The design of the following little book is to furnish receipts for a select variety of French dishes, explained and described in such a manner as to make them intelligible to American cooks, and practicable with American utensils and American fuel. Those that (according to the original work) cannot be prepared without an unusual and foreign apparatus have been omitted; and also such as can only be accomplished by the consummate skill and long practice of native French cooks.
Many dishes have been left out, as useless in a country where provisions are abundant. On this side of the Atlantic all persons in respectable life can obtain better articles of food than sheeps’ tails, calves’ ears, &c. and the preparation of these articles (according to the European receipts) is too tedious and complicated to be of any use to the indigent, or to those who can spare but little time for their cookery.
Also, the translator has inserted no receipts which contain nothing different from the usual American mode of preparing the same dishes.
Most of the French Cookery Books introduced into this country have failed in their object, from the evident deficiency of the translators in a competent knowledge of the technical terms of cookery and from the multitude of French words interspersed through the directions, and which cannot, in general, be comprehended without an incessant and troublesome reference to the glossary.
The translator of the following pages has endeavored, according to the best of her ability, to avoid these defects, and has aimed at making a book of practical utility to all those who may have a desire to introduce occasionally at their tables good specimens of the French culinary art.
From these receipts she believes that many advantageous hints may be taken for improvements in American cookery; and she hopes that, upon trial, this little work may be found equally useful in private families, hotels, and boarding-houses.
Philadelphia, September, 1832.
Noyau
110
Raspberry Cordial
ib.
Rose Cordial
111
Quince Cordial
ib.
Lemon Cordial
ib.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
The best soup is made of the lean of fine fresh beef. The proportion is four pounds of meat to a gallon of water. It should boil at least six hours. Mutton soup may be made in the same manner.
Put the meat into cold water, with a little salt; set it over a good fire; let it boil slowly but constantly, and skim it well. When no more fat rises to the top, put in what quantity you please of carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, and parsley, all cut into small pieces; add, if you choose, a laurel-leaf, or two or three peach-leaves, a few cloves, and a large burnt onion, to heighten the color of the soup. Grate a large red carrot, and strew it over the top. Then continue to let it boil, gently but steadily, till dinner time. Next to the quantity and quality of the meat, nothing is more necessary to the excellence of soup than to keep the fire moderate, and to see that it is boiling all the time, but not too fast.
Have ready in the tureen some toasted bread, cut into small squares; pour the soup over the bread, passing it through a sieve, so as to strain it thoroughly. Some, however, prefer serving it up with all the vegetables in it.
The soup will be improved by boiling in it the remains of a piece of cold roast beef. Soups made of veal, chickens, &c. are only fit for invalids.
After you have strained out the vegetables, you may put into the soup some vermicelli (allowing two ounces to each quart), and then boil it ten minutes longer.
Into two quarts of cold water, put four pounds of the lean of the best beef-steaks, and a large fowl cut into pieces, four large carrots, four onions, four leeks, a bunch of sweet herbs (parsley, thyme, sweet marjoram, sweet basil, and chives), tied up with a laurel-leaf, or two peach-leaves, and four cloves; add a little salt and pepper. Boil it gently for eight hours, skimming it well; then strain it.
Take two quarts of dried split peas, the evening before you intend making the soup, and putting them into lukewarm water, let them soak all night. In the morning, put the peas into a pan or pot with three quarts of cold water, a pound of bacon, and a pound of the lean of fresh beef. Cut up two carrots, two onions, and two heads of celery, and put them into the soup, with a bunch of sweet herbs, and three or four cloves. Boil it slowly five or six hours, till the peas can no longer be distinguished, having lost all shape and form; then strain it, and serve it up.
First make some good beef soup (without any vegetables), and when it is sufficiently boiled, strain it through a sieve. Take some maccaroni, in the proportion of half a pound to two quarts of soup. Boil it in water until it is tender, adding to it a little butter. Then lay it on a sieve to drain, and cut it into small pieces. Throw it into the soup, and boil all together ten minutes or more. Grate some rich cheese over it before you send it to table.
Having made some beef soup without vegetables, strain it, and put in a pint of peeled chestnuts for each quart of soup. Boil it again till the chestnuts have gone all to pieces, and have become a part of the liquid.
A still better way is, to roast or bake the chestnuts first, (having cut a slit in the shell of each,) then peel them, and throw them into the soup ten minutes before you take it from the fire.
Take half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and two ounces of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels. Scald them, to make the skins peel off easily, and when they are blanched, throw them into cold water. Then drain and wipe them dry. Beat them (a few at a time) in a marble mortar, adding as you beat them, a little milk and a little grated lemon-peel.
Have ready two quarts of rich milk, boiled with two sticks of cinnamon and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Stir the almonds gradually into the milk, and let them have one boil up. Prepare some slices of toasted bread, take out a little of the soup and soak them in it. Then lay them in the bottom of a tureen, and pour the soup over them. Grate on some nutmeg.
Having boiled a large lobster, extract all the meat from the shell. Fry in butter some thin slices of bread, put them into a marble mortar, one at a time, alternately with some of the meat of the lobster, and pound the whole to a paste till it is all done. Then melt some butter in a stew-pan, and put in the mixed bread and lobster. Add a quart of boiling milk, with salt, mace, and nutmeg to your taste. Let the whole stew gently for half an hour.
Take two quarts of oysters; drain them, and cut out the hard part. Have ready a dozen eggs, boiled hard; cut them in pieces, and pound them in a mortar alternately with the oysters. Boil the liquor of the oysters with a head of celery cut small, two grated nutmegs, a tea-spoonful of mace, and a tea-spoonful of cloves, with two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and a tea-spoonful of whole pepper. When the liquor has boiled, stir in the pounded eggs and oysters, a little at a time. Give it one more boil, and then serve it up.
Salt oysters will not do for soup.
Make a good beef soup, with the proportion of four pounds of lean beef to a gallon of water. Boil it slowly, and skim it well. In another pot boil two quarts of green peas, with a large bunch of mint, a little salt, and three or four lumps of loaf sugar. When they are quite soft, take them out, strain them from the water, and mash them in a cullender till all the pulp drips through. Then stir it into the soup after you have taken it up and strained it. Prepare some toasted bread cut into small squares, lay it in a tureen, and pour the soup over it.
When you toast bread for soups, stews, &c. always cut off the crust.
Put into a sauce-pan, or skillet, five or six onions, and as many carrots cut into small pieces, with about two pounds of scraps of beef, in which there must be none of the fat. Pour over them a pint of water. Cover the pan, and begin with a brisk fire. When the gravy has become brown, add a little boiling water (or broth if you have it), with a tea-spoonful of salt, three or four cloves, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Diminish the fire, and let the gravy stew gently for an hour and a half. Occasionally prick the meat with a fork, and press it with the back of a spoon to extract its juices. Then strain it through a sieve, and let it stand a while before you use it.
In addition to the beef, you may put in pieces of cold goose, or cold duck.
Butter the bottom of a sauce-pan, and put in two pounds of scraps of veal, and, if you have it at hand, some cold fowl, or cold turkey; add two white onions, and four or five blades of mace; pour over it a pint of boiling water, or broth; cover the pan, and set it over a slow fire for five or six hours, pricking and pressing the meat with a fork and spoon. Strain it through a sieve, and if it is too thin, set it again over the fire, to stew a while longer.
Take scraps of any kind of game (partridges, pheasants, hares, &c.), and also four calves feet, and a few small pieces of ham. Put them all into a stew-pan, with half a bottle of white wine, two carrots, two onions, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Stew them over a slow fire for four hours, and when they are reduced to a jelly, moisten it with four table-spoonfuls of hot water, or broth, stirred in gently. Strain it through a sieve, and then clear it by stirring in the whites of three eggs slightly beaten.
Having strained your gravy through a sieve, beat slightly the whites of three eggs, and stir them into it. Place it again on the fire, and stir it till it comes to a boil; then take it from the fire, and put it away to settle. Strain it then through a napkin, and you will have a transparent jelly excellent for making fine sauces.
Take half a pound of scraps of veal, the same quantity of pieces of fowls, and twelve or fifteen mushrooms; stew them slowly in butter, and then add two onions, half a carrot, and a bunch of sweet herbs cut small, three table-spoonfuls of flour, three of boiling water or broth, and salt, pepper, and nutmeg to your taste. Let it stew an hour and a half, and then strain it.
When sauces are finished with eggs, use only the yolks, and mix them first with but a spoonful or two of the sauce; mix them off the fire. Set on the pan again for two or three moments, but do not let it boil after the eggs are in.
Put into a sauce-pan a quarter of a pound of butter sprinkled with flour, three or four onions, and a carrot cut small, a little parsley, and a dozen mushrooms. Set it over the fire until the butter is melted, and then add three table-spoonfuls of flour stirred into a pint of cream or rich milk, with salt, pepper, and nutmeg to your taste. Stir it till it boils; then reduce the fire, and let the bechamel stew gently for three quarters of an hour. When it is done, strain it, and then stir in the yolks of three eggs.
Cut into dice, or small square pieces, half a pound of bacon or ham, a carrot, a turnip, and two onions. Put them into a sauce-pan, with two large spoonfuls of veal-dripping; add a little butter (about two ounces), and two large spoonfuls of flour. Moisten it with boiling water, or broth. Add nutmeg, cloves, thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper to your taste; also a laurel-leaf. Let it stew for an hour. Strain it, and before you serve it up, squeeze in a little lemon-juice.