Part 12 (1/2)

Cut up fowl and sweetbread, lay in the dish in alternate layers with meat, jelly, and the yolks of hard-boiled eggs without the whites, and flavor with lemon-juice, white pepper, and salt; cover with rice prepared as follows: boil half a pound of rice in sufficient water to permit it to swell; when tender beat it up to a thick paste with the yolk of one or two eggs, season with a little salt, and spread it over the dish thickly. The fowl and sweetbread should have been previously simmered till half done in a little weak broth; the pie must be baked in a gentle oven, and if the rice will not brown sufficiently, finish with a salamander.

DESCAIDES.

Take the livers of chickens or any other poultry; stew it gently in a little good gravy seasoned with a little onion, mushroom essence, pepper, and salt; when tender, remove the livers, place them on a paste board, and mince them; return them to the saucepan, and stir in the yolks of one or two eggs, according to the quant.i.ty of liver, until the gravy becomes thick; have a round of toast ready on a hot plate, and serve it on the toast; this is a very nice luncheon or supper dish.

CHAPTER V.

Vegetables and Sundries.

DIRECTIONS FOR CLEANING AND BOILING VEGETABLES.

Vegetables are extremely nutritious when sufficiently boiled, but are unwholesome and indigestible when not thoroughly dressed; still they should not be over boiled, or they will lose their flavor.

Vegetables should be shaken to get out any insects, and laid in water with a little salt.

Soft water is best suited for boiling vegetables, and they require plenty of water; a little salt should be put in the saucepan with them, and the water should almost invariably be boiling when they are put in.

Potatoes are much better when steamed. Peas and several other vegetables are also improved by this mode of cooking them, although it is seldom adopted in England.

MASHED POTATOES.

Boil till perfectly tender; let them be quite dry, and press them through a cullender, or mash and beat them well with a fork; add a piece of b.u.t.ter, and milk, or cream, and continue beating till they are perfectly smooth; return them to the saucepan to warm, or they may be browned before the fire. The chief art is to beat them sufficiently long, which renders them light.

Potatoe b.a.l.l.s are mashed potatoes formed into b.a.l.l.s glazed with the yolk of egg, and browned with a salamander.

POTATO WALL, OR EDGING.

Raise a wall of finely-mashed potatoes, of two or three inches high, round the dish; form it with a spoon to the shape required, brush it over with egg, and put it in the oven to become hot and brown; if it does not brown nicely, use the salamander. Rice is arranged the same way to edge curries or frica.s.sees; it must be first boiled till tender.

POTATOE SHAVINGS.

Take four fine large potatoes, and having peeled them, continue to cut them up as if peeling them in ribbons of equal width; then throw the shavings into a frying-pan, and fry of a fine brown; they must be constantly moved with a silver fork to keep the pieces separate. They should be laid on a cloth to drain, and placed in the dish lightly.

THE FRENCH WAY OF DRESSING SPINACH.