CELERY.
Sc.r.a.pe and wash it well, and let it lie in cold water till shortly before it goes to table; then dry it in a cloth, trim it, and split down the stalks almost to the bottom, leaving on a few green leaves. Send it to table in a celery gla.s.s, and eat it with salt only; or chop it fine, and make a salad dressing for it.
RADISHES.
To prepare radishes for eating, wash them and lay them in clean cold water as soon as they are brought in. Shortly before they go to table, sc.r.a.pe off the thin outside skin, trim the sharp end, cut off the leaves at the top, leaving the stalks about an inch long, and put them on a small dish. Eat them with salt.
Radishes should not be eaten the day after they are pulled, as they are extremely unwholesome if not quite fresh.
The thick white radishes, after being sc.r.a.ped and trimmed, should be split or cleft in four, half way down from the top.
TO ROAST CHESTNUTS.
The large Spanish chestnuts are the best for roasting. Cut a slit in the sh.e.l.l of every one to prevent their bursting when hot. Put them into a pan, and set them over a charcoal furnace till they are thoroughly roasted; stirring them up frequently and taking care hot to let them burn. When they are done, peel off the sh.e.l.ls, and send the chestnuts to table wrapped up in a napkin to keep them warm.
Chestnuts should always be roasted or boiled before they are eaten.
GROUND-NUTS.
These nuts are never eaten raw. Put them, with their sh.e.l.ls on, into an iron pan, and set them in an oven; or you may do them in a skillet on hot coals. A large quant.i.ty may be roasted in an iron pot over the fire. Stir them frequently, taking one out from time to time, and breaking it to try if they are done.
EGGS, &c.
TO KEEP EGGS.
There is no infallible mode of ascertaining the freshness of an egg before you break it, but unless an egg is perfectly good, it is unfit for any purpose whatever, and will spoil whatever it is mixed with. You may judge with tolerable accuracy of the state of an egg by holding it against the sun or the candle, and if the yolk, as you see it through the sh.e.l.l, appears round, and the white thin and clear, it is most probably a good one; but if the yolk looks broken, and the white thick and cloudy, the egg is certainly bad. You may try the freshness of eggs by putting them into a pan of cold water. Those that sink the soonest are the freshest; those that are stale or addled will float on the surface.
There are various ways of preserving eggs. To keep them merely for plain boiling, you may parboil them for one minute, and then bury them in powdered charcoal with their small ends downward. They will keep a few days in ajar of salt; but do not afterwards use the salt in which they have been immersed.
They are frequently preserved for two or three months by greasing them all over, when quite fresh, with melted mutton suet, and then wedging them close together (the small end downwards) in a box of bran, layer above layer; the box must be closely covered.
Another way (and a very good one) is to put some lime in a large vessel, and slack it with boiling water, till it is of the consistence of thin cream; you may allow a gallon of water to a pound of lime. When it is cold, pour it off into a large stone jar, put in the eggs, and cover the jar closely. See that the eggs are always well covered with the lime-water, and lest they should break, avoid moving the jar. If you have hens of your own, keep a jar of lime-water always ready, and put in the eggs as they are brought in from the nests. Jars that hold about six quarts are the most convenient.
It will be well to renew the lime-water occasionally.
TO BOIL EGGS FOR BREAKFAST.
The fresher they are the longer time they will require for boiling. If you wish them quite soft, put them into a sauce-pan of water that is boiling hard at the moment, and let them remain in it five minutes. The longer they boil the harder they will be. In ten minutes" fast boiling they will be hard enough for salad.
If you use one of the tin egg-boilers that are placed on the table, see that the water is boiling hard at the time you put in the eggs. When they have been in about four or five minutes, take them out, pour off the water, and replace it by some more that is boiling hard; as, from the coldness of the eggs having chilled the first water, they will not otherwise be done enough. The boiler may then be placed on the table, (keeping the lid closed,) and in a few minutes more they will be sufficiently cooked to be wholesome.
TO POACH EGGS.
Pour some boiling water out of a tea kettle through a clean cloth spread over the top of a broad stew-pan; for by observing this process the eggs will be nicer and more easily done than when its impurities remain in the water. Set the pan with the strained water on hot coals, and when it boils break each egg separately into a saucer. Remove the pan from the fire, and slip the eggs one by one into the surface of the water. Let the pan stand till the white of the eggs is set; then place it again on the coals, and as soon as the water boils again, the eggs will be sufficiently done.
Take them out carefully with an egg-slice, and trim off all the ragged edges from the white, which should thinly cover the yolk.
Have ready some thin slices of b.u.t.tered toast with the crust cut off. Lay them in the bottom of the dish, with a poached egg on each slice of toast, and send them to the breakfast table.
FRICa.s.sEED EGGS.
Take a dozen eggs, and boil them six or seven minutes, or till they are just hard enough to peel and slice without breaking. Then put them into a pan of cold water while you prepare some grated bread-crumbs, (seasoned with pepper, salt and nutmeg,) and beat the yolks of two or three raw eggs very light. Take the boiled eggs out of the water, and having peeled off the sh.e.l.ls, slice the eggs, dust a little flour over them, and dip them first into the beaten egg, and then into the bread-crumbs so as to cover them well on both sides. Have ready in a frying-pan some boiling lard; put the sliced eggs into it, and fry them on both sides. Serve them up at the breakfast table, garnished with small sprigs of parsley that has been fried in the same lard after the eggs were taken out.
PLAIN OMELET.
Take six eggs, leaving out the whites of two. Beat them very light, and strain them through a sieve. Add pepper and salt to your taste. Divide two ounces of fresh b.u.t.ter into little bits, and put it into the egg. Have ready a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter in a frying-pan, or a flat stew-pan. Place it on hot coals, and have the b.u.t.ter boiling when you put in the beaten egg. Fry it gently till of a light brown on the under side. Do not turn it while cooking as it will do better without. You may brown the top by holding a hot shovel over it. When done, lay it in the dish, double it in half, and stick sprigs of curled parsley over it.
You may flavour the omelet by mixing with the beaten egg some parsley or sweet herbs minced fine, some chopped celery, or chopped onion, allowing two moderate sized onions to an omelet of six eggs. Or what is still better, it may be seasoned with veal kidney or sweet-bread minced; with cold ham shred as fine as possible; or with minced oysters, (the hard part omitted,) with tops of asparagus (that has been previously boiled) cut into small pieces.
You should have one of the pans that are made purposely for omelets.
AN OMELETTE SOUFFLe.
Break eight eggs, separate the whites from the yolks, and strain them. Put the whites into one pan, and the yolks into another, and beat them separately with rods till the yolks are very thick and smooth, and the whites a stiff froth that will stand alone. Then add gradually to the yolks, three quarters of a pound of the finest powdered loaf-sugar, and orange-flower water or lemon-juice to your taste. Next stir the whites lightly into the yolks. b.u.t.ter a deep pan or dish (that has been previously heated) and pour the mixture rapidly into it. Set it in a Butch oven with coals under it, and on the top, and bake it five minutes. If properly beaten and mixed, and carefully baked, it will rise very high. Send it immediately to table, or it will fall and flatten.
Do not begin to make an omelette souffle till the company at table have commenced their dinner, that it may be ready to serve up just in time, immediately on the removal of the meats. The whole must be accomplished as quickly as possible, and it must be cut and sent round directly that it is brought to table.
If you live in a large town, the safest way of avoiding a failure in an omelette souffle is to hire a French cook to come to your kitchen with his own utensils and ingredients, and make and bake it himself, while the first part of the dinner is progressing in the dining room.
An omelette souffle is a very nice and delicate thing when properly managed; but if flat and heavy it should not be brought to table.
TO DRESS MACCARONI.
Have ready a pot of boiling water. Throw a little salt into it, and then by slow degrees put in a pound of the maccaroni, a little at a time. Keep stirring it gently, and continue to do so very often while boiling. Take care to keep it well covered with water.
Have ready a kettle of boiling water to replenish the maccaroni pot if it should be in danger of getting too dry. In about twenty minutes it will be done. It must be quite soft, but it must not boil long enough to break.
When the maccaroni has boiled sufficiently, pour in immediately a little cold water, and let it stand a few minutes, keeping it covered.
Grate half a pound of Parmesan cheese into a deep dish, and scatter over it a few small bits of b.u.t.ter. Then with a skimmer that is perforated with holes, commence taking up the maccaroni, (draining it well,) and spread a layer of it over the cheese and b.u.t.ter. Spread over it another layer of grated cheese and b.u.t.ter, and then a layer of maccaroni and so on till your dish is full; having a layer of maccaroni on the top, over which spread some b.u.t.ter without cheese. Cover the dish, and set it in an oven for half an hour. It will then be ready to send to table.
You may grate some nutmeg over each, layer of maccaroni.
Allow half a pound of b.u.t.ter to a pound of maccaroni and half a pound of cheese.