Send the veal loaf to table, in a deep dish, with the gravy poured round it.
Chicken loaf, or turkey loaf, may be made in this manner.
STEWED CALF"S HEAD.--Take a fine, large calf"s head; empty it; wash it clean, and boil it till it is quite tender, in just water enough to cover it. Then carefully take out the bones, without spoiling the appearance of the head. Season it with a little salt and cayenne, and a grated nutmeg. Pour over it the liquor in which it has been boiled, adding a jill of vinegar, and two table-spoonfuls of capers, or of green nasturtion seeds, that have been pickled. Let it stew very slowly for half an hour. Have ready some forcemeat b.a.l.l.s made of minced veal-suet, grated bread-crumbs, grated lemon-peel, and sweet marjoram,--adding beaten yolk of egg to bind the other ingredients together. Put in the forcemeat b.a.l.l.s, and stew it slowly a quarter of an hour longer, adding some bits of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour to enrich the gravy. Send it to table hot.
EXCELLENT MINCED VEAL.--Take three or four pounds of the lean only of a fillet or loin of veal, and mince it very finely, adding a slice or two of cold ham, minced also. Add two or three small young onions, chopped small, a tea-spoonful of sweet marjoram leaves rubbed from the stalks, the yellow rind of a small lemon grated, and a tea-spoonful of mixed mace and nutmeg powdered. Mix all well together, and dredge it with a little flour. Put it into a stew-pan, with sufficient gravy of cold roast veal to moisten it, and a large table-spoonful or more of fresh b.u.t.ter. Stir it well, and let it stew till thoroughly done. If the veal has been previously cooked, a quarter of an hour will be sufficient. It will be much improved by adding a pint or more of small b.u.t.ton mushrooms, cut from the stems, and then chopped small. Also, by stirring in two table-spoonfuls of cream about five minutes before it is taken from the fire.
VEAL WITH OYSTERS.--Take two fine cutlets of about a pound each. Divide them into several pieces, cut thin. Put them into a frying-pan, with boiling lard, and let them fry awhile. When the veal is almost done, add to it a pint of large, fine oysters,--their liquor thickened with a few grated bread-crumbs, and seasoned with mace and nutmeg powdered.
Continue the frying till the veal and oysters are thoroughly done. Send it to table in a covered dish.
TERRAPIN VEAL.--Take some cold roast veal, (the fillet or the loin) and cut it into mouthfuls. Put it in a skillet or stew-pan. Have ready a dressing made of six or seven hard-boiled eggs, minced fine; a small tea-spoonful of tarragon mustard; a salt-spoonful of salt; and the same of cayenne pepper; a large tea-cupful (half a pint) of cream, and two gla.s.ses of sherry or Madeira wine. The dressing must be thoroughly mixed. Pour it over the veal, and then give the whole a hard stir. Cover it, and let it stew over the fire for ten minutes. Then transfer it to a deep dish, and send it to table hot.
Cold roast duck or fowl may be drest as above. Also, venison.
VEAL OLIVES.--Take some cold fillet of veal and cold ham, and cut them into thin square slices of the same size and shape, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the edges evenly. Lay a slice of veal on every slice of ham, and spread some beaten yolk of egg over the veal. Have ready a thin forcemeat, made of grated bread-crumbs, sweet marjoram rubbed fine, fresh b.u.t.ter, and grated lemon-peel, seasoned with nutmeg and a little cayenne pepper.
Spread this over the veal, and then roll up each slice tightly with the ham. Tie them round securely with coa.r.s.e thread or fine twine; run a bird-spit through them, and roast them well. For sauce, simmer in a small sauce-pan, some cold veal gravy with two spoonfuls of cream, and some mushroom catchup.
VEAL RISSOLES.--Take as much fine wheat bread as will weigh one pound, after all the crust is cut off. Slice it; put it into a pan and pour over it as much rich milk as will soak it thoroughly. After it has soaked a quarter of an hour, lay it in a sieve and press it dry. Mince as finely as possible a pound of veal cutlet with six ounces of veal suet; then mix in gradually the bread; adding a salt-spoonful of salt, a slight sprinkling of cayenne, and a small tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed; also the yellow rind of a lemon grated. Beat two eggs, and moisten the mixture with them. Then divide it into equal portions, and with a little flour on your hands roll it into oval b.a.l.l.s rather smaller than an egg. Strew over them some dry bread-crumbs; then fry them in lard or fresh b.u.t.ter--drain them well, and send them to table hot. For gravy (which should be commenced before the rissoles) put some bits and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of veal into a small sauce-pan, with as much water as will cover them; a very little pepper and salt; and three or four blades of mace. Cover the sauce-pan closely, and let the meat stew till all the strength is extracted; skimming it well. Then strain it; return the liquor to the sauce-pan; add a bit of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour; and squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Give it a boil up, and then, at the last, stir in the beaten yolk of an egg. Serve up this gravy in a sauce-boat, to eat with the rissoles.
Instead of stewing meat for the purpose, you may make this gravy with the drippings of roast veal saved from the day before. You have then only to melt it over the fire; adding the seasoning; and giving it one boil.
Similar rissoles may be made of minced chicken or turkey.
TO PREPARE SWEETBREADS.--The sweetbread belonging to the breast of the calf is far superior to that which is found about the throat, being larger, whiter, more tender, and more delicate. Always buy them in preference. They should be set immediately on ice, and prepared for cooking as speedily as possible, for they spoil very soon. Soak them in warm water till all the blood is discharged. Then put them into boiling water, and boil them five minutes. After this, lay them immediately in a pan of very cold water. This sudden transition from hot water to cold, will blanch or whiten them. Dark-colored sweetbreads make a very bad appearance. Four are generally sufficient for a small dish. But as, if well cooked, they are much liked, it is best to have six; or else eight upon two dishes. If the sweetbreads are to be cut up before cooking, remove and throw away the gristle or pipe that pervades every one. If they are to be cooked whole, you may leave the pipe in, to be taken out by the eaters.
For company, it is usual to lard sweetbreads with slips of fat ham or bacon, or of cold smoked tongue.
Sweetbreads are used as side-dishes at dinners, or at nice breakfasts.
SWEETBREAD CROQUETTES.--Having trimmed some sweetbreads nicely, and removed the gristle, parboil them, and then mince them very fine. Add grated bread, and season with a very little salt and pepper; some powdered mace and nutmeg; and some grated lemon-rind. Moisten the whole with cream, and make them up into small cones or sugar-loaves; forming and smoothing them nicely. Have ready some beaten egg, mixed with grated bread-crumbs. Dip into it each croquette, and fry them slowly in fresh b.u.t.ter. Serve them hot; standing up on the dish, and with a sprig of parsley in the top of each.
Sweetbreads should never be used unless perfectly fresh. They spoil very rapidly. As soon as they are brought from market they should be split open, and laid in cold water. Never attempt to keep sweetbreads till next day, except in cold weather; and then on ice.
Similar croquettes may be made of cold boiled chicken; or cold roast veal; or of oysters, minced raw, and seasoned and mixed as above.
FRICa.s.sEED SWEETBREADS.--Take half a dozen sweetbreads; clean them thoroughly, and lay them for an hour or two in a pan of water, having first removed the strings and gristle. Then put them into a stew-pan with as much rich milk or cream as will cover them well, and a very little salt. Stew them slowly, till tender throughout, and thoroughly done, saving the liquid. Then take them up; cover them; and set them near the fire to keep warm. Prepare a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, divided into four pieces, and rolled in flour. Put the b.u.t.ter into the milk in which the sweetbreads were boiled, and add a few sprigs of parsley cut small; five or six blades of mace; half a nutmeg grated; and a very little cayenne pepper. Have ready the yolks of three eggs well-beaten. Return the sweetbreads to the gravy; let it just come to a boil; and then stir in the beaten egg _immediately before_ you take the frica.s.see from the fire, otherwise it will curdle. Serve it up in a deep dish with a cover.
Chickens, cut up, may be frica.s.seed in this manner.
TOMATO SWEETBREADS.--Cut up a quarter of a peck (or more) of fine ripe tomatos; set them over the fire, and let them stew with nothing but their own juice, till they go entirely to pieces. Then press them through a sieve, to clear the liquid from the seeds and skins. Have ready four or five sweetbreads that have been trimmed nicely, cleared from the gristle, and laid open to soak in warm water. Put them into a stew-pan with the tomato-juice, seasoned with a little salt and cayenne.
Add two or three table-spoonfuls of b.u.t.ter rolled in flour. Set the sauce-pan over the fire, and stew the sweetbreads in the tomato-juice till they are thoroughly done. A few minutes before you take them off, stir in two beaten yolks of eggs Serve up the sweetbreads in a deep dish, with the tomato poured over them.
SWEETBREADS AND CAULIFLOWERS.--Take four large sweetbreads, and two fine cauliflowers. Split open the sweetbreads and remove the gristle. Soak them awhile in lukewarm water. Then put them into a sauce-pan of boiling water, and let them boil ten minutes over the fire. Afterwards, lay them in a pan of very cold water. The parboiling will render them white; and putting them directly from the hot water into the cold will give them firmness. Having washed and drained the cauliflowers, quarter them, and lay them in a broad stew-pan with the sweetbreads upon them, seasoned with a very little cayenne, four or five blades of mace, and some nutmeg. Add as much water as will cover them; put on closely the lid of the pan, and let the whole stew for about an hour. Then take a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, and roll it in two table-spoonfuls of flour.
Add it to the stew with a tea-cupful of rich milk or cream, and give it one boil up, not more, or the milk may curdle. Serve it hot in a deep dish; the sweetbreads in the middle with the gravy poured over them, and the quartered cauliflowers laid handsomely round. This stew will be found delicious.
Broccoli may be thus stewed with sweetbreads.
SWEETBREAD OMELET.--For an omelet of six or seven eggs, take two fine sweetbreads. Split them, take out the gristle, and soak them in two lukewarm waters, to extract all the blood. Then put them into very hot water, boil them ten minutes, take them out, set them away to cool, and afterwards mince them small, and season them with _a very little salt_ and cayenne pepper, and some grated nutmeg. Beat the eggs (omitting the whites of two) till very light. Then mix in the chopped sweetbreads. Put three ounces or more of fresh b.u.t.ter into a small frying-pan, and place it over the fire. Stir the b.u.t.ter with a spoon, as it melts, and when it comes to a boil put in the mixture, stirring it awhile after it is all in. Fry it a rich brown. Heat the plate or dish in which you turn it out of the pan. An omelet should never be turned while frying. The top may be well browned by holding above it a salamander or red-hot shovel.
If you wish it very thick, have _three_ sweetbreads.
While frying the omelet, lift the edge occasionally by slipping a knife-blade under it, that the b.u.t.ter may get well underneath.
If omelets are cooked too much they will become tough, and leather-like.
Many persons prefer having them sent to table as _soft omelets_, before they have set, or taken the form of a cake. In this case, serve up the omelet in a deep dish, and help it with a spoon.
SWEETBREADS AND OYSTERS.--Take four sweetbreads, and when they have been soaked and blanched, quarter them, and remove the pipe. Strain the liquor from three dozen large fresh oysters, season it with powdered nutmeg and mace, and a little cayenne. Put the quartered sweetbreads into a stew-pan, and pour over them enough of the oyster-liquor to cover them well, adding, if you have it, three large spoonfuls of the gravy of roast veal, and a quarter of a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter, cut into four bits; each bit rolled or dredged in flour. When the sweetbreads are done, put in the oysters, (first removing their gristle or hard part,) and take them out again as soon as they are plumped, which should be in five minutes. If allowed to boil, the oysters will shrivel, and become hard and tasteless. Add, at the last, two wine-gla.s.ses of cream, and shake the pan about, for a few minutes. Serve up in a deep dish.
SWEETBREAD PIES.--Make sh.e.l.ls of puff-paste, and bake them empty. When done, fill them to the top with the above mixture. Have ready a lid for each pie, baked on a flat plate, and lay it on the top of the filling.
STEWED SWEETBREADS.--After blanching them, extract the pipe very carefully, and fill its place with a stuffing made of cold minced chicken or veal, minced ham or tongue sweet marjoram, nutmeg, grated lemon-peel, and the crumbled yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Fasten the openings with small wooden skewers, and put the sweetbreads into a broad stew-pan with a thin slice of ham under each, and another on the top of each, kept in place by a splinter-skewer. Stew the sweetbreads in the gravy of roast veal, and before you send them to table take out the skewers.
Or make a gravy of uncooked tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of veal or beef, stewed slowly in as much water as will cover them well, and seasoned with pepper and salt--or, stew with the fresh meat, as much ham or bacon as will flavor the gravy, (using no other salt.) When all the essence is extracted from the meat, stir in a bit of b.u.t.ter dredged with flour. The flour for gravies should be browned. Strain the gravy, and add any other flavoring you like.
To brown flour, spread it evenly on a large dish or flat tin, and place it before the fire, or in a rather cool oven. Sc.r.a.pe it up from the edges where it will get the brownest. Take care it burns or blackens nowhere. Keep it for use in a dry tin box.
BAKED SWEETBREADS.--Parboil four large sweetbreads, having first blanched them. When cold, lard them all over the surface, with slips of bacon the size of small straws. Lay them in a shallow pan, putting under each sweetbread a piece of nice fresh b.u.t.ter with a very little flour mixed into it. Pour into the pan a gla.s.s of nice white wine, mixed with the juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon. Season also with grated nutmeg. Or for sauce, you may use mushroom catchup, with a little salad oil stirred into it.
If you do not live in a place where nice fresh b.u.t.ter is to be obtained, endeavor to do without b.u.t.ter at all, rather than use that which is strong, rancid, or too salt. Bad b.u.t.ter tastes through every thing--spoils every thing, and is also extremely unwholesome, as decomposition (or in plain terms _putrefaction_,) has already commenced.
Rather than use what makes all your food taste worse instead of better, try to subst.i.tute something else--such as beef or fresh pork drippings, suet, lard, or olive oil; or, mola.s.ses, honey, or stewed fruit. _We know_ that with these it is possible to live in health for years, without tasting b.u.t.ter. Nevertheless, good b.u.t.ter is a good thing, and an improvement to all sorts of cookery.
PORK.
PORK.--Young pork has a thin rind or skin, easily indented by pressing with the finger, and the lean will break by pinching. If fresh, the meat is smooth and dry; but if damp and clammy, it is tainted. If the fat is rough with little kernels, the pig has had a disease resembling the measles, and to eat it is poisonous. Pigs that have short legs, and thick necks, are the best. Pigs fed entirely on slop make very bad pork.
They should be kept up for at least two months, fed with corn, and not allowed during the time of fattening to eat any sort of trash. No animal tastes more of its food than a pig. If allowed to eat the garbage of fish, they will not only have a fishy taste, but a smell of fish so intolerable, when cooking, that such pork cannot be endured in the house. During the two months that they are kept up to fatten, all their food must be wholesome as well as abundant, and it does them much good to have soap-suds given to them occasionally. Let them have plenty of corn, and plenty of fresh water. They will thrive better and make finer pork, if their pens are not allowed to be dirty. No animal actually likes dirt, and even pigs would be clean if they knew how. It is very beneficial to young pigs to wash them well in soap and water. We have seen this often done with great care.
The pork in Spain and Portugal is delicious, from being fed chiefly on the large chestnuts, of which there is great abundance in those countries. These pigs are short-legged and thick-bodied--a profitable species. The best pieces of a pig are the hind-leg and loin; the next is the shoulder, or fore-leg. The spare-rib, (p.r.o.nounced sparrib by the English,) affords so little meat, and the bones are so tedious to pick, that it is seldom seen on good American tables, nothing being popular with us that cannot be eaten fast or fastish.