When the sweetbreads have been cleaned, draw through each one four very thin pieces of pork (about the size of a match). Drop them into cold water for five or ten minutes, then into hot water, and boil twenty minutes. Take out, spread with b.u.t.ter, dredge with salt, pepper and flour, and bake twenty minutes in a quick oven. Serve with green peas, well drained, seasoned with salt and b.u.t.ter, and heaped in the centre of the dish. Lay the sweetbreads around them, and pour a cream sauce around the edge of the dish. Garnish with parsley. One pint of cream sauce is sufficient for eight or ten sweetbreads.
Sweetbread Saute.
One sweetbread, after being boiled, split and cut in four pieces.
Season with salt and pepper. Put in a small frying-pan one small table-spoonful of b.u.t.ter and the same quant.i.ty of flour. When hot, put in the sweetbreads; turn constantly until a light brown. They will fry in about eight minutes. Serve with cream sauce or tomato sauce.
Broiled Sweetbreads.
Split the sweetbread after being boiled. Season with salt and pepper, rub thickly with b.u.t.ter and sprinkle with flour. Broil over a rather quick fire, turning constantly. Cook about ten minutes, and serve with cream sauce.
Breaded Sweetbreads.
After being boiled, split them, and season with salt and pepper; then dip in beaten egg and cracker crumbs. Fry a light brown in hot lard.
Serve with tomato sauce.
Sweetbreads in Cases.
Cut the sweetbreads, after being boiled, in very small pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and moisten well with cream sauce. Fill the paper cases, and cover with bread crumbs. Brown, and serve.
Pancakes.
Six eggs, a pint of milk, one heaping teaspoonful of salt, one cupful of flour, one table-spoonful of sugar, one of melted b.u.t.ter or of salad oil. Beat the eggs very light, and add the milk. Pour one-third of this mixture on the flour, and beat until perfectly smooth and light; then add the remainder and the other ingredients. Heat and b.u.t.ter an omelet pan. Pour into it a thin layer of the mixture. When brown on one side, turn, and brown the other. Roll up, sprinkle with sugar, and serve hot. Or, cover with a thin layer of jelly, and roll.
A number of them should be served on one dish.
SALADS.
A salad should come to the table fresh and crisp. The garnishes should be of the lightest and freshest kind. Nothing is more out of place than a delicate salad covered with hard-boiled eggs, boiled beets, etc. A salad with which the mayonnaise dressing is used, should have only the delicate white leaves of the celery, or the small leaves from the heart of the lettuce, and these should be arranged in a wreath at the base, with a few tufts here and there on the salad. The contrast between the creamy dressing and the light green is not great, but it is pleasing. In arranging a salad on a dish, or in a bowl, handle it very lightly. Never use pressure to get it into form. When a jelly border is used with salads, some of it should be helped with the salad. The small round radishes may be arranged in the dish with a lettuce salad. In washing lettuce great care must be taken not to break or wilt it. The large, dark green leaves are not nice for salad.
As lettuce is not an expensive vegetable, it is best, when the heads are not round and compact, to buy an extra one and throw the large tough leaves away. In winter and early spring, when lettuce is raised in hot-houses, it is liable to have insects on it. Care must be taken that all are washed off. Only the white, crisp parts of celery should be used in salads. The green, tough parts will answer for stews and soups. Vegetable salads can be served for tea and lunch and with, or after, the meats at dinner. The hot cabbage, red cabbage, celery, cuc.u.mber and potato salads, are particularly appropriate for serving with meats. The lettuce salad, with the French dressing, and the dressed celery, are the best to serve after the meats. A rich salad, like chicken, lobster or salmon, is out of place at a company dinner.
It is best served for suppers and lunches. The success of a salad (after the dressing is made) depends upon keeping the lettuce or celery crisp and not adding meat or dressing to it until the time for serving.
Mayonnaise Dressing.
A table-spoonful of mustard, one of sugar, one-tenth of a teaspoonful of cayenne, one teaspoonful of salt, the yolks of three uncooked eggs, the juice of half a lemon, a quarter of a cupful of vinegar, a pint of oil and a cupful of whipped cream. Beat the yolks and dry ingredients, until they are very light and thick, with either a silver or wooden spoon--or, better still, with a Dover beater of second size. The bowl in which the dressing is made should be set in a pan of ice water during the beating. Add a few drops of oil at a time until the dressing becomes very _thick_ and rather hard. After it has reached this stage the oil can be added more rapidly. When it gets so thick that the beater turns hard, add a little vinegar. When the last of the oil and vinegar has been added it should be very thick. Now add the lemon juice and whipped cream, and place on ice for a few hours, unless you are ready to use it. The cream may be omitted without injury.
Salad Dressing Made at the Table.
The yolk of a raw egg, a table-spoonful of mixed mustard, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, six table-spoonfuls of oil. Stir the yolk, mustard and salt together with a fork until they begin to thicken. Add the oil, gradually, stirring all the while. More or less oil can be used.
Cream Salad Dressing.
Two eggs, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar, one of cream, one teaspoonful of sugar, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of mustard. Beat two eggs well. Add the sugar, salt and mustard, then the vinegar, and the cream. Place the bowl in a basin of boiling water, and stir until about the thickness of rich cream. If the bowl is thick and the water boils all the time, it will take about five minutes. Cool, and use as needed.
Red Mayonnaise Dressing.
Lobster "coral" is pounded to a powder, rubbed through a sieve, and mixed with mayonnaise dressing. This gives a dressing of a bright color. Or, the juice from boiled beets can be used instead of "coral."
Green Mayonnaise Dressing.
Mix enough spinach green with mayonnaise sauce to give it a bright green color. A little finely-chopped parsley can be added.
Aspic Mayonnaise Dressing.
Melt, but heat only slightly, one cupful of aspic jelly; or, one cupful of consomme will answer, if it is well jellied. Put in a bowl and place in a basin of ice water. Have ready the juice of half a lemon, one cupful of salad oil, one-fourth of a cupful of vinegar, one table-spoonful of sugar, one scant table-spoonful of mustard, one teaspoonful of salt and one-tenth of a teaspoonful of cayenne. Mix the dry ingredients with the vinegar. Beat the jelly with a whisk, and as soon as it begins to thicken, add the oil and vinegar, a little at a time. Add the lemon juice the last thing. You must beat all the time after the bowl is placed in the ice water. This gives a whiter dressing than that made with the yolks of eggs.
Boiled Salad Dressing.
Three eggs, one table-spoonful each of sugar, oil and salt a scant table-spoonful of mustard, a cupful of milk and one of vinegar. Stir oil, salt, mustard and sugar in a bowl until perfectly smooth. Add the eggs, and beat well; then add the vinegar, and finally the milk. Place the bowl in a basin of boiling water, and stir the dressing until it thickens like soft custard. The time of cooking depends upon the thickness of the bowl. If a common white bowl is used, and it is placed in water that is boiling at the time and is kept constantly boiling, from eight to ten minutes will suffice; but if the bowl is very thick, from twelve to fifteen minutes will be needed. The dressing will keep two weeks if bottled tightly and put in a cool place.
Sour Cream Salad Dressing.
One cupful of sour cream, one teaspoonful of salt, a speck of cayenne, one table-spoonful of lemon juice, three of vinegar, one teaspoonful of sugar. Mix all together thoroughly.
This is best for vegetables.
Sardine Dressing.
Pound in a mortar, until perfectly smooth, the yolks of four hard- boiled eggs and three sardines, which have been freed of bones, if there were any. Add the mixture to any of the thick dressings, like the mayonnaise or the boiled. This dressing is for fish.
Salad Dressing Without Oil.
The yolks of four uncooked eggs, one table-spoonful of salt, one heaping teaspoonful of sugar, one heaping teaspoonful of mustard, half a cupful of clarified chicken fat, a quarter of a cupful of vinegar, the juice of half a lemon, a speck of cayenne. Make as directed for mayonnaise dressing.
Salad Dressing made with b.u.t.ter.
Four table-spoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, one of flour, one table-spoonful of salt, one of sugar, one heaping teaspoonful of mustard, a speck of cayenne, one cupful of milk, half a cupful of vinegar, three eggs. Let the b.u.t.ter get hot in a sauce-pan. Add the flour, and stir until smooth, being careful not to brown. Add the milk, and boil up. Place the sauce-pan in another of hot water. Beat the eggs, salt, pepper, sugar and mustard together, and add the vinegar. Stir this into the boiling mixture, and stir until it thickens like soft custard, which will be in about fire minutes. Set away to cool; and when cold, bottle, and place in the ice-chest. This will keep two weeks.
Bacon Salad Dressing.
Two table-spoonfuls of bacon or pork fat, one of flour, one of lemon juice, half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, one of mustard, two eggs, half a cupful of water, half a cupful of vinegar.
Have the fat hot. Add the flour, and stir until smooth, but not brown.