air get
in. When you have got a thick consistency like rich cream, pour the
mixture into paper or china cases, sprinkle over the tops with chopped
almonds. There is no cooking required.
GOOSEBERRY CREAM WITHOUT CREAM
Take your gooseberries and wash them well, cut off the stalk and the
black tip of each. Stew them with sugar till they are tender, just
covered in water. Do not let them burn. If you have not time to attend to
that put them in the oven in a shallow dish sprinkled with brown sugar.
When tender rub them through a fine sieve at least twice. Flavor with a
few drops of lemon juice, and add sugar if required. Then beat up a fresh
egg in milk and add as much arrowroot or cornflour as will lie flat in a
salt spoon. Mix the custard with the gooseberries, pass it through the
sieve once more and serve it in a crystal bowl.
[_Mdlle. B-M._]
CHOCOLATE PUDDINGS
Make some Genoese cake mixture as you would for a light cake, and pour it
into greased molds like cups. You can take the weight of one egg in dried
flour, butter, and rather less of sugar. Beat the butter and sugar
together to a cream, sprinkle in the flour, stirring all the time, a
pinch of salt, and then the beaten egg. When your little cakes are baked,
turn them out of the molds and when cool turn them upside down and remove
the inside, leaving a deep hole and a thin crust all round. Fill up this
hole with the custard and chocolate as above, and let it grow firm. Then
turn the cases right way up and pour over the top a sweet cherry sauce.
You may require the yolks of two eggs to make the custard firm.
[_Mdlle. B-M._]
INDEX
Anchovy Biscuits
" Patties
" Rounds
" Sandwiches
Anchovies
" Mock
Apples, a new dish of
Apples and Sausages
Artichokes a la Vedette
Artichokes, Brussels
Asparagus a l'Anvers
Asparagus, To Cook
Aubergine or Egg Plant
Banana Compote
Beans, a Dish of Haricot
" Broad, in Sauce
Beef a la Bourguignonne
Beef a la Mode
Beef, Blankenberg
" Caretaker's
" Fillet of, a la Brabanconne
" Roast Rump of, Bordelaise Sauce
" Roasted Fillet of
" Stewed
Beef and Apricots
Beef Squares
Brussels Sprouts
Boeuf a la Flamande
Bouchees a la Reine
Brabant Pancake
Burgundy, Hot
Butterflies
Cabbage, Red
Cabbage and Potatoes
Cabbage with Sausages
Cabbages, Harlequin
Cake, Mocha
Calf's Liver a la Bourgeoise
Carbonade, Flemish
Carbonade of Flanders
Carbonades done with Beer
Carrots, Belgian
" Brussels
" Flemish
" Stuffed
Carrots and Eggs
Cauliflower a la Reine Elizabeth
Cauliflower and Shrimps
Cauliflower, Dressed
" Stuffed
Celeris au Lard
Cheese Fondants
Cheese Limpens
Cherry and Strawberry Compote
Cherries, Madeline
Chicken a la Max
Chicory
Chicory a la Ferdinand
Chicory and Ham with Cheese Sauce
Chicory, Stuffed
Children's Birthday Dish, The
Chinese Corks
Chou-Croute
Cod, Remains of
" The Miller's
Cordial, Hawthorn
Cream, Chocolate
" Rum
" Vanilla
Creme de Poisson à la Roi Albert
Croquettes of Boiled Meat
Croquettes of Veal
Croquettes, Cheese
" Potato
Cucumber à la Laeken
Cucumbers and Tomatoes
Custard, Chocolate
Cutlets, Imitation
Delicious Sauce for Puddings
Egg Plants as Souffle
Eggs à la Ribeaucourt
Eggs, a Difficult Dish of
" Belgian
" Country
" French
" Madeira or Oeufs à la Grand'mère
" Peasants'
" Poached, Tomato Sauce
" Stuffed
Eggs and Mushrooms
Endive, Flemish
Entrèe (Croque-Monsieur)
" Walloon
Fish
" a Brown Dish of
Fish, Filleted, with White Sauce and Tomatoes
" Remains of
" To Dress Coarse
Fish and Custard
Four Quarters
Frangipani
Fricadelle
Friday's Feast
Fritters, Apple
" Fruit
" Semolina
" Spinach
" Veal
Fruit Jellies
Gaufres from Brussels
Gingerbread, Belgian
Gooseberry Cream without Cream
Haddock a la Cardinal
Haddocks, Baked
Hake and Potatoes
Ham with Madeira Sauce
Ham, York, Sweetbreads, Madeira Sauce
Hare
" Hunter's
Haricots, Red
Herring and Mayonnaise
Herrings, Dutch
Hoche Pot
Hoche Pot Gantois
Hoche Pot of Ghent
Hors d'Oeuvre
Hot Pot
Invalid, for an
Invalid's Eggs
Kid, Roast, with Venison Sauce
Kidneys and Lettuce
Kidneys with Madeira
Lamb, Shoulder of, à la Belge
Lavender Water
Leeks à la Liegeoise
Lettuce, Cooked
Mackerel, to Keep for a Week
Meat, Cold, Ragout of
" Scraps of
" To Use Up Cold
" To Use Up Remains of
Mutton, a Use for Cold
" Collops
" Loin of, in the Pot
" Ragout of
" Shoulder of
" Shoulder of, Dressed Like Kid
" Stew
" Stewed Shoulder of
Mushrooms à la Spinette
Mushrooms, Gourmands'
Oeufs Celestes, Hommage à Sir Edward Grey
Omelette, Asparagus
" Mushroom
" of Peas
" Rum
Ox Tongue
Ox Tongue a la Bourgeoise
Ox Tongue with Spinach and White Sauce
Pains Perdus
Pastry, Excellent Paste for
Peas, Flemish
Petites Caisses à la Furnes
Pigeon and Cabbage Rolls,
Pigeons, Fricassee of
Pigs' Trotters in Blanquette
Pineapple à l'Anvers
Pommes Château
Potato Dice
Potatoes, Chipped
" Surprise
Potatoes a la Brabanconne
Potatoes and Cheese
Potatoes in the Belgian Manner
Pouding aux Pommes
Prunes, Military
" Stewed
Puddings, Chocolate
Puffs for Friday
Purée of Chestnuts
Quince Custard
Rabbit
" Baked
" Flemish
" Laeken
Rabbit à la Bordelaise
Rice, Golden
" Pink
" Richelieu
" Saffron
Rice à la Conde
Rice with Eggs
Rissoles, Good
Riz Conde
Salad, Belgian
" Flemish
" Little Towers of
" a Mutton
" of Tomatoes
" Vegetable
Salads, Vegetable
Sauce au Diable
Sauce, Bearnaise
" Bordelaise
" Cream
" Dutch, for Fish
" Flemish
" Maître d'Hôtel
" Muslin
" Poor Man's
" The Good Wife's
Sausage and Potatoes
Sausage Patties
Sausage, Remains of
Skate, Stew
" Very Nice
Snowy Mountains
Soles, Filleted, au Fromage
Soufflé, Apricot
" Au Chocolat
" Baked
" Cheese
" Kidney
" Semolina
Soup, A Good Belgian
" A Good Pea
" Ambassador
" Another Sorrel
" Belgian Purée
" Carrot
" Cauliflower
" Chervil
" Cream of Asparagus
" Crecy (Belgian recipe)
" Fish
" Flemish
" Green Pea
" Hasty
" Immediate, or Ten Minutes
" Leek
" Mushroom Cream
" Onion
" Ostend
" Potage Leman
" Sorrel
" The Soldiers' Vegetable
" Starvation
" Tomato
" Tomato Puree
" Vegetable
" Waterzoei
Sparrows, Headless
Speculoos
Sprats, To Keep
Spinach à la Braconnière
Stew, A Quickly Made
Strawberry Fancy
Strawberry Tartlets
Sweet Drinks and Cordials Orgeat
Sweet for the Children, A
Tomato Rice
Tomatoes, à la Sir Edward Grey Hommage
Tomatoes and Eggs
" and Eggs, Two Recipes for
Tomatoes and Shrimps
Tomatoes in Haste
Tomatoes, Stuffed
" Stuffed with Beans
Veal, Breast of,
" Blanquette of
" Fricandeau of
" Grenadines of
" Grenadins of
Veal à la Crème
Veal à la Milanaise
Veal Cake,
" Excellent for Supper
Veal Cutlets with Madeira Sauce
Veal Liver Stuffed, or Liver à le Panier d'Or
Veal with Mushrooms, or the Calf in Paradise
Veal with Onions
Veal with Tomatoes
Yellow Plums and Rice
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