A salpicon is a mixture of cooked meats, which are cut into dice and combined with a sauce, mushrooms, and truffles.
Chicken, sweetbreads, and tongue mixed with mushrooms and truffles and moistened with a Bechamel sauce, is a combination often used. Salpicon is used in timbales, patties, and vol-au-vent. A mixture of fruits seasoned with sugar and wine is also called a salpicon.
SEASONING AND FLAVORING.
[Sidenote: Condiments.]
The savoriness of a dish can often be much enhanced by adding a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, of mushroom or tomato catsup, of kitchen bouquet, by a few celery seeds, a bay-leaf, or a sprig of some dried herb. A little tarragon vinegar or a few capers will often much improve a salad.
[Sidenote: Almonds.]
[Sidenote: Orange peel.]
A half dozen chopped almonds will greatly improve a bread pudding or any other simple dessert. A few shreds of candied orange peel will give a delicious flavor to puddings, sauces, and cake.
A flavor of almonds, orange- or rose-water, sherry, or maraschino, will be an agreeable change from vanilla, and much more wholesome.
Some cooks feel they are called upon to do fancy cooking if expected to use a bay-leaf or an almond; others feel a receipt is extravagant or impracticable if it calls for anything in the line of flavors beyond salt and pepper, lemon juice, vanilla, or raisins; but there is no more extravagance in using different condiments than in using always the same, or those which from habit have established themselves in the favor of every housekeeper. None of the condiments are expensive, and so little is used at a time that one bottleful lasts a long time. All the flavoring extracts are the same price, and the expense of a few almonds is only nominal, therefore it is a pity not to have a variety of such articles in the dresser, and give variety to dishes by at least the very simple means of changing flavors. A cottage pudding with a little shredded orange peel, nuts, or cocoanut in it, or with a chocolate, wine, or meringue sauce, will be an agreeable change from the plain pudding with hard sauce. The same may be said of a corn-starch or a rice pudding, of a custard, and of many other things.
CROuTONS AND CROUSTADES
Croutons or crusts are used in pea, bean, and all cream soups, for garnishing all kinds of stewed dishes, and for any dish with which toast would be acceptable. When cut large and filled they are called croustades.
To make croutons or croustades, cut bread into the desired shape and saute the pieces in hot b.u.t.ter, or dip them in melted b.u.t.ter and toast them carefully in the oven, turning frequently, so they will be evenly colored; or they may be fried in smoking-hot fat. They should be crisp and dry and the color of amber.
They are made of various sizes and shapes to suit the uses they are to serve. For soups the bread is cut into cubes one quarter inch square or into fancy shapes; for garnishing meat dishes they are cut into diamonds, squares, triangles, and circles; for sippets to eat with boiled eggs, into strips one half inch wide and four inches long; for poached eggs, into circles four inches in diameter.
[Sidenote: For Soups.]
To make croutons for soup, cut bread into slices one quarter of an inch thick, take off the crust, then cut it into strips one quarter of an inch wide and then across into even squares; or with vegetable cutters cut the sliced bread into fancy shapes.
[Sidenote: Triangles.]
For triangles, cut a slice of bread one half inch thick, then into strips one and a quarter inches wide, then into pieces two or three inches long, then diagonally across.
[Sidenote: Pyramidal Pieces.]
For pyramidal pieces, cut the bread into one inch squares and cut diagonally across the cube. When used for garnishing they may be moistened a little on one side with white of egg, and will then stick to the dish sufficiently to hold in place. A circle of pyramidal pieces makes a good border to inclose minced meat, creamed fish, etc.
[Sidenote: Circles.]
Circles for poached eggs are cut with a biscuit cutter three inches in diameter, and may be toasted in the ordinary way if preferred.
[Sidenote: Boxes.]
For boxes cut bread from which the crust has been removed into pieces two and a half inches thick, two and a half inches wide and three and a half inches long, then with a pointed knife cut a line around the inside one half of an inch from the edge and carefully remove the crumb, leaving a box with sides and bottom one half inch in thickness. The boxes may be cut round if preferred, using two sizes of biscuit cutters. They are browned the same as other croutons, and are used for creamed spinach, creamed chicken, creamed fish, etc.
A five cent square loaf of bread cuts to good advantage.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CROuTONS AND CROUSTADES. (SEE PAGE 81.)
1. Sippets to use with boiled eggs.
2. Pyramidal Pieces for Borders.
3, 4, 6. Bread Boxes.
5. Triangles for Garnishing.
7. Croustade for Poached Egg, Creamed Meats, etc.
8. Croutons for Soups.]
CHARTREUSE
Chartreuse is a liqueur made by the monks of the French monastery of Grande Chartreuse; but a cla.s.s of dishes has also been given this name, where two or more foods are used one of which conceals the others. The story goes that on fast days the monks were thus able to indulge in forbidden food, and savory viands were hidden under cabbage or other severely plain articles. Chartreuses are made by lining a mold with rice, a vegetable, or a forcemeat, and filling the center with a different food. Two vegetables are sometimes so combined, but more often game or meats are inclosed in rice and served with a good sauce. (See ill.u.s.tration facing page 190.)
[Sidenote: En Bellevue.]
Fruits are made into chartreuses by inclosing them in blanc-mange or puddings. When meats are molded in aspic jelly they are called "En Bellevue" as in this case they are not concealed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SOME USEFUL UTENSILS.
1, 2. Small Pointed Knives for Vegetables, Boning, etc.
3. Fluted Knife for cutting potato straws, or cutting vegetables into fancy shapes.
4. Tuller Knife. Useful for pastry and all work done on a board.
5. Broad-bladed Knife or Spatula.
6. Saw.
7. Bread or Cake Knife.
8, 9. Small Wooden Spoons.]
FOOTNOTES:
[77-*] Cooking schools have recently adopted the rule of using even spoonfuls for every spoon measurement. This ensures great exactness.--M. R.
CHAPTER II
SOUPS
As nothing is easier than making good soups, they should be the first lesson in cooking.
They are one of the most nutritious and inexpensive foods presented, and have a very wide range, extending from the clear, transparent soups, through many degrees of consistency, color and material, to the heavy varieties which contain enough nourishment for a meal in themselves. The pot-au-feu as managed in the families of the French peasantry furnishes their chief source of diet. The pot on the fire receives every bit of nutritious material of every kind; by slow cooking the juices and flavors are extracted, and a savory combination is made which is both pleasant to the taste and satisfying to the hunger.
The stock-pot should be on every range, and its contents ever ready to be drawn upon, not only for soup, but for sauces, and for flavoring the numerous dishes which can be enriched and improved by stock.[84-*]
The many kinds of soups are variations of the few kinds of stock.