CALF"S BRAINS (SOUR)
Lay the brains in ice-water and then skin. They will skin easily by taking them up in your hands and patting them, this will help to loosen all the skin and clotted blood that adheres to them. Lay in cold salted water for an hour at least, then put on to boil in half vinegar and half water (a crust of rye bread improves the flavor of the sauce). Add one onion, cut up fine, ten whole peppers, one bay leaf, one or two cloves and a little salt, boil altogether about fifteen minutes. Serve on a platter and decorate with parsley. Eat cold.
CALF"S BRAINS FRIED
Clean as described in calf"s brains cooked sour; wipe dry, roll in rolled cracker flour, season with salt and pepper and fry as you would cutlets.
BRAINS (SWEET AND SOUR)
Clean as described above. Lay in ice-cold salted water for an hour. Cut up an onion, a few slices of celery root, a few whole peppers, a little salt and a crust of rye bread. Lay the brains upon this bed of herbs and barely cover with vinegar and water. Boil about fifteen minutes, then lift out the brains, with a perforated skimmer, and lay upon a platter to cool. Take a "lebkuchen," some brown sugar, a tablespoon of mola.s.ses, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon, a few seedless raisins and a few pounded almonds. Moisten this with vinegar and add the boiling sauce. Boil the sauce ten minutes longer and pour scalding over the brains. Eat cold and decorate with slices of lemon.
DEVILED BRAINS
Put one tablespoon of fat in skillet, and when hot add two tablespoons of flour, rub until smooth, and brown lightly, then add one-half can of tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, finely-chopped parsley, and a dash of cayenne pepper, and the brains which have previously been cleaned, scalded with boiling water, and cut in small pieces. Cook a few minutes, and then fill the sh.e.l.ls with the mixture. Over each sh.e.l.l sprinkle bread crumbs, and a little chicken-fat. Put sh.e.l.ls in pan and brown nicely. Serve with green peas.
BRAINS WITH EGG SAUCE
Wash brains well, skin, boil fifteen minutes in salt water; slice in stew-pan some onions, salt, pepper, ginger and a cup of stock. Put in the brains with a little marjoram; let it cook gently for one-half hour.
Mix yolks of two eggs, juice of a lemon, a teaspoon of flour, a little chopped parsley; when it is rubbed smooth, stir it into saucepan; stir well to prevent curdling.
JELLIED CHICKEN
Boil a chicken in as little water as possible until the meat falls from the bones, chop rather fine and season with pepper and salt. Put into a mold a layer of the chopped meat and then a layer of hard-boiled eggs, cut in slices. Fill the mold with alternate layers of meat and eggs until nearly full. Boil down the liquor left in the kettle until half the quant.i.ty. While warm, add one-quarter of a cup aspic, pour into the mold over the meat. Set in a cool place overnight to jelly.
PRESSED CHICKEN
Boil one or more chickens just as you would for frica.s.see, using as little water as possible. When tender remove all the meat from the bone and take off all the skin. Chop as fine as possible in a chopping bowl (it ought to be chopped as fine as powder). Add all the liquor the chicken was boiled in, which ought to be very little and well seasoned.
Press it into the shape of a brick between two platters, and put a heavy weight over it so as to press hard. Set away to cool in ice-chest and garnish nicely with parsley and slices of lemon before sending to the table. It should be placed whole upon the table, and sliced as served.
Serve pickles and olives with it. Veal may be pressed in the same way, some use half veal and half chicken, which is equally nice.
HOME-MADE CHICKEN TAMALES
Boil till tender one large chicken. Have two quarts of stock left when chicken is done. Remove chicken and cut into medium-sized pieces. Into the stock pour gradually one cup of corn meal or farina, stirring until it thickens. If not the proper consistency, add a little more meal.
Season with one tablespoon of chili sauce, three tablespoons of tomato catsup, salt, one teaspoon of Spanish pepper sauce. Simmer gently thirty minutes, then add chicken. Serve in ramekins.
CHICKEN FRICa.s.sEE, WITH NOODLES
Prepare a rich "Chicken Frica.s.see" (recipe for which you will find among poultry recipes), but have a little more gravy than usual. Boil some noodles or macaroni in salted water, drain, let cold water run through them, shake them well and boil up once with chicken. Serve together on a large platter.
SWEETBREAD GLACe, SAUCE JARDINIeRE WITH SPAGHETTI
Put on some poultry drippings to heat in a saucepan, cut up an onion, shredded very fine and then put in the sweetbreads, which have been picked over carefully and lain in salt water an hour before boiling.
Salt and pepper the sweetbreads before putting in the kettle, slice two tomatoes on top and cover up tight and set on the back of stove to simmer slowly. Turn once in a while and add a little soup stock. Boil one-half cup of string beans, half a can of canned peas, one-half cup of currants, cut up extremely fine, with a tablespoon of drippings, a little salt and ground ginger. When the vegetables are tender, add to the simmering sweetbreads. Thicken the sauce with a teaspoon of flour.
Have the sauce boiled down quite thick. Boil the spaghetti in salted water until tender. Serve with the sweetbreads.
CHICKEN a LA SWEETBREAD
Take the breast of chicken that has been frica.s.seed, cut up into small pieces, and add mushrooms. Make brown sauce. Serve in pate sh.e.l.ls.
SWEETBREADS
Wash the sweetbreads very carefully and remove all bits of skin and fatty matter. Cover with cold water, salt and boil for fifteen minutes.
Then remove from the boiling water and cover with cold water. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, roll in beaten egg and bread crumbs, and fry a nice brown in hot fat.
SWEETBREAD SAUTe WITH MUSHROOMS
Clean sweetbread, boil until tender, and cut in small pieces. Take one tablespoon of fat, blend in one tablespoon of flour; add half the liquor of a can of mushrooms and enough soup stock to make the necessary amount of gravy; add a little catsup, mushroom catsup, and a few drops of kitchen bouquet, a clove of garlic, and a small onion; salt and pepper to taste. Cook this about an hour, and then remove garlic and onion. Add sweetbreads, mushrooms, and two hard-boiled eggs chopped very fine.
VEAL SWEETBREADS (FRIED)
Wash and lay your sweetbreads in slightly salted cold water for an hour; Pull off carefully all the outer skin, wipe dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat some goose-fat in a spider, lay in the sweetbreads and fry slowly on the back of the stove, turning frequently until they are a nice brown.
CALF"S FEET, PRUNES AND CHESTNUTS
Two calf"s feet, sawed into joints, seasoned with pepper and salt a day before using. Place in an iron pot, one-half pound Italian chestnuts that have been scalded and skinned, then the calf"s feet, one-eighth pound of raisins, one pound of fine prunes, one small onion, one small head of celery root, two olives cut in small pieces, one-eighth teaspoon of paprika, one cup of soup stock. Stew slowly for five hours, and add one hour before serving, while boiling, a wine gla.s.s claret and a wine gla.s.s sherry. Do not stir.
CALF"S FEET, SCHARF
Take calf"s feet, saw into joints; put on to boil within cold water and boil slowly until the gristle loosens from the bones. Season with salt, pepper; and a clove or two of garlic. Serve hot or cold to taste.
CALF"S FOOT JELLY, No. 1
After carefully washing one calf"s foot, split and put it on with one quart water. Boil from four to five hours. Strain and let stand overnight. Put on stove next day and when it begins to boil add the stiff-beaten whites of two eggs; boil till clear, then strain through cheesecloth. Add sherry and sugar to taste. Let it become firm before serving.
SULZE VON KALBSFUESSEN (CALF"S FOOT JELLY), No. 2
Take one calf"s head and four calf"s feet, and clean carefully. Let them lay in cold water for half an hour. Set on to boil with four quarts of water. Add two or three small onions, a few cloves, salt, one teaspoon of whole peppers, two or three bay leaves, juice of a large lemon (extract the seeds), one cup of white wine and a little white wine vinegar (just enough to give a tart taste). Let this boil slowly for five or six hours (it must boil until it is reduced one-half). Then strain, through a fine hair sieve and let it stand ten or twelve hours.
Remove the meat from the bones and when cold cut into fine pieces. Add also the boiled brains (which must be taken up carefully to avoid falling to pieces). Skim off every particle of fat from the jelly and melt slowly. Add one teaspoon of sugar and the whipped whites of three eggs, and boil very fast for about fifteen minutes, skimming well.
Taste, and if not tart enough, add a dash of vinegar. Strain through a flannel bag, do not squeeze or shake it until the jelly ceases to run freely. Remove the bowl and put another under, into which you may press out what remains in the bag (this will not be as clear, but tastes quite as good). Wet your mould, put in the jelly and set in a cool place. In order to have a variety, wet another mould and put in the bits of meat, cut up, and the brains and, lastly, the jelly; set this on ice. It must be thick, so that you can cut it into slices to serve.